Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Warhead of the Daleks X

17. INT. SHIP CORRIDOR (NIGHT)

The alarm is still blaring. The two troopers lie dead. Calder and Archer restrain Grogan. Everyone is talking at once.

ARCHER
Who are they?

STYLES
They must have come up the time corridor like the Doctor said.

TEGAN
The Doctor? Where is he?

A Dalek turns around the corner into view.

DALEK
STOP! DO NOT MOVE! YOU ARE OUR PRISONERS! DO NOT MOVE!

CALDER
Run for it!

The group sprints down the corridor. Grogan dives for the cover of the nearby doorway. The Dalek fires after them. Archer is hit in the shoulder and he howls in agony. Turlough and Styles grab him and haul him after them. The Dalek glides after them remorselessly.

DALEK
PURSUE! PURSUE! ALL TROOPERS TO CONVERGE ON AIR LOCK! PRISONERS ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED!

Grogan watches all this from hiding, a wary look on his face.


18. INT. FLIGHT DECK (NIGHT)

The lights flash but the alarm is muted in the background. Lytton and a couple of other troopers are present. The crystal sphere shows the Supreme Dalek.

SUPREME DALEK
YOU WERE SUMMONED TO THE QUARANTINE CHAMBER!

LYTTON
What is it this time?

SUPREME DALEK
THE HUMAN PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED! THEY MUST BE HUNTED DOWN AND EXTERMINATED!

LYTTON
They must be programmed first.

SUPREME DALEK
THE ANDROIDS WILL FULFILL THEIR DUTIES ON EARTH!

LYTTON
They have other duties to perform! We can’t discard them lightly. The station has three squads already searching for the two unaccounted crew. The humans won’t get far. So, if you’ve quite finished...

SUPREME DALEK
TRANSPONDER SIGNALS FROM THE THREE DALEKS ON CASSIUS FOUR ARE NO LONGER OPERATING INSIDE SCHEDULED PARAMETERS!

LYTTON
But they’re still active?

SUPREME DALEK
THEY NO LONGER RESPOND TO THE COMMAND NET. IS THIS THE WORK OF DAVROS?

LYTTON
I don’t know. It is possible. Perhaps part of his experiments, or else he’s working against us. He has more than enough reason to.

SUPREME DALEK
YOU SHOULD HAVE ANTICIPATED THIS!


19. INT. QUARANTINE CHAMBER (NIGHT)

Lytton is on the screen.

LYTTON
I did! My plan – the ORIGINAL plan – was to snatch Davros and leave! You decided to dance to his every whim, despite my advice.

SUPREME DALEK
NOTHING MUST ENDANGER DAVROS. THE DALEKS MUST BE OBEYED!

Lytton’s voice is the definition of contempt.

LYTTON
Or what?

A beat. The Supreme Dalek is almost whispering.

SUPREME DALEK
OR THE DALEKS WILL ABORT THIS OPERATION AND EXTERMINATED ALL LIFE FORMS IN THIS AREA – STARTING WITH *YOU*, LYT-TON. THE DALEKS WILL BE OBEYED!


20. INT. CASSIUS FOUR AIRLOCK (NIGHT)

The alarm can almost be heard here. The humans (and Turlough) run through the gutted airlock. Only Mercer and Styles are prepared for the carnage they see.

ARCHER
What the hell happened here?

A blue beam of light shoots past them and explodes against a bulkhead.

MERCER
Not now! Move!

Styles, Turlough and Archer head for the nearest corridor. Before the others can follow, the Dalek arrives and fires again. It misses them, but a metal scaffolding collapses. In the confusion Calder and Galloway escape after the others while Mercer, Tegan and Styles flee down the other corridor. The Dalek zooms after them.

DALEK
EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!


21. INT. STYLES’ LABORATORY (NIGHT)

The Doctor lies on his back, gasping painfully and looking ill.

DOCTOR
That... was barely enough... to kill a human... why?

DAVROS
It is nearly a century since we last met, Doctor.

DOCTOR
Sorry... for detaining you...

DAVROS
It is but a pleasure deferred. Now you are here, no matter your form, you will repay tenfold for the mental agony that I have suffered!

DOCTOR
What... agony?

DAVROS
Cryogenic suspension. Human science is crude in that regard. I was conscious for EVERY second of NINETY YEARS! I was trapped, frozen, unable to move and my consciousness driven to brink by sensory deprivation!

The Doctor manages to lift his head.

DOCTOR
And that’s... my fault? Be glad you weren’t executed!

DAVROS
The creatures of Earth have no stomach for judicial murder.

DOCTOR
It’s one of their more endearing traits.

DAVROS
Humans prefer to leave you to slowly rot and die – they call it ‘being humane’. I shall be equally humane IN MY REVENGE!

The nearest Dalek fires again at the Doctor. He sobs in agony, curling into a ball.

DAVROS
The Earth is a planet that I shall destroy at my leisure. My present priority is YOU, Doctor. You are the real prize. With you no longer able to sabotage Dalek operations, the army I am building will reshape the universe to my designs!

DOCTOR
An army? Two Daleks... and some... zombie... Charnal warriors?

DAVROS
I did say, “building”, Doctor. I’ve barely started.

The Doctor retches and sounds slightly healthier.

DOCTOR
And how did you manage that? Your winning personality and good looks?

DAVROS
I did not bring you here to hear your witticisms, Doctor. I want information. I have learned a little of the current state of the Dalek Empire.

DOCTOR
What Dalek Empire?

DAVROS
Precisely. When we met on Skaro, you told me the future of the Daleks. Of how they would come to, one day dominate the galaxies and threaten time itself! In the millennia I have slept they have barely left Skaro and been decimated.

DOCTOR
I told you that under duress, Davros. Maybe I was lying.

DAVROS
You were not lying.

DOCTOR
I was also on a mission to change that history, that future. There was never a guarantee the information would STAY accurate.

DAVROS
I know. Which is why you will tell me the exact actions you took to change the course of history. Every last word, movement and thought.

DOCTOR
So you can change it back? I think not. You brought me here to kill me, Davros. Because you’re a killer Davros. Nothing more. All your genius, all your talent, just a rabid, unthinking death machine. You’ll kill me anyway. So why should I indulge your curiosity?

Davros is almost shaking with fury.

DAVROS
None at all! Which is why you are going to die slowly and PAINFULLY! YOU HAVE INTERFERED FOR THE LAST TIME!

DOCTOR
The Daleks this close to the brink? You’re probably right!

The Daleks open fire again, alternating blasts. The Doctor screams loudly. Davros giggles as the bombardment continues. The Doctor writhes on the floor, howling.


22. INT. CASSIUS FOUR CORRIDORS (NIGHT)

Tegan, Mercer and Laird run down the corridor and around a corner.

TEGAN
Where are the others?

MERCER
They went the other way.

TEGAN
We’ll, we’ve got to...

LAIRD
Quick!

Further down the corridor, the Dalek turns around the corridor and advances remorselessly.

DALEK
HALT! STAY WHERE YOU ARE! HALT OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!

The trio skid to a halt – the corridor ahead is barred by a shutter.

LAIRD
It’s a dead end!

MERCER
The hull breach – I sealed the section. We’re trapped.

Tegan looks around wildly and spots the dangling cables from the ceiling, the same disrepair Mercer noted in episode one. They spark.

TEGAN
Quick! Get up on those crates! Come on! Don’t touch any metal.

MERCER
What? Why?

TEGAN
These floors are metal, right?

LAIRD
Right?

TEGAN
Then move!

The Dalek appears at the end of the corridor as they scramble upwards onto the debris, crates and other objects that let them escape contact with the floor. Grimacing, Tegan grabs the insulated cables and tears them loose. The ends crackle and spark.

DALEK
RESISTANCE IS USELESS! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! EXTERMINATED!

Tegan throws the wires onto the floor. The Dalek spins to face her as there is a loud, electrical crackling noise. Blue lightning courses up the base of the Dalek as it jerks and spins madly.

DALEK
ARGH! EMERGENCY! STATIC PROPULSION OVERLOAD! ARGH! MALFUNCTION! MAL...

There is a muffled explosion. The Dalek falls silent and its limbs droop. Smoke pours through its grille section, thickening.

TEGAN
I think it’s dead.

LAIRD
What did you do to it?

TEGAN
I’m not sure. I was hoping to electrocute it.

MERCER
Well, it worked.

Mercer reaches out and tears the other cables loose. He drops them onto the floor.


23. INT. QUARANTINE CHAMBER (NIGHT)

As before. The Supreme Dalek and Lytton are still talking. A Dalek moves forward.

DALEK 2
ALERT! ALERT! DALEK UNIT DESTROYED! HOSTILES STILL AT LARGE!

LYTTON
My men will hunt them down.

SUPREME DALEK
YOUR TROOPERS ARE INEFFICIENT! THE DALEK PLAN IS AT RISK BECAUSE OF YOUR INCOMPETENCE! DALEK UNITS SHALL ENTER THE SPACE STATION. ANY HUMANOIDS NOT LOCATED INSIDE THE LABORATORY ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED ON SIGHT!

LYTTON
That’s stupid!

DALEK 2
DO NOT OBJECT!


24. INT. FLIGHT DECK (NIGHT)

As before.

LYTTON
My troopers are still searching the station!

SUPREME DALEK
WE ARE AWARE OF THIS FACT!

LYTTON
You fooled me! It is not logical to exterminate your own men – is it?!

SUPREME DALEK
DAVROS HAS BEEN RECOVERED, THE DOCTOR HAS BEEN CAPTURED! YOUR TROOPERS ARE NO LONGER REQUIRED AND AS SUCH WILL BE EXTERMINATED!

LYTTON
And when the task force arrives, who will save you then?

SUPREME DALEK
SILENCE!

LYTTON
No, YOU be silent. You came to the Charnel House and begged us to help you. You need us. And if you can’t control your blood lust, if you sacrifice my men for your short term gratification, then nothing will save you from the humans.

SUPREME DALEK
DALEKS ARE SUPERIOR!

LYTTON
Daleks are almost extinct!


25. INT. STYLES’ LABORATORY (NIGHT)

The Doctor is on his knees, half-restrained, half-supported by two troopers who are aiming their weapons at him. Davros faces the Doctor, Daleks on either side and the third behind the Doctor. He looks terrible, face flushed, voice a pained rasp.

DAVROS
From what I have gathered, your body can take much more than a lesser being. But it has its limits. Before I test them, I want information.

The Doctor can barely focus.

DAVROS
You have a time machine.

DOCTOR
My TARDIS? Yes...

DAVROS
Then you will operate it for me. You will return me to Skaro back at the genesis of the Daleks, to when the universe was young. With knowledge of the true history and of Time Lord influence, I shall supervise the Daleks. This time, events will unfold as they should have. You will be the key to power untold.

The Doctor manages to lift his head, a note of steel in his weak voice.

DOCTOR
Changing history isn’t for amateurs, Davros. Even for Time Lords. That mission was centuries in planning, and I was only given a few seconds’ worth of briefing before they threw me in at the deep end.

DAVROS
You are a Time Lord. You must be aware of how history diverged.

DOCTOR
Maybe I am. But I won’t tell you. And I won’t take you back.

DAVROS
You will, Doctor.

DOCTOR
Will I?

DAVROS
You asked how I have gained the cooperation of such as these.

Davros raises the probe.

DAVROS
This is how.

DOCTOR
Is it? How? What is it?

DAVROS
A device I was constructing during the last weeks I was on Skaro – the latest development for controlling Elite Personnel. Your arrival upset matters and it was not completed.

DOCTOR
That’s it, blame me for everything, whatever makes you happy.

DAVROS
It uses an intense dose of muscle relaxant, a local anaesthetic which blocks the supply of adrenaline to the central nervous system. It was useful for front line troopers, removing their fear of death and any rebellious tendencies. However, the influence on their brains was shapeless. Here, I have drawn cells from my own body and added them to the compound using the equipment in this laboratory. Now individual injected with the compound will serve me – and ONLY me – from today until the day they die!

DOCTOR
Only took you a few millennia to finish.

DAVROS
If I had had this ready when we last met, Doctor, you would not have won. I would not have suffered nearly a century of undiluted psychological agony! I welcome the opportunity to finally extract retribution.

DOCTOR
Be careful what you wish for, Davros. You might just get it.

DAVROS
Indeed! With this device I shall take over the Daleks here. And with your total obedience, nothing will be able to stand in our way.

Davros glides forward, aiming the probe for the Doctor’s neck. He is unafraid.

DOCTOR
Don’t count on it, Davros.

DAVROS
Oh, but I do, Doctor! Over first you and then the universe I shall have power untold!

Davros giggles and stabs it into the Doctor’s neck. He grimaces. Davros presses the control and there is the green light and buzz, before he roughly removes it. The troopers release the Doctor, who clamps a hand to his neck. There is a feverish look in his eyes. Davros is cackling madly.

DAVROS
Now, Doctor... you will OBEY MY WILL!


26. INT. QUARANTINE CHAMBER (NIGHT)

As before. Lytton is on the screen.

SUPREME DALEK
YOU ARE CONDITIONED TO OBEY, LYT-TON!

LYTTON
Am I? The objective of this mission is the survival of the Dalek race by finding a cure for the Movellan virus. I was authorized by the Supreme Dalek to do whatever is necessary to achieve that end.

DALEK
THAT DOES INCLUDE CONTRADICTING THE SUPREME DALEK!

LYTTON
This is your last chance for survival and you’re wasting it!

SUPREME DALEK
DO NOT RESIST! DALEK ORDERS ARE TO BE OBEYED AT ALL TIMES! OBEY!

Lytton smiles at them.

LYTTON
I’m gathering all my troopers aboard the cruiser. When you come to your meager senses...

The screen goes blank.

SUPREME DALEK
LYTTON’S MIND RESISTS OUR CONTROL!

DALEK 2
HIS ARROGANCE GROWS EXPONENTIALLY!

DALEK 1
HE MUST BE EXTERMINATED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

SUPREME DALEK
ONCE DAVROS FINISHES THE CURE, THE DALEKS WILL HAVE NO NEED OF THE MERCENARIES. LYT-TON, HIS TROOPERS, DAVROS AND THE DOCTOR WILL BE EXTERMINATED! THE DALEK EMPIRE WILL RISE AGAIN TO ENGULF THE NINE CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE!


27. INT. STYLES’ LABORATORY (NIGHT)

The Doctor is resting unsteadily on his knees. His eyes are unfocussed. Davros and the others watch on, the former rapidly becoming impatient. We crash zoom in on the Doctor’s eye.


28. MONTAGE (A) CLIPS

Echoing reverberation, distorted, mixed with sounds of the TARDIS. Flashes of the Doctor’s exhausted face, of Davros, whose chant gets more impatient and Dalek-like, louder and angrier.

DAVROS (VO)
Obey me. You will obey me. Obey. Obey my will. Obey my will.

DOCTOR (VO)
So long ago.

Clips from Genesis of the Daleks, (1975). Redub Davros’ voice.

TIME LORD
Daleks... We foresee a time when they will have destroyed all other life forms and become the dominant creatures in the universe.

DAVROS
This will be a moment that will live in history.

TIME LORD
We’d like you to return to Skaro at a point before the Daleks evolved.

FOURTH DOCTOR
You mean avert their creation?

TIME LORD
Or affect their genetic development.

FOURTH DOCTOR
I have seen the carnage and destruction they have caused. But there’s still time to change all that.

DAVROS
Future errors will be eradicated! Defeats will become victories. You have changed the future of the universe!

FOURTH DOCTOR
I have betrayed the future...

DOCTOR (VO)
Changing things... So different...

RONSON
There are a few in the Kaled government who still have the strength to act. If they knew the truth they could end Davros’ power, close down the bunker, finish the Elite...

FOURTH DOCTOR
Give us the names of the men who have the power.

DOCTOR (VO)
I hadn’t been there... but now I was. Things spiraling away...

NYDER
We cannot allow this investigation! They cannot fail to see the dangers to themselves in the Dalek project!

DAVROS
Calm yourself, Nyder. There will be no investigation.

NYDER
But you can’t stop it now.

DAVROS
I can and will.

DOCTOR (VO)
It’s not what happened.

DAVROS
The council has signed the death warrant for the whole of the Kaled people!

FOURTH DOCTOR
Start again. Try and find a way to complete what I set out to do. Stop the development of the Daleks.

DAVROS
The Daleks will go on.

NYDER
But they’re still very erratic. Unstable...

DAVROS
They will not be allowed self-control. I will prepare a computer program that will limit their actions.

The Daleks move around, killing everything in sight.

DAVROS
You have been conditioned and programmed to complete a task. You will now carry that out.

NYDER
Feeling against you is rising!

The Daleks close in on the Kaleds.

DAVROS
You are men without courage. You have lost your right to survive. EXTERMINATE!

DOCTOR (VO)
Yes. That’s where things went wrong. Or right. So many changes...

DAVROS
You will obey only my commands!

DALEK
WE OBEY NO ONE! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR BEINGS!

The Daleks open fire.

DOCTOR (VO)
Things were never the same again....

We hear the Doctor scream as the light bursts from their gun-sticks.


29. INT. STYLES’ LABORATORY (NIGHT)

The Doctor cries out and clutches his head. He is sweating and feverish. The troopers and Daleks are focused on him. Kiston and Davros are to one side.

KISTON
Do you understand what he was saying?

DAVROS
Of course. Had the Kaleds not turned against me, I would have completed the Dalek design. I should have been allowed to complete it. Instead, the prototypical Daleks’ instability overcame them. Forcing them to exterminate the Thals AND the Kaleds was a contravention of the single-function computer program I fitted them with. That is why they turned against me – the corrupted program. That is why they were delayed by thousands of years before they managed to leave Skaro, before forced into a stalemate. They have been almost totally weakened by the Time Lords! AND THE TIME LORDS WILL PAY FOR THIS!

DOCTOR
You’re overestimating yourself again, Davros...

Davros whirls to face him.

DAVROS
Doctor! The drug cannot have failed!

DOCTOR
You never did get out much, Davros. A drug designed for humanoids on Skaro won’t affect humanoids from Gallifrey.

DAVROS
What do you mean?!

DOCTOR
Time Lord metabolism... It takes more than your crude chemistry set than... than...

He trails off, overcome by violent giddiness.

DAVROS
It has already fulfilled its function. I know how you changed the pattern of infinity!

DOCTOR
Maybe. But you can’t do anything about it. You haven’t the first idea about how to deal with multi-temporal physics, and you can’t even pilot a TARDIS back to Skaro in the present, let alone all the way back eighty six centuries!

DAVROS
Can’t I?

DOCTOR
No.

DAVROS
Kiston.

KISTON
I await your command, Davros.

DAVROS
Explain once more the process of Dalek conditioning.

KISTON
The subjects are taken for mind analysis. The brainwaves are electronically removed from the brain, reprogrammed, altered and conditioned, and then returned into the subject.

DOCTOR
Oh, just TRY it, Davros! I’ve broken one method of conditioning, why not the other?

DAVROS
I do not intend to waste time, Doctor. Have the Doctor taken to the mind analysis chamber. Extract all his brain waves. You do not, however, need to alter them. Or return them. Download them into a datasphere.

The Doctor’s confidence fades.

DOCTOR
It won’t work.

DAVROS
Your physical presence was never necessary to my plans, Doctor. We shall continue – the time of restitution is at hand! THE DALEKS WILL ONCE MORE BECOME THE SUPREME BEINGS OF THE UNIVERSE! And when that is done, we shall turn our attention to the cowardly beings who dared interfere with the true destiny of the Daleks!

The Doctor looks at him horrified.

DOCTOR
A time war.

DAVROS
Even weakened and on the point of extinction the Daleks have developed time technology – at the height of their powers, all things will be possible.

DOCTOR
You’re deranged. A deranged child – always talking of killing, revenge and destruction! Just like the Daleks – and like them, you’ll fail.

DAVROS
Doctor –

The Doctor’s shouting at him now, not letting him get a word in edgeways.

DOCTOR
They’re insane children trying to finish a one thousand piece jigsaw. They get frustrated, lash out and smash it to pieces. All their delicate, complicated plans degenerate into bloodbaths. That’s why they haven’t been able to succeed! And that’s why you won’t. The Time Lords will wipe you from the face of time itself!

DAVROS
THE DALEKS WILL DESTROY THEM!

DOCTOR
And even if they do, what about all those unfortunates caught in the cross fire?

DAVROS
CASUALTIES ARE EXPECTED IN WAR!

Kiston and two troopers grab the Doctor and haul him towards the exit.

DOCTOR
And how heavy do the casualties have to be before it becomes too many? How many have to die before you realize how stupid this is?!

The Doctor is dragged out of sight. Davros continues to rant as the door closes. He might as well be a Dalek.

DAVROS
IT IS THE ONLY PATH TO ULTIMATE POWER! ALL THOSE WHO RESIST MY WILL SHALL BE EXTERMINATED! THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE DALEKS – BUT THE NEW BEGINNING!


30. INT. CASSIUS FOUR AIRLOCK (NIGHT)

Lytton, now wearing his helmet, along with several troopers, enters the area. Grogan is present, looking at the damage the Dalek did.

LYTTON
What’s the situation?

GROGAN
Three soldiers from Earth, a civilian scientist and two humanoids observed as companions of the Doctor are on the loose in this station.

LYTTON
There was a Dalek in pursuit – they’ve destroyed it.

GROGAN
How?

LYTTON
No idea, but it’s a pleasant thought. What about the Doctor?

GROGAN
In the laboratory with Davros.

LYTTON
His companions will be trying to find him. I’ll head there and prepare an ambush IF they manage to get past the troopers already around. You get back inside and sort out the chaos the Daleks are making.

GROGAN
Sir.

Lytton glances at him at the mutinous monosyllable, but moves on with one trooper, LEVINE. The others return through the air lock.


31. INT. CASSIUS FOUR CORRIDORS (NIGHT)

Turlough, Styles and the soldiers are hiding in a side passage. Calder is examining Archer’s bare arm. Archer is in pain. Styles is sifting through a belt pouch.

CALDER
Nothing like this in the first aide course... No burns, no mark, nothing.

ARCHER
It felt like every nerve in my body was being put through a cheese grater...

STYLES
Their neutralizer rays. Lucky the main beam didn’t touch you. Here.

She places a disc on his arm.

STYLES
Pain killer. The cellular damage won’t heal though.

GALLOWAY
Shh!

They look up the corridor to see Grogan standing there. He smiles at them. Silence. He raises a finger to his lips. Suddenly he is surrounded by silver sparkles and briefly becomes the Kamelion android before returning to Grogan. The sparkles fade and with the lazy smile in place, he turns and walks away. Turlough is stunned.

GALLOWAY
What was that all about?

TURLOUGH
Kamelion... he’s working for them...

to be continued...

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