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The Trial
of a Time Lord
by Philip Martin
Part Six
"Doctor," trills Sil, "We have the means to instill cooperation, and
the technology to alter how brains think. Would you like to try the
helmet on for size?"
The Doctor begins to leave, saying he wouldn't just now.
Sil waves his hand to the nearest guards, and they seize the Doctor.
He tells the Doctor he insists, adding that their warrior king has
probably completed his advancement cycle, and that the Doctor must
replace him, "so we may coax the truth from your devious brain!"
The guards force the Doctor to a stretcher, while he protests that he
is sufficiently advanced already. He is forced down.
"Silence, or you will be obliterated!" orders Sil.
The guards take the stretcher's straps and use them to fasten the Doctor
down.
"Now," asks Sil, "the Raak didn't attack you, did he Doctor?"
"Yes, it did!" insists the Doctor.
Sil asks Crozier if he can use the helmet to extract the truth of what
happened. Crozier replied that he's never tried, and that it could be
fatal if it were used as a means of interrogation. He doesn't sound very
concerned one way or the other about that, however.
"The Doctor won't mind donating his sanity to the advancement
of science," smiles Sil. "Will you Doctor?" he asks gleefully.
Crozier switches on the power to the helmet now strapped to the Doctor's
curly-locked head. The machine whines, and the Doctor's face contorts
in pain. He writhes violently against the straps.
Sil laughs hysterically . . .
Suddenly King Yrcanos screams a blood oath and breaks free of his bonds now
that the brain alteration helmet is not being used on him.
Crozier cuts the power and runs over to protect the bare brain in the corner
of the room as King Yrcanos storms around the room in rage and starts
trashing the place. He smashes equipment. He picks up beakers and test
tubes and slams them to the floor, breaking them in every case.
The guards in the room draw their phasers and prepare to fire until Sil
shouts an almost unintelligible order that Yrcanos is not to be killed as
they need him alive to sign contracts.
Yrcanos calls Sil slime and hurls something in his direction. He turns
and throws some other jugs towards Crozier, missing the man he calls a
demon and a soul-stealer.
In the confusion, Peri has been freed from the graps of the guards
restraining her and she has freed the Doctor from his bonds. She is
struggling to get him to his feet when Yrcanos enthusiastically runs to
their side and shouts in his voice that has a built-in cave as a resonance
chamber, "Fear not friend, I've taken the brain-purge and _survived_!!"
He punctuates this with a hardy shove to the Doctor's back which throws
the extremely dazed Doctor almost to the ground, with only Peri standing
between him and the floor.
Yrcanos starts smashing some more equipment on free-standing consoles, and
Sil shouts for the guards to stop him. Two rush forward to do so, but
Yrcanos' enormous arms reach out and catch each guard at the base of the
neck. He shouts "Die!" and that's what the guards appear to do, collapsing
to the floor.
Only Sil's bearer remains, and he stays near him to act as personal bodyguard.
Peri is dragging the Doctor out the door as best she can. Yrcanos now
calmly and nobly walks towards the door, picking up his royal battle crown
along the way. He stops by the door and intones alien-sounding words of
nobility, crossing his arms together in the air. He then follows Peri
and the Doctor out the door.
Yrcanos now leads the way down a tunnel. He is running, and takes off his
helmet-like wide crown. Peri struggles to lead the still extremely
confused Doctor down the corridor. She asks Yrcanos if they can please
rest a moment, and Yrcanos does stop.
Peri stands the Doctor up against the cavern tunnel wall and tries to wake
him from the daze he's in with some slaps on the cheek and calls of his title.
Yrcanos looks into his eyes and tells Peri they should open a vein to let
out the evil those devils have put into him.
Peri tries to tell the Doctor her name, but his vacant eyes show no response.
His mouth starts to say something though, as though on its own.
"So. . far. . . up above myself. . . on the table down below. .. "
Yrcanos becomes angry again and starts pacing back and forth. He grumbles
that the Mentors are sorcerers and evil demons.
His pacing becomes more energetic as he starts to actually shout.
"They have my equerry, *Dorf*, in a dungeon somewhere!! We must release
him or _die_ in the attempt!!"
The Doctor seems to be sinking down the wall, and Peri can't stop him.
Yrcanos turns and asks Peri if they were captured by the slugs who rule
this ball of mud and water. Before she can answer him (she's having
bigger problems with the still-sinking Doctor), Yrcanos goes on another
rant rage and paces some more.
"We must find some weapons! Some of those that turn one's enemies to
slime. We must _kill_ all those who stand between us and victory!
We'll *g*g*g*r*r*r*r**r**r**ind every last slug beneath out feet! Yes?!?"
Peri looks up at him from where she is kneeling now beside the still-sinking
Doctor and tells him she just wants to get out of here.
Yrcanos bends down and picks Peri up. He looks at her with bulging cheeks
and firey eyes. "We must raise an army and attack and destroy the Mentors,
Yes!?!?"
"Sure, anything you say," smiles Peri at the man she thinks has some gears
in the accelerator when they should be in the brakes.
Yrcanos picks up the now-sitting and still dazed Doctor off the floor and
tells him his mind will soon clear. "We'll pile the heads of our enemies
before us like melons in a heap!!"
The Doctor suddenly smiles like he wants to cook a cat and laughs,
"I Would Enjoy That!!!"
Peri asks "What?" in surprise at his reaction.
Yrcanos tells Peri he likes him and that they will campaign together,
but first they must march.
The Doctor turns to Peri, imitating Yrcanos' proud stance.
Yrcanos asks what the Doctor's name is, and Peri tells him his title.
Yrcanos suddenly hisses between his teeth and rattles off his own title.
"I am Yrcanos. King of the Krontep, Lord of the Vingten, Conqueror of
the Tonkonp Empire, but you no doubt know all this."
Peri says she caught some of that about around seven.
Yrcanos asks her for her name and title.
"Perpugilliam," she answers. "Of the Brown."
Yrcanos looks impressed. "The Brown, eh?" he asks. He then considers
and seems to not know who the Brown are. He asks Peri where this place is.
Peri tells him its on Earth, and that he'd like it there as its full of
madmen playing at warriors and actors who play over the top in politics.
Yrcanos asks for a definition of the word "politics."
Peri tells him it means yackety-yak and talk.
Yrcanos smiles in enthusiastic understanding, whistles a low note suddenly,
and tells her she means War Councils.
Peri says she thinks he's right, but that she doesn't really know or want
to know.
Yrcanos happily tells her he'd like to meet the mighty warriors of Earth,
and she tells him he'd get along well with them.
Yrcanos asks Peri if she is "promised" to such a warrior, then points at
the Doctor and asks if its him.
"Certainly not," retorts Peri in disgust.
"Ah!" smiles Yrcanos in lust. "That is good." He places his enormous
black-gloved hands over Peri's cheeks.
Peri looks at his bearded face nervously and then tells him she must help
the Doctor. She struggles out of Yrcanos' grasp easily and bends over
to the Doctor, who is again sitting on the floor and is now repeating
badly the whistle note Yrcanos just made.
Peri tries to get him to wake up, but the Doctor just whistles again.
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"I don't remember that!" cries the Doctor. He stands from his seat and
the evidence on the screen stops. The members of the Court turn to face him.
He suddenly realizes with surprise that he can't recall anything after the
point where the power flooded through his brain.
The Valeyard is instantly skeptical. He gets up and asks the Doctor with
a sneer if amnesia is now to be his defense. He then turns to the Inquisitor
and tells her this is a tactic on the Doctor's part because he knows what
the Matrix will show.
The Inquisitor turns and carefully asks the Doctor if amnesia is to be his
defense.
The Doctor looks at her with confusion all over his face and finally manages
to tell her no.
The Inquisitor asks him if his mind has cleared from being taken out of Time,
and he tells her it has as far as he can tell.
The Inquisitor doesn't seem to doubt his sincerity and voices her belief
that there must be some other reason for it.
"He lies, Sagacity," says the Valeyard angrily.
"I Do Not!" demands the Doctor.
The Valeyard, even more skeptically, tells the Doctor that he's in for a
surprise which will be exceedingly nasty if his memory is as fallible as
he pretends.
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Prosection Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
Kiv has joined Sil inside the laboratory and is seated on one of the
examination beds. Sil is on his bearer couch.
Crozier is examining the main overhanging equipment complex and surveying
the damage done to it.
Kiv is telling him that they must have the "transformer" operable, as
they won't be able to rule without its influence.
Crozier assured him that long before his servants realize their situation,
the device will be repaired.
Kiv changes the subject angrily and quickly and asks about his own
predicament, as the pain in his head is increasing.
Crozier calmly tells him that his skull is not designed to allow for an
increase in brain power and size, and that this is the trouble with
mutations and hybrids like Kiv. "Your cranium is too thick, it lacks
elasticity, hence the pain."
Kiv seems to have a nasty headache again and he waves to Crozier to go on
and get to the point.
Crozier tells him that unless he can operate soon, Kiv will suffer fatal
brain compression in a few days. He almost casually presses a button the
unit.
Kiv angrily shouts that Crozier was brought to Thoros Beta to rectify that
and to give him new life.
Crozier sees Kiv needs some calming down and comes around to talk to Kiv
human face to mutation face. He persuasively tells his Lord that the
Doctor has the answers he needs. He has to know if the Raak attacked them
or if they slaughtered the creature first because if it did attack them
first, then he must have reverted genetically on the cerebral transfer
experiment and therefore the surgery he hopes to apply to the Lord Kiv
will not be successful.
Kiv denounces this all as words and excuses. He says this is part of a
conspiracy to stop his life from being prolonged.
Sil throws in his small weight and assures Kiv that the intruders will
be caught, and that they will answer Crozier's questions or be killed.
"Or I will," shouts Kiv, "thanks to your bungling, Sil!"
"Not mine, Magnificence," protests Sil in panic, "His!" He points at
Crozier and goes on in growing hysteria. "All I want it to share in
the light of your intelligence and profit from its shining wisdom!"
Kiv looks like he's being battered by a gale force wind. He weaves
back and forth and says, "Please. . . "
Sil won't be stopped, however. "The Mentors of Thoros Beta need your
genius for Cosmic MegaProfit. Those Alphans whose stars have decreed
they serve you simply *adore* you. . . "
"Enough, Sil!" shouts Kiv at last. "Or do you intend to talk me to death?"
"I will pray to the Great Morgo for your immediate recovery, Magnificence,"
promises Sil.
"You will do better than that!" orders Kiv. "If the Doctor has the answers,
you will find him or you both will share my death with me! I can only
stand this pain for one more day. One day! That is all you both have!
Now do something!!"
"At once, Magnificence!" shouts Sil in panic. He motions at his couch
wildly and tells his bearers to bring him away. "Bring me away!
Bring me away! Faster! Come on, Faster! Faster. . ."
Two large circle-like portals dominate the rear of a very large hall-like
chamber. Both portals seem to have inbuilt spotlights that shine down
on their bases. Guards stand at the sides of them while docile looking
people in yellow robes are led to stand beneath one of the portals.
A computerized voice intones, "Subject accepted. Proceed with implantation."
The person standing in the portal is led by a guard forward towards and
around a corner of computer equipment to a bank of tall sleeper berths
that are backlit with a fierce white light. The righthand most of these
is already occupied by someone else in yellow robes, and the new person
is led to the berth on that person's left.
The commanding officer of the guards seen earlier enters quickly and around
the portals on the right side to where Sil is being held up by his bearers
on the room's side as though to report to Sil.
Sil asks if the intruders have been caught yet, and the officer reluctantly
admits they have not. Sil seethes and squeezes his fin-like hands angrily.
In an adjoining tunnel, Yrcanos, Peri, and the Doctor stop for a moment.
Yrcanos motions for the Doctor and Peri to stay behind while he moves ahead.
The Doctor appears more lucid now, but he still has a supercilious grin on
his face.
Yrcanos appears behind the crowd of robed people as the computer voice
says something about the next subject being rejected. He looks around
and smiles and then turns back down the tunnel.
Peri asks Yrcanos what's going on, and Yrcanos whispers (yet still seems
to somehow shout) that this is the place where all new slaves are brought,
but tells his "Lady" that it is more important that here they have weapons.
"Weapons!!!" shouts the Doctor, like he can't wait to get going. Yrcanos
and Peri hiss at him to be quiet.
Yrcanos goes on to say that the guards here have liquefiers that they
must obtain quietly. The Doctor smiles in anticipation.
Peri asks if this includes her, and Yrcanos tells her that on his planet
a warrior queen fights alongside her king. Peri reminds him they're
not on his planet. Yrcanos says that doesn't matter. "The rule still
applies." He turns and looks down the corridor.
Sil asks the guard officer which tunnels and corridors have yet to be
searched. The officer says that only those leading to the Sea of Turmoil
haven't been searched yet.
"Then search them, profitless fool!" orders Sil in disgust.
The officer turns and beckons two guards to follow him. He heads for a
corridor behind Sil.
From behind the crowd of people, King Yrcanos begins to sneak his way
in, followed by Peri and the Doctor.
As Yrcanos approaches the first guard and is about to attack, the Doctor
suddenly calls cheerfully, "Look out behind you!"
The guards turn in surprise. Yrcanos looks at the Doctor for a moment
and then attacks and knocks unconscious the guard he was going to attack
anyway. The guard officer and his guards run in and trip over the fallen
guard Yrcanos already tackled.
Yrcanos shouts, "Traitorous Doctor!" and runs for the side exit.
The officer and the other two guards get up, draw their phasers, and set
off in pursuit.
Peri suddenly runs in from the crowd of people and stops by the fallen
guard. She picks up his CD phaser and points it in Sil's direction.
She looks at Sil in panic, possibly because she doesn't know how to
operate the phaser and possibly because she can't bring herself to fire it
right at him. She calls for the Doctor to come and help her.
The Doctor seems to be casually strolling around the room, looking at
equipment and patting confused members of the crowd on their heads.
"No thanks," he says almost playfully.
Sil calls to the guards standing in the back who are unsure what to do.
"Charge her down!"
Peri panics and fires the phaser sort of at Sil's couch. The side of
it explodes in a shower of sparks and Sil rocks himself away as best he can.
Peri throws the weapon to the floor in fear of it and tears off down the
corridor Yrcanos went down.
The Doctor calmly walks over to Sil, and Sil seems to recover. He tells
the Doctor that the pleasure of his company is, of course, infinite, but
he is wondering why he's chosen toward him rather than his friends.
The Doctor explains as if it were obvious that the odds were against them,
and asks Sil why he should want to risk his life for "a savage and a stupid
girl?"
Sil smiles in disbelief. "So, you betrayed your friends? How wonderfully
wise, Doctor."
The Doctor smiles and says he thought it was.
Sil's smile turns sly and tells the Doctor that he is, of course, planning
some trickery and that this is a ploy.
The Doctor asks why he should follow a mad War Lord of Thordon. "What's in
it for me, eh?"
"You value your life?" asks Sil incrediously.
"I'm no hero," sighs the Doctor.
Sil tells him he could have sworn he belonged to that stupid breed.
"Not anymore," says the Doctor with a gleam in his eye. "Now, I'm just
like you, Sil!"
Sil tells the Doctor this is very nice for him, and then tells his closest
bearer to go and inform Crozier and the Lord Kiv that he has captured the
Doctor. "The turncoat Doctor, it seems."
The Doctor looks at Sil with a proud smile on his face.
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"No! That is not me!" exclaims the Doctor, getting to his feet.
The Valeyard stands as well and informs him gladly that it is him.
"You were overcome by terror, Doctor. You had interfered, yet again,
and this time your only aim was to escape unscathed. You! You only!
Your friends didn't matter!"
"Never!" retorts the Doctor, yet he seems a little uncertain.
"You realize the Matrix of Time cannot lie," says the Valeyard.
"Can't it?" asks the Doctor quietly.
"I suggest you confess to your crimes and throw yourself on the mercy of
this Court," offers the Valeyard.
The Doctor doesn't speak.
The Inquisitor asks, "Doctor?"
The Doctor seems to slowly wake up, and he suddenly realizes something.
"Of course! Sil was right! It was a ploy to fool the Mentors! Clever
old me! Let the Matrix show what it will! A clever ploy! You'll see!"
He smiles and gladly takes his seat.
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Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
One of the Mentor's guards has a CD phaser aimed straight at the Doctor's face.
Both stand inside Crozier's lab.
Sil is seated nearby on his couch, and he declares the Doctor to be lying,
and he says he doesn't trust him.
The Doctor nervously looks at the phaser and asks them to believe he's telling
the truth as he wouldn't lie since its not in his nature.
Crozier regards him as coolly as he regards everything else and tells Sil
there's no way the Doctor can know the reason they're concerned.
The Doctor insists the Raak attacked them first, again.
Crozier decides he believes the Doctor, then sets to work on the machinery
saying that he'll have to redesign the behavior modifier before he transfers
the brain of Lord Kiv.
Sil asks him if he has time, and Crozier responds, "Not really!"
Sil reminds Crozier that if the Lord Kiv dies, Kiv's bodyguards will act
on their instructions to destroy them all, and that Crozier must operate
not only to safe Kiv's life but all their lives.
Crozier asks what he's supposed to operate with as the War Lord destroyed
most of the transference circuitry. He adds that if it can be repaired,
he might attempt a temporary transplant.
Sil reminds Crozier angrily that Kiv has allowed them only one more day.
Crozier slightly testily says he knows.
"We pay enough," says Sil, "We have given you a whole race of people to
play with!"
The Doctor interrupts politely and tells them he understands a little of
he transference unit principle and that he has some knowledge of
technological malfunctions. He asks Crozier if there is a microcircuitry
diagram he could look at.
Sil orders the guards to stop the Doctor as its probably a trick.
Crozier tells Sil to let the Doctor look as there's nothing to lose.
Sil tells Crozier to be certain he's right about that.
Crozier examines consoles beneath the main unit while the Doctor climbs a
ladder and examines different connections. He asks a question about
replacement parts for a certain unit and whether or not he can adapt
something else. Crozier answers that the parts in question are
multifunctional.
This meets with the Doctor's approval, and he circles the machine making
certain adjustments here and there. He asks Crozier if he's tested a
certain component, and when Crozier answers no, the Doctor suggests he
do so now as it should be responding.
Crozier presses a switch and the computer responds with a positive-sounding
bleep. "Well done!" says Crozier, who actually smiles for once.
Sil looks at the Doctor with suspicious eyes and tells the Doctor how
suspicious he thinks all this is.
Crozier tells Sil in no uncertain terms that he's going to need the Doctor
helping out on the BTU in order to be able to operate the next day on Kiv.
"Or on someone else first," completes Sil with a smile. "After all, we
will need a body donor." He looks gladly at the Doctor. "Yes, Doctor?"
Peri is wandering around the tunnel system, lost. She comes upon a large
door like the other doors to important places and she looks through the
barred window to see what's inside.
Inside is a complex control room with several monitor screens and some
yellow-robed slaves at the controls.
"I see you have found the heart of our energy supply," says a voice Peri
knows well now as the guard officer.
She turns around and sees him standing alone with a smug smile on his face
at having found her. She tells him its very impressive but that she thinks
it would have warranted a guard.
The officer tells her that, as a rule, intruders never get this far in,
but he will put her suggestion to the Lord Kiv.
Peri tells him to do that, and while he's about it, "Pass this along as well,"
and she kicks him hard on the foot. The officer doubles over and Peri
runs down the tunnel.
King Yrcanos is also meandering through the tunnels, looking warily for
guards. Because of this he sees the creature leaping at him from the
darkness and grabs it by the shoulders before it can hurt him.
"Down dog!" shouts Yrcanos at the creature the guard officer earlier
called the Lukoser.
The Lukoser looks at Yrcanos suddenly with recognition and tries to form
words. He succeeds and says, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" although with
something that sounds like laryngitis.
Yrcanos suddenly recognizes who he's looking at and looks in horror at
the person who he used to know as his equerry, Dorf, whose name he speaks.
Dorf the Wolfman asks Yrcanos for help, and the king obliges. He pulls
against the manacles holding him and with a cry of strength he pulls
them completely apart, releasing Dorf from his leash.
Yrcanos looks at Dorf again and growls that they will kill these sorcerers.
"I swear by the Great Jeweled Sword of Krontep, you will be revenged!"
He tells Dorf to follow as he leads the way down another tunnel.
Peri walks down a corridor different from the others in that there is a
strip of blue strobing light in the middle of the ceiling running up and
down the length that flashes as though something were travelling down the tube.
She spots two women coming in her direction and takes cover. Other guards
come close by and she ducks inside a door.
King Yrcanos and Dorf are being pursued down another corridor by guards
of their own. Yrcanos shouts the way for Dorf.
Peri closes a door behind her and moves through what appears to be a
room decorated in purple robes. She stops behind vertical-running blinds
and jumps back with a start as a hand reaches forward and pulls them back.
Matrona stands behind where the blinds were and asks Peri if she
is a reject from the induction center or if she escaped.
Peri begins to answer the question, but Matrona cuts her off and circles
Peri, telling her she should inform the guards and have her sent to
Thoros Alpha.
Peri asks if there is an alternative, and Matrona answers that Peri was
to have served the Mentors and their favored creatures. She tells Peri
that she controls the women servants and for that job she needs loyal help.
"I'd serve you?" asks Peri. "Why?"
Matrona tells her she prefers some individuality in her household. She
warns her, however, that if she is discovered as an escaped reject, she
will deny this meeting ever took place. She asks Peri for her name, and
she gives it. She asks if Peri wishes to serve her, and Peri answers,
"What have I got to lose, huh?"
Matrona gives her her own name and then takes Peri deeper into the
household to prepare her.
King Yrcanos and Dorf stop in the corridor they're in and Yrcanos says
they've lost their pursuers.
Dorf takes the chance to ask Yrcanos to kill him.
Yrcanos looks at him in disbelief and reminds him of who he is, and that
whatever has happened to his body, his spirit has to remain the same.
He tells Dorf to die in battle if he must die, and to keep that hatred
burning inside him for when he finds the man who did this to him.
Yrcanos adds that there is someone here who has betrayed him.
Dorf asks about this, and Yrcanos smiles a nasty-looking smile and
answers, "I have a special death reserved for him. He is a traitor known
as. . . the Doctor!"
Matrona leads a party of four of her women servants including Peri towards
the door to the Commerce room. All the servants are covered from head to
toe in yellow and purple robes and veils. She stops in front of the door and
tells Peri to wait outside but has the others follow her in.
Inside the room, the Doctor is seated on a chair while Kiv and Sil sit
opposite each other in their usual places on the slimy seats they normally
sit in. Matrona and the servants enter.
One of the servants brings a drink in a large goblet to the Doctor. He
sips from it.
Kiv suddenly gasps in pain and clutches his head again. Crozier gets
up from the corner he was sitting in and tells Matrona to fetch the Lord
Kiv's ambiotic fluid immediately.
Matrona leaves the room and tells Peri to come back inside with her as she
is carrying the medication.
Peri is alarmed by the Doctor's presence inside and she tells Matrona she
can't go inside. Matrona threatens to denounce Peri if she doesn't come in,
and Peri reluctantly follows inside with the fluid.
Once inside, Peri hands the medication over to Matrona, and Matrona
administers it to the Lord Kiv.
The Doctor looks at Peri somewhat suspiciously and arrogantly calls to her
to come and get him a drink that he likes as he doesn't like this one.
Matrona advises Peri to say, "yes, my Lord."
Peri throws her voice down three registers and says, "Yes, My Lord."
While Peri goes to get another drink, Kiv relaxes from his treatment and
says the pain is better. He asks Matrona to stay near him as he trusts
her. Matrona tells him that this is a great honor.
Kiv goes on to say how much he doesn't like having to put his life in
the hands of the Crozier the next day.
Matrona sprays Kiv with water gently and tells him she is sure the
operation will be successful.
Kiv is still depressed by the equal odds of living or dying, but admits he
has no choice.
Sil pipes up in between mouthfuls of marsh minnows and tells Matrona Kani
to only serve the Lord Kiv the most wrigglesome of soft sand snakes.
Matrona angrily gets up and rounds on Sil, telling him she doesn't need
him to tell her that.
Peri brings the Doctor his new drink, but the Doctor suddenly looks angry.
He gets to his feet and cries, "What is in this drink?"
Peri says in her normal voice that she was just given it, but that it is
something different and that's all he asked for. She uses his title aloud.
Kiv hears this and asks the Doctor how this servitor knows of his title.
The Doctor reaches and lifts Peri's veil to show her face. He is unsurprised,
but everyone else is. He tells everyone that this is an enemy.
"The girl who ran earlier. She may have been trying to poison us all!"
Sil realizes who she is with a smile and calls her the Repulsive One.
He orders that she be arrested, and guards seize her. Sil further orders
that she be interrogated thoroughly and to this end she is to be taken to
the Rock of Sorrows.
Sil once again begins laughing his hysterical liquid laugh, and the Doctor
smiles smugly as Peri cries for his help.
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"That's the ploy, I remember now!" shouts the Doctor enthusiastically.
He turns to the Court and tells everyone that the plot was to remove both
himself and Peri from the heart of the Mentor's control section. He
was gambling that after he had helped fix the brain transference unit,
they might let him question Peri alone.
The Valeyard asks to what end this would be, and the Doctor answers that
it would be escape, he imagines.
The Inquisitor asks if the interrogation took place, and the Valeyard answers
that it did. She tells him she would like to see that sequence, and the
Valeyard obliges by keying it up on his control pad.
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Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
Ocean water crashes onto the rocks of the beach and over Peri's legs.
She is chained up to a rock, probably what Sil called the Rock of Sorrows,
and the implication is that the tide is coming in and that she will drown
when it reaches over her head.
"What do you want?" cries Peri.
The Doctor stands over her and points an accusing finger. He tells her
that the Mentor Sil fears a conspiracy against the Lord Kiv and that she
is a spy for the Alphans.
Peri asks, "What?" not knowing what he's talking about. She asks him to
stop this.
The Doctor suddenly lies down next to her and whispers in her ear. He
tells her that now they're alone they can talk.
Peri sighs with relief and tells him she thought that the brain transference
pulse had made him crazy.
The Doctor tells her he is her friend, and she tells him how she was
beginning to wonder.
He tells her he's there to help her, and Peri asks how she can get out of
this.
The Doctor's tone suddenly changes again and he tells her she has to
tell him where the Alphans are that are leading the unrest and where they
can be annhilated.
"What?" asks Peri again.
"Tell me!" demands the Doctor.
Peri says she doesn't know anything.
The Doctor demands she answer him, and then evilly points out how the tide
is on the turn, and that she must tell him everything unless she wants to
add her own despair to the Rock of Sorrows.
Sil and Crozier watch the interrogation on a monitor screen from inside
the Commerce chamber.
Sil giggles gleefully and says this is just like in the old days, and
there's nothing more enjoyable than watching people suffer. . .
He writhes in giggles and Crozier looks down on him with a look that just
could possibly be disgust, but its difficult to tell.
The Doctor holds Peri's head by the top, and he tells her into her face
that she must confess. She asks what she should confess to, and the
Doctor suggests her guilt, bungling, her Alphan friends, and everything
else.
"You must help the Mentors, Peri. You must help me!"
Peri asks the Doctor what is wrong with him, and the Doctor tells her
flat out that he sees his own interests and places himself first.
Peri asks, "But what about me?"
"You are expendable! You have no value!" answers the Doctor. "Tomorrow,
they intend to take the brain of the Lord Kiv and transplant it into my
body! He will possess my body! To prevent that I must please the
Mentors, Peri. If that means sacrificing you in my place, then that is
the way it must be!"
Crozier's voice suddenly echoes over the beach as though from an intercom
and he tells the Doctor to stop and not damage her as they have more
effective means of interrogation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Doctor stands and insists to the Court that it was never like that.
The Valeyard stands with a smile and asks how he can be certain as he has
no clear memory of the event, as though taunting a starving man with a
dog biscuit. He adds that they all know the Matrix never lies.
The Doctor says he wonders.
The Inquisitor wearily asks if they can continue as she is growing tired
of these constant interruptions.
The Doctor insists a second time that the interrogation wasn't as they've
just seen.
The Inquisitor tells the Doctor she's heard enough, and that he knows the
Matrix cannot lie. She asks why he's persisting in such silly statements
in light of this.
The Doctor opens his mouth as though to say something, then changes his
mind, nods, and sits down.
The Inquisitor says, "Let us proceed," and the Valeyard reactivates the
Matrix screen. The picture changes from the gray board to an image
of guards leading the Doctor and Peri down a corridor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
A party consisting first of a guard, then the Doctor and Peri, and then
a rear guard pass by a corridor junction. Around the corner are Dorf and
King Yrcanos. They watch the passing party, and Dorf recognizes the Doctor.
He asks if they will attack, and Yrcanos tells them, "Of course. That dreg
helping the Mentors _is_my_enemy!"
The first of the party of guards stops before the cell door and bends down
to input a security code on the door.
Peri looks at the Doctor and asks what has happened to him.
"Why do you hate me so?"
"I must do what I think it best," answers the Doctor with a hint of assurance
in his voice.
"I used to think that you were different," says Peri, trying to hold back
angry sobs, "that you cared for justice and truth and good. I can't bear
to look at what you are now!"
Suddenly the rear guard is attacked by the enormous frame of King Yrcanos,
shouting "Sohraantaap!" The first guard and then his fellow is attacked
and both are felled.
Yrcanos bends down and picks up one of the guard's CD phasers. He points
it straight at the Doctor and makes it clear what he's about to do. . .
"Now, Doctor. . . It is your turn to die!!!"
The Doctor's look of fear flickers from a strobe of blue light from the ceiling.
The Doctor
COLIN BAKER
Peri
NICOLA BRYANT
The Valeyard
MICHAEL JAYSTON
The Inquisitor
LYNDA BELLINGHAM
King Yrcanos
BRIAN BLESSED
Crozier Sil
PATRICK RYECART NABIL SHABAN
Kiv The Lukoser
CHRISTOPHER RYAN THOMAS BRANCH
Frax Matrona Kani
TREVOR LAIRD ALIBE PARSONS
Incidental Music Special Sound
RICHARD HARTLEY DICK MILLS
Production Manager Production Associate Production Assistant
KEVAN VAN THOMPSON ANGELA SMITH KAREN JONES
Assistant Floor Manager O.B. Lighting O.B. Sound
ANNA PRICE COLIN WIDGERY MIKE JOHNSTONE
Visual Effects Designer Video Effects Technical Co-ordinator
PETER WRAGG DANNY POPKIN ALAN ARBUTHNOTT
Studio Camera Supervisor Videotape Editor
ALEC WHEAL STEPHEN NEWNHAM
Studio Lighting Studio Sound
DON BABBAGE BRIAN CLARK
Costume Designer Make-Up Designer
JOHN HEARNE DORKA NIERADZIK
Script Editor
ERIC SAWARD
Desinger
ANDREW HOWE-DAVIES
Producer
JOHN NATHAN-TURNER
Director
RON JONES
(C) BBC MCMLXXXVI
First transmitted on 11 October, 1986.
This synopsis by Steven K. Manfred
Synopsis copyright July 20, 1994.
Permission is given to all to copy this synopsis as long as it is not for
reasons of profit.
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