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DOCTOR WHO
THE FACE OF EVIL

Written by
Chris Boucher

Part Four

(Overlap from 'Xoanon?')

[INT. Level 37]

(As the GUARDS creep forward, LEELA sets the gun down and grabs her knife for a last stand. The GUARDS hold out their guns. Then the lights go out and are replaced with red emergency lighting. This prompts the locals to retreat, backing away slowly through the corridors. GENTEK sags and cowers on the floor in fear.)
LEELA: What's happening? (lightly kicking GENTEK) Tesh, what is it? (with her knife at his throat) You answer while you still have a head to answer with.
TESH: It's the way to... fail-safe.
LEELA: What does that mean?
TESH: The end of the world.
LEELA: Why? Why?
TESH: It means death and destruction. It happened before the Time of Land.
(She puts her knife away.)
LEELA: Hiding there isn't going to help, then.
(She picks up his weapon and goes to the door of the computer complex as he falls to the ground again. It opens for her.)

[INT. Computer complex]

(The DOCTOR is on the floor, hands over his ears.)
XOANON 4: Who am I?
XOANON: Who am I?
(The chorus repeats about three times.
LEELA fires Gentek's gun at the screens. The shouting eventually ceases, and the images fade to black. LEELA drags the DOCTOR from the room by his feet. In the now-empty room, the screens take on their initial shifting green blobby pattern once more.)

[INT. Level 37]

LEELA: Doctor, are you all right?
DOCTOR: (opening his eyes) Leela, are you all right?
LEELA: Was that Xoanon, that thing that looked like you?
DOCTOR: Yes, part of him. It's just a question, really. Everything beyond that door is Xoanon. You were inside him. The most powerful computer ever built.
LEELA: Why was he trying to hurt you?
DOCTOR: He's insane.
LEELA: What will he do now?
DOCTOR: His first impulse will be to kill me. It'll be more important to him than anything else.
LEELA: Does he hate you that much?
DOCTOR: Yes, because I contradict what he thinks is real. I'm a threat to his world. Red lighting, and the smell. A smell of a smell. (as LEELA goes for the weapon beside the wall) Don't touch that! (he holds out his sonic screwdriver, and we see blue arcing) Xoanon must have shorted the main power circuits in the wall.
LEELA: The lights changed while you were in there.
DOCTOR: Yes, a precaution in case I got out. As traps go, a bit haphazard. Why not electrify the floor? I would have expected something more positive.
(The GUARD nearest the DOCTOR has recovered and grabs him from behind. LEELA almost has him by the throat, but he elbows her in the gut. The DOCTOR is hauled back toward the doorway.)
DOCTOR: This isn't necessary. I've got a wonderful idea.
(His idea must have been to work himself free and grab the GUARD by the leg. The two men wrestle on the floor. As LEELA tries to catch her breath, the DOCTOR more than once narrowly misses being pushed against the walls. The DOCTOR finally throws the GUARD away, leaving him to stagger back against the wall and twitch as the electricity courses through him and kills him.)
DOCTOR: (to the deceased man, subdued) Why didn't you listen?
LEELA: He acted as though he was possessed.
DOCTOR: Yes. Xoanon's just warming up. Come on. When he gets desperate enough, he'll destroy everything to get at us.
(As LEELA collects the fallen man's weapon in order to creep forward, the lighting returns to its normal white.)

[INT. Inside the carving's mouth]

(TOMAS and CALIB marvel at the ship on the plain.)
TOMAS: At last we're here.
CALIB: And I always believed it was legend.
(NEEVA takes his turn at the opening.)
NEEVA: The gates of Paradise shall be opened to the people of Xoanon and his dwelling place revealed.
TOMAS: We've outgrown the old superstitions, Neeva.
NEEVA: But it is there, isn't it, Tomas? We start getting proof, and we stop believing.
TOMAS: With proof, we don't have to believe.
CALIB: Get everybody ready, Tomas. This is one attack that isn't going to fail. (to NEEVA) I wish Andor were here now to see us beat the Tesh.
NEEVA: The Tesh, and Xoanon. He is our enemy.
CALIB: He betrayed us all.
NEEVA: He betrayed me, and I'm going to kill him.

[INT. Communications room]

(The DOCTOR is rummaging through the items in a bank of drawers. Unregarded, LEELA remains on guard at the door.)
DOCTOR: Ah, these could be useful. You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
(Slowly, LEELA turns to face the DOCTOR. She raises the weapon.)
DOCTOR: They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable-
(He sees a reflection of LEELA appearing mesmerised.)
DOCTOR: If you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.
(He ducks, and LEELA's shot misses him. She remains still, which gives him an opportunity to hide behind a stanchion, where, with the aid of his sonic screwdriver, he starts cobbling together a device from various of the items he had pulled from the drawers. LEELA has apparently heard a command from afar to approach and point the gun straight at him.)
DOCTOR: Leela, that gun is getting heavy. It's getting heavy, heavy.
(In even more of a daze, she slowly lowers the weapon. He gently removes it from her grasp.)
DOCTOR: Now then, when I count three, you'll wake up. One, two, three. Shall we go?
LEELA: Er, yes.
DOCTOR: Something the matter?
LEELA: (troubled) I moved away from the door. I don't remember doing that.
DOCTOR: Oh, you're just probably tired, that's all. Can you still remember the way to the main control room?
LEELA: Oh, yes.
DOCTOR: Come on, then. You lead on.

[INT. Control room]

GENTEK: Captain, the savages! The savages have attacked the main lock! They outnumber us! What must we do? They will soon gain entry to the tower. Captain Jabel, what must we do? There is no time. The savages are attacking!
JABEL: Is that your reason for behaving like a degenerate animal?
GENTEK: Forgive me, I-
JABEL: You are an acolyte of the People of Tesh, the chosen of Xoanon. Would he take into communion with him an unreasoning brute, a mindless beast?
GENTEK: I accept my fault and seek forgiveness. My mind and flesh, which should be two, are one, and the way was hid by blood.
JABEL: The flesh is strong, and we are weak. Now, Gentek, make your report.
GENTEK: (calmly) The savages have attacked the main lock. They outnumber us. What must we do?
JABEL: Fall back gradually. I will have the heavy-duty disrupters set up on level twelve. We will trap the savages there and eradicate them once and for all.

[INT. Corridor]

(The DOCTOR, carrying the weapon, and LEELA are evading GUARDS as they traverse the maze of corridors. They are hugging the wall but hear a crackle and step into the middle of the corridor just as the lights go red again.)
DOCTOR: Ha ha! You'll have to be quicker than that, you overblown adding machine!
(Xoanon has missed the chance, so the lights revert to normal. The pair continue forward.)
LEELA: He knows where we are.
DOCTOR: Sensory links everywhere? That's impossible.

[INT. Computer complex]

DOCTOR [on screen]: He'd be able to measure every change in temperature, vibration, pressure, ...
LEELA [on screen]: You did say he was the most powerful computer ever built.
DOCTOR [on screen]: Yes, and very charming he is too when he wants to be. Marvellous host. I remember once at one of his dinner parties-

[INT. Corridor]

LEELA: Doctor, he just tried to kill you! We've got very little time. He knows exactly where we are-
DOCTOR: So? We know exactly where he is. Fair dues. You wouldn't want an unfair advantage, would you?
LEELA: Yes.
DOCTOR: (sotto) I thought you'd say that.

[INT. Another corridor]

(TOMAS runs up to CALIB as firing weapons off-screen are heard.)
TOMAS: They're retreating, going further up the tower.
CALIB: Then they're beaten.
TOMAS: No. No, it was too easy.
NEEVA: It's not finished yet.
CALIB: If we let them get away now, they'll regroup. We attack!
TOMAS: Calib, this has got to be a trap.
CALIB: I am the leader, Tomas, and I say attack.
TOMAS: Calib! Will you listen to me?
CALIB: I've listened enough! We attack. Come. Attack! Attack!
(CALIB leads the rest of the group onward.)
TOMAS: That man's going to kill us all.
NEEVA: (mid-recitation) ...unfinished, for the Tesh stand between the sons of the tribe of Sevateem and Xoanon.

[INT. Control room]

(The DOCTOR has cajoled a console into working, and a monitor flickers to life.)
DOCTOR: Ah.
LEELA: Ah, that's pretty.
(His work at another console produces an alarm.)
DOCTOR: Now we can see too.
LEELA: What are they all for?
DOCTOR: They watch and control various parts of the ship, make sure everything's working properly.
(One screen shows a countdown, which reaches 439.)
LEELA: What's this one for?
DOCTOR: Atomic generators.
LEELA: Oh. Why is it flashing?
DOCTOR: Well, I'll explain it all-
(Her words register, and he whips around.)
DOCTOR: Flashing? He's put the atomic generators on overload. He got desperate sooner than I thought.
LEELA: What does that mean?
DOCTOR: Well, it means I've got about twenty-four and a half minutes to build a reverse memory-transfer system and wipe my personality print from its brain.
LEELA: And if you can't do it?
DOCTOR: If I can't do it, the atomic generators will explode, taking Xoanon, us, and half the planet with them. Effective but crude.

[INT. Level 12]

(The TESH are setting up a scaled-up version of the customary hand weapon, mounted on a tripod near the end of the corridor.)
GENTEK: Check that the sights are exactly aligned, Sarton. There must be no mistake.
JABEL: (approaching) Gentek. Are the projectors set so that the savages will be forced to come this way?
GENTEK: Yes, Captain.
JABEL: Good. All that remains is to project a blank wall in front of the disrupters. As soon as the savages are all in the corridor, we will demolish them before they even know where the beams are coming from.
(His last words are slurred, and during them he raises one hand to his forehead.)
GENTEK: Is something wrong, Captain?
JABEL: You feel...?
GENTEK: Something...
JABEL: Power. (starting to walk off) Xoanon. Communion. At last.
(The two walk away as automatons, hands still at their foreheads.)

[INT. Control room]

(The DOCTOR has a pair of pliers and is tinkering with the device he began constructing earlier. Unbeknownst to him, a large golden-hued image of Xoanon's chosen face appears on the computer room's door, facing LEELA. She raises her hand to her head, as the Tesh have just done.)
XOANON: (quietly) Destroy and be free. Destroy and be free.

[INT. Corridor]

(CALIB looks around a corner, where he sees a disrupter on its stand, abandoned.)
CALIB: There's no-one in sight.
TOMAS: There's only one way to find out, isn't there?
CALIB: Now! (They lunge around the corner.)
CALIB: Come on.
TOMAS: Gently, Calib, gently.
(They progress to the next corner. There is no-one beyond it either.)
CALIB: This must be a trap set by the Tesh.
TOMAS: Then where are they, and why leave the weapon unattended?
TOMAS: I don't know. It doesn't make sense.
(He raises his hand to his head, and CALIB soon follows suit, rising to his feet slowly.)
CALIB: Destroy and be free.
SEVATEEM: Destroy and be free. Destroy and be free.
(All of them head away to the march of their puppeteer. Then NEEVA creeps out. He arrives at the junction and removes the large disrupter from the tripod.)
NEEVA: I hear you, Xoanon. I hear you.

[INT. Control room]

XOANON: Destroy and be free! Destroy and be free!
LEELA: (silently as she unsheathes her knife) Destroy and be free. Destroy and be free. Destroy and be free.
(She raises the knife and approaches the DOCTOR from behind with it raised. On her downward stroke, the DOCTOR steps to the side. The blade ends up embedded in a box of electronics. LEELA's eyes go wide as the shock hits her. The DOCTOR drags her to a chair. He then checks her pulse.)
DOCTOR: (patting her upper arm) You'll be all right.
(As the pie chart illustrating the reactor overload gets filled with more red segments, the DOCTOR notices a knife, in front of him this time. He looks up and soon sees that the TESH and SEVATEEM are converging on him. He is held in place, with knives drawn in front of him.)
DOCTOR: Xoanon, you'll destroy yourself as well as us!
XOANON: Destroy! Free! Destroy!

[INT. Level 37]

XOANON: Free!
NEEVA: (charging around the corner into shot) Xoanon!
XOANON: Destroy! Free!
NEEVA: Xoanon!
XOANON: Destroy! Free!
NEEVA: Xoanon!... Xoanon! Die!
(The mouth of the Xoanon face on the door emits a purple arc, and NEEVA vanishes.)
XOANON: (whispering) Neeva.
(We see the abandoned weapon on the floor before cutting back to the others.)

[INT. Control room]

(TESH and raised-knifed SEVATEEM alike stand unmoving, and the DOCTOR steps carefully out of their tableau of frozen weapons, then puts on the headset he has fashioned. The overload indicator is now fully in the red region. All of the others turn to the DOCTOR.)
DOCTOR: Now, Xoanon.
XOANON: No!
(As the tribesmen try to grab the DOCTOR, he plugs the headset connector into the console. He lets out a silent scream as the connection is made. They cease their attack, and the picture of Xoanon makes an audible scream and shrinks to a point on the screen. As the DOCTOR sinks back in the chair, we hear and see the overload indicator pie chart's segments go dark one by one, and things return to 'normal'. The TESH and SEVATEEM all come out of their trance.
We cut to LEELA, who has a piece of chocolate in her hand. She decides not to put it in her mouth. The DOCTOR is lying on the floor. She waves it under his nose and sets it, on its wrapper, down on the floor next to him. We see that a silver pillow is under his head and then that the two are alone The DOCTOR rouses.)
DOCTOR: Hello.
LEELA: I was beginning to think you'd never come round.
DOCTOR: Ow. I wish I hadn't.
LEELA: I thought it safer not to move you.
DOCTOR: Yes. How long have I been out?
LEELA: (eating chocolate) Two days.
DOCTOR: Two days. Two days? I haven't got time to be lying around here for two days!
LEELA: You should have thought of that before. What happened?
DOCTOR: Don't you listen?
LEELA: I don't remember a thing.
DOCTOR: No, I don't suppose you do. I removed - I hope I removed - half of Xoanon's dual personality. How is he?
LEELA: Silent.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: There hasn't been a murmur from him since I found you unconscious. And Jabel's people don't dare go near the Sacred Heart. (at a look from the DOCTOR) Well, that's what they call it.
DOCTOR: And what do you call it?
LEELA: The, the main computer complex.
DOCTOR: That's better.
LEELA: I've told them all I can, but they won't listen to me. They say I'm ignorant. We have a guarded truce at the moment.
DOCTOR: Give me a chocolate. (sighs) I think I'll go and see Xoanon.
LEELA: Can I, can I come inside this time?
DOCTOR: Perhaps. Perhaps.

[INT. Level 37]

(As he and LEELA round the corner, the DOCTOR sees the disrupter lying where it fell from Neeva's grasp.)
DOCTOR: Ah. So that's why Xoanon lost his hold on Tomas and the rest. I wonder who it was.
LEELA: They say Neeva was trying to kill him, and now he can't be found.
DOCTOR: Well, if he was psychotic, he'd be impossible to control. Perhaps Xoanon will tell us. (at the relevant door) Anyone at home?

[INT. Computer complex]

(The door to the computer complex opens.)
XOANON: (in voice 2) Doctor. I've been waiting for you. Yes, come in, please.
(The DOCTOR and LEELA do so. Now the lights glow a muted gold, and the walls are plain.)
DOCTOR: (addressing the globe at the centre) How do you feel?
XOANON: I am... whole. And you?
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm fine now, thanks. Can't complain.
XOANON: Good, good. I'm glad.
LEELA: Why did you do all that?
XOANON: Could you be more specific?
LEELA: Keep us ignorant and afraid. Make us hate one another.
XOANON: (still calmly) I created a world in my own image. I made your people act out my torment. I made my madness reality.
DOCTOR: But you told yourself you were breeding a race of superhumans.
XOANON: Independence, strength, boldness, courage in one tribe. Self-denial, control, telepathy in the other.
DOCTOR: Hostility and conflict to speed up the process until you were ready to select the best of both.
LEELA: It's horrible.
DOCTOR: Yes, it is horrible. Isn't it horrible?
XOANON: But it's over now. We are all free, thanks to you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Ah, well, it was the least I could do in the circumstances. After all, I did start the trouble in the first place.
XOANON: Yours was a mistake anyone could have made.
DOCTOR: I don't think anyone could have made it.
XOANON: (laughs) Sit down, please.
(A settee fades into existence. Next to it is a wind-up gramophone on a stand. They sit, LEELA doing so cross-legged. The DOCTOR removes a jelly baby from a cigarette case he carries and chews it.)
DOCTOR: Well, now, isn't this nice?
XOANON: Tell me, Doctor, where do you think I started to go wrong?
(The DOCTOR is flummoxed. LEELA too gives a look.)

[INT. Control room]

JABEL: My people would not agree to such degenerate plans.
TOMAS: But they are necessary, Jabel.
CALIB: Necessary for our survival.
JABEL: I do not agree.
TOMAS: Well, we'll ask the Doctor's opinion when he comes.
JABEL: Is that wise? Would Xoanon wish it?
GENTEK: That is an important consideration, Captain.
CALIB: This discussion is getting us nowhere.
JABEL: Would one expect any more from savages?
CALIB: Hold your tongue, you scrawny-
TOMAS: (arms out to restrain him) Calib, control yourself!
DOCTOR: Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. Democracy at work, I see?
TOMAS: What did he say, Doctor?
DOCTOR: He said he's extremely sorry about all the trouble that he's caused, that he has great power and knowledge and he puts it all at your disposal.
JABEL: Should we trust him?
DOCTOR: He offers you this as a token of his good faith. (holding out a large item consisting almost entirely of a big red button) Press it, and he'll cease to exist.
(JABEL and TOMAS both hesitate and back away.)
CALIB: Another of your miracles?
DOCTOR: Well, there's one way to find out.
(CALIB too backs away.)
DOCTOR: No? Little Gentek? (he gestures with it in the acolyte's direction) Good.
(The button vanishes.)
DOCTOR: You've got to trust someone sometime.
GENTEK: But we must still choose a leader.
DOCTOR: Ah. (whispering) But that's not my problem.
CALIB: There is no choice to be made. I am the leader of the Sevateem.
(The DOCTOR slowly backs out of the room, leaving them to it.)
JABEL: My people would never accept the leadership of a mindless savage.
CALIB: That's an insult!
LEELA: I am a mindless savage, Jabel, and I have talked with Xoanon.
TOMAS: And that makes Leela the obvious candidate.
LEELA: Me? But I don't want to be leader. I'm far too unreasonable, aren't I, Doctor? (she notices that he isn't there any longer, and she hurries away) Doctor?

[EXT. Forest]

(The DOCTOR unlocks the TARDIS.)
LEELA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: (stops whistling) Leela! What are you doing here?
LEELA: (who is carrying a weapon) I thought you might need an escort. The creatures are still out here.
DOCTOR: You don't need that, Leela. The phantoms were merely projections of Xoanon's disturbed subconscious. He's better now.
LEELA: I suppose you're always right about everything.
DOCTOR: Invariably. Invariably. (quickly) Goodbye.
LEELA: Take me with you.
DOCTOR: Why?
LEELA: What? Well, you like me, don't you?
DOCTOR: Well, yes, I suppose I do like you, but, then, I like lots of people, but I can't go carting them around the universe with me. Goodbye.
(LEELA runs into the TARDIS.)
DOCTOR: Come out of there, out!
(He steps inside.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Come out. Don't touch that! Don't touch-
(And the TARDIS dematerialises.)

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

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