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DOCTOR WHO
THE INVISIBLE ENEMY
Written by
Bob Baker
Part One
[INT. Shuttle bridge]
(A ship is passing through an asteroid field.
Within are two seatd men, wearing spacesuits with green helmet attachments surrounding their sleeping heads. A third man in a spacesuit without a helmet on is sitting at the front of the bridge. He is looking out on the asteroids.)
MEEKER: (flipping a row of switches) Going to manual.
SILVEY: (one of the men who'd been asleep) What for?
MEEKER: Why not? If we're going to be slammed around, I'd sooner do it myself.
SILVEY: It's still telling you what to do.
MEEKER: Yes, but at least I'm doing it.
(The ship suffers an impact or is otherwise yanked off its previous course.)
SILVEY: Come on, Meeker.
(An alarm sounds.)
SAFRAN: You're off course.
MEEKER: Yes, sorry, skipper.
SAFRAN: Put it back on automatic, please.
(MEEKER turns off the alarm. He pauses, presses more buttons, and then operates quite a number of further controls.)
MEEKER: Eh? I can't!
(SAFRAN stands, walks over to an upright panel, and presses a control on it.)
SAFRAN: Titan shuttle captain. New course for Titan, please.
(He goes upstairs to join MEEKER at the forward windows.)
SAFRAN: All right, Meeker, that is enough.
MEEKER: What?
SAFRAN: Off watch. Please.
(MEEKER gives up his seat and sits with SILVEY in the lower part of the room.)
MEEKER: Look, I qualified for exploration eight years ago, and what am I? Glorified garage attendant on some planetary filling station.
SILVEY: (laughing) Your turn'll come. You'll be glad enough of refuel bases then.
MEEKER: All I'm saying is that I want a real-
(An alarm sounds.)
SAFRAN: Not now, Meeker.
COMPUTER: Unidentified organism. Changing course to avoid.
(From space, we see the ship surrounded by a billowing neuron shape that shoots forks of lightning at it from several directions.)
SAFRAN: What was all that about? There's nothing there. Titan shuttle captain. Report, please.
VOICE [OC]: Contact has been made.
SAFRAN: Contact?
(He turns to look at the others, puzzled.)
[INT. TARDIS console room]
(In her Sevateem clothes and one of the Doctor's hats, LEELA places the coat stand next to the TARDIS door. This is one of the last steps in putting the more modern-looking console room back into use. The time rotor is rising and falling. The DOCTOR enters from the inner rooms of the ship and closes the inner door. He goes to the controls.)
LEELA: We've never been in here before.
DOCTOR: You've never been in here before.
LEELA: What is it?
DOCTOR: Number two control room has been closed for redecoration. I don't like the colour.
LEELA: White isn't a colour.
DOCTOR: That's the trouble with computers. Always think in black and white. No aquamarines, no blues, (to the console) no imagination.
(The time rotor stops with a bit of a fizzle.)
LEELA: Have we stopped?
DOCTOR: No, we haven't stopped.
(The shutters to the scanner open.)
LEELA: Have we materialised?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: Where?
DOCTOR: (looking at the scanner screen) Solar system, between Jupiter and Saturn. About five thousand AD. Five thousand AD? We're still in the time of your ancestors.
LEELA: Ancestors?
DOCTOR: Yes. That was the year of the great break-out.
LEELA: The great what?
DOCTOR: Mmm. When your forefathers went leapfrogging across the solar system on their way to the stars. Asteroid belt's probably teeming with them now. New frontiersmen, pioneers waiting to spread across the galaxy like a tidal wave. Or a disease.
LEELA: Why 'disease'? I thought you liked humanity?
DOCTOR: Oh, I do, I do. Some of my best friends are humans. When they get together in great numbers, other life forms sometimes suffer.
[INT. Shuttle bridge]
(The ship slowly lowers onto a pad on a pocked surface. We are at the docking facility of a spaceport, and this section of surface lowers. As the ship is lowered into the bowels of the facility and carried through a tunnel, the three crew don their helmets, with visors down.)
COMPUTER: Docking. Docking. Contact. All locked.
(Each of the men takes a hand weapon from a rack beside the door and enters the airlock, beside which is a sign reading 'CHECK PRESSURE VALV BEEFOR ENTRY'.)
[INT. Titan Base, corridors]
(They leave the airlock and walk through the rock-cut corridors, still with helmets on and visors down.)
MAN [OC]: Hey, are we glad to see you. Welcome to Titan. You're welcome to it. We're in the mess. Come on down.
[INT. Mess hall]
(We hear laughter as the ship's crew make their way to the mess. Three MEN are sharing food and a couple bottles of drink.)
MAN: Come on in. Join the party. Our last supper on Titan. Well, come on. Get your gear off and relax. You're going to be here for-
(The three spacefarers raise their weapons.)
MAN: Hey, what kind of a joke is-
(Red energy from the spaceship crew's weapons hit them. The three helmeted men approach the bodies. SAFRAN raises his visor, and we now see his cheeks and forehead, which have a green-silver scaly appearance.)
SAFRAN: There is one other, the station supervisor. We must find him, destroy him.
(The other two raise their visors. The area around their eyes has the same green-grey motif.)
SAFRAN: Then we can make this the ideal place in which to breed and multiply.
[INT. Titan Base control]
LOWE: (calmly as he sips from his mug) Shuttle relief crew, shuttle relief crew. Come in, please. Shuttle relief crew, this is Supervisor Lowe. Please report. (a little less calmly) Relief crew, this is the supervisor. Where are you?
(He puts down his mug and switches on a small monitor. It shows the bodies in the mess hall.)
LOWE: My God, what's happened? Hello? Hello?
(He looks at another monitor, mounted in front of windows onto the area beyond the spaceport. It shows SAFRAN.)
LOWE: What is it? What's gone wrong?
SAFRAN: Wrong? There is nothing wrong. This is most suitable for our purpose.
LOWE: What? What purpose? Safran. Safran, is that you? What has happened?
SAFRAN: Who is this Safran?
(As the relief crew walk through the corridors, LOWE hits an emergency-broadcast button.)
LOWE: Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Titan Base. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
(He presses the wall alarm, labelled 'DISTRESS', and runs to lock the main door, then grabs a helmet from the shelves beside it and heads for the 'IMURJINSEE EGSIT'.
SILVEY and MEEKER, helmets now removed, walk up to the outside of the control room's main door. They begin cutting into the room, melting the lock.
When they enter, they notice the emergency exit door standing open. As they walk to the window to the outside, SAFRAN enters the room with his own weapon drawn. The other two turn to him.)
MEEKER: The supervisor has escaped.
SAFRAN: Leave him. Let him suffocate.
(He hits the green button below the distress alarm, to silence it.)
[INT. TARDIS console room]
(We pan out from a blackboard, on which Leela is practising writing her name.)
DOCTOR: As soon as I've reset these co-ordinates, we'll go somewhere really interesting.
LOWE [OC]: Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Titan Base. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
LEELA: What was that?
DOCTOR: (going to the DOCTOR) Distress call. From Titan. That message took half an hour to get here.
LEELA: Is Titan really interesting?
DOCTOR: What does that matter? What's important is that someone needs help. (he starts setting dials) Quadrant six two. WHI1212. 9990EX41.
(LEELA is crouched in the corner, clutching one end of his scarf.)
DOCTOR: What's the matter?
LEELA: I'm troubled.
DOCTOR: About what?
LEELA: I can feel something.
DOCTOR: Hey.
SAFRAN [OC]: Titan. This is Titan Base. All vessels, repeat, all vessels disregard mayday. I say again, disregard mayday. All under control.
DOCTOR: There we are.
SAFRAN [OC]: Our apologies. Our apologies.
LEELA: That's it!
DOCTOR: That's what?
LEELA: That's something evil.
SAFRAN [OC]: Titan Base out.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: It was not a human speaking.
DOCTOR: It wasn't?
(We see the gaseous neuron from earlier with its lightning bolts. The TARDIS is caught up in its turbulent eddies, and something in the console in front of the DOCTOR goes pffzzt! A purple glow is visible around the DOCTOR for a moment.)
LEELA: What was that?
DOCTOR: Static. Nothing important.
LEELA: There was a sort of glow all around you.
DOCTOR: There was? Oh. Well, a kind of Saint Elmo's fire. It happens at sea.
LEELA: Saint Elmo's?
DOCTOR: Yes, it causes a sort of halo effect round the masts of ships.
LEELA: Halo?
DOCTOR: Why do you keep repeating everything I say? You're not a parrot, are you?
LEELA: Parrot?
DOCTOR: Yes. A parrot's a bird that repeats things. Move over.
LEELA: (imitating him) Move over.
DOCTOR: That's it.
(There is an explosion deep in the TARDIS.)
LEELA: I thought you said there was nothing wrong.
DOCTOR: (fanning away the smoke) Well, there isn't anything wrong. Well, there isn't anything important wrong, but I've got to check it, haven't I?
LEELA: I can still feel it.
DOCTOR: (on top of the console, encouragingly) Come on, old thing, come on.
(The console produces a fork of something lightning-like, which goes straight into the DOCTOR's eyes. He goes woozy.)
VOICE [OC]: Contact has been made.
(The DOCTOR collapses.)
[INT. Titan Base control]
(SAFRAN goes to a map of the base on the wall and speaks to the other two as he points.)
SAFRAN: Incubation will start here.
VOICE [OC]: Contact has been made. The nucleus has found a host. Prepare for his coming.
(The TARDIS materialises on Titan Base, just inside the airlock. Outside the airlock, someone in a helmet is looking in through a window.)
[INT. TARDIS console room]
(LEELA stands at the console, with her knife out. The same fingers of energy reach out into her face, and she puts her hand to her forehead. She goes to the DOCTOR's side with her knife still in her hand.)
LEELA: (shaking him) Doctor, wake up. We've landed! We've materialised!
[INT. Titan Base, corridors]
(The relief crew slowly walk toward the TARDIS.)
SAFRAN: There is one other with the host. She has been rejected. We must destroy her and dispose of her body with the rest of them. Take up your positions.
(He turns to the others, and they each take position at a near corner of the TARDIS.)
[INT. TARDIS console room]
(The DOCTOR opens his eyes.)
DOCTOR: Hello, Lally.
LEELA: Are you all right?
DOCTOR: Rightly perfect, thank you yet, Lally.
LEELA: What did you say?
DOCTOR: I said 'I'm perfectly all right, thank you, Lally'.
LEELA: My name is Leela.
DOCTOR: Hmm? I know your name. Leela.
LEELA: What happened?
(He sags to the floor again.)
DOCTOR: Must have had a bot of a shik.
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: A bot of a shik.
LEELA: Doctor, what is it? What's the matter?
DOCTOR: There's a voice or something in my head.
LEELA: The evil thing.
DOCTOR: Nonsense. Just a nasty turn. Come on, we're on Titan. Let's take a look.
(Still kneeling on the floor, the DOCTOR operates the control to open the doors. Once they swing open, he stands, with LEELA behind him, He steps out smartly, and walks into the left-hand door.)
DOCTOR: That was odd.
LEELA: (urgently) Doctor, don't go out.
(She operates the switch to close the TARDIS doors.)
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: (pointing) It's out there. Evil!
(LOWE is back inside the base's control room. He sets his helmet on his desk and grabs a hand weapon from beside the door. He checks it and opens the internal door.)
DOCTOR: We must go. We've had a mayday.
LEELA: No. I can feel it is wrong.
DOCTOR: What, intuition?
LEELA: I don't care what you call it, Doctor. I knew. I knew before that-. Before you were affected.
DOCTOR: What are you talking about, 'affected'?
LEELA: Well, before you were knocked out!
DOCTOR: Leela, listen to me. I'm perfectly all right. Move over.
(She puts her hands more firmly over the control.)
[INT. Titan Base corridor]
(A sweating LOWE has made his way through the corridors and now stands to one side of the TARDIS, behind the relief crew. He holds his hand weapon out, pointed at them.)
LOWE: Drop your weapons. I'm arresting you, all of you!
(The men turn. LOWE reacts by shooting. SILVEY falls down, dead, and LOWE runs back the way he came as the other two give chase. LOWE opens the door to the 'KRYOGENICS SEXSHUN' and goes inside. MEEKER and SAFRAN follow.)
SAFRAN: Close the door. Turn off the oxygen supply.
(MEEKER locks the door and pulls a lever on the panel beside it, complying.
The DOCTOR, whistling, looks out the TARDIS door and promptly closes it again. The door reopens a moment later, and the DOCTOR slowly steps out. LEELA stands in the door to the ship.)
DOCTOR: Nobody around, not a soul.
(LEELA steps out of the TARDIS with her knife drawn. The DOCTOR sounds a duck call, produced from a capacious pocket.)
DOCTOR: Anyone home?
LEELA: Doctor, look!
(She has seen SILVEY's body. As she goes to it, the DOCTOR muses.)
DOCTOR: Disregard mayday. He said 'disregard mayday'. Why?
LEELA: It is still warm.
DOCTOR: (standing) Don't be gruesome.
LEELA: I am a hunter.
DOCTOR: You're a savage.
LEELA: Perhaps. I'm not ashamed of what I am, and I tell you, Doctor, I can smell danger.
DOCTOR: What did you say?
LEELA: I said I can smell danger.
DOCTOR: Evil again?
LEELA: Everywhere. In this place.
DOCTOR: We'd better find it before it finds us.
LEELA: Right.
DOCTOR: Stay here.
LEELA: I'm no coward.
(She stays for only a moment, going down a different corridor from the DOCTOR. A moment later, the DOCTOR backs back into the room.)
DOCTOR: Now listen, whatever hap-
(He turns and notices that LEELA is no longer in the room. He casts his eyes about for her and leaves again.)
[INT. Titan Base control]
(SAFRAN and MEEKER are back at the map of the base on the wall.)
SAFRAN: Set temperature and humidity rate for optimum breeding conditions.
MEEKER: Set temperature and humidity rate for optimum breeding conditions.
(The DOCTOR steps into the room and comes up behind and between them. He clears his throat, and they still do not turn.)
DOCTOR: Excuse me. You don't know me. Let me introduce myself.
SAFRAN: There is no need. We are preparing the hives now.
DOCTOR: People call me the D-. Hives?
SAFRAN: For the nucleus which you carry within you.
DOCTOR: Are you all right? I answered your mayday.
(The men turn, and the DOCTOR, seeing their scaly faces, steps away, quietly clearing his throat.)
SAFRAN: You answered the call?
DOCTOR: That's right, that's right. Has someone been hurt?
SAFRAN: It is of no consequence. The physical envelope is of no importance.
MEEKER: Of no importance.
DOCTOR: What do you mean 'of no importance'? I just found a dead body out there.
(A fork of energy streaks out from MEEKER's eyes to the DOCTOR's.)
MEEKER: Now that you have arrived...
DOCTOR: (in a monotone) I have arrived.
SAFRAN: ...all that matters is that the reject should be destroyed.
DOCTOR: Reject should be destroyed.
SAFRAN: And breeding begin.
DOCTOR: And breeding from my nucleus begin.
(LEELA is walking through the halls. She reaches the cryogenics door and opens it. The icy form of LOWE topples forward. LEELA checks for a pulse and starts to drag him away.
Back at the infected camp, SAFRAN gives his hand weapon to the DOCTOR, who takes it.)
DOCTOR: Leela the reject will not suspect me.
SAFRAN: One of us will follow.
DOCTOR: That is not necessary.
SAFRAN: The nucleus within you must not be harmed.
MEEKER: Must not be harmed.
DOCTOR: Very well.
(He stops at the internal doorway and waits for MEEKER to follow him out.)
[INT. Mess hall]
(LEELA carries a warm drink to LOWE, who, still covered in frost, is sitting at the mess hall table. He sputters as he takes a sip. He then looks at her.)
LOWE: Who are you?
LEELA: We answered your mayday.
LOWE: They tried to kill me. The relief crew. They're insane. They've already killed these poor devils.
LEELA: (she looks at the bodies) But why? Are they your enemies?
LOWE: No. I know them. At least I thought I did. But they've changed.
LEELA: How changed?
LOWE: Their eyes, their manner, their whole behaviour is different. One of them said something...
LEELA: What?
(She fetches a blanket from next to one of the bodies and places it around his shoulders.)
LOWE: Their purpose. 'This place will be suitable for our purpose.' For 'our purpose', whatever that is.
LEELA: The Doctor will know. He'll be here soon.
[INT. Titan Base corridor]
DOCTOR: Leela? Leela, where are you?
[INT. Mess hall]
LEELA: That's him. That's the Doctor!
LOWE: No, wait. It could be a trap, if they've caught him.
LEELA: What are we going to do?
LOWE: Hide.
(He gets his weapon out, and LEELA stands to one side of the door.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Don't worry, Leela, it's only me. Listen to me, Leela. There's nothing wrong with this place. It's most suitable. It's a good place. A good place.
(LEELA has her knife out and looks back at LOWE. He steps further into the room and crouches behind the far side of the table, gun out.)
[INT. Titan Base corridor]
DOCTOR: Come on, Leela. I'm waiting. (more quietly) Please leave me, please. I can't do it. I can't do it.
MEEKER: (putting his hand on the DOCTOR's shoulder) Think of the purpose. She is a reject. She must die.
DOCTOR: I can't.
MEEKER: Think of the purpose.
DOCTOR: I can't.
MEEKER: The purpose is all-important.
(LOWE moves, and a plant falls over.)
DOCTOR: The reject is here.
(He leads the way slowly to the mess hall.)
MEEKER: Stay. The Nucleus does not wish to be harmed. I shall destroy her.
DOCTOR: Yes. Kill her. Kill her.
(The DOCTOR walks away while MEEKER enters.)
[INT. Mess hall]
(LOWE fires, but MEEKER is faster and hits LOWE's gun arm. He drops the weapon and rises. As MEEKER steps toward LOWE and prepares to fire again, LEELA throws her knife, which thuds solidly into MEEKER's back. He collapses on a chair, face forward. LEELA collects her knife. Now with both a gun and a knife, she heads out the door. Then, LOWE approaches MEEKER and squats down to speak to him.)
LOWE: Meeker, this purpose, what is it?
(MEEKER raises his head, and a fork of lightning hits LOWE's eyes. MEEKER's head flops down - he is dead. LOWE, with gun out, runs into the hallway after LEELA.)
[INT. Titan base]
LOWE: Leave it to me. I know this place.
(LOWE runs past her. She cautiously moves forward. Behind her we see a gun held in a hirsute hand. That greenish hair belongs to the DOCTOR, who lines up a clearer shot.)
The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl
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