THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD
PART FOUR (THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET)
Run time: 24:20
[SCENE_BREAK]
Marb Station
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: Hurry, Peri, there isn't much time.
Peri: Well, how long before this black light thing blows up?
The Doctor: There's no telling. We've got to get past Queen Katryca, into the castle and make that demented robot see sense.
Merdeen: So, you have returned.
The Doctor: Merdeen. Missed your train?
Merdeen: The train is noisy. We hunt by foot.
The Doctor: Oh. What are you hunting?
Merdeen: You!
Merdeen: Why, Grell? Why?
Grell: You. Betrayed...
Merdeen: No! We were not meant to live like this. We were not meant to...
Merdeen: We should be free. He wanted the glory of your capture to please the Immortal.
The Doctor: Don't blame yourself, Merdeen.
Merdeen: I've known him all his life. I asked for him to join the guards. I helped him. I even hoped that one day he would see there is no reason for the cullings.
The Doctor: Well, perhaps I can convince the Immortal of that. I must get to his castle.
Merdeen: He'll kill you.
The Doctor: Not if he thinks I can still be of use to him. Come on, there isn't much time.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro: The black light system will collapse in upon itself and we shall all cease to function.
Tandrell: We should leave here, Humker.
Humker: But where would we go?
Tandrell: I don't know, but Drathro says that if we stay for this explosion we shall all be killed. So, the logical course is to leave.
Humker: The wild ones. We're too late!
Tandrell: You know, I've always said you talked too much. Come on!
[SCENE_BREAK]
Outside Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
Broken Tooth: They are iron, Katryca. They will not yield.
Katryca: Then we will cut down the wall. Fetch tools!
Balazar: Wait! The doors open.
Katryca: Come. The Immortal is dead. We have nothing to fear.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
Katryca: It can't be!
Drathro: Why have you entered here?
Katryca: The guns, Broken Tooth.
Drathro: Lay aside your useless toys. I asked, why have you entered here?
Katryca: We are the tribe of the Free.
Drathro: You are vassals. Outside the law, outside the plan. You have brought disorder where order reigned.
Katryca: I am Katryca, queen of the...
Drathro: You cause me to waste energy. Now return to wait outside. You will be culled in accordance with the plan.
Balazar: Oh, great Immortal one...
Drathro: Go! Do not attempt to hide. My guards will track you down.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Subway
[SCENE_BREAK]
Humker: I remember these subways from my childhood.
Tandrell: Is this the way to the surface?
Humker: I said I remember the subways, Tandrell, not where they led.
Tandrell: If we do not find the surface, Drathro will send his guards after us.
Humker: First he must deal with the wild ones and then if there's an explosion...
The Doctor: Ah, Tumker and Handrail. Now, where are you two off to?
Humker: We are leaving, Doctor.
Tandrell: Drathro says there's going to be an explosion.
The Doctor: I know.
Tandrell: It is a mechanical fault.
Humker: Electronic.
Tandrell: There is a constant external discharge from one pole to the other.
The Doctor: Then I may only have minutes. Come along!
Tandrell: Excuse me, do you know the way to the surface?
Peri: Round the corner, keep straight, turn right at what used to be Oxford Circus, then ask again. I think.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Trial room
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: I didn't appear to be hurrying there, did I? But that deceptively easy gait of mine covers the ground at amazing speed.
Inquisitor: I did not interrupt the evidence to commend you on your athleticism, Doctor.
The Doctor: Oh. Well, you can if you like. All compliments gratefully accepted.
Inquisitor: And may I remind you yet again that this is a serious trial.
The Doctor: It is not serious! It's a farce! A farrago of trumped up charges.
Inquisitor: You will have the opportunity in due course to rebut any or all of the Valeyard's charges.
The Doctor: Oh, the Valeyard's charges. I always thought Valeyard meant learned court prosecutor.
Valeyard: And so it does.
The Doctor: Not in your case, sir. Your points of law are spurious, your evidence weak, verging on the irrelevant, and your reasoning quite unsound. In fact, your point of view belongs in quite another place. Perhaps the mantle of Valeyard was a mistake. I would therefore suggest that you change it for the garment of quite another sort of yard. That of the knackers' yard. For your argument is as tired and warn out as the poor, unfortunate creatures that end up there.
Inquisitor: You will apologise at once!
The Doctor: For telling the truth? Never!
Valeyard: The Doctor is well known for these childish outbursts. I do not find the ramblings of an immature mind offensive.
The Doctor: Immature?
Valeyard: It is that particular state of mind that has made it necessary for you to be brought before this court.
The Doctor: Immature? I was on Ravalox trying to avert a catastrophe. The deaths of several hundred innocent people! Surely not even in the eyes of Time Lords can that be deemed either immature or a crime.
Valeyard: The crime was in being there, Doctor! Your immaturity was in not realising you had broken a cardinal law of the Time Lords. Your presence initiated the whole chain of events that we have witnessed.
Inquisitor: Thank you, Valeyard. It was that point about the relevance of the testimony that I had intended to raise.
Valeyard: My pleasure, Inquisitor.
The Doctor: Oh, this is ridiculous. Drathro's black light system was in a state of terminal decay before I even arrived on that planet.
Valeyard: That is not in question. However, but for your intervention, the two technological trainees, Humker and Tandrell, might have repaired the defect.
The Doctor: Oh, after Dibber had blown the aerial up? Ridiculous. Anyway, those two couldn't repair a leaking tap.
Inquisitor: May we continue? I tire of this empty banter.
Valeyard: Of course, my lady.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Outside Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: What's happened?
Balazar: Alas, Doctor, these are woeful times for the tribe of the Free. The queen is dead.
Peri: Katryca? How?
Balazar: The Immortal struck her down with a bolt of lightning.
The Doctor: Where is he now?
Balazar: The all-powerful is in his castle.
Peri: Why'd he let you go?
Balazar: We are waiting to be culled.
The Doctor: Oh, you'll be culled all right, if I don't get inside that castle, along with everybody else around here. Drathro, this is the Doctor. Let me in at once, do you hear me?
Merdeen: It's no good, Doctor. You can only speak to the Immortal through the communication box.
The Doctor: Oh, I forgot. He doesn't exactly entertain very much, does he? Right, quickly, man. Take me to the nearest one.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Subway
[SCENE_BREAK]
Dibber: How do we find this castle?
Glitz: Dibber, stop. I must rest. I am exhausted.
Dibber: If we ever do find this castle, and we knock out the L3, how do you know we're going to find all these secrets that you keep on about?
Glitz: Would I have spent all the time, effort, not to mention a small fortune, if I wasn't certain on that point?
Dibber: Yeah, but even if we do find them, they might not be worth anything. Not after five hundred years.
Glitz: Do me a favour, Dibber. The Sleepers found a way into...
Glitz: The biggest net of information in the...
[SCENE_BREAK]
Trial room
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: What is going on?
Inquisitor: That question had formed in my mind, Valeyard.
Valeyard: The information extracted is for your eyes and ears only, my lady.
Inquisitor: Something else that is not in the public interest to reveal?
Valeyard: Exactly, my lady.
The Doctor: Well, this is a charade. If that information was known to those two rogues, what possible reason can there be from concealing it from this court?
Valeyard: This trial is concerned only with your actions, Doctor, and their consequences, nothing else. Wider issues, if there are any, are not within our terms of reference.
Inquisitor: Perhaps that is something I should decide, Valeyard.
Valeyard: Of course, my lady, but my own instructions were to peruse only matters pertinent to the central issue.
Inquisitor: That is accepted. However, I should like to see the last sequence again.
The Doctor: Yes.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Subway
[SCENE_BREAK]
Glitz: Do me a favour, Dibber. The Sleepers found a way into the-- the biggest net of information in the universe. Do you think they were nicking recipes for making chutney?
Dibber: Yeah, but do you know what the secrets are?
Glitz: Facts, my son, figures, formulas. Travelling faster than light, anti gravity power, dimensional transference. Scientific stuff like that. Worth a fortune.
Dibber: How?
Glitz: Oh. We sell it, Dibber. A government here, a federation there. They're all in the market for that sort of hi-tech cobblers. Don't think about it, Dibber. You'll give yourself a hernia.
[SCENE_BREAK]
By a communications box
[SCENE_BREAK]
Merdeen: The Immortal does not always answer.
Drathro (O.C.): Yes, Merdeen?
Merdeen: Immortal, you commanded me to find the Doctor. I have him here.
Drathro (O.C.): Show me.
The Doctor: I have returned to help you, Drathro.
Drathro (O.C.): You are too late.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor (on screen): If I believed that, I would not be here.
Drathro: You are here because Merdeen found you.
The Doctor (on screen): No, Drathro, I came voluntarily. There may yet be time to fix the black light system.
Drathro: Very well, Doctor. Present yourself at my portals alone. Merdeen?
Merdeen (on screen): Yes, Immortal?
Drathro: Assemble my guards. Cull all the organics who stand waiting outside my castle.
Merdeen: At once, Immortal.
Drathro: Humker? Tandrell?
[SCENE_BREAK]
By a communications box
[SCENE_BREAK]
Peri: You can't do it, Merdeen. You can't kill all those innocent people.
Balazar: Peri is right. You have seen the truth. It would be murder to kill them.
Merdeen: Neither can I free them.
Peri: Well, just leave them. Leave them for the present, anyway.
Merdeen: The Immortal will kill me.
Peri: Oh Merdeen, if the Doctor's right, we're all in danger anyway. We might all die.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: Well, I don't need a computer to tell me that system is defunct. I must shut it down.
Drathro: No! You will not shut it down!
The Doctor: But it's the only way.
Drathro: If the system is shut down, I too cease.
The Doctor: But if it's allowed to run wild and lead to...
Drathro: Termination point.
The Doctor: Yes, then you'll cease then, Drathro. And so will everything else around here.
Drathro: That does not matter, Doctor. All that you see it my creation.
The Doctor: But there are several hundred people here as well, Drathro.
Drathro: The work units exist only to serve me. Without me they would have no function.
The Doctor: You can't see beyond the end of your tin nose, can you?
Drathro: Is that abuse?
The Doctor: Listen.
Drathro: I am listening.
The Doctor: You are only a robot. The people out there, the work units, the organics, whatever you choose to call them, they're living creatures, Drathro. They have a right to their lives.
Drathro: Explain why.
The Doctor: In your terms, I can't. Whoever programmed you forgot to include moral values.
Drathro: I know of values. Is your point that organics are of more value than robots?
The Doctor: Yes, if you want to look at it that way.
Drathro: Then why should I be in command of organics if they are of greater value?
The Doctor: Without organics there wouldn't be any robots. There'd be no one to create them.
Drathro: Accepted. This shows that robots are more advanced, therefore of more value.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Outside Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
Peri: Is there another way into the castle, Merdeen?
Merdeen: Another way?
Peri: Well, you know what I mean. A back door or something.
Merdeen: There are only the big doors.
Peri: Well, there must be some other way in.
Merdeen: Why?
Peri: The Doctor might need help. I've got to get in there.
Balazar: There's the ration chute.
Peri: Ration chute?
Merdeen: Of course. Each day the Immortal sends out food to the work units. Perhaps that leads into the castle.
Peri: Merdeen, you're a pal. Oh, you're both pals. Now show me.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: Your trouble is, Drathro, that you've no concept of what life is.
Drathro: I have studied my work units for five centuries. I understand all their responses. What you would call life.
The Doctor: Understanding is not the same as knowing, Drathro. Your work units are the result of millions of years of development. Life, Drathro.
Drathro: I understand evolution.
The Doctor: But you don't. If you could understand one tenth of what life was about, you'd want me to save those people out there.
Drathro: Why? I have said that without me they have no purpose.
The Doctor: Everything in life has its purpose, Drathro. Every creature plays its part. But the purpose of life is too big to be knowable. A million computers couldn't solve that one.
Drathro: This discussion is of no value. I do not wish the work units to continue when I have ceased to function.
The Doctor: Oh, that's it, isn't it? Hubris!
Drathro: Hubris?
The Doctor: Yes, hubris. False pride. A human sin. You've controlled your pointless little empire for too long. Now you can't see anything beyond it.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Outside Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
Glitz: We'll have to blast through them, Dibber.
Dibber: Don't like it, Mister Glitz.
Glitz: Five rounds rapid should do the trick.
Dibber: And what if the L3's still functioning?
Glitz: Eh?
Dibber: What if he's got an emergency backup support system?
Glitz: There are a lot of what ifs there, lad.
Dibber: Yeah, but the most important of all is, what if I'm right? If we blast our way through there, well, he's not going to sit there on his iron botty, is he.
Glitz: I see what you mean.
Dibber: We walk through those doors and boom!
Glitz: Boom, eh?
Dibber: Well, he's probably got the floor mined. That's what I'd do.
Glitz: You'd better go in first, then.
Dibber: Oh, very droll, Mister Glitz. Now, what we got to do, we got to pick him off somehow so that he doesn't even know what's hit him.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Subway
[SCENE_BREAK]
Peri: Oh I don't know. All these tunnels look the same to me. Are you sure this leads into the castle?
Merdeen: It must do.
Balazar: There's no where else it could go.
Peri: Talk about the tradesman's entrance.
Glitz: Well, well.
Peri: Glitz and Dibber. I wondered where you two had got to.
Glitz: How do you do? Where is your friend, the Doctor?
Peri: He's in the castle.
Glitz: He didn't hang about, did he?
Peri: I'm worried about him.
Glitz: So am I.
Peri: Well, Merdeen thinks we can get in through this hatch.
Glitz: Go on, then.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: It's only a matter of minutes, Drathro. Can't I make you see sense?
Drathro: It is finished.
The Doctor: It's not just this planet. Nobody knows where a black light explosion might end. There's never been one.
Drathro: There will be soon.
The Doctor: Some people think it might cause a chain reaction which could roll on until all matter in the galaxy is exhausted. Is that what you want?
Drathro: It is no longer of concern to me.
The Doctor: Others believe an explosion might cause dimensional transference, which would threaten the stability of the entire universe.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Trial room
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: Is that what I should have allowed to happen? The destruction of the universe?
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: These systems are protected by three shut-down levers. I must close them, Drathro. I must!
Drathro: Look!
The Doctor: What is it?
Drathro: Intruders in the food production chamber!
Drathro: So, that was your intention, Doctor.
The Doctor: What?
Drathro: To distract me.
The Doctor: That's Peri.
The Doctor: You can't do that! You can't!
[SCENE_BREAK]
Outside Food Processing
[SCENE_BREAK]
Balazar: What's happening?
[SCENE_BREAK]
Food Processing chamber
[SCENE_BREAK]
Peri: What are we going to do? If we don't drown to death, we'll be fried.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: No!
[SCENE_BREAK]
Food Processing chamber
[SCENE_BREAK]
Dibber: Stand back.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Drathro's castle
[SCENE_BREAK]
Glitz: We come in friendship!
Peri: Doctor, are you all right?
The Doctor: Yeah, I'm all right for the moment, though not for long I fear.
Glitz: What?
Drathro: I would kill you all now, but it is unnecessary. We are waiting for something the Doctor tells me is unique. A black light explosion.
Glitz: Do something, Dibber.
Dibber: Such as what?
The Doctor: I've been trying to convince this mobile junk heap here that none of this need happen if he'd only let me shut the system down.
Glitz: That seems eminently sensible.
The Doctor: Oh, he won't listen to reason. He needs black light to function so he sees no reason why the rest of us should survive. That is roughly your narrow, egotistical little view, isn't it, Drathro?
Drathro: If I am doomed, then you are all doomed.
Glitz: Now, wait a minute. I mean, why don't we just. I mean, if it's only black light you want, Drathro, we have plenty of that. Don't we, Dibber?
Dibber: Do we?
Glitz: On the ship, Dibber.
Dibber: Oh, the black light. Yeah, we've got so much of that sometimes we can hardly see.
Drathro: There is black light on your ship?
Glitz: As my friend says. So, what I suggest we do is you come with us and we'll fix you up, eh?
Drathro: Why?
Glitz: Well, I hate to see a good looking robot like you go to waste. I'll tell you what else we can do for you. We can drop you back in the constellation of Andromeda. How about that?
Drathro: It is possible?
Glitz: And, oh, the secrets. Of course, you must bring them. I mean, they'll expect you to bring them.
Drathro: How far from here is your ship?
Glitz: Oh, right outside, really. No distance at all.
Drathro: I could function for a short distance.
Glitz: Of course you could.
Drathro: Then I accept your offer. Take that. Tie these others up. I will fetch the secrets.
Glitz: You two, over there.
The Doctor: Well done!
Dibber: Sorry, Doc. You heard what he said.
The Doctor: Don't be a fool!
Glitz: Slip-knot, Doctor. The best I can do for you.
The Doctor: Strange how low cunning succeeds where intelligent reasoning fails.
Glitz: Don't knock low cunning, Doctor. You're still here, aren't you? Oh, that's it is it? The secrets. My word, there should be a lot there. All microdots, no doubt. Come along then, Dibber. Open the door for the Immortal.
The Doctor: Quickly, you've got to help me. It's a three stage cut-out. We've got to try and shut the machine down.
Peri: Will that prevent an explosion?
The Doctor: All I can do now is hope to contain it. Peri, press that row of buttons in front of you.
Peri: Which ones?
The Doctor: All of them! Merdeen, flick up all the switches with red neons on them.
Merdeen: Neons?
The Doctor: Oh, show him, Peri.
Peri: Those. How long have we got?
The Doctor: Not long. Oh, these levers haven't been moved in centuries.
Peri: Now what?
The Doctor: Get out of here, the pair of you.
Peri: What about you?
The Doctor: Get out! Merdeen, take her.
The Doctor: I did my best. I only hope it's enough.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Underground station
[SCENE_BREAK]
Glitz: It's blowing up!
Dibber: Er, you're not going to like this, Mister Glitz.
Glitz: Is it finished?
Dibber: All finished. And the secrets.
Glitz: Eh?
Dibber: Well, except for this.
Glitz: And what's that?
Dibber: It's a piece of black light converter aerial. Pure silictone.
Glitz: The hardest known metal in the galaxy.
Dibber: And the most expensive. What's more, there's got to be a couple of tons of the stuff...
Glitz: I'm way ahead of you, my son. You know we could clean up on this job very nicely. What's more, we have a tasty little kitty for the next venture.
Humker: Fresh air. What a wonderful smell.
Tandrell: Do you know, you're right. Absolutely wonderful.
Humker: That's the first time you've ever agreed with me.
Tandrell: I know. Strange, isn't it.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Marb station
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: And still the lobster held on. You're in a worse mess than I am.
Balazar: Are Merdeen and Peri safe?
The Doctor: You can ask them for yourself.
Merdeen: Balazar!
Peri: Oh, I wish you wouldn't keep frightening me like this.
The Doctor: I told you to get out of here.
Peri: Please don't start. I'm too tired and too scared to cope.
The Doctor: All right.
Balazar: This seems to be the end, Doctor. As it is written in the books.
The Doctor: No, Balazar. For you, this is the beginning. Chapter one, paragraph one, as they say. Take your people up to the surface where they belong.
Balazar: Yes. Perhaps at last we shall find the habitat of the Canadian goose.
The Doctor: Perhaps.
The Doctor: Mmm. I think dinner's on him. Farewell, my loquacious friend. Right, let's get back to the TARDIS.
Peri: It's the other way.
The Doctor: What is?
Peri: The TARDIS.
The Doctor: I know. It's that way. Yes. Farewell. But there are still one or two questions that have to be answered, like who moved this planet two light years off its original course, and what was in that box that Glitz and Dibber were so interested it?
Balazar: Goodbye, Old One, and thank you for your help.
Peri: Old One. Hey, that's cute.
The Doctor: I always knew there was an evil streak in you. Old One indeed.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Trial room
[SCENE_BREAK]
The Doctor: Well, that's one up to me, I think. There can't be many people who can literally claim to have saved the entire universe. Well, if that's all the muck you can rake up...
Valeyard: Sit down. Smugness does not become you, Doctor.
The Doctor: That is an irrelevant observation. I think it's now my turn to prevent the case for the defence.
Inquisitor: In due course.
The Doctor: Well, that's not fair. Look, I wish it put on record that my involvement in the affairs of that planet resulted in the freedom of Drathro's underground slaves.
Inquisitor: That has been noted.
The Doctor: And despite the fact that evidence has been withheld, my presence there was most specifically requested.
Valeyard: You showed little reluctance in complying with the request.
The Doctor: Well, lives were at stake.
Valeyard: Lives were lost, and because of your meddling, Doctor.
The Doctor: I deny that. Without my help, an entire civilisation might have been wiped out.
Valeyard: Without your interference it might have involved less sacrifice of human life.
The Doctor: That was a risk I had to take.
Valeyard: Risk! Risk! Hear how the Doctor condemns himself by his own words.
Inquisitor: Gentlemen! Doctor, perhaps you should heed the Valeyard. May I suggest that for the time being you have said enough.
The Doctor: Said enough? Said enough? I have a great deal more to say.
Inquisitor: Be silent, Doctor.
The Doctor: I wish to demonstrate...
Inquisitor: You will have your turn when the Valeyard has finished his presentation.
Valeyard: Thank you, Inquisitor.
The Doctor: Well, if the rest of his presentation is as riveting as the first little epic, wake me when it's finished.
Valeyard: Finished? I've barely started.
The Doctor: Well, for nothing more than your future in the legal profession, I only hope your evidence gets a little better.
Valeyard: Oh yes, Doctor, much better. The most damning is still to come. And when I have finished, this court will demand your life.
Plan: A: the underground bunker; Q: Where do Queen Katryca and the tribesmen arrive? A: Drathro; Q: Who is the Immortal one? A: The Doctor; Q: Who tries to convince Drathro that he will repair the Black Light system? A: a possible upcoming explosion; Q: What does the Doctor fear could destroy the universe? Summary: Queen Katryca and the rest of the tribesmen arrive at the underground bunker where they confront Drathro The Immortal one. The Doctor tries to convince Drathro that he will repair the Black Light system while he fears that a possible upcoming explosion of the system could have the potential to destroy the universe.