The End of the Road IX

(ROLL OPENING CREDITS)

1. EXT. THE GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES (DAY)

The group are hurrying between the statues. The first DALEK appears at the bottom of the ramp and begins to ascend it, while more Daleks arrive behind it. The group run along the pond, THE DOCTOR ending up at the rear. He follows them, but pauses as he registers he is standing beneath his monument. He looks up at it apprehensively, then, gritting his teeth, he turns to follow the others.


2. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

TASAMBEKER presses the control.


3. EXT. THE GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES (DAY)

The statue sways forward then backwards, making an ominous creaking noise. The Doctor and the others turn around as the whole thing tips over.

PERI
DOCTOR! WATCH OUT!

The Doctor turns to face the others, then, the pieces of the statue crash down on him. In a moment, he is buried. PERI stands in shock, staring at the pile of rubble. GRIGORY grabs her arm.

GRIGORY
We have got to move!

The Daleks advance.

DALEK 1
YOU MUST SURRENDER.

DALEK 2
YOU ARE OUR PRISONER.

DALEK 3
YOU WILL NOT RESIST.

The body snatchers raise their hands. Peri continues to stare at the rubble.


4. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

We see the spreading bloodstain on the scanner. DAVROS is laughing insanely. The screen vanishes.

(FINISH OPENING CREDITS)
(THE END OF THE ROAD)
(EPISODE THREE: THE NEW ORDER)

1. INT. THE GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES (DAY)

The snow is falling heavily. It is starting to pile up around the rubble. Slow spiral down, zooming in. Part of the rubble has fallen away, just enough to reveal the Doctor’s face. Ethereal, dream-like music. Soft focus...


2. MONTAGE

Flashback. A tangle of scenes and in the background we hear a tangle of lines from the Sixth Doctor, played at the wrong speed, repeated, distorted. We hear the TARDIS engines, the Cloister Bell, a recorder playing...

BACKGROUND DOCTOR
No! I’m not letting you hurt anyone else! I’ve lost everyone thanks to you! You’re just prolonging the agony.
I’ve never seen such oddity! Well, obviously I have – there’s barely anything in the universe I haven't seen... I am known as the Doctor.

We see scenes from past shots, overlaid is the Doctor’s face blurring in and out.

A massive explosion. Daleks swarm through a hole in the wall.

DALEK
WE HAVE CHANGED THE PATTERN OF HISTORY. WE HAVE INVADED EARTH...

SIXTH DOCTOR
It’s not a robot... it’s an automaton! It’s a mechanical body inhabited by a living soul!

FIFTH DOCTOR
You cannot be allowed to change the course of history – even indirectly.

TIME LORD
We want YOU to go back in time to a point before the Daleks evolved.

FOURTH DOCTOR
Do I have the right?

TIME LORD
Affect their genetic development, so they become less aggressive creatures.

LYTTON
They lost. They were totally defeated.

FOURTH DOCTOR
Do I have the right?

LYTTON
The fleet was destroyed.

FOURTH DOCTOR
Dead as a Dalek.

LYTTON
They were totally defeated.

FOURTH DOCTOR
In the totality of time, nothing more than that.

DALEK
YOU HAVE NOT WON, DOCTOR.

FOURTH DOCTOR
Do I have the right?

DAVROS
Daleks are no longer capable of war.

LYTTON
They were totally defeated.

DAVROS
The Daleks are my creation. If necessary I shall genetically re-engineer them.

SIXTH DOCTOR
Merry chums? You’re a guttersnipe from a slum on some backwater planet – you’ve never had a merry chum in your life!

LYTTON
They were totally defeated.

SIXTH DOCTOR
The centre of a galaxy! Millions upon millions of stars! Thousands of inhabited planets!

DALEK
THE DALEKS’ TRUE DESTINY IS TO RULE THE UNIVERSE!

DAVROS
The long darkness has ended... An eternity of waiting is over. The resurrection has come. As I always knew it would.

DALEK
THE DALEKS WILL TRIUMPH! WE CANNOT FAIL! WE SHALL NOT FAIL!

TIME LORD
We foresee a time when they become they triumph over all other lifeforms and become the dominant creature in the universe!

FOURTH DOCTOR
Do I have the right?!

SARAH JANE SMITH
You must complete your mission for the Time Lords!

FOURTH DOCTOR
I know what I’m doing. I also know what you’re doing.

DAVROS
Destiny, Doctor! Invincible necessity!

FOURTH DOCTOR
Failed? No, I haven’t failed...

DALEK
WE HAVE NO FUTURE!

DAVROS
The Daleks are dead. Long live the new Daleks!

FIFTH DOCTOR
Davros created the Daleks, he must not be allowed to save them.

PERI
It’s impossible for you to die. It’s impossible for anyone to really die. Everyone lives for the precise length of the universe. THEIR universe. It begins when they become aware and ends when they stop.

DAVROS
Under my control, the Daleks shall once more become triumphant!

FOURTH DOCTOR
Dead as a Dalek.

FIFTH DOCTOR
Sometimes I think that those mutated misfits will terrorize the universe until the end of time...

DAVROS
Action require courage. Something you lack.

PERI
There is no other universe. And nobody can die in it. They can’t, by definition. We see people come and go away again, inhabiting different forms, the inter-relationship of mass and energy. So much damage done to your body, you won’t even regenerate.

DAVROS
I shall build a new race of Daleks. They will be even more deadly! This time we shall triumph! MY DALEKS SHALL ONCE MORE BECOME THE SUPREME BEINGS!

PERI
The only way out was to shut down completely. Shut your body down and die. You’ve been dead for a while now.

BACKGROUND DOCTOR
The end of the road... the end of the road... the end of the road...

PERI
And now it’s time to wake up. Time to wake up.


3. EXT. THE GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES (DAY)

There is that rumbling roar from the Doctor’s last regeneration. We sharpen rapidly into focus on the Doctor’s face. There is snow in his hair. His eyes open slowly.

We see someone is standing over him. It is LYTTON. He smiles cruelly.

The Doctor studies Lytton for a moment. And he smiles back.

Lytton’s smile fades. He’s no longer certain. He might even be afraid.


4. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

Davros’ head revolves in the glass tube to face Tasambeker.

DAVROS
And so the Doctor is dead.

TASAMBEKER
But... that means...

DAVROS
Yes. The statue was a lure. It brought the Doctor here. And then it killed him.

TASAMBEKER
But why?

DAVROS
The Doctor is the reason I am reduced to this, Tasambeker. Do you not think that is reason enough to end his existence? He was a brilliant mind, Tasambeker. Every inch my equal. Perhaps more. But he let his emotions cloud his judgement. He felt fear. So I used that fear, made it grow until he could no longer think.

Davros revolves away from Tasambeker.

DAVROS
Death is a blessed release. The Doctor is dead. I am safe at last. Perhaps in some other time, some other place, we might have been allies. We shared much history and now it has ended. Here. Nekros is the end of that road and the beginning of another.

He revolves to face Tasambeker again.

DAVROS
The President’s ship will touch down in minutes. Tranquil Repose shall reorganize itself. I shall coordinate activities and you shall be my liaison with the rest of the complex. Jobel, Takis, Lilt, Redsai... all have their authority removed. They will be subordinate to you, Tasambeker.

TASAMBEKER
Are you sure?

DAVROS
Oh yes. Very sure. This operation requires a sane individual to run the business of Tranquil Repose. Jobel has failed that requirement and you will now replace him.

Tasambeker can’t quite wrap her mind around this.

TASAMBEKER
I’m honoured.

DAVROS
Are you ever anything else? Your authority is second only to my own. All the... battle drones... will obey your verbal commands without question. And should any of the human attendants fail to respect your authority, the drones have their instructions.

Tasambeker finds herself smiling with satisfaction. She straightens her shoulders.

TASAMBEKER
Thank you, Great Healer.

DAVROS
Now go. We do not have much time left.


4. INT. RECEPTION AREA (DAY)

Daleks sit in the corners watching the ATTENDANTS tidy up. JOBEL, TAKIS and LILT stand around the sarcophagus. Lilt holds the shattered death mask.

JOBEL
Oh well, Mr. Takis, you can always make another one.

TAKIS
No I can’t. Lilt does the death masks.

Jobel arches an eyebrow, amused.

JOBEL
Oh? Finally admitting it, are we? Stopped taking the credit now there’s trouble?

TAKIS
What do you mean, Jobel? I never take credit – you’re just too up yourself to remember who does what around here?

JOBEL
I am the Chief Embalmer, I’m very important here, that’s all that matters.

TAKIS
You shoulda been locked away years ago.

Lilt is still staring at the mask.

TAKIS
Lilt? Are you all right?

Lilt speaks with soft calm. He’s on the brink.

LILT
That took months of work. Months. Sleepless nights. I could have been having nights out with Sela and Terlan and Veston. Living things up.

TAKIS
Lilt...

LILT
Now they’re dead. And we’re next.

TAKIS
Lilt, snap out of it. We need to focus.

JOBEL
He’s right, Mr. Lilt. While I am here, Tranquil Repose will not surrender to anyone else, not even the Great Healer.

Lilt turns and glares at Jobel, furious.

LILT
This is Nekros, you encephalitic moron! Planet of the Deceased! World of the Dead! Few come here and fewer ever go back! If we’re going to die anywhere it’s going to be on this lonely icicle of a planet!

The nearest Dalek glides forward.

DALEK 2
SILENCE. THIS RECEPTION AREA NEEDS TO BE RECONSTRUCTED AT ONCE. OBEY!

At that moment, the double doors to the left open and a Dalek enters, followed by Peri, Natasha and Grigory, and more Daleks.

DALEK 1
THE FUGITIVES HAVE BEEN RECAPTURED. PRESIDENT VARGOS SHIP NOW IN LOW ORBIT. ALL UNITS ARE TO CLEAR THE AREA. ATTENDANTS WILL REMAIN HERE TO GREET THE PRESIDENT. YOU WILL OBEY THE NEW HEAD OF STAFF OF TRANQUIL REPOSE.

JOBEL
No, they’ll obey me. I’m the Chief Embalmer.

DALEK 2
YOUR TASK IS CEREMONIAL. YOU WILL OBEY INSTRUCTIONS.

TAKIS
From who? Who’s the new boss?

The next set of doors opens and Tasambeker enters with two other Daleks.

TASAMBEKER
I am. I have the Great Healer’s absolute authority. To disobey me will invite his displeasure. I’ll let your imagination do the rest.

Jobel throws back his head and laughs loudly.


5. EXT. THE GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES (DAY)

Lytton stands over the Doctor, gun aimed at him as he stiffly knocks aside the shattered remnants of rubble. His gun is a large, futuristic miniature bazooka.

DOCTOR
Crushed by your own gravestone. Who needs religion when we’ve got dramatic irony?

LYTTON
I knew you’d be here, Doctor. I found your TARDIS.

DOCTOR
It wasn’t lost.

LYTTON
It soon will be in this weather. But I’m sure you won’t mind if I take it – once you’re dead you can hardly leave Gallifreyan technology lying around for just anyone to take.

The Doctor throws aside another stone. There is a lot of blood on his shoulder.

DOCTOR
You haven’t heard of the TARDIS graveyard. Besides, Commander Gustave Lytton, I would have thought that you of all people had had enough time travel to last them a life time. Or you miss the rich, heady atmosphere of 1980s London?

LYTTON
I don’t really have a plan for your ship, Doctor, but I’m not foolish enough to pass up the chance to steal a TARDIS when the opportunity presents itself.

DOCTOR
What are you doing here, anyway?

LYTTON
I’m here to kill someone.

DOCTOR
Me?

LYTTON
Perhaps. But I didn’t know you were here until I arrived.

DOCTOR
The noble assassin! What rot!

LYTTON
Haven’t you ever heard of the Wadifalayeen?

DOCTOR
That’s different!

The Doctor rises.

DOCTOR
They take no pleasure in killing, and their sense of honor is unparalleled! You’d shoot your grandmother to keep your trigger-finger supple, and I’d never trust you when you were not contracted to kill someone, let alone... Behind you, get down.

LYTTON
You expect me to fall for that?

DOCTOR
Yes.

LYTTON
You’re right!

Lytton dives for cover. The Doctor crouches down. A Dalek glides from behind a monument. Another Dalek glides through the gardens straight towards them.

DALEK 1
UNIDENTIFIED FUGITIVES DETECTED IN GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES!

DALEK 2
TWO LIFE SIGNS DETECTED!

Lytton rolls over, aiming his weapon at the nearest Dalek. He fires. There is a flash and a minor explosion. The Dalek jerks backward, but is unharmed.

LYTTON
That’s impossible!

DOCTOR
It depends what are you firing with?

LYTTON
Bastic plasma bolts! Disintegrates solid rock!

DALEK 1
LOWER YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER!

LYTTON
So, new and improved Daleks...

DOCTOR
Aim for the eyepiece, you Charnel House Cretin!

DALEK 1
SURRENDER OR BE...

Lytton fires another round. The Dalek jerks, kicks and then its eye-stalk crumbles as if shrinking under intense heat. There is a shorting out explosion.

DALEK 1
MY VISION IS IMPAIRED – I CANNOT SEE!

DOCTOR
What about the other one?

Lytton spins round to fire beyond the Doctor. But there is no sign of the other Dalek.

DALEK 1
ASSISTANCE REQUIRED IN GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES!

LYTTON
Where’s it gone?

The Doctor looks around, then, with an expression of horror, looks up. Lytton follows his gaze. Hanging in the air directly above them is the second Dalek. A crackling red and orange glow embraces the base of the Dalek, keeping it aloft.

LYTTON
I always did wonder how they managed stairs.

DALEK 2
ARMED INTRUDERS IN GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES! SURRENDER OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!


6. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

The screen shows swirling snow (real, not just static).

DAVROS
The Doctor cannot be alive... No, he can. Send two flotillas to the surface. Destroy the opposition... and bring me back the corpses!


7. INT. TR CORRIDOR (DAY)

Three Daleks turn a corner and glide down it, followed by another three Daleks.


8. EXT. GARDEN OF FOND MEMORIES (DAY)

The snow is worse. The Doctor and Lytton are backing away from the floating Dalek.

LYTTON
This won’t work.

DOCTOR
That’s hardly the Wadifalayeen spirit, is it?

DALEK 2
DO NOT MOVE!

DOCTOR
Fire!

Lytton raises his gun and fires a volley at the floating Dalek. It sways. Behind them, the other, blinded Dalek spins around and fires. A beam of ruby-red light strikes a monument and it collapses, into the Dalek. Its head spins round to face the toppling masonry. The Doctor and Lytton scramble as we hear the tremendous crash and the strangled scream of the Dalek. We see a muffled explosion through the second heap of rubble. The blinded one turns in their direction and fires twice.

DALEK 1
AUDIO SENSORS INDICATE FUGITIVES ESCAPING!

We see more Daleks moving up the ramp.

DALEK 3
ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS STILL WITHIN TOLERANCES. SEEK, LOCATE AND CAPTURE FUGITIVES!

The Doctor and Lytton run as fast as they can into the swirling snow.


9. INT. DJ’S RECORDING SUITE (DAY)

The screen shows Daleks in the Garden. The DJ watches this impassively. Tobacco Road screeches in the background. He rises and crosses over to a locker and carefully unlocks it. Inside is a surprisingly neat collection of components. Silently, the DJ removes them from the locker.


10. INT. TR CORRIDOR (DAY)

The Dalek heads down the corridor, followed by the prisoners and another Dalek. Grigory, at the rear, turns to face the Dalek following him.

GRIGORY
Are you going to kill us?

DALEK 1
EXTERMINATION IS UNNECESSARY.

GRIGORY
Oh, good. Good. I just have this terrible fear...

NATASHA
Of what? Dying?

GRIGORY
No. Not JUST dying. Dying while begging for mercy.

NATASHA
Pride isn’t important at the moment of death.

GRIGORY
It is to me!

DALEK 1
SILENCE.

GRIGORY
You’re not going to torture us, are you?

DALEK 1
NO.

GRIGORY
Thank God for that!

NATASHA
Grigory, just shut up! You’re getting hysterical AND morbid!

Grigory continues to address the Dalek behind him.

GRIGORY
Instant death doesn’t worry me, you see. No problem with that. But it’s the long lingering kind I’m worried about. I hate that. Ask anyone I’ve killed – always clean and quick. I put it on my resume, just after visiting the Ancient Nekrosian Tombs of Little Dead Babies! Clean and clinical, that’s Aaron Grigory for you.

DALEK 2
REPEAT: SILENCE!

GRIGORY
I’m a doctor. Not sure if I mentioned that. Well, ex-Doctor. I’m so terrified of being tortured. When they slice me open I’d know the name and function of each organ as it flops out.

NATASHA
At least you won’t die in ignorance.

GRIGORY
I like ignorance! It’s bliss! I like bliss! I like ignorance! Failing that, voxnic!

DALEK 1
SILENCE OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!

GRIGORY
You said you weren’t going to kill us?

DALEK 1
YOU WILL BE THE ONLY ONE EXTERMINATED! REMAIN SILENT!

NATASHA
Even they want you to shut up, Grigory!

GRIGORY
Who was it who said it is the providence of knowledge to speak and the privilege of wisdom to listen?

NATASHA
Not someone who ever met you! SHUT UP!

DALEK 1
OBEY HER!

GRIGORY
This is just persecution because of my high IQ, isn’t it?!

The Dalek at the front spins to face them. Its scream is painfully loud.

DALEK 2
SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- to be continued...