HORROR OF FANG ROCK
BY: TERRANCE DICKS
Part Four
Running time: 23:49
[SCENE_BREAK]
VINCE: Reuben! You all right now? You shouldn't have come up here. I'll hang on till morning. You go and get some sleep.
VINCE: No, no.
[SCENE_BREAK]
LEELA: This alien must have great power to change its shape at will.
DOCTOR: It has. But it needed to study the human life pattern first.
LEELA: That is why it took the engineer.
DOCTOR: Organic restructuring is elementary physiology for Time Lords.
LEELA: Then there is nothing we can do.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Well, if this creature is a Time Lord
DOCTOR: No, not a Time Lord. Elementary physiology for us is something that lesser species might master after a few thousand centuries.
LEELA: Oh. Then we have nothing to worry about.
DOCTOR: We don't?
LEELA: No. You will easily dispose of this primitive creature, Doctor. You are a Time Lord.
DOCTOR: Yes, but it took Reuben's form for a reason.
LEELA: To kill us stealthily, one by one. Doctor!
DOCTOR: What is it?
LEELA: Suppose we pretend that we still think Reuben is Reuben, and not the alien, then we can get close enough to it and kill it.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no. We can't. If we got within touching distance of it, we're dead. It packs too many volts.
LEELA: What is it?
DOCTOR: It's some kind of power relay.
LEELA: Does it belong to the alien?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes. Rule one after surviving a crash landing, set up distress beacon. To do that it would have needed a power source. That's why it came here. There must be a signal modulator somewhere, transmitting. To whom? To it's own kind. Leela, get the surviving humans to the lamp room.
LEELA: To the lamp room.
DOCTOR: Yes, that's the easiest place to defend.
LEELA: Oh, but Doctor, where shall we look for this mognal sigulator?
DOCTOR: I'll do the looking. Hurry, there isn't much time.
[SCENE_BREAK]
ADELAIDE: Do keep still! It's like some terrible dream.
SKINSALE: Pity it's not a dream. We'd stand a chance of waking up.
SKINSALE: Is Harker dead?
LEELA: Yes. Like the others. The creature has got into the lighthouse. Now we must fight for our lives.
SKINSALE: Come on, Adelaide, drink this. Come on, drink it.
LEELA: Hurry. The Doctor wants us to go to the lamp room.
SKINSALE: Why the lamp room?
LEELA: It is the easiest place to defend ourselves.
SKINSALE: Right. Come on, Adelaide.
ADELAIDE: No.
SKINSALE: Come on.
ADELAIDE: No.
SKINSALE: Come along.
LEELA: Back! Back! Get back!
LEELA: Run! Run!
[SCENE_BREAK]
SKINSALE: Adelaide, Doctor. It's got Adelaide.
DOCTOR: Where's Leela?
LEELA: Doctor, the creature! Behind us. We must find weapons.
DOCTOR: Shush. Now listen. When you reach the service room, you'll find a locker full of maroons. I want you to break them open and scatter the powder down the lamp room stairs. Vince'll help you. Off you go.
SKINSALE: Right.
LEELA: It's coming.
DOCTOR: May I help you? Having trouble, Reuben, hmm? Not easy holding a human form stable, is it.
REUBEN: No longer necessary. We can abandon this ridiculous shape.
DOCTOR: Good idea. You'll find it a lot comfier.
[SCENE_BREAK]
SKINSALE: Just like the others.
LEELA: Then there is nothing we can do. The maroons.
SKINSALE: This terrible thing will destroy us all. Poor chap.
LEELA: You must forget him now.
LEELA: It is time for us to fight.
LEELA: Listen.
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR: Now I remember. Reuben the Rutan.
RUTAN: You know our form?
DOCTOR: Well, when you've seen one Rutan, you've seen them all.
RUTAN: We are a Rutan scout. We are specially trained in the new metamorphosis techniques.
DOCTOR: Well, I expect you'll get better at it in time. What are you doing in this part of the galaxy anyway?
RUTAN: That doesn't concern you. You are to be destroyed.
DOCTOR: Got it! You're at last losing that interminable war with the Sontarans.
RUTAN: That is a lie!
DOCTOR: Is it? You used to control the whole of the Mutter's Spiral once. Now the Sontarans have driven you to the far fringes of the galaxy.
RUTAN: The glorious Rutan army is making a series of strategic withdrawals to selected strong points.
DOCTOR: Rutan, that's the empty rhetoric of a defeated dictator, and I don't like your face, either.
RUTAN: Your mockery will end with your race, Earthling, when the mighty Rutan battle fleet occupies this planet.
DOCTOR: Why invade an obscure planet like Earth? It's of no value to you.
RUTAN: The planet is obscure, but its strategic position is sound. We shall use it as a launch point for our final assault on the Sontaran rabble.
DOCTOR: But if you set up a power base here, the Sontarans will bombard it with photonic missiles.
RUTAN: That is unimportant. It will serve the cause of our final glorious victory.
DOCTOR: And what about its people?
RUTAN: Primitive bipeds of no value. We scouted all the planets of this solar system. Only this one suits our purpose.
DOCTOR: I can understand your military purposes, but why murder a hatful of harmless humans?
RUTAN: It is necessary. Til we return to our mother ship, and the mother ship informs the fleet, no one must know of our visit to Earth.
DOCTOR: But you crashed, didn't you, just as you made your discovery. You failed.
RUTAN: Failed? We are sending a signal to the mother ship with the power from the primitive mechanism below.
DOCTOR: You're not, you know.
RUTAN: It's of no importance. The ship will home in on the primary signal.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry to disappoint you. I fixed that as well, oyster face.
RUTAN: All your interference is useless. The beam was transmitting long enough for the mother ship to trace the signal.
DOCTOR: You can't be certain.
RUTAN: It will come.
DOCTOR: But by then, you'll be dead.
RUTAN: What could you Earthlings possibly do to us?
DOCTOR: Well, if you'll just step this way, I'll show you.
[SCENE_BREAK]
LEELA: Here he comes!
DOCTOR: I've brought someone to see you. Give me one of those fuses, quickly.
SKINSALE: Is this advisable, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Probably not, but we've no choice. I'm so sorry to bother you. Could you oblige me with a light?
SKINSALE: A what?
DOCTOR: A match.
SKINSALE: Oh yes, of course, here.
DOCTOR: Thank you. Move over.
LEELA: How did you hold it back on the stairs?
DOCTOR: Oh, a little militant chit-chat.
DOCTOR: What kept you?
RUTAN: The time for talk is over.
DOCTOR: Correct.
LEELA: Where is it? Have you killed the thing?
DOCTOR: Unlikely.
SKINSALE: That's the most horrible thing I've ever seen. What the devil is it?
DOCTOR: It's an intelligent, highly aggressive species from Ruta Three.
LEELA: Was it a sea creature?
DOCTOR: It evolved in the sea, adapted to land. Any more gunpowder, Colonel?
LEELA: We are lucky that it fears flame.
DOCTOR: Well, Ruta Three is an icy planet. Its inhabitants find heat intensely painful. Now, if we had a flame-thrower.
SKINSALE: Well, there is this, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What?
SKINSALE: I carried it up from the service room. It looks like a kind of mortar.
DOCTOR: It's an early Schermuly.
SKINSALE: An early Schermuly?
DOCTOR: Yes, an early Schermuly. A Schermuly box that fires a rocket and line.
SKINSALE: A projectile weapon.
DOCTOR: Yes. It won't do, though. Stay calm, Skinsale.
DOCTOR: Here, take this.
SKINSALE: Right, got it.
DOCTOR: Loaded with a few odds and ends it should cover the stairs. Empty your pockets, and mine.
DOCTOR: Of course, it's not just this Rutan I'm worried about, it's the others.
SKINSALE: Others?
DOCTOR: Yes.
SKINSALE: You mean to say there are more of these beasts?
DOCTOR: There's a whole battle fleet out there. By the time the Rutans and the Sontarans
SKINSALE: Sontarans?
DOCTOR: Yes. By the time they've finished with it, this planet'll be like a cinder hanging in space.
SKINSALE: You mean to say that there's a whole battle fleet coming here?
DOCTOR: Yes. Unless, of course, we could knock out both the mother ship and the scout ship. If we could do that, they just might conclude that this section of space was too dangerous.
LEELA: How can we do that?
DOCTOR: I don't know. We've nothing here that would stop a Rutan spaceship in its tracks. Rutan ships have a crystalline infrastructure, you see. Shielded, of course. Still, landing on a planet like this, they might just cut off the energy fields to save power. No, I'd need an amplified carbon oscillator.
LEELA: What is an am, what did you say?
DOCTOR: It's like a laser beam but much more destructive.
SKINSALE: A laser beam?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: Yes, that's some kind of very powerful light, isn't it, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well, yes, put in it's simplest terms.
LEELA: Why don't we use this?
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: This.
DOCTOR: That? Are you suggesting I convert the carbon arc beam?
LEELA: Well, obviously.
DOCTOR: Leela, that's a beautiful notion. Unfortunately I'd need a focusing device, a fairly large piece of crystalline carbon.
LEELA: Crystallised carbon?
SKINSALE: A diamond.
DOCTOR: Yes.
DOCTOR: No, that's too small. I'd need a much bigger one for the primary beam oscillator.
SKINSALE: Palmerdale.
DOCTOR: What?
SKINSALE: Palmerdale. He always carried diamonds.
DOCTOR: He did?
SKINSALE: He called them his insurance.
DOCTOR: The crew room.
SKINSALE: Yes.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes. Well, let's get this working first.
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR: Are you sure you've got it?
LEELA: Mmm hmm.
DOCTOR: Good.
SKINSALE: Doctor, I'm coming with you.
DOCTOR: That's not necessary.
SKINSALE: I want to. You'll need someone.
DOCTOR: All right. Remember, Leela, don't fire until you see the green of its tentacles.
LEELA: Doctor, how are you going to get past the Rutan?
DOCTOR: With discretion. Come on, Colonel.
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR: (quietly) Hurry. Hurry!
DOCTOR: (quietly) Body belt. Body belt!
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR (OOV.): Ready, Leela?
LEELA: Yes.
DOCTOR (OOV.): Now!
LEELA: Are you all right?
DOCTOR: You singed my scarf.
LEELA: And the Colonel?
DOCTOR: Dead with honour.
LEELA: Then at least we have avenged him.
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: And the diamond?
[SCENE_BREAK]
LEELA: It is here, Doctor. I did it! Finished!
RUTAN: Your triumph will be short, Earthling. Our mother ship will blast this island into molten rock.
LEELA: Empty threats, Rutan. Enjoy your death as I enjoyed killing you.
RUTAN: We die for the glory of our race. Long live the Rutan empire!
DOCTOR (OOV.): Leela? Leela!
[SCENE_BREAK]
LEELA: They are hard to kill, these Rutans.
DOCTOR: Been celebrating, have you?
LEELA: It is fitting to celebrate the death of an enemy.
DOCTOR: Not in my opinion. I haven't got time to discuss morality. Look out there.
LEELA: Is that the Rutan mother ship?
DOCTOR: It is. When it gets within range, this will lock onto its carbon resonator and knock out its anti-grav, I hope. We've got about a hundred and seventeen seconds to get out of here. Understand?
LEELA: Perfectly.
DOCTOR: Good. So when I switch on, you run for it, all right?
LEELA: Yes. It's getting nearer, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Come on. Whatever you do, don't look back. I said don't look back! Let's go. Now!
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR: Leela, come on!
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR: Leela!
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR (OOV.): Leela!
LEELA: Come on!
[SCENE_BREAK]
DOCTOR: That'll teach them.
DOCTOR: I thought I told you not to look back.
LEELA: Slay me, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: I'm blind. Slay me now. It is the fate of the old and crippled.
DOCTOR: You're neither old nor crippled. The effects of the flash will pass.
LEELA: You are sure?
DOCTOR: Mmm. Blink. That's interesting.
LEELA: What is?
DOCTOR: Pigmentation dispersal caused by the flash. Your eyes have changed colour. Leela, stop blinking now. Let's go.
LEELA: What colour are they?
DOCTOR: Blue. 'Aye, though we hunted high and low, and hunted everywhere.'
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: The Ballad of Flannan Isle, by Wilfred Gibson.
LEELA: Who?
DOCTOR: Wilfred Gibson. 'Aye, though we hunted high and low, and hunted everywhere, of the three men's fate we found no trace'
DOCTOR (OOV.): 'In any time, in any place. But a door ajar and an untouched needle and an over-toppled chair.'
Plan: A: its mother ship; Q: What is about to land and turn Earth into an alien attack base? A: the electrically charged Rutan scout; Q: Who attacks openly? A: its human guise; Q: What does the Rutan scout drop when it attacks openly? Summary: With little to fear, and its mother ship about to land and turn Earth into an alien attack base, the electrically charged Rutan scout drops its human guise and attacks openly.