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DOCTOR WHO
HORROR OF FANG ROCK

Written by
Terrance Dicks

Part Two

(Overlap from 'Right. It's Reuben.')

[INT. Lamp gallery]

REUBEN: Too late - she's struck.
LEELA: They will all die, then.
REUBEN: If there's any survivors, we'll find them on the east crag.
(The DOCTOR and LEELA are the last to leave.)

[INT. Lamp room]

REUBEN: Keep that siren going, mister. Hey, Vince! Bring that...
DOCTOR: (to LEELA) Keep that siren going.
(After they've gone, LEELA rolls up her sleeves and unenthusiastically walks over to the foghorn lever. She unenthusiastically operates it.)

[INT. Generator room]

REUBEN: (hurrying down the steps with a lantern) Bring that rope, mister.
(The DOCTOR, behind VINCE, bends down into a corner to obey. Electricity arcs above his head, and we hear crackling. He raises his head.)
REUBEN [OC]: Bring that rope!
(He picks up the coil of rope.
In the lamp room, LEELA is holding down the lever. She finally stops doing this. The lighthouse lamp comes on and resumes rotating.)

[EXT. Shore]

(REUBEN and VINCE walk out with lanterns, ahead of the DOCTOR.)
REUBEN: (shining the lamp around) Ahoy!
VINCE: She's on again now.
REUBEN: Damned electricity. Wouldn't happen with oil. Ahoy!
DOCTOR: No, I don't suppose it would. It seems to need electricity.
(LEELA has sounded the foghorn some more. She walks about aimlessly for a while. Her wanderings take her out to the lamp gallery, where it's cold. She shivers. When she looks down, there is a bright green sphere dragging itself and four tentacle-tails along the ground.)

[INT. Crew room]

(VINCE is the first in. We hear the voices of survivors before they follow him in, shouting.)
PALMERDALE: Why did it take you so long? We were nearly killed on those rocks!
VINCE: You'll be all right, sir. Come over to the stove and dry yourself out.
(REUBEN directs the man in. He is followed by a woman who wears a look of distaste and an older chap. All have cork life preservers around their bodies.)
REUBEN: [unintelligible] trouble. Weren't no cause for jumping like that.
SKINSALE: Oh, his Lordship was anxious to get ashore.
REUBEN: See to the young lady, Vince.
PALMERDALE: Oh, get me a brandy.
VINCE: Here, ma'am, let me help you.
(The men help the survivors remove their life vests.)
ADELAIDE: Thank you.
REUBEN: Well, get her a blanket, boy.
ADELAIDE: Oh, no, I'm all right, really.
PALMERDALE: Well, I ain't. I'm soaked to the skin.
SKINSALE: Ah, but seawater's healthy, Henry.
PALMERDALE: I need a drink. Catch my death like this. Get me a brandy, young fella.
VINCE: You don't need no brandy, sir. Hot soup's the ticket for you.
PALMERDALE: Don't tell me what I need. Dammit, hasn't anyone a flask round here?
REUBEN: You see to them, Vince. I'd better get up to that lamp.
VINCE: Here, ma'am. Come over to the stove and get warm. Excuse me, sir.
(He sets a chair next to the stove for ADELAIDE. The younger man, PALMERDALE, is annoyed at being dismissed.)
ADELAIDE: Thank you. What's your name?
VINCE: Hawkins. Vince Hawkins.
ADELAIDE: Thank you, Hawkins. (She sits.)

[INT. Lamp gallery]

(The DOCTOR and LEELA are looking out over the rocks.)
DOCTOR: What was it like?
LEELA: I could not see clearly. It shone like, like a fungus in the forest.
DOCTOR: Luminous. Do you think you could show me the spot?
LEELA: Yes. Yes, I think so.
DOCTOR: Good. Don't tell the others. We don't want to start a panic.
REUBEN: (stepping up to them) What do you reckon be going on, mister?
DOCTOR: Well, when I find out, I'll let you know.
REUBEN: I wouldn't try to find out. T'ain't wise.
LEELA: What do you mean?
REUBEN: Reckon I know what you've seen. They always said the Beast of Fang Rock would be back.
DOCTOR: The Beast of Fang Rock.
REUBEN: Aye.
(He turns and leaves.)

[INT. Crew room]

(PALMERDALE is pacing while VINCE pours some soup into a mug. SKINSALE is seated, poring over the log book.)
PALMERDALE: (placing his palms on the table) Look, I need some dry clothes, and I need them now.
VINCE: All in good time, sir. Just giving the young lady some soup, and then I'll attend to you.
PALMERDALE: I'll catch my death of cold standing around like this.
SKINSALE: You shouldn't be so impulsive, Henry.
PALMERDALE: When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it. What about brandy? Well, surely in the medical supplies you keep brandy.
VINCE: No liquor allowed in a lighthouse, sir. Against regulations.
PALMERDALE: Oh, to hell with the regulations!
(The DOCTOR and LEELA enter.)
DOCTOR: Where's Harker, your coxswain?
PALMERDALE: He stayed behind to secure the boat.
(The DOCTOR sits at the table and places one foot on it. ADELAIDE appears vaguely aghast.)
DOCTOR: I'll wait.
SKINSALE: He'll, erm, he'll be up directly.
DOCTOR: Good.
SKINSALE: It was his seamanship got us ashore.
DOCTOR: And whose seamanship was it got you on the rocks?
(SKINSALE looks up at PALMERDALE.)
PALMERDALE: Are you in charge here?
DOCTOR: No, but I'm full of ideas.
VINCE: I beg pardon, sir. Time I stoked the boiler.
DOCTOR: Yes, of course, Vince. Off you go. (he leaves) Leela?
LEELA: Yes?
DOCTOR: You'd better go with him.
(She comes round to his side.)
LEELA: Yes, Doctor. (She obeys.)
ADELAIDE: So, you're a doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ADELAIDE: And you send women to stoke boilers?
DOCTOR: One of the keepers was electrocuted earlier this evening, and since then Vince doesn't like going down there.
(She averts her gaze, looking abashed.)
SKINSALE: Yes, disturbing thing for a young fellow, first sight of death. I remember in India-
PALMERDALE: Not one of your army stories, Jimmy. They're even more boring than your House of Commons anecdotes.
DOCTOR: Just a moment! We haven't been introduced!
SKINSALE: Oh. Well, this is Miss Lessedge, Lord Palmerdale's secretary. The wet gentleman is Lord Palmerdale, the financier. I'm Skinsale, the Member for Thurley, Doctor... er.
DOCTOR: Where were you heading?
SKINSALE: What?
DOCTOR: When your yacht struck?
PALMERDALE: Southampton. I've a special train waiting to take me to London, and I must be there before the 'Change opens.
ADELAIDE: If only we'd stayed in Deauville, none of this would have happened.
PALMERDALE: We had a little flutter at the casino, though in Jimmy's case it was more of a plunger, what?
SKINSALE: Oh, I don't know. You lost your yacht.
PALMERDALE: Insured.
DOCTOR: What about the rest of the crew? Were any other boats launched?
SKINSALE: We didn't wait to see. His Lordship was in rather a hurry to leave the sinking ship.
PALMERDALE: It's imperative that I reach London before the market opens.
SKINSALE: Oh, is that the reason?
DOCTOR: Ah, you want to get to London?
PALMERDALE: (eagerly) Yes. Yes.
DOCTOR: You've no chance in this fog.
SKINSALE: (laughing) The wheel of fortune, eh, Henry?
PALMERDALE: What?
SKINSALE: Perhaps you didn't win all you thought at the casino. (He continues laughing.)

[INT. Generator room]

(VINCE is shovelling coal. LEELA is watching him work.)
LEELA: Listen.
VINCE: What? I don't hear nothing, miss.
LEELA: (at the door) There! Something's being dragged over the rocks.
VINCE: Ben. He'll be coming back, coming back for us.
LEELA: Go up and tell the Doctor to come down, and do not let the others know. (taking him by the shoulders) Go and get the Doctor. Do not tell the others. Here, give me that instrument. Go!
(He hands her the shovel and runs up the stairs. The door opens, and LEELA hefts the shovel, ready to attack whatever comes in.)
LEELA: Do not move!
(The figure is a man in a cork life vest, dragging something.)
HARKER: What?
LEELA: I said 'do not move'.
(The man's hands are up. He is still facing away from us.)
DOCTOR: (coming down the steps) It's all right, Leela, he's a friend, aren't you, Harker?
HARKER: Yes, sir. Oh, poor wretch.
LEELA: What is it?
DOCTOR: It's all that's left of Ben. Where did you find him, Harker?
HARKER: In the sea, sir. Came floating in as I was tying up. What the sea can do to a man...
DOCTOR: It wasn't the sea that did that.
HARKER: What, sir?
DOCTOR: There's some hot soup in the crew room, Harker.
HARKER: Right.
(HARKER heads for the stairs.)
DOCTOR: The others are already there.
DOCTOR: Quick, get that door closed.
LEELA: Do you think the beast ate him?
DOCTOR: What beast?
LEELA: The Beast of Fang Rock.
DOCTOR: There's no such animal.
LEELA: But Reuben said there was.
DOCTOR: Leela, the people round here have been fisherfolk for generations. They're almost as primitive and as superstition-ridden as your lot are.
LEELA: So how do you explain the body?
DOCTOR: Post mortem.
LEELA: What is that?
DOCTOR: Something wants to make a detailed study of human anatomy.
VINCE [OC]: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Quick, get it out.
(They carry the unseen remains to the coal bunker just as VINCE starts down the stairs.)
VINCE: You there, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm here, Vince.
VINCE: You find out what that noise was?
LEELA: Yes, it was only Harker. He was carrying Ben's body.
VINCE: So it's true. He was walking.
LEELA: Oh, do not be stupid, Vince. I have told you before - the dead do not walk.
VINCE: He must have been to have got out there in the first place.
LEELA: I don't know how he got outside, but he did not walk!

[INT. Crew room]

PALMERDALE: You secured the boat safely?
HARKER: (nodding) Yes.
PALMERDALE: Good. When you've rested, we'll make for the mainland.
SKINSALE: Are you mad?
PALMERDALE: I've made up my mind. It's the only way.
SKINSALE: It's out of the question, Henry. Good Lord, in this fog?
PALMERDALE: It can be no more than five or six miles. A seaman like Harker will have no trouble.
SKINSALE: Reason with him, Adelaide. Make him see sense.
PALMERDALE: You can stay here or do as you wish, but my mind is quite set.
HARKER: So is mine. I'm not taking a boat out in this.
PALMERDALE: What's that?
HARKER: Not after what I've seen tonight, and that's flat.
PALMERDALE: Damn your insolence! You're an employee. You'll do as you're told!
HARKER: Will I?
SKINSALE: Hang him from the yardarm, Henry. It's mutiny.

[INT. Generator room]

VINCE: You said he was dead. How did he get in the sea?
DOCTOR: Obviously I was wrong. The shock simply stunned him, he partly recovered, staggered out onto the rocks, fell into the sea, and was drowned. You get on about your work, Vince. There's nothing supernatural going on round here.
VINCE: Well, I saw him. He weren't breathing. That I swear.
DOCTOR: Electricity has strange effects, Vince.
VINCE: Oh. Electricity.
DOCTOR: Mmm.
VINCE: I'm sorry, sir. I reckon I made a bit of a fool of myself just now.
DOCTOR: That's all right, Vince.
(VINCE returns to the boiler.)
LEELA: (grabbing the DOCTOR's arm) Why did you not tell him the truth?
DOCTOR: Because I don't know what the truth is, yet.

[INT. Crew room]

PALMERDALE: As I see it, the accident was entirely due to the inefficiency of the lighthouse service.
SKINSALE: My dear fellow-
PALMERDALE: So they have the responsibility of seeing I reach the mainland.
SKINSALE: That argument won't wash, Henry. You can't possibly blame the lighthouse people.
ADELAIDE: His Lordship is right. If the light had been working-
SKINSALE: We would have still hit the rocks at the speed we were travelling.
HARKER: You're right there, sir. We should have been going dead slow in them conditions. Weren't the captain's fault neither.
PALMERDALE: That's enough, Harker. The fact remains that the light was not working. Oh, there'll be an inquiry, I assure you.
(The DOCTOR rushes in and takes something from the sideboard.)
DOCTOR: The inquiry's already begun. Move over.
SKINSALE: What inquiry? What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: Just you stay here, all of you. Harker, you try and get some rest.
(The DOCTOR exits again.)
SKINSALE: He speaks with an amazing air of authority. I wonder who the devil he is.
PALMERDALE: If you ask me, I don't think he's quite... (taps his head) Those eyes.
ADELAIDE: The girl is very strange too.
SKINSALE: I don't know about strange, but she's not a bad looker. (He smiles.)
ADELAIDE: Perfectly grotesque, in my view. Were you a long time in India, Colonel?
SKINSALE: Long enough, my dear, to learn to appreciate nature.
ADELAIDE: Lord Palmerdale, as we seem compelled to spend the night in this frightful place, do you think there's a private room where I might sleep?
PALMERDALE: How should I know? Fat chance I have of sleeping tonight with a fortune slipping through my fingers.
SKINSALE: (heading for the speaking tube) Well, if this contraption works, I'll see what the proprietors have to say.
(He blows.)

[INT. Lamp room]

(REUBEN hears the whistle.)
REUBEN: (into the tube) Ahoy there. What is it? (he listens) There's bunks in the sleeping quarters. She's welcome to any of them.
(He puts the cap back on the tube and hangs up.)
REUBEN: Trouble with the gentry, they always want running after.
VINCE: Here, Reuben.
REUBEN: What?
VINCE: Someone down there. Look. See them lights?
REUBEN: I reckon it's that Doctor and his girl.
VINCE: No cause for them to be out there.
REUBEN: Can't say I didn't warn 'em. I told them.
VINCE: What about?
REUBEN: The beast.
VINCE: Oh, that old tale.
REUBEN: More than a tale, boy. That girl saw it tonight. I heard her telling the Doctor. Shining, she said it was, just like they reckon.
VINCE: She couldn't have seen it.
REUBEN: Last time that beast was seen on Fang Rock, eighty year ago now, two men died that very same night.

[EXT. Shore]

(LEELA and, behind her with a lantern, the DOCTOR creep forward.)
LEELA: Somewhere around here.
(The DOCTOR sets a compass on a rock. He reacts to the spinning needle.)
DOCTOR: What? A strong electrical field. Strong enough to kill a man on contact. Interesting. Probably explains the phosphorescent glow. (at the shoreline) And fish at a distance of several yards.
LEELA: What? What do you think it is, Doctor?
DOCTOR: I don't know what it is, Leela. I think it's desperate, and I think it's cunning, and I think it's time we were getting back.
(As they head back toward the lighthouse, the rocks are illuminated from below, in a now-familiar green.)

[INT. Crew room]

(SKINSALE enters and closes the door.)
SKINSALE: Well, I think Adelaide should settle now.
PALMERDALE: Oh, splendid. That's the main thing, isn't it, that my secretary should sleep?
SKINSALE: You'd do well to get some yourself.
PALMERDALE: Here, in this hovel?
SKINSALE: It's quite a snug little bivouac. I've slept in worse places than this in the army.
PALMERDALE: Ah, but that was before you resigned and went into politics. Acquired a taste for high living there, didn't you?
SKINSALE: What, feeling a little frustrated, old chap, are you?
(He pulls out a chair and sits, then starts removing his tie.)
PALMERDALE: Why the hell shouldn't I when I've been cheated like this?
SKINSALE: I kept my side of the bargain. I gave you the information you wanted. I was a fool and a scoundrel, but I did it, and you tore up my IOUs.
PALMERDALE: What use is your blasted information if I can do nothing with it?
SKINSALE: Quite. Rather amusing, isn't it?
PALMERDALE: I could still expose you.
SKINSALE: Yes, but if the information's never used, where's the proof I ever gave it? And you're forgetting something else.
PALMERDALE: What?
SKINSALE: I'm an officer and a gentleman, Henry. You're a nobody, a jumped-up little money-grabber for all your title. Besmirch my good name and I'll sue you for every penny you've got. So good night to you.

[INT. Generator room]

LEELA: (entering) Do you think the creature will come back?
DOCTOR: (closing the door) I do. I think it was taking Ben's body away for examination when you saw it.
LEELA: Into the sea?
DOCTOR: Under the sea. Earlier tonight, Vince saw what he called a fireball fall into the sea not far away.
LEELA: Another TARDIS.
DOCTOR: (offended) Not another TARDIS! A spaceship perhaps. Yes, an alien creature which has never before encountered human beings might just behave that way.
LEELA: But why come here? There's nothing on this foggy rock.
DOCTOR: There's electricity. Perhaps that's what attracted it.
LEELA: An alien creature?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: Travelling through space?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: And yet desperate, you say. Why?
DOCTOR: Yes. Just a minute. Its behaviour pattern is furtive.
LEELA: What is 'furtive'?
DOCTOR: That means it keeps out of sight while it spies out the land, hoping to mount a successful attack.
LEELA: Then we are not facing an enemy that is bold.
DOCTOR: No, but cunning. I don't think this fog's a freak of the weather.
LEELA: What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: I think it's been contrived to isolate us. That creature, or whatever it is, will be getting bolder by now. It's seen this primitive technology. It's had time to calculate the physical strength of its enemies. I think we're in terrible trouble.
LEELA: Do not be afraid, Doctor. If what you say is true, we must arm ourselves and post guards.
DOCTOR: What about the others? They'll think we're mad if we start talking about creatures from outer space.
LEELA: But we're from space. We're not of this Earth.
DOCTOR: Sshh. Don't tell them that, whatever you do. (he pauses) What do you mean 'do not be afraid'?
(She gives a bemused half-shrug.)

[INT. Crew room]

(Next to the sleeping SKINSALE, PALMERDALE is writing something. He stands and folds the paper in half. He touches the slumped-over, sleeping HARKER on the shoulder.)
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Wake up, man. Wake up.
HARKER: (muttering) What?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Will you wake up?
HARKER: Oh, what is it? What do you want?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Sssh. Can you use a Morse apparatus?
HARKER: Of course I can. Can I what?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Use a Morse telegraphic apparatus like that one over there.
HARKER: Of course I can.
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Good. Now, I want you to send a coded message for me. It's to be passed on to my brokers in London.
HARKER: Send a message? What for?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) That's not some [?] of your business. Just do as I tell you. It's a business matter. There's a great deal of money involved.
HARKER: Money?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Oh, don't worry. You'll be handsomely rewarded. I had urgent reasons for getting back to London. Vital business affairs. This will have to do instead.
HARKER: I remember. You was mad to get back to England.
PALMERDALE: Was I?
HARKER: I remember on the bridge when the fog was coming down, Captain begging for permission to slow down, you telling him 'full ahead' and damn the consequences. He should have slowed her, ignored you anyway.
(SKINSALE slowly wakes up as they talk in the background.)
PALMERDALE [OC]: It was his duty to obey my orders.
HARKER: He was old and weak. He was scared he'd never get another ship.
PALMERDALE: Do as I tell you, and you'll be well paid.
HARKER: And when she struck, it was get the owner away and the owner's fancy woman and the owner's fine friend. Never mind the poor sailors.
PALMERDALE: I'll have no more of this. There's no time.
HARKER: They're dead because of you.
(HARKER takes PALMERDALE by the neck.)
PALMERDALE: Harker, get off!
SKINSALE: Don't be such a damn fool, man. Harker!
(He is trying to peel HARKER off PALMERDALE when the DOCTOR enters.)
DOCTOR: Let go, Harker! (He separates the men.)
HARKER: There are good seamen dead because of you! You deserve to die.
DOCTOR: Come on, sit down, sit down. All that can wait. Gentlemen, I've got news for you. This lighthouse is under attack, and by morning we might all be dead. (smiling) Anyone interested?

[INT. Lamp room]

(After a shot of the beacon rotating and of the same as viewed from far below by our visitor, we see REUBEN approach while VINCE is standing watch.)
REUBEN: Time that boiler was stoked, boy.
VINCE: 'Ere, Reuben. You don't really think what happened before, back in the twenties, you don't really think it's happening again, do you?
REUBEN: There's three of us; there were three of them. Two dead and one mad, and Ben's dead, isn't he? Boiler, boy. Hey, you're shaking too much to lift a shovel. You stay here, boy. I'll do it.
VINCE: If you're sure. I'll do it if you like.
(REUBEN shakes his head as he heads in.)

[INT. Crew room]

DOCTOR: Understand this. No-one but no-one is to leave this lighthouse for any reason. Is that clear?
PALMERDALE: No, it's not clear. Mysterious mumbo-jumbo. Just what is this threat that's supposed to be lurking outside?
REUBEN: You've seen it, then. The beast's back.
SKINSALE: What beast?
REUBEN: There's always death on this rock when the beast's about.
PALMERDALE: Preposterous rubbish. What is the fool saying?
REUBEN: I'm saying it's happened before, it'll happen again.
(REUBEN leaves.)
PALMERDALE: Superstitious idiot. If we're expected to take notice of some fisherman's tale-
(LEELA places her knife against PALMERDALE's chest.)
LEELA: Silence! You will do as the Doctor instructs, or I will cut out your heart.
DOCTOR: You heard what she said.
LEELA: Doctor, it's getting cold again.
DOCTOR: Are you sure?
LEELA: Yes. Last time it came like this, like a cold wave.
DOCTOR: I believe you're right.
SKINSALE: I don't feel anything.
DOCTOR: Leela's senses are particularly acute, and if she says it's getting colder, it's getting colder!
ADELAIDE: (entering) What's going on?
SKINSALE: Nothing for you to worry about, Adelaide.
(The lights flicker and go dimmer.
Meanwhile, REUBEN has just finished stoking the boiler. He closes its door. After the lights flicker, he inspects the dials. He shakes his head and goes to return the shovel. At Ben's remains, he crosses himself.)
ADELAIDE: I don't understand. Lord Palmerdale, what is happening?
PALMERDALE: Nothing, my dear. Absolutely nothing is happening here.
(The lights die completely this time. We hear REUBEN scream in the stairwell. ADELAIDE runs to SKINSALE.)
SKINSALE: What the devil is that?

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

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