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DOCTOR WHO
THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN

Written by
Johnny Byrne

Part One

[INT. TARDIS console room]

(The scanner shows stars, with one planet clearly visible near the centre.)
ADRIC [OC]: So this is N-space.
DOCTOR [OC]: Yes, the old home universe. It's many times larger than anything you're used to.
ADRIC: All those stars.
DOCTOR: Yes.
ADRIC: Do you know them all?
DOCTOR: Well, pff, just the interesting ones.
ADRIC: How can you tell which is which?
DOCTOR: Well, law of probability, that sort of thing, you know. Anyway, we're supposed to be on our way back to Gallifrey.
ADRIC: I don't see what the law of probability's got to do with it.
DOCTOR: No. What? Adric, I give you a privileged insight into the mystery of time, yes?
ADRIC: Yes.
DOCTOR: Open your mind to adventures beyond imagining, yes?
ADRIC: Yes.
DOCTOR: And you criticise my logic.
ADRIC: No. No, I'm just saying that a lot of the time you don't really make sense.
DOCTOR: Ah. Ahhh. Oh, you've noticed that, have you? Well, I mean, anyone can talk sense. As long as that's understood, you and I are going to get on splendidly.
ADRIC: Then where are we?
DOCTOR: Metulla Orionsis, I'd say. Does that make sense?
ADRIC: (checking the console) That's what it says here.
DOCTOR: Yes, that's an interesting planetary system.
ADRIC: Traken, isn't it?
DOCTOR: Eh? You're beginning to get the hang of this console. Yes, Traken. (reading out) Traken Union, famous for its universal harmony. A whole empire held together by...
ADRIC: By?
DOCTOR: Well, by people just being terribly nice to each other.
ADRIC: Well, that makes a change.
DOCTOR: Yes. I don't think I've actually been there. Just know it by repute, so I'll tell you all about it sometime.
(He goes through the door into the interior of the TARDIS.)
ADRIC: Well, you won't have to. We're going there anyway.
DOCTOR: (stepping back into the console room) Going to Traken? Who said so?
ADRIC: You set the controls for it.
DOCTOR: You set them.
ADRIC: No! No, you must have.
DOCTOR: But I didn't. Did I? I wonder what the law of probability would say about that.
(The TARDIS is seen slowly rotating amidst the bodies that make up the Traken Union.)
DOCTOR: Now, what seems to be the problem?
ADRIC: We've gone into orbit round one of the planets.
DOCTOR: I thought so.
ADRIC: Thought what?
DOCTOR: I thought you might appreciate it if I gave you the impression I knew what was happening. We could panic, of course, but where would that get us?
ADRIC: What's happening?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
ADRIC: Well, you should know.
DOCTOR: Adric.
ADRIC: Well, you are a Time Lord, aren't you?
DOCTOR: Adric. If I knew everything that was going to happen, where would the fun be?
(He looks across the console.)
DOCTOR: Hello.
(A very old, bearded man with domed bald head is sitting in a large scrollwork chair done in black and gold. He wears vaguely floral-printed brown-gold clothes with slightly puffed shoulders, and his fingernails appear not to have been cut for a very long time.)
KEEPER: How do you do?
DOCTOR: It's all right, Adric. The Keeper of Traken.
KEEPER: Well guessed, Doctor. The reports I hear of your intelligence are true, I see.
DOCTOR: Ah, well, it wasn't difficult to guess who'd taken possession of the TARDIS. I mean, there can't be many people in the universe with the capacity of just dropping in like this.
ADRIC: Well, you could have told me.
DOCTOR: Shhh-sssh. Time reveals everything, Adric. What can we do for you, Keeper?
KEEPER: Listen closely, Doctor. As you see, the passing ages have taken toll of me.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, I know that feeling.
KEEPER: But, unlike you, my time of Dissolution is near and the power entrusted to me is ebbing away.
DOCTOR: Oh, come on. It's still fairly impressive. I mean, I couldn't flit around the universe in an old chair like this.
KEEPER: I have all the minds of the Union to draw on. I am only the organising principle. It is on that count I ask you to come to Traken.
DOCTOR: Right!
KEEPER: Think carefully before you agree. There is great danger in this, for you and your young friend.
DOCTOR: How so, Keeper?
KEEPER: I fear that our beloved world of Traken faces disaster.
ADRIC: Universal harmony, you said.
DOCTOR: Shhhh.
KEEPER: The Doctor does not exaggerate. Since the time of the keepers, our Union has been the most harmonious the universe has ever seen. Does the boy not know of this?
DOCTOR: Oh, he's not local.
(The KEEPER vanishes.)
DOCTOR: E-space, wasn't it? Where's he gone?
(The seated man has reappeared across the console from them, next to the scanner.)
KEEPER: How vain one still can be. I thought the whole universe knew the history of our little empire.
DOCTOR: Yes. They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there.
KEEPER: Rumour does not exaggerate, Doctor.
ADRIC: (as the scanner opens) The screen.
KEEPER: Oh, forgive me. May I borrow it for a moment?
DOCTOR: Oh please, Keeper, please.
KEEPER: Yes, we have indeed been visited by evil many times. Our compassion for these poor, distorted creatures seems to attract them like moths to a flame. Sometimes they are redeemed.
(On the screen, simply dressed folk tend the trees and plants in a park.)
KEEPER: The Fosters are the guardians of the spiritual welfare of our capital.
(The FOSTERS on the screen look up as a red-hot statue descends into a corner at the top of a couple of shallow stone steps.)
KEEPER: They name such creatures Melkur.
DOCTOR: Melkur?
KEEPER: Melkur. Literally a fly caught by honey. The Fosters know there's nothing to fear from these visitations.
(The statue on the screen cools to take on a stone look. It is reminiscent of Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.)
DOCTOR: So what becomes of this Melkur?
KEEPER: Its baleful influence will not extend beyond the grove, and even here it will only produce a few weeds. Like others before it, the creature will calcify and pass harmlessly into the soil. But the demise of any living thing is painful to us.
(On the screen, a red-haired woman approaches the statue. This is KASSIA.)
KASSIA: And how are you today, you poor Melkur? The Fosters have appointed me to look after you. (she lays flowers at the statue's feet) There isn't much I can do. It must be awful being rooted to the spot like a tree. If you weren't quite so evil, you might be able to move a bit, just around the grove. Being so evil, you can't even speak. Never mind. I'll come and visit you again soon. Oh. By the way, my name's Kassia.
DOCTOR: Well, that particular evil seems to be well under control.
KEEPER: Seemed, Doctor. That was many years ago. Young Kassia is now grown up. Such was her purity of spirit that she became a consul, and the day of her marriage to Tremas has become, somehow, the turning point for Traken.
(On the scanner we see KASSIA with plaited hair and the salt-and-pepper-bearded TREMAS drinking from goblets as they stand with linked arms while others cheer. They kiss as the crowd applaud.)

[INT. Sanctum]

(TREMAS ascends a few steps, behind which are further steps, and the others follow to attend to his speech.)
TREMAS: Enough, Trakens. Enough! Applause is heady, and I've already drunk more wine than a man of my responsibilities should. To be a consul and a father I thought were duties enough, but now once again to be a husband, and to Kassia.
KASSIA: (joining him) My husband is right. The wine has flowed freely tonight. Perhaps I should take him home.
SERON: (a distinguished older man with a beard, wearing the velvet, dark-patterned clothes common in this room) Already you've begun to pamper him, Kassia, like that Melkur of yours in the grove.
KATURA: (an older woman) People have begun to think she was married to the statue, all these years she's been tending him.
LUVIC: (a slightly younger man, also bearded) I hope she looks after Tremas better than she looks after the Melkur. He's covered in moss.
KASSIA: I'm sure it does not become us to mock Melkur.
KEEPER: I rather think it is you they are mocking, Kassia.
(In the etched-glass-circled chamber at the top of the final steps, the KEEPER appears in his chair. Behind him burns a fire.)
TREMAS: Keeper, you were able to join us.
KEEPER: No affairs of state could keep me from such an occasion as this. Come, the pair of you, receive my blessing.
KASSIA: We are honoured, Keeper.
(The couple join hands and kneel.)
KEEPER: Kassia was right, Tremas. She promised to tend the Melkur while its power still lived. Who would have thought its demise could be so protracted? She has been loyal, and we now release her.
TREMAS: Come, Kassia, thank the Keeper.
KASSIA: But who will tend him?
KEEPER: The Fosters, perhaps. Since you drove them from the grove, it has become neglected. Fruit trees need some little tending too, you know. No, Nyssa shall watch over your Melkur. And she must share in the blessing too.
(Tremas's daughter, NYSSA, steps forward, kneeling between the two.)
KEEPER: I, nearing the time of my passing, bless the marriage of these two, Tremas and Kassia, truest of my five true consuls, together with Nyssa, now daughter to you both.

[INT. TARDIS console room]

KEEPER: (as we pull back from the scene) Now it begins, my certain knowledge of the coming Dissolution. No Keeper lasts forever, and the period of transition is always difficult. But I sensed more than that, even as I came to name Tremas as my successor.
DOCTOR: Sense what, Keeper?
KEEPER: All-pervading evil, and somehow nurtured in those three good people standing before me to receive the blessing of the Keeper. Doctor, my time is close. I need your help.
DOCTOR: Anything I can do, Keeper.
ADRIC: That goes for me too.
DOCTOR: Sshhh. Well, we'll see. We'll see.
KEEPER: I am fearful even to involve the Doctor. He will face unimaginable hazard, confront power that would obliterate even a Time Lord - even you, Doctor. Goodbye, my friend. Farewell.
(The KEEPER vanishes.)
ADRIC: Well, that's a funny way of going about things.
DOCTOR: Yes, isn't it? What do you make of it?
ADRIC: I don't know. But I do hope we know what we're doing.
DOCTOR: So do I. We?
ADRIC: You.

[EXT. Courtyard]

(The guests are leaving the wedding party.)
TREMAS: If all the stars were silver and the sky a giant purse in my fist, I couldn't be happier than I am tonight.
NEMAN: Poetry apart, Consul Tremas, I'd rather be rich than Keeper Nominate any night of the year.
TREMAS: I wasn't thinking of state duties, Proctor.
NEMAN: Ha, Kassia, of course. But she should be with you, surely?
TREMAS: She's gone to the grove to take leave of her precious Melkur.
NYSSA: Aren't you jealous, Father?
NEMAN: His happiness is like the stars, he says. Plenty to share with everyone, even with Melkur.
(They laugh as they walk off.)

[EXT. Grove]

KASSIA: You listen so patiently, and who else could I speak to of my unhappiness? To be Keeper Nominate - they regard it as a great honour, but when the Keeper's Dissolution comes, it will take Tremas from me forever. And I know his time will be soon. I know it will be soon.
MELKUR: (in a slow, deep voice) Soon.
KASSIA: You spoke to me!

[INT. TARDIS console room]

(The DOCTOR carries two largish, old-looking books in from the interior of the TARDIS.)
ADRIC: Whatever's that?
DOCTOR: Knowledge. Accumulated wisdom of centuries.
ADRIC: A gazetteer?
DOCTOR: Well, they're just a couple of my old time logs. You know, I really may have been to Traken. It's so difficult to keep track of.
ADRIC: I suppose it helps keeping a time log.
DOCTOR: Oh, yes. Mind you, I don't bother now. Much too busy. Actually, this might not be the right volume. Here, take that and make yourself useful.
ADRIC: What am I looking for?
DOCTOR: Well, you know, Traken, Keepers, all-pervading evil.
ADRIC: Universal harmony?
DOCTOR: Yeah, anything along those lines.

[EXT. Courtyard]

(SERON and LUVIC squat next to a corpse.)
SERON: Kassia has called a meeting?
LUVIC: Another of her strange ideas, perhaps?
SERON: Kassia is a gifted sensitive. Her spiritual qualities are beyond question. But Tremas has yet to persuade her that we live in the real world, not some chaos of superstition.
LUVIC: So this man's death was natural, you think?
SERON: He was full of years. Old men die.
NEMAN: (head of the Fosters, entering the conversation unbidden) I've never seen one die like that. Pain on his face, and fear perhaps? Is that natural?
SERON: Unexpected, certainly, but I am never one to jump to conclusions, particularly in the presence of others. There is rumour enough abroad.
NEMAN: With all this restlessness within the Union, consuls, I don't know if perhaps the Fosters should be armed.
LUVIC: Armed? That's an unusual suggestion.
NEMAN: These are unusual times, Consul.
SERON: Well, Tremas? Has science brought us any nearer discovering how the Foster died?
TREMAS: It's so fantastic I hardly know whether to believe it myself.
SERON: Fantastic?
TREMAS: (holding up a portable scanning device) I've scanned the courtyard several times. Something quite strange has registered. See for yourself.
SERON: (taking the scanner) It seems our worst fears are confirmed.
LUVIC: They are?
SERON: (drawing LUVIC to the side) Tremas has clearly fallen under Kassia's spell in more ways than one. Tell the meeting I shall be delayed a moment. Tremas clearly needs humouring.
(LUVIC, laughing, leaves, entering the building while SERON and TREMAS remain.)
SERON: What do these readings mean?
TREMAS: It's impossible to say. It's beyond the scope of the instrument to analyse or measure.
SERON: You're sure it's not an error?
TREMAS: An error - yes, it must be.
SERON: But if the readings are true?
TREMAS: If these readings are true, then obviously some, some force is taking possession of Traken.

[INT. TARDIS console room]

DOCTOR: Ha, ha. Interesting stuff, isn't it?
ADRIC: If I could understand it.
DOCTOR: What?
ADRIC: Well, look, I read about something that's just happened.
DOCTOR: And?
ADRIC: The next page says it didn't happen at all.
DOCTOR: So?
ADRIC: Over the page says it did happen but many years ago.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes. Well, I suppose it is a bit above your head. Mind you, they did say I had a very sophisticated prose style.
ADRIC: As for your handwriting...
DOCTOR: Handwriting? What about my handwriting?
ADRIC: It's marvellous.
DOCTOR: We've arrived. Right, now let's see what this place really looks like.
(The scanner shows a path through a somewhat overgrown garden, with tall plants and trees.)
DOCTOR: Well, it's a good place if you fancy a spot of gardening.

[INT. Sanctum]

KATURA: Murder? Here, in the precincts of the court?
TREMAS: We don't know that it was murder, Consul Katura.
KATURA: You have determined the cause of death?
LUVIC: I thought it was natural.
SERON: There's no need to be alarmist, Tremas.
TREMAS: He died through contact with some high-energy source. How and why it happened I cannot say.
KASSIA: (sotto) A sign. Power of Melkur. (to the others) Consuls, I sense some great danger coming to us all. The Fosters must be armed.
SERON: With respect, Kassia, we cannot allow superstition to stampede reason.
KASSIA: I have reason.
KATURA: Then you have only to let the consuls know what it is.
TREMAS: Well, Kassia?
(She sits, saying nothing.)
SERON: We are the Keeper's appointed consuls. Let his benevolent wisdom be our guide, not irrational fears and intuitions. Are we agreed to summon the Keeper?
LUVIC: First we must decide about the Fosters. I feel that perhaps Kassia's right on that point. They should be armed.
(TREMAS and KATURA nod.)
SERON: Send for Proctor Neman.
(A Foster leaves to do so.)

[EXT. Grove]

(ADRIC leaves the TARDIS, and we see that it is not far from Kassia's Melkur statue.)
ADRIC: (approaching it) It looks almost alive.
DOCTOR: Hmm? (reaching up to brush bits of foliage from its shoulder) Looks pretty well calcified to me.
ADRIC: I've got the nasty feeling it's looking at us.
DOCTOR: Fiddlesticks.

[INT. Sanctum]

KASSIA: I speak for the many peoples of the Traken Union. They ask why crops fail, why droughts and floods disturb our planets. And now violent death in the very precinct of the court itself. What do we tell them?
SERON: Normal events, Consul, when the span of our Keeper nears its end.
KASSIA: Nothing is normal at such a time. This Keeper, whose protection we have enjoyed for a thousand years, is dying. The power is growing weaker day by day.
TREMAS: Trakens have survived times like this in the past. We shall do so now, through science and understanding.
KASSIA: Brave words, husband, but no great comfort to a people being stripped of their traditional protections.
SERON: The Keeper knows our situation. He'll speak when the time is right.

[EXT. Courtyard]

(The DOCTOR is having a hard time opening the right side of the gate to the grove. ADRIC pushes the left side, and the two enter. They are met by the guns of the newly armed FOSTERS.)
DOCTOR: Put your hands up in the air like that.
(Four hands are raised.)
DOCTOR: I wonder what we've done this time. You the welcoming committee?

[INT. Sanctum]

KATURA: We can't afford to stand on ceremony, Consul Seron. I propose we put it to the vote.
LUVIC: The sooner, the better.
TREMAS: Very well, but you know the law. The vote must be unanimous. Consuls, it is proposed that we summon the Keeper. Those in favour, raise your hands.
(SERON does not do so.)
TREMAS: Consul Seron.
SERON: If the majority are agreed, then I'll concur, of course.
(A gong sounds.)
SERON: Open the door.
(The doors part, and NEMAN enters, followed by the DOCTOR, ADRIC, and some FOSTERS.)
NEMAN: Consuls, the cause of the evil. We have found them.
(Back in the grove, the statue's eyes begin to glow red.)
TREMAS: So, who are you?
DOCTOR: I wondered when you were going to ask. You know, I hate to say this sort of thing, but Traken hospitality isn't what it used to be.
ADRIC: He's called the Doctor, and I'm Adric.
DOCTOR: It's probably the usual misunderstanding. We keep running into this sort of thing. Actually, we were invited here this time.
ADRIC: This is true.
TREMAS: Invited?
DOCTOR: Yes, to pitch in, help out, that sort of thing.
TREMAS: Who asked you here?
DOCTOR: Well, excuse my name-dropping, but the Keeper, actually.
TREMAS: (rising) You've had contact with the Keeper?
DOCTOR: In a manner of speaking, yes.
LUVIC: I don't follow this at all.
TREMAS: The Keeper said one would come amongst us to help Trakens. Could you be this one, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well, unless he's in the habit of soliciting help, yes.
KASSIA: Sacred law decrees that the Keeper has contact only through his consuls.
SERON: You say, Doctor, that you arrived here in some kind of craft?
DOCTOR: Yes.
SERON: And landed in the grove?
DOCTOR: Yes. We thought we'd walk the rest of the way. You know, fresh air, stretch the legs.
SERON: Then your craft should still be there.
DOCTOR: Yes.
TREMAS: Proctor Neman, send some of your brothers to confirm this.
NEMAN: Certainly, Consul.
(Meanwhile, the glowing eyes of the statue send pulsing balls of red light at the TARDIS, which disappears.)
TREMAS: But if they are indeed known to the Keeper, can we risk such a grave injustice, Kassia?
KATURA: They can't be known to the Keeper, or we would have been informed.
LUVIC: I don't understand what's going on.
NEMAN: Consul Tremas.
FOSTER: There's nothing there.
NEMAN: The Fosters have searched the grove for the strangers' craft.
TREMAS: And you have found it.
NEMAN: There is no craft. The grove is empty.
KASSIA: Does anyone doubt now?
(It is now dark out. The statue's head, now sans red eyes, turns, for a better view of the FOSTERS on patrol.)
KATURA: It seems they have indeed been lying to us.
DOCTOR: Look, why don't we summon up the Keeper or something?
TREMAS: We are about to do so.
KASSIA: Yes, we will summon the Keeper.
(In a line, the five CONSULS walk up to the glass screens at the sides of the top series of steps and bow.
As they do so, the statue walks out of the grove.
The CONSULS all insert their rings into the holes for them in equipment where they stand.)
TREMAS: Keeper of Traken, by unanimous consent, your consul summons you.
(The KEEPER appears in the chamber, and the CONSULS remove their hands from the apparatus.)
TREMAS: Keeper, we have strangers among us who claim they are known to you.
KASSIA: And dare to say they were summoned here to Traken at your request.
(The etched-glass doors in front of his chair slide open.)
KEEPER: Bring the strangers forward.
(NEMAN and the FOSTERS do so. We see the statue appear at the doors to the sanctum, which are slightly parted.)
DOCTOR: Sorry to trouble you, Keeper, but we do seem to have a problem here.
(The statue's eyes adopt that red glow.)
DOCTOR: Please tell them who we are, will you?
KEEPER: Evil! The sanctum is invaded!
DOCTOR: Keeper, tell us.
KEEPER: (sounding in pain) Consuls, we are invaded. Evil! Infinite evil!
(He vanishes from the chair. The statue's eyes go dark, and it steps away from the door. The CONSULS step down toward the DOCTOR and ADRIC, on whom the FOSTERS' guns are trained.)

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

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