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DOCTOR WHO
IMAGE OF THE FENDAHL

Written by
Chris Boucher

Part Three

(Overlap from the Doctor pulling the cloth from the skull)

[INT. Corridor]

(LEELA enters the priory's kitchen and hears the ringing sound in the distance. Standing with her knife, she cocks her head, listens, and sets off into the corridor. Following it, she stops at a door.)
LEELA: Doctor? What's the matter? Where is he? (at another door) Doctor!
(The DOCTOR screams. LEELA, hearing this behind her, turns and runs back the way she came. She pulls open the door to the lab, where the DOCTOR sits with his palm on the nearly white glowing skull.)

[INT. Laboratory]

LEELA: Doctor?
(She turns on the lights and runs to his side. She is confused by what she sees.)
DOCTOR: No, no.
(LEELA gives the chair he's sitting on a good kick, and it rolls out from under him. He falls to the ground, landing on LEELA. The humming and ringing sound stops when his contact with the skull is broken.)
DOCTOR+LEELA: Are you all right?
LEELA: You are very heavy.
DOCTOR: How'd you find me?
LEELA: Well, I just felt something was wrong, so I followed the feeling.
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: I did!
DOCTOR: Yes, of course you did.
LEELA: Hey.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: (smiling) Have I saved your life?
DOCTOR: Yes. I was careless. Come on, get up. (he rises) Come on.
(The DOCTOR walks over to the skull, which looks like a normal skull again.)
DOCTOR: (to the skull) You're becoming a mutation generator, aren't you?
LEELA: Is it alive?
DOCTOR: Yes. It's using appropriate genetic material to re-create itself.
LEELA: What is it?
DOCTOR: Ssshh. I think it's the Fendahl. It grows and exists by death.
LEELA: Most creatures do. That is what you told me.
DOCTOR: The Fendahl absorbs the full spectrum of energy, what some people call a life force or the soul. It eats life itself.
LEELA: That must be what the old woman saw.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Huge and dark, she said, hungry for her soul.
DOCTOR: And she's still alive?
LEELA: Yes.
DOCTOR: Take me to her.
LEELA: What about that?
DOCTOR: It's indestructible.
LEELA: Well, what about the sonic time scan?
DOCTOR: No, no, first thing's first. Fendelman can operate that before the implosion for about a hundred hours, give or take a few minutes.
LEELA: But he might already have used his hundred hours.
DOCTOR: That's a risk I'll have to take. Come on, let's go.
(The DOCTOR throws the rib back down as he leaves the room. LEELA follows him out.)

[INT. Fendelman's lab]

(A large counter on one of the monitors reads '98:56:43.7'.)
COLBY: What's that for?
FENDELMAN: That is a running log. Some of the, uh, scanner components have a limited life.
COLBY: Ninety-eight hours fifty-six minutes forty-three point seven seconds. You've been busy with this equipment.
FENDELMAN: (with a small laugh) It has been a joy.
COLBY: A labour of love, even. (approaching FENDELMAN, who is looking at printouts) If man really is descended from aliens like this, why haven't we found evidence of it before?
FENDELMAN: Because we were not looking.
COLBY: Oh, come on!
FENDELMAN: No, we were not looking for this kind of evidence, (tapping the paper) and without the scanner we would not have found this. (arm on COLBY's shoulder) Adam, in all research, there must be a single discovery. What is it the Chinese say? That a journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.
COLBY: This isn't a step, it's a jump. And to rather an illogical conclusion.
FENDELMAN: (with another laugh) You shall see. I have already reprogrammed the computer. This time it will give a visual interpretation of what the scanner picks up. On this screen, Colby, you shall see the true genesis of Homo sapiens.
(The counter begins advancing.)

[INT. Chapel]

(THEA is on the ground in the dark chapel, with her wrists tied at her chest. STAEL stands over her, preparing a syringe. He looks down at her and shakes her slightly.)
STAEL: Thea.
(THEA stirs.)
THEA: Max.
STAEL: I'm glad you are awake, Thea. I want you to understand why I brought you here. You are the medium through which the ancient power of this place is focused.
THEA: (starting to sit up, then noticing her tied hands) What are you doing?
(STAEL injects her and then helps her sit up.)
STAEL: The scanner awoke the power. You know about the scanner, of course. I've been watching you for some time, you see. Through you, I shall conjure and control the supreme power of the ancients.
THEA: Oh, Max, don't be so ridiculous.
STAEL: You will sleep now, while we prepare.
(He walks away as she calls out from the floor.)
THEA: Max! Max, you're a fool.
STAEL: (standing at a pillar) I shall be a god.

[INT. Cottage]

(TYLER rises as someone reaches the door. LEELA enters, with the DOCTOR behind her. MARTHA is seated in a chair, unmoving.)
TYLER: Is this him? Is this your man? Oi, do you know what's going on? My gran's in an 'ell of a state.
(The DOCTOR claps his hands.)
DOCTOR: Come on, Mrs Tyler, wake up.
(LEELA shakes MARTHA.)
LEELA: Come on, old woman, wake up. Wake up now.
TYLER: Oi, what do you think you're doing? Leave her alone.
DOCTOR: (holding a hand to TYLER's chest) Do you know what's wrong with her?
TYLER: Well, no, but-
DOCTOR: I do. Make some tea.
TYLER: Tea?
DOCTOR: Tea. She does drink tea?
TYLER: Well, yeah.
DOCTOR: Off you go, and make some. Use the best china, four cups laid out on a tray. Off you go. (stopping him) Ah! And some fruitcake.
TYLER: Anything else?
DOCTOR: No.
(TYLER goes into the kitchen.)
DOCTOR: I love fruitcake. (more loudly, at MARTHA's side) Come on, Mrs Tyler. This is no way to behave when you've got visitors. We've come for tea.
LEELA: And fruitcake.
DOCTOR: And fruitcake.

[INT. Fendelman's lab]

(COLBY and FENDELMAN have their gazes fixed on a monitor.)
FENDELMAN: There, Colby, do you see it?
(STAEL steps in, sees the two men, and raises a small revolver.)
STAEL: Turn it off!
(The two scientists do not turn round, still looking at the screen.)
FENDELMAN: Where have you been, Stael? I needed you here.
STAEL: Turn off the scanner!
(COLBY turns and sees the weapon.)
COLBY: Doctor Fendelman, I think you have an industrial relations problem.
FENDELMAN: What are you talking-
(He turns. His own revolver, a somewhat larger model, sits on the corner beside a monitor, and he picks it up. He places it in his lab-coat pocket.)
FENDELMAN: Have you lost your mind?
STAEL: (gesturing with his revolver) The scanner.
FENDELMAN: No!
COLBY: Relax, Max. I'll do it.
(COLBY turns off the scanner.)
FENDELMAN: Why, Stael?
STAEL: I am not yet ready. My followers are not yet here.
COLBY: Followers? Well, that's impressive.
STAEL: Shut up, Colby, or I will kill you now. Outside, both of you.
(COLBY and FENDELMAN walk to the door, as STAEL tracks them with his revolver.)
FENDELMAN: Is this some sort of joke, Max?
COLBY: Oh, no. Max isn't famous for his sense of humour. Are you, Maxie?
STAEL: I shall not warn you again, Colby.
COLBY: You're going to kill us anyway, aren't you?
STAEL: That depends on whether I enjoy having you worship me.

[INT. Cottage kitchen]

(TYLER is preparing as instructed.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Then you mix the peanuts with the treacle.

[INT. Cottage]

(TYLER enters the main room of the cottage with the tea tray.)
DOCTOR: Throw in the apple cores very hard, put the lot in a shallow tin, and bake in a high oven for two weeks. (sotto) It's too late. She's slipping away. Come on.
MARTHA: Here, just a minute.
DOCTOR: What is it?
(They squat down beside her again.)
MARTHA: That ain't the way to make a fruitcake.
DOCTOR: Mrs Tyler! (He laughs and rubs the back of her hand.)
MARTHA: Here, well, if you'm going to stay, you may as well sit yourselves down. I'll have the tea ready in a jiffy. (She casts aside the blanket.)
TYLER: It's here, Gran.
MARTHA: But that ain't the best china, John. And there's fresh cake in the other tin. Why, I'm sorry. When did I ask you to tea? I ain't never seen you afore in me life.
DOCTOR: You were slipping away, Mrs Tyler.
MARTHA: Slipping away?
DOCTOR: Yes, psychic shock. I needed something normal to bring you back to reality. How long have you lived here, Mrs Tyler?
MARTHA: Why should I tell 'ee ought?
DOCTOR: (to TYLER) Tell her I'm trying to help.
TYLER: He's only trying to help, Gran.
MARTHA: You mind your place, John!
TYLER: Oh, now, no, we won't have none of those games. Now, Ted Moss and his cronies is up to something. It's something bad, and you're involved. Now, you tell him what he want to know.
MARTHA: I ain't involved in anything. I were consulted. A lot of people consult me. You know I've got the second sight.
DOCTOR: Yes. So you've lived in this cottage all your life, haven't you, Mrs Tyler?
MARTHA: Why should I tell 'ee ought?
DOCTOR: Well, telepathy and precognition are normal in anyone whose childhood was spent near a time fissure, like the one in the wood.
TYLER: He's as bad as she is. Here, what's a time fissure?
DOCTOR: It's a weakness in the fabric of space and time. Every haunted place has one, doesn't it? That's why they're haunted. It's a time distortion. This one must be very large, large enough to have affected the place names round here. Like Fetchborough. Fetch. An apparition, hmm?
MARTHA: How do 'ee know so much?
DOCTOR: I read a lot. What did you see in the wood, Mrs Tyler?
MARTHA: I didn't see ought with my eyes.
DOCTOR: Then with your mind. Did it have a human shape?
MARTHA: No!
DOCTOR: Mrs Tyler, I must know. Did it have a human shape?
MARTHA: No, it didn't.
DOCTOR: Mrs. Jack, do something for me.
TYLER: If I can.
DOCTOR: It could be dangerous.
TYLER: How?
DOCTOR: I want you to keep an eye on the priory. I must know who comes and goes. We'll be back tomorrow sundown.
TYLER: Right.
(The DOCTOR leaves.)
MARTHA: Here, girl.
LEELA: Yes?
MARTHA: Take this. 'Tis a charm will protect 'ee.
(MARTHA gives LEELA a yellow leather pouch.)
MARTHA: I cast it for Ted Moss, but 'tis too late for 'im.
LEELA: Thank you.
(LEELA leaves.)
MARTHA: John.
TYLER: Yes, Gran?
MARTHA: I seed that figure he spoke of in a dream. 'Twere a woman.

[INT. Chapel]

(COLBY and FENDELMAN are each tied to a pillar. In front of them is a pentagram in the stones, where THEA is on the ground.)
FENDELMAN: How long have you been planning this... whatever it is you're planning?
STAEL: Ever since Mrs Tyler's visions began to come true.
FENDELMAN: Visions? (laughing) Oh, come now, Max. You have a first-class brain. Use it!
COLBY: First-class brain? He's an occult freak - one of those feeble inadequates who thinks he communes with the devil. Oh, is that it, Max? Gonna summon up the devil, huh?
STAEL: (approaching him) Unlike you, I am not a crude lout, Colby. The grimoires do not impress me. Mrs Tyler's paranormal gifts and the race memory she draws on, these were the signposts on the road to power.
COLBY: Spare us the after-dinner speech.
STAEL: (turning COLBY's chin with his revolver) I look forward to your terror, Colby.
(STAEL leaves, walking up the steps and out.)
FENDELMAN: I trusted him.
COLBY: I didn't, and I'm going to end up just as dead as you, if that's any consolation.
FENDELMAN: But why is he doing this?
COLBY: Fendelman, it doesn't matter why! What matters is he's doing it, to us, unless we can get free before his so-called followers arrive. (whispering) Hey, what about the security guards?
FENDELMAN: In my absence, they are to take their instructions from him.

[INT. TARDIS console room]

(The time rotor is rising and falling - the ship is in flight.)
DOCTOR: The fifth planet's a hundred and seven million miles out and twelve million years back, so we've no time to lose. (He operates controls.)
LEELA: Do you think this thing, the Fendahl, comes from the fifth planet?
DOCTOR: Well, it came from it a long time ago, before your species evolved on Earth.
LEELA: How did it travel?
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Well, you said there's only one. It could not build a spacecraft. How did it get to Earth?
DOCTOR: Well, it. Well, it probably used that enormous stockpile of energy to project itself across space.
LEELA: Oh, you mean the way lightning travels.
DOCTOR: No. Yes. Well, something like that. Humans speak of astral projection, travelling psychically to different planets. That could be a race memory.
LEELA: Race memory?
DOCTOR: Yes. You see, sometimes people dream they've been to other places. It's, er, déjà vu, no?
(We see Earth again for a moment, where TYLER is monitoring the comings and goings at the priory as instructed. He watches a white van approach the main building. MOSS and three other MEN get out at the gate.
Back in the TARDIS, LEELA is asleep in the console room. She hears a ringing sound, which is gone when she wakes. She gets out her knife and rises to her feet, ready to pounce as the DOCTOR enters from the inner rooms, examining several translucent cards with etchings in them.)
DOCTOR: No, no, no. Put it away, put it away. It's a good thing your tribe never developed guns. They'd have woken with a start one morning and wiped themselves out.
LEELA: There was something chasing me. I, I couldn't move. Just a dream, I suppose.
(The DOCTOR throws down the cards.)
LEELA: Hey, what's wrong?
DOCTOR: I've been checking the old databanks. There's no record at all of a fifth planet.
LEELA: Does that matter?
DOCTOR: Well, of course it matters! We Time Lords are a very meticulous people. You have to be when you live as long as we do. All information is recorded.
LEELA: Perhaps there wasn't any.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Information.
DOCTOR: Wha-?
(He switches on the scanner. The shutters open to reveal a bright green, swirling pattern.)
DOCTOR: Of course. That's why there's no record of the planet.
LEELA: Why?
DOCTOR: That impression's produced by a time loop.
(We watch flashing red and yellow lights on the console.)
LEELA: Time loop?
DOCTOR: Yes, a time loop. All memory of a planet's been erased by a circle of time, making data and its records invisible. Only a Time Lord could do that.
LEELA: That's very clever.
DOCTOR: That's criminal! We've been on a wild goose chase. We'd better get back. Let's hope we're not too far round that time loop.
LEELA: Is there anything I can do?
DOCTOR: Yes. No, no. I'll just set the co-ordinates and we're on our way.

[INT. Cottage]

(MARTHA is performing another tarot reading. Next to the cards are a crystal ball on a stand, beside an unlit candle.)
MARTHA: The Tower, struck by lightnin'.
TYLER: (entering) Still no sign of him. Sundown, he said.
MARTHA: I didn't reckon he'd be reliable. Never trust a man as wears a hat.
TYLER: Well, Granddad always wore one.
MARTHA: And a wicked old devil he were too.
TYLER: I wear one.
MARTHA: Ah, but I give it to 'ee. That's different. (she hands it to him, and he puts it on) Here, put this in your pocket.
TYLER: More charms! Look, I'm not one of your punters, Gran.
MARTHA: But 'tis Lammas Eve.
TYLER: Look, you know that I don't believe in all that.
MARTHA: Most round here do. And when most believe, that do make it true.
TYLER: Most people used to believe that the Earth was flat, but it was still round.
MARTHA: Aha, but they behaved as if 'twere flat. Here, just for me.
(She stands and hands him the pouch.)
TYLER: All right, then, if it makes you happy.
(She gives him a kiss on the cheek.)
MARTHA: Ooh, I want they two cartridges.
TYLER: What, you going rabbiting, Gran?
(He hands her two shotgun cartridges.)
MARTHA: I'm going to fill 'em with salt.
TYLER: Salt?
MARTHA: (taking her seat again) Salt's the best protection there be.
TYLER: Evil spirits again, eh, Gran?
MARTHA: You can laugh, John, but I know the old ways. Better than them up at the priory, any road. You'd best get up there. We don't want 'em meddling in things they don't understand.

[INT. Chapel]

(Someone wearing a coarse black hooded robe places the skull, still on its stand, upon the altar. The figure bows slightly and then removes its gloves and places them on the altar. Meanwhile, STAEL is laying out wires, which run past the skull. The chapel now also contains a console brought down from Fendelman's laboratory. Other robed figures look on.)
COLBY: What is that?
FENDELMAN: A remote control unit connected to the scanner.
COLBY: He's linking up that old bone with your scanner? Why?
FENDELMAN: The power source! Colby, I think I know.

[INT. TARDIS console room]

LEELA: (pacing) We're going to be late.
DOCTOR: Well, of course we're going to be late! It's obvious we're going to be late! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The question is where is it getting the power from? Inducted biological transmutation takes a lot of power. There isn't that sort of power available in the priory.
(He hits the console.)
LEELA: What is it? Have you hurt yourself?
DOCTOR: I've got it. It is available in the priory. The skull's absorbing the energy released when the scanner beam damages the time fissure. Why didn't I think of that before?
LEELA: Even you can't think of everything.
DOCTOR: I can't?
LEELA: No.
DOCTOR: No. Well, I should have thought it. I was frightened in childhood by a mythological horror.
LEELA: Oh.
DOCTOR: Too frightened to think clearly.
LEELA: (shaking her head) Tsk, tsk, tsk.

[INT. Chapel]

(There are nine figures in robes standing around the pentagram. THEA remains at the centre.)
STAEL: The waiting is over. Prepare yourselves.
(Everyone kneels.)
FENDELMAN: Don't do it, Stael!
COLBY: Oh, shut up, you fool. Let him electrocute himself.
FENDELMAN: He will kill us all. Listen to me, all of you! He is a madman!
(We see the silhouettes of the DOCTOR and LEELA as they hurry through the misty woods.)
FENDELMAN: You must stop him, stop him now before he plunges everything into chaos and death!
COLBY: I'll plunge you into chaos and death if you don't shut up.
FENDELMAN: You don't understand. I see now what will happen.
STAEL: You do?
FENDELMAN: Max, listen. The Doctor asked if my name was real. Fendelman. Man of the Fendahl. Don't you see? Only for this have the generations of my fathers lived. I have been used! You are being used! Mankind has been used!

[INT. Fendelman's lab]

(TYLER and MARTHA enter the room cautiously.)
TYLER: Ain't in here, either.
MARTHA: Oh, the house is empty, then. (gesturing) Oh, I don't hold with all this. 'Tis agin' nature.
(They hear a gunshot.)
TYLER: That sounded like a shot. Here, are there any cellars?
MARTHA: Oh, there are cellars all under here, but they haven't been used for years.
TYLER: Yeah, well, they're being used now.
MARTHA: Come on, boy. (doubling over at the threshold) Ow!
TYLER: You all right, Gran?
MARTHA: Well, what do you think?

[INT. Chapel]

(FENDELMAN's head lolls to the side, and blood is trickling down from a hole in his right temple. STAEL stands smiling. COLBY is aghast.)
COLBY: You murdering lunatic.
(STAEL calmly walks about in preparation.
Meanwhile, the DOCTOR finds a way to open the locked gates of the priory, and he and LEELA step through.
Back in the chapel, STAEL turns the lights down and steps past THEA to the altar. He raises his arms.)
STAEL: The way to power is open!

[INT. Outside Fendelman's lab]

(TYLER is examining MARTHA's sprained ankle as she holds the door frame.)
MARTHA: Oh, dammit, boy, that hurt.
(She turns as the lab equipment starts running.
Beneath the chandelier, THEA wakes up. She is able to remove the rope from around her wrists with little effort and extends her arms on either side.)
MARTHA: Listen, John. There's summat comin'. Can you hear it? Summat comin'.
(He shakes his head.
Back in the chapel, the orange-brown pentagram outline now begins to glow, approaching gold.)
DOCTOR: Are you all right?
TYLER: Damn, I'm glad to see you. You're not a moment too soon.
MARTHA: No, a moment too late. Listen.
(We see the back part of a dark green slug-like creature moving along the wooden floorboards, leaving behind a gooey trail.)
DOCTOR: Come on - let's get out of here.
LEELA: Doctor!
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: That dream! I can't move!
TYLER: My legs. I can't move my legs!
MARTHA: Look! Look!
(Moving toward them is a creature like the phantasm we saw earlier atop Thea. The man-sized Fendahleen slithers towards them, head raised in the manner of a hooded cobra. The lights flicker.)

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

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