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DOCTOR WHO
THE FACE OF EVIL
Written by
Chris Boucher
Part Three
(Overlap from 'What is it?')
[EXT. Forest]
CALIB: Tomas! Tomas! Over here! (TOMAS runs back to CALIB's hiding place behind a tree) What was it?
TOMAS: The Evil One. It's huge. It got Andor.
CALIB: So I'm the leader now.
TOMAS: How well will you lead us, Calib? There are more of those things coming.
CALIB: But the gun worked?
TOMAS: Yes. It revealed the Evil One's face, drove him away.
CALIB: Right, we must get back to the village. If we stay quiet, it might pass by.
TOMAS: I doubt it.
[INT. Inside the carving]
(The shadow continues moving against the passage down the idol's throat.)
LEELA: Doctor, what is it?
DOCTOR: There's only one way to find out.
(Heading down the passage, they see a figure in a spacesuit. The DOCTOR pulls LEELA back. The figure gets covered in red light, then walks through the wall.)
LEELA: It's gone. (more loudly) Where's it gone?
(The DOCTOR follows the passageway to its end, where a plain stretches toward a spaceship.)
DOCTOR: I remember now. The Mordee expedition. And I thought I was helping them...
LEELA: Doctor, what are you doing? Will you please help me find this Tesh?
DOCTOR: Tesh? How did you know it was a Tesh? Have you ever seen a Tesh?
LEELA: Well, its skin was loose and shiny, as we're told, and it had two heads, one inside the other.
DOCTOR: That was a protective suit and helmet. Must be another environment through there.
(He is bathed in the red light and walks through the wall.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Come on then.
LEELA: It's a solid wall!
DOCTOR [OC]: It's an illusion, called a psy-tri projection. Combination of a three-dimensional image which acts on the eye.
Close your eyes.
(She closes one eye.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Both of them. Take one step back.
(She too is clothed in red light.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Now walk forward.
LEELA [OC]: Great Xoanon! Where are we?
DOCTOR [OC]: It's called an anti-grav transporter. Just sit in it and it takes us straight to the ship, in absolutely no time at all.
[INT. Computer complex]
(Light shines down at the floor of an octagonal room furnished only by a stand atop which is a globe held in a silver claw. On each wall panel are blobby undulating images in pale green light.)
XOANON 2: We are returned. We are here. (Voices overlap.)
XOANON: (a female voice) We are here. We are returned.
XOANON 2: Now we shall be one.
XOANON 3: We are here.
XOANON: We are returned.
XOANON 3: We are here. We are returned.
XOANON: Now we shall be one.
XOANON 2: Now we must destroy us.
XOANON 3: We, we.
XOANON: Now we shall be one.
XOANON 2: We are returned, we are here.
XOANON 3: Now we must destroy us.
ALL: One, one, one. One...
[INT. Control room]
(The DOCTOR and LEELA enter a room illuminated by candles, via an automatic door from a pristine corridor.)
DOCTOR: Another shrine. Seems the Tesh are as ignorant of their origins as your people are.
LEELA: What are their origins?
DOCTOR: How does the litany go? That bit about Paradise. (he waits a moment) Leela, you said you knew it. You said you were taught it as chil-
LEELA: I do, I do. Wait a minute. 'The Sevateem were sent forth by God-'
DOCTOR: Slowly, slowly.
LEELA: 'The Sevateem were sent forth, by God, to seek Paradise. The Tesh remained at the Place of Land.'
DOCTOR: Yes, exactly. That means the Sevateem explored the planet, while the Tesh remained to work in the ship in the place where it landed. Here.
LEELA: We're the same people?
DOCTOR: Yes, the Sevateem were the survey teams, and the Tesh were the technicians. You're all human beings from this colonist ship.
LEELA: So what happened? Doctor, what happened?
DOCTOR: I'm rather afraid I did. I misunderstood what Xoanon was.
LEELA: Xoanon? You mean-
DOCTOR: At the time, I didn't think he was a being at all. (to himself) These terminals are dead.
(Three people quietly enter. One bows elegantly to the DOCTOR's back.)
LEELA: What did you think he was?
(Lights come on, and we see the three MEN, whose bodies are clothed in mostly green outfits with padded shoulders, caps, and highlights similar to those seen on Sevateem clothing.)
JABEL: (a calm, stoic man) Welcome, Lord.
DOCTOR: Hello!
(LEELA has her crossbow pointed at the MAN who has spoken. He levels his gaze at her, and she slowly is sent to her knees.)
DOCTOR: Are you doing that? Will you please stop doing that? I said stop!
(She is now unconscious.)
DOCTOR: What have you done to her?
JABEL: She is not damaged. My acolytes will attend to her.
(Said ACOLYTES carry her out.)
DOCTOR: But where are they taking her?
JABEL: She will be tended. We recognise her value, Lord.
(He is now on his knees.)
DOCTOR: Have you dropped something?
JABEL: I do you honour, Lord of Time. We've waited long for your return.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I'm very grateful about the honour, but it's really information that I need. Please get up. What's your name?
JABEL: I am Jabel, Captain of the people of Tesh.
DOCTOR: Ah.
(He kneels next to JABEL, who responds by lowering his head further.)
DOCTOR: Jabel, do your people have a holy purpose?
JABEL: We serve Xoanon and tend the holy places. We guard his tower against the savage. We deny the flesh so that our minds may find communion with Xoanon.
DOCTOR: Ah. Well, it has a sort of logic. Outside the barrier, physical courage and strength; inside the barrier, paraphysical achievement and the sort of psi power you used against Leela. It's an experiment in eugenics.
JABEL: Yes, Lord.
DOCTOR: Shall we get up? The floor's very hard. Didn't anyone ever tell you kneeling stunts the growth? Jabel, do you know where Xoanon is?
JABEL: Yes, Lord.
DOCTOR: Where?
JABEL: He is in no one place, Lord. He is all around us, everywhere.
DOCTOR: All right, I didn't think you did.
JABEL: You and he are as one. You will show us the way-
DOCTOR: Do you know what a computer is?
JABEL: And in perfect communion with him, we will be free and find Paradise.
DOCTOR: Do you know what a computer is?
JABEL: Lord?
(The DOCTOR lifts the edge of the fringed green altar cloth covering consoles.)
DOCTOR: Now I have to find that thing before it kills us all.
[INT. Particle analyser room]
(LEELA wakes up. She is securely fastened to a sloping silver platform, shackled with her wrists beside her head. On a monitor is a countdown, which is at 824.)
WOMAN [OC]: Final warning. Final warning. Particle analyser terminal-phase countdown. All personnel, clear the area.
[INT. Control room]
(The DOCTOR is manipulating various controls on the bank of consoles below the fringed green cloth.)
DOCTOR: This whole control room's been disconnected, Jabel. It could take me days to find the complex. (when he turns, a monitor on the wall winks into life, showing LEELA) I must be slipping. Jabel, where's the Holy of Holies?
JABEL: All the Place of Land is holy.
DOCTOR: But there must be somewhere on the ship?
JABEL: Ship?
DOCTOR: Yes. Somewhere where no-one's allowed to go.
JABEL: (whispering) Yes, Lord. The Sacred Chamber.
DOCTOR: (whispering) Yes. Where is it?
JABEL: It is on level three seven.
DOCTOR: Jabel, thank you. I-
(The DOCTOR sees the monitor.)
DOCTOR: Jabel. Jabel, that's Leela.
JABEL: Yes, Lord. Particle analysis. We will reduce the subject to its constituent atoms.
DOCTOR: Particle analysis?
JABEL: Yes, Lord.
DOCTOR: (enunciating slowly) It will kill her.
JABEL: Yes, Lord. She is a savage.
DOCTOR: What? That's not a good enough reason!
JABEL: The savages have the power to open the barrier. Particle analysis may tell us how they do it. Surely that is why you brought her to us?
DOCTOR: The savages don't open the barrier, you lack-brain! Xoanon does. Do you understand that? Xoanon does!
JABEL: You lie!
DOCTOR: Give the order to stop that particle analyser.
JABEL: You are not the Lord of Time come again to save us!
DOCTOR: Will you give that order?
JABEL: You are not the Lord of Time.
DOCTOR: Right, then I'll do it myself.
(He removes a small mirror from his pocket and heads toward the door. When he reaches it, JABEL looks at him and he falls straight to the floor, prone.)
[INT. Particle analyser room]
(The DOCTOR is on a second platform, his head near LEELA's. The countdown is at 38.)
LEELA: (in an urgent whisper) Doctor? Doctor, wake up. Please, wake up! Please! (31, 30) Doctor!
(The DOCTOR wakes and assesses his surroundings. The monitor hanging down shows 25.)
DOCTOR: Close your eyes.
(He angles the mirror he still holds toward the analyser unit in the ceiling. When the countdown reaches 0, a red light begins pulsing down the platform toward his head from the unit, which is on a slider. It then moves left and begins the next stage of its run, between the DOCTOR's wrists. He reflects the beam back to the unit, which starts smoking. The shackles release the analysis subjects, and they slowly get to their feet.)
DOCTOR: Be thankful you're living, and trust to your luck, and march to your front like a soldier. Gertrude Stein.
LEELA: I think you've broken it.
DOCTOR: (showing her the mirror) To be strictly accurate, it broke itself. All I did was reflect some of the power back into it. Still, I don't suppose its owners will see it that way. Come on. We'd better go.
[INT. Control room]
(Two MEN enter. They perform a Tesh-style bow to JABEL, and he returns it.)
GENTEK: (calmly) They have escaped, Captain.
JABEL: (equally calmly) They must be found and killed. This must take precedence over all other duties and devotions.
GENTEK: He is not the Lord of Time, the one who will return.
JABEL: He is our enemy and the enemy of Xoanon. Kill him and the savage.
(After another set of bows, the two ACOLYTES leave. The doors slide closed before JABEL hits a console in frustration.)
[INT. Corridor]
(In a white corridor similar to that we glimpsed earlier except with a mirror on the inner side, two armed Tesh MEN are on patrol.)
DOCTOR: Looking for something.
LEELA: Us?
DOCTOR: Oh, probably, probably.
LEELA: (whispering) Doctor, what is Xoanon?
DOCTOR: A machine that's become a living creature. An old mission computer with schizophrenia. Not a very pretty thought, is it? And all my fault.
(They round the corner and stop at a junction.)
LEELA: How is it your fault?
DOCTOR: When I was here before, I programmed Xoanon for the Mordee. Unfortunately, I forgot to wipe my personality print from the data core. Or did I really forget? I forget if I forgot.
LEELA: You're not making yourself very clear, Doctor.
DOCTOR: It may have been my own egotism. Anyway, now it has a split personality and half of it is mine. Is that clear?
LEELA: No.
DOCTOR: Well, come on, then.
(A surveillance sphere protruding from a wall marks their passage.)
[INT. Computer complex]
(The globe shows the DOCTOR and LEELA.)
XOANON 3: Us within us. We shall make two one. (The machine
entity laughs.)
[EXT. Forest]
(The weapon is making its sounds with less gusto. TOMAS hasn't been giving it time to recharge.)
TOMAS: Calib! Calib!
CALIB: What is it?
TOMAS: The power's used up.
CALIB: Right, we must fall back. Get them moving, Tomas.
TOMAS: Right.
CALIB: Move!
TOMAS: Back! Back to the village.
CALIB: Come on, everybody, quickly.
TOMAS: Move! Move! Back, quickly!
[INT. Communications room]
(The DOCTOR and LEELA enter a room filled with banks of equipment.)
DOCTOR: Shut the door.
LEELA: How? Doctor, where are we?
DOCTOR: An auxiliary communications room.
(He finds that the consoles here haven't been disconnected. One monitor winking to life shows the Sevateem running back through the forest.)
DOCTOR: Ah.
LEELA: It's the village. The creatures must have got through the boundary.
DOCTOR: Looks like it. They're psy-tri projections from the dark side of Xoanon's id with enough kinetic energy to kill. Looks as if your friends are running out of time.
LEELA: I'm going back to help them.
DOCTOR: Don't be absurd. What do you think you can do about it? If I can arrange it, they'll be safer inside the barrier.
LEELA: Do you mean here, inside the wall? What about the Tesh?
DOCTOR: I didn't say 'safe'. I said 'safer'.
(He DOCTOR picks up a blue tube microphone.)
DOCTOR: Neeva? Neeva? Neeva, are you there? Come on, Neeva, wake up!
NEEVA [OC]: Yes, Master.
DOCTOR: Neeva, this is Xoanon.
NEEVA [OC]: What is your will?
DOCTOR: Tell Calib to lead the tribe through the mouth of the idol.
[INT. Shrine]
NEEVA: (in his usual mesmerised monotone throughout) Through the mouth of the idol.
DOCTOR [OC]: That is my order. See that it is done.
NEEVA: Will Calib believe me?
DOCTOR [OC]: Say these words to him. 'I don't believe in ghosts either.'
NEEVA: I don't believe in ghosts either.
[INT. Communications room]
DOCTOR: Go now, and do my will.
NEEVA [OC]: Yes, (pauses) Doctor.
DOCTOR: I underestimated that man. Come on - we've got an appointment on level thirty-seven.
[INT. Control room]
GENTEK: They cannot be found.
JABEL: Continue the search. (they bow and make to leave) Gentek, is the guard posted outside the Sacred Heart?
GENTEK: Yes, Captain.
(The bows are performed once more.)
[INT. Level 37]
(A lone GUARD is on patrol outside a door marked '37'. Around the corner, the DOCTOR removes his hat from his pocket.)
DOCTOR: (silent) Hold that.
(The DOCTOR creeps through the maze of corridors and positions himself behind the GUARD. LEELA moves forward with the hat.)
LEELA: Psst.
(She holds it out, extending it into the GUARD's view, along the edge of the mirrored wall. He moves closer to check this out. LEELA withdraws the hat whilst the DOCTOR slips behind him. When the GUARD reaches Leela, she takes the arm that holds his familiar-looking gun and throws him down onto his back, hard. The DOCTOR wordlessly picks up his hat, and LEELA collects the guard's weapon.)
DOCTOR: (at the door) Keep watch.
LEELA: Can't I come with you?
DOCTOR: Xoanon's unstable. He might kill me. He'd certainly kill you. Anyway, we need someone on guard.
LEELA: Doctor, be careful.
[INT. The mouth of the carving]
CALIB: The tunnel's here. Right, come on.
(He leads the way over the teeth, then heads down the passage and turns. A man in a spacesuit has appeared behind him.)
TOMAS: Calib!
(He throws his knife into the middle of the 'Tesh''s chest. CALIB hands TOMAS the gun.)
CALIB: Where there's one Tesh there's likely to be more.
TOMAS: Those creatures, they're moving in on us fast. Now we've got to get the men inside the barrier, and quickly.
CALIB: All right, get them moving, Tomas. I'll go on ahead. And you, keep your eyes open! Come on.
[INT. Computer complex]
(The DOCTOR enters.)
XOANON 3: Who are you?
XOANON 2: Who are you?
XOANON: Who are you?
DOCTOR: (talking over the overlapping voices) I'm the Doctor. I'm the Doctor!
(The voices fade to silence, and the wall panels fade to grey. White light shines onto the DOCTOR from the ceiling.)
XOANON 3: Who are you?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
XOANON 2: Who are you?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor!
XOANON: Why have you come?
DOCTOR: To correct a mistake I made when I was here before.
XOANON: We have made no mistake.
XOANON 2: No mistake.
XOANON 3: No mistake.
DOCTOR: I made the mistake.
XOANON: No mistake.
DOCTOR: I made the mistake! When the ship was stranded, the computer broke down. I thought the data core had been damaged, so I renewed it by making a direct link with the compatible centres of my own brain.
XOANON: The psychian memory transfer.
DOCTOR: A variation of it, yes.
XOANON: Good. Very good. Go on.
XOANON 2: How did he find the ship?
XOANON 3: Don't interrupt. You'll spoil it.
DOCTOR: This isn't a fairy tale. It actually happened.
(People are approaching LEELA from all directions, just out of sight as she stands guard along the short hallway. She turns and trades shots with GENTEK. She takes down a GUARD approaching from another direction. She is further from the door now, and GENTEK has her cornered. She manages to make short work of another GUARD, who tries to rush her.)
DOCTOR: For generations, teams of technicians had worked on the computer, trying to extend its power.
XOANON: And did they damage the data core?
DOCTOR: No. No! Without realising it, they had created life. The computer hadn't failed at all. It had evolved into a living creature, the first of an entirely new species.
XOANON 2: A new species? Oh, come now.
DOCTOR: Yes, a new species. When I arrived, it had just been born. It was in shock. I didn't recognise a birth trauma, and that was my mistake. And when I connected my own brain to it, it didn't just take compatible information as a machine should have done. It took everything.
XOANON: Fascinating. Can I ask a question?
XOANON 3: Ssshh. Let him finish.
DOCTOR: When it woke, it had a complete personality. Mine. It thought I was itself. Then it began to develop another, separate self, its own self. And that's when it started to go mad.
XOANON 2: And where is it?
XOANON 3: This poor mad-
XOANON: Mad machine creature.
DOCTOR: It's here, Xoanon! I'm talking to it! It's you!
(LEELA is still holding off the GUARDS, but the power in the weapon finally runs out. The beam of light over the DOCTOR turns off.)
DOCTOR: Xoanon? Xoanon?
XOANON 2: I grow tired. I will think you no longer.
DOCTOR: No, no, wait, Xoanon! I'm the Doctor. I'm separate, I'm real. You must acknowledge me.
XOANON: I will not think you.
XOANON 3: We are Xoanon.
DOCTOR: And I am the Doctor.
XOANON: No.
DOCTOR: I am the Doctor!
XOANON 3: No!
DOCTOR: I am the Doctor!
ALL XOANONS: (in turn, with growing anger) No! No! No! No!
(The DOCTOR falls to the floor as his own image bellows at him from each wall panel.)
XOANON 4: (a boy's voice, quietly) Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl
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