[ Index for this Doctor ]
[ Index for this story  ]

DOCTOR WHO
STATE OF DECAY

Written by
Terrance Dicks

Part One

[INT. Throne room]

(A mountain tower rises over the farmland around it. We are within, in a large, dark room with two thrones slightly raised at one end. A man and woman wearing crowns and other trappings of royalty are seated there, with another man standing to the side. All of them wear layers of fancy clothing and have make-up that makes their eyes appear sunken.)
HABRIS: (walking to the thrones and bowing) It is the time of selection, my Lord.
(The man on the throne, who boasts a dark, elaborately curled beard, replies.)
ZARGO: Choose well, Habris. Let them be filled with life.
(The man who does not wear a crown speaks. He is an imposing size, and he too is imperious in manner.)
AUKON: It is spirit that the Great One prizes.
CAMILLA: (from her throne) Yet flesh and blood has its place.
AUKON: (approaching Habris) I still look in vain for the first of the Chosen Ones. The Great One will need new servants at the Time of Arising. Remember that, Habris.
HABRIS: My Lord. (He exits.)

[INT. Tavern]

(The tavern is a large building with some sawdust on the floor. Gathered here are many people in plain and in some cases ragtag clothing. Most are seated at wooden tables. An older man moves about.)
IVO: Get back. We don't want you two.
(He looks over the seated people and touches the shoulder of a woman.)
IVO: You, get in the line. (to a man at another table) And you.
(He looks at those selected, who stand in another section of the building. After walking along the line, he speaks to his WIFE and SON.)
IVO: Go on - get back. Get back to the wall.
(His SON leaves, and his WIFE gives a slight smile. HABRIS enters.)
HABRIS: These are the best?
IVO: Yes.
(HABRIS enters with other MEN. He inspects the line of people and selects a couple of them. He sees Ivo's SON sitting around the corner and beckons him.)
HABRIS: You, come here.
IVO: He's not for the selection!
HABRIS: I have to obey procedure.
KARL: (the son, speaking up) Why? Why do you obey them? You're not evil.
HABRIS: Enough.
KARL: You eat with us sometimes. I've seen you give my father wine. My mother, my family.
(HABRIS knocks him to the ground.)
HABRIS: (to IVO) You understand?
IVO: It has to be done.
(KARL makes a run for it.)
HABRIS: Stop him!
(The GUARDS don't let KARL leave.)
HABRIS: I can promise nothing, you understand?
(The five PEASANTS selected are taken outside.)
IVO: It's finished. Go! (The group disperse. IVO's WIFE then runs into his arms, and he comforts her.)

[INT. TARDIS console room]

ROMANA: Well, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm fine. The TARDIS is feeling a bit queasy.
ROMANA: Really?
DOCTOR: Yes. So would you be if you were warping about in E-space.
ROMANA: We are.
DOCTOR: Yes, but not you personally.
ROMANA: But we are personally trapped.
DOCTOR: There's a low probability we can slip off home through another CVE.
ROMANA: So we are trapped.
DOCTOR: Please, don't keep saying that.
K9: Master.
DOCTOR: Not now, K9. Not now.
(ROMANA activates the scanner, which shows space with a slightly greenish tint.)
ROMANA: We are. Marooned in the Exo-space time continuum.
DOCTOR: Well, it might be quite nice here.
ROMANA: It might be.
DOCTOR: Yes. We won't know until we've seen the sights, met a few more people.
ROMANA: Supposing there aren't any other planets here...
DOCTOR: Come on, E-space isn't that small. Something's bound to turn up.
ROMANA: You are incredible.
DOCTOR: Yes, I suppose I am, really. I've never given it much thought.
K9: Master.
DOCTOR: Not now, K-. What is it?
K9: There is one isolated planet at extreme limit of scanner range.
DOCTOR: Well, why didn't you tell me? Is it inhabited?
K9: Habitable.
DOCTOR: Atmosphere?
K9: Atmosphere and gravity approximate closely to Earth normal. Day equivalent to twenty-three point three Earth hours, year to three hundred and fifty Earth days.
ROMANA: How did you know?
DOCTOR: Oh, knowing's easy. Everyone does that ad nauseam. I just sort of hope.
(The TARDIS heads toward the planet.)
DOCTOR: What do you make of it, K9?
K9: Localised concentration of metal artefacts suggests high technology.
DOCTOR: Civilisation?
(The planet glows slightly orange on the scanner.)
K9: Low energy levels suggest primitive life forms.
ROMANA: Sounds as if it's come and gone.
K9: Anomalous data.
DOCTOR: Well, at least there's life.

[EXT. Woods]

(The TARDIS materialises, and the DOCTOR and ROMANA step out.)
DOCTOR: Yes, very nice.
ROMANA: Why here?
DOCTOR: Well, I put us down close to K9's energy concentration.
(He peers through a telescope.)
DOCTOR: Ah, there! Look. (he points and passes her the telescope) Protective castle, village dwellings huddled like ducklings round their mother. Typical mediaeval scene.
ROMANA: K9 said high technology.
DOCTOR: Computers aren't infallible. (He takes the telescope and walks off.)
ROMANA: Shhh.

[INT. TARDIS console room]

DOCTOR: It's awfully nice out there, K9. Protective castle with village dwellings huddled like ducklings round their mother. Classic mediaeval scene. You'd better stay here. Come on, K9. Someone's got to stay on guard, and you can compute a reverse transition from existing data. You love doing that, eh?

[INT. TARDIS room beyond the console room]

(ADRIC slips through a door into the room.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Bye-bye, K9.
(K9 extends his antenna to the console.)

[EXT. Woods]

DOCTOR: On the other hand, they may have opted deliberately for a semi-rural culture. It's a mistake to judge by appearances. Hello.
(He is speaking to a MAN who responds by putting his hands over his ears, then his eyes, mouth, and chest.)
DOCTOR: Hello. Maybe you can help us?
(The MAN grabs his shovel and runs off.)
DOCTOR: We were wondering if-. Should have asked him the name of his tailor.
ROMANA: You mustn't judge by appearances, Doctor.
DOCTOR: No.
ROMANA: He's probably the Astronomer Royal.

[INT. Tavern]

(The PEASANTS eat from wooden bowls. IVO slams a vessel onto the table, causing them to jump.)
IVO: Get a move on, you lot, or you'll be late! You. (to HABRIS as the men run out) Increase the food allowances, you'd get better results. They're too weak to work harder.
HABRIS: I am the one who has to report to the tower.
IVO: You're the one that has to tell them about poor harvests.
HABRIS: I'll see what I can do.
IVO: Hmpf. That's what you said about my son.
HABRIS: When there's news, I'll tell you.
IVO: News? When is there ever news?
DOCTOR: Hello.
(IVO makes the gesture the man with shovel did earlier, and he bows. The DOCTOR clumsily mimics him.)
IVO: You're not from the village.
HABRIS: Or the tower.
ROMANA: That's right.
IVO: It isn't possible. There's nowhere else. How can you be here?
DOCTOR: Well-
HABRIS: My Lord.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, please. Just 'the Doctor' will do. This is Romana.
HABRIS: My Lord, how may I serve you?
DOCTOR: How may you serve me? Well.
HABRIS: Your lord's command.
DOCTOR: No, no. We were just wondering if there were any other scientists in the vil-
IVO: Scientists?
DOCTOR: Yes, scientists. You know, witch-wiggler, wangateur. Fortune-teller? Mundunugu?
IVO: Ah! Oh, such things are forbidden. We know nothing of them here.
HABRIS: If my Lord will excuse me, my duties.
DOCTOR: Yes.
(HABRIS exits.)
DOCTOR: I take it you don't get many strangers here?
IVO: Strangers?
DOCTOR: Yes, visitors. Foreign devils. You know, people you don't know.
IVO: Everyone here is known.
ROMANA: Well, what about people from the next village, or the nearest town?
IVO: There is only the village and the tower, nowhere else.
DOCTOR: Who lives in this tower of yours, hmm?
IVO: Why do you ask what everyone must know? Are you sent to test me? I am Ivo, head man of this village like my father before me and his father before him. The lords know I'm loyal.
DOCTOR: Please, don't shout. Splendid, I'm sure. So you serve the lords, but what do the lords do for you?
IVO: They protect us from the Wasting.
DOCTOR: Did you say 'the Wasting'?
IVO: I have work to do.
ROMANA: Come on, Doctor. This is silly.
(IVO starts putting the chairs in order, and the DOCTOR grabs his arm.)
DOCTOR: Oh, come on, Ivo. These lords of yours, how long have they ruled over you?
IVO: Forever.
DOCTOR: Really. As long as that? Well, that's a long time.
(IVO makes himself busy, and the DOCTOR and ROMANA leave. IVO closes the door behind them and pulls a walkie-talkie from a box hanging on the wall.)
IVO: Kalmar. Kalmar, can you hear me? (we don't hear the response) Two strangers, here, in the village. (more faint signs of a response) That's right, strangers. They were asking about scientists.

[INT. TARDIS console room]

(ADRIC enters the console room and heads for the outer door.)
K9: Halt. Your presence here is unauthorised. Explain.
ADRIC: You remember me, K9. Adric.
K9: Immature humanoid. Non-hostile.
(K9's laser probe retracts.)
ADRIC: That's better.
K9: Your presence is still unauthorised. Explain.
ADRIC: (on one knee next to K9) I stowed away.
K9: Stowed what away?
ADRIC: Myself. I'm a stowaway.
K9: Stowaway. One who hides in a ship to obtain free passage.
ADRIC: I thought I'd join up with the Doctor and see the universe. Where are we?
K9: An unidentified planet in what is referred to as E-space.
ADRIC: What space?
K9: E-space, to distinguish it from the larger N-space of our own origin.
ADRIC: Oh, I see. That problem again.
K9: These concepts are unknown to me. Doctor master will explain.
ADRIC: Where is he?
K9: Doctor and Mistress Romana have gone in search of astro-navigational data. When I have finished my calculations-
ADRIC: You just stay here and get back to your sums, and I'll go and find them.
K9: Stop. Your expedition is dangerous and unnecessary.
ADRIC: Listen, K9, I'm a stowaway. I shouldn't be here at all.
K9: Correct.
ADRIC: Then the sooner I leave, the better.
K9: (after consideration) The conclusion is logical.
(The doors open.)
ADRIC: Gotcha. (He leaves.)

[EXT. Woods]

ROMANA: How much further are we going?
DOCTOR: These people are more complicated than you think, you know. Only to the next village.
ROMANA: There isn't another village.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
ROMANA: What's that noise?
DOCTOR: Oh, just bats. They come out at night, you know. What do you mean there isn't another village? Of course there's another village. There's got to be another vill-. Just a minute. Maybe you're right. K9's orbital scan. The settlement was the only thing to show up on it.
ROMANA: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Hmm?
ROMANA: Look.
(PEOPLE in cloaks stand around them.)
ROMANA: Say something.
DOCTOR: Hello. (laughs) I'm the Doctor, and this is Romana. Uh, we were just passing your charming planet, and we thought we'd, uh, well, just drop in. Look, I know this may seem a silly sort of question, but we were wondering if you could tell us something about E-space. E-space? Perhaps not.

[INT. Throne room]

ZARGO: What do you mean 'vanished'?
HABRIS: We scoured the village.
ZARGO: Then the rebels must have them.
CAMILLA: Strangers at a time like this. Why did you not seize them when they first appeared?
HABRIS: I had no orders, my Lady, and there was something about them. They were no peasants - that I swear. They were lords.
ZARGO: We are your lords, Habris. There are no others.
HABRIS: (bowing) Forgive me.
ZARGO: More patrols immediately. They must be found.
HABRIS: At once, my Lord.
AUKON: Wait.
HABRIS: Master?
AUKON: I will discover the whereabouts of these strangers. Spare your guards.
ZARGO: But strangers, Aukon.
AUKON: If they are still on this planet, my servants will find them.

[INT. Rebels' cave]

(As the bats come out, it grows darker. The cloaked PEOPLE escort ROMANA and the DOCTOR along a path into a cave. As they enter, an old man, KALMAR, stands from his spot at a bank of old equipment.)
DOCTOR: Well, it's quite a technocotheca you've got here.
ROMANA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Hmm?
ROMANA: what's a technocotheca?
DOCTOR: I don't know. I think it's some sort of museum.
ROMANA: Oh.
VEROS: Look at their faces. Look at their clothes. (he holds out the scarf end, examining it) They're strangers.
TARAK: We found them in the forest. He calls himself Doctor.
KALMAR: Doctor? That's a word I've seen in the old records. It's a title used by scientists. Are you a scientist, Doctor, like me?
DOCTOR: Well, I've dabbled a bit.
TARAK: He was asking about scientists in the centre. All right, it's time for some answers.
DOCTOR: What, do you mean who are we, where do we come from, that sort of thing?
TARAK: It'll do for a start.
DOCTOR: Let's not talk about us. This looks much more interesting.
(He sits at the equipment.)
DOCTOR: I see you've got some of it working.
KALMAR: We have a generator. It gives us power for air, light, and heat, and the communicators.
TARAK: But no weapons, eh, Kalmar?
KALMAR: When we have rediscovered basic scientific principles, we shall be able to make weapons of our own. But it takes time.
TARAK: How many of us have lived and died because everything takes time?
ROMANA: How long have things been like this?
KALMAR: Forever. The lords rule in the tower, the peasants toil in the fields. Nothing has changed in a thousand years.
TARAK: But it will change, when we overthrow the lords.
DOCTOR: What? Isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, a chap in the village told me the lords protected you from the Wasting.
KALMAR: You know about the Wasting?
DOCTOR: Well, only by hearsay. What is the Wasting?
TARAK: The Wasting?
DOCTOR: Yes.
TARAK: The Wasting is- (KALMAR holds up a hand) the Wasting.
DOCTOR: Ah.

[INT. Tavern]

(Ivo's wife, MARTA, is slicing vegetables into a pot as ADRIC creeps in. He finds a place behind a pillar. MARTA tastes the soup and heads off to do some other work as ADRIC sprints forward to a closer spot. She has seen him, but he doesn't know this as he reaches for a piece of bread. She grabs his arms.)
MARTA: Got you! (looking at him) Who are you? How did you come here?
ADRIC: Oh, I walked.
MARTA: I don't know you.
ADRIC: Well, I don't know you, either.
MARTA: But that's not possible.
ADRIC: I'm looking for two friends of mine. I don't suppose you've seen them, have you? Tall man with curly hair and a silly scarf. There'll be a girl with him.
MARTA: There were two strangers here earlier, a lord and a lady.
ADRIC: Any idea where they could be?
MARTA: They went to the tower.
(IVO comes up behind ADRIC and grabs him.)
IVO: What are you doing with my bread? Who are you?
MARTA: He's looking for the two strangers.
IVO: Well, let him look somewhere else, then.
MARTA: No, you can't let him go out now. It's not safe. Let him stay the night at least. Maybe his friends will come for him.
IVO: And what if someone from the tower comes, hmm?
MARTA: What, now? That's hardly likely. Here, boy, you take this.
(She helps him on with a peasant jacket.)
MARTA: It belonged to my son.
ADRIC: Whatever you say. Well, if I'm staying.
(He fills a bowl with stew for himself.)
ADRIC: You wouldn't have any cheese, would you?
MARTA: Cheese?
(She and IVO look at each other.)
ADRIC: Never mind.

[INT. Rebel cave]

DOCTOR: How long ago was that?
TARAK: Years ago. Some of us were on the run from Zargo and his men. We escaped into the wasteland and discovered this, all kinds of wonderful things just thrown about, half hidden. There was even food, mountains of it.
KALMAR: Some of us could still read. It's forbidden, but the knowledge was passed on in secret.
DOCTOR: What? Reading forbidden?
KALMAR: All science, all knowledge is forbidden by the lords. The penalty for knowledge is death.
ROMANA: No schools of any kind?
KALMAR: Children start in the fields as soon as they can walk, stay there till they grow up, grow old, and die.
TARAK: Those that escape the selection.
ROMANA: What's the selection?
TARAK: Some are taken to the tower to serve the lords.
KALMAR: So they say.
ROMANA: I see you've got a lot to rebel against.
DOCTOR: Just a minute. Got it. (a monitor glows green) Ha, ha! Now we'll find out something. I-
(The monitor goes blank again.)
DOCTOR: Oh, must have been out of guarantee. Instruction manual would be helpful.
ROMANA: Nonsense, it's just a standard Earth-type databank. I'll have to crack the entry code, but. Earth type!
DOCTOR: Ah, lovely old technology. Back on twentieth-century Earth, the engineers used to just-
(He hits the top of the monitor and a menu appears. The screen shows

FILENAME:    HYDRAX DIR.
1. SHIP'S MANIFEST AND CARGO
2. FLIGHT PLAN FROM EARTH
3. CREW OF EXPLORATION
4. VESSEL HYDRAX EN ROUTE FROM 
   EARTH DESTINATION BETA TWO 
   IN THE PERUGELLIS SECTOR
INTERFACE PROGRAM CODE [unintelligible]

HYDRAX SHIP'S LOG
                  DATA FILE: 12/12/1990
* SHIP'S            SUBSYSTEMS
  OFFICERS          PERSONNEL

  CAPTAIN:          a. Senior Deck St
  Miles Sharkey        (see p.00112)
  
  NAVIGATIONAL      b. Junior Deck St
  OFFICER:             (see p.00113)
  Lauren MacMillan
  
  SCIENCE OFFICER:  c. Tech. Grades
  Anthony O'Connor     (see p.00114)
  
  Identification pictures follow
  *  Proceed to next level? (Y/N)
  *                or exit?  (X)

[EXT. Woods]

ROMANA: It's getting dark suddenly.
DOCTOR: Night must fall, Romana, even in E-space.
ROMANA: Doesn't feel natural. There's that noise again.
DOCTOR: Never mind. It's bats. Quite harmless.
(Several bats fly at them. One bites the DOCTOR's neck, and he cries out.)
DOCTOR: Well, in theory. That one was a bit carnivorous.
ROMANA: Do you mind if we get a move on?
(We see many, many bats against the grey-green sky. The DOCTOR and ROMANA are now running through the trees.)
DOCTOR: Come on!
(The bats start to descend on them, and they stumble and/or lie on the ground to protect themselves a bit.)
ROMANA: Look!
(The creatures are swarming overhead.)

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

[ Previous ] [ Next ]

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