Part
One
[Tardis]
DOCTOR: Must get the coordinates spot on.
Yuck.
(Peri enters in 1810 period costume, carrying a parasol.)
PERI: Hey, Doctor, this is great!
DOCTOR: The dress is too large.
PERI: Large?
DOCTOR: Isn't that the accepted meaning great? Synonym for large.
PERI: Spare me the lecture, please. Okay, what do you reckon? Okay for
the Royal Open Day at Kew Gardens?
DOCTOR: Of course, great can also denote a high degree of magnitude.
Someone elevated to power.
(The Tardis judders.)
[Killingworth]
(In a 1810 or so village, played by Blists Hill
Open Air Museum, Shropshire, two men hoist a box of stones up from the
village mine and wheel it away. The bell rings for end of shift and the
tired men walk back into the village proper. The folks in these parts
talk a bit north country-like, sithee. So nice to hear English spoken
properly for a change.)
BASS: You coming in, Jack?
JACK: No, man. I don't think I've got the strength to lift a toby.
(Three men carry on to the village Bathhouse, where an old woman gets
up and goes inside.)
[Bathhouse]
WOMAN: There's wise ones. First here, the water's
hot and clean.
JACK: No, not wise, grandma. Just fair worn out.
(They go into the room with the large barrel baths and start to
undress.)
JACK: Oh, stay there, will you. I've hardly got the energy to wash.
(Then gas starts to fill the room. The men collapse. The far
wall slides back to reveal two figures in gas masks.)
[Tardis]
PERI: Well?
DOCTOR: Mmm, never felt better.
PERI: Wisecracks like that tell me one thing.
DOCTOR: What?
PERI: You haven't a clue what's going on.
DOCTOR: Oh, I know what's going. on. We're being manoeuvred
off course.
PERI: Manoeuvred off course? You mean it isn't the Tardis
malfunctioning again?
DOCTOR: Malfunctioning? Malfunctioning? Malfunctioning! After all the
work I've done on it?
PERI: Well, I only asked a simple question.
DOCTOR: Indeed you did. It was the wrong question.
PERI: Well, tell me what's going on.
DOCTOR: The time coordinates are constant, it's the location that's
being changed.
PERI: Being changed?
DOCTOR: Hmm.
PERI: Who by?
DOCTOR: By whom. To use your vernacular, I haven't a clue.
PERI: Well, can't you override?
DOCTOR: Don't try to be so obtuse. What do you imagine I'm trying to
do? That's a time distortion, as if there's a time machine nearby.
PERI: A Time Lord?
DOCTOR: Or a Dalek. Certainly an alien force of some kind.
PERI: On Earth?
[Slag heap]
(In the Bathhouse, two men in gas masks lay a man
on the floor. He has a strange red mark on the left side of his neck,
near the jawline.
The Tardis has landed on a windy, muddy spoil heap slope.)
PERI: Oh, great. Some substitute for Kew Gardens.
DOCTOR: Try and look on the bright side. After all, isn't coal just
fossilised plant life?
PERI: What have you got there?
DOCTOR: Tracking device. Registers time distortion. Hoist off your
skirts, Peri. Off we go.
[Bathhouse]
(The men are clean, have recovered their energy
and are having a angry towel fight.)
GREEN: Give it back!
JACK: Come on, now.
[Outside the Bathhouse]
RUDGE: Oh, gie us a potato, man.
(The young man runs across to a hot potato seller, kicks the boy away
and grabs a potato. The other two attack the old man.)
JACK: You daft old bugger. What's the matter with you?
(Edwin Green?, (the one in the hat), kicks over the tray of potatoes
and they all run off.)
JACK: Right, come on!
[Countryside]
PERI: Lots of these hedgerows won't exist soon.
DOCTOR: Hmm?
PERI: I mean, in the twentieth century. They're being chopped down to
improve farming efficiency. My generation's already concerned about the
effects on wildlife. Some species of butterfly are almost extinct.
Birds, too.
DOCTOR: Talking of birds, do you notice anything strange?
PERI: Strange?
(A scarecrow stands on the next ridge in the middle of ploughed land.)
DOCTOR: No birds.
PERI: Well, maybe it's the scarecrow.
DOCTOR: They're not usually this effective.
PERI: Well, if the place gives you the creeps, let's get out of it.
(The scarecrow lifts its head and watches the Doctor and Peri walk
along the field margin.)
[Lane]
(The three men from the Bathhouse stop a man
driving a horse and cart.)
DRIVER: You finished for the day, Jack? Come on, lads, out the road.
I've got to deliver this lot to pit. Come on. Whoa! What's going on
here?
(The reins are cut and the men rush trap, pulling the driver down.)
JACK: Come on, lads. Get that down. That's right. Get this lot off and
smash it, man. Get it out, man.
(They push a crate containing a piece of machinery off the back of the
cart. The driver retaliates with a shovel. The Doctor and Peri hear the
commotion and run to help.)
DRIVER: Come here, the lot of you.
(Two of the attackers run off. The Doctor grabs the horse's head and
sees the reins have been cut.)
PERI: Doctor!
(Peri runs to a man on the ground. It's the cart driver.)
PERI: Here, let me help. Why did they attack you?
DOCTOR: They didn't. They attacked the machinery.
DRIVER: That's right, miss. They was after smashing up machinery.
PERI: Oh, well, I'm lost. Why would anyone want to smash machinery?
DRIVER: They're scared it'll rob them of their jobs.
DOCTOR: Maybe.
PERI: You suspect another motive?
DOCTOR: Let's say I'm keeping an open mind. Can you stand?
(He goes to help a man lying groaning on the ground nearby.)
DRIVER: Odd that, leaving Jack Ward behind. They're usually such mates.
DOCTOR: That's an unusual mark. How did you come by that?
(Jack recovers and gets up, frightened.)
DOCTOR: Easy.
PERI: Hey!
DOCTOR: Hey, steady. Just trying to help.
(Jack runs off.)
DRIVER: What's got into you, Jack? I can't fathom it. I've never seen
him like that before.
PERI: Well, so much for playing the Good Samaritan.
DRIVER: Oh, Mister Stephenson's not going to be well pleased about
machinery.
DOCTOR: I don't suppose he will. Stephenson?
DRIVER: Waiting for them parts he is.
DOCTOR: George Stephenson?
DRIVER: Aye, sir. Do you know him?
DOCTOR: I know of him. Peri, how would you like to meet a genius?
PERI: I thought I already had.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, of course, but I haven't changed the course of
history. Indeed, I'm expressly forbidden so to do. But George Stephenson
will.
PERI: Could that be what all this is about?
DOCTOR: An astute observation, Peri. Can you give us a lift?
(The scarecrow climbs over a style, laughing.)
[Killington]
(A young boy is kicking a potato down the street.)
WOMAN: Here. Come here, lad. Run to tavern. Tell them as wants a bath
to come right now.
(She presses a small coin into his hand.)
WOMAN: Warn them us won't be keeping water hot much longer.
(The cart with the Doctor and Peri comes into the village. The Doctor
is still using the distortion tracker.)
DRIVER: Whoa with it, steady, steady.
PERI: Was that significant or just a hiccup?
DOCTOR: I'm not sure. We did hit a bump just there.
(The detector beeps like crazy as they pass the Bathhouse. The cart
stops outside the tavern.)
DRIVER: Whoa!
DOCTOR: Why are we stopping here?
DRIVER: I'm still a bit shook up. I need a toby before I can tell pit
about attack.
DOCTOR: Where would I find George Stephenson.
DRIVER: In pit, sir. Do you think you could put a word in for us.
They'll be none to pleased about machinery.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes.
(The Doctor walks off, leaving the driver to help Peri down.)
DRIVER: In a hurry, isn't he, miss? Does that mean something's wrong?
PERI: It does, I'm afraid, but don't ask me what. Thanks.
[Outside the Bathhouse]
(More grubby men arrive from the tavern. One
wearing a bandana speaks.)
BASS: Hey, we're not last, grandma. T'others'll be along when they've
emptied tobys.
WOMAN: Go on, in you go, lads.
(The old woman looks round the corner then goes inside. The scarecrow
throws down his tricorn hat and the last of his straw to reveal - the
Master! The woman bars the doorway.)
MASTER: Primitive. An insult. But first things first. I've a death to
arrange.
[Outside the pit]
(Armed guards and a barking dog guard the pit
buildings.)
PERI: What have they got in there, coal or diamonds?
DOCTOR: Machinery. Or more specifically, George Stephenson, and he is
just about
PERI: You told me. One of the architects of the industrial revolution.
DOCTOR: And I didn't exaggerate. Without his genius, your precious
twentieth century would be a much sorrier place. We've got to get in
there.
PERI: That's easier said than. That dog doesn't look as though it's
been fed today.
(The Doctor walks boldly into the pit yard.)
[Pit yard]
(The man holding the barking dog challenges him.)
GUARD: Oi! Where do you think you're going?
DOCTOR: To see George Stephenson. Where can I find him?
GUARD: Nobody gets in here without a pass.
DOCTOR: A pass? My dear fellow, I am a VIP.
GUARD: Those that are attending the meeting have a special pass.
DOCTOR: Meeting?
PERI: We've been travelling. The pass obviously never reached us.
GUARD: Then thy name will be on the list.
DOCTOR: Here, let me see that. Get that dog under control, will you?
Now, what have we got? Thomas Telford, Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy.
Good heavens, Peri, do you recognise these names?
PERI: I'm not totally ignorant. What is the noun for a collection of
geniuses? A bevy?
DOCTOR: An inspiration of geniuses? I don't know. But I do know that
the people appearing at this meeting will transform history.
GUARD: Well, that's as may be, but is thy name on the list?
DOCTOR: An oversight.
GUARD: Oh aye. A genius too, are you?
DOCTOR: I am indeed. I'm also an inventor. Look.
(The Doctor holds up the time distortion tracking device.)
PERI: I must apologise. The Doctor is a little eccentric.
GUARD: A doctor, is he? Well, maybe I could have a word with the
office.
PERI: Would you? Thank you.
GUARD: Harry! The gate. Bolt it.
(One of the armed men obeys.)
GUARD: This way, miss.
DOCTOR: Eccentric, me? Preposterous.
(The Master watches from across the street.)
[Office]
GUARD: Set thee down and I'll see if I can find
Mister Stephenson.
DOCTOR: I'll come with you.
GUARD: Nay. You bide here. Now sit! Stay.
(The guard dog lies down in the doorway as his handler leaves.)
DOCTOR: There's a good boy. Good. Good Fido now.
PERI: What are you up to?
(The dog barks when the Doctor gets too close to the door.)
DOCTOR: That's a good boy. Let the nice Doctor through.
(Bark, growl.)
PERI: I guess he's not susceptible to your irresistible charm.
DOCTOR: Occasionally, just occasionally, your smugness infuriates me.
PERI: Shush! Keep your voice down. Time Lords may not get rabies but
humans do, and that dog looks more than ready to bite.
DOCTOR: Will you stop prattling about the dog?
(The Doctor goes to a window.)
DOCTOR: There's something wrong here. I'm not quite sure what it is,
but I'm increasingly convinced it's got to be stopped.
(The window will not open.)
PERI: You could be jumping the gun.
DOCTOR: Oh, really? Oh, that's your assessment, is it. Did you see the
date at the top of that list? In less than two days from now, a meeting
will take place here of many of the greatest practical talents the
human race has ever produced. A coincidence?
PERI: Unlikely, I agree.
DOCTOR: Well, hanging around an office is not going to provide the
answer.
(The dog pricks up its ears.)
PERI: I warned you to cool it.
DOCTOR: I don't think it's me.
(The Master peers through the slats of the pit yard gate. The
dog suddenly leaves.)
PERI: That dog's really spooked. I wonder why? Doctor!
[Pit yard]
(The dog runs up to the main gate, where the
Master is about to break in. It barks at him furiously. The Master uses
his Tissue Compression Eliminator on the animal. One of the armed men
comes running up and also gets zapped. He vanishes apparently
completely, no tiny doll left on the ground like there used to be.
The Doctor is scanning various buildings round a cobbled yard.)
PERI: It's stopped.
DOCTOR: No, still functioning.
PERI: The dog, it's stopped barking.
DOCTOR: There
was silence deep as death.
PERI: That's morbid.
DOCTOR: Possibly.
[Killingworth]
(Jack Ward and his two friends walk up the main
street in front of W M Shayer and Sons.)
MASTER: You there. You were in the lane smashing machinery.
JACK: Right, never mind the machinery, what's thou doing here?
GREEN: That's easy. He's one of brainy ones arrived early for this
meeting.
JACK: Aye, come to rob us of our jobs.
MASTER: Hold hard. I intend you no harm.
RUDGE: Talks funny, don't he? Hold hard? This hard enough?
(He threatens the Master with a large stone.)
MASTER: Imbeciles. Are you incapable of using your brains? What
advantage do you think that'd bring you? You let the man you should
have destroyed go free.
JACK: I did? What's tha on about?
MASTER: In the lane. He pretended to help you. Help? He's a friend of
Stephenson's, an inventor. He's here to mechanise the mine.
GREEN: Does tha know what he's getting at, Jack?
JACK: Aye, he's just trying to save his own skin.
MASTER: Ask him. Ask him why he's trying to take the bread out of your
mouths.
LAD: We'll do more than that! Where is he, dost tha know?
MASTER: He's gone into the pit.
(The young man rushes the barred gate.)
MASTER: Let me. You can't mistake him, he's mean looking.
(The Master uses a sonic lance to burn the iron bar on the inside of
the gate.)
MASTER: Wears yellow trousers and a vulgarly coloured coat. But go
carefully, he's treacherous.
(The men run into the pit. The Master stays outside.)
[Pit]
(The Doctor's exploration has brought him to the
rail track where the crates of coal are pushed along from the pit head.
Peri kicks something metal, making a noise.)
DOCTOR: Careful.
PERI: Sorry. What are we doing here, anyway?
DOCTOR: Looking for George Stephenson.
PERI: Oh, he could be anywhere. Absolutely anywhere. Even underground.
(Peri looks down the unguarded shaft.)
DOCTOR: Peri! You really do have an extraordinary capacity for seeking
out danger.
PERI: Doctor!
DOCTOR: You ought to learn to avoid situations where
PERI: Doctor!
(Jack and his friends are grabbing shovels and hammers from a pile,
whilst shouting.)
DOCTOR: Peri, get out of here!
PERI: But what about you?
DOCTOR: Don't argue, just go. Now, now, now, gentlemen, gentlemen,
please. I'm sure we can come to some amicable understanding.
(The Doctor is driven back to the mine shaft.)
DOCTOR: Please, please.
(He drops his detector down the shaft.)
DOCTOR: Now you've gone too far! After all the effort that went into
making that!
(The Doctor gets pushed in the back by Green. He manages to grab the
chain that pulls up the crates of coal but his attacker falls down the
shaft.)
JACK: Get him!
(The Master watches as Jack and his friend pummel the Doctor. A woman
runs to find out what all the commotion is.)
PERI: Get help!
(Jack hits the Doctor's hand with his shovel, leaving him hanging
one-handed from the chain.)
JACK: Come on!
PERI: Stop it! Leave him!
(Peri tries throwing lumps of coal at the men.)
PERI: Somebody help!
(A gunshot is fired by an elegant man in a top hat.)
RAVENSWORTH: Stop that or I'll blast you to kingdom come!
(Everyone say Hi! to the aristocratic looking Terence Alexander.)
(Jack and his friend flee.)
RAVENSWORTH: Forget them! Haul that man up to safety, quickly!
(The dog handler obeys.)
DOCTOR: Almost at the end of my tether.
PERI: That's no joke.
DOCTOR: I can't thank you enough. But for your very opportune arrival
RAVENSWORTH: You can thank their stupidity. I'd used up the shot. It
would have taken at least two minutes to reload. They had plenty of
time to finish you off. Now perhaps you'll tell me who you are, and I
don't want any of that flummery about VIPs. I am Lord Ravensworth, the
owner. I issued personally the invitations to the meeting, and your
face is not one that I recall. My office, now! VIPs indeed.
(The Master slinks away.)
[Office]
DOCTOR: Your guard is quite right, of course. We
shouldn't have deceived him. But how else would we have got in here?
RAVENSWORTH: Spare me the dubious pragmatism. You came to see George
Stephenson, you said?
DOCTOR: I am a great admirer.
RAVENSWORTH: Yes, you must be if you're prepared to resort to trickery.
But how do I know you're not in league with these machinery wreckers,
these wretched Luddites!
DOCTOR: Really, do I look like a man who would wreck machines?
(Peri bites her tongue while Ravensworth checks the Doctor's hand for
calluses.)
RAVENSWORTH: Well, you've certainly never done a day's labour in your
life, and I suppose it is possible you might even be a gentleman. (to
Peri) Do sit down.
GUARD: Shall we get up a search for the two who attacked this er,
gentleman, my Lord?
RAVENSWORTH: No, leave them. They'll have gone to ground by now.
PERI: Leave them? They tried to kill the Doctor.
RAVENSWORTH: I don't dispute that, young woman. A brutal attack on a
complete stranger. I take it you were not acquainted.
DOCTOR: Oh, I'd met the big fellow briefly when I tried to help him.
RAVENSWORTH: Yes, that'd be Jack Ward. Over thirty years he's worked
for me and in all that time I've never once seen him raise his fist to
another man.
PERI: Well, he's undergone a change now.
(At the pit head, a man brings poles and a woman a
blanket for a stretcher. Most of the village wait to see who is pulled
out of the pit.)
DOCTOR: And the disruptions only started recently?
RAVENSWORTH: Disruption's hardly the word for it. Oh, I know there have
been Luddite attacks on machinery all over the country, but here
DOCTOR: It's been more extreme?
RAVENSWORTH: The violence has been horrendous.
PERI: Murderous would be more apt.
DOCTOR: Peri.
RAVENSWORTH: No, the young lady's quite right. I just don't understand
what's going on. I've always had an excellent relationship with the
men. Flattered myself I enjoyed their trust and respect. Now this, this
nightmare.
(Womens voices are heard outside.)
RAVENSWORTH: They've obviously heard about the accident.
PERI: Accident!
RAVENSWORTH: Go and bring those women in here, will you?
GUARD: Yes, my lord.
(The guard leaves.)
DOCTOR: It's only the men that are affected?
RAVENSWORTH: Yes. They become savage, go berserk, seem to suffer a
complete change of personality.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(In a secret part of the bathhouse, the old woman
puts a strange device on the neck of one man lying on a bed. Meanwhile,
the Master uses a gizmo to unbar the main door and enter, then bars it
again.
(The wall of the bath room slides open and he watches two men carry a
man out of the secret room to lay him on the floor, then pick up
another one and carry him out. The old woman looks at a flask of opaque
liquid and sees the Master's face. She straightens up.)
MASTER: No welcome?
RANI: You're not.
(Everyone say Hi! to Kate
O'Mara before she found international fame in Dynasty. She
peels of her disguise.)
MASTER: Fascinating. But then anything connected with you would
undoubtedly be fascinating, my dear Rani.
RANI: I thought that last mad scheme of yours had finished you for
good.
MASTER: You jest, of course. I'm indestructible. The whole universe
knows that.
RANI: Is that so?
MASTER: Really, my dear Rani, you and I should be friends. I'm one of
your greatest admirers.
RANI: Oh, don't bother with flattery. I know why you're here. I saw the
Doctor.
MASTER: Then you know why I need your cooperation.
RANI: Cooperation? I want nothing to do with you.
MASTER: You'll change your mind when you hear my proposition.
RANI: I am not interested in your pathetic vendetta one way or the
other. Now clear off and let me get on with my work.
MASTER: If only it were that simple. However, I'm afraid you've very
little choice. Either you collaborate or I bring this little venture to
an extremely untimely end.
(The Master takes hold of the tubes running from one man on a bed.)
RANI: Josh, Tom, kill!
(The Master uses the TCE on Tom.)
RANI: No, Josh. Stand still.
[Office]
(Two women have been brought in, the younger one
is carrying a baby.)
YOUNG WOMAN: Me Josh, your Lordship, been missing for days.
OLDER WOMAN: It's not just her Josh that's missing. Our Tom's gone,
too.
DOCTOR: When? Forgive me, Lord Ravensworth, it is important. When did
they go missing?
OLDER WOMAN: Well, nowt's been seen of them since they come off shift
together.
PERI: Perhaps they joined these Luddites?
OLDER WOMAN: Join that mob of lunatics? Smashing and rampaging day and
night, frightening folks out of us beds.
YOUNG WOMAN: My Josh wouldn't join them. He wouldn't harm anyone.
[Bathhouse]
(The Master and the Rani enter the bath room from
the secret room.)
RANI: You and the Doctor are a well-matched pair of pests. You bring
nothing but trouble. Now I need a new assistant.
(Josh lays a man on the floor and the Rani puts a green maggot in his
mouth. The man swallows it.)
MASTER: I wasn't wrong. I knew with you as controller it wouldn't be
hypnotism. Not from a chemist of your calibre. What are they, parasites
you've specially impregnated?
RANI: There's a simple way to find out. Why not try some?
(The Master takes the box of maggots from her.)
MASTER: Thank you, I won't, but I can envisage an occasion when they
may serve an excellent cause.
RANI: I was offering you one, not the lot!
MASTER: I assure you, your generosity will not be wasted.
RANI: Take him through, Josh.
MASTER: Brilliant. Quite brilliant.
[The Rani's laboratory]
MASTER: When the Time Lords exiled you, they made
a cardinal error.
RANI: Yes, they did, and they'll learn to regret it. And so will anyone
else who interferes!
[Office]
PERI: Doctor, let's get out of here, away from
Killingworth.
DOCTOR: I can't do that.
PERI: But you're in danger. That attack wasn't random. Those louts
tried to kill you.
DOCTOR: Yes, but why? Aren't you interested in why they should want to
make me a target?
PERI: No, not in the least. I can't think of a better reason for
abandoning this visit.
DOCTOR: You're forgetting. We didn't just stumble into this place, we
were hijacked.
PERI: I'm forgetting nothing. The Luddites are not our problem.
DOCTOR: I agree.
PERI: You don't think it is the Luddites.
DOCTOR: Do you? Wait here.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Rani finishes processing Tim Bass. Another
man stands by the wall.)
MASTER: You should cooperate, you know.
RANI: Take this one through.
(Josh and the new man obey.)
MASTER: The Doctor won't tolerate anyone deliberately playing havoc
with his favourite planet.
RANI: Can't you get it into your warped skull that there is nothing
deliberate about it? The aggression is an unfortunate side effect.
MASTER: Unfortunate? Fortuitous would be a more apposite epithet.
RANI: Call it what you will, I need the chemical. The only source is
the human brain. It can have no relevance to you or your machinations.
MASTER: Ah. But then, as yet you've not been appraised of my purpose in
being here.
RANI: To destroy the Doctor. You've never had any other. It obsesses
you to the exclusion of all else.
MASTER: You underestimate me. Certainly I want to destroy him, see him
suffer, but that is just an exquisite first step. I have a greater
concept, one that will encompass the whole human race.
RANI: You're unbalanced. No wonder the Doctor always outwits you.
(The Master snatches a small phial of liquid from her.)
RANI: Put that down!
MASTER: You don't get much, do you.
RANI: There's only a minute amount in each brain.
MASTER: How does extracting this make humans more aggressive? I'll not
ask again.
RANI: Because without that chemical, the brain cannot rest.
MASTER: Ah, now I understand. You need it for your aliens on Miasimia
Goria. I dropped in on your little domain before following you here.
Chaos. Complete mayhem. What went wrong?
RANI: Wrong? Who said anything went wrong?
MASTER: Well, you rule there absolutely. I assume one of your little
schemes didn't turn out quite as you expected.
RANI: A small matter. In the process of heightening the awareness of my
aliens, I lowered their ability to sleep. They became
MASTER: Difficult to control. On the other hand, with this and the
impregnated parasites, their talents are yours to command. Oh, such
power. Is that a scanner?
RANI: Find out.
(The Master threatens to drop the phial.)
RANI: Who do you want?
MASTER: The Doctor.
RANI: Where did you see him last?
MASTER: At the pit.
[Pit yard]
(A body covered in a blanket has been loaded onto
a handcart.)
DOCTOR: Hold on a minute, will you?
(The Doctor examines the neck of body, then of the men with the cart.)
RAVENSWORTH: What the blazes are you doing, man?
DOCTOR: All right, thank you.
(The men take the cart and body away. A woman goes with it.)
RAVENSWORTH: Well, did you hear me? What was all that about?
DOCTOR: Later. You said that the son of one of my attackers worked for
you?
RAVENSWORTH: Yes, Luke Ward, George Stephenson's assistant. Very
capable young man. My protégé as a matter of fact.
DOCTOR: Find him for me, will you, there's a good chap.
(The Doctor walks away.)
RAVENSWORTH: The dratted man's a positive law unto himself.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Master and the Rani have watched this on the
scanner.)
MASTER: You see? We do have an allied cause. Unless you eliminate the
Doctor, he'll bring this cosy operation to an end.
RANI: Then let's get on with it.
MASTER: My way. We do it my way. Any idea where those morons you
created might be?
(The Rani slaps the Master's hand away from the scanner controls and
does it herself.)
MASTER: Ah, the old mine working.
RANI: What are you going to do?
[Bathhouse]
RANI: The brain fluid?
MASTER: It's perfectly safe. Next to my hearts, both of them.
(The Master hides round the corner, by the main door.)
RANI: Wait!
(He grabs her as she passes and they struggle for a pill box she has
picked up.)
RANI: Let go of me!
MASTER: Not until you tell me what this is.
RANI: They're capsules for my lungs. The Earth's damp atmosphere
affects them. Do you trust anyone?
MASTER: Yes. Myself. Capsules they may be, but don't touch them till
this door closes between us.
(The Master leaves. The Rani looks annoyed.)
[Office]
(Young Luke Ward has been found.)
DOCTOR: And your father was perfectly normal this morning?
RAVENSWORTH: The lad's already told you he was.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know. Bear with me. The answer's probably staring me
straight in the face. I just can't see it.
PERI: When did you last talk to him, Luke?
LUKE: When he came off shift. He were on his way to bathhouse.
DOCTOR: Bath? Bathhouse?
LUKE: Well, to get cleaned up like.
PERI: Doctor, when we went past
DOCTOR: Luke, can you find me an old coat?
LUKE: Aye, but
RAVENSWORTH: Go on, bring him one.
(Luke leaves and the Doctor takes off his coat.)
PERI: Doctor, when we went past the bathhouse, that instrument of yours
DOCTOR: Reacted. Yes, I know. I said the answer was staring me straight
in the face, didn't I? It was, literally.
PERI: I don't get you.
RAVENSWORTH: I'm glad it isn't just me.
DOCTOR: Those men didn't look as if they'd come straight from the mine,
did they? They were clean.
(Luke returns.)
DOCTOR: Thank you, Luke.
(The Doctor takes the old coat and leaves.)
RAVENSWORTH: Is he often like this?
PERI: Too often. Excuse me.
(Peri runs after the Doctor, leaving Lord Ravensworth holding the
Doctor's coat.)
[Pit yard]
PERI: Well, now what's going on?
DOCTOR: I am about to follow what you would term as a hunch.
PERI: Must you? Okay, where do I fit in?
DOCTOR: You stay here where you'll be safe.
PERI: Safe? I haven't been safe from the moment I first found myself in
the Tardis.
(The Doctor smears coal dust on his face.)
DOCTOR: How do I look?
PERI: Like a man who could do with a bath.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Rani watches the Master enter the old mine
workings on her scanner.)
RANI: No, wait. Let him come further in. I told you to wait,
you cretins. Wait! The man's armed. Now!
(One of the Rani's madmen jumps the Master. There's a struggle on the
ground.)
RANI: My phial. The fools will smash it.
(The Rani gets a red control box out of her pocket and uses it.)
[Old mine]
(The madman grabs his head and collapses. The red
mark on his neck is huge.)
MASTER: The mark of the Rani.
(Other men gather.)
JACK: Is he dead? Why, I don't understand what's happened.
MASTER: I warned you that inventor was treacherous.
JACK: But he's not nowhere near.
MASTER: Ah, he doesn't have to be. He has a machine to do his foul work
for him.
JACK: A machine?
MASTER: Yeah. I'll show you.
[The Rani's laboratory]
RANI: What's he up to now?
(There is a knocking at the main door.)
RANI: It'll be something devious and overcomplicated. He'd get dizzy if
he tried to walk in a straight line.
(The Rani puts her shawl over her head and leaves, the wall closing
behind her.)
[Bathhouse]
(The old woman opens the door.)
RANI: Come on in, come on in. Towels are all ready there.
(Two real miners enter and put their coins in a box. The Doctor follows
them. He shakes the box to make it sound like he has paid while the
Rani has her back turned, closing the door. The Doctor goes straight to
the far wall and the gas comes out, filling the room. The men
collapse.)
[Old mine]
(The Master shows the men a drawing of the
Tardis.)
JACK: What's that, a coffin?
MASTER: An appropriate description. A coffin, yes. No, it's the machine
that murdered your friend.
JACK: That thing?
MASTER: To be buried in the deepest mine shaft.
JACK: I can't see no point in burying a box. Better I bury him.
MASTER: Trust me, I give you my word. By destroying that, you'll divest
him of all his power.
JACK: Does tha know where it is?
MASTER: At the slag heap. Hurry, fetch it to the pit.
JACK: Wha? Fetch it? No, tha's coming with us.
MASTER: No, not me. That's just the bait. I have to return to the
village to set the trap.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Rani is about to put her 'brain fluid
extractor' on the Doctor when she realises something is wrong. She puts
a strip on his forehead and removes it, then pulls back the blanket and
listens to his chest. Two hearts. She wakes him up. The Doctor
discovers he is fastened to the bed by wrist and ankle manacles.)
DOCTOR: Well, well, well. The Rani.
RANI: You were expecting to see the Master?
DOCTOR: To see? Not exactly. He was burnt to a crisp the last time I
saw him.
RANI: Your smugness is misplaced. He's here. He's very much alive and
he wants vengeance, curse the pair of you.
DOCTOR: Well, since we're insulting each other, I can't say I care much
for your taste in clothes. Doesn't do a thing for you.
RANI: Hmm, your regeneration's not too attractive, either. But at least
I can change my appearance. You're stuck with what you've got.
DOCTOR: My face is of no importance. Brain regeneration is what I need.
I should have been able to pin this one down to you. Personality
changes, probably due to an imbalance in body chemicals. Yes, you're
the obvious culprit. Well, you had me fooled, if that's any
consolation.
RANI: It isn't.
DOCTOR: You'd have been discovered eventually, you know, even without
my intervention.
RANI: I never have.
DOCTOR: Oh? This isn't your first visit?
RANI: I've been coming to this wretched planet for centuries.
DOCTOR: Without being discovered? Well, I'm impressed. You've obviously
a brilliant tactician as well as a brilliant chemist.
RANI: Oh, it isn't difficult. These humans you so admire are a feckless
lot, always in disarray. The Trojan wars, the Dark Ages, the American
War of Independence.
DOCTOR: And now the Luddite riots.
RANI: Perfect cover.
DOCTOR: Cover, yes, but for what? I think I've got it. You're
extracting a chemical from the brain. The result is the victims become
violent, aggressive, can't rest? That's it. The chemical that promotes
sleep.
RANI: I begin to understand why the Master finds you such a menace. Oh,
where is the idiot?
(The Rani switches the views on the scanner.)
DOCTOR: I take it you're referring to the Master. Look, why don't you
release me?
RANI: What, and have you two stop my work?
DOCTOR: These are human beings, Rani. Living creatures that have done
you no harm.
RANI: They're carnivores. What harm have the animals in the fields done
them? The rabbits they snare, the sheep they nourish to slaughter. Do
they worry about the lesser species when they sink their teeth into a
lamb chop? Ah! Josh, guard him.
DOCTOR: Josh?
RANI: If he moves, kill him. No, don't kill him. Kill this one. Touché,
Doctor.
DOCTOR: Don't hurry back.
[Bathhouse]
(Peri watches the old woman come out of the
bathhouse, then sneaks inside.)
PERI: Doctor? I know you're here. I'd have seen you leave.
(She discovers a miner lying on the bath room floor.)
PERI: Doctor?
(Peri sees the laboratory beyond the open wall.)
PERI: Doctor!
[The Rani's laboratory]
DOCTOR: Stop!
PERI: Stop? What do you mean, stop? I was going to free you.
DOCTOR: Don't come any further. Touch me and their orders are to kill.
PERI: But I can't just, I mean, I must do something.
DOCTOR: You can. Get that poor fellow out of danger.
PERI: Well, how?
DOCTOR: Use some of that famous American initiative. Push him outside.
PERI: But won't they try
DOCTOR: Their orders relate only to me. Now move, Peri.
(Peri moves carefully past Josh to the foot of the other bed.)
PERI: Orders? Whose orders?
DOCTOR: For once will you forget the cross-examination and just go?
[Bathhouse]
(Peri gets the bed pushed into the bathhouse as
the Rani and the Master return.)
RANI: Who's this brat?
MASTER: My dear Rani, quite unwittingly you've made my triumph utterly
complete. Allow me to introduce the Doctor's latest travelling
companion, Miss Perpugilliam Brown, although her travelling days will
soon be over.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(Jack and his mates have got the Tardis loaded
onto a cart and are pushing it through the woods.)
PERI: I thought he was dead.
MASTER: As you observe, I'm very much alive. Your erstwhile mentor, on
the other hand, is about to, I believe your modern expression is, snuff
the candle.
DOCTOR: Snuff the candle? You always did lack style.
MASTER: Style is hardly the prime characteristic of your new
regeneration.
RANI: Oh, do stop squabbling and get on with it.
MASTER: I have a score to settle with Miss Peri first. When we last
met, you could have saved me and you didn't.
RANI: No, don't kill the girl.
DOCTOR: Thank you, Rani. I'm glad to see you haven't sunk to quite the
Master's depths.
(The Rani twists Peri's arm.)
PERI: No, let go of me!
RANI: Oh, be still. Human.
MASTER: So?
RANI: Her brain's as good as anyone else's.
MASTER: No comment, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Don't think I could stand it.
PERI: What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: A hyperactive Peri. Too ghastly to contemplate.
PERI: I don't understand.
MASTER: We're being treated to an example of his famous sense of
humour. I'm afraid, Doctor, that even that will desert you soon.
[Lane]
JACK: Go on, Jackie, go on. Push, lads!
[The Rani's laboratory]
MASTER: A turbulent time, Doctor, in Earth's
history.
DOCTOR: Not one of its most tranquil, I agree.
MASTER: A critical period.
DOCTOR: You could say that.
MASTER: Oh, I do. The beginning of a new era.
PERI: Doctor, do you get his drift?
DOCTOR: I'm afraid I do, Peri.
PERI: He wants to pervert history.
DOCTOR: Not that the Prince of Darkness here would see it as
perversion.
MASTER: Maudlin claptrap. The talents of these geniuses should be
harnessed to a superior vision. With their help, I could turn this
insignificant planet into a power base unique in the universe.
DOCTOR: And you intend to use the Rani's bag of tricks to achieve this
egocentric scheme.
MASTER: You are indeed a worthy opponent. It's what gives your
destruction its piquancy.
(The scanner beeps.)
MASTER: Excellent! Feast your eyes, Doctor, on the imminent demise of
the Tardis.
PERI: The Tardis!
MASTER: Finito Tardis. How's that for style?
PERI: Oh, Doctor, if they destroy the Tardis
DOCTOR: Very clever. Optical illusion created on the screen. I've tried
that but never succeeded.
MASTER: It's no illusion.
PERI: Hope you're right, Doctor.
RANI: He's not.
DOCTOR: Believe me, I am. The Rani's cleverer than any of us. She's
managed to modify that scanner so it presents what's in the mind
instead of what's happening in reality.
MASTER: Push.
PERI: The trolley?
MASTER: One false move.
PERI: Well, push where?
MASTER: Outside!
RANI: No. He doesn't leave here.
(The Master holds up the Rani's phial.)
MASTER: I wonder how many weeks of work this represents and how many of
the Doctor's precious humans have contributed.
RANI: Do as he says.
MASTER: You shall have the girl when we return. Push, unless you prefer
a swifter end.
[Killingworth]
(Peri pushes the bed with the Doctor on it down
the street as the men with the Tardis on the cart come barreling
through.)
JACK [OC]: Right, to the pit, lads! Good on yer, lads. That's it.
MASTER: The last rites, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I can't really see from this far away.
MASTER: You can hear.
DOCTOR: I gather they're going to throw it down the pit.
MASTER: All the way down, to the bottom.
[Pit head]
JACK: Put the brake on, Billy. Hold it there.
Right, lads.
(Billy goes to push a railway trolley out of the way. The men line the
Tardis up with the shaft opening, head first.)
JACK: Push now!
(The Tardis falls down the shaft.)
[Killingworth]
(The Doctor kicks the TCE out of the Master's
hand.)
DOCTOR: Push, Peri! Push! Push! No, no, Peri! The other way!
(The trolley gets away from Peri and rolls off down the street on its
own.)
DOCTOR: Peri!
PERI: Doctor!
(The Doctor luges down the street to the pit.)
PERI: Hold on, Doctor, I'm coming!
[Pit head]
JACK: Why, look up there, lads. Get hold of this,
lads.
(They stop the Doctor's trolley.)
DOCTOR: Thank you, gentlemen. I'm most grateful. If you could just
(They pick up the stretcher that he is fastened to and carry it off,
laughing.)
DOCTOR: Peri! Stay back!
JACK: We've got you now. That's it, put him on there, lads.
DOCTOR: Stay back!
(They put the Doctor on a rail cart.)
JACK: Right, push lads. Away we go!
(The Doctor hurtles down the track to the shaft entrance.)
Part Two
[Pit head]
(A man comes running out of the woods, sees the
peril of the Doctor and pushes the cover over the shaft just in time.)
STEPHENSON: Are tha hurt? Harmed at all?
DOCTOR: No.
(Jack and his two best friends come running towards the pithead.)
JACK: Hold it, Jackie.
(A guard fires his rifle at them. They mob him then run.)
JACK: Come on, Jackie.
(They run off. Meanwhile at the shaft entrance.)
DOCTOR: A trifle cramped.
(His rescuer sees the manacles.)
STEPHENSON: Ah, tha would be.
DOCTOR: It's these straps.
STEPHENSON: Aye, I suppose. Intriguing.
DOCTOR: The straps? Oh, it's a long story.
STEPHENSON: Hey, this metal. I've ne'er seen the like of it afore. Dost
know what foundry forged it?
DOCTOR: George Stephenson, I presume?
STEPHENSON: Aye, I'm Stephenson.
DOCTOR: Absolutely delighted to meet you, sir. If you'd be so kind as
to undo the straps?
STEPHENSON: Of course. Forgive me. T'were metal that took me attention.
(Peri is being chased by more men.)
PERI: Run, Doctor, run!
DOCTOR: Stephenson, we've got to get away.
STEPHENSON: Follow me.
(He leads the Doctor and Peri into the woods.)
[Pit head]
(Lord Ravensworth gives the dazed guard his own
pistol.)
RAVENSWORTH: Here, take this. Round up all the able-bodied men you can
find and search this pit. I want every one of those scoundrels hunted
down.
(To another guard.)
RAVENSWORTH: You, pull yourself together, man, and get back on the
gate. Nobody enters or leaves. That's an order!
[Stephenson's workshop]
LUKE: Mister Stephenson!
STEPHENSON: Shush.
DOCTOR: Somewhat unorthodox entry.
STEPHENSON: Owner's notion.
DOCTOR: Lord Ravensworth?
STEPHENSON: Aye. He thought we'd best be prepared lest the Luddite
riots started here. Seems he were right.
DOCTOR: Except these weren't Luddites.
STEPHENSON: They're not?
DOCTOR: That's what you were supposed to think.
STEPHENSON: Then why did they attack thee?
DOCTOR: Thought I was attending this meeting of yours.
STEPHENSON: For that they were prepared to kill thee?
DOCTOR: Afraid so. Not just me, either.
STEPHENSON: What? Tha means Davy, Faraday and t'others are in danger? I
find that difficult to credit.
DOCTOR: You disappoint me. A practical man, and yet you refuse to
believe the evidence of your own eyes?
PERI: It's not the first time they've tried to kill the Doctor.
LUKE: Aye, tis truth, Mister Stephenson.
STEPHENSON: Oh. Dost thou think we should cancel meeting?
DOCTOR: Don't you?
STEPHENSON: Pity. I suspect thee's contribution would have put cat or
two among pigeons.
PERI: Oh, Doctor, now that's sorted out, don't you think we should do
something about trying to get to the Tardis?
DOCTOR: When it's safe.
LUKE: When the Doctor were attacked again.
PERI: Yes, Luke?
LUKE: Was, did me father take part?
(Peri nods.)
LUKE: I asked me mam about that red mark on his neck. She'd ne'er seen
it. She knew nowt about it. Do you know what caused it?
(Stephenson has written a letter.)
STEPHENSON: Right, Luke, take this to his Lordship.
LUKE: Aye. Dost mind if I also seek me da?
STEPHENSON: Course not, lad.
DOCTOR: Luke, be careful. Your father's not the man he was.
(Luke leaves.)
STEPHENSON: Oh, I'd nay like anything happen to Luke. Lad's got great
future. I was down pit at nine. Never had much schooling. But Lord
Ravensworth's seen to it that Luke's been well taught. He'll outshine
me.
[Pit yard]
(The Master is prowling when he sees Bass come out
of a lit building then clutch his head.)
LUKE: Hey, Tim! Tim Bass! Has't tha seen me da?
BASS: He'll want nowt to do with thee, Luke. Not as long as tha's
working with that Stephenson.
LUKE: But why? He's nay objected afore.
BASS: Aye, he do now. Assistant? Traitor more like. Out of the road.
(Bass runs off, and the Master approaches Luke.)
MASTER: Excuse me, young man. I've been summoned here by Lord
Ravensworth. Can you tell me where I might find him?
(The Master dangles a shiny pendant in front of Luke's eyes.)
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Rani watches on her scanner. There is a
clatter as her latest victim tries to get off the trolley.)
RANI: Be careful. Josh, help him.
(The Rani sees the Master open her maggot box, and rips out the visual
feed.)
[Pit yard]
MASTER: Luke, I want you to swallow this very
special sweetmeat.
(The hypnotised Luke obeys, and his eye goes misty.)
MASTER: Splendid.
(The Master takes Stephenson's letter and reads it.)
MASTER: Thomas Telford, Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, Marc Brunel. An
impressive role of honour. Luke, this meeting is not to be cancelled.
Do you understand?
LUKE: I understand.
MASTER: If anyone tries to prevent it, you destroy them. Is that clear?
LUKE: That is clear.
MASTER: Anyone. Anyone at all.
(The Master leaves with the letter.)
[Stephenson's workshop]
(The Doctor is on the floor by an engine boiler.
Rocket prototype, probably. Stephenson is underneath it.)
STEPHENSON: The key is more power. Now, if I can increase that, speed
of fifteen, even twenty mile and hour will be possible. Now, power is
the problem.
(Peri brings the Doctor's coat of many colours.)
PERI: Doctor, there is a more pressing problem.
DOCTOR: Peri's right. I'll talk to you later, Stephenson. Come on.
[Pit yard]
(Jack watches the Doctor and Peri walk down some
steps from the woods and greet a passing worker.)
DOCTOR: My dear fellow.
(Jack turns to his companion in the battered hat.)
JACK: Ready? Follow me.
[Pit head]
(Children put coal into baskets and carry it away.
Green grabs Peri from behind.)
PERI: Do
(Jack swings some props at the Doctor, who jumps out of the way. They
smash into a pile of barrels instead, knocking them into the canal. The
guard puts Lord Ravensworth's pistol to the Green's head.)
GUARD: Let the lass go or I'll blow your brains out.
PERI: Doctor!
GUARD: Jack Ward, you stay where you are!
(Peri runs to the canal to look for the Doctor.)
DOCTOR: You do make a mess of that pretty dress.
PERI: But how?
DOCTOR: Peripheral vision,
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Rani appears to be struggling with a set of
painted screens in the corner. The room is clear of her equipment.)
RANI: At last you're back, you incompetent egoist. Give me my phial.
MASTER: This? The precious brain fluid? And I thought you were waiting
for me.
RANI: If I didn't need that desperately, I'd have put light years
between us.
MASTER: What better reason could I have for keeping it?
RANI: You'll play that card once to often. With you on the scene, I
might be wiser to cut my losses and go.
MASTER: Perhaps this will make you change your mind. Read it.
(Stephenson's letter.)
RANI: The meeting's been cancelled?
MASTER: No, it was never delivered.
RANI: Well
MASTER: You disappoint me. A scientist and you're not thinking
objectively. Davy, Faraday, Telford and others. Over twenty men of
genius. Have you no conception of what we could achieve if we control
them? Harness their genius, and this planet could become the platform
for the most devastating power in the universe.
RANI: You're forgetting, I already rule a planet. Miasimia Goria.
MASTER: Help me, and I promise you all the facilities you need. Instead
of sneaking back here in disguise, you'll be able to set up a
laboratory and process as many humans as you choose. A hundred, a
thousand, there are millions of them.
RANI: What guarantee would I have?
MASTER: My need. That unique box of parasites will not go far. Only you
have the formula.
RANI: The Time Lords will never permit it.
MASTER: Who's going to alert them?
RANI: Indeed. We must hurry.
MASTER: Haven't you overlooked something? You can hardly take them out
onto the streets.
RANI: No, you're right, I can't.
(The Rani gets out her red box and zaps Josh, then Tom's replacement.)
MASTER: The Mark of the Rani.
[Office]
GUARD: I caught these two, my lord.
RAVENSWORTH: Only two? What about the others?
GUARD: I don't know, my lord.
RAVENSWORTH: They must have got away. Confound it.
JACK: Good luck to them.
RAVENSWORTH: Be quiet, Ward! My orders were to round up the whole lot
of them.
JACK: We haven't finished yet.
RAVENSWORTH: I said that's enough.
(Jack picks up a chair.)
GUARD: Drop that, Jack, or I'll blow thee to pieces.
(Jack puts the chair down.)
RAVENSWORTH: Now sit on it. My mistake's been trying to deal with this
rabble myself. I should have sent for the militia long before now. Tie
them up.
[Stephenson's workshop]
(Luke enters.)
STEPHENSON: Tha's delivered note?
LUKE: Aye.
STEPHENSON: What's his Lordship say?
LUKE: Nowt.
STEPHENSON: Shouldn't think he were too well pleased. Happen I should
have gone meself, explained. In t'office, is he?
LUKE: Nay. Tha stay put. I'll fetch him to thee. Tis safer that way.
STEPHENSON: Thanks, Luke. Tha's a real thoughtful lad.
[Pit yard]
RAVENSWORTH: Ah, Luke. I want to have a word with
Stephenson about this meeting.
LUKE: He's nay in t'workshop, your Lordship.
RAVENSWORTH: No? Where is he then?
LUKE: Down pit. Wanted to arrange for visitors to see demonstration.
What about meeting, my lord?
RAVENSWORTH: Well, in my opinion it should be called off. All this
uncontrolled violence. We have no right to subject these men to such
danger.
LUKE: Mister Stephenson don't see any danger.
(Luke reaches for a metal spike.)
RAVENSWORTH: He doesn't?
LUKE: Going to be fair disappointed he is if meeting doesn't take
place.
RAVENSWORTH: Why?
LUKE: Eager to show off his latest engine.
RAVENSWORTH: Well, that's somewhat selfish reasoning.
LUKE: Not if he's convinced they'll come to nay harm, your Lordship.
RAVENSWORTH: He's convinced, you say?
LUKE: Aye.
RAVENSWORTH: Yes, well, George Stephenson has always enjoyed my complete
trust. On his head be it. However, be sure to tell him what I say.
LUKE: Aye. I will.
[Outside the bathhouse]
PERI: Oh, Doctor, you can't be serious. You've
only just escaped from there!
DOCTOR: The victim returns to the scene of the crime.
[Bathhouse]
PERI: Look, Doctor, let's be sensible. Concentrate
on getting the Tardis out of the pitshaft, instead of shoving our necks
into the noose again.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
(The entrance to the laboratory is closed.)
PERI: Look, what if the Master and that awful Rani are inside?
DOCTOR: They won't be.
PERI: How can you be so sure?
DOCTOR: Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never
taste of death but once.
(Shakespeare - Julius
Caesar Act II, scene 2.)
PERI: And what about that other piece you're so fond of quoting?
Discretion is the better part of valour?
DOCTOR: Hmm. Interesting fellow, the Bard. Must see him again sometime.
Ah ha!
(The Doctor finds the controls to the laboratory entrance behind a wall
curtain.)
DOCTOR: Control panel? Most unsophisticated. Not worthy of the Rani.
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The bodies of her former assistants are still
there.)
PERI: Is he? The Master.
DOCTOR: No, more likely the Rani's handiwork. No, don't come any
further. The Rani's quite capable of leaving some very unpleasant
surprises behind.
PERI: Well, where do you reckon she's gone?
DOCTOR: Not far. The Master will ensure that. He has something she
wants.
PERI: That red mark. What was she going to do to me?
DOCTOR: Drain the substance from your brain that enables you to sleep.
PERI: The result. Those poor men. Hasn't she any conscience?
DOCTOR: Like many scientists, I'm afraid the Rani simply sees us as
walking heaps of chemicals. There's no place for the soul in her scheme
of things.
[Old mine]
MASTER: Why the devil did you bring us to this
miserable dump?
RANI: I didn't bring you. You chose to come.
MASTER: Why here?
RANI: Because this was my original base.
MASTER: Did we have to walk? Couldn't we have used your Tardis?
RANI: My Tardis is performing a more important function.
MASTER: Is it too much to enquire what that function might be?
RANI: Yes.
[The Rani's laboratory]
PERI: How come you know the Rani?
(The Doctor is examining the painted screens.)
DOCTOR: Same way as I know the Master.
PERI: But he's an exiled Time Lord.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Two of a kind. Odd. Very odd.
PERI: What is?
DOCTOR: Now, I would have said Turner's too passionate for the Rani's
sterile taste.
PERI: Well, I guess she must have thought so too, since she hasn't
taken it with her.
DOCTOR: Ah ha.
(The Doctor sticks the end of a fishing reel onto the screen and plays
the rest out across the room.)
DOCTOR: Shall we?
PERI: Shall we what?
DOCTOR: See if we've misjudged the Rani.
(The Doctor pulls the line and the painted volcano on the screen
erupts, emitting gas. He puts his handkerchief over his face.)
DOCTOR: Dichlorodiethyl sulphide!
PERI: Dio what?
DOCTOR: Mustard gas. It's a killer!
PERI: I know.
DOCTOR: Don't breath it in. Whatever you do, don't breath it in!
(Peri is coughing.)
DOCTOR: Masks.
PERI: Masks?
DOCTOR: The Rani's assistant.
(Peri gets the mask from the older man's belt and puts it on, then
get's Josh's mask and throws it to the Doctor in the far corner.)
DOCTOR: Thank you. Thank you, Peri. Street door.
PERI: Street door?
DOCTOR: Open it. Ventilation. Quickly.
PERI: Okay.
(The Doctor retrieves his fishing line and moves the screens to reveal
a large wooden cabinet. Peri runs back in to see him about to unlock
it.)
PERI: Hey, that's the key to the Tardis!
(The cabinet opens and the Doctor goes inside.)
PERI: But suppose the Rani's in there! Oh, no.
(Peri follows him in.)
[The Rani's Tardis]
(Grey walls with faint giant roundels, and
pedestals around the room displaying specimens in jars.)
DOCTOR: Hmm. Embryos of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. She must have popped
back to the Cretaceous age and picked up a few. Nasty creatures.
Vicious teeth. Bite your leg off, chew it all up, bone and all, all in
one go. Wonder what she wants with them?
(The time rotor starts to move.)
DOCTOR: Peri, get out of here!
PERI: But you
DOCTOR: Don't argue. Move!
PERI: Oh.
(Peri runs out.)
[The Rani's laboratory]
(The Rani's Tardis dematerialises.)
PERI: Doctor! Oh. Oh, now where's he gone?
[The Rani's Tardis]
DOCTOR: Incredible. Absolutely incredible. A
Tardis linked to a Stattenheim remote control. The Rani is a genius.
Shame I can't stand her. I wonder if I was particularly nice to her,
she might? No. No, no, of course not.
[Old mine]
(The Rani's Tardis materialises. She puts her
all-purpose red control box away.)
MASTER: Brilliant. You've discovered the means of operating a Tardis by
remote control. In tandem, you and I will rule the universe.
RANI: Shall we go inside?
[The Rani's Tardis]
(The Doctor hears footsteps approaching the
console room, and hides.)
MASTER: Do I detect a lack of enthusiasm?
(The Rani sheds the remains of her disguise to reveal tight leather
trousers.)
RANI: Grandiose schemes of ruling the universe will mean nothing if
that dilettante Doctor is still at large.
DOCTOR: (sotto) Dilettante?
(The Rani does a quick scan of her empty laboratory.)
RANI: The dratted man.
MASTER: Don't tell me you've botched something. What did you do, leave
a trap for the Doctor? Is that why we couldn't use your Tardis?
RANI: Here, take these.
(The Rani hands the Master a pile of heavy frisbees.)
MASTER: It's power was needed to operate the
RANI: Be careful.
MASTER: What are they?
RANI: Well, let's say that they'll change the Doctor's lifestyle.
MASTER: How? Will he suffer?
RANI: Well, I can promise you he'll never be the same again.
MASTER: Excellent. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
RANI: Who's the other one?
MASTER: George Stephenson.
RANI: How will that threaten the Doctor?
(The Rani and the Master leave.)
DOCTOR: How indeed?
(The Doctor takes a small screwdriver out of his waistcoat pocket and
starts working on the underside of the console.)
[Old mine]
RANI: I saw you give my parasites to Stephenson's
assistant. I presume you gave him enough?
MASTER: Yes, he's completely under our control.
[Office]
(Jack Ward is tied to the chair and jerking,
whilst staring at nothing.)
GUARD: Doesn't seem right, does it, my lord, seeing Jack Ward like
this.
RAVENSWORTH: No. That Doctor fellow, he was on to something. Strange
sort of chap. See if you can find him.
GUARD: Right, my lord.
(The Doctor leaves the Rani's Tardis looking very pleased with himself.
He takes in his surroundings then flips a coin to decide which way to
go. He trips over something in the dark, and a pit prop creaks
ominously. He emerges into the sunshine and heads off.
A short while later, the guard returns.)
GUARD: No sign of that Doctor, my lord, but I met his bonny lass.
(Peri enters and shuts the door behind her. We see that another armed
guard is sitting behind it.)
RAVENSWORTH: Devil take you. It's the Doctor I wanted to see.
PERI: Well, that makes two of us.
RAVENSWORTH: You must have some idea of his whereabouts.
PERI: Oh, must I? He could be anywhere in the universe.
RAVENSWORTH: Make sense, girl. Calm down and think. He can't just have
disappeared.
PERI: Oh, can't he?
RAVENSWORTH: The man must be found. We need his help.
PERI: I've more reason to find him than you have, otherwise I'm going
to spend the rest of my days prancing around in these ridiculous
skirts.
GUARD: I'd better go with you, lass. They'll never let you past the
gate.
PERI: Don't bother. I'll take the back way to the old pit. It's the one
place he'll have to return to, if he has any choice.
(Peri leaves. Jack struggles and cries out.)
RAVENSWORTH: No, leave him be, leave him be. Get back on duty. And if
you see young Luke, tell him we've got his father here.
GUARD: Right-o, my lord.
[Stephenson's workshop]
(Stephenson is working a piece of cold metal on a
small anvil when Luke enters.)
STEPHENSON: Oh! Tha startled me, Luke. You should know better than to
creep up on folk. Tha's been wandering off a lot today, Luke. Why is
that?
LUKE: It's Mister Faraday. There's been an attack.
STEPHENSON: Faraday? He's here in pit.
LUKE: Nay, his coach were overturned.
STEPHENSON: Is he hurt?
LUKE: Scared more like. Hiding out in Redfern Dell. Reckon tha should
go to him, sir.
STEPHENSON: Tha dost? Make gun ready, Luke.
(Luke takes a rifle from a table.)
[Pit head]
(Peri is sitting on the shaft cover when the
Doctor turns up.)
PERI: I could have been stuck in the eighteen hundreds for ever.
DOCTOR: Did you really believe I'd abandon you?
PERI: So, what happened?
DOCTOR: Later. Where's Stephenson?
PERI: Haven't got a clue, but Lord Ravensworth wants to see you in his
office. Ask him.
[Stephenson's workshop]
(Stephenson washes his hands then reaches for the
rifle.)
STEPHENSON: Give me that, Luke. Go to office. Tell his Lordship I'm off
to Redfern Dell. I want as many men as he can spare. Make haste. Tis
urgent.
(Luke stops staring at Stephenson and leaves.)
[Office]
(The Doctor examines Jack.)
DOCTOR: There's nothing I can do. These men need rest.
RAVENSWORTH: Rest?
DOCTOR: They've been robbed of the power of sleep.
RAVENSWORTH: Robbed of the power? Oh, confound it, man, I don't
understand what you're talking about.
DOCTOR: I haven't got time to explain now. Peri, stay here. See what
you can do.
(Luke has entered quietly.)
DOCTOR: Ah, Luke. I'm looking for Stephenson. Do you know where I can
find him?
LUKE: Nay, sir.
RAVENSWORTH: Didn't he give you any idea where he'd be?
LUKE: Nay, my lord.
RAVENSWORTH: None at all?
LUKE: He never said nowt.
(The Doctor nearly says something, then leaves.)
RAVENSWORTH: Now what's he up to?
[Stephenson's workshop]
(The Rani is carefully priming and burying her
frisbees in leaf litter in the woods. They must be landmines, then.)
DOCTOR: You expecting trouble?
STEPHENSON: Like as not. Got a message from Faraday. He's taken shelter
in Redfern Dell.
DOCTOR: Message?
STEPHENSON: He's been attacked.
DOCTOR: Luke brought you the message.
STEPHENSON: How'd you know that?
DOCTOR: Stephenson, it's not safe for you out there. Let me go.
STEPHENSON: But Faraday?
DOCTOR: If he's out there, I'll bring him to you. I promise.
STEPHENSON: Tha'd best take this.
DOCTOR: Oh, no thanks. I've given them up. Guns can seriously damage
your health, you know. Another thing. I can't explain but it is
important. Don't trust Luke.
[Office]
LUKE: Perhaps sleeping draught's the answer.
PERI: Well, at least it would sedate them.
RAVENSWORTH: Could you prepare one?
PERI: If I had the right herbs. Trouble is, I know absolutely nothing
about the plant life in this area.
RAVENSWORTH: Well, I might be of some use to you there. I'm something
of an amateur botanist myself. Ah.
(Ravensworth takes a book from his bookcase.)
[Redfern Dell]
(The Rani continues to lay her mines.)
RANI: If you value your miserable skin, keep clear.
[Office]
(Peri has found the right illustration in the
book.)
PERI: That's what I need, valerian. Do you know it?
RAVENSWORTH: Valeriana officinalis. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.
It's an indigenous herb.
LUKE: Happen I can assist, my lord? Take Miss Peri to collect herbs?
RAVENSWORTH: Excellent idea, Luke. Just be careful where you go.
PERI: Yes, we don't want to bump into any of those
RAVENSWORTH: Quite, quite. But don't worry, young lady, you'll be in
safe hands with Luke.
LUKE: I was thinking of Redfern Dell, my lord.
RAVENSWORTH: Splendid, splendid. I couldn't have suggested a better
place myself. Now off you go.
PERI: Oh, will you tell the Doctor where I've gone?
[Countryside]
MAN [OC]: Hurry, lads. Here we are. Come on, then.
(The Doctor goes down into the trees to hide.)
[The Rani's Tardis]
(The Rani is mixing green liquids.)
MASTER: How much longer are you going to be?
RANI: Be patient. Stay calm.
MASTER: I've waited too long for this moment to be calm. If you knew
how often the Doctor's gone out of his way to sabotage my plans.
RANI: Except on this occasion he didn't go out of his way, did he? You
contrived to get him here. Force the Tardis off course, did you?
Overrode the controls?
MASTER: Do you think this plan will work?
RANI: I don't make mistakes.
(The Rani pours the liquid over an embryo.)
MASTER: If that were true you'd still be on Gallifrey. Ugh.
RANI: Experiments are always subject to the unexpected. They can be
capricious.
MASTER: Capricious? Turning mice into monsters?
RANI: A marginal error, quickly corrected.
MASTER: The Time Lords didn't think so.
RANI: Petty spite on the part of the Lord President, just because they
ate his cat.
MASTER: Took a chunk out of him, too, I remember. Pity it wasn't the
Doctor.
RANI: That will soon be remedied.
[Above Redfern Dell]
DOCTOR: Will you come into my parlour? Said the
spider to the fly. I think not. Doesn't feel right.
(Elsewhere.)
MASTER: I'd feel happier if I could see him.
RANI: A sentiment he'd reciprocate. We stay here, out of sight.
[Countryside]
PERI: Can't go wrong if you match the leaf.
LUKE: Aye, but let us not waste time here, Miss. I'm sure I've seen
it's likeness in Redfern Dell. This way, Miss.
[Above Redfern Dell]
(The Master and the Rani watch Luke gathering
plants. The Master draws his TCE and the Doctor knocks it out of his
hand from behind.)
DOCTOR: No!
(The Doctor picks it up.)
MASTER: So much for your arrogant superiority.
DOCTOR: A characteristic you both share. Underestimating your
opponents. Well, I got your message. I'm here. What obnoxious fate have
you devise?
RANI: Why me?
DOCTOR: Because he blamed you for its failure. Not this. (the TCE) Far
too simple. No, you'd have brewed something much more malignant.
Perhaps the answer's down there in the dell, where I was supposed to
go.
(He sees Luke step on a mine and explode in a shower of soil and
leafmould. When the dust settles, a new tree stands in the dell.
Furious, the Doctor turns the TCE on the Master.)
MASTER: No! An accident. It wasn't intended for him.
DOCTOR: And you're so warped, so callous, you think that justifies it?
First you turn an innocent young man into your acolyte, force him to
betray his friends, and then you do this monstrous thing to him.
RANI: Oh, stop being sentimental. What's happened? Animal matter has
been metamorphosed into vegetable matter. So what?
DOCTOR: You'll be telling me next he's better off.
RANI: As a matter of fact, he is. A tree has four times the life
expectancy of a human being.
DOCTOR: They should never have exiled you. They should have locked you
in a padded cell. Now move, before I forget my abhorrence of violence
and use this.
(The Master, the Rani and the Doctor leave. They do not see Peri coming
down into the dell and nearly stepping on other mines as she gathers
valerian. Suddenly the new tree swings its bough round and gathers her
to its trunk. She screams, attracting attention.)
DOCTOR: Don't move, Peri! Don't move! The tree won't hurt you!
(The Luke tree raises its bough. The Doctor turns to the Rani and
misquotes Hamlet.)
DOCTOR: Now perhaps you'll accept there are more things in heaven and
earth than are ever dreamed of in your barren philosophy.
RANI: And perhaps you'll accept that you face a dilemma.
MASTER: More of an impasse?
DOCTOR: Wrong on both counts. There is no impasse, and the dilemma,
Rani, will be solved by you. You laid those evil contraptions in the
dell, so you can lead Peri out. Refuse, and I won't hesitate to use
this.
(The Rani walks carefully down into the dell and picks her way towards
Peri and Luke.)
MASTER: She can't remember. She's probably set them at random.
DOCTOR: I doubt if the Rani ever did anything at random.
MASTER: But if she has, what then?
DOCTOR: Then you're nominated as understudy. I should think you'd turn
into a laburnum tree.
MASTER: Laburnum? Why?
DOCTOR: The pods are poisonous. Be patient, Peri. Stay absolutely
still.
RANI: Come to me. Keep an absolutely straight line.
PERI: I don't understand.
RANI: Stop bleating and do it.
DOCTOR: Keep exactly in her footsteps, Peri!
(Peri follows the Rani, nearly bumping into her and knocking her close
to a mine.)
RANI: Incompetent fool! You're worthless!
DOCTOR: Not to me, she isn't. You'll do well to remember that.
PERI: She was going too fast.
RANI: Can you jump without falling on your face?
PERI: Sure.
RANI: Well, copy me and you're out of danger.
(The women hop over a visible mine and go up the slope to the Master
and the Doctor.)
PERI: What was that all about?
DOCTOR: You wandered into a minefield of the Rani's making.
PERI: A minefield? In there? But Luke? What about Luke? Where is he?
DOCTOR: He just saved your life.
PERI: What?
DOCTOR: I'll explain later. Right, move, you two. I want you off this
planet before you commit any further atrocities.
[Woods]
PERI: Doctor, look.
(A group of sleep deprived crazed men are running through the trees,
shouting.)
RANI: They're easily disposed of.
(She points her control box at them.)
DOCTOR: Give me that.
RANI: If they see you, they'll have no mercy.
DOCTOR: Maybe not.
(The Rani hands it over.)
PERI: Doctor, they're heading towards the dell.
MASTER: The wood's about to become populated with new trees.
RANI: Another dilemma. One of morality.
MASTER: And we all know the Doctor's dedication to morality.
PERI: Oh, Doctor, you've got to stop them.
(Peri takes the TCE from the Doctor.)
PERI: Don't worry, I won't have any qualms about using this.
DOCTOR: All right. Take them to the old mine working, straight along
that path. Wait for me there.
PERI: Okay, you got it.
(The Doctor whispers in Peri's ear. Peri smiles. The Doctor bumps into
the Master and they glower at each other before the Doctor leaves.)
PERI: Now hurry. Okay, you two. Let's get going. And don't try
anything, either of you.
(The Rani, the Master and Peri move on. The Doctor runs up to the men.)
DOCTOR: Stop!
BASS: Mister.
(The Doctor is surrounded.)
[Old mine]
PERI: Okay, that's far enough. Now don't move.
We'll wait here for the Doctor.
[Woods]
(The Doctor is being carried off tied to a stout
pole by his wrists and ankles, like a pig for the roast.)
DOCTOR: You must listen. You are making a terrible mistake. I am not
your enemy.
BASS: You hear that, lads? Mister Inventor says us are making a
mistake.
(They all laugh.)
[Old mine]
MASTER: I believe an apology is in order, Miss
Brown. I meant you no harm. My quarrel's with the Doctor, not you.
PERI: What about Luke?
MASTER: Luke?
PERI: Did you mean him no harm?
MASTER: That was her idea.
RANI: Oh, stop grovelling. No one's going to believe you've got a
conscience.
MASTER: You can see what she's like. It was her doing. I didn't even
know what she'd planned.
(The Master swings the shiny maggot box on its chain.)
PERI: Put that away or I'll use this. The Doctor said you'd try to
hypnotise me.
RANI: Oh, so that was what he whispered before he left.
(The Rani laughs, but her laughter soon turns to wheezing in the dank
coal mine.)
[Redfern Dell]
BASS: Over there.
DOCTOR: Turn back! Turn back! You're walking into a trap!
(The first of the two men carrying the Doctor steps on a mine. He and
his companion are turned into trees with the Doctor hanging from the
pole between them. The other men flee.)
[Old mine]
PERI: Keep your hands by your side.
RANI: Just getting a tablet. I must have a tablet.
MASTER: She'll have a seizure. I've seen it happen before.
PERI: Oh, for pity's sake, get the tablet. But carefully. No tricks.
(The Rani takes something from her wrist band and drops it. She bends
down and pulls it apart, throwing a cloud of fairy dust at Peri, who
collapses. The Master retrieves his TCE.)
[Redfern Dell]
(The Doctor is hanging over a mine. Then his pole
begins to slip out from the tree's boughs, dropping his head towards
the ground.)
DOCTOR: Stay calm. Stay calm. It's only a matter of balance.
(He manages to get his feet free and onto the ground. Sitting safely a
foot away from the mine, he frees his hands. Then he retrieves the pole
and sweeps the leaf litter nearby with it, searching for more mines as
he makes his way out of the dell.)
[Old mine]
(The Rani and the Master head further down the
workings.)
MASTER: Wait. I refuse to run away and let that crack-brained freak win
again.
RANI: Then stay, but without me.
MASTER: Have you no pride?
RANI: Pride? I'm a scientist. I've calculated the odds, and they and
not idiotic pride dictate my actions.
MASTER: You intellectual microbe. Slave to a computer? He'll be back.
He won't abandon the girl.
RANI: You'll never learn, will you. Give me the brain fluid. I'm off.
MASTER: When I'm ready, not before.
DOCTOR [OC]: Peri?
(The Doctor finds her.)
DOCTOR: Peri. Peri!
PERI: Oh, the Rani. Tablets. My, my fault.
DOCTOR: Never mind about that. Are you all right?
PERI: Yes, I'm fine.
DOCTOR: Shush. Listen. Typical. He's decided to stand and fight. Why
couldn't he just leave? All right, come on. We've got to get those two
into the Rani's Tardis.
PERI: Any chance of an explanation?
DOCTOR: Later.
PERI: Doh, later. That's all I ever get. Later.
(Further on.)
DOCTOR: There was a loose one.
PERI: Where?
DOCTOR: Further in.
PERI: All these mines look the same to me. What does that solve?
DOCTOR: Stay back, Peri.
(The Doctor crosses to the other side of the tunnel. The Master fires
his TCE, hitting a pit prop, which vanishes. There is an ominous
creaking then the roof starts to cave in. The Doctor and Peri run back
up the tunnel while the Master and the Rani retreat to her Tardis.)
[The Rani's Tardis]
(A shower of coal dust follows them inside.)
MASTER: Quickly! You'll destroy us both.
RANI: I will? You blame me?
(The Master reaches for the controls and she knees him in a part of his
anatomy that makes him double up in pain.)
RANI: You wouldn't be told.
(The Rani's Tardis dematerialises, but something is wrong. It starts to
vibrate/)
MASTER: What is it? What's wrong?
RANI: It's our speed. It's increasing.
MASTER: Then reduce it!
RANI: You asinine cretin, what do you imagine I'm trying to do?
(The Master pushes her away from the console and starts pressing
buttons himself.)
[Outside the old mine]
PERI: But what's to stop them materialising at the
other end of the village?
DOCTOR: While I was in the Rani's Tardis I made an adjustment or two to
the navigational system and velocity regulator.
PERI: But they're Time Lords. They'll repair the Tardis.
DOCTOR: Not before they're beyond the Milky Way. For that matter,
beyond most galaxies. I've heard that conditions are very primitive in
the outer reaches of the universe. Hardly the setting for an harmonious
relationship.
[The Rani's Tardis]
(The increasing speed presses the Rani and the
Master against the wall of the console room. The embryo jar between
them falls off its pedestal and smashes, releasing the baby T Rex.)
MASTER: It's growing!
RANI: It's the acceleration! Time spillage!
MASTER: We're trapped, you blundering woman!
[Pit yard]
DOCTOR: And where are you going?
PERI: The sleeping draught, remember?
DOCTOR: Taken care of. I managed to
(He holds up the phial.)
PERI: Pick the Master's pocket when you bumped into him.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Take this to Lord Ravensworth, will you?
PERI: Well, let me deflate your swollen ego and remind you of something
we don't have. The Tardis.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
[Stephenson's workshop]
(A large blue box stands there.)
RAVENSWORTH: I wonder what the blazes this thing is?
STEPHENSON: Ask the Doctor.
RAVENSWORTH: Have you ever tried asking the Doctor a question?
(They laugh and the Doctor enters.)
DOCTOR: Ah! Battered but not bowed. Thank you.
STEPHENSON: Had to get it out manually. No easy task. Forty of us.
(Peri enters.)
PERI: Ah, there you are. The sedative you wanted.
RAVENSWORTH: Thank you.
PERI: Well, haven't you any questions?
RAVENSWORTH: Would there be any point?
DOCTOR: Not much.
STEPHENSON: Oh, as a man of science, Doctor. This valve's a problem.
DOCTOR: You'll find the answer.
RAVENSWORTH: My sentiments exactly.
DOCTOR: And when you do, your invention will take off like a rocket,
Stephenson.
PERI: Oh, those puns get worse.
DOCTOR: Really? I thought they were improving.
RAVENSWORTH: I will venture just one question, Doctor. What precisely
do you do in there?
DOCTOR: Argue, mainly.
(The Doctor unlocks the Tardis door and Peri enters. He follows her,
shuts the door and the Tardis dematerialises.)
STEPHENSON: Where've they gone?
RAVENSWORTH: Where indeed? You know, I always said he was a strange
sort of fellow.
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