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DOCTOR WHO
THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN
Written by
Johnny Byrne
Part Two
(Overlap from 'Bring the strangers forward')
[INT. Sanctum]
DOCTOR: Consuls, you're making a big mistake. I'm sure you're all charming, reasonable people at heart.
KASSIA: Fosters, do your duty.
DOCTOR: The least you can do is hear what we have to say.
KASSIA: Execute them. This evil must be stamped out.
DOCTOR: Quite! And Adric and I are willing to stamp with the best of them, but let's stamp with some justice and precision. Consuls, you saw what happened. Your Keeper was attacked.
(NEMAN grabs hold of the DOCTOR's arm.)
SERON: Wait! Do I understand you to imply that one of us here used force against the Keeper?
DOCTOR: Yes. Someone here, or someone very near here.
KATURA: One of us?
LUVIC: Against the Keeper?
KASSIA: The Keeper recognised you for what you are, strangers - creatures of Melkur!
TREMAS: Melkur?
KASSIA: Of course! The evil originates from him. Don't you realise? The evil is here before you, before your eyes!
(In the style of a mystic, she dramatically holds her hands up alongside her eyes and theatrically faints.
Out in the courtyard, FOSTERS are on patrol. One passes the door just before the Melkur statue lumbers through the doors with its eyes blazing.
Back inside, KASSIA is awake again, and TREMAS helps her into a chair.)
TREMAS: My wife is not well.
DOCTOR: Did she say 'Melkur'?
SERON: She has an obsession with the statue.
LUVIC: Devoted to it. Takes it flowers.
KATURA: Since she was a child.
DOCTOR: A force was certainly brought to bear upon the Keeper from some quarter. Tell me more about this Melkur.
KATURA: Consuls, this Doctor is procrastinating.
SERON: Perhaps, but I would like this clear. Are you asking us to believe that some kind of psychic power has been used?
DOCTOR: No. Not at all. A high-energy beam. And if I had the right instrument-
(The DOCTOR sees the instrument that TREMAS still holds in his hands.)
DOCTOR: Extraordinary. It's just the thing. How very curious.
TREMAS: Are you a scientist, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, and so I see are you. Tremas, isn't it? Been investigating high-energy force fields, eh?
TREMAS: You understand these things?
DOCTOR: Well, I've dabbled a bit in the bioelectronics line. May I cast an eye over that?
TREMAS: Will the court permit an exchange of scientific views?
(The other CONSULS nod, and the DOCTOR and TREMAS step away.)
[EXT. Courtyard]
(A FOSTER exiting the grove on patrol notices his compatriot on the ground and runs toward him. Then he sees the statue walking forward.)
FOSTER: (backing away) No! No! No! Aaaagh!
(Balls of energy from the statue's eyes send him too to the ground. The statue heads for the grove.)
[INT. Sanctum]
DOCTOR: Where did you get these readings?
TREMAS: In the courtyard.
DOCTOR: Plasma fields of this strength couldn't have been generated without some pretty formidable magnetic containment. (opening his coat) I'm hardly tooled up for that sort of thing.
TREMAS: Quietly, Doctor. I don't want to alarm the others with this yet.
(He walks back over to the other CONSULS. KASSIA stands.)
SERON: What do you make of him? Does he talk sense?
TREMAS: It's hard to say.
KASSIA: Then let us proceed, husband. Fosters!
TREMAS: Wait. In honour to the truth, we cannot proceed.
KATURA: What truth, Tremas?
TREMAS: The charges have not been proved against the strangers. Consuls, under sacred law, I claim consular privilege and take them under my protection.
KATURA: Consular privilege?
KASSIA: No, Tremas. I'm doing this for you.
SERON: He is quite within his rights.
LUVIC: Maybe, but can't he tell us what's going on?
KATURA: Why this brave gesture, Consul Tremas?
KASSIA: Yes, why? Let it be.
SERON: We have no right to question him on that point. Very well. We place you both under the protection of Consul Tremas. You realise the consequences.
(KASSIA walks away in the background.)
DOCTOR: Consequences?
SERON: Should you infringe the law here in any way, then his life too is forfeit.
DOCTOR: Ah yes, yes, very civil of you, Consul. And we'll do our very best to try and return the compliment, won't we, Adric?
TREMAS: Kassia? Where's Kassia?
[EXT. Courtyard]
(Descending the steps just outside, KASSIA comes upon the first Foster's body.)
KASSIA: Melkur! This mustn't be discovered. It is too soon.
(She runs to the second body, hauls it into the bushes, and comes back for the first body, on the steps just outside the building. We hear the consuls near the door, and they begin exiting the building.)
LUVIC: Yes, indeed. This is a very serious matter.
KATURA: Do they understand? One can never tell with strangers.
SERON: Doctor, the consuls now transfer you to the custody of Tremas.
KATURA: But you must stay with him.
DOCTOR: A sort of house arrest? Well, that suits us, eh, Adric?
LUVIC: Suits you?
ADRIC: Yeah. With no TARDIS, we've nowhere to put up for the night.
TREMAS: There's little of the night left, Doctor. It'll soon be dawn.
(The other CONSULS leave, and the DOCTOR stops at the place where the first Foster fell.)
DOCTOR: It's been here again.
TREMAS: What, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Whatever it was that was here last time.
ADRIC: How do you know?
DOCTOR: Those stones have been hit by a plasma beam. They're disintegrated. Look, the sun's coming up. You're right - it is morning. Tremas, you know what I need more than anything else in the universe?
TREMAS: No, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Breakfast. Is your place far?
[EXT. Grove]
(NYSSA brings flowers to the Melkur statue, which stands in its usual spot. She brushes moss from the statue's face as KASSIA watches from behind the shrubs nearby.)
KASSIA: No.
(NYSSA wipes more moss from the statue, then leaves. KASSIA now runs over to the statue.)
KASSIA: Yes, Melkur?
[INT. Tremas's rooms]
(The DOCTOR, ADRIC, and TREMAS are seated, eating fruit and bread .)
DOCTOR: Well, if you don't mind, I think it's high time we got down to work.
TREMAS: What do you have in mind?
DOCTOR: Well, the first thing we ought to do is find my TARDIS.
TREMAS: Proctor Neman had the grove thoroughly searched.
NYSSA: (entering) Grove? I've just come from there.
TREMAS: My daughter, Nyssa.
ADRIC: Hello.
DOCTOR: Hello.
NYSSA: How do you feel?
DOCTOR: Oh, fine, fine. It's always nice to be reprieved. Listen, you didn't notice a tall blue box with a lamp on top out there, did you?
NYSSA: There was nothing like that there.
DOCTOR: I know that TARDIS, Tremas. It's got to be out there somewhere.
TREMAS: Very well, I'll take you there myself. But just you, Doctor. Adric will stay here.
DOCTOR: Thank you.
(NYSSA and ADRIC remain. She gives him a smile.)
[EXT. Grove]
KASSIA: I tried, Melkur, but I failed. The Doctor is now protected by sacred law.
MELKUR: Your failure is irrelevant. The law which protects the strangers will presently destroy them.
KASSIA: And Tremas? What of my husband? You promised to save him. He must not become Keeper.
MELKUR: Your precious Keepers. They too are irrelevant. When this one dies, he will be the last of his kind here on Traken.
KASSIA: But Tremas is named as successor.
MELKUR: Named, perhaps, but what's in a name? (a mellow laugh) 'Kassia' is as good a name as 'Tremas'.
KASSIA: I do not understand.
MELKUR: Understanding is not necessary to your task, Consul. Now listen carefully, and obey without question.
[INT. Tremas's rooms]
(Set back in an alcove are banks of computer equipment.)
ADRIC: Well, I had no idea your science was this highly advanced.
NYSSA: It has to be, to protect and expand the great power which our Keeper exercises on our behalf.
ADRIC: Oh yes, I've read about your Keeper. The chosen Keeper dedicates himself to the bioelectronic system.
NYSSA: The Source, yes. From it, he organises the whole Traken Union.
ADRIC: (pondering Tremas's scanner) These readings couldn't be something to do with the Source, I suppose?
NYSSA: The energy emissions? Oh no, the frequency profiles are something completely new to us.
ADRIC: Have you tried a Fourier analysis? Something to write with.
(She complies, and he gets to work.)
[INT. Seron's rooms]
(LUVIC and KATURA are seated as KASSIA exhorts them.)
KASSIA: And this matter must be dealt with immediatel-
KATURA: No, no
(SERON steps into the area.)
SERON: Secret meetings now? Why do you visit my quarters hugger-mugger like this?
KATURA: Is it true, Seron? Kassia tells us her husband concealed knowledge from the consuls.
SERON: What knowledge?
KASSIA: The nature of these emissions. Tremas has been recording their energy profiles.
SERON: Disharmony among us consuls now? Tremas did not conceal the knowledge. He and I have discussed the subject together.
LUVIC: You knew too? This is a grave matter, Seron.
SERON: Dangerous knowledge, Consul, knowledge that could tip our people over the brink into superstitious chaos. Is that what you want?
KASSIA: This matter has grave implications for the succession.
SERON: You question the Keeper's judgement? You say Tremas is unfit to succeed?
KATURA: That is for him to prove, and the sooner the better.
SERON: Rapport with the Keeper?
KATURA: It is the only way we know to resolve this problem.
KASSIA: What is there to fear, Seron? If he acted justly, he will survive and we will be humbled.
SERON: If there has been deceit, then I am to blame. Tremas did what he did on my advice.
KATURA: You? Seron.
LUVIC: Then in justice, Seron, you must enter Rapport.
KASSIA: No, that is not intended.
SERON: Intended, Kassia? By whom? (pause) Very well, we will put it to the test. I shall submit myself to Rapport. I ask that Consul Tremas keep vigil on my behalf.
KATURA: With Consul Tremas under suspicion too, that is hardly the best choice.
LUVIC: No, I-
KASSIA: I shall keep vigil for you, Seron.
SERON: Thank you, Consul Kassia. Under your zealous eye, we may be certain justice will be done. Now consuls, you will excuse me. I must prepare myself.
[EXT. Courtyard]
(A crowd have gathered outside the gate to the grove.)
TREMAS: Proctor Neman?
DOCTOR: Is something the matter?
NEMAN: Consul?
TREMAS: We intend to visit the grove. Who are those people?
NEMAN: Ordinary citizens, Consul.
TREMAS: Oh.
NEMAN: They're waiting for a sign.
TREMAS: A sign?
NEMAN: There are rumours that the Melkur has been redeemed and will bring these disasters to an end.
DOCTOR: Hmpf. That's hardly likely.
NEMAN: It's superstition. But if I might suggest, uh.
TREMAS: Yes, Proctor Neman?
NEMAN: It would perhaps be better if the consul were not to visit the grove. It might be seen as confirmation of the rumour.
DOCTOR: Well, I can see the force of that argument, but what I'm more interested in is finding-
TREMAS: Thank you, Proctor. A wise thought. I'll show the Doctor round the court instead.
(He leads the DOCTOR away.)
TREMAS: (sotto) The man's too fond of money to be trusted.
DOCTOR: Really?
TREMAS: There is another way into the grove, the service vault beneath the Keeper's chamber.
DOCTOR: Citizen trouble there?
TREMAS: No. Entry to it is possible only through consular ring.
[INT. Tremas's rooms]
ADRIC: (with calculations complete) These readings were taken before we arrived?
NYSSA: You know what it is?
ADRIC: I think so, except it's impossible. But the Doctor will know for sure. He must see this, Nyssa.
NYSSA: But you're supposed to stay with me.
ADRIC: Well then, you'll have to come along too. Come on. The grove.
[EXT. Grove]
MELKUR: You have served me well, Kassia. At my feet you will find a gift.
(She kneels to pick up a large band of silver metal, with a matte strip of grey-green around the middle.)
MELKUR: Wear it as a token of your allegiance.
(She places it around her neck, and the strip around the middle begins to glow slightly red.)
MELKUR: Now, the gentle irradiation and your allegiance is assured. Go now, Kassia. Be my eyes and ears.
KASSIA: (standing) It is not as you predicted, Melkur. Seron will now enter Rapport.
MELKUR: There is much that you do not understand, Kassia.
[INT. Melkur]
(We see two monitors, curved on the outside as the statue's eyes are. These are above some panels of equipment with gauges, a few lights, and buttons.)
KASSIA [on the monitors]: I have failed you, Melkur, but spare my husband, I beg of you. You have promised.
(A badly burnt hand presses a button. The screens go dark. We hear cackling.)
[INT. Sanctum]
(The DOCTOR and TREMAS enter via the main doorway and walk through the sanctum to a door at the back of the room.)
DOCTOR: Wait.
(The two stop. A red light above the door glows.)
DOCTOR: There's someone in there.
TREMAS: You mustn't be seen. It's too dangerous.
(He pulls the DOCTOR behind the room's buttresses. From here, they see KASSIA come through the door. The light goes out. She begins walking through the room.)
TREMAS: (whispering) Kassia.
DOCTOR: (pulling TREMAS back) Don't. She's in some sort of trance.
TREMAS: She must have come from the grove.
DOCTOR: Yes, from the Melkur thing.
(TREMAS now leads the DOCTOR through the door. They descend some stairs that round a corner.)
[INT. Vault]
(The DOCTOR and TREMAS walk down into the vault, where a fairly large globe, with gently shifting pastel colours, is installed within a silver wrought-iron-style frame, with panels of equipment angled down the sides near floor level.)
DOCTOR: You know, Tremas, your Source Manipulator is really quite beautiful.
TREMAS: Yes, its functions have expanded steadily over the years.
DOCTOR: Its limitless organising capacity refined to a single frame and obedient to the will of your Keeper. (following as TREMAS passes through the room back into stone hallways) A great achievement, Tremas, and a great temptation to people less principled than ourselves.
TREMAS: Yes, the thought has occurred to me. Come, the grove is this way.
[INT. Melkur]
(The hand turns the eye-monitors back on, in time to show the DOCTOR and TREMAS enter the grove and stand in front of the statue.)
DOCTOR [on the monitors]: Bothers you, does he, Tremas?
TREMAS [on the monitors]: Yes, and with good reason.
DOCTOR [on the monitors]: Yes, me too. I'd like to take another look, but first, the TARDIS.
[EXT. Grove]
(The DOCTOR holds a homing device, which beeps.)
DOCTOR: Now, we put it down about, yes, here. Hmm.
TREMAS: Well?
DOCTOR: It's here. It's just been displaced slightly by the current time cone. Now, what's the simplest way around this? I'd like to set up a standing wave. Something the auto-systems can home in on.
TREMAS: Would a binary induction system serve the purpose?
DOCTOR: Well, it'll be a start.
TREMAS: Back to the vault stores, then.
[INT. Melkur]
MELKUR: Find your TARDIS, Time Lord. (switching off the monitors) Much good will it do you now.
[EXT. Courtyard]
NEMAN: (as NYSSA approaches) Yes, Lady?
NYSSA: Proctor Neman, why are all these people gathered here?
NEMAN: Rumours, Lady. The law permits it.
NYSSA: They offend the dignity of the Keeper. Have them removed.
NEMAN: But that is not lawful, Lady.
NYSSA: My father and other consuls determine what is lawful.
(As she speaks, she holds up her money pouch for a moment.)
NEMAN: (to the other FOSTERS) Remove them.
FOSTER: Come on, clear this area. Come on, move it.
(As they are ushered out, NYSSA hands NEMAN the pouch.)
NYSSA: See that they leave here.
NEMAN: As you wish, Lady.
(He follows the group away. NYSSA then motions to ADRIC to emerge from hiding.)
NYSSA: (at the gate) It's locked!
ADRIC: Well, never mind. I'm quite good with locks. May I borrow your brooch?
(She hands it over, and he uses it to pick the lock.)
NYSSA: Hurry, Adric, slip through.
(ADRIC goes through the gate into the grove. NYSSA starts to follow. She gets halfway through.)
KATURA: No, Nyssa. Do not enter the grove.
NYSSA: But-
LUVIC: It's dangerous.
NYSSA: Who says so?
KATURA: Seron, and your father.
NYSSA: But my fath-. Yes, I see.
KATURA: The Melkur can do without your attentions for today, I'm sure.
LUVIC: But, unfortunately, the state cannot do without ours.
[EXT. Grove]
(ADRIC is listening from the other side of the gate.)
KATURA [OC]: There are grave matters for us to discuss, Nyssa.
LUVIC [OC]: Come on, we'll take you home.
KATURA [OC]: Stay there until these things are settled.
(ADRIC watches as the two CONSULS lead NYSSA away. He creeps further into the grove.)
[INT. Melkur]
MELKUR: (watching ADRIC from the scanners) So, your sheep stray from the fold, Doctor.
[EXT. Grove]
DOCTOR [OC]: Psst.
ADRIC: Doctor?
(The DOCTOR places his hand over ADRIC's mouth from behind.)
DOCTOR: I thought I told you to stay with Nyssa.
ADRIC: Doctor, Doctor, I must speak to you.
DOCTOR: Shhhh-shhh. Can't it wait?
ADRIC: No.
DOCTOR: All right. Come on, through here.
(They head through the foliage.)
[INT. Stone hallways]
(SERON, with cane, passes through the corridors, with the other CONSULS following. The group stop.)
KATURA: So be it.
(SERON holds out his hand, and KATURA takes his ring.)
KATURA: Good luck, Seron. We wish you well.
(SERON and KASSIA both enter the sanctum.)
[INT. Vault]
ADRIC: The wave loop pattern's unmistakable.
TREMAS: Ah, you recognise the source of these energy emissions?
ADRIC: I thought they might be from some sort of a TARDIS. I don't know what the Doctor thinks.
DOCTOR: The Doctor thinks you might have a very good point. This certainly looks like a TARDIS generator, but you don't get shift ratios of this magnitude in an ordinary Type Forty. Adric, we have a flow-back flow inducer in the making here.
(He examines a hand-held piece of equipment.)
[INT. Sanctum]
SERON: (from the steps, with KASSIA behind him) Keeper of Traken, the consul's integrity is in doubt. I, therefore, claim Rapport with the Source so that you may make your judgement.
(KASSIA inserts her ring in a console beside the steps and flips a switch.)
[INT. Vault]
(The DOCTOR is making the piece of equipment into a larger, more cylindrical affair.)
DOCTOR: There we are, a fully fledged flow-back flow inducer.
TREMAS: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Yes?
(The Source Manipulator is making louder noises, and the globe is glowing and shifting colour more clearly.)
DOCTOR: What does that mean?
TREMAS: It means the Keeper is being summoned.
(They all run upstairs.)
[INT. Sanctum]
(A column of white light transfixes SERON, who gasps. He turns slowly through 360 degrees, and the light disappears. SERON stoops forward when released. The KEEPER winks into his chamber.)
SERON: (hoarsely) Your judgement, Keeper?
KEEPER: You are blameless, Seron, but doomed, and we are both betrayed.
(The KEEPER looks over at KASSIA and then disappears again.)
KASSIA: (as SERON stands and turns) Forgive me, Seron.
SERON: Consul Kassia!
(KASSIA's collar and eyes both begin to glow bright red.)
KASSIA: Forgive me, but I serve a greater purpose.
(Her eyes and collar glow red.)
SERON: Lost, degraded creature.
[INT. Melkur]
SERON [on Melkur monitors]: You betrayed your Keeper and your sacred consular vows? Kassia, reject this evil. Reject it.
[INT. Sanctum]
KASSIA: I cannot. Now, Melkur, now!
(Familiar bolts of energy lance out from her eyes, entering SERON's. He pitches forward onto the steps.)
[INT. Outside the sanctum, above the vault stairs]
TREMAS: (to the other two) You wait here.
[INT. Sanctum]
TREMAS: Kassia? Dead? Seron dead? How?
(She looks guilty and confused, with eyes back to normal.)
TREMAS: What have you done, Kassia?
KASSIA: Tremas, my husband, I-
(She can say no more. She puts her hand to the collar. Then, the main door opens.)
KASSIA: (addressing the other CONSULS) Seron is dead, rejected by the Keeper.
TREMAS: No!
KASSIA: Melkur is the cause of his destruction. Melkur. And those are his agents.
(She points at the DOCTOR and ADRIC, who are in the doorway leading toward the vault.)
LUVIC: Seron, and now you, Tremas? Is nothing sacred any more? Fosters, take them.
DOCTOR: Quick, the vault. The vault.
(TREMAS and ADRIC follow him.)
KASSIA: Leave them. Come with me. (She walks briskly away.)
[INT. Vault]
(The DOCTOR fetches the piece of equipment he has modified.)
TREMAS: Hurry, Doctor.
ADRIC: But we can't get out. There are Fosters at the other door to the grove.
DOCTOR: You're forgetting about the TARDIS, Adric. Come on, come on.
[EXT. Grove]
(The DOCTOR switches on the flow-back flow inducer.)
DOCTOR: Wait, wait, wait.
ADRIC: Will it work?
DOCTOR: Well, give it a moment or two. (the beeping speeds up) Trust me. If you come up with a better idea, let me know.
MELKUR: Doctor, recovering the TARDIS won't help you.
DOCTOR: So you're the cause of all this.
MELKUR: Turn off your instrument.
DOCTOR: (as the statue's eyes start to glow) Adric, Tremas, don't look at its eyes.
ADRIC: Doctor, look!
(The TARDIS appears. But the voice from the statue only laughs, and soon KASSIA has walked up and stood in front of the TARDIS doors.)
TREMAS: Kassia, help us!
KASSIA: Yes, help me, Tremas.
(She holds her hands out toward him, then gasps and grabs at her collar. TREMAS runs to her and tries to remove it for her.)
KASSIA: Don't look. Not my eyes.
(Her eyes have already started to glow, and TREMAS's eyes soon receive energy bolts. TREMAS falls backward, and the DOCTOR catches him.)
DOCTOR: He should be all right. Come on - he's only stunned.
(The DOCTOR and ADRIC heft TREMAS between them and stand. A net then lowers over all three of them. A FOSTER approaches, pressing a button. Energy is sent through the net, and ADRIC falls. The DOCTOR seems about to follow suit.)
KASSIA: (approaching the statue) It is done, Melkur.
MELKUR: Oh no, Kassia. It is only beginning.
The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl
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