Mondas Rising : Weaponised Astrology

…as I wandered through the Wyrrd and Lurid landscape of Another Planet —

Mondas : Gaia's Evil Twin
Or, Nemesis.

POLLY : 

What's happened to you, Doctor? 

Old Grandfather : 

Oh, I'm not sure, my dear. 

Comes from 

an outside influence. 

Unless this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin....

— suddenly, there was A Change.

The existence of 

The Mars Effect 

scientifically verifies 

the most fundamental 

principle of astrology : 

That there is a connection 

between a person's character 

and the planetary positions 

at the time and location of birth. 

Here, too, reasonable people 

can come to no other conclusion -- 

especially after they examine 

the whole of the nearly 40 years 

of Gauquelin research. 

Astrologers, of course, have described 

just such a connection all along.

 

Old Grandfather: 
Your Planet is finished. 
It will disintegrate. 
We know why you came here, 

so why not stay and live 

with us in peace? 

REGOS KRANG: 
We will confer. 
Keep your places. 
Anyone who moves will be killed instantly. 

BARCLAY: 
Can We Trust Them? 

BEN: 
No, of course we can't. 

Old Grandfather : 
We have no chance. 

We must play for time. Be quiet. 

Well, sir, what have you decided? 

REGOS KRANG: 
We cannot talk while that missile is aimed at Mondas. 
It must be disarmed first. 

Old Grandfather : 
A moment, please. 
Are you able to disarm this rocket? 

BARCLAY: 
Well, yes, but, er -

Old Grandfather : 
It will give us the time we need. 

BEN: 
The time for Mondas to burn itself out, you mean?  

REGOS KRANG: 

Listen to me -

 This close proximity of our two planets means that one has to be eliminated for the safety of the other. 

The One to Be Destroyed will be Earth. 

We cannot allow Mondas to burn up. 

If you help, we will take you all 

back to Mondas with us. 

There you will be safe. 

BEN: 

Yeah? For how long? 

DYSON: 

It could be our only chance. 

BEN: 

The Answer is No! 

We'll just sit tight here 

until Mondas breaks up. 

Now then, you'd better release 

The Doctor and Polly 

and send them down here. 

You're gonna need Our Help 

when Mondas is gone.

KRANG : 

Mondas will not burn up. 

Take The Old Man out to the spacecraft. 

BEN : 

Look, The Doctor said that 

it's not only Earth that's in danger, 

but that Mondas itself 

is in far greater danger. 

Otherwise, why have they bothered coming Here? 

CUTLER: 

And just how did he figure that out? 

It's draining energy 

from the Earth, isn't it? 

BEN: 

Yes, but he said eventually 

it would absorb too much energy 

and burn itself out. 

Well, shrivel up to nothing. 

So all we've got to do is wait! 

BEN: 

Right, Doctor. While they take him out, 

we'll make a break for it! 

Old Grandfather : 

Hmm? 

BEN: 

We can get back to the TARDIS! 

Old Grandfather : 

Well how can we do that, boy? 

BEN: 

Well, we can make a break for it down that corridor, 

to the trapdoor and then bolt it from behind. 

Old Grandfather: 

Nonsense, nonsense, 

They'll burn us down in a flash. 

Upset The Established Order, 

and everything becomes chaos -- 

....I'm An Agent of Chaos. 

Oh, and you know 

The Thing About Chaos...? 

It's Fair.

reiki to the rescue 

BARCLAY: 

Take visual checks on Mars 

to establish position. Report back. 

WILLIAMS [OC]: 

Will do, out. 

[Zeus 4]

WILLIAMS: 

Did you get that, Dan? 

SCHULTZ: 

Yeah. 

WILLIAMS: 

Okay, go ahead. 

Should be about 4-2-0. 

(Checking through the telescope.) 

SCHULTZ: 

No. It's 4-3-2. 

WILLIAMS: 

It can't be. Try again. 

SCHULTZ: 

I am. 

WILLIAMS: 

Come on, shake it up. 

We'll be back in sunrise in a bit. 

SCHULTZ: 

Cut it out, Glyn. 

WILLIAMS: 

Did you read conversation?

BARCLAY [OC]: 

Yes. We're getting a Mars fix too. Call back. 

SCHULTZ: 

Hey, Glyn? 

WILLIAMS: 

Yeah? 

SCHULTZ: 

Well, er, take it easy but, er 

WILLIAMS: 

Come on, come on, what is it? 

SCHULTZ: 

It wasn't Mars I had.

WILLIAMS: 

Well that explains it, doesn't it. 

Come on now, Dan, try again. 

SCHULTZ: 

No, listen, Glyn, there's 

Something Else out there. 

WILLIAMS: 

What do you mean? 

SCHULTZ: 

There's Another Planet out there! 

WILLIAMS: 

Another Planet? 

SCHULTZ: 

Yeah. 

WILLIAMS: 

Yeah, you're right. 
There is something. 
I can't see properly but it reads 

as if it was in orbit between 

Mars and Venus.

SCHULTZ: 

Yeah, that's it. 

Funny how I can't put me finger on it 

but it looks kinda familiar.

WILLIAMS: 

Yeah. 

SCHULTZ: 
Came the dawn. 

WILLIAMS: 

Yeah. Well, I guess we've had enough 

Earth observations for a bit. 

Hello Snowcap. Hello Snowcap. 

We're now in dawn over San Francisco. 

Can you get the subject from where you are? 

BARCLAY [OC]: 

Snowcap to Zeus 4. 

You are very faint. 

Put up your power output please. 

WILLIAMS: 

It is up. 

BARCLAY [OC]: 

Reading you strength three. 

Come in, please. 

WILLIAMS: 

Repeat, can you get the subject on your retina scope? 

BARCLAY [OC]: 

Can do. 

WILLIAMS: 

Hey. Hey, Dan. That's odd. 

SCHULTZ: 

Yeah? 

WILLIAMS: 

Fuel cells are showing a power loss. 

[Tracking room]

BARCLAY: (into microphone) 

May I have your attention, everybody. 

This is very important, so please listen carefully.

 

Final orbit commencing from base reference one is four minutes, ten seconds [410] from now.

 

Now, we've got a very difficult job on our hands 

and I want everybody to be on their toes all the time. 

If the capsule power falls too low 

I shall take over re-entry from here, 

and for that I want the entire team behind me. 

Now, base reference one commencing 

[Observation area]

BARCLAY [OC]: 

Now. 

Old Grandfather : 

Yes, they must bring them down. 

BEN: 

But why, Doctor? 

Old Grandfather: 

Because they can't last another orbit. 

[Tracking room]

(The Doctor storms in, then stops as he spots three pairs of silver boots entering from outside. He shakes the General's shoulder.) 

Old Grandfather:

It's imperative that I talk to you, General. 

CUTLER: 

Get away, old man. Can't you see 

DOCTOR: (to Barclay.) 

You, will you pay attention? Will you?! 

(Cutler sees the three Cybermen and mistakes them for soldiers.) 

CUTLER: 

Get this man back into the Observation room. 

Sergeant, that was an order! 

Take that man back to the obs 

(The Cyberman takes off his parka. Polly screams. The other two Cybermen reveal themselves.) 

CUTLER: 

Back to your places. 

(Suddenly, the soldier who had been guarding the Doctor, Ben and Polly rushes towards the Cyberman with his gun raised. The Cyberman at the top of the landing aims a light device at him. Smoke comes from the guard's body, and he falls backwards to the floor.) 

[Observation room]

POLLY: 

Oh. no! 

BEN: 

Come back, Polly. They'll blow your head off! 

Old Grandfather : 

Hey! 

[Tracking room]

CUTLER: 

Now look, I don't know who you are or what you are, but we've got two men in space. If we don't act now we won't get them back alive. 

(The Cyberman opens its mouth but does not move any lips as it speaks in a strange sing-song tone that puts emphasis in all the wrong places.) 

KRAIL: 

They will not return. 

CUTLER: 

Why not? 

KRAIL: 

It is unimportant now. 

CUTLER: 

But We must get them back! When --

KRAIL: 

There is really no point. 

They could never reach Earth now. 

POLLY :

But don't you care? 

KRAIL: 

Care? No, why should I care? 

POLLY: 

Because they're people 

and they're going to die! 

KRAIL: 

I do not understand you --

There are people dying all over Your World 

Yet you do not care about them. 

(Polly rushes in, with the Doctor and Ben behind her.) 

POLLY: 

Yes, but we could avoid their deaths. 

KRAIL: 

You will be wondering what has happened. Your astronomers must have just discovered a new planet. Is that not so? 

BARCLAY: 

Yes, that's right. 

KRAIL: 

That is where we come from. 

It is called Mondas. 

BEN: 

Mondas? 

BARCLAY: 

Mondas? But isn't that one of the ancient names of Earth? 

KRAIL: 

Yes. Aeons ago the planets were twins, 

then we drifted away from you on a journey 

to the edge of space. Now we have returned. 

BEN: 

You were right, Doctor. 

BARCLAY: 

But who or what are you? 

KRAIL: 

We are called Cybermen. 

BARCLAY: 

Cybermen? 

KRAIL: 

Yes, Cybermen. 

We were exactly like you once 

but our cybernetic scientists realised 

that our race was getting weak. 

BARCLAY: 

Weak? How? 

KRAIL: 

Our life span was getting shorter, 

so our scientists and doctors devised spare parts 

for our bodies until we could be 

almost completely replaced. 

POLLY: 

But that means you're not like us. 

You're robots! 

KRAIL: 

Our brains are just like yours except that 

certain weaknesses have been removed. 

BARCLAY: 

Weaknesses? What weaknesses? 

KRAIL: 

You call them emotions, do you not? 

POLLY: 

But that's terrible -- You, you mean 

you wouldn't care about someone in pain? 

KRAIL: 

There would be no need. 

We do not feel pain. 

POLLY: 

But we do!