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DOCTOR WHO
THE LEISURE HIVE
Written by
David Fisher
Part Two
(Overlap from Romana cautiously moving around the corner of the TARDIS)
[INT. Tachyon Recreation Generator room]
(The reptilian owner of the claw leaves.)
ROMANA: Doctor!
(PANGOL and BROCK enter the room.)
ROMANA: Doctor!
BROCK: There's one of them!
ROMANA: Help me! The Doctor's in there.
PANGOL: How did he activate it from inside?
ROMANA: Get him out of there.
PANGOL: It's jammed!
ROMANA: Switch off the power.
PANGOL: I can't!
ROMANA: There must be something we can do.
DOCTOR: Well, you could try shorting the servo lock on the door.
PANGOL: Of course.
(A smiling DOCTOR stands relaxedly leaning against the front of the TARDIS.)
DOCTOR: Well, it's just a thought. (with a wide-eyed and innocent look) Something wrong?
[EXT. Shuttle bay]
TANNOY VOICE: Attention. Earth shuttle arriving. Earth shuttle arriving.
[INT. Corridor of the Hive]
(VARGOS walks down the corridor.)
TANNOY VOICE: Earth scientist Hardin to the boardroom. Earth scientist Hardin to the boardroom.
[INT. TRG room]
(The Recreation Generator sphere is filled with the DOCTOR's face, which blossoms in a huge grin.)
DOCTOR: Handsome fellow, isn't he? One of your tachyon images. It'll disappear soon - look. (it fades away) See?
PANGOL: How did you get out?
DOCTOR: Through a hole in the back.
PANGOL: But there isn't one.
DOCTOR: There is now.
(He produces his sonic screwdriver, the end of which is bent.)
DOCTOR: You see, a common fault with tachyon particles is that they can induce a certain temporal instability in surrounding matter.
(KLOUT's hand rests heavily on the DOCTOR's shoulder.)
DOCTOR: What can I do for you?
[INT. Boardroom]
DOCTOR [on holo display]: Come on, Romana - quick.
(Two ARGOLIN block their path, and they are escorted out at a more dignified pace.)
MENA: Have you ever seen him before, Hardin?
HARDIN: No, Madam Chairman.
MENA: Such formality.
HARDIN: I must respect your new position. Not that I, that there was ever-
MENA: Not that there was ever any disrespect. For all your genius, Hardin, you're young. But you're right. My new responsibilities will put a distance between us. This scientist seems to understand tachyonics to a very advanced level. He's mentioned temporal instability. How much does he know?
HARDIN: I'll have to question him. Of course, he may be useful.
MENA: Useful?
HARDIN: If he has a genuine understanding of the instability.
MENA: But the work's done. The problem's solved, thanks to you.
HARDIN: Well, there may be certain adjustments on the full-scale run with the generator.
MENA: But you said at our very first meeting that the problems were solved.
HARDIN: Yes, Madam Chairman. I, I merely suggest-
(The DOCTOR and ROMANA are escorted into the boardroom.)
MENA: (rising) Ah. Where do you come from?
DOCTOR: Gallifrey?
MENA: I've never heard of it.
DOCTOR: Well, it's just an obscure little planet in the constellation of Kasterborus, and we're overdue. I think we should be on our way.
MENA: Wait. Have you ever experimented with time?
DOCTOR: Well, yes, but in a purely academic way of no interest to anyone.
MENA: Earth visitor Hardin thinks that you might be able to help with his experiments.
DOCTOR: Well, I'd like to-
ROMANA: Gallifrey abandoned tachyonics when we developed warp-matrix engineering.
DOCTOR: Yes, there you are, so sorry.
HARDIN: You saw the time experiments?
DOCTOR: Well, just a glimpse.
ROMANA: I assumed it was based on negative tachyon displacement, didn't you?
MENA: I'd like you both to take another look at those experiments.
ROMANA: Then can we go?
MENA: We are a peaceful people, but you are unidentified visitors. Our decision will depend on your conduct.
DOCTOR: All right, but we'd better rerun the experiment, don't you think, Mr Hardin?
(We cut from a nervous HARDIN to the reptile's eye, then its claw about to change something within the Hive, and a view of the shifting salmon-coloured sands of the inhospitable outside.
We see MENA, the DOCTOR, and ROMANA watching those sands from a window. The glow then illuminates their faces.)
ROMANA: It's beautiful.
DOCTOR: Yes. Radon-222 decays rapidly.
MENA: But not the heavy metal dust. It won't be habitable for three centuries.
DOCTOR: (as the glow fades) Really? Why, how long did the war last?
MENA: Twenty minutes.
DOCTOR: As long as that.
MENA: Now you understand the purpose of the Hive.
ROMANA: To keep out the atmosphere.
MENA: The physical reason, yes, but the purpose is to promote understanding between life forms of all culture and genetic type. There must be no more such wars.
DOCTOR: So it's not just a recreation centre.
MENA: Even the games in our Experiential Grid explore alien environments. Each race learns to understand what it is like to be the foreigner.
ROMANA: Like learning a language.
MENA: Language and thought. Let me show you the grid.
(She turns. We watch the reptile open a panel, revealing fibre-optic cables before MENA activates a hologram at the centre of the boardroom table.)
MENA: This simulation is a high-gravity planet with a life form-
(The reptile's claw reaches into the mass of fibres and mangles things. The hologram turns into a green soup of interference.)
MENA: Oh, no. Not again. This is intolerable.
ROMANA: What happened?
MENA: Interfibral malfunction. A line's gone down. So many faults, accidents, the death this morning.
DOCTOR: Do you think the Hive's being interfered with?
MENA: The fibre-optic transmission system has a mean time between failure of two thousand years.
DOCTOR: We could do with that in the TARDIS.
MENA: It's far in excess of our own needs.
ROMANA: Future generations will appreciate it.
MENA: The few of us who survived the war have our own price to pay. There will be no future generations.
VARGOS [OC]: The transmission fault has been identified, Madam Chairman.
MENA: Show me.
ROMANA: Does she mean they're sterile?
DOCTOR: Yes. This Leisure Hive is the Argolin farewell gesture.
(MENA slumps forward, and one of the blue seeds falls from the cone at the top of her head.)
DOCTOR: What is it?
MENA: (sitting up) Please don't worry. This is quite normal.
DOCTOR: Normal? But you're ill.
MENA: I'll recover in a moment.
ROMANA: But you look older.
DOCTOR: Ssssh.
MENA: Yes. The war has done this to us too. A slow, steady metabolism for most of our lives, then... This has come to me sooner than I thought.
[INT. Laboratory]
BROCK: But don't you see, Hardin? This idea of yours could be the saving of the Hive.
HARDIN: It'll give the Argolins a few more years to live. Perhaps-
BROCK: Secondly, think of the impact on the visitors. At the moment, this Experiential Grid leaves them older and wiser, but with this they could go home younger and wiser.
HARDIN: Look, I cannot demonstrate it now!
BROCK: Is something wrong?
HARDIN: No. No, it takes time.
BROCK: Oh, it's a time experiment. We'll be back.
(He and KLOUT leave. HARDIN lowers his head. His assistant places his hand on HARDIN's shoulder.)
STIMSON: Don't lose your nerve, Hardin. We can work it.
HARDIN: Why did I ever let you talk me into faking this in the first place?
STIMSON: Fake? It's a breakthrough in tachyon technology. Your dreams come true.
HARDIN: Success was so close.
STIMSON: It still is if you don't panic.
HARDIN: But this isn't science!
STIMSON: While you're operating on my funds, you'll do it my way. Proceed as planned.
HARDIN: I can't. Mena wants to bring in the Doctor.
STIMSON: What? You blind idiot.
HARDIN: Well, don't you see? These people could have the answer.
STIMSON: But if they find this is a fake, we're ruined.
HARDIN: All right. All right, I'll find a way. I'll persuade Mena not to let them in here.
STIMSON: Get them to stay out there and watch on the viewer.
HARDIN: All right.
(MENA, the DOCTOR, ROMANA, and ESCORTS enter.)
MENA: Are the preparations complete?
HARDIN: Soon, Madam Chairman.
DOCTOR: Is that a Schrödinger oscillator?
HARDIN: Stay back!
DOCTOR: Why?
HARDIN: There's a question of radiation hazard.
DOCTOR: Oh, really.
HARDIN: (sotto to STIMSON) We've got to make this work. Can't you see what's happening?
(The DOCTOR speaks with ROMANA, before leaving. MENA ages again.)
STIMSON: Surely that's not the woman we saw on Earth?
HARDIN: Yes.
MENA: When will it be ready, Mr Hardin?
HARDIN: Soon, Madam Chairman. The, er, the adjustments have to be exact.
STIMSON: You'll all get a better view, you know, from up top.
(The ARGOLIN leave the room.)
ROMANA: Can I help you, Mr Hardin?
(ROMANA takes the piece of equipment that is in HARDIN's hands.)
ROMANA: Thank you. Now, this is a, a wafer wave inducer, is it?
HARDIN: Yes. It feeds direct from the tachyon drive.
ROMANA: And what do you do for inversion?
HARDIN: It doesn't invert. The divider circuit automatically dephases. Mena's dying, and nothing can stop that cellular degeneration once it starts.
ROMANA: This could. Come on, Hardin. How do you lock the phase?
HARDIN: I can't. It doesn't. It doesn't really work, you know.
(STIMSON has left the room during this exchange.)
[INT. Corridor of the Hive]
VARGOS: Can I help you, Mr Stimson?
STIMSON: It's imperative I leave for Earth immediately.
VARGOS: Ah. All the shuttles are fully booked, unless you can obtain a special clearance from one of the directors.
STIMSON: Thank you.
[INT. Corridors]
(After walking through the corridors, STIMSON taps on the door to Brock's quarters.)
STIMSON: Mr Brock? Mr Brock.
(A reptile watches from around a corner as STIMSON opens the door and enters.)
[INT. Brock's quarters]
(We see the room bathed in green. STIMSON, nervous, looks around, then approaches the wardrobe and opens its door. Hanging within is a rubber head and body strongly resembling Klout. STIMSON reaches out and touches it. He recoils and walks backward from the room. Striding briskly through the corridors now, he drops his spectacles. A large reptilian foot crushes them.)
[INT. TRG room]
(STIMSON enters the generator room in darkness. He starts and casts a glance about.)
STIMSON: Anyone there?
(He wipes his brow and turns, whereupon a claw reaches out and he screams.)
[INT. Laboratory]
(The equipment focuses on a large hourglass.)
ROMANA: Switch on.
HARDIN: Right.
ROMANA: Hold it there.
(A purplish field is established around the hourglass.)
HARDIN: Stasis.
(The flow of sand stops.)
ROMANA: Looks like it.
HARDIN: We've brought time to a stop.
ROMANA: But can we wind time back, return the sand to where it was before it fell?
HARDIN: I just don't get this. In theory, it should be functioning perfectly.
ROMANA: We'll just have to check it all again. That's one thing I've learnt from the Doctor. Where is he, by the way?
[INT. TRG room]
(The DOCTOR is operating the Recreation Generator console.)
COMPUTER: Override fail-safe. Override fail-safe. Eliminate intruder. Eliminate intruder.
DOCTOR: Ah - so that's how it's done.
BROCK: Doctor?
(BROCK hands the DOCTOR the end of his scarf.)
DOCTOR: Oh, thank you, thank you.
(The DOCTOR follows the scarf. It leads past several ARGOLIN flanking the pathway, and at the end is STIMSON's neck. His body lies on a stretcher.)
BROCK: This is your scarf, isn't it, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes.
[INT. Courtroom]
PANGOL: The murderer.
BROCK: His scarf killed Stimson.
DOCTOR: Arrest the scarf, then.
MENA: The court is sitting, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry. (He sits down.)
MENA: The court, Doctor.
(The DOCTOR stands.)
MENA: We Argolins have a sacred reminder of the evil that dwells in violence - the Helmet of Theron, who led Argolis into the war that wiped it out. Can you swear your innocence before the Helmet of Theron?
(The DOCTOR looks up to the large pointy helmet hanging from the centre of the ceiling.)
DOCTOR: Yes.
MENA: Let me hear the facts of the case.
(BROCK rises.)
[INT. Laboratory]
ROMANA: Ready?
HARDIN: Ready.
ROMANA: Start the recording now.
(This is done by placing a yellow tetrahedron point down in one translucent panel of a vertical triangular structure, rather than point upward.)
HARDIN: Recorder running.
ROMANA: Increase the power slowly. We don't want a sudden surge to blow everything to bits.
(A dark liquid rises slightly in a column.)
HARDIN: Four hundred and twenty-five. Increasing. Four hundred and twenty-nine. Four hundred and thirty-one. Stable at four hundred and thirty-five. (The whole while, he adds more tetrahedra slowly.)
ROMANA: Nothing. Increase the power.
HARDIN: It's not going to work, I know it.
ROMANA: That's an unnecessary assumption. We must keep trying.
HARDIN: Yes, you're right. We must keep trying. Four hundred and forty-eight. Stable at four hundred and forty-eight.
ROMANA: Try four hundred and fifty.
(The liquid is now up in the green-marked portion of the column.)
HARDIN: Stable at four hundred and fifty.
ROMANA: Nothing. Wait a minute.
(Sand starts to move into the top bulb of the hourglass.)
ROMANA: Yes! Yes!
HARDIN: (joining her beside the hourglass) We've done it!
ROMANA: Come on.
(They both leave the laboratory. There is a bang and fizz as the experiment continues, and green light pulses around the hourglass.)
[INT. Courtroom]
BROCK: And those are the facts, Madam Chairman.
MENA: Does that conclude the evidence?
DOCTOR: Evidence? Evidence? You couldn't hang a hat on that.
MENA: I'm the judge here, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
BROCK: A murder has been committed, and the murderer must be found.
MENA: Justice is what matters.
PANGOL: When Theron was in doubt, he threw a man into fire or water. Let the elements try him.
MENA: These superstitions are not for us, Pangol.
DOCTOR: I've got an idea. There's a sort of blue box down the hall. You could imprison us both in that.
(HARDIN and ROMANA rush in.)
HARDIN: Mena, er, Madam Chairman. It works.
MENA: What?
HARDIN: Romana has solved the wave equations in all four dimensions.
MENA: You mean you really can rejuvenate?
ROMANA: Probably.
MENA: Then I'm prepared.
HARDIN: No. No, there must be one more test.
PANGOL: A test.
[INT. TRG room]
DOCTOR: (whispering) Are you sure about this, Romana?
ROMANA: According to our calculations, the most it'll do is knock off 10 or 12 years.
DOCTOR: Right. Then I'll take my chance.
(The DOCTOR enters the chamber.)
ROMANA: We should be recording this.
HARDIN: Yes, of course. I forgot to switch it through from the lab.
ROMANA: You'll be needed here.
(She leaves to attend to this.)
MENA: Think what this will mean to the Argolin.
PANGOL: A few years' gain for an individual, perhaps.
BROCK: We're ready, then?
HARDIN: I'll start the warm-up now.
[INT. Laboratory]
(ROMANA turns on the recorder. She then notices that the hourglass is glowing green and has partially melted.)
ROMANA: Doctor?
(She leaves the room.)
[INT. TRG room]
ROMANA: Stop! Stop. We forgot about something.
HARDIN: What? It's too late.
ROMANA: Get the Doctor out of there!
HARDIN: (pressing buttons) I can't.
(ROMANA opens the door to the cubicle and puts her hand over her mouth. The DOCTOR steps out, with white hair and a prodigious beard.)
The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl
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