STATE OF DECAY

BY: TERRANCE DICKS

Part One

First Air Date: 22 November 1980
Running time: 22:24

HABRIS: It is the time of selection, my lord.

ZARGO: Choose well, Habris. Let them be filled with life.

AUKON: It is spirit that the Great One prizes.

CAMILLA: Yet flesh and blood has its place.

AUKON: I still look in vain for the first of the Chosen Ones. The Great One will need new servants at the Time of Arising. Remember that, Habris.

HABRIS: My lord.

IVO: Get back. We don't want you two.

IVO: You, get in the line. And you.

IVO: Go on, get back to the wall.

HABRIS: These are the best?

IVO: Yes.

HABRIS: You, come here.

IVO: He's not for the selection.

HABRIS: I have to obey procedure.

KARL: Why? Why do you obey them? You're not evil.

HABRIS: Enough.

KARL: You eat with us sometimes. I've seen you give my father wine. My mother, my family.

HABRIS: Do you understand?

IVO: It has to be done.

HABRIS: Stop him!

HABRIS: I can promise nothing, you understand.

IVO: It's finished. Go!

ROMANA: Well, Doctor?

DOCTOR: Yes, I'm fine. The TARDIS is feeling a bit queasy.

ROMANA: Really?

DOCTOR: Yes. So would you be if you were warping about in E-space.

ROMANA: We are.

DOCTOR: Yes, but not you personally.

ROMANA: But we are personally trapped.

DOCTOR: There's a low probability we can slip off home through another CVE.

ROMANA: So we are trapped.

DOCTOR: Please, don't keep saying that.

K9: Master.

DOCTOR: Not now, K9. Not now.

ROMANA: We are. Marooned in the Exo-space time continuum.

DOCTOR: Well, it might be quite nice here.

ROMANA: It might be.

DOCTOR: Yes. We won't know until we've seen the sights, met a few more people.

ROMANA: Supposing there aren't any other planets here.

DOCTOR: Come on, E-space isn't that small. Something's bound to turn up.

ROMANA: You are incredible.

DOCTOR: Yes, I suppose I am, really. I've never given it much thought.

K9: Master.

DOCTOR: Not now, K9. What is it?

K9: There is one isolated planet at extreme limit of scanner range.

DOCTOR: Well, why didn't you tell me? Is it inhabited?

K9: Habitable.

DOCTOR: Atmosphere?

K9: Atmosphere and gravity approximate closely to Earth normal. Day equivalent to twenty three point three Earth hours, year to three hundred and fifty Earth days.

ROMANA: How did you know?

DOCTOR: Oh, knowing's easy. Everyone does that ad nauseam. I just sort of hope.

DOCTOR: What do you make of it, K9?

K9: Localised concentration of metal artefacts suggests high technology.

DOCTOR: Civilisation?

K9: Low energy levels suggest primitive life forms.

ROMANA: Sounds as if it's come and gone.

K9: Anomalous data.

DOCTOR: Well, at least there's life.

DOCTOR: Yes, very nice.

ROMANA: Why here?

DOCTOR: Well, I put us down close to K9's energy concentration.

DOCTOR: Ah. There! Look. Protective castle, village dwellings huddled like ducklings round their mother. Typical medieval scene.

ROMANA: K9 said high technology.

DOCTOR: Computers aren't infallible.

ROMANA: Shush.

DOCTOR: It's awfully nice out there, K9. Protective castle with village dwellings huddled like ducklings round their mother. Classic medieval scene. You'd better stay here. Come on, K9. Someone's got to stay on guard, and you can compute a reverse transition from existing data. You love doing that, eh?

DOCTOR (OOV.): Bye, bye, K9.

DOCTOR: On the other hand, they may have opted deliberately for a semi-rural culture. It's a mistake to judge by appearances. Hello.

DOCTOR: Hello. Maybe you can help us?

DOCTOR: We were wondering if. Should have asked him the name of his tailor.

ROMANA: You mustn't judge by appearances, Doctor.

DOCTOR: No.

ROMANA: He's probably the Astronomer Royal.

IVO: Get a move on, you lot, or you'll be late! You. (to Habris) Increase the food allowances, you'd get better results. They're too weak to work harder.

HABRIS: I am the one who has to report to the Tower.

IVO: You're the one who has to tell them about poor harvests.

HABRIS: I'll see what I can do.

IVO: Huh. That's what you said about my son.

HABRIS: When there's news, I'll tell you.

IVO: News? When is there ever news?

DOCTOR: Hello.

IVO: You're not from the village.

HABRIS: Or the Tower.

ROMANA: That's right.

IVO: It isn't possible. There's nowhere else. How can you be here?

DOCTOR: Well

HABRIS: My lord.

DOCTOR: No, no, no, please, just the Doctor will do. This is Romana.

HABRIS: My lord, how may I serve you?

DOCTOR: How may you serve me? Well.

HABRIS: Your lord's command.

DOCTOR: No, no. We were just wondering if there were any other scientists

IVO: Scientists?

DOCTOR: Yes, scientists. You know, witch-wiggler, wangateur. Fortune teller? Mundunugu?

IVO: Ah! Oh, such things are forbidden. We know nothing of them here.

HABRIS: If my lord will excuse me, my duties.

DOCTOR: Yes.

DOCTOR: I take it you don't get many strangers here.

IVO: Strangers?

DOCTOR: Yes, visitors. Foreign devils. You know, people you don't know.

IVO: Everyone here is known.

ROMANA: Well, what about people from the next village, or the nearest town?

IVO: There is only the village and the Tower, nowhere else.

DOCTOR: Who lives in this Tower of your?

IVO: Why do you ask what everyone must know? Are you sent to test me? I am Ivo, head man of this village like my father before me and his father before him. The Lords know I'm loyal.

DOCTOR: Please, don't shout. Splendid, I'm sure. So you serve the Lords, but what do the Lords do for you?

IVO: They protect us from the Wasting.

DOCTOR: Did you say the Wasting?

IVO: I have work to do.

ROMANA: Come on, Doctor. This is silly.

DOCTOR: Oh, come on, Ivo. These Lords of yours, how long have they ruled over you?

IVO: Forever.

DOCTOR: Really. As long as that? Well, that's a long time.

IVO: Kalmar. Kalmar, can you hear me? (burble) Two strangers, here, in the village. (burble burble) That's right, strangers. They were asking about scientists.

K9: Halt! Your presence here is unauthorised. Explain.

ADRIC: You remember me, K9. Adric.

K9: Immature humanoid. Non-hostile.

ADRIC: That's better.

K9: Your presence is still unauthorised. Explain.

ADRIC: I stowed away.

K9: Stowed what away?

ADRIC: Myself. I'm a stowaway.

K9: Stowaway. One who hides in a ship to obtain free passage.

ADRIC: I thought I'd join up with the Doctor and see the universe. Where are we?

K9: An unidentified planet in what is referred to as E-space.

ADRIC: What space?

K9: E-space, to distinguish it from the larger N-space of our own origin.

ADRIC: Oh, I see. That problem again.

K9: These concepts are unknown to me. Doctor master will explain.

ADRIC: Where is he?

K9: Doctor and mistress Romana have gone in search of astro-navigational data. When I have finished my calculations

ADRIC: You just stay here and get back to your sums and I'll go and find them.

K9: Stop! Your expedition is dangerous and unnecessary.

ADRIC: Listen, K9, I'm a stowaway. I shouldn't be here at all.

K9: Correct.

ADRIC: Then the sooner I leave, the better.

K9: The conclusion is logical.

ADRIC: Gotcha.

ROMANA: How much further are we going?

DOCTOR: These people are more complicated than you think, you know. Only to the next village.

ROMANA: There isn't another village.

DOCTOR: Hmm.

ROMANA: What's that noise?

DOCTOR: Oh, just bats. They come out at night, you know. What do you mean, there isn't another village. Of course there's another village. There's got to be another village. Just a minute. Maybe you're right. K9's orbital scan. The settlement was the only thing to show up on it.

ROMANA: Doctor.

DOCTOR: Hmm?

ROMANA: Look.

ROMANA: Say something.

DOCTOR: Hello. I'm the Doctor and this is Romana. Er, we were just passing your charming planet and we thought we'd just, er, well, drop in. Look, I know this may seem a silly sort of question, but we were wondering if you could tell us something about E-space. E-space? Perhaps not.

ZARGO: What do you mean, vanished?

HABRIS: We scoured the village.

ZARGO: Then the rebels must have them.

CAMILLA: Strangers at a time like this. Why did you not seize them when they first appeared?

HABRIS: I had no orders, my lady, and there was something about them. They were no peasants, that I swear. They were Lords.

ZARGO: We are your Lords, Habris. There are no others.

HABRIS: Forgive me.

ZARGO: More patrols immediately. They must be found.

HABRIS: At once, my lord.

AUKON: Wait.

HABRIS: Master?

AUKON: I will discover the whereabouts of these strangers. Spare your guards.

ZARGO: But strangers, Aukon.

AUKON: If they are still on this planet, my servants will find them.

DOCTOR: Well, it's quite a technocotheca you've got here.

ROMANA: Doctor, what's a technocotheca?

DOCTOR: I don't know. I think it's some sort of museum.

ROMANA: Oh.

VEROS: Look at their faces. Look at their clothes. They're strangers.

TARAK: We found them in the forest. He calls himself Doctor.

KALMAR: Doctor? That's a word I've seen in the old records. It's a title used by scientists. Are you a scientist, Doctor, like me?

DOCTOR: Well, I've dabbled a bit.

TARAK: He was asking about scientists in the Centre. All right, it's time for some answers.

DOCTOR: What, do you mean who are we, where do we come from that sort of thing?

TARAK: It'll do for a start.

DOCTOR: Come on, let's not talk about us. This looks much more interesting.

DOCTOR: I see you've got some of it working.

KALMAR: We have a generator. It gives us power for air, light and heat, and the communicators.

TARAK: But no w*apon, eh, Kalmar.

KALMAR: When we have rediscovered basic scientific principles, we shall be able to make w*apon of our own. But it takes time.

TARAK: How many of us have lived and died because everything takes time.

ROMANA: How long have things been like this?

KALMAR: Forever. The Lords rule in the Tower, the peasants toil in the fields. Nothing has changed in a thousand years.

TARAK: But it will change when we overthrow the Lords.

DOCTOR: What? Isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, a chap in the village told me the Lords protected you from the Wasting.

KALMAR: You know about the Wasting?

DOCTOR: Well, only by hearsay. What is the Wasting?

TARAK: The Wasting?

DOCTOR: Yes.

TARAK: The Wasting is

TARAK: The Wasting.

DOCTOR: Ah.

MARTA: Got you! Who are you? How did you come here?

ADRIC: Oh, I walked.

MARTA: I don't know you.

ADRIC: Well, I don't know you, either.

MARTA: But that's not possible.

ADRIC: I'm looking for two friends of mine. I don't suppose you've seen them, have you? Tall man with curly hair and a silly scarf. There'll be a girl with him.

MARTA: There were two strangers here earlier, a lord and a lady.

ADRIC: Any idea where they could be?

MARTA: They went to the Tower.

IVO: What are you doing with my bread? Who are you?

MARTA: He's looking for the two strangers.

IVO: Let him look somewhere else, then.

MARTA: No, you can't let him go out now. It's not safe. Let him stay the night at least. Maybe his friends will come for him.

IVO: And what if someone from the Tower comes, eh?

MARTA: What, now? That's hardly likely. Here, boy, you take this.

MARTA: It belonged to my son.

ADRIC: Whatever you say. Well, if I'm staying.

ADRIC: You wouldn't have any cheese, would you?

MARTA: Cheese?

ADRIC: Never mind.

DOCTOR: How long ago was that?

TARAK: Years ago. Some of us were on the run from Zargo and his men. We escaped into the wasteland and discovered this, all kinds of wonderful things just thrown about, half hidden. There was even food, mountains of it.

KALMAR: Some of us could still read. It's forbidden, but the knowledge was passed on in secret.

DOCTOR: What? Reading forbidden?

KALMAR: All science, all knowledge is forbidden by the Lords. The penalty for knowledge is death.

ROMANA: No schools of any kind?

KALMAR: Children start in the fields as soon as they can walk, stay there till they grow up, grow old and die.

TARAK: Those that escape the selection.

ROMANA: What's the selection?

TARAK: Some are taken to the Tower to serve the Lords.

KALMAR: So they say.

ROMANA: I see you've got a lot to rebel against.

DOCTOR: Just a minute. Got it. Ha, ha!

DOCTOR: Now we'll find out something. I

DOCTOR: Oh, must have been out of guarantee. Instruction manual would be helpful.

ROMANA: Nonsense, it's just a standard Earth-type databank. I'll have to crack the entry code, but. Earth type!

DOCTOR: Ah, lovely old technology. Back on twentieth century Earth, the engineers used to just

DOCTOR: Definitely an Earth device.

ROMANA: Ship's manifest and cargo, flight plan from Earth. So it is Earth. Crew of exploration vessel Hydrax en route from Earth destination Beta Two in the Perugellis sector.

DOCTOR: Instead of which they finish up here.

ROMANA: Hmm, they must have gone through a CVE as well. Ship's officers, Captain Miles Sharkey, Navigational officer Lauren MacMillan, Science officer Anthony O'Connor. Identification pictures follow. It's still legible.

DOCTOR: Yes, not bad after a thousand years in memory.

TARAK: Those faces!

DOCTOR: Yes, long since d*ad.

TARAK: I was a Tower guard before I joined Kalmar. I saw them every day.

DOCTOR: What?

TARAK: But, as you say, it can't be.

DOCTOR: Who did you see every day?

TARAK: The three who rule. The King, his Queen.

DOCTOR: That's two.

TARAK: And Aukon, the councillor. No, I'm sorry, I see their faces everywhere. If you knew these people, Doctor

DOCTOR: Well, I think it's time we got to know them, don't you, Romana?

VEROS: They're supposed to be our prisoners, or have you forgotten that?

KALMAR: No. While I lead, I will make the decision. They are free to go.

DOCTOR: Thank you.

ROMANA: It's getting dark suddenly.

DOCTOR: Night must fall, Romana, even in E-space.

ROMANA: Doesn't feel natural. There's that noise again.

DOCTOR: Never mind. It's bats. Quite harmless.

DOCTOR: Ow! Well, in theory. That one was a bit carnivorous.

ROMANA: Do you mind if we get a move on?

DOCTOR: Come on!

ROMANA: Look!
{"type": "series", "show": "Doctor Who", "episode": "18x13 - State of Decay - part 1"}