Index for this Doctor ]
Index for this story  ]

DOCTOR WHO
UNDERWORLD

Written by
Bob Baker and Dave Martin


Part Two

(Overlap from 'Is there a way out?')

[INT. Flight deck]

K9 [OC]: One hundred metres. Penetration. You have penetration.
JACKSON: Now, Tala. Full acceleration.
(The ship blasts free of the rocks that had encased it and hurtles through space, approaching a similar ball.)
DOCTOR: (standing at the windows) That's the P7E.
TALA: Captain, the fuel's going.
JACKSON: What do you mean? That's a planet.
DOCTOR: That's where the signal's coming from.
JACKSON: Where?
DOCTOR: Right in the middle. The planet formed around it.
TALA: Captain, the fuel's gone.
JACKSON: That's it, then. There's nothing else we can do.
LEELA: Sit down! We're going to crash!
DOCTOR: Full speed! (He sits.)
K9 [OC]: Mach twelve. Impact in eleven seconds. Ten, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...
DOCTOR: Hold tight.
K9 [OC]: 4, 3...
LEELA: Hold tight?
K9 [OC]: ...2, 1, zero. Stand by for impact.
(LEELA clutches the DOCTOR just before the crash takes the ship into a semi-liquid grey surface.)
DOCTOR: You can relax now. Relax, everyone. It's a soft planet in the process of formation. Only the core will be solid, and with any luck this stuff should slow us down so we don't hit it with too much of a bang.

[INT. Command deck]

K9: Two hundred and fifty kilometres below planet surface. Speed Mach point three. Decreasing.

[INT. Flight deck]

JACKSON: Orfe, the signal. Tune in on the signal.
ORFE: That's it!
JACKSON: We've got it!
DOCTOR: Fascinating. The Quest and nothing but the Quest.
ORFE: Contact. R1C to P7E. R1C to P7E.
JACKSON: We must be right on top of it!
(They are jarred by an impact, and the lights go out.)

[EXT. Cavern]

(Men and women run through dully lit passages, waving their arms about and crying out in ongoing panic. As they run past the rocks, we can observe that they are barefoot, wearing simple sackcloth garments.)
MAN: The sky is falling!
(As others run past, an old and a younger man dig frantically in the wake of a rock fall. The older man addresses others, who just stand in the background.)
IDMON: Help, damn you. Help us!
SON: They won't, Father, they won't. Don't say any more.
IDMON: Then may the sky fall on them. May the sky fall on your families.
IDAS: No, Father, the guards. They'll tell the guards.
IDMON: May the sky fall on yours as it has on mine.
IDAS: Please, Father, dig.
IDMON: My children, my children!
(On a metal rail above them is a camera in a round metal casing. It is recording them.)

[INT. Control room]

(A black-clothed figure watches the camera feed on a small monitor.)
TARN: Skyfall on 8, and a Trog making trouble.
(He is speaking to a compatriot, similarly clothed in black with small holes in the clothes in the face, chest, and waist area.)
RASK: Many dead?
TARN: Not enough. There were two more bursts yesterday. What we need is a good sacrifice. Trogs always work harder after a good sacrifice.
RASK: I'll take a patrol out, pick him up.
(He leaves the room. We soon see him leading a patrol of four figures clothed in light grey.)

[INT. Inside R1C airlock]

ORFE: Ready, sir?
DOCTOR: Well, Jackson?
JACKSON: Right, Orfe. Open up.
(JACKSON and HERRICK don helmets and enter the airlock. The others remain behind as the door closes behind them. They walk forward to the outer hatch and open it. In front of them is a rock face, which they consider for a moment before turning round and closing the door. They walk back and remove their helmets, then re-join the rest of the party.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Solid rock?
JACKSON: Yes, solid rock. Igneous hematite, I should imagine.
DOCTOR: Igneous hematite? That means we're at the core.
LEELA: But I thought planets had fire in the middle.
DOCTOR: Well, old ones like Earth, yes, but new ones have a molten slurry round a solid core. All we have to do is burrow our way out of here and enter the core.
LEELA: Oh, is that all?
JACKSON: But we've no power, no energy source to recharge.
DOCTOR: I don't know about that. What about a shield gun?
JACKSON: Yes, a shield gun. Herrick, jump to it.
HERRICK: Sir.

[EXT. Cavern]

(A black figure flips through the camera feeds from the passages.)
IDMON: We all know we're slaves to the guards as the guards are slaves to the Seers...
IDAS: Don't say any more, Father.
IDMON: ...and the Seers to the Oracle. We're all slaves, all of us, of every class, slaves to the Oracle.
IDAS: They're coming, Father.
(RASK and the GUARDS arrive on the spot.)
IDMON: But we all know the answer, don't we? We all know the answer, because it was prophesied. And the answer is to escape!
IDAS: It isn't, Father.
IDMON: Escape through there, through the sky to the stars!
RASK: Now!
(The grey-robed GUARDS grab IDMON. IDAS tries to stop them.)
IDMON: (throwing him off) No, Idas. Idas, run! Run!
RASK: Two of you, after him!
(IDMON has been thrown down. Meanwhile, two GUARDS chase the feeble-framed but quick IDAS down a tunnel. He ducks through another opening.)
RASK: Heresy! Treachery! Incitement to escape!
IDMON: There's nothing you can do to me now, Rask.
RASK: You know the penalty, Idmon.
(RASK shoots IDMON with a weapon similar to the lasers seen earlier but smaller.)

[EXT. Tunnel]

(IDAS runs through the tunnels, with RASK in close pursuit. RASK is choosing tunnel branches such that he needn't run, while IDAS is at full pelt.)
RASK: Stop, Trog, or I'll fire.
(IDAS throws himself to the ground, causing RASK to miss the shot. RASK runs around a bend, and we see the green flashes from more firing.)
RASK: Suspect sighted on 8, moving 9.

[INT. R1C airlock]

DOCTOR: Herrick!
(He runs into the airlock with HERRICK and places the helmet on the latter's head.)
DOCTOR: Give it a blast. Hold it. (the DOCTOR adjusts things slightly) Like that, I think.
HERRICK: Fire!
(Two cycles of the beam later, the laser blasts through the rock.)

[EXT. Large cavern]

(He steps into a cavern where there is a faint green glow to the floor.)
HERRICK: We're through, Captain! It looks like a cavern or a tunnel or something.
(His voice echoes around him.)

[INT. Control room]

TARN: Skyfall on 9. Rask, we have skyfall on 9.
RASK [OC]: Approaching 9.
TARN: Remain in position till skyfall investigated.

[EXT. Large cavern]

HERRICK: It's hacked out of solid rock.
JACKSON: Hacked out by what, I wonder. Get down, Herrick!
(A camera zips along a rail overhead.)

[INT. Control room]

TARN: Minor fall. No structural collapse. I'll check out the rest, then you go ahead, Rask. Checking now.

[EXT. Large cavern]

(HERRICK and JACKSON step out into the open again.)
HERRICK: It's moving on. Do you think it was looking for us?
JACKSON: It was looking for somebody. This planet is inhabited, all right.
(We see reminders of this - GUARDS running through passages, TARN watching the views, and a camera moving along a rail.)

[INT. Beside R1C airlock]

(The two scouts re-enter the body of the ship and remove their helmets.)
JACKSON: There's a tunnel and a surveillance system, so whatever life there is is intelligent and we must be on our guard.
DOCTOR: Get on with it, Jackson.
JACKSON: All in good time, Doctor. Our objective is to locate the P7E and remove the race-bank cylinders to a place of safety. The Quest is the Quest.
ALL: (saluting) The Quest is the Quest.
JACKSON: Shield gun. (ORFE passes one to him) Silent routine.
HERRICK: Sir.
JACKSON: No, Doctor.
DOCTOR: The Quest is the Quest.
JACKSON: Our Quest, Doctor. Not yours.
DOCTOR: Of course.
(LEELA and the DOCTOR turn round, wait a moment, and then follow.)

[EXT. Large cavern]

(They step outside, and the DOCTOR makes yet another allusion to Greek myth, in P7E/Persephone's domain.)
DOCTOR: Welcome to the underworld.
LEELA: Are we going to follow them?
DOCTOR: Of course.
LEELA: Good. Oh, what about K9?
DOCTOR: Oh, he'll be all right. He's building up his strength.
LEELA: Well, how? There's no power source.
(The DOCTOR has a scanner out and takes a reading on the greenish rocks in front of him.)
DOCTOR: Hmm, radiation.
LEELA: Radiation. That is lucky!
DOCTOR: Not at all. Igneous-rock core, new planet, bound to be radiation. Luck? Physics isn't luck; physics is fact. Are facts. Is fact. Anyway, why do you think these tunnels were dug out?
LEELA: I don't know.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Energy. Can't survive on a new planet with a soul full of hope and fresh air, you know.
LEELA: Shall we go?
DOCTOR: Ssssh. Shall we go?

[EXT. Tunnel]

(IDAS is still being pursued by GUARDS.)
DOCTOR: Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Aberdeen?
LEELA: Yes, the Granite City.
DOCTOR: That's right. Did you know, the people there absorb more radiation from the granite than people who work every day in nuclear power plants.
LEELA: Is that good for them?
DOCTOR: Well, of course it is. It shows that organisms can adapt to any kind of environment, even one like this with a high radiation count.
LEELA: Look out!
(She pushes him down into hiding as IDAS runs directly toward them, then turns and runs to one side. The GUARDS run in and remain at the corner, unsure which way to continue the pursuit.)
LEELA: (sotto) He looks like a wounded animal. Why's he so frightened?
DOCTOR: I don't know. I'll ask him.
LEELA: (sotto) Look! Get back.
(RASK and the GUARDS walk forward, slowly heading to their hiding place, so the DOCTOR and LEELA creep further on, around the large rock that was beside them.)
RASK: You two, that pile of rubble.
(The GUARDS follow the order, while the DOCTOR and LEELA sneak past RASK's back. The DOCTOR whistles to avert the GUARDS' attention from IDAS. They turn round.)
RASK: After them!
(The DOCTOR and LEELA are now the ones pursued by RASK and the GUARDS. This leaves IDAS free to pass through the large cavern and enter the ship's airlock. Meanwhile, the DOCTOR and LEELA find a mine cart covered by a tarpaulin.)
DOCTOR: Quick, in here.
(They secrete themselves, though movement can still be seen.)
LEELA [OC]: Keep still. Keep still! Oh, for a weapon.
RASK: (quite near the cart) Not here. Must have doubled back, damn Trogs. Know these warrens like the back of their hands. Security, getting nowhere. Not enough men. We're clearing out. I want tunnel 9, main and ancillary workings closed down once we're clear. Stand by for fumigation.
(He and the GUARDS leave. The tarp is soon cast aside.)
DOCTOR: Fumigation? I don't like the sound of that. They're going to smoke us out like badgers. Come on.
(They double back on themselves.)

[INT. R1C airlock]

LEELA: Look, Doctor. Blood.
(She heads inside with her knife out. IDAS is sitting against the wall with a bleeding right ankle.)
IDAS: No, no!
LEELA: (grabbing him as he scrambles back) Surrender or die!
DOCTOR: No, no! Don't, don't, don't. Get off him, Leela. You're terrifying the poor fellow.
LEELA: Oh.
DOCTOR: He's wounded. It's all right, we're friends. She won't hurt you.
IDAS: She?
DOCTOR: Leela.
IDAS: She is like the guards.
DOCTOR: Really?
LEELA: Is it bad?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Fetch me a tissue, Leela, from the command deck.
LEELA: Tissue. Tissue from the command deck. Tissue from the command deck.
(LEELA heads into the ship proper.)
DOCTOR: What's your name?
IDAS: Idas?
DOCTOR: Idas? Hello, Idas.
IDAS: Hello?
DOCTOR: Are you frightened?

[EXT. Tunnel]

JACKSON: These tunnels could stretch for miles. P7E must be at the end of one of them, but which one?
ORFE: Split up, sir? Two pairs?
JACKSON: No. (after they move on a way) Herrick?
HERRICK: Sir.
JACKSON: Reconnoitre.
HERRICK: Yes, sir. I'll just put a marker here, sir.
(The large rock that concealed the Doctor and Leela from view earlier now bears a round white sticker.)
JACKSON: We three stay here.
(HERRICK continues on. A black-garbed GUARD comes upon the marked rock but sees no-one.)
KLIMT: Klimt here. Possible suspect on 9.
(HERRICK is further ahead. We now skip between views.)
HERRICK: Now where in Heed is...?
(A hand removes the marker from the rock.)
KLIMT: Stop, Trog. Stop, Trog, or I'll fire.
HERRICK: Hey, who are you?
KLIMT: Stop, Trog!
HERRICK: Don't 'Trog' me, you-
(KLIMT fires, and HERRICK uses his shield to send the beam back into KLIMT.)
TARN [OC]: Officer Klimt? Officer Klimt? Clear tunnel 9. Clear tunnel 9.
(HERRICK hears this and picks up Klimt's communication box.)

[INT. Control room]

(RASK returns to the control room and pulls his face-covering mask off.)
TARN: Tunnel 9 is being closed for fumigation. Officer Klimt? (we see that TARN too has his face exposed) Officer Klimt! Officer Klimt!
(RASK looks at TARN's screen.)

[EXT. Tunnel]

TARN [OC]: Klimt! Come in, please.
HERRICK: (into the device) Oh, Officer Klimt has retired, suddenly.
TARN [OC]: Who is that? Who is that?
HERRICK: Well, this is Trog Herrick here. Who's that?

[INT. Control room]

TARN: A Trog, and he's armed. Close down tunnel 9 for fumigation!
RASK: Tunnel 9 closing down.

[EXT. Tunnel]

HERRICK: Captain!
JACKSON: Herrick!
(A bulkhead door comes down, in line with Rask's instructions.)

[INT. Control room]

RASK: Tunnel 9 close-down completed.
TARN: Fumigate!
RASK: Fumigating now.
(He operates a control, and we see a dense gas begin spewing through metal vents near the tunnel floor. It quickly builds to fill the space.)

[INT. R1C airlock]

DOCTOR: Well, that shouldn't take much fixing.
IDAS: Are you a Seer?
DOCTOR: What? Ah, Leela. Thank you. (taking two aerosol cans from her) This is the one. Go back and unplug K9.
LEELA: Go back? But I've only just been-
DOCTOR: Yes. Linked up like that, he's recharging the whole ship. I'll need him soon. The ship can look after itself.
LEELA [OC]: Yes, Doctor.
(The DOCTOR sprays IDAS's wound with the can. He flinches.)
DOCTOR: Sting, did it? Heh. That's good. Now, what was it you wanted to know? Hmm?
IDAS: Are you a Seer?
DOCTOR: No, no, I'm just a traveller.
IDAS: Where? Where do you come from?
DOCTOR: The sky.
IDAS: You lie!
DOCTOR: What?
IDAS: There's nothing but chaos above the sky.
DOCTOR: The stars, then?
IDAS: Stars?
DOCTOR: Yes, Idas. This ship comes from the stars.
IDAS: My father. My father talked of the stars. There's a prophecy amongst the slaves that one day gods will come and set us free. Are you a god?
DOCTOR: Well, no, but could you take me to your father? (IDAS looks away) Why not?
IDAS: There was a skyfall. All our family were buried. My father said we should try and escape, but the guards have taken him, and he's going to be sacrificed to the Oracle. There's nothing anyone can do.
DOCTOR: We'll see about that. Come on, get up. (He helps IDAS to his feet.)
LEELA: I've unplugged K9.
DOCTOR: His name's Idas.
LEELA: Hello, Idas. Doctor! Doctor, look!
(She is referring to the fumigation gas entering the airlock.)
IDAS: A trap. A trap to kill me!
(The DOCTOR has already headed out, and IDAS lunges for him in the thick gas. They struggle as LEELA follows.)
LEELA: Doctor? Doctor? Doctor, where are you?

[INT. By the R1C airlock]

(Coughing, LEELA helps the DOCTOR carry IDAS into the ship.)
DOCTOR: Get him to the command deck. He'll be all right there.
LEELA: Where are you going?
DOCTOR: Out.
LEELA: Out there? You'll suffocate!
DOCTOR [OC]: Get him to the command deck!
LEELA: Yes, yes.

[EXT. Tunnel]

(Scarf over his mouth, the DOCTOR is waving the ends of the scarf around to clear the air a bit. Gas is still pouring into the tunnel as he makes his way onward. Back inside the ship, LEELA makes her way to the command deck and lays IDAS down. She seems to contemplate leaving, but then IDAS wakes. A longer view outside shows that the gas is up to the DOCTOR's neck, so he can still catch a breath or two above it, but that isn't going to last long. He reaches the vent and a control unit near it. He gets his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and sets to work.)
DOCTOR: Whatever blows can be sucked.
(He is flagging in his efforts, and his head lowers over the control unit. Fumigation gas continues to pour in.)


The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

Previous ] Next ]

-=#=-
Anna's home  >  The Doctors' home  >  This Doctor  >  This story 
-=#=-