THE LEISURE HIVE

BY DAVID FISHER

Episode 2

Original Air Date: 6 September, 1980
6:20pm - 6:45pm

ROMANA: Doctor!

BROCK: There's one of them!

ROMANA: Help me! The Doctor's in there.

PANGOL: How did he activate it from inside?

ROMANA: Get him out of there.

PANGOL: It's jammed!

ROMANA: Switch off the power.

PANGOL: I can't!

ROMANA: There must be something we can do.

DOCTOR: Well, you could try shorting the servo lock on the door.

PANGOL: Of course.

DOCTOR: Well, it's just a thought. Something wrong?

TANNOY: Attention. Earth shuttle arriving. Earth shuttle arriving.

TANNOY: Earth Scientist Hardin to the boardroom. Earth Scientist Hardin to the boardroom.

DOCTOR: Handsome fellow, isn't he? One of your tachyon images. It'll disappear soon, look.

DOCTOR: See?

PANGOL: How did you get out?

DOCTOR: Through a hole in the back.

PANGOL: But there isn't one.

DOCTOR: There is now.

DOCTOR: You see, a common fault with tachyon particles is that they can induce a certain temporal instability in surrounding matter.

DOCTOR: What can I do for you?

DOCTOR (hologram): Come on, Romana, quick.

MINA: Have you ever seen him before, Hardin?

HARDIN: No, Madam Chairman.

MINA: Such formality.

HARDIN: I must respect your new position. Not that I, er, that there was ever

MINA: Not that there was ever any disrespect. For all your genius, Hardin, you're young. But you're right. My new responsibilities will put a distance between us. This scientist seems to understand tachyonics to a very advanced level. He's mentioned temporal instability. How much does he know?

HARDIN: I'll have to question him. Of course, he may be useful.

MINA: Useful?

HARDIN: If he has a genuine understanding of the instability.

MINA: But the work's done, the problem's solved, thanks to you.

HARDIN: Well, there may be certain adjustments on the full-scale run with the Generator.

MINA: But you said at our very first meeting that the problems were solved.

HARDIN: Yes, Madam Chairman. I merely suggest

MINA: Ah. Where do you come from?

DOCTOR: Gallifrey?

MINA: I've never heard of it.

DOCTOR: Well, it's just an obscure little planet in the constellation of Kasterborous and we're overdue. I think we should be on our way.

MINA: Wait. Have you ever experimented with time?

DOCTOR: Well, yes, but in a purely academic way of no interest to anyone.

MINA: Earth Visitor Hardin thinks that you might be able to help with his experiments.

DOCTOR: Well, I'd like to

ROMANA: Gallifrey abandoned tachyonics when we developed warp matrix engineering.

DOCTOR: Yes, there you are, so sorry.

HARDIN: You saw the time experiment?

DOCTOR: Well, just a glimpse.

ROMANA: I assumed it was based on negative tachyon displacement, didn't you?

MINA: I'd like you both to take another look at those experiments.

ROMANA: Then can we go?

MINA: We are a peaceful people, but you are unidentified visitors. Our decision will depend on your conduct.

DOCTOR: All right, but we'd better rerun the experiment, don't you think, Mister Hardin?

ROMANA: It's beautiful.

DOCTOR: Yes. Radon 222 decays rapidly.

MINA: But not the heavy metal dust. It won't be habitable for three centuries.

DOCTOR: Really? Why, how long did the w*r last?

MINA: Twenty minutes.

DOCTOR: As long as that.

MINA: Now you understand the purpose of the Hive.

ROMANA: To keep out the atmosphere.

MINA: The physical reason, yes, but the purpose is to promote understanding between life forms of all culture and genetic type. There must be no more such wars.

DOCTOR: So it's not just a recreation centre.

MINA: Even the games in our Experiential Grid explore alien environments. Each race learns to understand what it is like to be the foreigner.

ROMANA: Like learning a language.

MINA: Language and thought. Let me show you the grid.

MINA: This simulation is a high gravity planet with a life form

MINA: Oh, no, not again. This is intolerable.

ROMANA: What happened?

MINA: Interfibral malfunction. A line's gone down. So many faults, accidents, the death this morning.

DOCTOR: Do you think the Hive's being interfered with?

MINA: The fibreoptic transmission system has a mean time between failure of two thousand years.

DOCTOR: We could do with that in the TARDIS.

MINA: It's far in excess of our own needs.

ROMANA: Future generations will appreciate it.

MINA: The few of us who survived the w*r have our own price to pay. There will be no future generations.

VARGOS (OOV.): The transmission fault has been identified, Madam Chairman.

MINA: Show me.

ROMANA: Does she mean they're sterile?

DOCTOR: Yes. This Leisure Hive is the Argolin farewell gesture.

DOCTOR: What is it?

MINA: Please don't worry. This is quite normal.

DOCTOR: Normal? But you're ill.

MINA: I'll recover in a moment.

ROMANA: But you look older.

DOCTOR: Shush.

MINA: Yes. The w*r has done this to us, too. A slow, steady metabolism for most of our lives and then. This has come to me sooner than I thought.

BROCK: But don't you see, Hardin? This idea of yours could be the saving of the Hive.

HARDIN: It'll give the Argolins a few more years to live. Perhaps

BROCK: Secondly, think of the impact on the visitors. At the moment this Experiential Grid leaves them older and wiser, but with this they could go home younger and wiser.

HARDIN: Look, I cannot demonstrate it now!

BROCK: Is something wrong?

HARDIN: No. No, it takes time.

BROCK: Oh, it's a time experiment. We'll be back.

STIMSON: Don't lose your nerve, Hardin. We can work it.

HARDIN: Why did I ever let you talk me into faking this in the first place?

STIMSON: Fake? It's a breakthrough in tachyon technology. Your dreams come true.

HARDIN: Success was so close.

STIMSON: It still is, if you don't panic.

HARDIN: But this isn't science.

STIMSON: While you're operating on my funds you'll do it my way. Proceed as planned.

HARDIN: I can't. Mena wants to bring in the Doctor.

STIMSON: What? You blind idiot.

HARDIN: Well, don't you see? These people could have the answer.

STIMSON: But if they find this is a fake, we're ruined.

HARDIN: All right, all right, I'll find a way. I'll persuade Mena not to let them in here.

STIMSON: Get them to stay out there and watch on the viewer.

HARDIN: All right.

MENA: Are the preparations complete?

HARDIN: Soon, Madam Chairman.

DOCTOR: Is that a Schrödinger oscillator?

HARDIN: Stay back.

DOCTOR: Why?

HARDIN: There's a question of radiation hazard.

DOCTOR: Oh, really.

HARDIN: (quietly to Stimson) We've got to make this work. Can't you see what's happening?

STIMSON: Surely that's not the woman we saw on Earth?

HARDIN: Yes.

MENA: When will it be ready, Mister Hardin?

HARDIN: Soon, Madam Chairman. The er, the adjustments have to be exact.

STIMSON: You'll all get a better view, you know, from up top.

ROMANA: Can I help you, Mister Hardin? Thank you.

ROMANA: Now, this is a wafer wave inducer, is it?

HARDIN: Yes, it feeds direct from the tachyon drive.

ROMANA: And what do you do for inversion?

HARDIN: It doesn't invert. The divider circuit automatically dephases. Mena's dying, and nothing can stop that cellular degeneration once it starts.

ROMANA: This could. Come on, Hardin. How do you lock the phase?

HARDIN: I can't. It doesn't. It doesn't really work, you know.

VARGOS: Can I help you, Mister Stimson?

STIMSON: It's imperative that I leave for Earth immediately.

VARGOS: Ah. All the shuttles are fully booked, unless you can obtain a special clearance from one of the directors.

STIMSON: Thank you.

STIMSON: Mister Brock? Mister Brock.

STIMSON: Anyone there?

STIMSON: Argh!

ROMANA: Switch on.

HARDIN: Right.

ROMANA: Hold it there.

HARDIN: Stasis.

ROMANA: Looks like it.

HARDIN: We've brought time to a stop.

ROMANA: But can we wind time back, return the sand to where it was before it fell?

HARDIN: I just don't get this. In theory it should be functioning perfectly.

ROMANA: We'll just have to check it all again. That's one thing I've learnt from the Doctor. Where is he, by the way?

COMPUTER: Override failsafe. Override failsafe. Eliminate intruder. Eliminate intruder.

DOCTOR: Ah, so that's how it's done.

BROCK: Doctor?

DOCTOR: Oh, thank you, thank you.

BROCK: This is your scarf, isn't it, Doctor?

DOCTOR: Yes.

PANGOL: The m*rder.

BROCK: His scarf k*lled Stimson.

DOCTOR: Arrest the scarf, then.

MENA: The court is sitting, Doctor.

DOCTOR: I'm sorry.

MENA: The court, Doctor.

MENA: We Argolins have a sacred reminder of the evil that dwells in v*olence. The Helmet of Theron, who led Argolis into the w*r that wiped it out. Can you swear your innocence before the Helmet of Theron?

DOCTOR: Yes.

MENA: Let me hear the facts of the case.

ROMANA: Ready?

HARDIN: Ready.

ROMANA: Start the recording now.

HARDIN: Recorder running.

ROMANA: Increase the power slowly. We don't want a sudden surge to blow everything to bits.

HARDIN: Four hundred and twenty five. Increasing. Four hundred and twenty nine. Four hundred and thirty one. s*ab at four hundred and thirty five.

ROMANA: Nothing. Increase the power.

HARDIN: It's not going to work, I know it.

ROMANA: That's an unnecessary assumption. We must keep trying.

HARDIN: Yes, you're right. We must keep trying. Four hundred and forty eight. s*ab at four hundred and forty eight.

ROMANA: Try four hundred and fifty.

HARDIN: s*ab at four hundred and fifty.

ROMANA: Nothing. Wait a minute.

ROMANA: Yes! Yes!

HARDIN: We've done it!

ROMANA: Come on.

BROCK: And those are the facts, Madam Chairman.

MENA: Does that conclude the evidence?

DOCTOR: Evidence? Evidence? You couldn't hang a hat on that.

MENA: I'm the judge here, Doctor.

DOCTOR: I'm sorry.

BROCK: A m*rder has been committed and the m*rder must be found.

MENA: Justice is what matters.

PANGOL: When Theron was in doubt he threw a man into f*re or water. Let the elements try him.

MENA: These superstitions are not for us, Pangol.

DOCTOR: I've got an idea. There's a sort of blue box down the hall. You could imprison us both in that.

HARDIN: Mena, er, Madam Chairman. It works.

MENA: What?

HARDIN: Romana has solved the wave equations in all four dimensions.

MENA: You mean you really can rejuvenate?

ROMANA: Probably.

MENA: Then I'm prepared.

HARDIN: No. No, there must be one more test.

PANGOL: A test.

DOCTOR: Are you sure about this, Romana?

ROMANA: According to our calculations, the most it'll do is knock off ten or twelve years.

DOCTOR: Right. Then I'll take my chance.

ROMANA: We should be recording this.

HARDIN: Yes, of course. I forgot to switch it through from the lab.

ROMANA: You'll be needed here.

MENA: Think what this will mean to the Argolin.

PANGOL: A few years gain for an individual, perhaps.

BROCK: We're ready, then?

HARDIN: I'll start the warm-up now.

ROMANA: Doctor?

ROMANA: Stop! Stop. We forgot about something.

HARDIN: What? It's too late.

ROMANA: Get the Doctor out of there!

HARDIN: I can't.
{"type": "series", "show": "Doctor Who", "episode": "18x02 - The Leisure Hive - part 2"}