STATE OF DECAY

BY: TERRANCE DICKS

Part Two

First Air Date: 29 November 1980
Running time: 23:16

HABRIS: You are awaited at the Tower. Come.

HABRIS: Stop. Wait here. Do not move.

DOCTOR: Funny about the windows.

ROMANA: What windows?

DOCTOR: Yes, and then there's the general architectural style. Would you call it rococo?

ROMANA: No, I wouldn't.

DOCTOR: Just testing a theory.

ROMANA: Oh. Doctor?

DOCTOR: Yes?

ZARGO: Greetings.

DOCTOR: Greetings. How do you do? I'm the Doctor.

ROMANA: I'm Romana.

ZARGO: We know who you are.

CAMILLA: We know everything here.

DOCTOR: Gosh.

ZARGO: What we do not know is why you are here.

DOCTOR: Oh, er, well, we were just admiring your tower. Weren't we admiring the tower?

CAMILLA: It was built many generations ago, before living memory.

ZARGO: You are space travellers?

ROMANA: Doesn't that surprise you?

ZARGO: Nothing surprises us. A little refreshment?

ZARGO: May you both enjoy your visit.

CAMILLA: As we will enjoy having you.

DOCTOR: Well, you certainly do very well for yourselves here.

ZARGO: We struggle to retain some remnants of civilisation. On an isolated, primitive planet like this, it isn't easy.

DOCTOR: No, no, indeed. Still, you do better than the peasants. Bull's blood, I think.

CAMILLA: The peasants are simple folk. Richer fare would only distress them.

DOCTOR: Quite right. Probably give them indigestion. There's nothing worse than a peasant with indigestion. Makes them quite rebellious. I hear you've been having trouble that way.

CAMILLA: There are always a few ungrateful ones who do not appreciate all that we do for them.

ROMANA: And what do you do for them, apart from saving them from gluttony?

ZARGO: We protect them.

CAMILLA: There are many dangers on this planet.

DOCTOR: Ah well, toodle-oo.

ROMANA: Ow!

DOCTOR: Sorry. Are you all right?

ROMANA: Yes, it's nothing. It's a tiny cut.

CAMILLA: You've hurt yourself. Let me see. Please, let me see.

ROMANA: Really, there's no need to make such a fuss over a few drops of blood.

ZARGO: Doctor, you still have not told us why you came here.

ROMANA: Bad luck, mostly.

DOCTOR: Yes, we were blown off-course.

ROMANA: A universe off-course.

DOCTOR: We were hoping you'd tell us how you got here, or better still, how to get back.

ZARGO: I fear we cannot help you. Our records say we came from some distant planet. A freak accident.

CAMILLA: We can never return home. Our technology is lost.

DOCTOR: Such a pity.

CAMILLA: However, there are compensations.

ADRIC: So every so often these guards just turn up, sort out a few young people and take them to the Tower?

MARTA: It is the custom.

ADRIC: And they become guards?

MARTA: A few. But most of them, no. Yesterday they took our son.

ADRIC: Why do you stand for it?

MARTA: It is our place to serve. Besides, resistance would be useless.

MARTA: Our son, Karl, tried to run.

IVO: Karl will be chosen for a guard. I have Habris' word on it.

ADRIC: Someone should stand up to these Tower people.

IVO: Those who speak out against them die, silently, at night.

MARTA: There were rumours that there were a band of rebels in the wastelands, but no one knows for sure. Our son Karl tried to join them

IVO: Enough, woman! And you, boy, get on with your work. If your luck holds, they may not notice you.

ADRIC: Look, you've been very kind and I'm grateful, but if the Doctor doesn't turn up soon I shall go and look for him.

MARTA: No, you must stay here.

ADRIC: Why? What can I do here?

IVO: Survive, if you're lucky.

MARTA: Work, sleep, serve the Lords faithfully and well, and they'll allow you to live until you die, worn out. That's all there is for us.

ADRIC: Not for me.

HABRIS: All of you!

IVO: What are you doing here, Habris? The selection was yesterday.

HABRIS: There's to be another.

MARTA: So soon? It's against all custom.

HABRIS: The orders are from the Tower. Do you question them? And you.

HABRIS: Lord Aukon himself is here.

AUKON: Interesting.

AUKON: A mind that shields itself. One who pretends to be a dull and stupid peasant, but who is different.

ADRIC: Who, me?

AUKON: You. You, come with me.

ADRIC: Why?

AUKON: Spirit too, I see. Excellent.

ADRIC: Come with you? What's in it for me?

AUKON: Wealth, power, dominion over this world, and over many others.

DOCTOR: Surely you realise something here must be wrong?

ZARGO: Wrong?

DOCTOR: Yes.

CAMILLA: What is, is.

DOCTOR: No. What is, is wrong. Look, societies develop in varying ways. Yours just seems to be sinking back into some sort of primitivism. Wouldn't you say so?

ROMANA: Oh, yes. In terms of applied socioenergetics, it's losing its grip on level two development.

DOCTOR: On level two?

ROMANA: A society that evolve backwards must be subject to some even more powerful force restraining it.

DOCTOR: An even more powerful force?

ZARGO: How very mysterious.

DOCTOR: Well, mysterious or not, those rebels seem to think the power emanates from you.

CAMILLA: They flatter us.

ZARGO: In any society there is bound to be a division. The rulers and the ruled.

DOCTOR: A division? Yawning chasm, I'd say. Wouldn't you?

ROMANA: No, I'd say a sociopathetic abscess.

DOCTOR: Oh, I wish I'd thought of that. That's a good diagnosis. Yes, I've never seen such a state of decay.

CAMILLA: Be careful, Doctor. We have acquired great powers.

DOCTOR: Ah.

ZARGO: There must be rulers. A ship of state must have a pilot.

DOCTOR: What did you say?

ZARGO: Ship of state.

CAMILLA: No.

DOCTOR: Ship of state?

ZARGO: A metaphor.

DOCTOR: Ah. It's just odd, you see, that he should mention that, because Romana and I have just been at your ship's old manifest and I can't remember what the ship was called but Romana might be able to remember. What was it called, Romana?

ROMANA: Hydrax.

DOCTOR: Yes, Hydrax. Does that mean anything to you? Hydrax? Hydrax?

ZARGO: Where did you see this?

CAMILLA: Be silent.

ZARGO: Those records were destroyed.

CAMILLA: I said be silent.

DOCTOR: No, please don't be silent. It's so fascinating.

HABRIS: My lord, it is time.

ZARGO: How dare you interrupt us!

HABRIS: Aukon has seen the sign. The Arising is at hand.

CAMILLA: The Arising? Leave us.

ZARGO: We must go to him.

CAMILLA: We shall resume this later. If you need anything, there are guards outside the door. Many guards.

DOCTOR: You know something? I don't think they want to be followed. Let's sit down.

DOCTOR: Oh yes, this is much more comfortable. What were those Hydrax officers called?

ROMANA: Captain Miles Sharkey, Navigation Officer Lauren MacMillan, Science Officer Anthony O'Connor.

DOCTOR: That's very good. Have you ever heard of the Brothers Grimm?

ROMANA: This is no time for fairy tales.

DOCTOR: They also discovered the Law of Consonantal Shift. How language changes over the years.

ROMANA: You mean the hard sounds softening, B's becoming V's and so on.

DOCTOR: Hmm.

ROMANA: Camilla, Aukon and Zargo. Wait a minute. Sharkey, Zharkey, Zarkey, Zar, Zargo. The same name passed down through generations.

DOCTOR: That's right. And MacMillan becomes?

ROMANA: Camilla.

DOCTOR: And O'Connor becomes?

ROMANA: Aukon. The descendants of the original ship's officers.

DOCTOR: Yes. And this is the original ship. The pilot here, co-pilot there. No, no, no, pilot there, co-pilot here. Instrument banks there, control panels there.

ROMANA: You mean this is the Hydrax, the explorer ship?

DOCTOR: Yes. Do you fancy exploring it?

ROMANA: Mmm.

DOCTOR: Inspection hatch.

ROMANA: Ahem. Doctor?

DOCTOR: Shush. Inspection hatch.

ROMANA: Doctor.

DOCTOR: Hmm?

DOCTOR: Romana, I've found the inspection hatch.

AUKON: When my servants were seeking the Doctor, I sensed another alien mind not far away. I traced it to the village and here he is. The first of the Chosen Ones, at last.

ZARGO: But he is an alien. He must have come with the two strangers.

CAMILLA: The Chosen Ones were to be from amongst the peasants.

AUKON: We have bred dullness, conformity, obedience into those clods for twenty generations. Unfortunately, we have also bred out just those qualities we need for other purposes.

ZARGO: This disturbs me, Aukon.

CAMILLA: We have been talking to this Doctor and his companion.

ZARGO: The Doctor's mind is powerful, but he is dangerous. He must die.

AUKON: Not before I have questioned him.

ZARGO: I say he is dangerous and must die. The boy too. We need no aliens to join us. Let him feed the Great One with his blood.

AUKON: The boy is still young. His mind is strong, clear, but malleable. We can make of him what we wish.

CAMILLA: Aukon is right. What does it matter where he comes from? Once he is initiated, he is ours. We must increase our numbers as the Great One commands or he will be angry. And such a handsome child.

AUKON: I will take him to be prepared. Come.

KALMAR: They're taken, then. c*ptive in the Tower, all three.

TARAK: What are we going to do about it?

KALMAR: What do you mean?

TARAK: This Doctor is our only gleam of hope in a thousand years. Are you going to let Zargo and the rest destroy him?

KALMAR: Perhaps they won't harm him.

TARAK: They'll k*ll him, Kalmar. Him and the girl. You know their powers. They'll sense he's a danger to them and they'll destroy him.

KALMAR: Perhaps. It's out of our hands now.

TARAK: It needn't be.

KALMAR: What can we do?

TARAK: att*ck the Tower, rescue them.

KALMAR: A handful of men with knives and bows and spears, and the power of the three to face if we do get past them?

TARAK: Will you stay here forever fiddling with this technological junk?

KALMAR: We need knowledge to att*ck the Lords. We must wait until we are ready.

TARAK: Wait? For how long? A few more generations?

KALMAR: If necessary, yes.

TARAK: And you think the same? Will anyone come with me to the Tower? Or must I go alone.

VEROS: Kalmar is right. It's too soon.

TARAK: Too soon. Kalmar, you are right.

KALMAR: I am?

TARAK: To att*ck the Tower now would be su1c1de.

KALMAR: Glad you realise it.

TARAK: But if I go in alone, rescue the Doctor, bring him back here, he will have discovered their weaknesses, and with the knowledge he can give us, then will you att*ck?

KALMAR: How will you gain entrance to the Tower?

TARAK: I was a guard once, remember?

KALMAR: So?

TARAK: So, I can be one again.

HABRIS: I swear to you, my lord, the state room was guarded at all times.

ZARGO: Then where are the Doctor and the girl?

HABRIS: My lord, they are aliens. Who knows what powers they might have?

ZARGO: Absurd. They are w*apon. Find them, Habris, or you shall go to feed the Great One.

ZARGO: Search the Tower. Search the lands around.

HABRIS: My lord.

CAMILLA: You're wrong.

ZARGO: What?

CAMILLA: The Doctor is not w*apon. He has the greatest w*apon of all. Knowledge.

ROMANA: We must be right inside the turret.

DOCTOR: Yes. It's an Arrow class scout ship, Romana. It detaches from the main vessel for local exploration.

ROMANA: I wonder why they didn't rip out all these instruments, too.

DOCTOR: Well, why bother? No one comes here. Look! There's even a bit of power left in the energy cells.

ROMANA: So it could still fly?

DOCTOR: Possibly.

ROMANA: Could we possibly jet our way out?

DOCTOR: Getting out is not exactly the object of our mission, is it?

ROMANA: It proved your point that this is a spaceship.

DOCTOR: Shush.

ROMANA: Sounds like a faint engine noise.

DOCTOR: Shush.

ROMANA: What is it?

DOCTOR: More evidence.

ROMANA: Of what?

DOCTOR: I have a suspicion, but it's too horrible to think about.

ROMANA: Now where are we?

DOCTOR: Right in the bowels of the ship. Disused fuel t*nk, I think.

ROMANA: I can hear that sound again.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: What are we looking for?

DOCTOR: A way out.

ROMANA: Ah.

DOCTOR: I doubt very much if the creature lives in the Tower, but since the Tower feeds it I imagine it lives close by.

ROMANA: Creature? What creature?

DOCTOR: We'll know that when we find it.

ROMANA: That's nice.

DOCTOR: They've been completely drained. Pipe leading.

DOCTOR: I was wrong, Romana. The fuel t*nk aren't disused. Only this isn't rocket fuel, it's blood.

DOCTOR: You all right?

ROMANA: No, I'm frightened.

DOCTOR: Good, good. We'll soon be there.

ROMANA: That's what frightens me.

DOCTOR: Come on. Ah!

ROMANA: What is it? What is it?

DOCTOR: You jumped on my toe.

ROMANA: Oh, I'm so sorry.

DOCTOR: Shush.

ROMANA: What?

DOCTOR: It's that sound again.

ROMANA: That's not an engine.

DOCTOR: No. The sound of a giant heartbeat.

ROMANA: Doctor?

DOCTOR: Yes?

ROMANA: Look.

DOCTOR: Do you know what that is?

ROMANA: A feeding system for something that lives on human blood.

DOCTOR: Exactly. Come on.

ROMANA: What is it?

DOCTOR: Do you know, it just occurs to me. There are vampire legends on almost every inhabited planet.

ROMANA: Really?

DOCTOR: Yes. Creatures that stalk in the night and feast on the blood of the living. Creatures that fear sunlight and running water and certain herbs. Creatures that are so strong they can only be k*lled by beheading, or a stake through the heart.

ROMANA: Or? Please, say something.

DOCTOR: Whatever it is, we want to find it, don't we?

ROMANA: No.

DOCTOR: Good. Come on then.

ROMANA: Where are we, Doctor?

AUKON: You are in the resting place.

DOCTOR: Where?

AUKON: The resting place.

DOCTOR: Ah.

AUKON: I am Aukon. Welcome to my domain.
{"type": "series", "show": "Doctor Who", "episode": "18x14 - State of Decay - part 2"}