THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT

BY: DAVID FISHER

Part Four

Original Air Date: 17 November 1979
Running time: 24:07

TORVIN: What's happening? What are we doing here?

EDU: I don't know. What is this thing?

TORVIN: Adrasta!

DOCTOR: Keep her safe, Romana.

ROMANA: If she moves, blast her.

K9: Affirmative, mistress.

DOCTOR: Hello.

ERATO: Hello.

DOCTOR: What did you say?

KARELA: Guard! Quickly, summon the Huntsman. Move!

ROMANA: Are you all right?

DOCTOR: I'm not sure.

ROMANA: What do you mean?

DOCTOR: I don't know.

ERATO: Hello. I realise this must be a very frightening experience for you, but please, don't be alarmed.

ROMANA: What are you talking about?

DOCTOR: I don't know. That wasn't me talking.

ROMANA: Doctor, what's happening?

DOCTOR: Look, I know this sounds odd. I didn't say that.

ROMANA: You didn't say what?

DOCTOR: What I just said.

ROMANA: I beg your pardon.

DOCTOR: Did you hear what I said just now?

ROMANA: About this being a frightening experience but don't be alarmed?

DOCTOR: Yes. I didn't say that.

ROMANA: You didn't?

DOCTOR: No. I was too busy being frightened and alarmed.

ORGANON: But if you didn't say it, who did?

DOCTOR: Let's find out, shall we?

ERATO: Please allow me to explain. This is not the Doctor speaking. I am simply using his larynx. We Tythonions don't have them.

ROMANA: Ask its name.

ERATO: My name is Erato.

ROMANA: Where does it come from?

ERATO: I am from the planet Tythonus.

ROMANA: Then what are you doing here skulking about in a pit eating people?

DOCTOR: Oh, please! You put that very crudely.

ERATO: To skulk about in pits, as you so crudely put it, is not my normal habit. I most emphatically do not eat people. I live by ingesting chlorophyll and mineral salts. I would have you know that I am the Tythonian High Ambassador.

ORGANON: Really?

ERATO: I am. I was on a trading mission to this planet when I

DOCTOR: Of course! I should have guessed instantly. It's all the fault of that woman Adrasta.

ADRASTA: Yes, Doctor?

ADRASTA: You were just saying?

DOCTOR: I was just saying, lady Adrasta, that. K9, I thought you were meant to be guarding her.

K9: Apologies, master. I am immobile.

DOCTOR: Yes.

K9: I was overpowered by the wolfweeds.

ADRASTA: Doctor, order your dog to k*ll the Tythonian.

DOCTOR: No.

ADRASTA: If you do not, your friend Organon dies.

DOCTOR: Organon? Goodbye, old man. So sorry about this. Thanks for all the help.

ORGANON: Doctor.

DOCTOR: If my deductions are correct, the well-being of two planets is at stake. Erato must not die.

ADRASTA: Huntsman, set the wolfweeds on the Doctor.

DOCTOR: No, wait. That's all you've got on this planet, isn't it? Weeds, weeds, forest and weeds. You scratch about for food wherever you can, but you can't plough the land, can you? You can't do anything until you've mastered the forests and the weeds. And you can't do that without metal.

ADRASTA: Don't listen to him. It's just the ravings of a demented space tramp. Set the wolfweeds on him!

DOCTOR: Do that, and you will hurl this planet back into the dark ages. And for what? To satisfy the petty power cravings of that pathetic woman.

ADRASTA: Have a care, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Have a care yourself. Care for your people for a change.

ADRASTA: k*ll him!

HUNTSMAN: Let him speak.

ADRASTA: Huntsman, I order you.

HUNTSMAN: Let him speak.

DOCTOR: Now, if my deductions are correct.

ADRASTA: They're not.

DOCTOR: Erato came here fifteen years ago to propose a trading agreement. Tythonus is a planet rich in metallic ores and minerals. Am I not right, K9?

K9: Checking data banks. Affirmative, master.

DOCTOR: That was a good guess.

ADRASTA: Fools! You listen to the opinions of an electric dog?

DOCTOR: The Tythonions exist on ingesting chlorophyll. Large quantities of it, judging by their size. Now, there's a superabundance of planet life on Chloris, so

ROMANA: So Erato came here to offer you metal in return for chlorophyll. Of course!

DOCTOR: Right. But who was the first person he met?

ORGANON: The person who held the monopoly of metal here.

DOCTOR: Right. And did she put the welfare of her struggling people above her own petty power? No. She's tipped the ambassador into a pit and threw astrologers at him.

HUNTSMAN: Is this true, my lady?

ADRASTA: Not a word of it. It's a pack of lies.

DOCTOR: Let's see if Erato agrees with me, shall we?

ADRASTA: That won't prove anything! You just take hold of that thing and say exactly what you like. You expect intelligent people to fall for your childish tricks?

DOCTOR: Well, it's very simple. Why don't you come over here, take hold of the communicator and we'll hear the truth from your larynx.

ADRASTA: What? No. Don't talk such rubbish. Huntsman, I order you to k*ll the Doctor!

HUNTSMAN: My lady, I think we want to hear the truth of this. Go and speak with the Creature.

ADRASTA: No. I refuse. I utterly refuse.

HUNTSMAN: I think not, my lady.

ADRASTA: No! Back! Back!

DOCTOR: Come on, just take hold of the communicator.

ERATO: Thank you, Doctor.

ERATO: Your deductions are, of course, correct. We are running dangerously short of chlorophyll on Tythonus, and have more metal than we need. Reports reached us of this planet Chloris which had precisely the opposite problem, and we thought that a trading agreement would be mutually beneficial.

ADRASTA: It's lies, lies! It's all lies!

ERATO: No, it is you who are lying. Unfortunately, I ran foul of this evil woman who tricked me into the Pit. If you will forgive me, I have a score to settle.

HUNTSMAN: Yes. So, I think, have we.

DOCTOR: She's d*ad.

HUNTSMAN: Yes. And with her die the dark ages for this planet.

DOCTOR: Erato.

ERATO: I'm sorry for all the unpleasantness, but thank you for the weeds.

DOCTOR: My pleasure.

ERATO: They are the first solid meal I've had in fifteen years. I wonder if you could arrange to have me hoisted out of the Pit?

DOCTOR: Yes, yes, of course. Huntsman? See to it. It is a bit claustrophobic down here.

HUNTSMAN: Thank you, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Don't say that.

HUNTSMAN: Why not?

DOCTOR: I don't know. Just don't say it. Not yet.

ORGANON: He was going to let me die!

ROMANA: Of course he wasn't.

K9: All circuits now fully operational. Thank you, mistress.

ORGANON: Adrasta told him that he would have me put to death if he didn't order that dog thing to sh**t Erato. And all he said was, goodbye old man, terribly sorry. Didn't he?

K9: Affirmative.

ORGANON: Well! What kind of a friend is that?

ROMANA: A very good one. Thanks to him this planet may now have a chance to prosper.

ORGANON: She was going to k*ll me!

ROMANA: Nonsense. He probably checked out your horoscope earlier.

DOCTOR: I did, I did, and I discovered you're going to die of indigestion.

K9: Reporting, master.

DOCTOR: K9.

K9: I am prepared for all contingencies.

DOCTOR: Good dog. Good dog. Adrasta's engineers should have Erato out of the Pit by now.

ROMANA: All of him?

DOCTOR: Well, yes. Then we should know the truth.

ROMANA: What? You mean he hasn't been telling us the truth?

DOCTOR: Well, only as much as he wants us to know until he's set free.

ROMANA: Well then, do you think it's safe to let him out of the Pit if you think he's been lying to us?

DOCTOR: Why not?

ROMANA: Well, we don't want several hundred cubic feet of angry blob heaving itself round the country crushing people.

DOCTOR: He has no intention of crushing people.

ORGANON: Well, he crushed quite a few down the Pit.

DOCTOR: Nonsense. He just wanted to talk.

ORGANON: Talk?

DOCTOR: Yes, talk, talk. After Adrasta stole his communicator he was just trying any way he could to make contact.

ROMANA: But we don't know anything about him. We don't even know how he got here.

DOCTOR: Yes we do. In an egg.

ROMANA: In an egg?

DOCTOR: In an egg. When the shell's complete it's a blindingly simple space vehicle complete with photon drive.

ROMANA: Well, I didn't see a photon drive.

DOCTOR: Well, of course he's not going to leave it lying round where just anyone could take it. He protected it very carefully.

ROMANA: How?

DOCTOR: It was concealed in the pieces he kept hidden in the Pit.

ROMANA: Doctor!

DOCTOR: Yes?

ROMANA: That shell.

DOCTOR: Yes?

ROMANA: When we first landed, it was making a noise.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: Could it have been a distress signal? Perhaps it was calling for help.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: But after fifteen years?

K9: Tythonions live for up to forty thousand years, mistress.

ROMANA: So fifteen years in the Pit for one of them would be no more than the wink of an eye.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: Doctor, I'm sure there's some terrible danger.

ORGANON: Danger?

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: And Erato wants to be out of the Pit and free to escape in his craft before something dreadful happens.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: But Doctor, you've played right into his hands. You've let him go.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: Can't you say anything but yes the whole time?

DOCTOR: Yes. After he's told us whatever it is.

ROMANA: Yes?

DOCTOR: And before he reaches his space vehicle to escape.

ROMANA: Yes?

DOCTOR: Do remind me to give him back his photon drive.

DOCTOR: Yes?

ROMANA: Yes.

ROMANA: You mean without that segment, Erato can't leave the planet?

DOCTOR: Exactly. Once he guarantees Chloris' safety, we'll let him have it back and then negotiate a proper trading agreement.

ROMANA: And Chloris gets all the metal it needs.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ROMANA: Oh, Doctor, I'm improving.

TORVIN: Come on, Ainu.

AINU: Shush.

TORVIN: We're all rich once we get this metal out of here. Now come on, hurry.

AINU: Listen, old man. If that monster does bring us lots of metal, how much is this lot going to be worth?

TORVIN: Well, if it's metal, it's valuable. Now come on.

AINU: No, only because there's so little of it. Now look. In there, the Doctor, whoever he is, has got a piece of the monster's spacecraft. The monster can't leave Chloris without it. Now if we take that as well, we're made.

TORVIN: The guards are coming. Now, don't risk it all by being greedy for one more piece. Now, come on. This way.

DOCTOR: Well?

HUNTSMAN: The Creature's been removed from the Pit.

DOCTOR: Where is it?

HUNTSMAN: It's waiting at the side door if you're ready to speak to it again.

DOCTOR: Yes, I'm ready to speak to it. I just hope I'm ready to hear what it has to say to me.

HUNTSMAN: Here are the astronomical readings you asked for, Organon.

ORGANON: Oh, thank you, thank you.

DOCTOR: Organon? Take this and guard it with your life. I don't want to take it anywhere near Erato until I want to give it to him. All right?

HUNTSMAN: This way, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Romana, take the communicator. Right, Erato. Let's hear what you've got to tell us.

ORGANON: Strange perturbations are in the sky. Oh, I wish I knew how to interpret them. Oh. Now that's very odd.

DOCTOR: Well?

ERATO: What I have to tell you is no more pleasant for me than it will be for you, but it has passed beyond my

DOCTOR: Oh do get on with it.

ERATO: I'm afraid you have only twenty four hours to live.

ROMANA: What!

DOCTOR: Shush. Romana, the communicator.

ERATO: I came as an ambassador to buy chlorophyll, but Adrasta imprisoned me. However, she failed to prevent the other half of my ship from communicating that fact to my brothers on Tythonus. They will have taken that as an act of aggression and responded accordingly.

DOCTOR: Yes, but now I've set you free, you can contact them all and call it off, yes?

ERATO: No, Doctor. I'm afraid it's impossible.

HUNTSMAN: What's he talking about?

ERATO: Once the stars are set in their courses

DOCTOR: Oh please, no more astrological mumbo-jumbo.

ERATO: I assure you, I mean my words quite literally. The star I refer to is a neutron star.

DOCTOR: A neutron star.

HUNTSMAN: A neutron star?

K9: Neutron star. Collapsed star composed of super-compressed degenerate matter.

DOCTOR: I know what a neutron star is.

ERATO: And the course on which it is set will plunge it into the heart of Chloris' sun within twenty four hours.

HUNTSMAN: Is that bad, Doctor?

DOCTOR: Bad? Chloris' sun will explode and your whole solar system will be destroyed. Is that bad?

ORGANON: Strange things are in the stars. Ah, now there's something I recognise. Oh dear. I don't like the look of that at all. Something terrible is going to happen!

HUNTSMAN: But there must be something. Can't we contact Tythonus?

ERATO: The neutron star has been on its way for several years. Like most stars, it has no guidance system. There is no way of stopping it.

HUNTSMAN: But surely?

DOCTOR: Shush.

ERATO: If you will excuse me, I will leave now. I have no wish to witness this distressing finale.

DOCTOR: Ahem. But your machine is in pieces.

ERATO: No matter. It won't take long to spin up a new ship round the vital components.

DOCTOR: How long?

ERATO: I feel this is immaterial to

DOCTOR: How long!

ERATO: Twenty six ninods.

DOCTOR: One hour, seven seconds. And you spin out this vessel from the threads in your own body like you did in the Pit?

ERATO: The principle is the same.

DOCTOR: And can you produce aluminium?

ERATO: Of course.

TORVIN: Come on, my boys. Come on, my rich boys. We're nearly at the camp now.

ERATO: This idea is madness, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Erato, a thin shell of aluminium wrapped around a neutron star will minimise its gravitational pull and we can yank it back out of the sun's field.

ERATO: And how do you propose to do this yanking, Doctor?

DOCTOR: Well, the TARDIS. We can exert short bursts of enormous gravitational pull on the star, slow it up while you weave your eggshell round it, and then let go.

ROMANA: And the thing will go spinning off harmlessly into deep space

DOCTOR: Right.

ERATO: Let me remind you, Doctor, that I came here to offer help to the planet of Chloris. They imprisoned me in a pit and starved me for fifteen years. I am disinclined to commit su1c1de on their behalf.

DOCTOR: Erato, you came here for your own good and offered the deal to the wrong person. Will you now condemn an entire planet of innocent people to death?

ERATO: You may be right, Doctor.

DOCTOR: I know I'm right. Well?

ERATO: I will help you.

DOCTOR: Good. Now this is what I

ERATO: A moment please, Doctor. What would you have done if I had decided to abandon you?

DOCTOR: Oh well, it's a hypothetical question, my dear old thing.

ERATO: What do you mean?

DOCTOR: Well, I took the precaution of removing your photon drive. Be a good girl, Romana.

ROMANA: Organon? Doctor.

TORVIN: Here we are, my boys. Wealth beyond our wildest dreams. The purest, the most beautiful metal.

AINU: Yeah, I still say we should have picked up that shell.

TORVIN: Old brass plate, the shell. This is what we want. Metal, metal, metal. It'll make me the most, us the most powerful people on Chloris.

EDU: What if Ainu's right? What if that creature brings tons of metal to the planet? I say we go back and get that piece of shell.

TORVIN: Oh, buckets of iron at the end of the rainbow, planets full of tin. You believe in all that gobbledygook if you wish. I'll put my trust in this solid metal.

KARELA: There's another six inches to add to your collection, old man.

TORVIN: Tempered steel. Is that really tempered steel?

AINU: He's d*ad.

KARELA: k*ll me and you condemn yourselves to poverty. Without that piece of shell, all this metal is just worthless scrap. I have that piece of shell hidden. I think that gives us an interesting basis for conversation, doesn't it?

EDU: If it's hidden, what's to stop us k*lling you and letting it stay hidden?

KARELA: If it stays hidden. But is that a chance you want to take? Particularly since the alternative I'm offering you is the certainty of wealth and power if you join with me in seizing hold of it. The monopoly will stay in our hands, and with it then control of the whole planet. Well?

DOCTOR: I'm so sorry to butt in and at such a delicate moment, but if you're seriously thinking of taking over Chloris I think there's something you should know. In a very few hours, all that'll be left of it will be a few trillion tons of deep-fried rubble. Now, does that influence your thinking?

KARELA: What are you talking about, Doctor? You two, k*ll him.

DOCTOR: Wait! I'm talking about a shell fragment. If Erato doesn't get his ship launched within the hour, Chloris' sun will explode. How does that appeal? Still want to be scrap iron merchants?

KARELA: You're bluffing, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Really? Look.

HUNTSMAN: Tell us where the fragment is.

KARELA: No.

HUNTSMAN: Tell us.

KARELA: It's no use thr*at to k*ll me. I shan't tell you while I'm alive, and I certainly won't tell you when I'm d*ad. I don't believe your stupid story for a moment.

HUNTSMAN: And if it's true, you're condemning us all to death.

KARELA: That's a chance I'm prepared to take.

DOCTOR: For what? For this heap of scrap iron?

KARELA: Yes.

DOCTOR: Are you willing to sacrifice your life and the lives of everyone on this planet for wealth?

KARELA: Yes.

DOCTOR: I thought you'd say that. K9!

K9: Yes, master?

DOCTOR: Destroy it.

KARELA: No, no, no! You're destroying our metal!

DOCTOR: K9?

K9: Yes, master?

DOCTOR: Good dog.

K9: Thank you, master.

DOCTOR: Now, would you like to tell me where that fragment is hidden?

DOCTOR: Erato, can you hear me?

ERATO: I can hear you, Doctor. Preparing for takeoff.

DOCTOR: Have we picked up the neutron star yet?

ROMANA: Yes, Doctor. On band six.

DOCTOR: Good.

ROMANA: Doctor, I've been calculating our chances of success.

DOCTOR: I don't want to hear them.

ROMANA: Very wise.

DOCTOR: Dematerialise now.

DOCTOR: This is going to be very nasty.

ROMANA: I know.

DOCTOR: You in position, Erato?

ERATO: I am ready, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Gravity tractor beam, activate!

ROMANA: Doctor!

DOCTOR: Deactivate tractor beam.

ROMANA: We can't hold it for more than five seconds at a time.

ERATO: Doctor.

DOCTOR: Yes, Erato?

ERATO: You must hold the star. I'm being dragged towards it.

DOCTOR: Hold tight, everybody.

DOCTOR: That's got it. Erato, get weaving! We're winning, Romana, we're winning.

ROMANA: We're placing a terrible strain on the TARDIS.

DOCTOR: How much longer, Erato?

ERATO: You can turn off your gravity beam in five of your seconds.

DOCTOR: Good.

ERATO: Four, three, two, one.

ROMANA: Doctor, what happened?

DOCTOR: The control circuit. I can't turn off the beam!

ROMANA: What?

DOCTOR: We're pulling the star towards us.

ROMANA: We've got to dematerialise!

DOCTOR: Erato, we did it!

ERATO: I still it was impossible.

ROMANA: So do I, though I did calculate our changes of success at seventy four million three hundred and eighty four thousand three hundred and thirty eight to one against.

DOCTOR: What? Seventy four million three hundred and eighty four thousand three hundred and thirty eight? Well, that's extraordinary.

ROMANA: Why?

DOCTOR: Well, that's my lucky number.

ORGANON: I see something tall, something dark.

HUNTSMAN: How in Chloris did that get here?

ORGANON: I don't know, but it's tall and dark and

DOCTOR: Handsome! Yes, yes, I know, Organon.

ORGANON: Doctor!

DOCTOR: Are you in charge here now?

HUNTSMAN: Yes.

DOCTOR: Good, good. Well, we've just dropped in to say goodbye and to give you this. It's from Erato.

HUNTSMAN: It's a draft contract for a trading agreement.

HUNTSMAN: Do you know what this is?

ORGANON: Yes.

HUNTSMAN: What?

ORGANON: It's a draft contract for a trading agreement.

HUNTSMAN: How on Chloris did you know that?

ORGANON: It was written in the stars.
{"type": "series", "show": "Doctor Who", "episode": "17x12 - The Creature from the Pit - part 4"}