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DOCTOR WHO
THE ARK IN SPACEBY ROBERT HOLMES
PART ONE
1: EXT. SPACE
(An ark in seen outside space, quite close to an unknown planet. The camera moves in closer to the ark, which wobbles as it does so. The ark starts to move, and the shot fades into a shot inside the ark.)
2: INT. ARK - BODY ROOM
(We see things from the point of view of something green. It sees a body in some sort of chamber; it looks like a futuristic tomb. We move in closer to the body, down and then up. As we move closer we start to see the physical features of the body and the container of the body becomes transparent. The chamber door opens.)
3: EXT. SPACE
(We can see the ark in space again, but this time from a different angle and we cannot see the planet. The ark moves further away from us.)
4: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
(The TARDIS light flashes. We move away from the TARDIS, and see some sort of white room, but we can't see much yet. The TARDIS de-materialisation noise sounds, and then stops as the light stops flashing.)
DOCTOR: You're a clumsy, ham-fisted idiot!
(He walks out the TARDIS, carrying a torch.)
HARRY: (sincerely) I said sorry!
DOCTOR: What? Come out! And don't touch anything!
HARRY: I'm only trying to open the door.(He steps out, clearly amazed at where he is.)
HARRY: Oh, I say! We've gone!
SARAH: (nosily) Who's gone?(She also walks out, holding a candle.)
HARRY: (confused) I mean, this isn't, we aren't where we were when... I've gone mad.
SARAH: That's how I felt the first time! (Walks towards the DOCTOR) Where are we, Doctor?
DOCTOR: (Still trying to study the place) No idea.
SARAH: (Slightly annoyed at the DOCTOR) A little trip to the moon, you said, just to prove to Harry...
DOCTOR: (Unsympathetic) Well I didn't expect him to start messing with the helmic regulator. (Turns to HARRY) Come away from there, Harry!
HARRY: (Walking to the DOCTOR) You could sell that thing, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I could WHAT?
HARRY: (Trying to be helpful) Jolly useful in Trafalgar Square.(The DOCTOR walks back to TARDIS.)
HARRY: Hundreds of bobbies inside.
SARAH: (Slightly out of breath) Harry! Stop burbling!(The Doctor looks at them both from the TARDIS.)
HARRY: What? (Starts to realise things) Sorry...shock, I suppose. I must say, I feel very strange.
DOCTOR: (Walking back) Not much oxygen. Still, nothing to worry about.(He plays with his yo-yo.)
SARAH: (Wondering about the DOCTOR) Suffocation is nothing to worry about (?)
DOCTOR: (Firmly) We can survive for quite a time yet.
SARAH: (Angry) While you play with that yo-yo?!
DOCTOR: Just a simply gravity reading, Sarah. Yes, almost certainly we're in some kind of artificial satellite. Now isn't that interesting?
SARAH: No, not very.
DOCTOR: I think it is.
SARAH: (Worried) It's dark, and it's cold and it's getting very airless.
DOCTOR: All we have to do is get the power back on.(He shines his torch somewhere else, and starts to walk over to it.)
DOCTOR: Let's see what's over here.
SARAH: (Slightly out of breath) Might as well go for a look round, I suppose. (To HARRY) Are you coming?
HARRY: We better stick with the Doctor.(The DOCTOR flicks a switch and the whole room lights up. Nearly the whole room is white We see a while desk with a futuristic white chair in the middle, and on the side hundreds of switches, all in rectangular blocks.)
DOCTOR: (Happily) Yes! That's better.
(HARRY looks shocked and looks up, whilst SARAH is still worried.)
DOCTOR: Incredible!
HARRY: I say! What's all that for?(SARAH bends down to what looks like a door, whilst HARRY walks towards the DOCTOR.)
DOCTOR: I've never seen anything quite like it.
(SARAH manages to open the door, which slides to the right to reveal another white room.)
SARAH: (Whispers) Hey, Doctor.
DOCTOR: (Ignoring SARAH) Definitely built on Earth, but I can't quite place the period.(SARAH walks into the room, ignored by the DOCTOR and HARRY who are both looking at the various switches.)
SARAH: Doctor, look!
DOCTOR: (Still ignoring her, now slightly annoyed) In a minute, Sarah!
HARRY: None of it seems to work now, anyway!(SARAH is now increasingly annoyed by the DOCTOR and decides to just walk into the room on her own, anyway.)
5: INT. ARK - MEDICAL ROOM?
(SARAH walks around, trying to work out what all this is. There is a black thing that is probably a couch, another desk and chair and a few switches to the side. She walks towards a few switches.)
6: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
DOCTOR: Judging by the macro-slave drive and that modified version of the Bennett oscillator (at this point HARRY looks very out of breath and is struggling to breathe), I'd say this was built in the...early 30th Century.
HARRY: (Breathing heavily) Oh, no...
DOCTOR: Don't you agree?
HARRY: (Thinking the DOCTOR is talking rubbish) Earth 30th Century?!
DOCTOR: Late 29th, early 30th, I feel sure.
7: INT. ARK - MEDICAL ROOM?
(SARAH finishes playing with some switches and walks away from them. She walks towards the doors, and finds them closed. She tries to open them, but to no avail.)
SARAH: (Bangs on door) Doctor! (Bangs again) Doctor! (Struggles to breathe) There's hardly any air in here! (Constantly banging on door) Doctor! Please!
8: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
(The DOCTOR walks around whilst HARRY sits down trying to get his head round what he's just been told.)
HARRY: Doctor, I'm a simple sort of chap. Are you trying to tell me we're now in the middle of the 30th Century?
DOCTOR: Good heavens, no! Well beyond that!
HARRY: (Stunned, and stands up) Beyond the 30th!
DOCTOR: You gave that helmic regulator quite a twist, I'm afraid.
HARRY: Well, where are we?
DOCTOR: (Looks around) It's difficult to say. All this stuff's obviously been here for some time - several thousand years at least. What was that?
9: INT. ARK - MEDICAL ROOM?
(SARAH leans against the door, about to collapse.)
SARAH: (Bangs on door pathetically) Doctor, I can't...breathe...
(Her voice gets quieter as she struggles for breath.)
10: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
DOCTOR: (Worried) Sarah? (Looks round) Where's she got to?
HARRY: (Points to TARDIS) In the TARDIS?
DOCTOR: Impossible. I've got the key. I've told her time an again about going off by herself. Sarah?
HARRY: (Points to the door) Well, there's only one door and she...I swear she didn't get out that way.
DOCTOR: (Looks behind him) Must be another exit, then.
HARRY: A sort of, hidden deck hatch or something?
DOCTOR: Vacuum-tight panel, more likely. They used them a lot in these early space vessels. (He walks to door) Ah! Just as I thought!
HARRY: No doorknob?
DOCTOR: There must be a remote control... You haven't touched anything have you, Harry?
HARRY: Me?
DOCTOR: (Sarcastically) Well, there are only two of us here and your name is Harry (!)
HARRY: Oh...yeah...(points to switches) I did just...touch one switch.
DOCTOR: (Loudly) Which switch?
HARRY: Nothing happened...
DOCTOR: Which switch?
HARRY: (Asking himself) Which switch...? (Walks towards switches) I think it was...Oh no, perhaps it was...
DOCTOR: Try to remember, Harry!
HARRY: I am! It's awfully difficult! I can hardly breathe!
DOCTOR: Think where you were standing.
HARRY: Uh. (Points to one of the switches) It was this one.
DOCTOR: Sure?
HARRY: (Nods) But nothing happened.
DOCTOR: Go on! Press it.(He presses the switch, and the door slides open. The DOCTOR steps into the room.)
11: INT. ARK- MEDICAL ROOM?
(The DOCTOR finds SARAH lying unconscious on the floor and holds her head up. HARRY walks into the room.)
HARRY: Crikey! She's cyanosed.
DOCTOR: No air in here. Help me to get her back.
HARRY: (Quietly, about to pick SARAH up) Quick!(The DOCTOR and HARRY pick up SARAH and drag her towards the wall. The door shuts and HARRY tries to stop it.)
HARRY: Now what'll we do?
DOCTOR: There must be a reverse mechanism.
HARRY: (Grumbling to himself) I've always hated sliding doors, ever since I caught my nose in one in Pompey Barracks!
DOCTOR: How is she, Harry?
HARRY: She'll be OK if we can get her out of here.(DOCTOR presses some of the switches, and then looks back at the door.)
DOCTOR: (Talking about the door not opening) Must be a broken circuit.
HARRY: (Nearly letting SARAH drop) What?
DOCTOR: Nothing.(The DOCTOR again presses a switch and then looks back at the door.)
DOCTOR: Nothing's working properly.
HARRY: (Focusing on SARAH) Oh?
DOCTOR: I've found the oxygen supply.
HARRY: Well done.(The DOCTOR walks to the wall on the other side and moves a knob.)
DOCTOR: No good, Harry.
HARRY: No luck, eh?
DOCTOR: Why is nothing functioning here?
HARRY: Couldn't we smash our way out or something?
DOCTOR: With our bare hands?
HARRY: (Apologetically) It's all my fault (He turns to SARAH).
DOCTOR: I got us into this, Harry.
HARRY: (Slightly breathless) I've not got enough puff to argue with you.
DOCTOR: (Unsympathetic) Then lie down and conserve the oxygen, while I do what I can.(He fiddles with a cable from the control panel.)
DOCTOR: That's odd.
HARRY: What?(He pulls two parts of a cable out so they are visible.)
DOCTOR: These cables have been sheared clean through.
(He drops the cable suddenly and moves away.)
DOCTOR: Oxygen-valve servo-mechanism. Yellow, black, green.
(He walks to other side of the control panel.)
DOCTOR: Yellow, black, green.
(He walks back to the other side.)
DOCTOR: Yellow, black, green
(He bends down back to the cables. HARRY is now leaning on SARAH struggling to breathe. There is a buzzing sound as the DOCTOR uses his sonic screwdriver on the cables. He drops it, but then picks it up and uses it again. He goes back to the knob which he thought controlled the oxygen supply and turns it, he himself now struggling for breath. The oxygen supply is now working.)
DOCTOR: Harry. (Worried) Harry!
(He walks to HARRY and SARAH and bends down to them. HARRY is now awake.)
HARRY: Is she...she OK?
DOCTOR: (Taps SARAH's hand) Just in time. Are you feeling better?
HARRY: Convalescent. All I need now is a couple of weeks at the seaside.
DOCTOR: Good. Give me a hand to lay her on that couch. It's nearer the vents.
HARRY: Good thinking.(The two of them pick up SARAH and put her onto the crouch. DOCTOR walks back towards the oxygen supply knob and turns it more, releasing more oxygen, which makes a hissing sounds. HARRY fiddles about with SARAH, trying to get her to wake up.)
DOCTOR: I'll just repair some of those cables.
HARRY: Sheared, you said?
DOCTOR: (Walking towards cables) Or bitten.
HARRY: (Surprised) What?
DOCTOR: There's a mystery here, HARRY.(He uses his sonic screwdriver on the cables.)
DOCTOR: Something happened a long time ago.
HARRY: Bitten?!
DOCTOR: It looks like it. The interesting question is why. Clearly deliberate, therefore done for a purpose. Therefore, whatever it was had a reasoning intelligence.
HARRY: And very large teeth!
DOCTOR: (Steps away from cables) Splendid! Now let's see if that panel works.(The DOCTOR closes the door where the cables were and walks towards control panel. He presses a switch, and the main door now opens. He smiles.)
DOCTOR: All systems go, wouldn't you say?
HARRY: She's coming round.
DOCTOR: Good.(SARAH wakes up.)
HARRY: Steady-steady on old girl, steady on.
SARAH: (Half-awake) Harry...?
HARRY: Yes, I'm here.
SARAH: Call me "old girl" again...and I'll spit in your eye. (She smiles)
DOCTOR: Welcome back, Sarah Jane.
SARAH: Couldn't breathe...
HARRY: Drop of brandy would be the thing now.
DOCTOR: There's some in the TARDIS.
HARRY: You'll be as right as ninepence in a minute. We're gonna get you some brandy, alright?
SARAH: (Now fully awake) Eugh! I hate brandy!
HARRY: Doctor, do you think you could possibly persuade her...?(The DOCTOR steps back into the secondary control room, followed by HARRY.)
12: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
(A saucer-like object descends from the ceiling.)
HARRY: I say, what's that?
DOCTOR: Get down, Harry?(DOCTOR leaps to under the desk with HARRY and HARRY's left shoe comes off in the process. It is shocked by the saucer, and the front of it bends.)
HARRY: Crikey! What is it?
DOCTOR: (Pushing HARRY's head down under the desk) Keep your head down!
13: INT. ARK - MEDICAL ROOM?
(SARAH hears them and gets up.)
SARAH: Doctor!
(Soothing music plays, and SARAH starts to fall asleep as a light flashes. She lies down on the couch, and fades away.)
14: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
(The DOCTOR's hat pokes up from under the desk, but the DOCTOR's not wearing it: it is on a stick. It is shocked by the saucer, and the DOCTOR bangs it on the floor to clear away the ashes and smoke.)
DOCTOR: We seem to be trapped, Harry.
HARRY: What is it?
DOCTOR: Some sort of automatic guard. I hadn't bargained on this when I repaired the circuits.
HARRY: I wonder...
DOCTOR: Of course! That's why they were cut in the first place!
HARRY: What about Sarah (he points to the door) if she comes-
DOCTOR: Tell her to stay where she is.
HARRY: Sarah! Sarah? Can you hear me, old girl?
15: INT. ARK - MEDICAL ROOM?
(The room is now empty as HARRY tries to talk to SARAH, as he doesn't know that she's gone.)
HARRY: Keep away from the door! Do you understand? (Speaking slower) Keep away from the door!
16: INT. ARK - TRANQUILLER ROOM
(SARAH is lying down, asleep. She wakes up. A bright light is flashing on her.)
SARAH: (Asking herself) Where am I?
(A male VOICE talks to her, but there is no one there.)
VOICE: (Calmly) Welcome, sister. Welcome to Nerva.
(SARAH gets up and looks around.)
VOICE: No, do not move. It is dangerous to move from the tranquiller couch. Please remain in contact with the biocryonic vibrations.
(SARAH starts to fall asleep and lies back down again. We can now see that she in some sort of chamber to lie down in, with lots of controls near to her.)
VOICE: In five minutes, the final phase of your processing must commence. If you have any personal possessions that you wish to have preserved, please place them in the casket adjacent to your right hand.
(We move closer to SARAH, who wakes up again and looks anxious.)
VOICE: Shortly you will hear the recorded voice of the Prime Minister speaking personally to you. At the conclusion of the Minister's message, there will be a two-minute interregnum preceding the commencement of the irradiation.
17: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
(The stick used to hold the hat is pushed up again, but now without the hat. It is not attacked by the saucer, and is pulled back down again.)
DOCTOR: Apparently it's not activated by movement unless what moves is organic.
HARRY: Hardly helps us, does it? We're organic!
DOCTOR: Not down here we're not, Harry!
HARRY: Ah, yes! Good piece of logical deduction, Doctor!
DOCTOR: (Sarcastically) Thank you (!)(He turns around and gets out his sonic screwdriver, with which he undoes a screw.)
18: INT. ARK - TRANQUILLER ROOM
(SARAH is lying down but is slightly awake. The MINISTER's voice descends upon the room.)
MINISTER: Greetings, Citizen Volunteer. This is the High Minister speaking on behalf of the World Executive. I salute you who are about to make the supreme sacrifice. In a few minute, you will pass beyond life. In case there is any fear in your heart, any doubt in your mind at this awesome moment, let me remind you that you take with you all our pasts.
(SARAH wriggles about.)
MINISTER: You carry the torch that has been handed down from generation to generation.
(SARAH gets up again.)
SARAH: What's happening?
(Again, she gets sleepy and lies back down again.)
19: INT. ARK - SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM
(The DOCTOR and HARRY move the desk that they're hiding under.)
HARRY: (Whispering) Where are we going with it?
DOCTOR: To the far wall.
HARRY: Right
DOCTOR: Inch it round your end.
HARRY: OK.(They shuffle along to the wall, still hiding under the desk.)
DOCTOR: One slip, Harry, and we'll be charcoal.
(After lots of shuffling they make it.)
DOCTOR: (Whispering) Psst, there it is.
HARRY: (Whispering as well) What?
DOCTOR: Trouble is we can't reach it from here.
HARRY: What can't we reach?
DOCTOR: The auto-guard cut-out. Look, up there, see? Never mind. The faithful old scarf...(The DOCTOR unravels his scarf, and tries to throw it up to the switch he's aiming for, but it is shocked by the saucer. It lands back down, and the DOCTOR catches it. He hits it on the floor, creating a lot of dust.)
HARRY: (Sincerely) Bad luck. Jolly good try though.
DOCTOR: It isn't a game of cricket, Harry!
HARRY: Sorry. Mind you, if I had a cricket ball, I'd jolly soon knock that switch off.(The DOCTOR takes a cricket ball from his pocket.)
DOCTOR: Will this do?
HARRY: (Taking it off the DOCTOR) Watch this, then!(HARRY rubs the ball on his shirt and then throws it at the switch, but is shocked by the saucer and comes back at him in pieces. He picks up one of the pieces.)
HARRY: Organic, of course.
DOCTOR: (Looking at another piece) Afraid so.
HARRY: Now what?
DOCTOR: There's only one thing left. Risky, but it might work. You don't want your other shoe, do you?
HARRY: I suppose not.
DOCTOR: Slip it off.(HARRY takes off his other shoe.)
DOCTOR: Right...Now, I want you to throw it across the room (HARRY starts to throw it, but the DOCTOR grabs his hand) when I give the word. Do you understand?
HARRY: All right
DOCTOR: I'm going to try and distract it. Let's hope it's not double-barrelled!(He starts to get out from under the desk.)
DOCTOR: Ready?
HARRY: Ready.
DOCTOR: Now!(HARRY chucks the shoe up in the air, and it is shocked by the saucer. The DOCTOR pulls a switch at the same time, and the saucer goes back up to the ceiling. The DOCTOR and HARRY poke their heads up, and notice it is gone. The DOCTOR smiles.)
DOCTOR: I think we've done it, Harry!
(The two of them get out from under the desk.)
DOCTOR: Pity about the scarf. Madame Nostradamus made it for me. A witty little knitter. (Shouts, as the two of them move back towards the door) All right, Sarah, you can come out now.
(He picks up his hat and taps it.)
DOCTOR: Never get another one like it.
HARRY: (Picking up his shoes) Look at my shoes!
DOCTOR: Sarah?
20: INT. ARK - TRANQUILLER ROOM
(A door on the chamber that SARAH is now asleep in shuts, and the light in the chamber keeps switching from red to orange. Smoke fills the chamber.)
21: INT. ARK - MEDICAL ROOM?
(The DOCTOR and HARRY lift up a bit of the couch to reveal lots of circuits.)
DOCTOR: What a fool! Of course!
HARRY: (Looking at the circuits) What is it?
DOCTOR: Why didn't I realise? Short-range matter transmitter.(HARRY looks inside it whilst the DOCTOR goes to the control panel.)
DOCTOR: The strange thing is, Harry, it's only for internal relay.
HARRY: (Walking towards the DOCTOR) Oh I haven't the foggiest notion what you're on about.
DOCTOR: Never mind. It just means Sarah can't be far away. All we've got to do is find her. Come on!(The DOCTOR and HARRY walk out of the room.)
22: INT. ARK - CORRIDOR
(The DOCTOR and HARRY step out into a white corridor. There are strange windows at the sides and from these space can be seen.)
DOCTOR: I think we'll try this way first.
(The DOCTOR and HARRY walk up, to the left of where they came from.)
HARRY: I say, what about the armoury?
DOCTOR: Not very likely.(They walk further on, and reach a door saying AREA Q in black writing. A horrific MALE voice shouts at them.)
MALE: (Viciously) This is a sterile area! Keep out!
HARRY: It's just like a hospital.(The DOCTOR manages to open the door, and smiles at HARRY.)
HARRY: Well, ought we, do you think?
DOCTOR: Don't be nervous, Harry.(They step through the door, into another section of corridor. A slug-like creature slides out of the corridor onto the side.)
DOCTOR: (Asking HARRY) What is it?
HARRY: I saw something moving.
DOCTOR: Nonsense, Harry.
HARRY: I'm positive, I saw something move.
DOCTOR: A trick of the light
HARRY: (Adamantly) It wasn't a trick of the light, I saw something moving!(The DOCTOR and HARRY walk to where the creature was, and there is a green trail left from where it was.)
DOCTOR: It's like the trail left by a gastropod mollusc.
HARRY: A slug?
DOCTOR: Or a snail.
HARRY: That size? Impossible! It couldn't have got through this grille.
DOCTOR: Very interesting. A multinucleate organism.
HARRY: (Confused) Eh?
DOCTOR: Let's find Sarah first. Come on.(They get up.)
DOCTOR: This looks promising.
(They walk into a room, a sign saying on the wall YELLOW BADGE PERSONNEL ONLY, with a yellow light flashing from the room.)
23: INT. ARK - YELLOW ROOM
(The doors shut. The room is very small, and a quiet whirring noise can be heard.)
HARRY: She's obviously not in here.
DOCTOR: Decontamination chamber. Might make you feel a bit dizzy.(HARRY groans as if he's in pain.)
24: INT. ARK - TRANQUILLER ROOM
(A door opens and the DOCTOR and HARRY walk into the room, HARRY seemingly having a headache. The DOCTOR goes to the control panel.)
DOCTOR: I think we're getting warm, Harry. Animal and Botanic!
(He walks towards a door, with a sign of it saying ANIMAL BOTANIC. He looks in a window in the door.)
DOCTOR: Of course! That explains everything! Do you realise what this is? Aren't you feeling better?
HARRY: No, I'm not!
DOCTOR: (Raising his voice) Then pull yourself together man, this is fascinating! This is a cryogenic repository.
HARRY: A repository? For what?
DOCTOR: Everything...Well, everything they considered worth preserving. Look at this!(He walks towards a wall with switches and numbers on it, from 1-12. He flicks a switch, and a beeping sound is made. He pulls out a drawer from one of the number sections on the wall, and looks inside it with HARRY.)
DOCTOR: Microfilm. It's a complete record. Music, history, architecture, literature, engineering. Incredible! The entire body of human thought and achievement.
HARRY: Yes, but what's it all for?
DOCTOR: Posterity? I don't know.(He pushes the drawer back in.)
DOCTOR: Why build all this and send it into space?
HARRY: I say, couldn't be some sort of survival kit, could it?
DOCTOR: Survival?
HARRY: Yes, you know - the sort of thing they shove in lifeboats.
DOCTOR: (Smiling) You're improving, Harry!(He pats HARRY on the back.)
HARRY: Am I really?
DOCTOR: Yes, your mind is beginning to work. It's entirely my influence of course, you mustn't take any credit. Now, what's missing?(He walks back to the control panel.)
HARRY: Missing?
DOCTOR: Yes. If we are to assume that some great cataclysm struck Earth and that, before the end, they launched this lifeboat, then the one obvious missing element is man himself. What's happened to the human species, Harry?(A door opens behind them, and the DOCTOR and HARRY notice it. They walk over to it.)
HARRY: I say, what a place for a mortuary!
(They walk into the room.)
25: INT. ARK - BODY ROOM
(The camera swings around, revealing lots of chambers with bodies inside them, on three different levels. Each chamber is numbered. )
DOCTOR: (Looking up at the chambers.) This isn't a mortuary, Harry. Quite the reverse.
HARRY: (Stunned) The reverse? Well, I'd hardly call it a nursery!
DOCTOR: Cryogenic chamber.
HARRY: What?
DOCTOR: Old principle, but I've never seen it applied on this scale. Look at them!(A small corridor is seen, and this links this body room to another body room, supposedly the same size.)
DOCTOR: There must be hundreds here.
HARRY: Well, when you've seen one corpse, you've seen them all.(He walks towards the other room.)
DOCTOR: Corpse? These people aren't dead, Harry, they're asleep. The entire human race awaiting the trumpet blast!
(The DOCTOR walks into the other room, whilst HARRY looks around in the first room. HARRY opens one of the chambers, and reveals a body lying completely still.)
HARRY: (Confidently) Dead as a doorknocker!
26: INT. ARK - 2nd BODY ROOM
DOCTOR: (Walking around, looking at the bodies) Homo sapiens. What an inventive and invincible species. It's only been a few million years since they've crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenceless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts and now here they are amongst the stars, waiting to begin a new life, ready to outsit eternity. They're indomitable. Indomitable!
(He walks back into the other body room.)
27: INT. ARK - BODY ROOM
(HARRY is observing the body he recently found in a chamber.)
DOCTOR: What do you think you're doing?
HARRY: (Walks away from the body) Sorry to contradict you, Doctor. Not a flicker of life.
DOCTOR: Suspended animation.
HARRY: But there are no metabolic functions at all. I mean, look at him! I mean, even in the deepest coma, the hair and fingernails continue to grow. The epidermis...
DOCTOR: (Dominantly) Total suspension, Harry. You can't survive 10,000 years in a coma.(He shuts the chamber.)
HARRY: 10,000 years?
DOCTOR: 50,000 years, 100,000 - time is immaterial. It's an amazing sight, isn't it? The entire human race in one room. All colours, all creeds - all differences finally forgotten.
HARRY: Are you serious? The entire human race?
DOCTOR: Well, it's chosen descendents. The operation must have been meticulously planned. Come on.
HARRY: Where are we going now?
DOCTOR: First to find Sarah, (He walks towards the second room) then we've got to shut down the systems. We're intruders here, you know.
HARRY: Just a minute, Doctor, are you trying to tell that this is where it's all going to end, in here?
DOCTOR: Not end, Harry, just a pause.
HARRY: But there's only a few hundred corp... bodies in here. I mean, what's happened to the rest of humanity? Some global catastrophe?
DOCTOR: Yes, and they saw it coming, and made provision for it, best they could. Don't forget - it's something for you to be proud of. (He taps HARRY's shoulder.)
HARRY: Doctor, look.(HARRY points to a slime trail at the air vent, similar to the trail we saw before. The DOCTOR and HARRY walk over to it.)
DOCTOR: Oxygen? Radiant heat? But this deep in space? I wonder...
HARRY: (Looking up again) Perhaps it's some kind of mould.
DOCTOR: Mould?
HARRY: That trail we saw in the corridor.
DOCTOR: And that thing you saw moving in the corridor?
HARRY: Dust! That, er, grille thing was a dust extractor. And then we opened the door after umpteen years and caught a bit of a draught.
DOCTOR: (Sarcastically) Mmm, very convincing (!) All the same, I think we'll just check a few of the beds while we're here.
HARRY: What are we checking for, exactly?
DOCTOR: Just to make sure that everything's in order.
HARRY: Right-o.(The DOCTOR and HARRY look around. He spots something odd, and opens the chamber.)
HARRY: Doctor?
DOCTOR: What have you found?
HARRY: Sarah!(Inside the chamber is SARAH, lying completely still.)
DOCTOR: Oh, Sarah Jane!
HARRY: (Sort of asking) We can't help her now?
DOCTOR: No. She'll be like that for 3,000 years, at least. Even if we had a resuscitation unit, it's doubtful that we could revive her now.
HARRY: (Walking towards another corridor) There must be something we can do! What's a resuscitation unit look like?(HARRY walks to some cabinets in another corridor. He opens one of the cabinets, which reads MEDIC 2, but doesn't find anything useful.)
DOCTOR: Very like an oxygen cylinder. You'll recognise it if there is one.
(He opens the cabinet to its left, which reads MEDIC 1. Out of it pops out a green wasp-like creature.)
(Cut to closing credits.)
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Doctor Who Sarah Jane Smith Harry Sullivan Voices Written by |
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| Production Assistant MARION McDOUGALL Title Music by Incidental Music by |
Production Unit Manager GEORGE GALLACIO Title Sequence Special Sounds |
Visual Effects Designers JOHN FRIEDLANDER TONY OXLEY |
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| Costume Designer BARBARA KIDD Lighting |
Make Up SYLVIA JAMES Sounds |
Designer ROGER MURRAY-LEACH Producer Directed by  COLOUR© BBC 1975 |
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