Return to the telemovie transcripts index

 

(Three black and silver Daleks shaped like 2s glide backwards and forwards across a metal corridor.)

DALEK: Exterminate! Exterminate!
TOM BAKER: (OOV.) Time for the final part of Doctor Who night on BBC2. It's the latest film! I'm called Paul McGann in this one...


Act One

1. CGI SEQUENCE

(An immense red planet looms into view.)

Caption:

SKARO

EIGHTH DOCTOR: (OOV.) It was on the planet Skaro that my old enemy the Master was finally put on trial.

(The Planet turns into two planets side by side, that then turn into two glowing yellow eyes of a prisoner caught inside a small cage. A mechanical chattering is heard in the background.)

EIGHTH DOCTOR: (OOV.) They say he listened calmly as his list of evil crimes was read and sentence passed. Then he made his last – and I thought, somewhat curious – request. He demanded that I, the Doctor, a rival Time Lord, should take his remains back to our home planet; Gallifrey.
DALEKS: Exterminate-Exterminate!

(The Cage and prisoner surge with power and explode into fragments, two glowing objects shooting out.)

EIGHTH DOCTOR: (OOV.) It was a request they should never have granted...

(The eyes flash and vanish, and the metallic title appears:)

DOCTOR
WHO

(The title flashes past within a swirling multicoloured tunnel filled with zooming meteorites.)

STARRING
PAUL McGANN

SPECIAL GUEST STAR
ERIC ROBERTS

GUEST STARRING
DAPHNE ASHBROOK
SYLVESTER McCOY
YEE JEE TSO
JOHN NOVAK
MICHAEL DAVID SIMMS

(A spinning Police Box looms close, then departs and the titles fade.)


2. INT: TARDIS CONSOLE ROOM

(The Seventh Doctor walks across the immense gothic stone chamber past several leering gargoyles carrying a squat brass urn.)

EDITED BY
PATRICK LUSSIER

PRODUCTION DESIGNER
RICHARD HUDOLIN

EIGHTH DOCTOR: (OOV.) The Time Lord has thirteen lives, and the Master had used all of his, but rules never meant much to him. So I stowed his remains safely away for the voyage back – because even in death I couldn’t trust him.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
GLEN MACPHEARSON CSC

(The Doctor places the brass urn into a sturdy metal casket, closing the lid. He opens his toolkit and selects his sonic screwdriver, and with a hum of power and a sturdy clunk the casket locks itself. Tapping his screwdriver, he examines his handiwork by the light of the million flickering candles which are strewn around the craft.)

DOCTOR: There, that should do it!

DIRECTOR OF MUSIC
JOHN DEBNEY

(On an old gramophone, a record is spinning, with a woman crooning out a soft, mournful tune about unrequited love. The Doctor sets down a fine porcelain cup full of tea on a cluttered table next to a splendid old overstuffed armchair, and sits down in the soft light of two tall antique lamps.)

ADDITIONAL MUSIC BY
JOHN SPONSLER AND LOUIS SERBE

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
ALEX BEATON

EIGHTH DOCTOR: (OOV.) In all my travels through space and time, and nearing the end of my seventh life, I was finally beginning to realise that you could never be too careful.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
PHILIP DAVID SEGAL

PRODUCED BY
PETER V. WARE

BASED ON THE ORIGINAL SERIES
BROADCAST ON THE BBC

WRITTEN BY
MATTHEW JACOBS

(Past a wall of softly chiming antique clocks and the occasional leafy green plant, the large mahogany and brass TARDIS console sits resplendent in the centre of the vast chamber, softly pulsing red, blue and yellow. Beyond the girder-encapsulated console, a large chamber can be seen, tailing off into the distance, with a library section to the right, and a set of large double doors at the far side, the lintel embossed with a large circular symbol. A number of items of junk and cluttered tables are strewn around the candle-lit chamber. The Doctor idly waves in time with the music as he sits brooding. Above the console, the Temporal Orbit Monitor, resembling a 60s television set suspended from the ceiling and trailing a large brass toilet chain, bears the legend:

DESTINATION GALLIFREY

LOCAL DATELINE 5725.5

RASSILON ERA

(The blue rods of the centre column mesh and unmesh as the sound of materialisation echoes softly from them.)


CGI SEQUENCE

(Outside, the TARDIS spins in the swirling vortex.)

DIRECTED BY
GEOFFREY SAX

(Atop a table strewn with maps, books, a pair of black bakelite binoculars, and a brass figurine, sits an extremely slim black string-bound book, the gold lettering of which identifies it as a 900-year diary. A little further along, the Doctor fidgets nervously in his chair. Over the other side of the console room, the metal casket begins to rock backwards and forwards. The Doctor plucks a yellow jelly baby from a glass bowl on the table, and sniffs it. He smiles, then bites its head off, and begins to read an old copy of The Time Machine by HG Wells.

(The metal casket that is holding the remains of the Master cracks apart a little. The record skips, repeating the word "Time" in the song over and over again. The Doctor snaps the book shut and rushes over, lifts the needle, resets it, and goes back to his reading. Beside him the surface of the Doctor's tea begins to become unsettled, then it begins to swirl. The screen of the Temporal Orbit Monitor flickers.)


CGI SEQUENCE

(The metal casket suddenly rends asunder as if it were an eggshell disgorging a string of viscous silvery liquid onto the floor.

(The tea goes spectacularly flying through the air and the cup hits the deck, smashing to pieces on the cold stone floor. The needle of the gramophone, as if in sympathy, scratches across the length of record, silencing the mournful wailing woman forever. The Doctor looks up from where he is sitting in dread.

(From the centre column, a louder noise of dematerialisation echoes around the chamber. On the other side of the room, the metal casket is empty.)


CGI SEQUENCE

(The viscous silvery goo slithers across the floor of the Console Room towards the console. It runs into the base of the console. There are a sequence of bright bangs and flashes from the console.

The Doctor snaps his book shut and rushes over, and twists dials, flicks switches, presses knobs, and tugs on a large lever marked "BRAKE". With a quivery sound, the rods seize up, but the console continues to fizzle and pop.)

DOCTOR: Oh...

(The Doctor grasps the toilet chain and pulls, making the Temporal Orbit Monitor descend. This time it reads:)

CRITICAL TIMING

MALFUNCTION

INSTIGATE AUTOMATIC

EMERGENCY LANDING

DOCTOR: Oh no!


CGI SEQUENCE

(The TARDIS in the vortex is getting buffeted about a bit. The Doctor strides over to the location of the metal casket and examines its decimated remains, which are still drooling with evil ichor. A look of dread spreads across his face.)


CGI SEQUENCE

(The TARDIS speeds out of the vortex and straight towards a small insignificant-looking blue-green planet.)


3, INT: CHINATOWN KITCHEN

(Cold dead eyes stare glassily into infinity. Suddenly a blade falls with a whump, severing the fish's head completely. An elderly couple are cooking food in a simple kitchen, the man gutting a fish and the woman stirring a pot. They hear the noise of shouting and a commotion in the street below, and the woman moves to the window to look out.


4, SAN-FRANCISCO STREET

(Cars break and swerve across the rain-slicked asphalt, thumping their horns angrily as three young men run across the road. One of them shouts at a car as it nearly hits him.)

LEE: WATCH IT!

Caption:

SAN FRANCISCO 1999

(The trio run through crowds of people and turn off down a dark steam-filled alleyway, then thinking the better of it, they skid to a halt and run back the way they came. The sound of an engine is heard as they try to escape the cul-de-sac, and a large black car slowly glides across the road and turns towards the alley. They turn and run down the alley, with the car chasing them. They reach a chain-link gate barring their way, and they scramble over it as the car pulls to a halt outside. The driver of the car opens the door to get out, but the three produce handguns and fire a volley of shots towards the car, which ricochet off its body. The door shuts, and the car backs away and vanishes around the corner. They all keep firing until their guns run out of ammunition. Lee runs to the gate and rattles it.)

LEE: Where y'going? HEY WHERE'RE you GOING? come here! Come back here man! WIMP! Whooh!
FRIEND 1: Hey there, you!
LEE: Hey, gimme five man!
FRIEND 2: Hey yeah this style OK!

(He jumps up, swings his leg around and gives Lee five toes.)

FRIEND 2: Yeah!

(They all walk off across the alley, arms around each other's shoulders.)

LEE: Hey yeah right whoah, whoah. Did you see that thing blow? Yeah!

(Behind them they hear a chink of a falling pipe, far too late. They freeze and turn around as four gangsters emerge from behind a pile of palettes, each pulling out a machine gun. With screams, Lee's friends dive for any cover they can, but only Lee manages to evade the first barrage. The spent cartridges hit the ground at exactly the same time as the bodies of Lee's friends. The men fumble to reload, and Lee scrambles about looking for an exit from the alley. Shots ricochet around as Lee dives for a line of barrels. Fluid gushes out as the bullets tear holes into them and Lee scurries away. The men begin to laugh, realising that he has nowhere to run.)

GANGSTER: Whooh! Ha-ha!

(Lee runs out of cover and is in plain sight again - he is dead meat.)

GANGSTER: Say your prayers Lee!

(The men smile, relishing their moment, and cock their weapons. Suddenly, from nowhere, a wind begins to swirl around the rubbish, blowing it upwards in a flurry of paper.)


CGI SEQUENCE

(Lee looks up, trying to catch an icy breath, wondering if he is still alive, as a square blue shape begins to airbrush itself into reality with a tortured screaming of twisting dimensions. It resolves, finally, with a firm oaken thud. The men think for a moment, then open fire on the box; but the bullets ricochet off the wooden surface spitting sparks. A door in the box opens, and a man in a brown coat and a straw hat steps out and turns to close the door, not noticing the men. As he faces forwards, the men fire on him, and he slumps to the ground like a marionette with sliced strings. The black car glides up and the men run over to it.)

GANGSTER: What was that thing??!

(They jump in the car and drive off with a screech of tyres. In the distance a Police siren begins to wail. Lee walks over to the man on the floor and gives the Doctor a cursory examination. Amazingly he is still alive and moaning softly.)

DOCTOR: Mmmfff... gnnn...

(Upon seeing a face, he tries to form words.)

DOCTOR: Timing malfunction.
LEE: I'm getting you an ambulance.

(The Doctor can do nothing but watch as a string of slime begins to ooze from the keyhole. All the Doctor can do is whisper incoherently.)

DOCTOR: Stop it. Stop... it.

(He tries to motion towards the doorway with a pained look on his face, but Lee doesn't see the slime.)

LEE: What?!
DOCTOR: Aiigh... here it comes.
LEE: Hold in there old guy, Chang Lee'll help you out.

(The sirens are much louder now, but they don't seem to be able to find the alley.)

LEE: Hey, over here!


CGI SEQUENCE

(As Lee walks away, the puddle he steps in ripples, coagulates, and forms itself into a long gelatinous mass, then slithers after him.)


5, EXT AMBULANCE

(An ambulance drives down the road with its sirens blaring.)


6, INT AMBULANCE

BRUCE: Were you with him when it happened?
LEE: Yeah, we were just... passing.
BRUCE: Is he rich? 'Cause where we're going he'd better be rich. Here.

(He hands Lee a consent form.)

LEE: Hey, I'm not signing anything Mister!

(Bruce looks unsurprised, as if this is a common occurrence.)

BRUCE: Sign or we can't do nothin'. C'mon kid.
LEE: What's the date?
BRUCE: December thirtieth.
LEE: Nineteen ninety-nine.

(He writes "John Smith" in the name box on the form, then looks up and smiles cautiously.)


7, EXT: HOSPITAL

(The ambulance pulls up outside the hospital, and a group of medical personnel rush to take the trolley into the hospital.)

PERSONNEL: C'mon! Ready One-two go. Hurry! Look out Comin' through!


8, INT: HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

(The hospital personnel rush down the corridors with the Doctor on a trolley.)

PERSONNEL: We've got three gunshot wounds. Go go go go go!...We're losing him! Tell them to get ready.


9, EXT: HOSPITAL

(In the deserted cab of the ambulance, the radio crackles and chitters away to itself.)


10, INT: HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

PERSONNEL: Now go! There's not much time!

(They turn a corner with the trolley, babbling frantically to each other.)


11, EXT: HOSPITAL, CGI SEQUENCE

(Through the open door, the ambulance's foot-space can just be made out in the half-light, as a long, plasmic, slithery, snake-like thing slides across the floor.)


12, INT: X-RAY DEPARTMENT

(The Doctor is wheeled under a mobile X-Ray unit, and the bulb flashes taking a picture of the Doctor's chest.)


13, INT: AMBULANCE, CGI SEQUENCE

(The slithery, snakey something slips and slides into the back of the ambulance.)


14, INT: HOSPITAL ROOM

CURTIS: Two hearts?
WHEELER: One bullet went straight through his shoulder, no damage. The other two are in his left leg.
CURTIS: Look two hearts!
WHEELER: What?
SALINGER: As if! It's a double exposure Curtis! I must get these bullets out then...
WHEELER: Now this went straight through...


15, INT: AMBULANCE

(The snakey, slithery thing slopes off towards Bruce's abandoned jacket and surreptitiously slips inside.)


16, INT: HOSPITAL ROOM

(The doctor drops a bloodied lump of metal into a steel kidney bowl with a pair of tweezers.)

WHEELER: His heart's still going like crazy.
SALINGER: Then we'll just have to bring in cardiology.
CURTIS: Who's on tonight?
SALINGER: Amazing Grace.

(Curtis grins at Salinger mischievously.)


17, INT: THEATRE

(Grace Holloway lowers her opera glasses to reveal a tear running daintily down her cheek. She is watching a performance of Madame Butterfly next to her boyfriend, Brian, a dull looking man in a dinner suit. However, the moment is spoilt, somewhat, by a loud pager going off, much to Brian's dismay.)

GRACE: I have to go.

(Brian glares at her as she gets up to leave, and sighs an extremely put-out sigh.)


18, INT: HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

(Grace attracts a few stares as she rushes down the hospital corridor in her expensive green theatre dress with it's masses of petticoats, carrying her shoes.)


19, INT: THEATRE PREP-ROOM

(Grace is scrubbing up in a sink, wearing goggles and headgear but still in the dress.)

SALINGER: Fibrillation at three hundred.
GRACE: Three hundred?!!
SALINGER: Yes.
GRACE: No blockages showing?
SALINGER: No
GRACE: X-Ray?
SALINGER: N/G
GRACE: What?
SALINGER: Double exposed every time we try.
GRACE: Well then, try again!
SALINGER: We're getting another machine up, but it's going to take another half hour.
GRACE: Nonono, we don't have time for that, we've got to get moving on this.

(Somewhere a phone rings and is answered.)

CURTIS: Dr Holloway, it's Brian.

(As Grace is talking, the other personnel are prepping her for theatre, and Curtis is holding the phone to her head. Grace dries her hands on a towel.)

GRACE: Oh... yeah... Brian! I'm sorry! ...Listen, I am on call, what do you expect me to do, ignore it? ...No, no Brian, don't say that! Brian, Brain just wait until I get home. Brian! ...Oooh!

(She grasps at the air in annoyance at his cavalier attitude, and storms off towards main theatre. Curtis looks on.)

CURTIS: Sorry...


20, INT: OPERATING THEATRE

GRACE: Probe
CURTIS: Probe
GRACE: Scalpel
CURTIS: Scalpel
GRACE: And straight to... track four.
CURTIS: Track four coming up.

(Grace takes a deep breath, scalpel in hand, and tries to calm herself for surgery.)

DOCTOR: Puccini... Madame Butterfly.

(In a moment his eyes flick open and he looks around. He sees the scalpel and grabs Grace's wrist.)

DOCTOR: Whatever you're about to do, stop!
GRACE: Mr Smith you're going to be alright.
DOCTOR: No, I am not human. I am not like you!
GRACE: Nobody's like you Mr Smith.
DOCTOR: Please, I need a Beryllium Atomic Clock. This is nineteen ninety-nine isn't it?
SALINGER: We can't wait any longer, Grace.
DOCTOR: No, I'm not human, I'm not hu...

(Someone pushes a mask of anaesthetic towards his face.)

DOCTOR: I'm not mmmpff...

(As he struggles, he pulls off Grace's mask, revealing her face.)

CURTIS: Your harness!
GRACE: It's OK, I got it.

(Grace replaces her mask. The Doctor's struggles, and his protestations get weaker and weaker as the gas takes effect, and his words turn to incoherent mumblings.)

GRACE: Try not to speak, Mr Smith. We've already taken out all of the bullets, so now we have to listen to your heart to find out why it's so wild, and then we're going to fix it. You'll be fine.

(She pauses, examines the still form on the bed, and sighs.)

GRACE: Okay, he's under.

(Grace approaches the Doctor with the scalpel, but as she does so, he sits violently up, knocking the doctors aside.)

DOCTOR: Timing malfunction! The Master, he's out there! He's out there... I know...

(They ease him back down again.)

GRACE: Okay, scalpel.

(Just as she is about to make an incision, he convulses again with slightly less strength than before, making her jump.)

DOCTOR: I've got to stop...

(As the anaesthetic takes effect, everything begins to go fuzzy.)

DOCTOR: Him...
GRACE: Somehow I don't think this guy's name is Mr Smith, do you?

(Everything fades to black.)

SALINGER: Do you get that feeling?


21, INT: OBSERVATION PLATFORM

(Grace's head of department, Dr Swift, is showing sponsors around the hospital and stops by to see Grace in action from the platform above the operating theatre. Whenever he speaks, there is a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" from his audience.)

SWIFT: Here, we have an electro-physiology being performed by one of our senior cardiologists, Dr Holloway, who will insert a microsurgical probe into the patient's artery, then search out the short-circuiting part causing the fibrillation. And just so that you know your money is being well spent, we'll blast it with lasers.

(There is a ripple of polite, appreciative laughter.)


22, INT: OPERATING THEATRE

(Grace has managed to get the probe in, and is watching her progress on a monitor.)

SALINGER: So, is Brian threatening to leave again?
GRACE: He won't... That's strange.
SALINGER: What?
GRACE: Deja vu. Where am I?
SALINGER: Er, sub-clavian.
GRACE: That's strange, I should be in the bronchiocephalic.
SALINGER: Er, not unless this man is a donkey.

(They all laugh.)

GRACE: Then I am lost. Let me try something.

(She takes the probe and seems to attempt to punch it through where she thinks his artery should be.)

SALINGER: Massive seizures! Get that probe out of there!
GRACE: I'm trying!
CURTIS: Picture's out!
WHEELER: Dammit! We're dropping off fast!
SALINGER: Just pull it out!
GRACE: Come to me!
SALINGER: Get it out of there Grace!
GRACE: No good! I can't get it out of him!
SALINGER: Grace, He's flat-lining!
GRACE: The probe's snapped, it's still in him!

(Salinger runs over to the defibrilliser and grabs the two paddles, applying them to the Doctor in an attempt to shock his heart back into working again. Each time he does so, the Doctor convulses.)

SALINGER: Clear! Clear! Clear!

(Through the window, Dr Swift can be seen ushering the sponsors away. Grace just looks on helplessly.)

SALINGER: Clear! Clear! (He turns to Wheeler.) Give me three hundred... Clear! Clear!

(The Doctor seems to wake up for a moment and screams out in agony with his eyes wide, then lies still. The line on the machine stays as unmoving as the Doctor's body.)

SALINGER: Clear!

(But it is too late. Salinger sees Wheeler look enquiringly at him.)

SALINGER: No... dead. Time of death?
CURTIS: 10:03.

(Grace looks dumbfounded, and pulls off her headgear.)

GRACE: I lost him. I wanna see his X-Rays now!

(She storms out.)

SALINGER: Grace!


23, GRACE'S OFFICE

(Grace's office is large and orderly, with neatly arranged tables, a sofa, and an X-Ray viewer on the wall. Wheeler places a large paper bag on a desk and turns to Grace who is looking at the X-Ray of the Doctor's chest.)

WHEELER: This is all his stuff. There's no identification there either.
GRACE: Tag him as a John Doe and book him for an autopsy.
WHEELER: Do you want me to bring that kid in - maybe he can help us with an identification?

(Grace seems to be lost in a world of her own.)

WHEELER: Doctor...?
GRACE: Sure.

(She stares hard at the X-Ray incredulously.)

GRACE: This is no double exposure...


24, CORRIDOR

(Lee is sitting sprawled asleep in a public seat when Wheeler spots him.)

WHEELER: Sir?

(Lee wakes up and rubs his eyes.)

LEE: Mmm? Yeah, I'm up.
WHEELER: Could you just come with me please?


25, GRACE'S OFFICE

(Outside the window, the rain lashes down in the darkness. Wheeler leads Lee to Grace and then departs. Lee looks up at Grace in her green dress.)

LEE: You're the doctor?
GRACE: Yes, yes I am. Are you a friend of Mr Smith's?
LEE: Yeah. Is there a problem?
GRACE: Actually there is. There were some complications, and I'm afraid he didn't make it. Sorry.
LEE: It's okay, I'll tell his family - are these his things?

(Lee picks up the bag and peeks inside.)

GRACE: Yeah. Ummm...

(Lee tries to leave, but Grace places a hand up to stop him.)

GRACE: Maybe we should tell the family ourselves.
LEE: No, ma'am, this will hit them really hard. I'll tell them.

(Grace attempts to snatch the bag back but Lee holds onto it.)

GRACE: You don't really know this man at all do you?
LEE: Yeah, I do!
GRACE: Then tell me his real name.

(Lee looks at her for a moment.)

LEE: I gotta go.

(He pushes past Grace and runs out of the door.)

GRACE: Wait!


26, CORRIDOR

(Lee runs down the corridor, through a set of swing-doors, and into a hospital orderly, knocking a tray of medication out of an orderlies hand.)

ORDERLY: Hey!

(Further up the corridor, Grace gives chase, and pushes through the doors. Lee continues on without stopping, and skips over a bed that two other orderlies are wheeling across, and disappears out of the doors at the far side.)

GRACE: Somebody stop him!

(Grace makes it to the bed, but Lee has gone.)


27, EXT: CITY AT NIGHT

(A panoramic view over the brightly lit streets and roofs of San-Francisco at night. In the distance an old train is rattling its way somewhere. Not too far from the hospital is a small darkened house.)


28, INT: BRUCE'S APARTMENT

(Bruce, the paramedic, is sleeping in bed with his wife Miranda, but she isn't asleep. All around, even in the half-light, the room looks like a bomb has hit it, with clothes and rubbish strewn about the floor and chairs. She watches the rocketship. Hands of her worn old clock tick around to themselves. The time is quarter to one, and Bruce's loud buzz-saw-like snoring is keeping her awake.)

MIRANDA: Shut up!

(Bruce mumbles incoherently.)

MIRANDA: Bruce, please...

(Over the other side of the room, Bruce's paramedic's jacket lies on a chair, where he discarded it after his night's work. Deep within the jacket something stirs. After a few moments, the right arm inflates and then disgorges a long gelatinous mass. The plasma-snake twists and then rears it's head, inflating a cobra-like hood and hissing malevolently through a mouth of needle-sharp teeth.)


29, INT: MORGUE

(A large mortician named Pete Giles is pushing a trolley through a set of doors and into the morgue, where loud country music is blaring. He stops the trolley and walks over to his colleague, Ted Green, who is scribbling on a clipboard.)

PETE: Hey man, are you doing anything special for new years eve?
TED: I'm going to the costume party.

(He doesn't look up from his writing.)

PETE: Who're you going as?
TED: Wild Bill Hickock.
PETE: Oh right, cool. Who's that?

(Ted shoots Pete a look and hands him the clipboard before walking off.)

PETE: John Doe, on the toe.

(He turns and pulls off the shroud and addresses the body of the Doctor.)

PETE: Oh, we've got a nice autopsy booked for you tomorrow, Mister. Followed by a sauna, or a Swedish herbal wrap - what will be your pleasure?

(Pete writes on the clipboard.)

PETE: One A-M... Hey, it's December thirty-first, nineteen-ninety-nine.

(He turns to the corpse again.)

PETE: PARTY ON!

(He pulls the shroud over the Doctor's face and wheels him into the freezer, but hesitates for a moment.)

PETE: Sweet dreams.

(The huge metal door slams shut.)


30, INT: BRUCE'S APARTMENT

(Down on the floor amongst old debris, socks and used tissues, something lurks. For a moment it searches around the floor, then, looking up, it spies the sleeping form of Bruce, still snoring loudly. As if from nowhere, the Plasma-Snake rears it's head above the side of the bed, inflating it's cobra-hood, and hisses evilly. In a flash, the creature leaps from the floor onto Bruce's face as he snores to himself. Bruce wakes up, but seems to be powerless to move as the Plasma-Snake pushes itself into his mouth. Bruce convulses as the creature slowly eases itself down his throat, it's tail flicking eagerly. Miranda has been facing the other way and hasn't noticed what has happened. She smiles and stretches as she hears his snoring abate. There is a dull cracking sound as something inside Bruce's chest settles down. For a few moments his eyes bulge in terror, then they slowly close and his body goes limp, mouth dribbling with goo. Bruce's life slowly ebbs away like a transcient wave on a sandy shore...)


31, INT: MORGUE OFFICE

(Frederick Kerr as Baron Frankenstein is messing about apparatus as lightning flashes about the chamber of his castle. Pete sits in the office watching the 1931 film of Frankenstein on an old black and white television, cramming popcorn into his mouth from a huge stainless-steel organ bowl.)

PETE: Hehe, look out!

(He throws a piece of popcorn at Frederick Kerr, and it rebounds off the screen.)


32, INT: MORGUE FREEZER (CGI SEQUENCE)

(Under the shroud, the body of the Doctor suddenly begins to flash with crackling blue sparks of electricity, illuminating the skeleton of the body beneath. The corpse gives a sudden jerk and pulls the shroud off it's face.)


33, INT: MORGUE OFFICE

(In the film, Baron Frankenstein pulls off the shroud and turns a wheel, sending the bed with Boris Karloff as a bandaged Frankenstein rising upwards. Pete watches slack-jawed and grins gormlessly.)


34, INT: MORGUE FREEZER, CGI SEQUENCE

(The Doctor's body continues to spark and his face contorts, and his face gets flashes of a different face. After a moment his old face dissolves away and is replaced by a new one. The lined face with dark-brown hair disappears beneath a much more youthful one, and the hair turns a rich, vibrant chestnut. The body lies still again, and a hand slips over the edge of the trolley dangling limply...)


35, INT: MORGUE OFFICE

(In the film, Baron Frankenstein brings the bed down from the ceiling and examines the body. The monstrous fingers begin to move...)


36, INT: MORGUE FREEZER

(The fingers of the Doctor's dangling hand almost imperceptibly twitch, then begin to move feebly. A long curling mist of condensed exhalation issues from between the Doctor's immobile lips. His eyes flick open and stare upwards.)


37, INT: MORGUE OFFICE

(In the film, Baron Frankenstein shouts fanatically.)

FREDERICK KERR: It's alive!

(Grinning, Pete continues to cram popcorn.)


38, INT: MORGUE FREEZER

(The Doctor lies perfectly still, his eyes look around taking in his surroundings curiously. He sits up in one swift movement, and a sliver of light falls across his eyes emphasising their crystal blue hue. He stares immobly forward without a single expression.)


39, INT: MORGUE OFFICE

(In the film, Baron Frankenstein leaps from foot to foot and waves his arms in excitement.)

FREDERICK KERR: It's ALIIIVE! In the name of... Oh, I know it! I know it!

(Pete hears a thump from outside and turns from the film.)

PETE: Ted, is that you?

(Wearily he gets up.)


40, INT: MORGUE

(Pete peers through the widow of the office doors, then very cautiously he steps out and passes through another set of creaking doors into the main morgue. He can still hear a rhythmic thumping sound.)

PETE: Hello? Who's there?

(He hears more thumping noises, and as he watches, he sees a series of dents appear in the door to freezer 2, as if something large were kicking it from within. With a groan of fatigue, the immense metal door pitches forwards and hits the floor Inside, the form of a man stands silhouetted against the blue light from the freezer, wrapped in a white shroud and shivering from the cold.

PETE: Oh my gawd!

(The Doctor shuffles forward over the fallen door, his arms wrapped around his chest, and looks at Pete in a rather confused way.)

PETE: Gawd no!

(Pete's eyes revolve into the back of his head, and he falls backwards in a dead faint. The Doctor pads past him through the doors, with the lights flickering as there is some kind of power fluctuation. He peers through the glass door of the office and recoils slightly as he hears a scream, but he notices the television set which is blaring to itself. The scream has come from Mae Clark who is playing Elizabeth. There is a "Rrrowl!" from Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster, and she screams again. The Doctor walks away.)


41, INT: CORRIDOR

(The Doctor pads down the corridor, still dressed only in his white shroud, humming a tune from Madame Butterfly. Lightning flashes, and he pauses for a moment, hearing a ticking noise from somewhere. Up on the wall is a clock which makes the time out to be twelve minutes past one.)


42, INT: DERELICT WARD

(The wind rattles tatty venetian blinds as the storm rages outside, the lightning still flashing. All around the derelict ward is piles of broken furniture and puddles of rainwater from the leaking roof. The Doctor pads through the ward with the tag still on his toe, stepping on a get-well-soon card and a bunch of rotting flowers. He starts as he walks through a stream of water from a broken pipe hanging from the ceiling. He pads a little further, wincing at a pain he has in his chest, but before he can do anything about it, he sees a sudden movement in front of him and momentarily cries out. On a closer inspection, it is just a pile of broken mirrors, all reflecting him back at himself. The Doctor desperately tries to collect his thoughts.

DOCTOR: Who am I?

(The Doctor hears an ambulance siren, and is briefly lit by a crimson glow from beyond the window. He turns back to the mirrors and stares deeply into the fragments, hoping to stir a memory, but it doesn't work. Falling to his knees, the Doctor throws his arms wide and shouts:)

DOCTOR: WHO AM I?!


43, INT: BRUCE'S APARTMENT

(Standing by the window, Bruce stares forwards with green snakelike eyes, slime dribbling from his mouth, wobbling slightly as if he were unable to move correctly.)


44, INT: DERELICT WARD

(The Doctor doubles up and spreads his arms.)

TRANSCRIBED BY
RYNAD


Proceed to Act 2

 

Return to the telemovie transcripts index


Go here to return to the main Doctor Who transcripts page.

Go here to return to Anna's main page.