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THE ANDROID INVASION
by Terry Nation
Part One
(Ext forest, day. We follow a UNIT soldier as he staggers clumsily through the brush. His right arm twitches and he stares blankly ahead into space, crashing through the forest at random.)
(The TARDIS materializes in a clearing in the same forest. The Doctor steps out with a bottle of ginger beer. As he examines his surroundings, he takes a sip. Sarah Jane Smith calls from inside the TARDIS...)
SARAH: (os) Well, come on, make your mind up. Has the TARDIS brought us home or not?
DOCTOR: Possibly.(Sarah emerges from the TARDIS. She is dressed in a pink pantsuit with a white scarf and a sailor collar. She looks peeved at the Doctor, but not overly so.)
SARAH: What do you mean, possibly?
DOCTOR: Well, the coordinates were set for your time, but the linear calculator, well....pfff! Ginger pop?(He offers her a sip.)
SARAH: Can't stand the stuff, thanks all the same. So we could be anytime, anywhere?
(The Doctor starts to walk round the TARDIS, examining its exterior.)
DOCTOR: I really must get the TARDIS seen to. She's way overdue for her 500-year service.
(He wanders off a bit.)
SARAH: Well, at least we're on Earth. I mean, just taste that air! (inhales) I love that smell, just after a rain shower.
DOCTOR: (calling) Yes, it does have the peculiar earthy smell. Which is odd when you look at the ground.
SARAH: Hmm?
DOCTOR: Bone dry. Can't have been any rain here for more than a week.(He takes an instrument out of his pocket, which begins to beep.)
DOCTOR: Now I wonder what could be causing that.
SARAH: What?
DOCTOR: Some enormous release of energy.
SARAH: We are on Earth, aren't we?
DOCTOR: Well, unless someone's started exporting acorns.(He grabs a branch of the oak tree above him and pulls it down into view.)
DOCTOR: Oak trees don't grow anywhere else in the Galaxy.
SARAH: Oh. Bet we're miles away from UNIT HQ though. So, what are we going to do?
DOCTOR: Eenie, meenie, minie....mo.(He points in different directions with each word and then sets off.)
DOCTOR: Watch the brambles.
(Sarah stumbles into a bramble.)
SARAH: Ow.
(They walk off through the woods.)
SARAH: Listen, what's so special about "eenie meenie minie mo"?
(A branch whaps her in the face and she laughs good-naturedly. Behind them, we can see the UNIT soldier obscured in the undergrowth, standing stock still.)
DOCTOR: Nothing. It could just as easily be "Fum-fee-fo...uh, fi?"
(As they walk by, the UNIT soldier becomes plainly visible and there is a dramatic chord.)
SARAH: (laughs) "Fee-fi-fo-fum."
(As our heroes move out of earshot, the UNIT soldier starts walking again, still twitching spasmodically. Then we're back with the Doctor and Sarah, walking through the woods.)
SARAH: Hang on, I thought I saw someone.
DOCTOR: Let's hope they're not strangers here themselves.(Four men in white bodysuits and wearing what appear to be space helmets stride into view and stop, facing our heroes. The Doctor and Sarah stop as well.)
DOCTOR: Hello there!
SARAH: (nervous) No wait, Doctor. I don't like the look of them.
DOCTOR: What? (to the men in white) Please excuse me. Could you be very kind and tell me where we are?(Instead of answering, the figures raise their right arms in pantomime "gun" position - just like little kids playing cowboys and Indians without any toy guns. Their outstretched fingers actually do function as guns and they open fire on the Doctor and Sarah, who start running. [The gun SFX is, shall we say, less than convincing.] The white guys pursue our heroes.)
DOCTOR: I thought it was odd. Didn't you think it was odd? I remember I said to the Duke of Malbury once...
SARAH: (exasperated) Oh, Doctor!(Suddenly and without warning, Sarah stumbles in the foreground. This cuts to a shot where she rolls down a gentle incline which turns into a cliff somehow. She grabs onto a branch to stop her descent.)
DOCTOR: Sarah! Don't look down!
(Sarah looks down. After a struggle, the Doctor pulls Sarah back up. They are now on the edge of what looks like a disused gravel pit.)
SARAH: Thanks.
DOCTOR: My pleasure. Couldn't leave you hanging around in a place like this.(The glare she gives the Doctor is cut short as she sees something approaching. The Doctor looks - it's the UNIT soldier, twitching very badly.)
DOCTOR: Stop, man. Stop!
SARAH: No! No!!!!(The soldier doesn't stop but keeps lurching on towards the cliff edge. He goes over and falls down to come to a crashing stop amongst the rocks at the bottom. The Doctor and Sarah peer over the edge and see his motionless body lying draped over a boulder. They climb down the gentle incline to find the body at the bottom of the cliff. The Doctor finds no pulse.)
DOCTOR: Must've died instantly.
(Sarah points to a badge.)
SARAH: Look. He's from UNIT!
(The Doctor pulls out the man's wallet.)
DOCTOR: Look at this.
(He dumps the wallet's contents - several bright, shiny coins - into Sarah's hands.)
SARAH: They're all new!
DOCTOR: Freshly minted. No scratches, tarnish...
SARAH: And all dated the same year!(They sift through the coins, examining each one.)
DOCTOR: What are the odds against finding a pocket full of coins that are all dated the same?
SARAH: I don't understand it.
DOCTOR: No. Nor do I...yet.(He looks up and spots a large, roughly coffin-shaped object not far away. The lid looks more like the top of a clam shell, and it's very battered. There are four holes in one end and the whole thing is about 7 feet long. There's a tire leaning against it. Our heroes investigate.)
SARAH: Oh, come on, Doctor! It's just a load of old junk.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, wait. I've seen something like this before. My memory's getting terrible. Three hundred years ago I'd've recognized this like a shot.(There is a gunshot. The Doctor ducks.)
SARAH: Doctor!
(The Doctor pulls Sarah down behind the coffin-shaped thing.)
DOCTOR: Keep down!
(There are more gunshots. They sound the same as the ones fired by the pseudo-astronaut types. After a while, it dies down. The Doctor pokes his head out to investigate. There are two of the white-suited men. They fire as soon as they see the Doctor's head. He ducks back.)
DOCTOR: Something seems to have annoyed them again. Come on.
(The Doctor and Sarah make a break for it while the white jumpsuits keep shooting at them. They get back to the forest and run along its edge for a while before disappearing into the woods. The jumpsuits are fooled and think they've kept running and soon realize they've lost them, at which point they give up.)
(The Doctor and Sarah jog into a typical southern English town.)
DOCTOR: Well, well! Well, well.
SARAH: Devesham!
DOCTOR: Hm?(They look around the village square. It is deserted.)
SARAH: Doctor, we're at Devesham!
DOCTOR: Do you know it?
SARAH: I came here on a story about two years ago.
DOCTOR: Oh. It's a bit quiet.
SARAH: Yes.(They look around a little more. The Doctor climbs up on the steps of a small monument that stands in the middle of the square.)
DOCTOR: (loudly) Anyone about? Anyone?
(There is no response.)
DOCTOR: No one about. Let's try the pub.
(They run down to the pub together.)
(Int. pub. The Doctor and Sarah enter to find the pub completely deserted, but with everything in order.)
DOCTOR: Odd.
(The Doctor bangs on the bar.)
DOCTOR: Innkeeper?
SARAH: Hello? Anyone about?
DOCTOR: What's this pub called?
SARAH: Uh, Fleur-de-Lis, wasn't it?
DOCTOR: Hm?
SARAH: (enunciating) Fleur...de...Lis.
DOCTOR: Marie Celeste, more like it.(They look around, seriously spooked.)
SARAH: It's weird. A whole village full of people can't just disappear.
(The Doctor opens the cash register.)
DOCTOR: Here it is again.
SARAH: What?(He takes out coins, examines them.)
DOCTOR: Freshly minted money, all the same year. Sarah?
SARAH: Hm?
DOCTOR: What was that story you came here on?
SARAH: There was a bit of a brouhaha up at the space defense station. It's about a mile from here.
DOCTOR: Is it?(Sarah nods. The Doctor crosses from the bar to a table near the dartboard. He examines one of the darts sitting on the table.)
DOCTOR: If we've landed in a prohibited area, then those people who shot at us were possibly guards.
SARAH: Trespassers are prosecuted in England, not killed. Anyway, they weren't dressed like guards.
DOCTOR: (speculating) Protective clothing? Some kind of radioactivity? Remember, I detected an energy source. Soldier who went over the cliff, possibly affected by it.
SARAH: Radiation sickness!
DOCTOR: Something like that.
SARAH: And this place, the village?
DOCTOR: Evacuated.(Sarah looks around the pub, all still set up for business.)
SARAH: Then it must've been done in a hurry.
DOCTOR: If some dangerous substance leaked, there would be a hurry.
SARAH: (frustrated) Oh, that's great! And we've been walking around right in the middle of it...like a couple of narners.
DOCTOR: (smiles tolerantly) It's only a speculation.
SARAH: It's a nasty one.(Sarah realizes one thing that doesn't add up.)
SARAH: What about the money?
DOCTOR: Contamination precaution. Money changes hands. In a place like this, it might be necessary to bring in clean currency every couple of months.(She looks out the window.)
SARAH: Doctor! The village isn't deserted anymore.
(They look out the window - the guards are back, walking through the square. Sarah's eyes widen in surprise.)
SARAH: No...it can't be. It can't be!
DOCTOR: It's impossible!(The guards are accompanied by a perfectly normal looking UNIT soldier - the same one the Doctor and Sarah had seen fall to his death only a short while before.)
SARAH: But he was dead! I saw him!
(Unnerved, Sarah shudders, accidentally knocking over a pint glass, which shatters on the floor. She draws in her breath sharply, startled. Outside, the guards pause. They heard the noise. They start moving towards the door to investigate. Inside, Sarah turns to beat a hasty departure, but the Doctor grabs her arm and restrains her.)
SARAH: They heard me!
DOCTOR: (hissing) Wait!(A small truck - the sort that gets used for hayrides in the winter - is coming down the street. This attracts the guards' attention. The back is filled with ordinary people, all sitting perfectly rock solid. There's even a minister, a butcher, and the innkeeper sitting there. As our heroes watch, the oddly stiff people disembark from the truck and disperse. Sarah recognizes one of them.)
SARAH: (whispering to the Doctor) Man in the tweed jacket - that's Mr Morgan - landlord.
DOCTOR: (whispering back) Come.(He pulls her away from the window and into a closet. Outside, many of the people head into the pub. Once inside, they take up positions at tables, at the bar, by the dartboard, etc. They remain totally motionless. Our heroes watch from behind the door. After a while, the clock strikes twelve. When it's done, they all immediately begin to move around, order drinks, talk, etc., just as if they'd always been doing that and had never been standing totally motionless. Behind the back door - which isn't a closet after all - the Doctor and Sarah turn to face each other, shocked.)
DOCTOR: Extraordinary.
SARAH: What's the matter with them?
DOCTOR: I haven't the faintest idea, but I intend to find out.
SARAH: How?
DOCTOR: Space defense station. I could contact UNIT from there. You stay here and keep an eye on things.
SARAH: Eh?
DOCTOR: You'll be all right.
SARAH: I've heard that before!
DOCTOR: (stage whisper) You think you can find your way back to the TARDIS?
SARAH: (normal voice) Of course I can.(The Doctor hands her the TARDIS key.)
DOCTOR: If anything goes wrong, meet me there.
SARAH: And what if...(But the Doctor leaves before she can finish her sentence. Sarah looks annoyed. She puts the key in her pocket and turns back to the closed door to the pub. She opens the door just a crack to peer through. The supposedly dead soldier sees the door open a crack and walks over. He pulls the door open suddenly, and Sarah falls through with a gasp. The villagers stare emotionlessly at her in total silence. She attempts to recover her cool and walks in.)
SARAH: Ahem. (brightly) Afternoon! Well, just about, anyway.
(She walks to the bar with the innkeeper standing behind.)
SARAH: Hallo! Mr Morgan, isn't it?
(no response - he just keeps staring straight ahead.)
SARAH: Well, you remember me, don't you? Sarah Jane Smith? I came here on a story. I stayed here, about two years ago.
(She stares hopefully at Mr Morgan - the pleasant smile of a seasoned journalist in a difficult situation on her face. Morgan does not react, but continues to stare past her into space. Sarah looks around at the other villagers, who are all staring silently. Unnerved, she turns back to Morgan.)
SARAH: Well, somebody say something!
(A UNIT soldier comes up behind her.)
UNIT SOLDIER: Who sent you?
SARAH: (affronted) What do you mean, who sent me?
UNIT SOLDIER: How did you get here?
SARAH: (smiles) I walked. Look, perhaps....
UNIT SOLDIER: What are you doing here?
SARAH: (to Morgan) Do you allow all your customers to be grilled like this?
UNIT SOLDIER: We don't have strangers here.
SARAH: Now that's ridiculous!
MORGAN: (finally speaking) Wait... She may be part of the test.
SARAH: Test? What test?
UNIT SOLDIER: She doesn't know.
SARAH: Look, what's going on here?
MORGAN: (to Sarah) I think you'd better go, Miss.
SARAH: Why?
MORGAN: It might be best.
SARAH: (earnestly) Look, if...if there's some sort of trouble, perhaps I could help.(Pause. There is no answer.)
SARAH: Right. Well, I intend to find out, anyway.
(She heads for the door. The soldier moves to stop her.)
SARAH: And I'm sure you shouldn't be drinking so soon after breaking your neck.
(Sarah bolts for the door. This time, no one moves to stop her. There is a close-up of the UNIT soldier's blank, emotionless face.)
(CUT TO the exterior of the pub, where Sarah hurries out the door. The flatbed truck that had brought the mindless, staring villagers in is still sitting there, guarded by one of the white-jumpsuited guards. His back is to the camera, but we can see that the faceplate of his helmet is up. Sarah creeps by behind him. He turns, slowly, and we see that inside his mask his face is nothing but diodes and capacitors. He is a robot. Frightened, Sarah bolts into the nearby woods.)
(Exterior Space Defense Centre. It's a spectacularly cheesy model shot, with a dish antenna going round, CSO superimposed onto an actual building. The Doctor is walking through the shrubbery, approaching the building. He sees no one as he walks across the Centre's courtyard and approaches the front door. There is a faint, electronic grating sound, sorta like crickets on dope. He's worried; the place should be crawling with guards. Certainly he should've been challenged by now. He walks through the doors, which slide open automatically with a whoosh. Inside, he looks around and spots a soldier standing motionless at attention by one wall. He walks up to the soldier.)
DOCTOR: Hello?
(No response.)
DOCTOR: Can you tell me where I can find the C.O.? The commanding officer?
(The soldier still doesn't answer [but the actor blinks about half-way, then catches himself, remembering that he's supposed to be frozen motionless]. The Doctor politely ignores this and turns away from the unresponsive soldier.)
DOCTOR: I'll tell you what. I won't bother you.
(The Doctor goes down the hallway, checking in doorways. He sees no one else at this point, and the halls are dark.)
(Cut back to the guard at the entrance. Still expressionless, he slowly turns to look in the direction the Doctor left.)
(Exterior forest. Sarah is jogging towards the TARDIS. She reaches it, puts her key in the lock and, before she can open the TARDIS, she notices something out of the corner of her eye and turns. Sitting in the clearing is a black pod about 7 feet long and 3 feet tall. There's a seam down its length as if it's supposed to open like a walnut. There are four holes at one end. Curious, Sarah walks over to check it out. She leaves the key in the lock. As she examines the pod, the TARDIS dematerializes.)
SARAH: (alarmed) Doctor? Don't go! I'm still here!
(The TARDIS vanishes altogether.)
SARAH: (soft, sounding betrayed) Don't leave me.
(Cut to a close-up of the pod's seam, right behind Sarah's knee. It opens, but she's so distraught she doesn't notice. The Doctor has left her.)
SARAH: Can't have gone...
(A hand reaches out from the pod and grabs her leg. She shouts, startled, and pulls away. As she moves off to a safe distance, the pod opens up all the way, like a coffin, and we can see a man in a black suit lying there. He has no expression on his face. Sarah looks back at the man and sees that he's not getting up. Concerned, she approaches and kneels down at his side.)
SARAH: (kindly) Can I help you?
(The man's arm moves slowly at first, then suddenly both his hands come up and lock around Sarah's throat. She struggles, then frees herself. She hightails it out of there as the man slowly sits up.)
(Int. Space Defense Centre. Close-up on a man with an eye patch [played by Milton Johns]. A distorted voice comes over an intercom system and the man clearly reacts. He's definitely got emotion.)
STYGGRON: (os) Crayford? Crayford!
(The man with the eye patch - named Guy Crayford, as it happens - rushes through a door into his office to answer the intercom. He sits down at his desk. He's wearing Cuban heels and bellbottom jeans.)
STYGGRON: (os) Crayford, I say!
CRAYFORD: (answering) Yes, Styggron?
STYGGRON: (os, obviously ticked) I ordered all units to recharge stations. The order is not being observed.
CRAYFORD: (alarmed) In what way, Styggron?
STYGGRON: (os) We have detected movement within the complex. A unit may have gone random. Check and report!
CRAYFORD: (getting up) Yes, Styggron. Immediately, Styggron.(He leaves the office, alert for movement. Suddenly, he seems to notice something coming, because he quickly ducks into the office next to his. A moment later, we see the Doctor through the glass panels in the doors at the end of the hallway. The Doctor comes through those doors, making no effort at stealth. He stops at the door where Crayford is hiding, but before he opens the door, he notices Crayford's office and reads the sign on it. The sign says "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart." The Doctor grins and sweeps into the office.)
DOCTOR: (jovial) Alistair? (his face falls) Alistair?
(He's somewhat down at finding nobody at home, but he goes and looks through the papers on the desk anyway. The first paper he looks at is obviously not helpful and he drops it back to the desk. There's a map as well, which he starts unfolding. Once he's got it halfway open, Crayford comes in from the adjoining office, a gun in his hand.)
CRAYFORD: Keep your hands where I can see them!
(The Doctor already has his hands apart, holding the map, so he just raises them a bit.)
DOCTOR: (cheerful) Those are the first friendly words I've heard since I got here.
CRAYFORD: (unimpressed by the Doctor's mood) Yes, I dare say.(He crosses to stand behind the desk, keeping the gun on the Doctor all the time.)
CRAYFORD: And just how did you get here, incidentally?
DOCTOR: Oh, I dropped in, you know. I do from time to time.
CRAYFORD: I can easily get the truth from you!
DOCTOR: (calmly) You're getting it.(Annoyed, Crayford snatches the map away from the Doctor.)
DOCTOR: (grinning hugely) Who are you?
CRAYFORD: I'm asking the questions, and I have the gun!
DOCTOR: (serious) I just wondered. You're in someone else's office. It says "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart" on the door.
CRAYFORD: (surprise) You know the Brigadier?
DOCTOR: Mmm-hmm. I'm his unpaid scientific advisor.
CRAYFORD: (smiling, relieved, but still holding the gun) Oh yes! Yes, I see. I see, you're the Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes.
CRAYFORD: Yes, I've heard of you.
DOCTOR: Good. Who are you?
CRAYFORD: I'm the senior defense astronaut, Guy Crayford.
DOCTOR: Well, how do you do!(The Doctor goes to shake Crayford's hand, but Crayford immediately becomes hostile again, gesturing with the gun.)
CRAYFORD: Get your hands up, Doctor, thank you! You could be an impostor, couldn't you?
DOCTOR: You know, look, I've got a suggestion, my arms are beginning to ache, why not call Lethbridge-Stewart and get him to identify me?
CRAYFORD: (sharp) Lethbridge-Stewart is in Geneva. Colonel Faraday is in command.(Crayford presses a button on the desk intercom. It bleeps once.)
DOCTOR: If you're calling the butler, I'm very partial to tea and muffins.
CRAYFORD: You're going to have to stay in detention until your identity's been verified.
DOCTOR: Oh, please, no detention. No detention... No detention, you see...(As he babbles, he ducks down, grabs Crayford's arm, shoves it roughly away to spoil the aim, and leaps out of the room, keeping very low. He looks both ways down the hallway. One way, an emotionless UNIT guard has arrived, He doesn't look friendly. As the Doctor runs the other way, Crayford dashes out of the office and fires once, but misses. The Doctor rounds a corner and finds a ladder. He begins climbing. Back at the office, the UNIT guard seems unsure what to do, so Crayford shouts at him.)
CRAYFORD: Get after him, man!
(The man dashes off. He spots the Doctor just as he closes the hatch at the top of the ladder, and climbs after him. The Doctor is now on the roof. An alarm is ringing. Two UNIT guards start firing at the Doctor from the parking lot below, but they don't have a clear shot - they miss. Sarah suddenly shows at the complex as well, unsure of what's going on. She can see the roof. The guard from the hallway also arrives at the roof, and we see that it's the guy who fell off the cliff. To escape, the Doctor leaps off the roof edge and lands on a lower edge. Sarah is watching, and she gasps. He lands safely, but one of the white-jumpsuited android spacemen appears, pointing its finger at the Doctor meaningfully. Another hand appears from the left of the camera, pointing at the Doctor. They've got him surrounded.)
DOCTOR: Is that finger loaded?
(Realizing that he's lost, the Doctor nods and allows the two androids to lead him away. Sarah sees them go and follows them. Apparently she was on this lower roof.)
(Int. Space Defense Centre. The jumpsuited androids show the Doctor into a hallway that is featureless except for the door they came through, a telephone on the wall, and an intercom thingy. One of the androids steps on the Doctor's scarf and it releases with a BOINGOINGOINGOING!!! As they disappear off camera, Sarah follows them into the hallway, being careful to close the door quietly behind her. The androids lock the Doctor into a holding cell. There is no complicated locking mechanism; just three bolts slid back manually from the outside. Once the jumpsuits have gone, Sarah creeps up to the cell. We get a great close-up of her straw platform shoes with sparkly beads - very 70s. She checks to make sure the coast is clear, then whispers into the cell...)
SARAH: (sotto voce) Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?
(The Doctor's face appears behind the grating in the door. He looks delighted to see her.)
DOCTOR: Sarah? What are you doing here?
SARAH: Rescuing you, actually. For a change!(As she starts undoing the bolts, we see the intercom thingy at the end of the hall swing suddenly inwards - it's actually a hidden peephole for someone on the other side of it. A very ugly alien face peers through it, watching.)
(Cue music, cut to credits.)
Doctor Who
TOM BAKERSarah Jane Smith
ELISABETH SLADENGuy Crayford
MILTON JOHNSMorgan
PETER WELCHCoporal Adams
MAX FAULKNERStyggron
MARTIN FRIENDGrierson
DAVE CARTERWritten by
TERRY NATIONProduction Unit Manager
JANET RADENKOVICProduction Assistant
MARION McDOUGALLTitle Music by
RON GRAINER &
BBC RADIOPHONIC
WORKSHOPTitle Sequence
BERNARD LODGEIncidental Music by
DUDLEY SIMPSONSpecial Sound
DICK MILLSCostume Designer
BARBARA LANEMake-up
SYLVIA THORNTONVisual Effects Designer
LEN HUTTONStudio Lighting
DUNCAN BROWNStudio Sound
ALAN MACHINFilm Cameraman
LEN NEWSONFilm Sound
DOUG MAWSONFilm Editor
MIKE STOFFERScript Editor
ROBERT HOLMESDesigner
PHILIP LINDLEYProducer
PHILIP HINCHCLIFFEDirected by
BARRY LETTSBBC COLOUR
(C)BBC 1976
Transcribed By
Calli Arcale