Transcript: 9x013 Under the Lake
I guess this being at home has gotten me motivated to work on these!
EXT. UNDERSEA BASE
The base is The Drum, Underwater Mining Facility, Caithness, Scotland in 2119.
MORAN: (v.o.)
'Private journal of Captain Jonathan Moran, 21st November 2119. We have located a craft of unknown origin on the lake floor. Visual scans in situ revealed nothing, so we have brought the craft on board and myself and the crew will now investigate.'
INT. BASE, HANGAR
The ship seems more of a shuttle, on the small side. They rear has opened as a ramp revealing a small bay with a large rectangular object inside. Most of the crew are inside while one stands at the foot of the ramp watching.
MORAN:
How did they miss this in the initial survey?
MAN::
Cass says it was buried, and the currents of the water must have shifted the rubble around.
CASS is a woman who appears to be deaf and mute, using sign language. The first man is her interpreter.
INT. SHIP
MAN 2:
A conversation needs to be had about who owns this spaceship.
MORAN:
Can we stop calling it a spaceship? We don't know what it is.
MAN 2:
A case could be made that this is an asset, and my company has bought the rights to all assets...
CASS puts her hands up and walks away. She is not getting involved in the argument. MORAN, ignoring the second man, walks forward and sees some sort of scratching on the wall.
MORAN:
Whoa, whoa. What's this? Lunn, grab me a torch, will you?
INT. BASE, HANGAR
As LUNN, the interpreter, goes for a torch, the argument inside continues.
MORAN: (v.o.)
It was found on MOD property, even if that property is underwater.
As LUNN walks towards the cabinet, we see a shadow of something pass by. He gets the torch, and, as he closes the cabinet, he sees a face reflected in the glass. When he turns around, there’s no one there.
MORAN: (v.o.)
What you bought is the oil under the ground. Lunn! Where's the torch?
With a shake of his head, LUNN brings to the torch to the ship.
INT. SHIP
Another woman with a baseball cap and ponytail meets him, takes the torch and passes it to MORAN. He holds the torch up to the symbols and we see them reflected in his eye. He starts out of the ship at the others follow. (*from here on I will give CASS dialogue even though it is spoken by LUNN, it will just make things easier.*)
INT. BASE, HANGAR
LUNN:
Can I go in?
MORAN:
What is the radiation count?
MAN 3:
Pretty much background level.
WOMAN::
Anything more, it would have shown up on the initial survey 20 years ago.
LUNN:
If it's not safe, how come you can go in?
CASS:
*How long do you think it's been down here?*
MAN 3:
Well, there's next to no corrosion. I've not seen technology like this...
MORAN:
Please don't say "on Earth".
MAN 3:
…on Earth before.
MORAN:
(sighs) Maybe it's some kind of experimental craft that got left behind when they abandoned the site.
MAN 3:
Wait, you think the Army would just lose a prototype weapon?
MORAN:
You're new to the military, aren't you, son?
LUNN:
Cass says he might be right. It might have been here since the 1980s, when the valley flooded.
INT. SHIP
MAN 2 is still on the ship and is staring through some sort of window at the front when a shadowy figure appears, dressed like a Victorian-era mourner. He reaches out for the man who backs away with a cry. As the figure disappears, the ship’s engines ignite, spouting flame.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
MORAN:
Cass!
MORAN pushes CASS out of the way and is caught in the blast himself. As the alarms blare, the crew runs from the hangar.
LUNN:
Come on! Move! Come on, we need to go now!
COMPUTER:
'Fire in the main hangar. Safety protocols have been initiated. All crew must evacuate immediately. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum.'
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
The crew stops as a blast door lowers cutting them off from the hangar.
WOMAN::
We can't just leave him!
MAN 2:
There was something in the spaceship, I saw it!
MAN 3:
O'Donnell, he's dead. Didn't you see?
LUNN:
The fire, are we safe out here?
MAN 3:
It's fine, the CO2 will put the fire out.
O’DONNELL:
(points her finger at MAN 2) It was you! You were messing about with the controls on that ship!
CASS sees something behind them and grabs LUNN as she screams, turning him around. The shadowy figure of MORAN is there, black holes where his eyes would be.
MAN 3:
Moran. But... we just saw you...
O’DONNELL:
He's... Oh, my God. He's a ghost.
The Victorian-looking man appears and they both reach out for the crew.
**********************************************************************
Peter Capaldi
Jenna Coleman
DOCTOR WHO
“Under the Lake”
By
Toby Whithouse
PRODUCER
Derek Ritchie
DIRECTOR
Daniel O’Hara
**********************************************************************
INT. BASE
It is three days later and the TARDIS arrives in an empty corridor on the base. We are shown other parts of the base, including a room with overturned chairs.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
DOCTOR:
(to TARDIS) What's wrong? You're not happy. Why aren't you happy? Tell me.
CLARA:
(opens TARDIS DOOR) Come on! We're on a roll! Monsters, things blowing up. Oh, hey, can we go back to that place where the people with the long necks have been celebrating New Year for two centuries? I left my sunglasses there. (walks back inside) And most of my dignity.
DOCTOR:
(looks around) Why have you brought us here?
CLARA:
(comes out and closes the door) Here being...?
DOCTOR:
(runs a hand along a wall) Underwater. Some sort of a base. The technology's 22nd century. Maybe military, maybe scientific.
CLARA:
Is there a crew?
DOCTOR:
Must be, somewhere, if there's oxygen.
They begin to explore.
CLARA:
I want another adventure. Come on, you feel the same. You're itching to save a planet, I know it.
INT. BASE, MESS
There is a mural with a sea serpent or something similar attacking men in a small sailboat. (As this is Scotland, maybe it’s mean to be Nessie.) This is where the overturned chair is.
CLARA:
Doctor, look at this.
DOCTOR:
Well. Looks like you got your wish.
There is a knife thrust into a wall.
CLARA:
Food fight?
DOCTOR:
I think there was more to it than that. Whatever it was, it happened pretty recently. (sticks finger into a drink that was once hot) Seven or eight hours ago. No bodies, though.
CLARA:
(checks cabinets) And they took provisions. OK, so something or someone forced the crew to abandon the base. Maybe they went for a swim (looks out window) in the creepy flooded village outside... Oh, yeah. You see, this is more like it. (holds up hand for high-five) Oh, come on. Don't leave me hanging.
The DOCTOR leaves and CLARA follows.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
CLARA catches up with the DOCTOR who is looking at something.
DOCTOR:
Look. Told you. Crew.
Where the corridor curves just ahead of them, two figures are on their knees, facing away. The DOCTOR and CLARA walk up.
DOCTOR:
Hello, sailors!
The figures turn and stand. It is MORAN and the other “ghost”. The DOCTOR and CLARA stop.
DOCTOR:
Right, I did not expect that. Hands up who expected that.
The figures approach and CLARA starts to back away.
DOCTOR:
Wait, wait -- I don't think they're going to hurt us. I think that they're just curious.
The figures stop right in front of them, inches from their faces.
CLARA:
Are you sure?
DOCTOR:
Well, I mean, define "sure". Look at you lovely chaps. What's happened to you, then?
The figures turn away. The DOCTOR looks at CLARA.
DOCTOR:
Come on.
The DOCTOR and CLARA follow.
CLARA:
What are they?
DOCTOR:
I haven't a clue. Isn't that exciting?
INT. BASE, HANGAR
The DOCTOR and CLARA enter the hangar and see the ship.
CLARA:
Where did they go? What is it, some kind of submarine?
DOCTOR:
No, it's alien.
They climb the steps into the ship.
INT. SHIP
The DOCTOR runs his fingers along the edge of the chest as he looks around. He then sees the symbols on the wall. They are reflected in his eye. He points it out to CLARA and it reflects on her eye as she looks at it.
DOCTOR:
That's weird. The Tardis hasn't translated it.
CLARA:
Hey, look, they're back.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
MORAN and the Victorian-looking man are back. The DOCTOR and CLARA move to the back of the ship.
DOCTOR:
Hello! Did you want to show us this? It's very nice.
The two figures appear to be speaking.
CLARA:
Wait, are they saying something?
MORAN turns around and takes an axe from the wall. It’s too heavy and the head drops to the floor.
CLARA:
OK, they now appear to be arming themselves.
DOCTOR:
Yes, I spotted that, too.
MORAN drags the axe as he walks closer and the other figure has taken a harpoon gun. The DOCTOR and CLARA hurry down the steps out of the ship.
DOCTOR:
Was it something she said? She does that. She once had an argument with Gandhi...!
MORAN swings the axe and misses. CLARA and the DOCTOR back away from the creatures.
CLARA:
I'm starting to see why the crew did a runner.
The other creature fires the harpoon gun. The DOCTOR and CLARA dodge it as they run out the door. The two creatures follow, walking through a wall. The weapons fall to the floor.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
The DOCTOR and CLARA press themselves against the wall and look back the way they came. A hand reaches out from the wall between them. CLARA shrieks and backs away as MORAN emerges. They both back away only to be stopped when the other rises up through the floor.
CLARA:
(grabs the DOCTOR’S hand) Run!
The two run down the corridor. Ahead of them is a door with a circular window. There are people on the other side. The door opens.
O’DONNELL:
In here! Quick!
The DOCTOR and CLARA run inside and the door closes behind them.
INT. BASE, FARADAY CAGE
The rest of the crew is inside. The DOCTOR goes to the window and watches the creatures on the other side.
DOCTOR:
What are YOU?
The creatures walk away. CASS signs quickly.
CASS:
*Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?*
DOCTOR:
This is Clara, and I'm the Doctor. (holds up psychic paper)
MAN 2:
You're from UNIT.
DOCTOR:
Well, if that's what it says.
MAN 2:
I'm Pritchard, this is Bennett.
O’DONNELL:
(shakes DOCTOR’S hand) O'Donnell! Are you really the Doctor? I'm a huge fan! (laughs nervously) I mean, um, you know... Nice work.
LUNN:
Tim Lunn, I sign for Cass. (motions to CASS next to him)
DOCTOR:
Tell me, what about those things out there, what are they? Why are they trying to kill us?
BENNETT:
Well, they're... They're ghosts.
DOCTOR:
They're not ghosts.
CASS signs.
LUNN:
Cass is saying...
DOCTOR:
Thank you, but I actually don't need your help. I can speak sign. (motions with his hand to CASS) Go ahead.
CASS signs and the DOCTOR watches intently. He becomes bewildered.
DOCTOR:
No, no, actually, I... I can't. It's been deleted... for semaphore. Someone get me a selection of flags.
LUNN signs with a confused look on his face. CASS signs.
CASS:
*One of the ghosts is our previous commanding officer. The other, um, moley guy, we don't know what he is.*
DOCTOR:
He's from the planet Tivoli.
BENNETT:
See? I told you he was an alien! Didn't I say that?
DOCTOR:
Weird thing is, they're not violent. They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose. They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details. When did they first appear?
O’DONNELL:
Oh, did you see that spaceship in the hangar? Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and then Moran got... Moran was killed.
CASS:
* Then they appeared and pretty much straightaway started trying to kill us. So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide and that's when we realised the ghosts couldn't come in here.*
CLARA:
What is this place?
DOCTOR:
It's a Faraday cage. Completely impenetrable to radio waves and, apparently, whatever those things are out there. So, who's in charge now? I need to know who to ignore.
LUNN:
That would be me. (points to CASS) Her.
PRITCHARD:
Actually, that would be me. I represent Vector Petroleum. (hands DOCTOR his card) We've obtained the mining rights to the oil.
DOCTOR:
The oil? (tosses card) Where are we?
PRITCHARD bends over to pick up his card.
BENNETT:
This used to be a military training site. There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged.
PRITCHARD:
Then, 20 years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it.
The lights dim then brighten.
COMPUTER:
'Good morning. Entering day mode.'
O’DONNELL:
OK, it's morning. We can go outside now.
LUNN:
Thank God for that.
PRITCHARD:
At last, we can get out of here.
The crew gather their belongings.
CLARA:
Morning?
BENNETT:
Yeah, we're too far below the surface for daylight, so we have to demarcate artificial days and nights.
O’DONNELL opens the door.
DOCTOR:
I'd like to have a further look at that spaceship, but what about those things that aren't ghosts?
O’DONNELL:
It's all right. They only come out at night. (leaves)
The other members leave the room.
CLARA:
Weird how that is not comforting. (CLARA leaves)
INT. BASE, HANGAR
The DOCTOR follows PRITCHARD into the hangar.
DOCTOR:
If whatever they are...
PRITCHARD:
They're ghosts!
DOCTOR:
They're not ghosts! Have been trying to kill you,why haven't you abandoned the base?
PRITCHARD:
That was my call. We have $1 trillion worth of mining equipment here. We're not just going to abandon it. What? If it all goes pear-shaped, it's not THEM that lose a bonus.
DOCTOR:
It's OK. I understand. You're an idiot. (walks ahead) Come to mention it, why is there a Faraday cage on the base?
BENNETT:
It's the mining equipment. It runs on nuclear fission. The Faraday cage has been lined with lead to act as a shelter in the event of a radiation leak.
DOCTOR:
So, we're fighting an unknown homicidal force that has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I should know? Someone got a peanut allergy, or something(?)
The DOCTOR and CLARA climb the steps into the ship.
CONTINUED, INTERCUT WITH -
- CUT TO:
INT. SHIP
DOCTOR:
It all started with this ship. This is where the answer will be. (looks at the floor and opens hatch) What's happened to the stuff you've removed? This is for long-haul flights. There should be a suspended-animation chamber for the pilot right here. Plus, one of the power cells is missing.
PRITCHARD:
(climbs steps) A power cell?
DOCTOR:
Yeah. You can see the casing is empty.
O’DONNELL and BENNETT also enter the ship. LUNN and CASS argue outside.
LUNN:
It's not safe out here!
CLARA:
What's the matter?
LUNN:
She won't let me look inside the spaceship. She says it's not safe. I'm saying it's not safe out here.
PRITCHARD:
I imagine they're pretty valuable.
DOCTOR:
What?
PRITCHARD:
I mean, powerful. Those power cells. I imagine they're pretty powerful.
DOCTOR:
They can zap a vessel from one side of the galaxy to the other, so take a wild stab in the dark.
PRITCHARD:
And the missing one must still be out there.
DOCTOR:
Yes, well, otherwise... (to O’DONNELL) Sorry, why is this man still talking to me?
O’DONNELL:
We haven't removed anything. There hasn't been time.
PRITCHARD leaves the ship.
DOCTOR:
So, what have we got? (walks down the steps) Moran dies, and then those things appear. They can walk through walls. They only come out at night. And they're sort of see-through.
CLARA:
Doctor, wait, you're not saying...
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
DOCTOR:
They're ghosts! Yeah, ghosts.
CLARA:
You said there was no such thing. You actually pooh-poohed the ghost theory.
DOCTOR:
(walks around the room) Yes, well... well, there was no such thing as socks or smartphones and badgers until there suddenly were. Besides, what else could they be? They're not holograms, they're not Flesh Avatars, they're not Autons, they're not digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere. No, these people are literally, actually dead. This is... It's amazing! I've never actually met a proper ghost!
CASS:
*Moran was our friend.*
CLARA:
(walks up to the DOCTOR and whispers) The cards.
DOCTOR:
Oh! Oh, right you are.
The DOCTOR reaches into his pocket and pulls out index cards. CLARA takes them from him.
CLARA:
Oh, come here.
CLARA flips through the cards. They have phrases written on them to help deal with social situations. “I completely understand why it was difficult not to get captured”, “It was my fault. I should have known you didn’t live in Aberdeen”, “I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t care” and “No one is going to get eaten vaporised/exterminated/ upgraded/possessed/ mortally wounded /turned to jelly. We'll all get out of this unharmed.” She clears her throat and hands him the next one.
DOCTOR:
(clears throat and reads solemnly) I'm very sorry for your loss. I'll do all I can to solve the death of your friend slash family member slash pet.
CLARA shakes her head and takes the card back. The DOCTOR turns to the others.
DOCTOR:
But don't you see what this means? Death! It was the one thing that unified every single living creature in the universe, and now it's gone! How can you just sit there?! Don't you want to go out there right now, wrestle them to the ground and ask them questions until your throat falls out? What's death like? Does it hurt? Do you still get hungry? Do you miss being alive? Why can you only handle metal objects? Oh, I didn't know I'd noticed that. OK, so they'll try to kill you, blah, blah, blah. What does that matter? You come back! A bit murder-y, sure, but even so! Calm, Doctor, calm. You were like this when you met Shirley Bassey. OK. Question one: what is a ghost? Question two: what do they want?
The lights go out.
O’DONNELL:
Whoa. Whoa, what's happening?
COMPUTER:
'Good evening. Entering night mode.'
O’DONNELL:
That's not right. (sits at computer terminal) We're switching back into night mode again. This can't happen! No, no, no!
We hear a distant bell tolling.
BENNETT:
Um, what's doing that?
The DOCTOR listens, shocked.
CLARA:
Doctor?
DOCTOR:
The TARDIS Cloister Bell!
The DOCTOR runs from the room and CLARA follows.
INT. TARDIS
The Cloister Bell continues to toll as the DOCTOR and CLARA enter. The lighting is dim, mainly red emergency lights. There is vapor streaming up through the grating.
CLARA:
Doctor, what's wrong?
DOCTOR:
It must be the ghosts. That's why she was upset when we got here.
CLARA:
Why? I don't understand.
DOCTOR:
It's just what I was saying. You live and you die, that's it. The ghosts are aberrations. A splinter of time in the skin. They're unnatural. She wants to get away from them.
CLARA:
So, what do we do?
The DOCTOR turns a large hand and the engines power down.
DOCTOR:
Put the handbrake on.
CLARA takes off her jacket and heads for the door.
DOCTOR:
Whoa! Ho, ho, ho, ho! Where do you think you're going?
CLARA:
Out there, where the action is.
DOCTOR:
Look, um... (puts a fist to his mouth)
CLARA:
What?
DOCTOR:
Oh, this is my own fault. I like adventures as much as the next man. If the next man is a man who likes adventures. Even so, don't... don't go native.
CLARA:
What do you mean? I'm not.
DOCTOR:
Look, there's a whole dimension in here, but there's only room for one ME. (points at himself with both hands)
CLARA:
Wait... wait a second. You just raved about ghosts like a kid who had too much sherbet.
DOCTOR:
Do you know what you need? You need a hobby!
CLARA:
(chuckles) I really don't.
DOCTOR:
Or, even better, another relationship! Come on, you lot, you're bananas about relationships. You're always writing songs about them or going to war or getting tattooed...
CLARA:
Doctor, I'm fine.
DOCTOR:
(stammers) I just felt that I had to say something.
CLARA:
I know. And I appreciated it.
DOCTOR:
Because I've got a duty of care.
CLARA:
Which you take very seriously, I know.
DOCTOR:
So, can I stop now?
CLARA:
Please. Please do.
CLARA goes out the door and the DOCTOR starts to follow but stops when the TARDIS makes a metallic “thrumming”.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
O’DONNELL: (over speaker)
'Attention, all crew. The Drum has switched to night mode early so grab provisions and make your way to the Faraday cage.'
INT. BASE, AIRLOCK
PRITCHARD returns and takes off his helmet.
PRITCHARD:
That you, Bennett? I went out looking for that missing power cell. OK, contractually, it's a grey area, but I reckon we can argue everything non-indigenous is an asset and therefore... (realizes something is wrong) Bennett?
He sees MORAN approach through the window and jumps back, startled.
PRITCHARD:
We're meant to be in day mode! You shouldn't be here.
He hears whispering as MORAN’S mouth moves.
PRITCHARD:
(moves to the window) What? What? What... what are you saying?
MORAN reaches for the outer door override switch.
PRITCHARD:
No, Moran! Don't!
The airlock floods.
INT. BASE, MESS
CLARA and BENNETT are gathering provisions.
O’DONNELL: (over speaker)
'Pritchard, you are unaccounted for. Contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage immediately. Pritchard, contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage!'
BENNETT:
I'd love to work for UNIT, Earth's first line of defence, and all. I'm probably not suited, though. Not much of a fighter. More of a bleeder.
CLARA looks up and sees a figure in a wet suit. It is facing away from them
CLARA:
Pritchard! Where you have you been? Everyone's been looking for you. What's with the wet suit?
BENNETT:
Yeah, where have you been?
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL and the DOCTOR are in the room.
BENNETT: (over radio)
'O'Donnell, it's OK. Pritchard's in here!'
O’DONNELL: (into mic)
Pritchard, you moron. Grab your stuff, we're locking down early. (pushes chair over to other computers) In case I can't get this back into day mode.
INT. BASE, MESS
CLARA and BENNETT watch the figure.
CLARA:
Is he all right?
Something thuds against the window. They look outside to see a body in a yellow wet suit.
BENNETT:
Man overboard. Man overboard! We need a rescue team in the water now!
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL and the DOCTOR listen to the conversation with alarm.
INT. BASE, MESS
The figure has turned so we can see the face.
CLARA:
Bennett, wait! It's Pritchard.
The figure in the room turns around and it’s an eyeless PRITCHARD. CASS, LUNN and the DOCTOR run into the room.
CLARA:
He's a ghost. He's another ghost.
PRITCHARD lifts a chair over his head and approaches the group.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL works the computer consoles.
O’DONNELL:
Come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on...
INT. BASE, MESS
PRITCHARD fades and the chair falls to the floor.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL falls back in her chair with a sigh.
COMPUTER:
'Good morning. Entering day mode.'
Later, everyone has gathered and witness PRITCHARD’S death as it is replayed on a screen.
DOCTOR:
They're working out how to use the base against us -- altering the time settings so they can go about uninhibited, opening the airlocks. They're learning.
CLARA:
And now there's three of them.
BENNETT:
Cass, what do we do?
CASS:
*We abandon the base. Topside can send down a whole team of Marines or ghost-busters or whatever.*
DOCTOR:
Wait, wait...
CASS:
(faces the DOCTOR) *I can't force you to leave, so you can stay and do the whole cabin-in-the-woods thing and get killed or drowned, if you want. But my first priority is to protect my crew.*
The DOCTOR walks over to CLARA.
CLARA:
(quietly) But we're coming back, aren't we?
DOCTOR:
(quietly) Yes, we're coming back.
CASS:
*O’Donnell, contact Topside. Tell them we're abandoning the base on my orders.*
O’DONNELL:
(uses field telephone) Topside, Topside, this is Lance Corporal Alice O'Donnell from Drum Control. Over.
MAN::
(over phone) 'Drum Control, this is Topside. We have received your message. Submarine on its way. Over.'
O’DONNELL:
Repeat, Topside. Over.
The DOCTOR makes his way towards O’DONNELL.
MAN::
'We've received your request for a rescue sub. It's two minutes away. Over.'
O’DONNELL:
Topside, who did you speak to and when was this request made? Over.
MAN::
'Drum Control, it was in Morse code and arrived maybe half an hour ago. Said it was urgent, comms were down, two crew members critically ill, full paramedic team requested. Over.'
DOCTOR:
(grabs the phone) Topside, this is the Doctor, UNIT security visa 7-1-0-Apple-0-0. You may be familiar with my work. Call back the sub.
MAN::
'Doctor, why...?'
DOCTOR:
Call it back! We have a hazardous and undefined contagion on board. This base is now under quarantine. (ends call)
BENNETT:
What did you do that for?
DOCTOR:
None of us sent the message, did we? So that means the ghosts sent it, which means they want that crew down here.
CASS:
*Why would they do that?*
DOCTOR:
I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's not so they can all form a boy band. OK. We solve this on our own. The ghosts can only come out at night so they change the base's time settings. Why? What's different at night?
O’DONNELL:
It's mainly atmospheric. The lights are dim, the noise from the engines is muffled.
DOCTOR:
No, something... something else.
CASS:
*The diagnostic sweep. When the systems are checked, that stops at night to save power.*
DOCTOR:
What systems, specifically?
O’DONNELL:
Life support, the locks. They're electromagnetic. They have to be secured in case of flooding, so throughout the day, they're checked, one by one, every few seconds.
DOCTOR:
(sighs) The answer is in there somewhere, I can smell it. (stares at map of the base)
CLARA:
Doctor, what do we do?
DOCTOR:
(turns around) O'Donnell. (walks over to her) Excellent work, returning the base to day mode.
O’DONNELL:
(embarrassed) Shut up. It was nothing. (giggles) You really think so?
DOCTOR:
Now put it back into night mode.
O’DONNELL:
What?!
DOCTOR:
We know nothing. We don't know what they want. That's what's getting us killed. Well, I won't run. Not anymore. So, O'Donnell, kindly put the base back into night mode. We want to know what these ghosts are after? We ask them. We're going to do the impossible. We're going to capture a ghost.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
The lights turn off.
COMPUTER:
'Good evening. Entering night mode.'
INT. BASE, MESS
BENNETT nervously steps into the doorway. PRITCHARD is standing, half buried in the wall. MORAN is standing upside-down on the ceiling and the alien is standing out halfway up a wall.
BENNETT:
H-Hey, how's it going?
The “ghosts” move towards him and he runs away with a whimper.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
CASS and O’DONNELL watch BENNETT on one of the many screen as the DOCTOR faces the map of the base.
O’DONNELL:
Bennett's got them moving, and Clara's in position.
DOCTOR: (into earpiece)
Clara, Bennett is going to run across the top of the T-junction to your right in about ten seconds.
CONTINUED, INTERCUT WITH -
- CUT TO:
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
CLARA listens through her earpiece.
DOCTOR: (via earpiece)
Draw the ghosts towards you. Turn right, and then take second left.
CLARA sees BENNETT run past. As the ghosts pass her junction, she calls out.
CLARA:
Hey! Hey, ghosts. Down here! (runs)
The ghosts follow CLARA.
DOCTOR: (into earpiece)
Lunn, they're coming your way. Clara's going to duck down to her left. You've got to keep the ghosts going on the same route they're on now. Then, after about 50 yards on your left, there is a flood door. O'Donnell will close the door once you're through.
LUNN: (into earpiece)
I... I can hear them.
DOCTOR: (into earpiece)
Lunn, don't let them see where you go.
LUNN runs out from his hiding place. CLARA sees him and ducks to her left before the ghosts arrive.
LUNN:
Hey! Yeah, this way.
Instead of all of them following LUNN, the ghosts split up; PRITCHARD follows LUNN while the others continue after CLARA.
LUNN: (into earpiece)
We've got a problem!
O’DONNELL:
They've separated.
DOCTOR:
(walks over) What?
O’DONNELL:
Moran and the mole guy are going after Clara.
The DOCTOR hurries back to the map.
O’DONNELL: (via earpiece)
'Clara, look out. Two ghosts are still on your case. Right behind you.'
CLARA:
I'm beginning to think we should have let the ghosts in on the plan. (runs)
DOCTOR:
Clara, there's a flood door at the end of the corridor, around the corner to your right. We'll close it from here. Listen to me. You've got to get through that door before Moran and the other ghost see you.
CLARA makes it to the door.
CLARA:
Doctor...
DOCTOR:
Now, O'Donnell, fast as you can!
O’DONNELL hits a few switches and the door closes. CLARA presses up against it so they can’t see her through the window. LUNN is running down another corridor.
LUNN:
Guys, I'm nearly at my door. (ducks into doorway)
DOCTOR:
Now, Lunn, quickly.
O’DONNELL closes the door. PRITCHARD arrives just as the door is closing. LUNN presses against the wall.
LUNN:
It saw me. Oh, God. It saw me. It's coming through. It's coming through the door.
PRITCHARD enters, hands and then arms first. Those in the control room watch as PRITCHARD enters from the corridor.
O’DONNELL:
We don't have a camera in there.
CASS is ready to run out but the DOCTOR blocks her way.
DOCTOR:
No, no, Lunn. Lunn, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Lunn, what's happening?
LUNN backs away from an advancing PRITCHARD.
DOCTOR:
Lunn, can you hear me? Lunn? Lunn?
CASS runs to the screen to stare at the door. LUNN has his back to the wall and closes his eyes as PRITCHARD stops directly in front of him. LUNN begins to sink along the wall. PRITCHARD reaches for a spanner and holds it up, ready to hit a whimpering LUNN. The spanner falls to the floor and PRITCHARD exits the room.
DOCTOR:
'Can you hear me? Lunn, Lunn? Lunn, Lunn! 'What's happening? Lunn? 'Lunn? Can you hear me?'
LUNN sits on the floor, relieved and shocked that he is alive.
LUNN:
I'm OK.
O’DONNELL:
(turns so CASS can see her face) Cass, he's alive.
LUNN:
'It didn't hurt me. I'm OK.'
DOCTOR:
What? What's wrong with you? Why didn't it hurt you? Bennett, you're on again. Bennett, where are you?
O’DONNELL searched the cameras to find BENNETT.
O’DONNELL:
There. Oh, God, look.
DOCTOR:
Bennett, can you hear me? 'There are two ghosts just around the corner from you.'
BENNETT:
Yes, thanks, I'd noticed!
DOCTOR:
The Faraday cage is across the intersection and down the corridor to your right. This last bit is down to you.
BENNETT waits for a moment before making a break for it. The two ghosts follow. As he turns a corner, PRITCHARD joins them.
BENNETT:
(walks backwards) OK, so, the good news is, they aren't split up any more. (turns and runs) Cue Clara!
BENNETT turns right as CLARA appears in the Faraday cage. The ghosts enter the room and walk right through CLARA. She is a hologram! The DOCTOR closes and locks the door behind them.
DOCTOR:
(puts on sunglasses) We need to talk. Sorry, chaps. Just a hologram. (the hologram disappears) You play a little bit too rough.
CLARA, BENNETT and LUNN return to the control room. CASS hugs LUNN and O’DONNELL punches BENNETT on the arm.
CLARA:
I'm fine, by the way, in case any of you were worried
DOCTOR:
Cass, are you seeing this?
O’DONNELL:
Sonic glasses Wi-Fi locked in. On screen B2.
LUNN:
She says she can't see them properly. The glass is too thick and they're too far away.
DOCTOR:
Open the door.
O’DONNELL:
What?
CLARA:
Doctor, you can't go in there, they will kill you!
DOCTOR:
They don't have any weapons or access to any of the controls. They can't hurt me, so open the door.
O’DONNELL unlocks the door and the DOCTOR enters.
INT. BASE, FARADAY CAGE
MORAN walks up to the DOCTOR, mouth moving. He then thrusts his hand into the DOCTOR’S torso. The DOCTOR groans.
DOCTOR:
(slowly) Cold… (normal) Isn't it? Take away your weapons and you're not so scary, are you? Is that better, Cass?
MORAN removes his hand. CASS reads their lips.
LUNN:
She says they're saying the same thing, the same phrase, over and over. They're saying "The dark. The score." No, "the sword." The... for sale? No, "the forsaken. The temple."
DOCTOR:
What?
LUNN:
Yes, she's sure. "The dark, the sword, the forsaken, the temple." Just that. Over and over.
We see a close-up of MORAN’S mouth.
DOCTOR:
Dark, sword, forsaken, temple. What does that mean? What are you telling me, big man? Bennett! I need maps. I think I just worked out what our friend here is telling us.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
They are standing around a long table with maps spread out on it.
DOCTOR:
They're coordinates.
BENNETT:
How can they be coordinates?
DOCTOR:
The dark? Space. So, whoever's following the coordinates knows they're going to another planet. The sword?
The DOCTOR hands out an apple to BENNETT, a knobby ball to O'DONNELL, a table tennis ball to CLARA’S left hand and a Vector Petroleum coaster to her right, and makes them hold them up in a diagonal line.
DOCTOR:
Orion's sword. The sword, the three stars, although one isn't actually a star but the Orion Nebula, hanging down from Orion's belt. But if viewed from back here, the Earth becomes the fourth bit of the sword. So, narrowed it down to a planet now. Getting closer!
The DOCTOR takes the items back and puts them on the table.
DOCTOR:
The forsaken. The forsaken or abandoned or empty town. See, it's a location, beaming out to someone or something across the universe, over and over. And every time they kill one of us...
CLARA:
It strengthens the signal. Another ghost, another transmitter.
O’DONNELL:
Which is why they sent for that rescue sub.
DOCTOR:
Get more people down here, kill them, make even more ghosts to beam out the coordinates.
CASS:
*But why are they beaming out the coordinates? Is it a distress call?*
DOCTOR:
It could be. Or a warning. Might even be a call to arms. It could mean, "Come here, they're vulnerable, help yourself." Wait a minute, though. Wait a minute. You know what this means? It means that they're not a natural phenomenon. It means that someone is deliberately getting people killed, hijacking their souls and turning them into transmitters.
O’DONNELL:
What do the coordinates lead TO, though? To us? To the ghosts? What?
DOCTOR:
Ah! What the coordinates are for. That is part of the answer to the other question you're all thinking. (no one answers) Really? Come on. None of you? Surely just being around me makes you cleverer by osmosis? What is the other question?
CASS:
*The temple. The fourth part of the directions. What's the temple?*
DOCTOR:
Finally. It's like pulling teeth. (points at an aerial photo) This is the flooded military town. Shops, houses, town square, and this. (points to a building)
CLARA:
A church?
DOCTOR:
Whatever the coordinates are for, it's in that church. Find that and you're a hop, skip and a jump to stopping them.
BENNETT:
Wait, you're not suggesting that...? But we're safe now. The ghosts are in the cage, we can get out of here.
DOCTOR:
No-one has to stay. In fact, I would prefer it if you went. You'll all get in the way and ask ridiculous questions. But, you know, YOU have chosen to protect and serve. YOU have given yourself to science and the pursuit of knowledge. None of you have chosen anonymous or selfish lives. Go, and a part of you will always wonder, "What would have happened if I'd stayed? How could I have helped? What would I have learned?" I want you to go. But you should know what it is that you're leaving.
CASS signs.
LUNN:
Cass says we should go, but everything that happens here is her responsibility now, so she's going to stay. So I, uh... guess I should too.
O’DONNELL:
Well, count me in. Who wants to live forever, anyway?
BENNETT:
Sorry, um, have you gone insane? We can go home.
O’DONNELL shrugs. Nobody says anything.
BENNETT:
They're ghosts, though. How can they be ghosts? Well, at least if I die, you know I really will come back and haunt you all.
Later, BENNETT is controlling a drone submarine with virtual goggles and remote controls on his hands. The others are watching his progress on one of the screens.
BENNETT:
OK, the sub is approaching the town square. Which way is the church?
O’DONNELL:
North-north-west, 150 yards. That's it. Starboard two degrees.
CLARA:
What are we looking for, exactly?
DOCTOR:
Something that has the power to raise the dead and turn them into transmitters. I expect we'll know it when we see it.
BENNETT:
Wait, I've found the church.
DOCTOR:
That's it, keep going.
The drone continues forward and the DOCTOR watches the screen closely.
DOCTOR:
Wait! What's that? Move closer.
It looks like a large white box.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
They have brought the box onboard. They stand there looking at it.
DOCTOR:
It's the suspended-animation chamber from the spaceship.
CLARA:
So the pilot could be in there.
DOCTOR:
(kneels) There's SOMETHING inside there. But it's deadlock sealed, I can't open it. It should be the pilot, it should be. So why do I think it isn't? More questions. Everything I solve, just more questions. (stands) I have to go back to the beginning. We arrive, we see the ghosts. They don't kill us. They lead us here, they show us the spaceship. THEN they try to kill us.
The DOCTOR climbs the stairs into the ship and looks at the symbols on the wall.
DOCTOR:
Not translated by the Tardis. Why?
The DOCTOR cleans his sonic specs, puts them on and looks at the symbols. He takes them off before heading back out.
DOCTOR:
Lunn, translate for me. Whenever I step outside, you (points at CASS) are the smartest person in the room. So, tell me, what's weird about this? I know that it's all bonkers but, you know, when YOU think about it, one thing keeps snagging in your mind. What is it?
CASS:
*The markings on the inside of the spaceship.*
DOCTOR:
The markings on the inside of the spaceship. Yes! (stands on the steps) Why?
CASS:
*I don't think they're just words.*
DOCTOR:
They're not. They're magnets.
BENNETT:
Magnets? How?
DOCTOR:
Well, a localised and manufactured electromagnetic field, to be precise. The dark. The sword. The forsaken. The temple. When we heard the coordinates for the first time, did anyone expect them not to be that? No, exactly. Me neither. It's like we already knew, somehow. Like the words were already in us.
O’DONNELL:
So that writing IS the coordinates?
DOCTOR:
(goes down the stairs) Everything we see or experience shapes us in some way. But these words actually rewrite the synaptic connections in your brain. They literally change the way you are wired. Clara, why don't I have a radio in the TARDIS?
CLARA:
You took it apart and used the pieces to make a clockwork squirrel.
DOCTOR:
AND because whatever song I heard first thing in the morning, I was stuck with. Two weeks of Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre. I was begging for the brush of Death's merciful hand. Don't you see? These words are an earworm. A song you can't stop humming, even after you die.
CLARA:
OK, so the spaceship lands here. The pilot leaves the writing on the wall so whoever sees it, when they die, they become a beacon of the coordinates, while he/she/it snoozes in the suspended-animation chamber…
DOCTOR:
Waiting for his/her/its mates to pick the message up. My God. Every time I think it couldn't get more extraordinary, it surprises me. It's impossible. I hate it. It's evil. It's astonishing. I want to kiss it to death.
The alarm blares.
COMPUTER:
'Attention, all crew. Evacuate base immediately. Emergency protocols have been initiated. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum. Fuel for our futures.'
O’DONNELL runs over to one of the computer pads and pulls up a schematic of the base.
O’DONNELL:
Oh, no. The ghosts tampering with the day-night settings has caused a computer malfunction. Its... its first priority is to keep the reactor cool, so it's opening the hull doors and it's flooding the base.
Water begins rushing into the corridors. CASS signs quickly.
LUNN:
Cass says, close the internal flood doors. That'll contain the water in the central corridor.
DOCTOR:
Where's the TARDIS?
O’DONNELL:
On the other side.
DOCTOR:
We need to get there. It's our only way out.
O’DONNELL:
OK. We've got 30 seconds before the flood doors close.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
O’DONNELL opens the flood door and runs into the corridor followed by the DOCTOR and BENNETT. CLARA stops to urge on LUNN and CASS.
CLARA:
Come on!
That delay cost them as the door closes between the first three and the second three.
CLARA:
Doctor!
The DOCTOR stops and goes back to her door. He looks over his shoulder and sees the other door closing and dives underneath before it slams shut. He stands up and activates the intercom. CLARA opens the intercom on their side. The DOCTOR then looks through the window as he speaks.
DOCTOR:
I'll get you and the others out. Sit tight, I'll come back for you.
CLARA:
Just come over here in the TARDIS now.
DOCTOR:
The TARDIS won't go there, it won't go near the ghosts. (turns away from the door)
CLARA:
You can't just leave us!
The water has reached the bottom of the windows.
DOCTOR:
Listen to me. I'm going back in time to when this spaceship landed. If I can understand why this is happening, I can stop them killing anyone else. I can save you. You trust me, don't you, Clara?
The water has covered the windows. They look at each other and CLARA nods.
BENNETT:
Wait, you're going to go back in time? How do you do that?
The DOCTOR, BENNETT and O’DONNELL hurry on down the corridor.
DOCTOR:
Extremely well.
INT. BASE, MESS
CLARA, CASS and LUNN enter the room.
LUNN:
You're sure they're not going to hurt us?
CLARA:
They can't get out of the Faraday cage. (looks out the window)
INT. TARDIS
The DOCTOR sets the TARDIS into motion.
DOCTOR:
Back to before the flood.
The TARDIS dematerializes.
INT. BASE, MESS
CASS:
*And you're sure the Doctor won't just leave us here?*
CLARA:
Guys, look, this is how we roll. He's going to go away, come back and we'll have to listen to how he did it.
LUNN stops signing and looks ahead out the window. CLARA turns and watches as a figure seems to walk across the bottom of the lake.
LUNN:
Is it Moran or Pritchard or the mole guy? How... how did they get out?
CLARA:
No, I don't think it's any of them. I think it's... a new ghost.
LUNN:
What does that mean?
CLARA:
It means that something happened in the past, it means that somebody else must have... Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no.
The new ghost is the DOCTOR!
EXT. UNDERSEA BASE
The base is The Drum, Underwater Mining Facility, Caithness, Scotland in 2119.
MORAN: (v.o.)
'Private journal of Captain Jonathan Moran, 21st November 2119. We have located a craft of unknown origin on the lake floor. Visual scans in situ revealed nothing, so we have brought the craft on board and myself and the crew will now investigate.'
INT. BASE, HANGAR
The ship seems more of a shuttle, on the small side. They rear has opened as a ramp revealing a small bay with a large rectangular object inside. Most of the crew are inside while one stands at the foot of the ramp watching.
MORAN:
How did they miss this in the initial survey?
MAN::
Cass says it was buried, and the currents of the water must have shifted the rubble around.
CASS is a woman who appears to be deaf and mute, using sign language. The first man is her interpreter.
INT. SHIP
MAN 2:
A conversation needs to be had about who owns this spaceship.
MORAN:
Can we stop calling it a spaceship? We don't know what it is.
MAN 2:
A case could be made that this is an asset, and my company has bought the rights to all assets...
CASS puts her hands up and walks away. She is not getting involved in the argument. MORAN, ignoring the second man, walks forward and sees some sort of scratching on the wall.
MORAN:
Whoa, whoa. What's this? Lunn, grab me a torch, will you?
INT. BASE, HANGAR
As LUNN, the interpreter, goes for a torch, the argument inside continues.
MORAN: (v.o.)
It was found on MOD property, even if that property is underwater.
As LUNN walks towards the cabinet, we see a shadow of something pass by. He gets the torch, and, as he closes the cabinet, he sees a face reflected in the glass. When he turns around, there’s no one there.
MORAN: (v.o.)
What you bought is the oil under the ground. Lunn! Where's the torch?
With a shake of his head, LUNN brings to the torch to the ship.
INT. SHIP
Another woman with a baseball cap and ponytail meets him, takes the torch and passes it to MORAN. He holds the torch up to the symbols and we see them reflected in his eye. He starts out of the ship at the others follow. (*from here on I will give CASS dialogue even though it is spoken by LUNN, it will just make things easier.*)
INT. BASE, HANGAR
LUNN:
Can I go in?
MORAN:
What is the radiation count?
MAN 3:
Pretty much background level.
WOMAN::
Anything more, it would have shown up on the initial survey 20 years ago.
LUNN:
If it's not safe, how come you can go in?
CASS:
*How long do you think it's been down here?*
MAN 3:
Well, there's next to no corrosion. I've not seen technology like this...
MORAN:
Please don't say "on Earth".
MAN 3:
…on Earth before.
MORAN:
(sighs) Maybe it's some kind of experimental craft that got left behind when they abandoned the site.
MAN 3:
Wait, you think the Army would just lose a prototype weapon?
MORAN:
You're new to the military, aren't you, son?
LUNN:
Cass says he might be right. It might have been here since the 1980s, when the valley flooded.
INT. SHIP
MAN 2 is still on the ship and is staring through some sort of window at the front when a shadowy figure appears, dressed like a Victorian-era mourner. He reaches out for the man who backs away with a cry. As the figure disappears, the ship’s engines ignite, spouting flame.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
MORAN:
Cass!
MORAN pushes CASS out of the way and is caught in the blast himself. As the alarms blare, the crew runs from the hangar.
LUNN:
Come on! Move! Come on, we need to go now!
COMPUTER:
'Fire in the main hangar. Safety protocols have been initiated. All crew must evacuate immediately. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum.'
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
The crew stops as a blast door lowers cutting them off from the hangar.
WOMAN::
We can't just leave him!
MAN 2:
There was something in the spaceship, I saw it!
MAN 3:
O'Donnell, he's dead. Didn't you see?
LUNN:
The fire, are we safe out here?
MAN 3:
It's fine, the CO2 will put the fire out.
O’DONNELL:
(points her finger at MAN 2) It was you! You were messing about with the controls on that ship!
CASS sees something behind them and grabs LUNN as she screams, turning him around. The shadowy figure of MORAN is there, black holes where his eyes would be.
MAN 3:
Moran. But... we just saw you...
O’DONNELL:
He's... Oh, my God. He's a ghost.
The Victorian-looking man appears and they both reach out for the crew.
**********************************************************************
Peter Capaldi
Jenna Coleman
DOCTOR WHO
“Under the Lake”
By
Toby Whithouse
PRODUCER
Derek Ritchie
DIRECTOR
Daniel O’Hara
**********************************************************************
INT. BASE
It is three days later and the TARDIS arrives in an empty corridor on the base. We are shown other parts of the base, including a room with overturned chairs.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
DOCTOR:
(to TARDIS) What's wrong? You're not happy. Why aren't you happy? Tell me.
CLARA:
(opens TARDIS DOOR) Come on! We're on a roll! Monsters, things blowing up. Oh, hey, can we go back to that place where the people with the long necks have been celebrating New Year for two centuries? I left my sunglasses there. (walks back inside) And most of my dignity.
DOCTOR:
(looks around) Why have you brought us here?
CLARA:
(comes out and closes the door) Here being...?
DOCTOR:
(runs a hand along a wall) Underwater. Some sort of a base. The technology's 22nd century. Maybe military, maybe scientific.
CLARA:
Is there a crew?
DOCTOR:
Must be, somewhere, if there's oxygen.
They begin to explore.
CLARA:
I want another adventure. Come on, you feel the same. You're itching to save a planet, I know it.
INT. BASE, MESS
There is a mural with a sea serpent or something similar attacking men in a small sailboat. (As this is Scotland, maybe it’s mean to be Nessie.) This is where the overturned chair is.
CLARA:
Doctor, look at this.
DOCTOR:
Well. Looks like you got your wish.
There is a knife thrust into a wall.
CLARA:
Food fight?
DOCTOR:
I think there was more to it than that. Whatever it was, it happened pretty recently. (sticks finger into a drink that was once hot) Seven or eight hours ago. No bodies, though.
CLARA:
(checks cabinets) And they took provisions. OK, so something or someone forced the crew to abandon the base. Maybe they went for a swim (looks out window) in the creepy flooded village outside... Oh, yeah. You see, this is more like it. (holds up hand for high-five) Oh, come on. Don't leave me hanging.
The DOCTOR leaves and CLARA follows.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
CLARA catches up with the DOCTOR who is looking at something.
DOCTOR:
Look. Told you. Crew.
Where the corridor curves just ahead of them, two figures are on their knees, facing away. The DOCTOR and CLARA walk up.
DOCTOR:
Hello, sailors!
The figures turn and stand. It is MORAN and the other “ghost”. The DOCTOR and CLARA stop.
DOCTOR:
Right, I did not expect that. Hands up who expected that.
The figures approach and CLARA starts to back away.
DOCTOR:
Wait, wait -- I don't think they're going to hurt us. I think that they're just curious.
The figures stop right in front of them, inches from their faces.
CLARA:
Are you sure?
DOCTOR:
Well, I mean, define "sure". Look at you lovely chaps. What's happened to you, then?
The figures turn away. The DOCTOR looks at CLARA.
DOCTOR:
Come on.
The DOCTOR and CLARA follow.
CLARA:
What are they?
DOCTOR:
I haven't a clue. Isn't that exciting?
INT. BASE, HANGAR
The DOCTOR and CLARA enter the hangar and see the ship.
CLARA:
Where did they go? What is it, some kind of submarine?
DOCTOR:
No, it's alien.
They climb the steps into the ship.
INT. SHIP
The DOCTOR runs his fingers along the edge of the chest as he looks around. He then sees the symbols on the wall. They are reflected in his eye. He points it out to CLARA and it reflects on her eye as she looks at it.
DOCTOR:
That's weird. The Tardis hasn't translated it.
CLARA:
Hey, look, they're back.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
MORAN and the Victorian-looking man are back. The DOCTOR and CLARA move to the back of the ship.
DOCTOR:
Hello! Did you want to show us this? It's very nice.
The two figures appear to be speaking.
CLARA:
Wait, are they saying something?
MORAN turns around and takes an axe from the wall. It’s too heavy and the head drops to the floor.
CLARA:
OK, they now appear to be arming themselves.
DOCTOR:
Yes, I spotted that, too.
MORAN drags the axe as he walks closer and the other figure has taken a harpoon gun. The DOCTOR and CLARA hurry down the steps out of the ship.
DOCTOR:
Was it something she said? She does that. She once had an argument with Gandhi...!
MORAN swings the axe and misses. CLARA and the DOCTOR back away from the creatures.
CLARA:
I'm starting to see why the crew did a runner.
The other creature fires the harpoon gun. The DOCTOR and CLARA dodge it as they run out the door. The two creatures follow, walking through a wall. The weapons fall to the floor.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
The DOCTOR and CLARA press themselves against the wall and look back the way they came. A hand reaches out from the wall between them. CLARA shrieks and backs away as MORAN emerges. They both back away only to be stopped when the other rises up through the floor.
CLARA:
(grabs the DOCTOR’S hand) Run!
The two run down the corridor. Ahead of them is a door with a circular window. There are people on the other side. The door opens.
O’DONNELL:
In here! Quick!
The DOCTOR and CLARA run inside and the door closes behind them.
INT. BASE, FARADAY CAGE
The rest of the crew is inside. The DOCTOR goes to the window and watches the creatures on the other side.
DOCTOR:
What are YOU?
The creatures walk away. CASS signs quickly.
CASS:
*Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?*
DOCTOR:
This is Clara, and I'm the Doctor. (holds up psychic paper)
MAN 2:
You're from UNIT.
DOCTOR:
Well, if that's what it says.
MAN 2:
I'm Pritchard, this is Bennett.
O’DONNELL:
(shakes DOCTOR’S hand) O'Donnell! Are you really the Doctor? I'm a huge fan! (laughs nervously) I mean, um, you know... Nice work.
LUNN:
Tim Lunn, I sign for Cass. (motions to CASS next to him)
DOCTOR:
Tell me, what about those things out there, what are they? Why are they trying to kill us?
BENNETT:
Well, they're... They're ghosts.
DOCTOR:
They're not ghosts.
CASS signs.
LUNN:
Cass is saying...
DOCTOR:
Thank you, but I actually don't need your help. I can speak sign. (motions with his hand to CASS) Go ahead.
CASS signs and the DOCTOR watches intently. He becomes bewildered.
DOCTOR:
No, no, actually, I... I can't. It's been deleted... for semaphore. Someone get me a selection of flags.
LUNN signs with a confused look on his face. CASS signs.
CASS:
*One of the ghosts is our previous commanding officer. The other, um, moley guy, we don't know what he is.*
DOCTOR:
He's from the planet Tivoli.
BENNETT:
See? I told you he was an alien! Didn't I say that?
DOCTOR:
Weird thing is, they're not violent. They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose. They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details. When did they first appear?
O’DONNELL:
Oh, did you see that spaceship in the hangar? Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and then Moran got... Moran was killed.
CASS:
* Then they appeared and pretty much straightaway started trying to kill us. So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide and that's when we realised the ghosts couldn't come in here.*
CLARA:
What is this place?
DOCTOR:
It's a Faraday cage. Completely impenetrable to radio waves and, apparently, whatever those things are out there. So, who's in charge now? I need to know who to ignore.
LUNN:
That would be me. (points to CASS) Her.
PRITCHARD:
Actually, that would be me. I represent Vector Petroleum. (hands DOCTOR his card) We've obtained the mining rights to the oil.
DOCTOR:
The oil? (tosses card) Where are we?
PRITCHARD bends over to pick up his card.
BENNETT:
This used to be a military training site. There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged.
PRITCHARD:
Then, 20 years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it.
The lights dim then brighten.
COMPUTER:
'Good morning. Entering day mode.'
O’DONNELL:
OK, it's morning. We can go outside now.
LUNN:
Thank God for that.
PRITCHARD:
At last, we can get out of here.
The crew gather their belongings.
CLARA:
Morning?
BENNETT:
Yeah, we're too far below the surface for daylight, so we have to demarcate artificial days and nights.
O’DONNELL opens the door.
DOCTOR:
I'd like to have a further look at that spaceship, but what about those things that aren't ghosts?
O’DONNELL:
It's all right. They only come out at night. (leaves)
The other members leave the room.
CLARA:
Weird how that is not comforting. (CLARA leaves)
INT. BASE, HANGAR
The DOCTOR follows PRITCHARD into the hangar.
DOCTOR:
If whatever they are...
PRITCHARD:
They're ghosts!
DOCTOR:
They're not ghosts! Have been trying to kill you,why haven't you abandoned the base?
PRITCHARD:
That was my call. We have $1 trillion worth of mining equipment here. We're not just going to abandon it. What? If it all goes pear-shaped, it's not THEM that lose a bonus.
DOCTOR:
It's OK. I understand. You're an idiot. (walks ahead) Come to mention it, why is there a Faraday cage on the base?
BENNETT:
It's the mining equipment. It runs on nuclear fission. The Faraday cage has been lined with lead to act as a shelter in the event of a radiation leak.
DOCTOR:
So, we're fighting an unknown homicidal force that has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I should know? Someone got a peanut allergy, or something(?)
The DOCTOR and CLARA climb the steps into the ship.
CONTINUED, INTERCUT WITH -
- CUT TO:
INT. SHIP
DOCTOR:
It all started with this ship. This is where the answer will be. (looks at the floor and opens hatch) What's happened to the stuff you've removed? This is for long-haul flights. There should be a suspended-animation chamber for the pilot right here. Plus, one of the power cells is missing.
PRITCHARD:
(climbs steps) A power cell?
DOCTOR:
Yeah. You can see the casing is empty.
O’DONNELL and BENNETT also enter the ship. LUNN and CASS argue outside.
LUNN:
It's not safe out here!
CLARA:
What's the matter?
LUNN:
She won't let me look inside the spaceship. She says it's not safe. I'm saying it's not safe out here.
PRITCHARD:
I imagine they're pretty valuable.
DOCTOR:
What?
PRITCHARD:
I mean, powerful. Those power cells. I imagine they're pretty powerful.
DOCTOR:
They can zap a vessel from one side of the galaxy to the other, so take a wild stab in the dark.
PRITCHARD:
And the missing one must still be out there.
DOCTOR:
Yes, well, otherwise... (to O’DONNELL) Sorry, why is this man still talking to me?
O’DONNELL:
We haven't removed anything. There hasn't been time.
PRITCHARD leaves the ship.
DOCTOR:
So, what have we got? (walks down the steps) Moran dies, and then those things appear. They can walk through walls. They only come out at night. And they're sort of see-through.
CLARA:
Doctor, wait, you're not saying...
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
DOCTOR:
They're ghosts! Yeah, ghosts.
CLARA:
You said there was no such thing. You actually pooh-poohed the ghost theory.
DOCTOR:
(walks around the room) Yes, well... well, there was no such thing as socks or smartphones and badgers until there suddenly were. Besides, what else could they be? They're not holograms, they're not Flesh Avatars, they're not Autons, they're not digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere. No, these people are literally, actually dead. This is... It's amazing! I've never actually met a proper ghost!
CASS:
*Moran was our friend.*
CLARA:
(walks up to the DOCTOR and whispers) The cards.
DOCTOR:
Oh! Oh, right you are.
The DOCTOR reaches into his pocket and pulls out index cards. CLARA takes them from him.
CLARA:
Oh, come here.
CLARA flips through the cards. They have phrases written on them to help deal with social situations. “I completely understand why it was difficult not to get captured”, “It was my fault. I should have known you didn’t live in Aberdeen”, “I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t care” and “No one is going to get eaten vaporised/exterminated/ upgraded/possessed/ mortally wounded /turned to jelly. We'll all get out of this unharmed.” She clears her throat and hands him the next one.
DOCTOR:
(clears throat and reads solemnly) I'm very sorry for your loss. I'll do all I can to solve the death of your friend slash family member slash pet.
CLARA shakes her head and takes the card back. The DOCTOR turns to the others.
DOCTOR:
But don't you see what this means? Death! It was the one thing that unified every single living creature in the universe, and now it's gone! How can you just sit there?! Don't you want to go out there right now, wrestle them to the ground and ask them questions until your throat falls out? What's death like? Does it hurt? Do you still get hungry? Do you miss being alive? Why can you only handle metal objects? Oh, I didn't know I'd noticed that. OK, so they'll try to kill you, blah, blah, blah. What does that matter? You come back! A bit murder-y, sure, but even so! Calm, Doctor, calm. You were like this when you met Shirley Bassey. OK. Question one: what is a ghost? Question two: what do they want?
The lights go out.
O’DONNELL:
Whoa. Whoa, what's happening?
COMPUTER:
'Good evening. Entering night mode.'
O’DONNELL:
That's not right. (sits at computer terminal) We're switching back into night mode again. This can't happen! No, no, no!
We hear a distant bell tolling.
BENNETT:
Um, what's doing that?
The DOCTOR listens, shocked.
CLARA:
Doctor?
DOCTOR:
The TARDIS Cloister Bell!
The DOCTOR runs from the room and CLARA follows.
INT. TARDIS
The Cloister Bell continues to toll as the DOCTOR and CLARA enter. The lighting is dim, mainly red emergency lights. There is vapor streaming up through the grating.
CLARA:
Doctor, what's wrong?
DOCTOR:
It must be the ghosts. That's why she was upset when we got here.
CLARA:
Why? I don't understand.
DOCTOR:
It's just what I was saying. You live and you die, that's it. The ghosts are aberrations. A splinter of time in the skin. They're unnatural. She wants to get away from them.
CLARA:
So, what do we do?
The DOCTOR turns a large hand and the engines power down.
DOCTOR:
Put the handbrake on.
CLARA takes off her jacket and heads for the door.
DOCTOR:
Whoa! Ho, ho, ho, ho! Where do you think you're going?
CLARA:
Out there, where the action is.
DOCTOR:
Look, um... (puts a fist to his mouth)
CLARA:
What?
DOCTOR:
Oh, this is my own fault. I like adventures as much as the next man. If the next man is a man who likes adventures. Even so, don't... don't go native.
CLARA:
What do you mean? I'm not.
DOCTOR:
Look, there's a whole dimension in here, but there's only room for one ME. (points at himself with both hands)
CLARA:
Wait... wait a second. You just raved about ghosts like a kid who had too much sherbet.
DOCTOR:
Do you know what you need? You need a hobby!
CLARA:
(chuckles) I really don't.
DOCTOR:
Or, even better, another relationship! Come on, you lot, you're bananas about relationships. You're always writing songs about them or going to war or getting tattooed...
CLARA:
Doctor, I'm fine.
DOCTOR:
(stammers) I just felt that I had to say something.
CLARA:
I know. And I appreciated it.
DOCTOR:
Because I've got a duty of care.
CLARA:
Which you take very seriously, I know.
DOCTOR:
So, can I stop now?
CLARA:
Please. Please do.
CLARA goes out the door and the DOCTOR starts to follow but stops when the TARDIS makes a metallic “thrumming”.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
O’DONNELL: (over speaker)
'Attention, all crew. The Drum has switched to night mode early so grab provisions and make your way to the Faraday cage.'
INT. BASE, AIRLOCK
PRITCHARD returns and takes off his helmet.
PRITCHARD:
That you, Bennett? I went out looking for that missing power cell. OK, contractually, it's a grey area, but I reckon we can argue everything non-indigenous is an asset and therefore... (realizes something is wrong) Bennett?
He sees MORAN approach through the window and jumps back, startled.
PRITCHARD:
We're meant to be in day mode! You shouldn't be here.
He hears whispering as MORAN’S mouth moves.
PRITCHARD:
(moves to the window) What? What? What... what are you saying?
MORAN reaches for the outer door override switch.
PRITCHARD:
No, Moran! Don't!
The airlock floods.
INT. BASE, MESS
CLARA and BENNETT are gathering provisions.
O’DONNELL: (over speaker)
'Pritchard, you are unaccounted for. Contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage immediately. Pritchard, contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage!'
BENNETT:
I'd love to work for UNIT, Earth's first line of defence, and all. I'm probably not suited, though. Not much of a fighter. More of a bleeder.
CLARA looks up and sees a figure in a wet suit. It is facing away from them
CLARA:
Pritchard! Where you have you been? Everyone's been looking for you. What's with the wet suit?
BENNETT:
Yeah, where have you been?
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL and the DOCTOR are in the room.
BENNETT: (over radio)
'O'Donnell, it's OK. Pritchard's in here!'
O’DONNELL: (into mic)
Pritchard, you moron. Grab your stuff, we're locking down early. (pushes chair over to other computers) In case I can't get this back into day mode.
INT. BASE, MESS
CLARA and BENNETT watch the figure.
CLARA:
Is he all right?
Something thuds against the window. They look outside to see a body in a yellow wet suit.
BENNETT:
Man overboard. Man overboard! We need a rescue team in the water now!
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL and the DOCTOR listen to the conversation with alarm.
INT. BASE, MESS
The figure has turned so we can see the face.
CLARA:
Bennett, wait! It's Pritchard.
The figure in the room turns around and it’s an eyeless PRITCHARD. CASS, LUNN and the DOCTOR run into the room.
CLARA:
He's a ghost. He's another ghost.
PRITCHARD lifts a chair over his head and approaches the group.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL works the computer consoles.
O’DONNELL:
Come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on...
INT. BASE, MESS
PRITCHARD fades and the chair falls to the floor.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
O’DONNELL falls back in her chair with a sigh.
COMPUTER:
'Good morning. Entering day mode.'
Later, everyone has gathered and witness PRITCHARD’S death as it is replayed on a screen.
DOCTOR:
They're working out how to use the base against us -- altering the time settings so they can go about uninhibited, opening the airlocks. They're learning.
CLARA:
And now there's three of them.
BENNETT:
Cass, what do we do?
CASS:
*We abandon the base. Topside can send down a whole team of Marines or ghost-busters or whatever.*
DOCTOR:
Wait, wait...
CASS:
(faces the DOCTOR) *I can't force you to leave, so you can stay and do the whole cabin-in-the-woods thing and get killed or drowned, if you want. But my first priority is to protect my crew.*
The DOCTOR walks over to CLARA.
CLARA:
(quietly) But we're coming back, aren't we?
DOCTOR:
(quietly) Yes, we're coming back.
CASS:
*O’Donnell, contact Topside. Tell them we're abandoning the base on my orders.*
O’DONNELL:
(uses field telephone) Topside, Topside, this is Lance Corporal Alice O'Donnell from Drum Control. Over.
MAN::
(over phone) 'Drum Control, this is Topside. We have received your message. Submarine on its way. Over.'
O’DONNELL:
Repeat, Topside. Over.
The DOCTOR makes his way towards O’DONNELL.
MAN::
'We've received your request for a rescue sub. It's two minutes away. Over.'
O’DONNELL:
Topside, who did you speak to and when was this request made? Over.
MAN::
'Drum Control, it was in Morse code and arrived maybe half an hour ago. Said it was urgent, comms were down, two crew members critically ill, full paramedic team requested. Over.'
DOCTOR:
(grabs the phone) Topside, this is the Doctor, UNIT security visa 7-1-0-Apple-0-0. You may be familiar with my work. Call back the sub.
MAN::
'Doctor, why...?'
DOCTOR:
Call it back! We have a hazardous and undefined contagion on board. This base is now under quarantine. (ends call)
BENNETT:
What did you do that for?
DOCTOR:
None of us sent the message, did we? So that means the ghosts sent it, which means they want that crew down here.
CASS:
*Why would they do that?*
DOCTOR:
I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's not so they can all form a boy band. OK. We solve this on our own. The ghosts can only come out at night so they change the base's time settings. Why? What's different at night?
O’DONNELL:
It's mainly atmospheric. The lights are dim, the noise from the engines is muffled.
DOCTOR:
No, something... something else.
CASS:
*The diagnostic sweep. When the systems are checked, that stops at night to save power.*
DOCTOR:
What systems, specifically?
O’DONNELL:
Life support, the locks. They're electromagnetic. They have to be secured in case of flooding, so throughout the day, they're checked, one by one, every few seconds.
DOCTOR:
(sighs) The answer is in there somewhere, I can smell it. (stares at map of the base)
CLARA:
Doctor, what do we do?
DOCTOR:
(turns around) O'Donnell. (walks over to her) Excellent work, returning the base to day mode.
O’DONNELL:
(embarrassed) Shut up. It was nothing. (giggles) You really think so?
DOCTOR:
Now put it back into night mode.
O’DONNELL:
What?!
DOCTOR:
We know nothing. We don't know what they want. That's what's getting us killed. Well, I won't run. Not anymore. So, O'Donnell, kindly put the base back into night mode. We want to know what these ghosts are after? We ask them. We're going to do the impossible. We're going to capture a ghost.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
The lights turn off.
COMPUTER:
'Good evening. Entering night mode.'
INT. BASE, MESS
BENNETT nervously steps into the doorway. PRITCHARD is standing, half buried in the wall. MORAN is standing upside-down on the ceiling and the alien is standing out halfway up a wall.
BENNETT:
H-Hey, how's it going?
The “ghosts” move towards him and he runs away with a whimper.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
CASS and O’DONNELL watch BENNETT on one of the many screen as the DOCTOR faces the map of the base.
O’DONNELL:
Bennett's got them moving, and Clara's in position.
DOCTOR: (into earpiece)
Clara, Bennett is going to run across the top of the T-junction to your right in about ten seconds.
CONTINUED, INTERCUT WITH -
- CUT TO:
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
CLARA listens through her earpiece.
DOCTOR: (via earpiece)
Draw the ghosts towards you. Turn right, and then take second left.
CLARA sees BENNETT run past. As the ghosts pass her junction, she calls out.
CLARA:
Hey! Hey, ghosts. Down here! (runs)
The ghosts follow CLARA.
DOCTOR: (into earpiece)
Lunn, they're coming your way. Clara's going to duck down to her left. You've got to keep the ghosts going on the same route they're on now. Then, after about 50 yards on your left, there is a flood door. O'Donnell will close the door once you're through.
LUNN: (into earpiece)
I... I can hear them.
DOCTOR: (into earpiece)
Lunn, don't let them see where you go.
LUNN runs out from his hiding place. CLARA sees him and ducks to her left before the ghosts arrive.
LUNN:
Hey! Yeah, this way.
Instead of all of them following LUNN, the ghosts split up; PRITCHARD follows LUNN while the others continue after CLARA.
LUNN: (into earpiece)
We've got a problem!
O’DONNELL:
They've separated.
DOCTOR:
(walks over) What?
O’DONNELL:
Moran and the mole guy are going after Clara.
The DOCTOR hurries back to the map.
O’DONNELL: (via earpiece)
'Clara, look out. Two ghosts are still on your case. Right behind you.'
CLARA:
I'm beginning to think we should have let the ghosts in on the plan. (runs)
DOCTOR:
Clara, there's a flood door at the end of the corridor, around the corner to your right. We'll close it from here. Listen to me. You've got to get through that door before Moran and the other ghost see you.
CLARA makes it to the door.
CLARA:
Doctor...
DOCTOR:
Now, O'Donnell, fast as you can!
O’DONNELL hits a few switches and the door closes. CLARA presses up against it so they can’t see her through the window. LUNN is running down another corridor.
LUNN:
Guys, I'm nearly at my door. (ducks into doorway)
DOCTOR:
Now, Lunn, quickly.
O’DONNELL closes the door. PRITCHARD arrives just as the door is closing. LUNN presses against the wall.
LUNN:
It saw me. Oh, God. It saw me. It's coming through. It's coming through the door.
PRITCHARD enters, hands and then arms first. Those in the control room watch as PRITCHARD enters from the corridor.
O’DONNELL:
We don't have a camera in there.
CASS is ready to run out but the DOCTOR blocks her way.
DOCTOR:
No, no, Lunn. Lunn, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Lunn, what's happening?
LUNN backs away from an advancing PRITCHARD.
DOCTOR:
Lunn, can you hear me? Lunn? Lunn?
CASS runs to the screen to stare at the door. LUNN has his back to the wall and closes his eyes as PRITCHARD stops directly in front of him. LUNN begins to sink along the wall. PRITCHARD reaches for a spanner and holds it up, ready to hit a whimpering LUNN. The spanner falls to the floor and PRITCHARD exits the room.
DOCTOR:
'Can you hear me? Lunn, Lunn? Lunn, Lunn! 'What's happening? Lunn? 'Lunn? Can you hear me?'
LUNN sits on the floor, relieved and shocked that he is alive.
LUNN:
I'm OK.
O’DONNELL:
(turns so CASS can see her face) Cass, he's alive.
LUNN:
'It didn't hurt me. I'm OK.'
DOCTOR:
What? What's wrong with you? Why didn't it hurt you? Bennett, you're on again. Bennett, where are you?
O’DONNELL searched the cameras to find BENNETT.
O’DONNELL:
There. Oh, God, look.
DOCTOR:
Bennett, can you hear me? 'There are two ghosts just around the corner from you.'
BENNETT:
Yes, thanks, I'd noticed!
DOCTOR:
The Faraday cage is across the intersection and down the corridor to your right. This last bit is down to you.
BENNETT waits for a moment before making a break for it. The two ghosts follow. As he turns a corner, PRITCHARD joins them.
BENNETT:
(walks backwards) OK, so, the good news is, they aren't split up any more. (turns and runs) Cue Clara!
BENNETT turns right as CLARA appears in the Faraday cage. The ghosts enter the room and walk right through CLARA. She is a hologram! The DOCTOR closes and locks the door behind them.
DOCTOR:
(puts on sunglasses) We need to talk. Sorry, chaps. Just a hologram. (the hologram disappears) You play a little bit too rough.
CLARA, BENNETT and LUNN return to the control room. CASS hugs LUNN and O’DONNELL punches BENNETT on the arm.
CLARA:
I'm fine, by the way, in case any of you were worried
DOCTOR:
Cass, are you seeing this?
O’DONNELL:
Sonic glasses Wi-Fi locked in. On screen B2.
LUNN:
She says she can't see them properly. The glass is too thick and they're too far away.
DOCTOR:
Open the door.
O’DONNELL:
What?
CLARA:
Doctor, you can't go in there, they will kill you!
DOCTOR:
They don't have any weapons or access to any of the controls. They can't hurt me, so open the door.
O’DONNELL unlocks the door and the DOCTOR enters.
INT. BASE, FARADAY CAGE
MORAN walks up to the DOCTOR, mouth moving. He then thrusts his hand into the DOCTOR’S torso. The DOCTOR groans.
DOCTOR:
(slowly) Cold… (normal) Isn't it? Take away your weapons and you're not so scary, are you? Is that better, Cass?
MORAN removes his hand. CASS reads their lips.
LUNN:
She says they're saying the same thing, the same phrase, over and over. They're saying "The dark. The score." No, "the sword." The... for sale? No, "the forsaken. The temple."
DOCTOR:
What?
LUNN:
Yes, she's sure. "The dark, the sword, the forsaken, the temple." Just that. Over and over.
We see a close-up of MORAN’S mouth.
DOCTOR:
Dark, sword, forsaken, temple. What does that mean? What are you telling me, big man? Bennett! I need maps. I think I just worked out what our friend here is telling us.
INT. BASE, CONTROL ROOM
They are standing around a long table with maps spread out on it.
DOCTOR:
They're coordinates.
BENNETT:
How can they be coordinates?
DOCTOR:
The dark? Space. So, whoever's following the coordinates knows they're going to another planet. The sword?
The DOCTOR hands out an apple to BENNETT, a knobby ball to O'DONNELL, a table tennis ball to CLARA’S left hand and a Vector Petroleum coaster to her right, and makes them hold them up in a diagonal line.
DOCTOR:
Orion's sword. The sword, the three stars, although one isn't actually a star but the Orion Nebula, hanging down from Orion's belt. But if viewed from back here, the Earth becomes the fourth bit of the sword. So, narrowed it down to a planet now. Getting closer!
The DOCTOR takes the items back and puts them on the table.
DOCTOR:
The forsaken. The forsaken or abandoned or empty town. See, it's a location, beaming out to someone or something across the universe, over and over. And every time they kill one of us...
CLARA:
It strengthens the signal. Another ghost, another transmitter.
O’DONNELL:
Which is why they sent for that rescue sub.
DOCTOR:
Get more people down here, kill them, make even more ghosts to beam out the coordinates.
CASS:
*But why are they beaming out the coordinates? Is it a distress call?*
DOCTOR:
It could be. Or a warning. Might even be a call to arms. It could mean, "Come here, they're vulnerable, help yourself." Wait a minute, though. Wait a minute. You know what this means? It means that they're not a natural phenomenon. It means that someone is deliberately getting people killed, hijacking their souls and turning them into transmitters.
O’DONNELL:
What do the coordinates lead TO, though? To us? To the ghosts? What?
DOCTOR:
Ah! What the coordinates are for. That is part of the answer to the other question you're all thinking. (no one answers) Really? Come on. None of you? Surely just being around me makes you cleverer by osmosis? What is the other question?
CASS:
*The temple. The fourth part of the directions. What's the temple?*
DOCTOR:
Finally. It's like pulling teeth. (points at an aerial photo) This is the flooded military town. Shops, houses, town square, and this. (points to a building)
CLARA:
A church?
DOCTOR:
Whatever the coordinates are for, it's in that church. Find that and you're a hop, skip and a jump to stopping them.
BENNETT:
Wait, you're not suggesting that...? But we're safe now. The ghosts are in the cage, we can get out of here.
DOCTOR:
No-one has to stay. In fact, I would prefer it if you went. You'll all get in the way and ask ridiculous questions. But, you know, YOU have chosen to protect and serve. YOU have given yourself to science and the pursuit of knowledge. None of you have chosen anonymous or selfish lives. Go, and a part of you will always wonder, "What would have happened if I'd stayed? How could I have helped? What would I have learned?" I want you to go. But you should know what it is that you're leaving.
CASS signs.
LUNN:
Cass says we should go, but everything that happens here is her responsibility now, so she's going to stay. So I, uh... guess I should too.
O’DONNELL:
Well, count me in. Who wants to live forever, anyway?
BENNETT:
Sorry, um, have you gone insane? We can go home.
O’DONNELL shrugs. Nobody says anything.
BENNETT:
They're ghosts, though. How can they be ghosts? Well, at least if I die, you know I really will come back and haunt you all.
Later, BENNETT is controlling a drone submarine with virtual goggles and remote controls on his hands. The others are watching his progress on one of the screens.
BENNETT:
OK, the sub is approaching the town square. Which way is the church?
O’DONNELL:
North-north-west, 150 yards. That's it. Starboard two degrees.
CLARA:
What are we looking for, exactly?
DOCTOR:
Something that has the power to raise the dead and turn them into transmitters. I expect we'll know it when we see it.
BENNETT:
Wait, I've found the church.
DOCTOR:
That's it, keep going.
The drone continues forward and the DOCTOR watches the screen closely.
DOCTOR:
Wait! What's that? Move closer.
It looks like a large white box.
INT. BASE, HANGAR
They have brought the box onboard. They stand there looking at it.
DOCTOR:
It's the suspended-animation chamber from the spaceship.
CLARA:
So the pilot could be in there.
DOCTOR:
(kneels) There's SOMETHING inside there. But it's deadlock sealed, I can't open it. It should be the pilot, it should be. So why do I think it isn't? More questions. Everything I solve, just more questions. (stands) I have to go back to the beginning. We arrive, we see the ghosts. They don't kill us. They lead us here, they show us the spaceship. THEN they try to kill us.
The DOCTOR climbs the stairs into the ship and looks at the symbols on the wall.
DOCTOR:
Not translated by the Tardis. Why?
The DOCTOR cleans his sonic specs, puts them on and looks at the symbols. He takes them off before heading back out.
DOCTOR:
Lunn, translate for me. Whenever I step outside, you (points at CASS) are the smartest person in the room. So, tell me, what's weird about this? I know that it's all bonkers but, you know, when YOU think about it, one thing keeps snagging in your mind. What is it?
CASS:
*The markings on the inside of the spaceship.*
DOCTOR:
The markings on the inside of the spaceship. Yes! (stands on the steps) Why?
CASS:
*I don't think they're just words.*
DOCTOR:
They're not. They're magnets.
BENNETT:
Magnets? How?
DOCTOR:
Well, a localised and manufactured electromagnetic field, to be precise. The dark. The sword. The forsaken. The temple. When we heard the coordinates for the first time, did anyone expect them not to be that? No, exactly. Me neither. It's like we already knew, somehow. Like the words were already in us.
O’DONNELL:
So that writing IS the coordinates?
DOCTOR:
(goes down the stairs) Everything we see or experience shapes us in some way. But these words actually rewrite the synaptic connections in your brain. They literally change the way you are wired. Clara, why don't I have a radio in the TARDIS?
CLARA:
You took it apart and used the pieces to make a clockwork squirrel.
DOCTOR:
AND because whatever song I heard first thing in the morning, I was stuck with. Two weeks of Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre. I was begging for the brush of Death's merciful hand. Don't you see? These words are an earworm. A song you can't stop humming, even after you die.
CLARA:
OK, so the spaceship lands here. The pilot leaves the writing on the wall so whoever sees it, when they die, they become a beacon of the coordinates, while he/she/it snoozes in the suspended-animation chamber…
DOCTOR:
Waiting for his/her/its mates to pick the message up. My God. Every time I think it couldn't get more extraordinary, it surprises me. It's impossible. I hate it. It's evil. It's astonishing. I want to kiss it to death.
The alarm blares.
COMPUTER:
'Attention, all crew. Evacuate base immediately. Emergency protocols have been initiated. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum. Fuel for our futures.'
O’DONNELL runs over to one of the computer pads and pulls up a schematic of the base.
O’DONNELL:
Oh, no. The ghosts tampering with the day-night settings has caused a computer malfunction. Its... its first priority is to keep the reactor cool, so it's opening the hull doors and it's flooding the base.
Water begins rushing into the corridors. CASS signs quickly.
LUNN:
Cass says, close the internal flood doors. That'll contain the water in the central corridor.
DOCTOR:
Where's the TARDIS?
O’DONNELL:
On the other side.
DOCTOR:
We need to get there. It's our only way out.
O’DONNELL:
OK. We've got 30 seconds before the flood doors close.
INT. BASE, CORRIDOR
O’DONNELL opens the flood door and runs into the corridor followed by the DOCTOR and BENNETT. CLARA stops to urge on LUNN and CASS.
CLARA:
Come on!
That delay cost them as the door closes between the first three and the second three.
CLARA:
Doctor!
The DOCTOR stops and goes back to her door. He looks over his shoulder and sees the other door closing and dives underneath before it slams shut. He stands up and activates the intercom. CLARA opens the intercom on their side. The DOCTOR then looks through the window as he speaks.
DOCTOR:
I'll get you and the others out. Sit tight, I'll come back for you.
CLARA:
Just come over here in the TARDIS now.
DOCTOR:
The TARDIS won't go there, it won't go near the ghosts. (turns away from the door)
CLARA:
You can't just leave us!
The water has reached the bottom of the windows.
DOCTOR:
Listen to me. I'm going back in time to when this spaceship landed. If I can understand why this is happening, I can stop them killing anyone else. I can save you. You trust me, don't you, Clara?
The water has covered the windows. They look at each other and CLARA nods.
BENNETT:
Wait, you're going to go back in time? How do you do that?
The DOCTOR, BENNETT and O’DONNELL hurry on down the corridor.
DOCTOR:
Extremely well.
INT. BASE, MESS
CLARA, CASS and LUNN enter the room.
LUNN:
You're sure they're not going to hurt us?
CLARA:
They can't get out of the Faraday cage. (looks out the window)
INT. TARDIS
The DOCTOR sets the TARDIS into motion.
DOCTOR:
Back to before the flood.
The TARDIS dematerializes.
INT. BASE, MESS
CASS:
*And you're sure the Doctor won't just leave us here?*
CLARA:
Guys, look, this is how we roll. He's going to go away, come back and we'll have to listen to how he did it.
LUNN stops signing and looks ahead out the window. CLARA turns and watches as a figure seems to walk across the bottom of the lake.
LUNN:
Is it Moran or Pritchard or the mole guy? How... how did they get out?
CLARA:
No, I don't think it's any of them. I think it's... a new ghost.
LUNN:
What does that mean?
CLARA:
It means that something happened in the past, it means that somebody else must have... Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no.
The new ghost is the DOCTOR!