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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

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