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DOCTOR WHO
THE POWER OF KROLL
Written by
Robert Holmes
Part Four
(Overlap from the reeds disappearing into the mud)
[EXT. Swamp]
(Kroll, dominating the horizon, falls back beneath the waters.)
ROMANA: It's gone.
DOCTOR: Yes.
ROMANA: What a good thing we remembered it reacts to movement.
DOCTOR: Yes, wasn't it? Let's get out of here before it changes its mind.
(They resume paddling the canoe.)
[INT. Refinery control room]
THAWN: If you're right, Fenner, about that thing attacking the settlement, we should be able to see it from here.
FENNER: It's over two miles away.
THAWN: Still, if it's as big as we think it is... Dugeen, train the receptor aerial on that settlement.
DUGEEN: Right.
FENNER: What are you going to do?
THAWN: Just checking that the next orbit shot is charged and ready to fire.
FENNER: It's not due for another two hours.
THAWN: It might be early this time, Fenner.
(We cut to frantic SWAMPIES and tentacles breaching the vegetation 'walls' around the settlement.)
DUGEEN: Look at that!
FENNER: It's a lot bigger than we thought.
THAWN: A hundred tons of hydrogen peroxide will still vapourise it.
FENNER: What's that supposed to mean?
THAWN: I'm going to drop our next orbit shot into the neck of that overgrown jellyfish.
DUGEEN: You can't!
THAWN: Bearing ninety-seven, maximum depression.
DUGEEN: You're mad. Think of the settlement!
THAWN: Dugeen, have you never heard of the expression 'killing two birds with one stone'?
FENNER: Now, Thawn, you think what you're doing.
THAWN: I have thought.
FENNER: Because you could kill us all. The atmosphere here is thin already. Now a fireball that size could asphyxiate us.
THAWN: I don't think so.
FENNER: You don't think so. Have you worked out the risk?
THAWN: Countdown commencing. Now get to your places.
DUGEEN: You're mad. Fenner, we've got to stop him.
[INT. Pump chamber]
(The DOCTOR opens the outer door. The damage to the pipe is rather obvious.)
ROMANA: Kroll?
DOCTOR: It looks like it. Let's see if there are any survivors, shall we? Shh.
[INT. Refinery control room]
DUGEEN: Thawn, you can't kill innocent people!
THAWN: They're Swampies.
DUGEEN: Call them what you like, they're no different from you or me.
THAWN: They are very different, Dugeen! Now get back to your place.
(The DOCTOR and ROMANA sneak down the corridor toward the control room.)
DUGEEN: No.
THAWN: Are you refusing to obey orders?
(The DOCTOR places a hand lightly over ROMANA's mouth, and the two return the way they've come.)
DUGEEN: On moral grounds, sir. Look, if you fire that rocket, it's not just the monster that'll die. You'll destroy a civilisation as old as your own.
THAWN: I don't count the Swampies as being civilised. You're talking like one of those cranks from Sons of Earth.
DUGEEN: They're not cranks. All life began on Mother Earth. All life is sacred!
THAWN: I'm giving you one last chance, Dugeen.
(DUGEEN goes for THAWN's gun. THAWN throws him to the ground. He holds his gun.)
THAWN: Now then, Fenner, do you want to give me an argument?
(FENNER sits slowly.)
FENNER: Countdown in two minutes.
THAWN: Right. Now, keep a track on that thing.
[INT. Corridor]
ROMANA: Where are you going?
DOCTOR: What? Back to the rocket silo. If he fires off that orbit shot, there'll be nothing left of the Swampies, or Kroll. Come on.
[EXT. Swampie settlement]
(Kroll is still clearly visible on the horizon.)
VARLIK: Ranquin, what happened?
RANQUIN: Kroll has turned upon us. It was his punishment, for letting the dry-foots escape.
SKART: But when we almost had them, Ranquin, it was Kroll himself who came between us.
RANQUIN: It was a test. The Great One was testing our faith.
VARLIK: Nual was killed.
RANQUIN: What's a single life? Where are the dry-foots now?
SKART: They went to the refinery.
RANQUIN: We must follow.
[INT. Outside the rocket silo]
(The DOCTOR opens the wheel to the blast door.)
DOCTOR: Thawn's using the override firing mechanism. There must be some way of disconnecting it.
ROMANA: Doctor.
DOCTOR: What is it?
ROMANA: If that rocket fires while you're in there-
DOCTOR: Yes. We'd better say goodbye now. Goodbye.
ROMANA: Goodbye, Doctor.
(He enters the door, which ROMANA nearly closes before throwing it open again.)
ROMANA: Doctor!
(She too enters. We see red smoke billow from the base of a booster behind which the DOCTOR climbs a ladder.)
[INT. Refinery control room]
FENNER: Sixty seconds.
THAWN: Fire primaries.
FENNER: Primary ignition functioning.
THAWN: Continue countdown.
(DUGEEN stirs as THAWN paces past him with his gun still drawn.)
FENNER: Fifty seconds.
[INT. Rocket silo]
(The DOCTOR has reached a control box on the wall, which he opens.)
ROMANA: (calling up to him) Doctor, we're too late! Come down!
DOCTOR: Get out of here, Romana. Just get out.
ROMANA: We can't stop it now.
DOCTOR: Just get out!
ROMANA: Come down!
DOCTOR: Get out.
[INT. Refinery control room]
FENNER: Thirty seconds. Burner eight hundred, increasing.
THAWN: (as DUGEEN lifts himself to his feet by the edge of the desk) Dugeen, get back.
DUGEEN: You can't do it, Thawn.
THAWN: Touch that Abort button and I say I'll kill you.
DUGEEN: Then kill me, but you're not going to kill the others.
(DUGEEN hits the red button. THAWN shoots him in the back, and FENNER catches him as he slumps to the floor.)
THAWN: I warned him, Fenner. You heard me warn him.
FENNER: That was murder. That was cold-blooded murder.
THAWN: The countdown! Look, he hasn't aborted. It hasn't stopped.
(The countdown flicks down from 13 to 12.)
FENNER: The master cut-out's failed. Then you shot him for nothing, didn't you. Didn't you?
(8... 7... 6.)
[INT. Rocket silo]
DOCTOR: When in doubt, cut everything. (he whacks the controls with a hammer) Simple, really. (He releases the ladder with his other hand and falls.)
ROMANA: Doctor!
[INT. Refinery control room]
(4... 3. The countdown stops, and we hear machinery wind down.)
THAWN: But I don't understand. There was no delay in the cut-out.
FENNER: According to the computer, there's a fault in the primary ignition panel.
THAWN: Well, I'll soon fix that. (He heads for the door.)
FENNER: Too late.
THAWN: What?
FENNER: Come and look at this. It's submerging again, back into the mud, and you're not going to hit it there.
THAWN: If that spineless fool hadn't interfered-
FENNER: He'd be alive now, wouldn't he? And I'm reporting you for murder.
THAWN: It was justifiable homicide! You heard me warn him not to touch that Abort panel. It was an act of sabotage.
FENNER: He didn't like your methods. That did not make him a saboteur.
THAWN: He was a plant from the Sons of Earth! It's obvious that he was sent here to cripple this project any way that he could.
FENNER: You don't kill a man because you suspect he belongs to the Sons of Earth!
THAWN: All right, Fenner. That will sound very good when we get back. But remember this. If we don't get back, it'll be his fault and not mine.
FENNER: Where are you going?
THAWN: To check the ignition, just in case that thing gives us a second chance.
[INT. Rocket silo]
(ROMANA goes to the DOCTOR, who is prone on the floor.)
ROMANA: Doctor? Doctor, are you all right?
(He sits up with a start.)
DOCTOR: What? Oxygen starvation.
ROMANA: Yes, I know.
DOCTOR: Blacked out for a few seconds.
ROMANA: Minutes.
DOCTOR: Yeah, well, I needed the rest. Did you say minutes? Come on!
ROMANA: What's the matter?
(They leave the firing bay.)
DOCTOR: What? If we're caught loitering outside of here, they'll put two and two together-
(He finds himself at the barrel end of THAWN's gun.)
DOCTOR: You're putting two and two together. I can tell by the expression on your face that you're putting two and two together.
THAWN: So you came back.
DOCTOR: Well, I remembered that I forgot to say goodbye. This is Romana.
ROMANA: Hello.
THAWN: What were you doing in there?
DOCTOR: Well, I was closing the blast room door. It shouldn't be left open like that.
THAWN: I wonder who opened it.
DOCTOR: Well, I, maybe your cleaning-. I don't suppose you do have a cleaning lady here.
THAWN: I haven't got any time for any games, so put your hands where I can see them and walk straight ahead.
DOCTOR: Ah, haven't you forgotten something?
THAWN: What?
DOCTOR: Shouldn't you say 'Don't make any sudden moves'?
THAWN: Don't make any sudden moves. Now get straight to the centre.
[INT. Pump chamber]
(SWAMPIES enter through the outer door.)
RANQUIN: (reacting to a rumbling noise) What's that?
SKART: It is only the machinery, Ranquin.
RANQUIN: This place is an abomination.
SKART: Yeah, on Delta Magna all the dry-foots live in these metal boxes.
RANQUIN: When we have completed our task here, I will ask Kroll to destroy it all. (He raises his hand.)
VARLIK: Ranquin, why should Kroll do as you ask?
RANQUIN: What?
VARLIK: Well, if he's the Great One and you're but his servant.
RANQUIN: While the People of the Lakes serve and do honour to Kroll, he will protect us against those who invade our waters.
VARLIK: Kroll destroyed our village. Was that to protect us?
RANQUIN: These are blasphemous questions, Varlik!
VARLIK: I'm only asking what must be on all minds.
RANQUIN: We promised Kroll the lives of the two dry-foots who profaned his temple. We failed to keep that promise. I tell you Kroll will not rest easily beneath these waters until he has eaten of their souls.
(They head down the corridor.)
[INT. Refinery control room]
(FENNER is dragging DUGEEN's corpse behind Thawn's desk when the others enter.)
DOCTOR: I don't think that was necessary.
FENNER: (quietly as he walks past them, back to his station) Not me.
THAWN: He tried to interfere just as you did interfere.
ROMANA: You've no proof of that.
THAWN: You were in the silo, the blast door to the firing bay was open, and we had a malfunction in the orbit shot.
ROMANA: That's circumstantial evidence, not proof.
THAWN: Well, it satisfies me. There's no reason why I shouldn't kill you both now.
FENNER: I wouldn't.
THAWN: Why?
FENNER: Because we need as much help as we can get. Just take a look at that.
(The scanners show Kroll rising again.)
DOCTOR: (smiling) Oh, look - it's coming this way.
FENNER: Yes, and it's going to attack us.
DOCTOR: Well, I don't think it's come to shake hands.
THAWN: Shut up!
FENNER: Now look, there's still time to get that shuttle and get out of here.
THAWN: If it had meant to attack us, it would have come before going to the settlement.
DOCTOR: Shhh. Maybe it's saving you for pudding.
THAWN: I said 'shut up'!
ROMANA: It's still coming.
THAWN: Aggh! (He has been speared through the gut.)
(The SWAMPIE who threw the spear grabs a rifle from the rack and rounds on the DOCTOR.)
DOCTOR: No, no, no, we surrender, we surrender.
(Kroll is seen rising right beside the refinery. The creature's head extends above the top of the superstructure.)
DOCTOR: What do we get this time? The eighth holy ritual?
RANQUIN: Many have died because of you, dry-foot. You have been promised to Kroll.
ROMANA: And does Kroll know that?
RANQUIN: Kroll is all-wise, all-seeing-
DOCTOR: All baloney. Kroll couldn't tell the difference between you and me and half an acre of dandelion and burdock.
RANQUIN: I tell you, Kroll will not be denied.
(The refinery shakes, and we see Kroll resting a tentacle on it. The DOCTOR falls into RANQUIN's arms.)
FENNER: (at the desk) What are we going to do? Just sit here while that thing smashes this building to bits?
DOCTOR: Oh, I don't know. Ask Ranquin. He's the Kroll expert.
(RANQUIN falls to his knees and clasps his hands, then raises them.)
RANQUIN: You have brought death to us all, dry-foot.
DOCTOR: (lowering himself to RANQUIN's level) Hey, is that your considered opinion? You know something, Romana? I think that if we-
(ROMANA isn't there. She is heading down the corridor.)
DOCTOR: Romana!
ROMANA: There's nothing out here.
DOCTOR: Romana, come back!
[INT. Corridor]
ROMANA: I just want to see if there's anything here.
DOCTOR [OC]: Don't go near that window!
ROMANA: It doesn't know we're here.
(A tentacle breaks the window. The DOCTOR pulls her away, toward the control room, as the tentacle waves about where she just was.)
[INT. Refinery control room]
DOCTOR: The door!
(The bulkhead closes.)
DOCTOR: What, doesn't know we're here? It's making some pretty shrewd guesses.
FENNER: That door isn't going to hold. It's got us trapped.
DOCTOR: Fenner, Fenner, can you operate the centrifuge?
FENNER: Yes. Why?
DOCTOR: Switch it on. Come on, switch it on.
FENNER: The fuel tank is only half full. What's the idea?
DOCTOR: Noise, Fenner, noise. The Kroll hunts by sensing vibrations. Give it something to think about.
(The centrifuge whirrs into life. The tentacle is withdrawn from the corridor.)
ROMANA: I think it's gone.
DOCTOR: Ssshh, ssshh.
(He opens the door and peers out.)
DOCTOR: Yes, but for how long, hmm?
RANQUIN: (rising) The Great One is merciful. Kroll has heard my prayer.
(He walks down the corridor, with VARLIK and others behind him.)
VARLIK: All Kroll has heard is the machinery, Ranquin. Ranquin!
FENNER: Doctor, I'll start the compressors. That'll make a racket. Then the emergency klaxon.
DOCTOR: Everything you've got, Fenner. All the noise you've got. That's it, keep it busy.
(In the doorway, the DOCTOR hands his scarf to ROMANA.)
DOCTOR: Here.
ROMANA: Where are you going?
DOCTOR: To test a theory. All theories have to be tested sometime, and this seems as good as any. You stay here in case I'm wrong.
(He pulls the tracer from his pocket.)
ROMANA: About what?
DOCTOR: The symbol of Kroll's power.
[INT. Pump chamber]
(RANQUIN enters. A tentacle is flailing about, stuck in the broken pipe.)
RANQUIN: Master, hear thy servant Ranquin. Great Kroll, defender and saviour of the People of the Lakes, let not thy wrath fall upon thy true servants. Great One, we ask only that the dry-foots and their abominations be crushed by thy mighty power! Master, this is thy servant!
(The tentacle doesn't seem to care. It wraps around his middle and starts hauling him into the pipe. VARLIK and SKART enter and pull on his arms.)
RANQUIN: Argh! Skart! Aagggh!
(He is pulled away from them fully.)
[EXT. Refinery]
(The DOCTOR is standing on the superstructure, where he is presented with a mass of green flesh.)
DOCTOR: Well, I've had a happy life. Can't complain. Nearly seven hundred and sixty. Not a bad age.
(He begins approaching Kroll with the tracer. A tentacle bats at him, and he jumps back. But the tracer is now on the grilles making up the level he stands on. A tentacle lowers behind him and grips him around the waist. Pulled to the ground, he grasps at the tracer, almost getting hold of it. He pushes it a little further away with one attempt but finally grabs it. He holds it out and places it against Kroll's body. A local lightning-like effect and a few pulses of white later, Kroll is nowhere to be found. We then see the DOCTOR's raised hand, holding the tracer, which has a segment on the end of it. He stands and laughs.)
[INT. Refinery control room]
ROMANA: (as the DOCTOR approaches from the corridor) Doctor!
ROMANA+DOCTOR: (as he produces his find) The fifth segment!
ROMANA: Oh, well done!
VARLIK: You killed Kroll?
SKART: With that stick?
DOCTOR: Well, it is a bit difficult to explain.
ROMANA: It is rather a special sort of stick.
FENNER: (eyes on the scanner) Doctor?
DOCTOR: What?
FENNER: There's something blocking the firing bay.
DOCTOR: Oh, don't worry about that, Fenner. You won't be needing the firing bay any more. No more Kroll. No more methane No more orbit shots. Ha-ha!
FENNER: The computer doesn't know that.
ROMANA: You mean it'll just go on running things by itself?
FENNER: That's how it was designed. The next shot is due in fifty seconds, and it's already started the countdown.
DOCTOR: Ah. And with the firing bay already blocked-
FENNER: That's right. The whole refinery's going to go up.
ROMANA: Well, stop the computer. You must have a master control.
FENNER: The manual override and abort are not functioning. I've already tried.
DOCTOR: Disconnected in the gantry.
ROMANA: Can't you reconnect them?
DOCTOR: What, in fifty seconds?
FENNER: Forty seconds.
DOCTOR: Forty seconds. There's only one thing to do!
ROMANA: What?
DOCTOR: Hold that. (He hands her the tracer-segment combo.)
(He opens a panel in the console as the countdown is in the high 20s. He cuts a bunch of wires, and the countdown continues. Beep, beep, beep. At eight seconds to go, he pulls out two big cables with a bunch of bare wires protruding from each.)
DOCTOR: Let's hope these are the right ones. Stand back, everybody, stand back.
(With one second remaining, he brings the two together. There is a big flash. The counter flips over to '0', but all is now still. He runs his hand through his hair.)
ROMANA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Hmm?
ROMANA: Are you all right?
DOCTOR: I think so.
ROMANA: You could have been killed.
DOCTOR: Yes.
FENNER: That looks like the end of this place.
VARLIK: It is finished?
DOCTOR: Yes. Time to say goodbye. Come on, Romana, let's go.
VARLIK: Where are you going?
ROMANA: We've got a lot to do. Haven't we, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Oh yes, we have, yes. Listen, Fenner, someone will come here and pick you up. Stay here for a while. Lead a natural life. You might even get to like it. Teach Varlik and his friends how to do a replacement for Kroll, maybe.
ROMANA: Doctor! (She is already down the corridor.)
DOCTOR: I'm coming!
[EXT. Swamp]
(Among the rushes.)
DOCTOR: I think it's this way.
ROMANA: No, no, Doctor, it was this way.
DOCTOR: No, no, come on. You know I've got an unerring sense of direction. I have.
(He plants his foot in mud, pulls it out, and turns the other way.)
DOCTOR: I think it's this way.
ROMANA: Yes, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Come on!
ROMANA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes?
ROMANA: How did you know that the fifth segment was a part of Kroll?
DOCTOR: Well, it all added up. I mean, the obvious disguise for the segment was the symbol of power, and that wasn't around anymore.
ROMANA: Ah, yes, because according to the old book in the temple, Kroll had swallowed it.
DOCTOR: That's right, along with the high priest. Of course, it wasn't so big in those days. Kroll, I mean. Just an ordinary giant squid. Hello.
ROMANA: Hello.
DOCTOR: No, no, look.
ROMANA: What is it?
(A rather small piece of marine life is lying in the mud.)
DOCTOR: Cellular regeneration.
ROMANA: Good heavens.
DOCTOR: There must be hundreds of those around now.
ROMANA: What, bits of Kroll?
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, not bits of Kroll. No, they'll just be ordinary giant squids. Nothing to worry about. Unless, of course, you're a high priest. There'll never be another Kroll. It was the segment that did it.
(ROMANA holds the DOCTOR's coat-tails as he heads purposefully through the tall grasses, toward the TARDIS, and out of view.)
DOCTOR: Get back, K9! Get back!
(The TARDIS dematerialises.)
The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl
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