Castrovalva

by Christopher H. Bidmead

Part Four

Original Air Date: 12 January 1982
Running time: 24:12

DOCTOR: I'm perfectly all right. We have got to find out what's causing the occlusion. Follow me!

DOCTOR: Please find the Zero Cabinet.

NYSSA: The Portreeve. He'll help us. Wait here, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Be careful. If I'm right, the occlusion won't be dangerous to you at this moment. You're only trouble will be finding the way. Quickly!

RUTHER: You should prepare yourselves for disappointment. It is unusual for the Portreeve to grant two audiences on the same day.

TEGAN: Just take us to him.

DOCTOR: Must be about five hundred years old.

DOCTOR: Now that's odd. That's very odd indeed.

DOCTOR: Mergrave. Just the chap. There's something you can do for me.

TEGAN: That square again.

NYSSA: We keep coming back to it.

RUTHER: Of course.

TEGAN: But you must see that there's something going wrong here?

RUTHER: There are, as you have observed, steps that rise from the square and others that lead downwards from it, while other walks debouch laterally. An equitable arrangement, surely, allowing for much variety of movement.

TEGAN: You're not going to tell me you don't realise

RUTHER: Ah, there is an exemplary vista from here.

TEGAN: He must know. They're all in this together.

NYSSA: They would be if they were part of the recursion.

RUTHER: Here. Fine view down into the water tower.

NYSSA: Wait a minute.

NYSSA: Look.

TEGAN: What is it?

TEGAN: So that's where it got to.

MERGRAVE: Here are the other fifteen volumes. Put them down there.

DOCTOR: Well done, Margrave.

MERGRAVE: All right, run along.

DOCTOR: You know, I'm very fond of history, but I don't usually get much time for reading.

DOCTOR: No! Please. It's backed with silver. Helps to keep it out.

MERGRAVE: It? And what, sir, is it?

DOCTOR: Precisely what I'm trying to find out. Tell me, Mergrave, what do you see out of the window?

MERGRAVE: Well, sir, the town square, the library, the Portreeve's house and my own pharmacy. In fine, sir, the dwellings of Castrovalva.

DOCTOR: And it all makes sense to you?

MERGRAVE: Strange question. Shardovan has asked the same.

DOCTOR: Shardovan.

MERGRAVE: He too can be a little fevered in his imaginings. This will dispel your fatigue.

DOCTOR: How do I know you're telling the truth?

MERGRAVE: Because, sir, I maintain I am, and I am a man of my word.

DOCTOR: A perfect example of recursion, Mergrave. And recursion is exactly what we're up against. Draw me a square, large as you can.

DOCTOR: Good. Now, in the square, a rough map of Castrovalva.

TEGAN: You hid this deliberately.

SHARDOVAN: Assuredly, ma'am, no impropriety was intended.

TEGAN: You're all part of this. It's a conspiracy.

RUTHER: They have formed the suspicion that the Doctor has been ensnared.

SHARDOVAN: Ah. They cannot think that.

NYSSA: Come on. We must get this back to the Doctor straightaway.

DOCTOR: Now, the library, the square, the Portreeve's house. Now, where's your pharmacy?

MERGRAVE: Up here, sir. And down here. And round here. And along here also.

DOCTOR: Four pharmacies in a small place like this?

MERGRAVE: No, sir. I have but one.

DOCTOR: You positioned it four times.

MERGRAVE: It may be approached, sir, by many different routes.

DOCTOR: Hmm.

DOCTOR: Valeriana officinalis centiculare europea. And just a hint of rosemary.

MERGRAVE: You understand medicine, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Not as well as you. But I'm afraid one of us is deluded about geography.

NYSSA: Doctor?

DOCTOR (OOV.): Yes, yes, come in.

TEGAN: We found it, and no thanks to these Castrovalvan people. They kept leading us round and round and back to the square.

DOCTOR: Well, that's Castrovalva, not Ruther. I suppose you know the whereabouts of the Portreeve's house.

RUTHER: Nothing is more certain, sir.

DOCTOR: Well put. Show us on the map.

RUTHER: This is the Portreeve's house, along here, down there, (pause) round there.

MERGRAVE: The Doctor has been explaining to me. I almost grasp it.

RUTHER: There is something amiss with the map.

DOCTOR: There is something amiss with Castrovalva, but because your perception is part of it, you cannot see it.

RUTHER: I am a rational man, sir. Explain this interesting idea.

DOCTOR: Yes, well, I'm afraid that would take some doing.

NYSSA: Doctor, the Cabinet.

DOCTOR: Yes, yes, in a minute. This library of Shardovan's, are all the books like this?

NYSSA: Yes, why?

DOCTOR: These volumes chronicle the rise of Castrovalva out of an alliance of warring hunters twelve hundred years ago. Or purport to chronicle.

MERGRAVE: Purport, you say?

RUTHER: That, sir, is our official history.

MERGRAVE: From Castrovalva's first beginnings to the present day.

DOCTOR: Yes, well, I'm no expert, but I have the strongest possible hunch that these are forgeries.

RUTHER: What do you say, sir?

DOCTOR: Oh, the threads, the bindings, the paper, are as near the real thing as may be, but the contents are faked.

NYSSA: How can you tell?

DOCTOR: There is something we're all overlooking.

NYSSA: Yes? What, Doctor?

DOCTOR: I don't know. I'm overlooking it, too.

DOCTOR: But I'm certain the whole history's been invented.

TEGAN: By Shardovan.

NYSSA: But why? To hide something?

TEGAN: Something about the real history. Doctor?

DOCTOR: If there ever was a real history.

MERGRAVE: This noise is not acceptable.

MERGRAVE: The visitor is weaker, but receiving our best attention. But you must remain quiet as noise causes him great distress.

WOMAN: (quietly) Yes, okay.

RUTHER: This is Shardovan's hand. The librarian.

DOCTOR: Shardovan. I thought as much. I must see the Portreeve.

MERGRAVE: I'm sure, given your condition, the Portreeve will be happy to see you.

TEGAN: We'll carry him there.

MERGRAVE: As you wish.

TEGAN: Would you mind waiting outside?

NYSSA: We'll bring him out in a minute.

MERGRAVE: Never been treated like this before.

RUTHER: By a woman.

DOCTOR: One little suggestion.

MERGRAVE: I wish I could be of more help.

TEGAN: It's a complicated thing, this recursion business.

MERGRAVE: Please, let us have quiet here.

SHARDOVAN: Why are all these women here? Is this a holiday?

MERGRAVE: The Doctor is most unwell.

RUTHER: It's been agreed to carry him to the Portreeve. We must all help.

SHARDOVAN: Very well.

SHARDOVAN: Allow me to assist you.

TEGAN: No, keep away.

SHARDOVAN: Please, I insist I do my small part.

TEGAN: Excuse me. I am responsible for the Doctor.

MERGRAVE: This way.

TEGAN: The Doctor can't be levitating. He's so heavy.

TEGAN: Then?

NYSSA: (quietly) The history of Castrovalva.

TEGAN: What, all thirty volumes?

DOCTOR: You're the man I want.

SHARDOVAN: Explain yourself, sir.

DOCTOR: You're the only man here who could not be persuaded to join the hunting ritual.

SHARDOVAN: Ah. My natural indolence would not permit it.

DOCTOR: Your intelligence would not permit it. You suspected the whole tradition was invention from beginning to end and here's the proof. Your annotations of the histories.

SHARDOVAN: Ah. Mere fancies, sir. Notes for a fiction I had a mind to write.

DOCTOR: Hmm. The fiction of Castrovalva. A civilisation evolving out of tribal warfare into an ideal community. It is a fiction, and the thing that confirms it

SHARDOVAN: Well, sir?

DOCTOR: Oh, I know it. It's on the tip. It's on the tip of my mind. The books are five hundred years old at least, but

SHARDOVAN: The books are old, but they chronicle the rise of Castrovalva up to the present day.

MERGRAVE: Portreeve, the visitor's strange illness has progressed beyond my power to heal.

RUTHER: We have come for your help.

PORTREEVE: Please, not my help. This is a matter for the tapestry.

DOCTOR: Don't tell me you're lost, too?

SHARDOVAN: No, but as you guessed, Doctor, we people of Castrovalva are too much part of this thing you call the occlusion.

DOCTOR: But you do see it? The spatial anomaly.

SHARDOVAN: With my eyes, no. But in my philosophy. This way. I know a back way.

PORTREEVE: The Doctor has journeyed dangerously to honour us here in Castrovalva, and look at the outcome.

MERGRAVE: Portreeve, should we not begin?

PORTREEVE: Everything's in hand. With this tapestry and with patience, there's nothing one cannot achieve. Nothing, Doctor, in this world or in any other. The tapestry has the power to build and hold in space whole worlds of matter.

PORTREEVE: But I've contented myself with one small, simple town.

MASTER: For the final meeting of the Doctor with his Master! Bwahahahaha!

SHARDOVAN: Doctor.

DOCTOR: We must be very close to whatever he's using to power all this. Come on, we'll have to hurry. You're a good tall chap.

MASTER: I have waited patiently with this trap of mine. My Castrovalva.

NYSSA: But there is a real Castrovalva. It's mentioned in the TARDIS databank.

MASTER: The boy Adric entered it there at my command.

NYSSA: Adric.

TEGAN: Where is he? What have you done with him?

MASTER: The boy is nothing. I want the Doctor. One long last look before I destroy him utterly.

NYSSA: You've got to stop him. He's the Master!

MASTER: What was that? Go on, find out.

The Doctor and Shardovan climb through the window onto a small balcony at the top of a flight of stairs.)

SHARDOVAN: Now, Doctor

DOCTOR: Shush!

MASTER: Open this for me!

NYSSA: Don't you understand anything about zero structures? The internal interfaces are bonded by strong-force interaction. The surfaces can only be separated from inside the Cabinet.

MASTER: Don't try to make a fool of me.

MERGRAVE: Doctor?

RUTHER: This is beyond all sense.

MERGRAVE: You must come along with us.

SHARDOVAN: No. You must spare the Doctor.

RUTHER: No, Shardovan. He has betrayed the Portreeve.

SHARDOVAN: My dear friends, it's we who've been betrayed.

DOCTOR: Listen carefully. This man you know as Portreeve is the most evil force in the universe. You have got to help me defeat him. Got to, do you understand?

SHARDOVAN: You do have doubts. We've spoken of it often.

DOCTOR: Well, say something, please!

SHARDOVAN: Shush.

DOCTOR: Yes would be best.

MASTER: I have you in my power absolutely, but I will see your face before I destroy you forever.

TEGAN: That wretched tapestry. He'll spot the Doctor any minute now.

MASTER: Well? Well, speak. I gave you tongues.

MERGRAVE: You are not the Portreeve.

MASTER: Someone's been tampering with your perception threshold.

RUTHER: You are not the Portreeve. I believe the visitor.

MASTER: A trick! The Doctor's here.

DOCTOR (OOV.): Are you sure of that, Master?

MASTER: Enough of your deceptions!

MASTER: Where are you? I'll fetch you out wherever you are.

NYSSA: The tapestry, look!

TEGAN: But Doctor, it's

DOCTOR: I know, I know. Stay back.

DOCTOR: So that's how you're sustaining Castrovalva.

MASTER: My own adaptation of the block transfer computation. Since we last me, Adric's mathematical powers have been put to lively use.

DOCTOR: Deadly, you mean.

MASTER: That, too. You were wise to deter your young friends from approaching. The hadron power lines are lethal to the touch.

DOCTOR: All right, Master. It's me you want. Let the boy go.

MASTER: Yes, a trap has now been sprung. We can begin to dispose of all the bait.

DOCTOR: There was no call for that.

MASTER: I populated Castrovalva. I will dispose of these creatures as I choose.

DOCTOR: Unless you let every one of them go now

MASTER: Well, Doctor?

DOCTOR: Shardovan, get back!

MASTER: Don't touch the web. It's holding Castrovalva in balance. You do not have the will!

SHARDOVAN: You made us, man of evil, but we are free.

MASTER: My web!

MASTER: My web!

NYSSA: The Master! Look!

TEGAN: The fireplace. It's his TARDIS.

NYSSA: Shardovan?

DOCTOR: He gave his life to help us.

TEGAN: The Master has escaped.

DOCTOR: So must we. Without the web to support it, the local space will fold up into itself. Come on!

NYSSA: Where are we going?

DOCTOR: It still makes sense to Mergrave. Stay behind him.

MERGRAVE: This way.

DOCTOR: The square again.

NYSSA: The Master's TARDIS.

DOCTOR: It couldn't take off. Space is squeezing in too fast.

TEGAN: We're trapped.

NYSSA: How do we get out?

DOCTOR: It can't collapse without causing a breach somewhere.

MERGRAVE: There is nothing but confusion in my eyes now.

ADRIC: I can see.

DOCTOR: Adric created it. Which way?

ADRIC: What exactly am I looking for, Doctor?

DOCTOR: Anything you don't recognise as Castrovalva.

ADRIC: Over there. The hillside.

DOCTOR: Follow Adric. Hold on to each other.

ADRIC: This is it. This is the way.

DOCTOR: Mergrave.

MASTER (OOV.): My web!

MERGRAVE: Goodbye, Doctor.

MASTER: Bring it to me, boy. My web!

ADRIC: Doctor, quickly, we've got to leave before it closes again.

TEGAN: Doctor! Adric! Please hurry!

DOCTOR: Mergrave, we have got to leave.

MASTER: No! You can't b*at me! Traitors!

NYSSA: It's gone. Gone forever.

ADRIC: And the Master?

DOCTOR: Let's hope so.

DOCTOR: One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. All right, rest. Deep breaths. Well done, Adric.

TEGAN: Why couldn't we just walk?

DOCTOR: Got to be fit to crew the TARDIS. Trim Time Ship and a ship-shape team.

DOCTOR: Who landed this?

TEGAN: I did, Doctor.

DOCTOR: You flew the TARDIS?

TEGAN: I followed the instructions in the computer.

DOCTOR: There aren't any.

TEGAN: But

DOCTOR: It was a projection.

NYSSA: As Adric was, in the Zero Room.

TEGAN: So I didn't fly it?

DOCTOR: Adric pre-programmed it. Whatever you did to the console, we'd have ended up at Castrovalva.

TEGAN: Oh, how disappointing.

DOCTOR: The Master leaves nothing to chance.

DOCTOR: Adric?

NYSSA: Are you sure you're up to flying the TARDIS?

DOCTOR: Oh, I think so. In fact, I feel quite like my old self. Well.

TEGAN: Yes?

DOCTOR: Well, whoever I feel like, it's absolutely splendid. Let's go.
{"type": "series", "show": "Doctor Who", "episode": "19x04 - Castrovalva - part 4"}