DOCTOR WHO
AND THE
PESCATONS
By VICTOR PEMBERTON
EPISODE
2
Running time : approx 20 min
FX:(sounds of falling and splashing into water)
The Pescaton invasion had begun. From every corner of the globe
reports were coming in of meteorite landings in the sea. It could only be a
matter of time before the signal was given for the start of thr great mass
migration itself. The migration to Earth of the entire Pescaton civilisation.
We were on the brink of colonisation by the most bizarre and hostile invader
mankind has never known. But when would the signal come? And who would give
it?
To know the answer, it was necessary for me to cast my mind back
to that extraordinary time when the TARDIS was drawn into the magnetic field
of the dying planet of Pesca
FX:(TARDIS being drawn in)
For thousands of years, Pesca, a planet in the constellation of
Pices, the last sign of the zodiac, had been dominated by vast oceans. But as
the planet's orbit was bringing it closer and closer to the sun, the deep blue
waters of the Pescan seas were drying up, destroying all forms of marine life
that had existed there for, perhaps, millions of years.
FX:(TARDIS landing)
I stepped out of the TARDIS onto a hard, baked soil, surrounded
on all sides by a parched, almost desert landscape. In the distance, I could
see the peaks of high, craggy mountains which had clearly once been topped
with snow, but were now streaked yellow with the lack of moisture. There were
no trees, no signs of any vegetation of animal life. And the soil was lined
with gigantic fissures, indicating recent seismic activity. It was a sad and
desolate panorama laid out before me. No colour, no life. Only the remnants of
a past. But what kind of past? But the only clue I was to get was on a stretch
of golden sand that had once been a seashore. There the rocks were indented
with the marks of beautiful sea anemones, shells, and many other forms of
exquisite marine life. I could move only slowly for there was no shade from
the hot, cruel glare of the sun, and I felt stifled and isolated, as though I
was the only living thing on the entire planet. But as I reached the banks of
what had once been a fast-flowingFX:(the DOCTOR screams)
The soil on the riverbank had given way beneath me. I was
falling down into a deep, dark, endless chasm. Down. Down. Down.
FX:(water flowing)
How long I lay there in the dark I'll never know for my eyes
were firmly closed and I couldn't move, so the whole of my body was parylised.
I seemed to be streched out on the floor of some vast cave for I could hear
the hollow sound of water gently lapping up against the rocks. This, I later
discovered, came from one of the many salt water lakes which had been dug out
from beneath the surface of the planet like great reservoirs. But, at least,
it was a pleasant, restful sound. Until...
FX:(heartbeat)
My eyes popped open. There were Pescaton creatures everywhere,
their bodies pulsating to the rhythm of their own heartbeats, and long, pointy
theeth glistening green in the light of their own eyes. But towering above
them was a creature more gigantic than all the rest with a head that was oval
shaped and too big for its body, all of which was covered by shiny metallic
scales. Bu it was the eyes,...I became trasnfixed by its eyes. They were
transparent, clear like glass, like...emeralds. I could see right into the
very brain of the creature itself as it opened it smouth to speak.
ZOR:(speaks in a somewhat garbley voice) We have been
waiting for you, Doctor. We knew you would come.
DOCTOR: Who are you? I mean, what are you? What do you
want of me? I,..I can't move.
ZOR: I am Zor, leader of all Pescatons. You are our
prisoner, Doctor. You have been brought here to help us.
DOCTOR: No-one can help you. Your planet is dying. The
sun is burning you right out of the cosmos.
ZOR: You will show us the way to our new world. We shall
use your special powers to find a planet where the sun can no longer harm us.
The Pescaton civilsation must not die.
DOCTOR: Oh? Really? And may I ask hoy you propose to stop
it? From what I've seen of this planet of yours, there's not enough salt water
left to fill a teacup.
ZOR: You will hell us, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Listen, Zor. Are you listening? I'll never help.
ZOR: The eyes, Doctor, look into my eyes.
DOCTOR: No. No, I won't
ZOR: I, Zor, command it. The eyes, Doctor, the eyes.
DOCTOR: No!
ZOR: Look and you shall see
DOCTOR: No! No!
Staring into the creature's eys, I had felt all life was ebbing
from me. What I gad seen were the innner workings of an incredible machine.
The brain of Zot himself, like a vast computer. The nerve center of the entire
Pescaton species. The hypnotic beam had torn into my mind like a sharp dagger.
We had been locked in mental battle as the mighty Zor had struggled to absorb
my knowledge of the galatic universe and solar system. However, my resistance
was more than the Pescaton had anticipated. And his mental pressure was no
match for the special powers that I had been gifted with. I found my way back
to the surface and escaped from the evil that engulfed me on the planet of
Pesca.
FX: (TARDIS takeoff)
But as the TARDIS finally released itself from the powerful
magnetic force that covered the planet. I was left with a deep apprehension
that this was not the last time I shall be matched against the hostile
civilisation I had left behind.
FX: (clock strking the hour)
After the first wave on meteorite landings, an uneasy calm
settled over the rooftops of London. For centuries, the great capital city had
been a thriving, hustling metropolis, the very heart of the nation. But that
heart was now quiet as the grave. Streets were deserted, doors and windows
bolted and the sounds of life curtailed. At dusk, voices were only raised to a
whisper.
FX: (whispering)
The invaders' name had become a household word. A name to fear.
Rush hour ner St. Paul's Cathedral, that glorious dome of a
bygone age. A police constible patrolled his beat an empty pavements.
FX: (footsteps)
No office workers rushing to catch buses or tube trains. No
traffic jams to congest the streets.
FX: (cat meows)
At Billings Gate fish market, the mighty gathering of London's
cat population went hungry. In Trafalgar Square, there was no-one to feed the
pigeons.
FX: (pigeons cooing)
And in Piccadilly Circus, snowfaleks began to fall and settle.
But it was towards the river all eyes were turned, the city and its ancient
river now quiet and waiting, waiting in fear of what was yet to come.
As a bright February moon flicked in and out of dark clouds, the
skipper of the river tug steered his vessel towards the great pool pf London
FX: (roar, people yelling and screaming)
The attack came with swift ans sudden fury. The Pescaton reared
up out of the water and hacked its way into the tiny vessel with its power and
strength. the crew fought for their lives as the voracious sharp creature
circled their wreckage, swooping in finally for the kill.
FX: (roar, screaming)
One by one the advance guard of the pescaton invasion were
emerging from the river, all the way from the sea into the very heart of
London itself. The attack was on. The alien army of invaders was rampaging
across the city, striking down everything in its path.
FX: (roar, cars screeching, people screaming)
In a massive assault by one of the raiders in the crowded London
streets, a double decker bus was smashed over onto its side with unleashed
fury. The creature tore into the metal frame of the bus as if it were a child
toy. Sharp teeth and claws plucked at the terrified customers.
FX: (roaring, smashing, screaming)
Everywhere the danger was Pescan. Schoolchildren were terrified
in their classrooms. A building worker was plucked from his crane and hurled
into the river. A terrified flower seller played cat-and-mouse with one of the
creatures in the forecourt of a railway station and lost. Electricity supplies
were disturbed as generators were demolished. Police cars, fire engines,
railway train, even army tanks were no match for the all-powerful invaders.
All who remained in the creatures path did so at their own peril.
FX: (roaring in the distance, baby cries)
SARAH: Doctor, over here, quick!
FX: (baby cries)
DOCTOR: Oh, hello little baby (baby calms down, DOCTOR
makes kissy noises) Where do you come from? It won't talk.
SARAH: It cant talk. Look, I found it outside the shop
over there. It's trying to get back to its mother.
DOCTOR: The place is crawling with Pescatons.
FX: (gunfire)
SARAH: Oh, what's the matter with the army? All their
sophisticated weapons, and they still can't find anything to bring down these
Pescatons.
DOCTOR: It's not asa easy as that, Sarah. No weapons ar
effective enough to hold off this kind of attack. Bullets, the bombs..
SARAH:(interrupting) But why not?
DOCTOR: Pescatons have a skin like steel
SARAH: Steel?
DOCTOR: Don't ask me to exlpain the organic structure if
these creatures.
SARAH: Why not?
DOCTOR: Because I haven't a clue.
SARAH: Oh
DOCTOR: All I know is that the develop some kind of body
suit which is far superior to anything we know about.
SARAH: Which only goes to show how little we know about
anything on this ridiculous planet of ours!
DOCTOR: Your planet, Sarah, not mine.
SARAH: Don't quibble, Doctor. The Pescatons are
destroying the whole of London and there's not one single person who can do
anything about it. Is this what they call advanced civilisation?
DOCTOR: It's not what I call it, so don't blame me.
SARAG: I'm not blaming you (baby cries) Oh, do be
quiet, baby. Shh, we have enough problems on our hands.
DOCTOR: I've never known you to be tetchy in the face of
danger.
SARAH: Who said I'm tetchy? I'm just angry, that's all.
None of this need have happened.
DOCTOR: You're tetchy. And do you have any suggestions on
how it could have been avoided?
SARAH: Yes. Everyone should have been prepared. I..I mean
you and I have ben together long enough to know that there are plenty of
hostile planets throughout the universe and any one of them could do what the
pescatons are doing know.
DOCTOR: Yes, no one ever believes something like this can
happen to them until its on their own doorstep.
FX: (heartbeat)
SARAH: Doctor, the other end of the street!
FX: (roar)
DOCTOR: Get back! Get back! Just leave this to me!
SARAH: No, Doctor, you'll be torn to pieces!
FX: (baby cries)
DOCTOR: I'll try and get it away, Take the baby and make
for the main road. I'll join you there as soon as I can.
SARAH: No, Doctor, I won't leave you! (roar)
Doctor! Doctor!
The creature reared up, its long, pointed teeth moving in for
the attack. For one moment, it looked as though the creature was going to
ignore me and claw straight into Sarah Jane and the baby. To regain its
attention, I had to do just about everything, except turn a cartwheel.
Thinking about it, I'm not too sure I didn't even do that. Anyhting I could
lay my hands on I threw at it: stones, dustpan bins, milk bottles, even an old
boot somebody had discarded in rather a hurry. But still the creature ignored
me and slid closer and closer towards Sarah Jane and the baby.
FX: (roar, baby screams)
SARAH: Doctor!
FX: (heartbeat)
Finally I discovered the one secret weapon that no respectable
creature worth its salt could resist: I sang and danced..
FX: (tapshoe sounds, DOCTOR sings "Hello Dolly")
It worked. The creature turned its attention from Sarah Jane and
the baby and came towards me. Singing and dancing demented into a sight. I
managed to give it the slip. Sarah Jane and I met up again later. It was a
narrow escape for us, but elsewhere the battle went on. The Pescatons seemed
invincible.
But something was puzzling me. Without the direct control of
their nervecenter, the power of these alien sea creatures was useless. So how,
then, were the invaders been activated? Unless... What if their leader, Zor
himself, were already here on Earth, directing the invasion like a commander
in the field? If Zor was here... And he had to be found without delay. Only
then could the invasion be stopped.
The first wave of attacks came to an end. For if they were to
survive, the Pescatons needed the protection of salt water. One by one, the
invaders retreated back towards the Thames. But some were not so lucky. In an
attempt to reach the river, one of the creatures had become trapped in an
Underground tunnel, clearly immune to the high-voltage electricity. Sarah Jane
and I decide to go after it. But it was an experience I should not forget. In
future, I shal travel only by bus. the last train of the day had gone. The
electicity turned off. Moving cautiously, close to the walls, Sarah Jane and I
picked our way into the darkness of the Underground tunnel.
FX: (voices treated as if in tunnel)
SARAH: Doctor, Doctor, I think we should turn back.
DOCTOR: Shhh! I'm listening to the walls.
SARAH: Walls? What for?
DOCTOR Vibrations. There's something in the tunnel ahead.
I can feel movement.
FX: (piccolo starts playing)
SARAH: Doctor, Doctor, what are you doing? This is a fine
time to start playing your piccolo.
DOCTOR: I always play the piccolo when I'm nervous.
Relieves the tension.
FX: (piccolo plays again, heartbeat)
SARAH: Doctor! Look out behind you!
FX: (roaring)
DOCTOR: Lets get out of here, quick!
SARAH: No. No, Doctor, Wait a minute. Backtrack. Look at
the creature, there's something wrong. It's trembling, shaking.
DOCTOR: (insistant) Get out of the way, Sarah, get
out of the way!
SARAH: (just as insistant) No! There's something
wrong I tell you. The music. Quick, Doctor, play your piccolo again!
DOCTOR: What? What do you take me for? The Pied Piper?
SARAH: Now! Do as I say, quickly!
FX: (piccolo plays, roar intensifies)
SARAH: Louder, Doctor, Louder!....Look, it's going away,
Doctor, the creature is going. It's packing into the tunnel.
I must say, I had no idea my musical talent would be so
enthusiastically recieved, for it cetainly had the desired effect. Quite
unwittingly, we had stumbled upon the one effective enemy of the Pescatons. An
enemy as repellent to these creatures as it is to so many of the killer sharks
which mercilessly ravage the oceans of the planet Earth. That enemy was noise,
high-pitched noise.
The hunt was on. If we were to prevent the migration to Earth of
the entire Pescaton species, then our only hope was to seek out the nerve
center of that species and destroy it. Zor, their creator, had to be
destroyed. but time was running out. Soon the hot blazeof the sun would be
moving in for the final destruction of the planet of Pesca. Soon the planet
wouls be no more than a galaxy spread across the dark, endless night of space.
At last, our chance came. During the lull that followed the
first wave of attacks, reports were coming in which described a different,
more terrifying creature which was taking refuge in a sewer somwhere beneath
the city streets. The description of this gigantic beast with an oval-shaped
head and a body covered with shiny, metallic scales soon confirmed my
suspicion that we had located the lifeline of the Pescaton civilisation: their
leader, the all powerful Zor.
With the help of Professor Emerson, I set up high-frequency
electronic sound equipment around the walls of a cavity built into the sewr
duct. If I could only find a way to lure Zor into that cavity, the sound beam
would activate a blast deadly enough to cut right into his brain.
Alone in the dark, again. Waiting. Waiting fot the final
confrontation which would decide the destiny of two great civilisatioons, one
good, one evil. But what wouls happen if the sound wave failed to work? Hadn't
Zor proved himself to be invincible, to be all-powerful? And what would happen
if I myself succumbed to those powers? I waited anxiously. But not for long...
FX: (heartbeat)
ZOR: We meet again, Doctor.
His eyes were fixed on me, penetrating the dark, and his whole
body was expanding to the pulsating rhythm of his own powerful heartbeat.
ZOR: We meet again, Doctor, for the last time.
He moved closer and closer towards the cavity. Just a few more
inches and he would be inside the sound activation barrier. Just a few more
inches. But suddenly, he stopped. I had to do something. I had to get Zor
moving again.
DOCTOR: Your power is broken, Zor. The Pescaton
civilisation is at an end. Within hours, all that will remain of your planet
will lie scattered accross the universe.
ZOR: Correction. This is no end for we Pescatons, Doctor.
Only rhe beginning.
A few more inches, I must draw him forward a few more inches,
but some... something's happening to me. I... I can't move. Th eyes, the
creature's eyes satring at me, right into me. I... I can't hold on. Falling
away, my power is falling away...
ZOR:(slowly) Only the beginning, Doctor, the
beginnig...Kill, Kill, Kill
The cavity! Inside the cavity! The switch!
FX: (high-pitched whine)
The sound (ZOR cries out) tore into the creatures
brain cells. Its whole gigantic body quivered and trembled, its heart beat
fatser and faster and faster.
FX:(heartbeat accelerates, ZOR's cry
intesifies)
Suddenly, (ZOR's cry stops) it was all over.
Before my very eyes the invincible, all-powerful Zor completely disintegrated.
(whine lowers in pitch and stops) And with him, the entire species of
an evil, alien civiliastion. All that remained now was the vertebra of a giant
deep-sea fish. The lifeline was broken. The invasion at an end. So, too, was
the planet of Pesca.
FX: (explosion)
And so, my friends, our story is at an end. The TARDIS is
waiting (TARDIS begins takeoff) and I must move on to another time,
another place. Perhaps some remote corner of the outer universe, but wherever
it is, we shall meet again. We shall meet again... (TARDIS completes
takeoff)
The Doctor / Narrator
TOM BAKER
Sarah Jane-Smith
ELISABETH SLADEN
Zor
BILL MITCHELL
Voices recorded at Argo Studios, London
Directed by
Harley Usil. Engineer : Kevin Daly
Effects and music recorded at Molinare
Studios,
London and Electrophon Studios, London
Digital Mastering
Services by Gary Moore,
Polygram (London) Ltd
Directed by Don
Norman
Engineers : Robert Parker and Brian Hodgson
(C) 1976 The Decca Record Co.Ltd
The Pescatons is available on a single cassette
ISBN : 1
85849 6306
Transcribed by Ethan
Bunke