The Krotons
Episode One
By Robert Holmes
1, INT: LEARNING HALL
(The Learning Hall is a curious blend of two distinct styles. It is a large, dry subterranean chamber constructed out of primitive stone blocks and pillars,
yet it contains numerous bright futuristic machines placed all around. At the front of the room is a ramp leading to a silvery door set into a hexagonal
indentation in the wall, the edges of which glitter as though they had been inlaid with diamonds. A small circular results-hatch opens in the wall. The Gond
leader Selris stands nearby, dressed in a dark plastic tunic decorated with metal squares as if it were part of a type of armour - it possibly being an honorary
badge of office. He withdraws a silvery notation-tablet from within the hatch and reads it to a hall packed with his people.)
SELRIS: Class three-one-nine-six in the first grade. The names of the first selected candidates are: Male... Abu-Gond!
(A ripple of congratulation goes up from the crowd.)
SELRIS: The second name is female... Vana-Gond!
(As a similar ripple of congratulation goes up from the crowd a man from the back rushes forward shouting, a single dissenting voice in the entire chamber.)
THARA: No!
(Selris frowns disapprovingly, but ignores the interruption.)
SELRIS: Abu-Gond and Vana-Gond; alone of your generation you have been chosen for the highest honour that can befall a Gond. You are now the
companions of the Krotons!
(Thara has found his way to Vana and can be faintly heard arguing with her in heated tones from some way away, but still Selris continues with the ceremony.)
SELRIS: Our warmest, our most sincere congratulations to you both. You will now...you will now step forward for the investiture of your robes of
honour. Eelek?
(A young, stern-looking Gond takes a silver cloak with large shoulderpads and places it around the shoulders of Abu. Next, he sets to hanging a metal
necklace around his neck. Vana and Thara are still having their argument which has become impossible to ignore now as they have begun to struggle with each
other.)
VANA: Please Thara!
THARA: You can't go, I won't let you go!
VANA: I must!
THARA: Look Vana, we can run away - there's still time!
VANA: You know that's not possible, we must always obey.
THARA: Why?!
SELRIS: Because my son, it is the law of the Krotons!
(With a hum of power the door at the far end of the chamber rises. The silver-cloaked Abu, looking like a funky 70s rockstar before a prize gig, stops for a
moment to look back before walking through the glittering opening. The door slides closed behind him.)
2, EXT: WASTELANDS
(The scene is one of a desolate, arid landscape; all around mountainous sandy dunes of a bright sulphurous yellow littered with rocks stretch as far as the
eye can see. From high above in the murky double-sunned sky something descends, a long drawn out sigh falling through the air like a strand of aural toffee. The
sound gradually resolves itself into a regular trumpeting of tortured engines as a battered blue box appears at the foot of a rugged cliff. All around the wind
howls noisily as a light on the box continues to blink on and off. The door opens and a small figure in a black frock coat and checked trousers pokes his head
out carrying a dark umbrella. He stretches his arms as if he were just waking up, then moves over to join his companions, a youth in a kilt and a young girl in
a short PVC outfit.)
DOCTOR: Lovely, lovely, lovely.
JAMIE: Pwoar, bad eggs. Let's try somewhere else...
(He turns to make his way back to the TARDIS.)
ZOE: No wait a minute... Where are we?
JAMIE: Och, you don't expect him to know do you?
DOCTOR: Well let's explore shall we?
JAMIE: An umbrella?
DOCTOR: Yes, twin suns. It's bound to be hot.
(They look up for a moment and see two blazing orbs.)
JAMIE: Oh.
ZOE: I don't think I like it here, looks dead.
JAMIE: Aye, it smells dead.
ZOE: Sulphur isn't it? It could be poisonous.
DOCTOR: No-no-no-no, the instruments in the TARDIS would have told us. No it's a...
(He sniffs.)
DOCTOR: It's a mixture of ozone and sulphur - very bracing!
(He wanders off and Jamie gives Zoe a resigned shrug Before setting off with her up the bleak rocky path.)
3, EXT: CLIFFSIDE
(The Doctor hums to himself merrily as he leads the way up a treacherously steep path leading to the top of the cliff. He pauses for a moment to pick up a
flat mineral deposit.)
JAMIE: What's that?
DOCTOR: Oh yes, fascinating structures. Magnesium silicate.
JAMIE: Eh?
ZOE: He means mica.
JAMIE: Oh, er, what..?
(The Doctor reaches the top of the cliff and gazes down into the next valley chuckling to himself.)
DOCTOR: Dead is it?!
4, MODEL SHOT: GOND CITY
(In the next valley is an arrangement of large, squat rectangular buildings with triangular tops.)
5, EXT: CLIFFSIDE
ZOE: A city!
DOCTOR: Yes, fascinating architecture. It's more typical of a...of a low gravity planet, yet the gravity here seems fairly normal, yes.
(He jumps on the spot a little.)
ZOE: Inca perhaps?
DOCTOR: Yes Zoe, possibly.
ZOE: Hey, Doctor!
DOCTOR: Come on, let's see what he's up to. Careful.
(The Doctor and Zoe carefully scrabble down the slope after Jamie trying not to slip on the piles of loose rocks.)
6, EXT: BEHIND THE DYNOTROPE
(Jamie is standing beside part of an enormous, gleaming, metal-like structure. It's face is segmented in a honeycomb pattern of hexagonal panels. A ramp
leads up to an silvery indented door in the centre of the main structure. The door seems to be exactly the same design as the one Abu walked through in the
Learning Hall, except this one has two strange holes; one to the left of the door and one to the right.)
JAMIE: Doctor, down here!
(The Doctor and Zoe join him.)
ZOE: Well what is it?
JAMIE: Don't know...there's a ramp here.
ZOE: Yes and there's a door as well. Is it a wall?
DOCTOR: I hardly think so Zoe.
(Jamie wrinkles his nose.)
JAMIE: Phwoar, that smell's a lot stronger round here.
(The Doctor examines the doorway curiously.)
DOCTOR: Oh this is interesting!
ZOE: What Doctor?
JAMIE: Oh, metal isn't it?
ZOE: What, metal covered in moss and lichen?
JAMIE: Well, er...
DOCTOR: Metal? Would you say so? I...I think we'd better get away from here.
JAMIE: What?
DOCTOR: Come along.
ZOE: But why?
DOCTOR: Well this isn't a building, this is a machine. Come along...
JAMIE: Machine?
(There is a hum of power and the door slides upwards.)
JAMIE: Doctor, it's opening!
DOCTOR: Come on, quickly - Behind the rocks!
(They rush behind a large boulder as Abu appears in the doorway still wearing his silver cloak and metal necklace. But he is very different to how he went
in; looks more haggard and lethargic, and doesn't seem to be aware of his own surroundings. Jamie peeks above the boulder.)
JAMIE: What's the matter with him?
(The Doctor reaches up and pulls his head down again.)
DOCTOR: Ssh!
(As Abu stands on the ramp two long, automatic nozzles push their way from the holes to the sides of the door and a thick white vapour streams from them. Abu
places a hand to his head, moans in pain and as he falls to the ground he is enveloped completely. Moments later the vapour has dispersed to reveal nothing left
behind but the metal necklace that the Gond was wearing. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe move out from behind the boulder and examine the spot where Abu was
disintegrated like an unwanted potato-skin.)
ZOE: Oh that poor man!
JAMIE: What happened to him Doctor?
DOCTOR: I don't know Jamie. Come on, let's...let's get away from here.
(They all scurry away from the area cautiously keeping well out of range of the deadly doorway.)
7, INT: LEARNING HALL
THARA: Can't you give the order she doesn't have to go, you're our leader!
SELRIS: But the Krotons have chosen Vana, it is a great honour!
THARA: Honour?! WHY do we TAKE their orders?!
(Eelek holds out another silver cloak.)
EELEK: Vana.
(She moves to accept the cloak, but Thara blocks her path.)
THARA: We don't even know if they exist!
VANA: Thara, you can't say things like that!
(Eelek glares at Thara.)
EELEK: Get out of the way.
THARA: She's not going into that machine!
EELEK: She has to go in. No-one defies the Krotons.
THARA: Alright!
(He draws a heavy iron axe (little more than a small mallet with pointed ends) out of his belt and stands between Vana and Eelek threateningly.)
EELEK: Now don't be so stupid!
SELRIS: Thara!
EELEK: Disarm him!
(A guard tries to get near, but risks getting hit with the axe, so keeps his distance. Thara twists left and right, ready to defend Vana.)
THARA: Keep back!
(At the far side of the room, and as yet undetected, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe have reached the bottom of the staircase into the Learning Hall.)
ZOE: Oh, well I hope they're friendly.
DOCTOR: Now just leave this to me Zoe.
(The Doctor leads the way into the hall, he holds up his hands and says in a loud voice.)
DOCTOR: We are friends!
(Immediately several deadly looking pikes are levelled at them.)
DOCTOR: It's alright, now don't be afraid!
JAMIE: We have trouble.
AXUS: Who are you?
DOCTOR: Buh..buh..buh... One of your people has been, just...
AXUS: You're strangers. Where are you from?
ZOE: Well if we told you it wouldn't mean anything.
AXUS: Answer me! Where are you from?
DOCTOR: There's no time for explanations! As I say, one of your people has been...
AXUS: They're not Gonds! Their clothes, the way they're dressed!
DOCTOR: Look we are friendly!
JAMIE: Look are you gonna let us pass or what?
ZOE: Doctor! Look...
(They all look toward the front of the room where the drama is still being played out.)
EELEK: Do something about him, he's your son!
THARA: I'm warning you, one step nearer...
SELRIS: Thara, will you be reasonable? The Krotons have sent for Vana.
THARA: She'd not going, nobody comes back from there!
VANA: Let me go Thara, please!
(She whispers.)
VANA: I don't want them to hurt you.
(Thara drops his axe and Vana walks to the front of the room where Eelek is holding out a metal necklace.)
EELEK: A bit of sense, just in time.
(He places the necklace around her neck. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are still watching from the back of the room.)
ZOE: That doorway, it's like the other one.
JAMIE: Aye, and she's wearing a cloak just like that chap we saw killed.
ZOE: Is she being sacrificed?
DOCTOR: Oh I-I don't think so Zoe, they're-they're too civilised for that.
JAMIE: Can we not stop them?
DOCTOR: Well we can try.
(He raises his voice again.)
DOCTOR: Just a minute, wait!
AXUS: He's interrupting the ceremony! Take them!
(Jamie looks down his nose at Axus.)
JAMIE: Ah, you wouldn't be so tough without these guards around you!
AXUS: Get back!
(He gestures to the guards then turns to Jamie.)
AXUS: I accept your challenge!
JAMIE: Oh you do do you? Aye, well that's just fine with me then.
DOCTOR: Now Jamie don't be so rash!
JAMIE: Ah don't worry Doctor, I'll soon see to this laddie.
(The guard offers Jamie an axe identical to Axus's.)
GUARD: Do you want this?
JAMIE: Oh I'll not be needing that thank you.
ZOE: Oh Jamie, watch out!
(They circle each other and Axus aims the axe for Jamie's head, but he ducks a first and second swing.)
DOCTOR: Jamie!
(Axus grabs Jamie's arm to stop him moving away and tries to swing again, but Jamie grab's his axe arm. They both strain and they each try to force the other
down.)
ZOE: Oh Doctor! Oh can't we stop them?
DOCTOR: No Zoe, I think they...
ZOE: Oh Jamie! Oh Jamie come on!
(Jamie finally manages to force Axus to the floor, and the axe sins out of his hand.)
ZOE: Doctor look, the girl!
(The silvery doorway rises and Vana casts a final look back in much the same way Abu did, then walks forwards, the door sliding closed after her.)
EELEK: What is happening? Who are these people?
DOCTOR: That was the very question I was going to ask you! What is happening here? Where has that girl gone?
AXUS: Eelek, they forced their way through!
SELRIS: Who are you?
DOCTOR: There is no time to explain!
JAMIE: Look, you wouldn't understand even if we told you.
ZOE: We're from another planet, another world.
DOCTOR: That girl, now where has she gone?
SELRIS: How can they be from another planet?
JAMIE: Och we're just wasting time, now where has she gone!
DOCTOR: What's behind that wall?
THARA: The Krotons! They've sent her to join the Krotons!
ZOE: Well what are the Krotons?
THARA: The Krotons live in the machine, so we're told!
(The Doctor wanders.)
SELRIS: Vana is joining the Krotons, it is a great honour.
THARA: Honour! She didn't want to go! Nobody really wants to disappear into that thing.
(The Doctor wander up the ramp and peers at the door.)
DOCTOR: How do you open this door?
EELEK: Why are you asking so many questions?
DOCTOR: Because a moment ago we saw a young man dressed in a silver robe just like that girl, we saw him killed!
SELRIS: Abu-Gond!
EELEK: That's ridiculous, how can these people have seen Abu-Gond?
SELRIS: He is with the Krotons.
JAMIE: Aye, well we saw someone killed anyway. He came out of that machine and was...
ZOE: Vaporised.
JAMIE: Aye!
(Jamie approaches Eelek from behind, and places a hand on his shoulder.)
JAMIE: Right round the other side!
AXUS: Other side?
SELRIS: You have been in the wasteland?
(Eelek pushes Jamie's hand from his shoulder and moves back and all the other Gonds do the same.)
EELEK: They're contaminated...you're contaminated! No-one goes into the wasteland.
ZOE: Why not?
EELEK: Because it's poisoned, and you will die.
DOCTOR: Well it-it it may have been poisoned once, but I can assure you it's quite safe now.
JAMIE: Doctor, that girl! If she comes out that way...
DOCTOR: Oh Jamie you're right!
JAMIE: Come on!
DOCTOR: Oh we must save her!
JAMIE: I know!
DOCTOR: Well come on!
JAMIE: That's what I'm saying!
(The Doctor and Jamie rush out.)
SELRIS: Where are you going?
ZOE: To the wasteland!
(Zoe follows.)
SELRIS: Well you can't, it's against the law of the Krotons!
THARA: I'm going with them!
(And he does.)
SELRIS: Thara come back!
THARA: If they can go into the wasteland, I can!
SELRIS: Thara! You'll die!
(Axus and Eelek exchange a curious glance.)
8, EXT: BEHIND THE DYNOTROPE
DOCTOR: I wonder how long... I imagine we haven't much time.
(He looks around.)
ZOE: Well what are you going to do?
(The Doctor picks up a piece of mica.)
DOCTOR: Now you keep away Zoe, keep right away!
THARA: Can I help?
DOCTOR: Well Mister...
THARA: Thara.
DOCTOR: Yes, well you can find a few more stones like this.
THARA: What?!
DOCTOR: Well if you want to help! Now then...
(The Doctor walks up the ramp and presses his stone onto the right nozzle-hole beside the door, then forces it in with the umbrella tip.)
DOCTOR: Ah yes, that one.
(He takes one of Thara's stones and presses it into the left nozzle hole as he did the other.)
DOCTOR: Right! Come down here...
(They duck down beside the face of the machine a little way from the ramp, but out of the range of the gas jets. There is a hum and the door begins to rise.)
ZOE: Doctor, I think I can hear something!
DOCTOR: Yes Zoe, so can I.
(A dazed looking Vana walks through the door and stands on the platform.)
THARA: Vana!
JAMIE: Keep down!
(The Doctor rushes up with his umbrella still in his hand, and struggles Vana down from the ramp. There is an electronic sound as the gas jets attempt to
push their way out of the holes, but are blocked by the stones.)
ZOE: Oh Doctor quick!
JAMIE: Oh Doctor look out!
ZOE: Oh Doctor hurry!
JAMIE: Quick!
(He manages to get her down just as the nozzles belch out their deadly stream of gas. Thara cradles Vana's form, she still seems unaware of her
surroundings.)
THARA: Oh my dear... What's happened, what have they done to her?
(The Doctor looks unhappily at his umbrella which is now no more than a frame with a few fluttering shreds of cloth hanging limply from skeletal metal
spokes.)
DOCTOR: The vandals - look at that!
ZOE: Well that could have been you!
DOCTOR: My favourite umbrella!
THARA: She doesn't know me. She can't speak or anything.
JAMIE: Aye, it's something that the Krotons have done to her!
DOCTOR: Let me see...
(He examines Vana.)
DOCTOR: Oh dear...this is almost catatonic.
ZOE: Well isn't there anything you can do?
DOCTOR: I'm not a Doctor of medicine you know Zoe. However, if there's no damage to the tissue, uh... Is there anywhere we can take her?
THARA: My father's house is quite near on the edge of the community.
DOCTOR: Good. Well let's take her there, give me a hand. Come on Jamie.
(They move off, Zoe glances back.)
9, INT: SELRIS'S HOUSE
(Selris hands Zoe an earthenware beaker resembling a small flower pot; she takes a tiny sip of Gond-juice and grimaces at the unpleasant taste. On the other
hand, once again proving that there is no accounting for taste, Jamie on the knocks his own back with apparent relish.)
SELRIS: It's almost impossible to believe. The Krotons have always been our good friends; our benefactors.
ZOE: Well you've only got to see what they've done to Vana.
JAMIE: Aye...
SELRIS: Yes, poor child.
(Thara passes by moodily.)
JAMIE: How is she?
THARA: Just the same!
(He storms out of the house unnoticed.
THARA: Jamie wanders over to the Doctor who has removed his frock coat and is swinging a ticking fob watch over Vana.)
DOCTOR: You're resting, you're calmly resting. Your mind is quite empty, you're resting. Now you're going to sleep Vana, sleep... Feeling sleepy, very
sleepy...sleep...
(Jamie returns to Selris and Zoe.)
SELRIS: ...You see, every so often the two best of our students have entered the machine to join the Krotons. They can't all have been murdered!
ZOE: Well it's possible. If they had you wouldn't know because this spray stuff just...
JAMIE: Dissolves everything. In any case, none of your people ever go into the wasteland.
SELRIS: But why should they do it? Why should they kill the best two of our students?
(Jamie sighs.)
JAMIE: What are they like these Krotons?
SELRIS: No living person has ever seen them. They never come out of the machine.
ZOE: Never?
SELRIS: Not since the beginning; not for thousands of years.
ZOE: How is she?
DOCTOR: She's asleep at last.
JAMIE: Is she going to be alright, though?
DOCTOR: Well I hope so Jamie, it's difficult to tell.
(Selris hands the Doctor a beaker of Gond-juice.)
DOCTOR: Oh thank you.
SELRIS: And she was one of the finest students we've ever produced.
DOCTOR: Oh really? Competition for you Zoe.
ZOE: Selris was just saying that no-one's ever seen these Krotons.
JAMIE: Aye, they never leave that machine.
DOCTOR: How did all this begin Selris?
SELRIS: According to our legends, silver men came out of the sky and built a house among us. The Gonds attacked them but the silver men caused a
poisonous rain to fall killing hundreds of our people and turning the earth black.
JAMIE: The wasteland!
SELRIS: Yes. Because it was said that ever afterward anyone who set foot there would die in terrible pain.
10, INT: LEARNING HALL
(The Learning Hall is in darkness when the Custodian, a small pudgy man with thinning hair and a bushy moustache, does his evening rounds. He shines a small
torch around and flips a few buttons on the machines turning them to standby so that they will be fully charged in the morning. In a cloister behind the row of
machines a figure dashes past, keeping to the shadows. Before the Custodian has time to react Thara, and three other students jump out from behind and grab him,
axes held high.)
CUSTODIAN: Who are you? What do you want? Leave me alone!
THARA: The Krotons; you must know a lot about them...
CUSTODIAN: What do you mean?
STUDENT: You're their servant aren't you? You work for them.
CUSTODIAN: I am only the Custodian of the Learning Hall.
THARA: Course! So you can tell us what we want to know.
CUSTODIAN: I am forbidden to discuss the secrets.
STUDENT: We only want to know how to get at them!
THARA: We want to see the Krotons for ourselves.
CUSTODIAN: Nobody has seen the Krotons, not for thousands of years!
THARA: You're sure they don't come out of the machine in the darkness when there's no-one here?
CUSTODIAN: No. Come out? Never!
THARA: Then how do they give their orders? Answer me!
CUSTODIAN: There are messages. You must know that!
THARA: What else?
CUSTODIAN: Sometimes... There is a voice...
THARA: But you've never seen them? There's no way you can get inside there?
CUSTODIAN: Only the companions of the Krotons may enter.
THARA: And now we know what happens to them. But you can summon the Krotons can't you?
CUSTODIAN: It is not for me to summon them, I obey their commands.
(Thara straightens up.)
THARA: If we can't get in there then we must fetch them out. Their precious teaching machines... Smash them!
(The Custodian looks in panic.)
CUSTODIAN: Smash the machines? Guards! Guannfff...
(Thara sees the enthusiastic student about to bring his axe down on the head of the Custodian and stops him.)
THARA: Ribo, do not hurt him! Tie his hands and gag him.
(He addresses the Custodian.)
STUDENT: Well keep then! We've quarrel is not with you.
11, INT: SELRIS'S HOUSE
JAMIE: But what happened after this war with the Krotons?
SELRIS: Ever since we have lived in peace with them. The Krotons never show themselves to us, but we learn from them through the teaching machines.
DOCTOR: Teaching machines?
SELRIS: Yes, in the Hall of Learning, where you were today. The machines fill the mind with knowledge.
DOCTOR: And everyone uses these machines?
SELRIS: Well, when they are young; that is the law.
DOCTOR: Whose law Selris?
SELRIS: Our law - the Gonds'.
DOCTOR: But I thought that you said all your laws were given you by the Krotons?
SELRIS: Yes, all our science, all our culture... Everything we have has come from the machine.
DOCTOR: I see, a sort of self-perpetuating slavery. And the Krotons always choose your two most promising students?
SELRIS: To be their companions, yes. Do you think they've all been killed?
JAMIE: Aye well we saw one of them killed anyway.
ZOE: Well why are they doing it Doctor, what's the point?
DOCTOR: Well it's time it was stopped anyway, it's high time it was stopped!
(Selris seems lost in sombre thought.)
SELRIS: What shall I tell my people? How can I explain?
JAMIE: Explain what? Just tell the truth!
SELRIS: What, that they've been tricked? That for thousands of year the best of our students have been dying, murdered by the Krotons?!
ZOE: Well what are you afraid of?
DOCTOR: Another war between your people and the Krotons you mean.
SELRIS: Yes... There could be terrible bloodshed - another wasteland here in our community.
(A figure with a scholarly air and a silver notation-tablet enters.)
BETA: Selris...
SELRIS: Ah Beta, come and meet our guests. Th..my friends, this is Beta our controller of Science and my son's good friend...
BETA: That's what I'm here for - do you know what Thara's planning?
SELRIS: Planning.
BETA: He and some students from school have gone down to the Learning Hall. They're going to wreck the machines!
SELRIS: No!
BETA: You've got to stop them Selris. I came as quickly as I could, but they'll be there by now.
SELRIS: Then it's too late!
DOCTOR: Not if we cut through the wasteland.
JAMIE: Aye, it's the shortest route.
SELRIS: Wasteland?
BETA: But the poison!
DOCTOR: Oh that wore off a long time ago, it's quite safe now.
JAMIE: Oh well look, we've been in it twice today and we're alright!
SELRIS: Very well!
(They all rush out.)
12, INT: LEARNING HALL
(The students start smashing the machines to smithereens with their iron axes.)
THARA: Come on!
(The Custodian looks on in horror, but being bound and gagged on the floor he can do little more than writhe and watch.)
13, INT: CONTROL CENTRE
(Within the machine is a bright, futuristic control centre fitted with gleaming control panels, and monitor screens. Computer spools spin as the automatic
machinery constantly regulates and re-regulates the millennia-old systems, maintaining and repairing them. An alarm chimes through the room as an error is
detected in the teaching machines. An X appears on a nearby monitor screen as the systems await instructions from the auto-controller so that they take the
appropriate course of action to fix the problem. The auto-controller slides into view on a track in the base of the console - it is no more than a boxy affair
containing a small computer brain and a flat camera eye, mounted on a flexible metal arm. As the watchful camera-eye is seen from another angle it is apparent
that the X has imprinted itself on the front of the lens as a cold machine-brain impassively considers the data.
In moments it reaches to a decision...)
14, INT: LEARNING HALL
(Thara and his friends are still smashing the machines to pieces with their axes.)
THARA: There! That should fetch them out!
STUDENT: Come on, let's wreck another!
THARA: Smash..!
(But the words are silenced by a booming, but utterly unemotional computerised voice.)
AUTO-CONTROLLER: STOP! THIS IS A WARNING - LEAVE THE HALL. ALL GONDS LEAVE THE HALL NOW.
STUDENT: It's the Krotons!
AUTO-CONTROLLER: LEAVE THE HALL. ALL GONDS LEAVE THE HALL NOW.
(Thara thinks for a moment, then unconvinced he returns to the task in hand.)
THARA: That's just a voice, listen! Come out you Krotons and fight!
AUTO-CONTROLLER: THIS IS A WARNING.
THARA: Come ouut!
STUDENT: Murderers!
(The Doctor Rushes in, followed by Selris and the others.)
DOCTOR: No, no, stop it!
SELRIS: Leave it alone! What are you doing?!
(Selris pulls Thara away from the machine and the Doctor quickly relieves him of his axe.)
DOCTOR: Stop it, stop it all of you! Listen to me, this will do no good at all! These Krotons must have enormous Scientific powers, you
can't defeat them with axes!
15, INT: CONTROL CENTRE
(The auto-controller examines the scene in the Learning Hall. It sees a short man in a black coat gesticulating wildly at the saboteurs with an axe and then
pointing towards the learning machines. Isolating the image of the Doctor in the crowd, it moves along on its track to another monitor. On the new monitor a
picsellated image of the Doctor appears as the machine maps the pattern of his features...)
16, INT: LEARNING HALL
DOCTOR: Now if this was an atomic-laser, it might be more use!
(Thara looks confused.)
THARA: An atomic-laser? Is that better than an axe?
SELRIS: Look at the damage you've done - completely senseless!
THARA: Look what they did to our friends Father!
SELRIS: Destroying the machines won't avenge Abu...or help Vana, will it?
STUDENT: But we can't get in there! If we attack their machines...
THARA: The Krotons will come out!
DOCTOR: I think something's coming out now!
(The results hatch that Selris used at the beginning of the episode opens and a small, orblike probe peeks out into the room emitting a telemetric bleeping
sound. A glowing camera eye into the front of the probe surveys the room.)
ZOE: Doctor, what is it?
(The Doctor nervously watches the probe, as yet unsure what kind of a threat it might be presenting to them.)
DOCTOR: I don't know Zoe, but keep well clear of it!
(Having looked around, the probe decides to venture out into the room. It is attached to a thick cable and reaches out through the air like an immensely long
hovering snake, a computerised feeler which is being extended through the hole in the wall. It is still for a moment, then it speeds towards them.)
JAMIE: Look out!
(It halts again.)
THARA: What's it doing?
ZOE: It seems to be looking at us.
JAMIE: Well how can it, it's not alive...is it?
17, INT: CONTROL CENTRE
(As the auto-controller is viewing the picsellated image of the Doctor, it rotates 180º on it's base it to reveal that the image has superimposed itself on
the lens of the camera. It sends the attack computer the recognition the pattern of it's prime target...)
18, INT: LEARNING HALL
(The snake-like electronic probe bleeps a little as it receives its instructions from the auto-controller. Steadily it begins to lurch towards the Doctor.)
ZOE: Doctor it's after you!
(The Doctor tries to scurry backwards out of the way of the probe, but only succeeds in slipping over on a piece of broken teaching machine.)
DOCTOR: Ah, oh, oh...ah-ah oh ooh oh er ah oh..!
(His fate seems sealed as the deadly probe steadily closes in on the defenceless form of the Doctor, he puts his hands up to shield his face from the harsh
glare of the camera eye...)
Episode Two
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The Doctor
Patrick Troughton
Selris
James Copeland
Abu
Terence Brown
Thara
Gilbert Wynne
Vana
Madeleine Mills
Eelek
Philip Madoc
Axus
Richard Ireson
Jamie
Frazer Hines
Zoe
Wendy Padbury
Beta
James Cairncross
Student
Bronson Shaw
Custodian
Maurice Selwyn
Kroton Voice
Roy Skelton
Title music by
Ron Grainer and the
BBC Radiophonic
Workshop
Costumes
Bobbi Bartlet
Script Editor
Terrance Dicks
Designer
Raymond London
Producer
Peter Bryant
Directed by
David Maloney
(C) BBCTV 1968
Transcribed by
Rynad
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