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[ Index for this story ]
1. EXT. THE TIME TUNNEL
(The RANI's TARDIS materialises by the swirling blue vortex.)
2. INT. RANI'S TARDIS
(Images of the FIRST and SECOND DOCTORs float around the room.)
RANI: Pickled in time like gherkins in a jar.
CYRIAN: Mistress Rani, the Time Tunnel is ready to receive its first guests.
RANI: Proceed. Fated to wander a dismal corner of the universe for twenty years; helpless, paralysed. It'll drive them insane.
DIMENSIONS IN TIME
by JOHN NATHAN-TURNER
and DAVID RODEN
PART ONE
first broadcast - 26th November 1993
running time - 7mins 34secs
3. VORTEX
(The FOURTH DOCTOR is trapped in a swirling vortex of colour. He speaks into a microphone.)
4th DOCTOR: Mayday, mayday. This is an urgent message for all the Doctors. It's vitally important that you listen to me for once. Our whole existence is being threatened by a renegade Time Lord known only as the Rani. She hates me. She even hates children. Two of my earlier selves have already been snared in her vicious trap.
(We see the images of the FIRST and SECOND DOCTORs tumble into the Time Tunnel.)
The grumpy one and the flautist too. She wants to put us out of action. Lock us away in a dreary backwater of London' East End. Trapped in a time-loop in perpetuity and her evil is all around us. I can hear the heart beat of a killer. She's out there somewhere. We must be on our guard and we must stop her before she destroys all of our other selves. Oh (in pain) ... Good luck, my dears.
4. INT. THE RANI'S TARDIS.
(Behind the roundels, we see the heads of various Doctor Who aliens. CYRIAN has been checking them off and replacing the roundel over the faces.)
CYRIAN: A Cyberman, and a Time Lord from Gallifrey. One more specimen is needed, an Earthling. The menagerie is almost complete.
RANI: Time is literally of the essence. The Doctor's remaining incarnations are teetering on the edge of a precipice.
CYRIAN: You're obsessed. Don't forget what we came here for.
RANI: Earthlings pose no threat to my technology. It's the Doctor I want out of the way.
(The scanner screen shows the TARDIS travelling through space.)
CYRIAN: Interception in five seconds, Rani.
RANI: Although I will miss the challenge.
CYRIAN: Three... two... one...
RANI: Activate.
(A bolt of blue light hits the DOCTOR's TARDIS and it disappears.)
5. EXT. CUTTY SARK, 1973
(The TARDIS materialises and the SEVENTH DOCTOR and ACE exit.)
7th DOCTOR: Oh, to be in China now that November's here.
ACE: When was the last time you had that junk heap in for an MOT, professor?
7th DOCTOR: Don't be cynical, Ace. He instruments are just a little erratic, that's all.
ACE: Great Wall of China? Looks more like the Cutty Sark to me.
7th DOCTOR: Mm... and not a soul in sight.
(He finds a newspaper and reads the date)
1973...
ACE: Oi! Is anybody there?
7th DOCTOR: If I didn't know better, I could be convinced that someone has deliberately taken us off course.
(ACE examines a nearby street sign. It reads: CUTTY SARK - SE10)
Ace, what are you doing?
(The scene changes with a white flash.)
6. EXT. ALBERT SQUARE, 1993
(The SIXTH DOCTOR and ACE walk through the market.)
ACE: Here, you're not the Doctor.
6th DOCTOR: Yes I am, Ace. We seem to have slipped a groove in time. Where have all these people come from? And where are we?
(He examines a fruit stall.)
ACE: Hey, professor, look at this!
(She shows him a jacket on a clothes stall)
SANJAY: All right, darling. Special discount for you seeing as it's nearly Christmas.
ACE: Wicked.
GITA: What do you mean, discount? This year's been bad enough as it is without you giving things away.
SANJAY: Don't worry about it, all right?
GITA: Hey, do you like that love?
(ACE holds the jacket up to the DOCTOR's coat.)
6th DOCTOR: It clashes!
GITA: I tell you, they're going to be all the rage in 1994.
(The DOCTOR frowns at this, then the scene changes with a white flash.)
7. EXT. ALBERT SQUARE, 2013
(The THIRD DOCTOR and MEL are now in Albert Square.)
MEL: What's happening?
3rd DOCTOR: Change. You, me, everything. It's as though someone is rooting through my personal time stream.
MEL: But what on Earth for?
3rd DOCTOR: Earth. Yes.
(He approaches the fruit stall.)
Excuse me, my good woman, but what year is this?
(PAULINE FOWLER calls after a boy)
PAULINE: Oi, you come back! 'Ere, he's just nicked an orange!
KATHY: Shouldn't your Martin be looking after the stall?
PAULINE: 'E's never 'ere when you want him. I wish my Arthur was still alive.
(to the THIRD DOCTOR) What do you think you're doing? Stop messing the goods about. Do you want to buy something or not?
3rd DOCTOR: Well considering the quality of everything you have, madam, I would say that your prices are rather expensive.
MEL: (over at the clothes stall) I see flares are back in fashion.
KATHY: Yeah, everything from the last century seems to be having a comeback.
3rd DOCTOR: Last century?
MEL: What year is this?
PAULINE: Oh, don't you start. There's enough oddballs around here as it is.
3rd DOCTOR: Madam, what year is this?
PAULINE: 2013.
(The scene changes with a flash.)
8. EXT. ALBERT SQUARE, 1973
(PAULINE and KATH are at the fruit stall.)
PAULINE: Yeah, I can remember exactly where I was when Kennedy was assassinated. But don't tell Arthur!
KATHY: How long ago was that, then?
PAULINE: Well, it'll be about ten years.
KATHY: NO!
(to a small boy) Ian, will you behave!
9. EXT. ALBERT SQUARE; OUTSIDE THE QUEEN VIC, 1973
(The SIXTH DOCTOR is walking with SUSAN FOREMAN)
SUSAN: Who are you?
6th DOCTOR: Precisely. I am the Doctor.
SUSAN: No you're not! You're nothing like my grandfather.
6th DOCTOR: I feel as though I'm being pulled backwards through time and my companions are being drawn back with me.
SUSAN: Ian! Barbara! Where are the others?
6th DOCTOR: The inrush of time zones is designed to seal us all together.
(The scene changes with a white flash.)
10. EXT. ALBERT SQUARE, 2013
(SARAH JANE SMITH is talking to SHARON WATTS)
SHARON: Well, my skin's been great since I started using all over sun block. I think it's right it's the law.
SARAH: Law? Since when?
(SARAH spots the THIRD DOCTOR and chases after him. SHARON calls after her.)
SHARON: Where've you been hiding then?
SARAH: Hi, I thought you'd be involved somewhere along the line.
3rd DOCTOR: What we're seeing here, Sarah, is the work of a genius. An expert in time distortion. A time traveller, maybe, and an ingenious operator.
SARAH: Well then, we must get back to the TARDIS, Doctor.
3rd DOCTOR: It's the other side of the river. You know, we seem to be flitting around in some sort of 20 year time loop; 1973...
SARAH: ... 1993, 2013.
3rd DOCTOR: Yes, well, time distortion of this nature requires an exact localised focus.
SARAH: Well, why this street market in London?
3rd DOCTOR: This isn't the focus, Sarah.
11. INT. THE RANI'S TARDIS
RANI: Blundering fools, they're getting too near the truth. Release the specimens.
12. EXT. ALBERT SQUARE, 1993
(A Cyberman fires on the FIFTH DOCTOR, NYSSA and PERI. The blast goes unnoticed by the Square's inhabitants.)
NYSSA: Feeding time at the zoo?
5th DOCTOR: And the companions went in two by two.
PERI: This isn't Noah's Ark, Doctor.
5th DOCTOR: Maybe it is. When I say 'run', 'run'. RUN!
(They do so.)
PERI: (Runs over to PAT BUTCHER.) Look, you've got to clear the streets. You're in terrible danger!
PAT: What's your game?
NYSSA: You've got to get away from here!
PAT: 'Ere, who says? If you start shoving me around, you'll know about it.
5th DOCTOR: It's no good, they're in different time zones. To them we're strangers.
(They continue their flight. Aliens leer at them from the upper storey of the Queen Vic.)
PERI: Have you any idea where we're going?
NYSSA: Doctor, where's the TARDIS?
5th DOCTOR: Twenty years back and 3 miles away. Come on!
(They run through the gardens only to find the exit is locked. From one direction, a crowd of aliens advance on them. They turn toward the Queen Vic, only to see the RANI exit the Queen Vic and step towards them.)
RANI: You can't escape, Doctor. Say "goodbye", Doctors. You're all going on a long journey. A very long journey.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
Transcribed by
SIMON SIMMONS