The Enemy Within XII

32. INT. TARDIS CONTROL ROOM (DAY) B&W

The Delgado Master enters the control room. The Third Doctor follows, holding a ray blaster which he drops into his pocket once the doors are closed.

DELGADO MASTER
Well, Doctor? I'm still waiting to hear this, er, this marvellous scheme of yours.

THIRD DOCTOR
Actually, there isn't one.

DELGADO MASTER
Well, then why--

THIRD DOCTOR
Because if you mend the TARDIS, we can BOTH escape!

DELGADO MASTER
“Both”? Tell me, Doctor, are, er, are you suggesting an alliance?

THIRD DOCTOR
Why not? I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a heap of dust on second rate planet to a third rate star. Do you?

DELGADO MASTER
Do you mean to say that you are actually prepared to abandon your beloved Earth to the Axons' tender mercies?

THIRD DOCTOR
Certainly! After all, we are both Time Lords.

DELGADO MASTER
Huh, maybe! Look, why should I help you?

THIRD DOCTOR
Because if you don't I shall hand you over to UNIT and you'll become a prisoner on a doomed planet.

DELGADO MASTER
Yes, well, you'll be doomed along with me.

THIRD DOCTOR
Exactly - we either escape together...or we die together.

The Delgado Master rolls his eyes.

DELGADO MASTER
Oh, very generous!


33. INT. BEDROOM (NIGHT)

The Master aims the TCE at his head and presses the trigger. A low buzz, nothing else happens.

MASTER
Dominus. Master.

He hands it to the Doctor, who does the same.

DOCTOR
Doctor. Healer.

He hands the TCE back to the Master.

MASTER
We were inseparable once.

DOCTOR
As children, yes.

MASTER
Before we chose our separate paths.

DOCTOR
Yes. And your path was to create misery, to slaughter millions, destroy whole worlds to be the most evil and corrupt being in the history of the universe. How does it feel?

MASTER
My dear Doctor. Are we talking about me, now?

DOCTOR
Yes. We are. Please, do pay attention. Or have you been driven deaf by the screams of people begging for their lives?

The Master fires the TCE at his head, but still nothing.

MASTER
I begged YOU for my life.

He passes it back to the Doctor.

DOCTOR
So you did.

MASTER
I begged you to save me and you did nothing. You stood there and watched me burn...

DOCTOR
Indeed. And when you burned, did you think of me, dangling on that cable ninety metres over hard tarmac? Did you remember that? To feel it coming apart in my hands, my arms too weak to hold on? To be driven to let go in order to retain a semblance of dignity? Did you remember then what you did to me? What you did to the universe that day? If you ever, EVER think that life is cruel and unfair to you, remember what YOU did to life.

He fires it at his head. Nothing.

DOCTOR
And stop complaining to me.

The Master laughs.

MASTER
But my dear Doctor, we have already established I am totally immoral. What is your excuse for carrying out cold blooded execution?

DOCTOR
Who said I need an excuse?

MASTER
If you don’t, Doctor, then what is the difference between us?

DOCTOR
Touché. Don’t think I’m going to let you destroy any more lives.

MASTER
Don’t think you have a say in the matter.

DOCTOR
Don’t I?

The Doctor aims the TCE at the Master again, holding it with both hands.

DOCTOR
I think I’ve already proved I’m prepared to act on my threats.

MASTER
Such angry thoughts. How long before you start to enjoy them? How long before you act on them? How long before you give in entirely?

DOCTOR
I didn’t enjoy killing you. I thought of all I deprived you of, all the glorious things you might have done in the future. It didn’t take long before I was thinking of the innocent lives you’d end, the worlds you’d ruin. I may not have the right to deprive you of life, but you don’t have the right to deprive others of it either. Do you?

The Master laughs.

MASTER
Sweet dreams are made of these
Who am I to disagree?
You travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody is looking for something...

The Doctor turns and fires simultaneously. A mirror – which shows the Doctor sitting alone – shatters in a red glow, crumpling into a tiny golden frame that falls to the floor. The Doctor throws it to the ground.

DOCTOR
This mind game... not just a game. There’s a point to it.

MASTER
Is there?

DOCTOR
What are you up to?

MASTER
You tell me.

DOCTOR
How did you survive Sarn?

MASTER
So I survived now, did I?

DOCTOR
How did you survive being burned to a crisp?

MASTER
Most cultures believe the soul to be indestructible.

DOCTOR
I find the concept of a non-corporeal side to the self fascinating.

MASTER
Yet you don’t believe in it.

DOCTOR
I think I've seen too much not to believe. I am yet to be convinced, but I’ll keep an open mind. Someone once suggested the soul was the fundamental trait of sentient beings able to reach beyond desires and make a moral judgement to do the right thing. An ability to distinguish between right and wrong, to put the needs of others above those of your own. Love, in short. So, you see, on that basis you don’t have a soul. You never did.

MASTER
Not ever?

DOCTOR
It wasn’t so obvious at the beginning, I admit. But this... you’re distracting me. Again. Delaying me. You’re up to something! What can it be, eh?


34. INT. BEDROOM (NIGHT)

Peri and the Master on either side of the table.

MASTER
It's the journey that counts. Not the destination. And we all know what the destination is. Some get their quicker than others, and some enjoy themselves more before they arrive. I have come to the conclusion it is best to expedite others’ journey.

PERI
Then expedite yourself.

MASTER
Too late.

PERI
How do I know you’re a ghost? That it’s just not some trick? Like with Kamelion?

MASTER
But Kamelion is dead too. The Doctor killed him.

PERI
AFTER what you did to him.

MASTER
He was my slave, to do with as I wished. You seem very confident that I am dead, considering you didn’t see me die.

PERI
I heard you.

MASTER
And what did you hear?

PERI
You. Shouting. Ranting about how you were so powerful from the blue flame you were going to take over the universe. Then you started screaming. You shouted, “Doctor! Please! Please!” and started threatening him if he didn’t help you. Then you were just howling. And the Doctor came in, looking awful. And we left. When we left, Sarn blew apart.

The Master nods, seemingly lost in thought.

PERI
THAT is what I heard.

MASTER
Then I must have died. Your Doctor let me die.

PERI
After what you did there, I would have let you die.

MASTER
Would you? WOULD YOU?

Peri lowers her eyes.

PERI
I might have.

MASTER
I thought not. Weakness. Human weakness.

PERI
So you’re saying you deserved to burn? That the best thing would have been for us to kill you? You know how crazy you sound?

Peri starts as she realizes she talking to a different man.

SECOND GHOST
Oh yes. I’m quite, quite insane, Miss Brown. After what I have experienced, no mind could possibly have coped with. I have seen things that the living are not meant to see. It’s just another law I’ve broken.

The Second Ghost leans forward, and we now see the Sixth Doctor is sitting there.

SECOND GHOST
I’m a dead man in the world of the living.

DOCTOR
Everyone has to die sometime.

SECOND GHOST
And I am the exception to prove the rule. Ironic, isn’t it? No one is immortal, but we all act as though we are. It’s the one concept no mind can grasp. Something that is truly unimaginable – the possibility of your own death!

DOCTOR
For you, perhaps.

The ghost is Daniel now.

DANIEL
Not just for me. Just look at the humans on this planet – they smoke nicotine, climb mountains, join armies that go to war, drive recklessly in the fog, waste year after year in boring office jobs, demeaning services, enduring desperation! No creature that believed it would die would waste such precious time, or do thing so mindlessly suicidal. Not if they liked being alive.

The Colonel has replaced the Doctor.

COLONEL
Then what then?


35. INT. SALOON (NIGHT)

Daniel stands over Tracey, who looks in shock at the suddenly empty couch.

DANIEL
Each and everyone one of you secretly believes you are indestructible. For you, and you alone, there is a caveat, a unique escape from death.

TRACEY
No...

Daniel is now the Master.

MASTER
Understandable, of course.


36. INT. HALLWAY (NIGHT)

The Master strolls down the stairs. Maurice cowers at the bottom of the stairs.

MASTER
If you so much as suspected you only had a limited amount of time to exist, to enjoy life, to play in the sun... you’d all go insane.

MAURICE
Keep away from me, you carrion muncher!

The Master rolls his eyes.

MASTER
Case in point.

MAURICE
Dance on naked bones as the wind screams and serpent moans!

The Master has been replaced by the Second Ghost. Maurice blinks and starts laughing.

SECOND GHOST
Insane, as I said.

He strides over to where Theo lies, apparently catatonic.

SECOND GHOST
Even now the mere thought of mortality fills anyone with a fear.


37. INT. UPPER LANDING

Pascoe stands by the window, trying to keep his breathing calm.

SECOND GHOST
The simple, understandable fear that you are failing to make the most of every last atto-second of life they have miraculously been granted. Second after second, passing before they can be filled or used properly, gone forever, leaving a memory and then even that will fade. It’s getting to you now, just thinking about these words.

Pascoe sobs. Behind him, the First Ghost pushes open a door and steps through.


38. INT. BEDROOM (NIGHT)

Emily is present. She looks up as the First Ghost enters, backing away from him.

FIRST GHOST
And your lives are so pathetically short in the first place. You can barely last a century, assuming you don’t die from disease, injury or simply kill yourselves. A handful of decades at most to ponder on your inevitable end. Yet for me?

The Master returns.

MASTER
I have had millennia to prepare myself for oblivion.

He turns and points to the Colonel.

MASTER
AND I WAS *NOT* FOUND WANTING!


38. INT. DRAWING ROOM (NIGHT)

The green light is fading. Peri and the Doctor stand beside the table, registering each other’s presence. The Master stands by the fireplace.

PERI
Doctor! What’s happening?

DOCTOR
The TARDIS! She’s forcing the time friction to disperse!

MASTER
Not quickly enough, though Doctor!

He turns around to face them.

MASTER
You wanted to know how I survived. Well, Doctor, one thing we have always believed is that wisdom cannot simply be given... it must be acquired. So, Doctor, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

The Doctor stares at the Master, suddenly realizing something.

DOCTOR
PERI! GET OUT OF HERE!

Peri bolts for the door as flames explode from all around the Doctor, forming a ring of flame. He instinctively raises his hand to shield himself. The orange flow lights up the room. The flames grow higher and brighter.

MASTER
I heard all about your little trip through the dimensions. Saw an entire Earth, the mirror image of this one, burst into an inferno before your eyes. Some would call that a scarring experience.

The Doctor’s voice emerges from the Master’s mouth.

DOCTOR (VO)
The worst place I ever went was full of light and warmth and noise, Peri.

MASTER
Very traumatic. How many regenerations do you have left, Doctor? Remind me?

The Doctor is barely visible through the flames. Smoke is curling in the air.

DOCTOR
Enough!

MASTER
Let us put that to the test.

The flames turn white. The Doctor screams out loud. The Master laughs.

MASTER
The flame that burns brightest burns shortest, eh, Doctor?


39. INT. UPPER LANDING (NIGHT)

Lightning and thunder. Peri runs down the corridor at full speed. The Master’s voice booms around her, becoming more and more guttural with every word. It is slowly but surely becoming the breathless old voice.

MASTER (VO)
If you want to me to free you from your pain and misery, then I want your souls. See the pointlessness of existence, how distant the ideas of respectability and morality are now.

As she moves out of sight, a door opens and the Colonel emerges, looking lost.

MASTER (VO)
The true self is nothing but desire, and there is no purpose purer and unsullied than acting on those desires. Right and wrong are words to be forgotten.


40. INT. SALOON (NIGHT)

Tracey rises from beside Daniel’s body, a distant look in her eyes. She turns and begins to walk to the exit.

MASTER (VO)
Do what thou shall will! Know what you want, reach out and take it! Why not? What’s it all for?


41. INT. BEDROOM (NIGHT)

Emily approaches the door with the same vacant expression. The Master’s voice is now so raspy it can barely be recognized.

MASTER (VO)
There’s no light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to. Separate yourselves from the rest of the sheep and their shackles of pain and misery! Have the courage to act on your desires!

She leaves.


41. INT. DRAWING ROOM (NIGHT)

The Master watches the pillar of fire.

MASTER
Surely, Doctor, you’ve worked out some way to escape? Without dying? Surely you of all people can avoid the ultimate inevitability! You’ve already lost a life to the burning, regenerating – a life of centuries lost in seconds! How does it feel, Doctor? To open the eyes and be cheated of your immortality!

The Doctor cries out in agony.

DOCTOR (VO)
You’ve made your point!

MASTER
Oh, no, Doctor. This is payback. Because of you, I lost my remaining lives – all of them wasted in surviving YOUR betrayal! The Time Lords offered to help me if I became their puppet, and when I refused, they always had you to use as their lackey! No more!

The Doctor screams again.

MASTER
Final Death approaches closer with every second and still you haven’t found away to escape. Of course, I could save you, but we have to recreate circumstances EXACTLY. So instead I shall just watch as you regenerate again!

Another scream.

MASTER
And another life gone! Three in as many minutes, so careless! Tut, tut, my dear Doctor. Your life is no longer measured in millennia, centuries or even years! You have minutes! How many more of you can I kill before you pass beyond the Great Divide!

DOCTOR (VO)
MASTER! PLEASE! Help me!

MASTER
And another!

The Doctor’s screams are getting louder and longer.

MASTER
And another!


42. INT. UPPER LANDING (NIGHT)

Peri runs down the corridor and skids to a halt. The Colonel emerges from a doorway, clutching a shotgun. He aims it at Peri. The rasping voice continues in the background as a giant heatbeat becomes audible, getting faster and faster.

THE VOICE (VO)
Life is nothing! Benefit while the rest suffer! Awake from the dreams and see the universe for what it is: death incarnate!

COLONEL
Treacherous lot of you! Soaked in blood, the lot of you! I'll kill you all with terrors unheard of since the days of Appolyon! Do you hear me?

He fires the shotgun. Peri runs for it.

COLONEL
Terrors and fires from the days of Appolyon!

He fires again. Pascoe leers around a corner, stopping Peri in her tracks.

PASCOE
Civilization be damned!

Peri turns and heads for the hallway. Tracey is coming up the stairs.

TRACEY
Indignant desert birds! Indignant desert birds!

EMILY (VO)
This rough beast, its hour come round at last...

Peri whirls to see Emily right behind her, arms outstretched.

EMILY (VO)
...slouches towards Bethlehem to be born! To be born! Born in me!

PASCOE
You insolent fools!

COLONEL
I have been too lenient with you! How shall I repay your treachery?

Theodore and Maurice head up the stairs.

MAURICE
They're dead! It's the birds! The heralds of the Sphinx!

THEODORE
Obey the will of the Dominus!

The voice is now emerging from all their mouths.

ALL
Become the thing the others fear! Become the Dominus! BECOME THE MASTER!


43. INT. DRAWING ROOM (NIGHT)

The Master stands, arms apart, caught in the rapture of the moment.

MASTER
No need to conquer the universe, merely... take possession! The concept of the soul was enough. Their surrender was what I needed to break through their pathetic morality and unleash the Dominus within! This is how it shall be across the known universe! A sight I know you won’t enjoy Doctor. I’ll grant you one last mercy. That of death.

DOCTOR (VO)
PLEASE... MASTER... PITY ME!

Another burning flash. Those keeping count should be worried.

DOCTOR (VO)
WON’T YOU... SHOW MERCY... ON YOUR... OWN...

MASTER
I am the Master. And you? You’re dead!

There is one final, hideous scream from the flames.

(END OF EPISODE THREE)

(NEXT EPISODE: BROKEN PROMISES)
(ROLL END CREDITS)