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The Trial
of a Time Lord
by Philip Martin
Part Eight
Peri runs and is shot. She cries in pain and collapses.
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"No!" shouts the Doctor. "No, no, NO, I won't believe it!"
The Valeyard stands and smiles in anticipation of triumph.
"You still continue to ignore the truth!"
"I am not responsible for that!" cries the Doctor as though trying to convince
himself.
"In your mind, perhaps not," answers the Valeyard, "But in reality it is
somewhat different, Doctor!"
"Is Peri dead?" asks the Doctor slowly.
"No," answers the Valeyard.
The Inquisitor asks what the point was then of showing this last sequence,
and the Valeyard answers that it is simply as further evidence of the
Doctor's interference.
The Inquisitor doesn't mind telling him she thought it was somewhat
gratuitous.
"And highly prejudicial!" shouts a much relieved but angry Doctor. "You
won't convict me by using shock tactics!"
"I require nothing so crude, my dear Doctor," answers the Valeyard with a
mockingly pleasant smile. "All that will prove necessary is the truth."
"Then tell it," answers the Doctor.
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Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
King Yrcanos slowly wakes up from his position on the floor and tells
anyone who is listening about how much his head aches.
Peri is lying right next to him, and she also wakes, complaining of pains
or numbness in her arms and legs.
The guard officer looks down on them all and says they are fortunate to live.
Tuza manages to stand, and as he does he sarcastically tells him he knows
the only reason was so that the Mentors could experiment on them.
The officer tells Tuza to think of it as community service.
Yrcanos tells the officer that he was a fool to let them live, and adds
that he intended to kill him.
"But then you are a barbarian," says the officer coolly.
"And you're some angel of mercy, huh?" asks Peri.
The officer has had enough talk and tells everyone to get up. They slowly
and painfully all stand.
Peri asks how they knew where they were, and the officer says that they've
always known about the weapon dump of the rebels, as though he's surprised
they didn't know that they knew.
Tuza calls him a liar, saying they would've done something before now if
they knew.
The officer explains that the weapons concerned are only as good as the
training of the men using them, and that Tuza and his band are not warriors.
They acted now because Yrcanos is someone who is just enough in love with
death to inspire rabble like Tuza's into action. He notes that they were
correct in their assessment.
He shouts for the group to move, and they are herded out by the guards.
Kiv seems to be becoming delirious. He is repeating the words, "The sea"
over and over again, and then the words "Strong," "Too much!" "Sting!"
and "Strike!"
Crozier begins poking Kiv with a long cylindrical device.
Sil looks at Kiv in something like disgust and asks why his Lord is talking
of such things as he hates sea water.
The Doctor looks curious and asks Crozier who the original body for this
transplant belonged to. Crozier answers that it was "just a body."
The Doctor thinks this is incredibly casual, and Crozier looks up from
his exams to say that he was some fisherman, but that he had no choice
as it had taken weeks to find a body even remotely suitable.
The Doctor criticizes him, saying he thinks it would have been better if
he had waited.
As Crozier tells him there wasn't time, the Doctor peers through a
binocular-like scope on the side of the BTU and tells Crozier to take a
look for himself at what he's seeing. He is seeing that the host's
cells are trying to infect Kiv's brain and alter and distort his memory.
Crozier looks up from a console and casually diagnoses that a few of
these cells must have escaped the laserization.
"You have blundered!" shouts Sil angrily. "You have reduced the greatest
business brain in this part of the galaxy to a catcher of sea snakes!!"
The Doctor muses that it is perhaps the trauma of the donor's death that
is lingering and infecting Kiv's brain.
Crozier says he must try and rectify this. He tells Matrona to increase
the sevrin drip.
Sil seethes at them that the Lord Kiv must not only attend the day's
meeting but that he must also be capable of making sane decisions.
"If he is not, you will all _suffer_!"
Crozier promises that Kiv will be at the meeting, but he says he is unsure
whose body he will inhabit as they must transplant the brain again without
delay.
As he says this, he looks straight at the Doctor's head.
Another large safe-like door like all the others greets Yrcanos and his
would-be rebellion group.
Tuza complains that his head aches as one of the guards opens the cell door.
The officer tells Tuza to be grateful he still has it.
Dorf, Yrcanos, and Peri are forced inside the cell, but Tuza is held back
by the officer and led away under guard. The remaining guard closes the
cell door, checks it, and follows.
Inside the cell, Peri looks alarmed that Tuza is not with them, and she
asks Yrcanos if he knows why they want him.
Yrcanos speaks gloomily of execution one at a time.
Peri steps to the end of the cell and slumps down on the bench on the side
of the wall. She speaks softly of how its been strange that ever since
she's been on Thoros Beta she's been homesick, but not for a place, but
rather a time. She closes her eyes and says she just wants to be back on
her own with people she loves.
Yrcanos and Dorf look at her in confusion, and Yrcanos leans down and
says something softly for the first time. "And what is that? Love."
Peri looks surprised herself and tells Yrcanos that she guesses it means
"when you care for someone or something more than yourself."
Dorf looks amazed and whispers, "More than yourself?"
"Well, I know it sounds crazy," continues Peri, "But sometimes more than
life."
Yrcanos smiles and tells her he cares nothing for his.
"How can you say that, Yrcanos?" asks Peri.
He answers that on his planet of Krontep, when they die their spirit is
returned to life to be born into a more noble warrior.
Peri asks him curiously where one ends up after all one's brave deaths.
"You become a king!" says Yrcanos proudly. "Me, after my next death,
I join the other kings, on Veduna, the Home of the Gods!" His enormous
face beams in anticipation, brightening his bearded face.
Peri asks, "To do what?"
"Why to fight! What else?"
Peri says this figures, and begins to laugh. Yrcanos and Dorf begin
laughing as well.
Tuza occupies the bed in the lab once reserved for Yrcanos. He is lying
passively as Crozier places a large pincer-like measuring device over
his skull. He takes it off Tuza's head and looks at the reading on the
base of the device and depressingly realizes that Alphan brains are not
at all right for Kiv.
Matrona looks at the young man and asks Crozier if she should have him
implanted and sent to the induction center. Crozier seems to not to want
to be bothered by this, but says yes.
Crozier joins the Doctor on the other side of the lab and notes that it
was a terrible pity that both the Doctor and this Alphan are unsuitable.
The Doctor suddenly pays attention and then tells Crozier how willingly
he would have given up his own body, unlike Sil. He paces to the other
side of the lab.
Crozier has a thought and asks the Doctor about his companion.
The Doctor turns suddenly with a worried expression on his face and
somewhat unconvincingly says it would be hopeless, throwing the fact
that she's female in for good measure.
Matrona and Crozier are not at all convinced, and in fact Matrona suggests
they examine her. Crozier answers that he'll do just that.
The Doctor looks at Crozier very uncomfortably, as though he were trying
to think of something to say.
Crozier, cooly as ever, notes how uneasy the Doctor looks and asks what
the problem is.
The Doctor admits that he would prefer it if Crozier used someone else.
Crozier nods as though it were something he had suspected and notes
the Doctor's strong feelings for the woman.
The Doctor still tries to hold his vanir and say that he only has enough
to not want to see her be experimented on.
Crozier says he understands and is probably lying through his teeth when
he says he is not without pity. He suggests that the Doctor go to the
induction center and look for a candidate more suitable, and that if he
can come up with one, he'll use them.
The Doctor heads for the door very quickly, then stops as it opens for
Crozier has a warning.
"But Doctor, hurry, you haven't much time."
The Doctor seems to look more urgent and heads out the door.
The cell door is opened and Peri walks out to the waiting guards. At
the threshold, Yrcanos places his hand on her shoulder and tells her
quietly, "Die well, my Lady."
Peri has a distant look in her eyes as she calmly takes Yrcanos' hand from
her shoulder and follows the guards.
One guard closes the door, and Yrcanos looks out the small barred portal
and mutters a Krontepian oath.
The Doctor power walks into the induction center and is surprised to find
it now completely empty, unlike the last time he was here.
He looks around and spots a lone, elderly Mentor sleeping on a steam bath
adorned with rocks near an operator's console.
The Doctor looks at him and asks where everyone is.
The elderly Mentor jumps and tells him that there is only one subject here,
and he is in the implantation cubicle.
The Doctor looks around the corner of the bed berths a little and then
asks if he may examine the subject, as he has Crozier's permission.
The Mentor tells him he may, but yawns and asks that the Doctor try not
to disturb him.
The Doctor promises to be "as quiet as the silence that is in the starry
skies, only quieter still," and he quickly rounds the corner of the
white backlit leaning bed berths.
He finds the only occupied bed to have Tuza in it, the Alphan he'd just
seen back at the lab. He mutters the words, "Yrcanos, help me."
The Doctor steps up closer to Tuza's ear and asks if he knows Yrcanos.
Tuza answers that he does and then asks who the Doctor is.
The Doctor turns a little and says loudly for the benefit of the Mentor,
"A colleague of Crozier's," and then he leans close in to Tuza and
whispers the words, "A friend."
Crozier pulls the clamp measurer out of Peri's locks of brown hair and
says almost happily that she is a most promising subject. He walks
around the BTU and says he must arrange for antegen tests.
Peri recognizes this as a blood test and protests that she's not
marrying anyone.
Crozier looks up from a console and notes that Peri has spirit and strength.
He says he'll try to retain that if at all possible.
Peri looks a little scared and very confused.
The Doctor whispers to Tuza that he will return. He steps down off the
raised platform the berths stand on and walks back towards the main
chamber and the sleepy Mentor.
At the same time the guard officer walks in quickly and suspiciously
asks what the Doctor is doing here at the induction center.
The Mentor pipes up that the Doctor has Crozier's permission.
The officer turns and apologizes for not noticing he was in attendance.
The Mentor tells him not to pay attention to him, as few other people do.
The Doctor tells the officer that he'd like a word with the captured king.
"Yrcanos?!?" asks the officer, unbelieving his ears.
The Doctor smiles and says that's the guy, adding that he knows Crozier
won't mind.
The Mentor tells the officer to take the Doctor, but to be careful of
Yrcanos' noisy voice. "Plays havoc with the audio system," he adds,
gesturing feebly towards where his ears would be if he were human.
The Doctor thanks him for the warning, and the Mentor goes on to say he
had hoped they'd seen the last of such a noisy fellow.
King Yrcanos paces swiftly back and forth across the cell floor with his
headress in his hand. Dorf howls in sorrow.
Yrcanos looks down at him and tells him to stop doing that as he is a warrior,
not a wolf.
The officer leads the Doctor to the other side of the cell door, and as
soon as he sees him, Yrcanos runs over to the cell bars and shouts,
"Groonnitza!"
"How do you do?" asks the Doctor cheerily through the bars.
Yrcanos shouts another alien oath, and the Doctor asks the officer where
a well brought-up king would learn a word like that.
He gestures towards the door as though he wants to go in with Yrcanos.
The officer's eyes grow in disbelief, and he tells the Doctor he must be
out of his mind, as Yrcanos will kill him.
The Doctor smiles through the window again and says he doesn't think so.
The guard officer smiles at the Doctor and hands him his CD phaser, asking
him to cover him. He bends over and operates the lock on the door.
The Doctor looks in disbelief at the phaser now in his hand and then
shakes his head as though he can't believe how stupid the officer's just been.
The officer pulls the door open and holds it open to allow the Doctor to
enter and go to his death. The Doctor instead smiles at him and points the
phaser at his face.
The officer's face falls.
Yrcanos and Dorf come out the door, look at the Doctor, and Yrcanos says
"Groonnitza!" again. The Doctor tells him that's quite enough of that,
and gestures for the officer to get into the cell. The officer obeys
quietly, and Yrcanos adds some noise by shoving him in the door.
The Doctor swings the door shut and begins to address his Majesty and
Dorf, asking the latter for his name as he didn't catch it the last time
they met.
Dorf tries somewhat unsuccessfully to say his name, and Yrcanos handles
the introductions for him.
"His name is Dorf, and you are scum!"
"No," says the Doctor, "actually I am known as the Doctor, and there's
no need for you to thank me for helping you to escape." He smiles
and hands the phaser to Yrcanos, whose jaw drops in disbelief at what's
going on. The Doctor tells him to come along, and with eyebrows and
foreheads scraping the ceiling, Yrcanos and Dorf follow.
Bearers gently place Sil and Kiv in their usual seats in the Great
Commerce Room. Sil protests that Kiv is unwell and shouldn't have
left the shelter of Crozier's laboratory.
Kiv looks up at him and tells him that he's been given drugs to stabilize
his condition and keep him alert. He suddenly asks if he can smell fish.
Sil tells him that he has deep respect for Crozier's skill, and begins
to protest about something else when Kiv interrupts angrily and tells
him he has to attend this meeting or else they will all end up poor.
Sil squirms in revulsion.
Kiv asks him what he thinks is more important, his well-being, or his
own wealth.
Sil smiles and says this is a trick question, and that if Kiv feels fit
enough to cope, he will not contradict.
The door to the room opens and the red-colored, robed alien seen earlier
enters the room. Kiv calls him "Ambassador," and the Ambassador
replies in a series of middle-pitched music-like tones.
Kiv welcomes the Ambassador profusely and asks him to come in and rest
himself.
The Doctor runs down a corridor with a catwalk-like floor and the blue
strobing tunnel lights above. Yrcanos and Dorf follow at a distance
and then suddenly stop. Yrcanos demands, "I must know!"
The Doctor stops impatiently and asks what he means.
Yrcanos tells him he will not take another step until he is told the truth.
The Doctor seems surprised and asks him again.
Yrcanos asks why he released them, and the Doctor walks back reluctanty
to explain things. He tells Yrcanos that he needs his help to defeat the
Mentors. Yrcanos says he understands that, but what he doesn't understand
is that the Doctor is his sworn enemy, and that he has vowed to kill him.
The Doctor tells him they can deal with all this later and that at the
moment they need each other.
Dorf whispers that the Doctor has a point.
Yrcanos angrily mutters that everyone seems to have a point these days,
and declares that he is a man of action, not reason.
The Doctor tells him not to worry, as he'll see plenty of action.
The king tells the Doctor to lead on, then stops and says they must first
find is bride-to-be. The Doctor doesn't believe this and tells Yrcanos
he hasn't got time to go courting.
Yrcanos lets him know he's talking about "Perpugilliam of the Brown."
The Doctor's eyes widen and he nods and tells Yrcanos that they'll find
her on the way.
The guard officer calls from the cell to a passing guard. The guard
comes to the door and at the officer's order opens the door.
"Yrcanos has escaped!" shouts the officer in controlled panic and he and
the guard set off down the tunnel.
Peri is lying on the now-familiar bed in the lab and asks if she is fit
and healthy. She cries in surprise as Matrona fastens a belt across
Peri's stomach that holds her down.
Crozier tells her that she is perfectly healthy, and Matrona next places
a cotton swab-like gag over Peri's mouth that she fastens with a strap
around her head. Peri struggles against the straps and tries to mumble
protests.
Crozier looks down at her and lets her know that he thinks he can serve
Lord Kiv his finest experiment yet.
Peri squirms and tries to cry out.
Yrcanos, the Doctor, and Dorf stop at the entrance to the induction
center. Yrcanos sees Tuza, and whispers that he also sees a guard and
aims the phaser at him in lust for battle.
The Doctor puts his arm down and tells him not to start a blood bath, and
that they'll do this his way.
Yrcanos mentions how perplexing it is that the Doctor thinks like a
warrior but doesn't act like one.
The Doctor turns to Dorf and tells him to stay behind and watch out for
guards. As if speaking to a pet, he says, "Stay!" one last time before
he takes Yrcanos into the center with the phaser pointed at him as part
of the old prisoner trick.
The sleepy Mentor looks up and sees the Doctor entering with Yrcanos.
The guard to the side ignores them.
The Mentor notes that the Doctor has found his warrior king, and this is
the quietest he's ever seen him.
The Doctor tells him it is his intention to shut Yrcanos up for good.
The Mentor smiles. "Splendid!"
The Doctor tells him he'd like to try one of those brain implants.
The Mentor looks crestfallen and sags in his seat as he had been hoping
the Doctor was going to kill him. He then casually asks if the Doctor
has permission from Crozier for this experiment, and the Doctor answers
that he has carte blanche as far as "young Crozier is concerned."
The Mentor smiles but informs them he must check about this carte blanche
from Crozier himself, and begins to operate his console.
The Doctor fires a look at Yrcanos. Yrcanos understands instantly,
whirls around in just an instant or two more, knocks the guard unconscious
in a few more instants, and then runs over and threatens to strangle
the elderly Mentor in just a few instants more.
Yrcanos tells him to be still or else he'll have his wizened life
terminated. The Mentor moves his jaw as though he were about to sneeze
but doesn't move otherwise. Yrcanos backs off and the Mentor thanks him.
"For you life?" asks Yrcanos. "It was nothing."
"No," yawns the Mentor. "For not shouting."
The Doctor has been at work on Tuza's berth, and he lifts him from the
bed and onto the floor beneath. Tuza manages to walk with him over
to where Yrcanos is standing.
Yrcanos smiles and starts his shouting again, praising Tuza as his friend
and telling him they've both lived to flood the land with the blood of
their enemies.
The Mentor asks if he really has to say such nauseating things, and
Yrcanos holds his massive hand over his neck again, warning him that
he should be silent or else he will be the first to die.
The Doctor finishes examining the mark at the back of Tuza's neck
and pronounces that Tuza will be alright as the implant hasn't taken.
Yrcanos asks the Mentor what that implant was for, and the Mentor answers
that its one of Crozier's latest developments which helps impede
fractuous and rebellious thoughts in their Alphan slaves. They had been
having problems with them. He adds that the implant is very efficient.
The Doctor looks at him somewhat smugly and asks where the control
center is. The Mentor visibly lies that he doesn't know, and Yrcanos
is about to encourage him physically, until Tuza interrupts and tells
them he knows where it is.
The Doctor sets off and tells everyone to come with him. Yrcanos doesn't
follow and instead looks down at his phaser. He says he had envisioned
a more noble cause for which to fight than that of releasing slaves.
The Doctor doesn't believe it and tries to get Yrcanos to think of the
chaos that will result from the removal of the mind control. He adds
conspiratorily that Yrcanos will also get a very willing army to fight
the Mentors.
"He's right, you know," adds the Mentor.
Yrcanos rounds on him and shouts in his best forte, "Be silent! I am
King Yrcanos of the Krontep!! I am quite capable of making my own
decisions!!!!"
The Doctor impatiently asks him to hurry, and then Yrcanos shouts out,
"Vroomnik!! We will release the slaves, and then On To Death!!!"
He bounds out the center from the way they came shouting "Vroomnik!!"
Tuza follows him, and the Doctor lags behind to apologize to the Mentor
about the noise from Yrcanos enjoying his work.
The Mentor has his eyes shut and his arms waving in pain, telling them
to just please go.
Matrona and Crozier trade looks that speak volumes to one another about
Peri.
Crozier comes to a decision.
"Shave her head. I've decided to attempt direct transference."
Peri screams into her gag and Matrona reaches down with a pair of scissors
and begins to cut Peri's hair off. . .
Tuza leads the party of Dorf, Yrcanos, and the Doctor down some corridors
and around a corner.
Around one corner, a guard spots them, raises his CD phaser, and fires.
Dorf collapses in a heap on the floor with a painful-sounding whine,
and the others retreat back around the corner.
Suddenly Yrcanos bounds around the corner again with his phaser raised.
He fires before the guard does, and the guard crumples to the ground.
Yrcanos bends down to help Dorf. The Doctor stops by them as though to
help until Yrcanos tells him to carry on. Tuza leads the Doctor forward
to a door behind the guard.
The main control room (seen earlier by Peri) has but one occupant now,
the guard officer, who is seated in the main chair. The door opens,
the Doctor and Tuza enter, and the officer swings around in his chair
with a phaser drawn on them both.
"I somehow knew you'd finish up here," he says with disdain.
The Doctor asks him if he's seen Peri, and he answers that she is with
Crozier, or at least that's what he believes.
"Then its just as I feared," mutters the Doctor.
The officer stands suddenly and tells them he thinks the Mentor Sil would
like a word with the both of them. He advances on them, using his
phaser to suggest they head for the door.
As the exit, the Doctor asks Tuza if he's met Sil, and he answers that
he hasn't.
The Doctor tells Tuza that Sil is the last person one would want to
officiate one's funeral.
They start heading down the tunnel, and Tuza continues the conversation,
saying that Sil won't put them to death but rather use them as experiment
material like Peri.
The Doctor stops as though to listen to Tuza. The guard officer shouts
for them to move, and then collapses suddenly as Yrcanos comes up behind
him and delivers a blow to his lower back.
The Doctor and Tuza look at his face and see sadness in it.
"Dorf is dead," says Yrcanos sadly.
The Doctor says he is sorry just as softly, and Yrcanos tries to shake it
off by saying he died fighting in an honorable way.
Tuza tells him he's also sorry about his friend, but that they must
now destroy the slave control.
Yrcanos grits his teeth and seethes with anger.
"Lead me to it. I demand the privilege of initiating the demise of the Mentors!"
They all turn and run back to the control center.
Kiv looks at the gittering Ambassador and tries to tell him he takes his
point but that he must try and understand their position.
A bearer leans next to Sil and whispers something. Sil shouts out
suddenly that the Doctor and Yrcanos are on the rampage.
Kiv angrily asks if this is any reason to interrupt this important conference.
Sil holds his ground and tells Kiv that the Doctor is very dangerous
and capable of causing a great deal of damage.
Kiv tells Sil that its nothing compared to what he is doing to the
negotiations. He warns Sil that if he isn't careful, he could lose an
important fish concession.
Sil asks, "But you hate fish, Magnificence."
"Do I?" asks Kiv as though he were senile.
Peri is now completely bald and ungagged and unconscious. The brain
transference helmet is placed onto her head, and Matrona declares
that all is ready.
Crozier reclines a little and says they must now merely wait for Kiv to
complete his meeting.
Matrona tells him with confidence that this time he will be successful.
Crozier smiles a little and tells her this could be his last time for
anything.
Suddenly the entire room seems to strobe twice with an eerie purple
glow. Matrona looks around and asks what is happening.
An alarm rings out.
Explosions are going off in all directions.
All are like silence compared to the fortissimo shouts of triumph of
Yrcanos, King of the Krontep and possible opera singer.
"Not Only Will The Legends Sing Of Yrcanos, The Great War Lord, But Also
Of Yrcanos, THE EVEN GREATER _LIBERATOR_!!!!!!"
Tuza remarks to the open-mouthed Doctor about Yrcanos' great modesty.
The Doctor weakly points out the door and tells Yrcanos that its time
they found Peri.
Yrcanos smiles and shouts again that he needs his queen to grace his
moment of triumph.
Alarm klaxons seem to be ringing throughout the tunnel complex. They
are certainly ringing in front of the door to the Great Commerce Room.
Alphan slaves are also outside, stumbling around as though dizzy and
out of control.
The door to the commerce room opens suddenly and the now unconscious
body of Kiv and the wriggling body of Sil are being carried in the arms
and over the shoulders of their bearers.
Sil is shouting out about the confusion, and he orders people out of the
way as the Lord Kiv is unwell and must be saved. His gargling shouts
echo down the now smoke-filled corridor that seems to be growing in chaos.
Kiv's bearers carefully put his rapidly deteriorating form down on an
operating table in the laboratory. Crozier and Matrona hurriedly
prepare him, while Sil's bearer carries him inside the lab.
Crozier seems outraged at Sil's presense and demands to know what he wants.
Sil tells him that anarchy has broken out and that the servants have gone
mad. "And good riddens, I say! All they do is eat you out of house and
home!"
Kiv's eyes are open and he is gasping with pain aloud as metal prongs
are attacked to the fins on the top of his head.
King Yrcanos and Tuza lead the way down a large corridor. The Doctor
seems to lag behind a little. When he isn't looking, he runs straight
into a pile of dazed Alphans and has to spend valuable seconds getting
around them.
He jogs down a similar but empty corridor, looking around for Yrcanos and
Tuza. . . when suddenly a pure tone of power sounds behind him. . .
Behind the Doctor appears the police box form of the TARDIS, bathed in a
pure white light. . .
The Doctor stops as though listening, and then with robot-like automatic
movements, seems to be drawn inside the open doors.
He walks backwards inside the Police Box, and the shape and the noise and
the beam seem to fade out of Time. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . and the TARDIS tumbles down the beam's length. . . with a space
backdrop around it. . . . down and down into the brown and black complex
web-like structure below. . . .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I remember now!" shouts the Doctor suddenly with a smile on his face which
drops away just as fast as he looks at the Inquisitor and realizes everything.
"Whatever made you take me out of Time when you did?" he demands. "I remember
it all! I was on my way to save Peri!!"
The Inquisitor speaks as though it were a conclusion that should be arrived
at naturally, as though she can't believe he is questioning this.
"Things had gone too far! You had released _chaos_, and allowed your
companion to take part in an experiment that would affect _all_future_life_
in the universe."
"I did try to stop it!" protests the Doctor.
"But you could not succeed," pronounces the Inquisitor, "It was too late.
And therefore necessary by the direct order of the High Council to prevent
the consequences of Crozier's experiment! Watch, Doctor! Watch and listen
carefully!"
The Doctor looks up in worry at what he may be about to see on the Matrix
screen, and slowly takes his seat again. . .
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Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
Crozier's laboratory is deathly silent. The alarms have stopped ringing.
Sil is now in his customary bearer seat. Guards stand around impassively.
Matrona slowly takes the helmet away from Peri's head, and declares this
to be a perfect transfer.
Crozier looks visibly excited for perhaps the first time. He turns and
looks at Sil and says, "I have altered the basis for all future life!"
Sil looks at Peri and asks, "Kiv's brain is inside the head of _that_
repulsive Earth being?"
"No!" answers Crozier with a smile of triumph. "This is what I wanted to
achieve from the very beginning! I have transferred only the contents of
his mind into the brain of the woman!!"
"And what of the Earth woman's mind?" asks Sil.
"Gone!" exclaims Crozier. "Mentally, she no longer exists!"
Crozier circles the BTU machinery to join Sil.
"You can transfer any mind into any body?" breathes Sil in realization of
what this could mean.
"When the Earth woman's brain ages," enthuses Crozier, "I can transfer the
mental energy and consciousness of Lord Kiv into yet another body! He need
never die!"
Sil looks at Crozier and smiles a stained-tooth smile.
Yrcanos looks down the corridor leading to the laboratory and smiles as
he notes the sight before him. He turns and whispers to Tuza behind him
that there are only two guards, and indeed this is all there is standing
before the door.
Tuza asks what they will do, and Yrcanos answers, "Two guards, two of us!
We fight like warriors!"
Tuza asks what that means.
"Frontal attack!" whisper-shouts Yrcanos. He turns and gives a blood-
curdling shout of Naardra!!!
aaa. . . a. . a. . . a. . . a.
Yrcanos seems to freeze in place and the world around him glows with a
purple-colored light............
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"They're caught in a time bubble," explains the Inquisitor of the image on the
Matrix screen. "Everything must be perfect before they drive home their final
attack."
The Doctor stands in protest. "You're using Yrcanos as an assassin!"
"It was judged by the High Council as the most acceptable way," continues the
Inquisitor, "And Yrcanos will never know that he was used."
The Doctor is appalled at this arrogance. "And so they took it upon
themselves to act like second-rate gods!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
The now-bald head of Peri's body stirs.
Peri's body's eyes open.
The eyes dart around the room.
The voice speaks strangely. The accent is no longer American, but like those
around it. The near-soprano is gone and is replaced by a deep alto, with
every word tinged with a gargling-sounding vibration.
"Warm," it says. "Warm. Not cold."
It goes on.
"Her body is warm. Wonderful! Legs. Toes."
Peri's body's toes begin to wiggle.
"Toes wriggling."
Peri's body sits up suddenly.
"Trunk. A neck."
Peri's body's arms reach up and the hands feel the neck.
"Strong!"
The arms reach up to the head and the hands feel the smooth, clean surface.
"A head! Free of pain!"
The eyes dart around the room again.
"Sight. Colors! Warm blood inside!"
The body turns a little to address the others.
"Oh, I like this!"
"Now I am she," breathes Peri's body, "alive within this oh-so-wonderful frame!"
The eyes look to the right at the dead yellow body of a Mentor.
"That cold-blooded reptile thing! It must, must die!!"
Crozier steps around behind Peri's body and grasps its head. He
pulls it back gently down onto the bed.
"It already has," whispers Crozier. "Welcome to your new body!"
The purple haze around Yrcanos and Tuza seems to abate, but the world and the
sound still seem distorted. . . .
Yrcanos' yell of death is completed, and he and Tuza reach the guards at the
door in just a few bounds. They leap over the guards and Yrcanos and Tuza
easily knock both guards to the dirt floor.
Yrcanos bends over and picks up a CD phaser from one of the guards. . . .
The world is still somewhat distorted when the door to the laboratory opens. . .
King Yrcanos rages into the room and growls, "RAGNAAR!!!!!"
The Mentor Sil turns and looks in fear at him.
Yrcanos holds the phaser out in front of him and opens fire with it as though
it took a massive effort. . .
Sil seems to look in slow-motion at the side of his bearer couch exploding in
a shower of yellow sparks. He rocks and wriggles in his chair and in panic.
While Crozier, Matrona Kani, and all the bearers and guards stare at King
Yrcanos in disbelief, the body of Peri suddenly sits up on its couch turned
towards King Yrcanos.
"Protect me!" shouts the voice.
"I am your Lord and Master!!!!"
Yrcanos looks in confusion at the sight before him, at Crozier, at the dead
body of a Mentor, at the machinery, and most of all at the body of Peri. . .
King Yrcanos of the Krontep looks at the bald head of the body of
Perpugilliam of the Brown, and he cries out. . .
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
He presses the trigger of the CD phaser, and the end alights in energetic fury.
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
His arms swing the phaser back and forth, and the entire room seems glow white
and purple under its power.
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
The world becomes completely white, and the only fading sound is Yrcanos'
scream of rage.
"nnnooooooooooooooooooo. . . . "
Prosecution Interface Two Concludes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Doctor stands in deathly silence and speaks weakly and with shock.
"You. . . killed Peri."
"We had to act," insists the Inquisitor, "With the discovery that Crozier
had made, the whole course of natural evolution throughout the Universe
would be affected."
The Valeyard stands from his seat and quite callously adds, "But Peri died,
Doctor, because you abandoned her. We had to end her life because your
_negligence_ had made it _impossible_ for her to live!"
The Doctor shakes his head in denial. "Lies." He seems to come close to
tears, but his anger keeps them in check, barely.
"The High Council has no right to order Peri's, or anyone else's death!"
"Please, Doctor," interrupts the Inquisitor.
The Doctor bends his head down as though he were about to charge.
"No. I was taken out of Time for another reason!!
_And_I_have_every_intention_of_finding_out_what_it_is!!!!!"
The Doctor
COLIN BAKER
Peri
NICOLA BRYANT
The Valeyard
MICHAEL JAYSTON
The Inquisitor
LYNDA BELLINGHAM
King Yrcanos Crozier
BRIAN BLESSED PATRICK RYECART
Sil Kiv
NABIL SHABAN CHRISTOPHER RYAN
Matrona Kani Frax
ALIBE PARSONS TREVOR LAIRD
Tuza The Lukoser Mentor
GORDON WARNECKE THOMAS BRANCH RICHARD HENRY
Incidental Music Special Sound
RICHARD HARTLEY DICK MILLS
Production Manager Production Associate Production Assistant
KEVAN VAN THOMPSON ANGELA SMITH KAREN JONES
Assistant Floor Manager Visual Effects Designer Video Effects
ANNA PRICE PETER WRAGG DANNY POPKIN
Technical Co-ordinator Studio Camera Supervisor
ALAN ARBUTHNOTT ALEC WHEAL
Vision Mixer Videotape Editor
JIM STEPHENS HUGH PARSON
Lighting Director 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 25 October, 1986.
This synopsis by Steven K. Manfred
Synopsis copyright July 26, 1994.
Permission is given to all to copy this synopsis as long as it is not for
reasons of profit.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
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