I think a lot about Meteors

noetic (adj.)

"pertaining to, performed by, or originating in the intellect," 1650s, from Greek noētikos "intelligent," from noēsis "a perception, intelligence, thought" (see noesis). 

Related: Noetical (1640s).

noesis (n.)

"intellect, intelligence," 1820, from Greek noēsis "intelligence, thought," from noein "to see, perceive, have mental perception," from noos "mind, thought" which is of uncertain origin.

( Leela has just helped to transfer The Flag — The TARDIS hatstand — back to the main control room )

LEELA: 

We've never been 

in here before!

DOCTOR: 

You've never been 

in here before. 

LEELA: 

What is it? 

DOCTOR: 

Number Two control room — 

 been closed for redecoration. 

I Don't Like The Colour.

LEELA: 

White isn't a colour. 

DOCTOR:

 That's The Trouble 

with Computers. 

Always Think in Black and White. 

No aquamarines, no blues, 

no imagination. 

(The time rotor stops.) 

LEELA:

Have we stopped? 

DOCTOR: 

No, we haven't stopped. 

(The viewscreen opens.) 

LEELA: 

Have we materialised? 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. 

LEELA: 

Where? 

DOCTOR: 

Solar System, between 

Jupiter and Saturn. 

About 5000 AD. 

5000 AD? 

We're still in the time of your ancestors. 

LEELA: 

Ancestors? 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. That was the year of the great breakout. 

LEELA: 

The great what?

DOCTOR: 

Mmm. When your forefathers went 

leapfrogging across the solar system 

on their way to the stars. 

Asteroid belt's probably teeming with them now. 

New Frontiersmen, Pioneers 

waiting to spread across The Galaxy 

like a tidal wave. 

Or a disease. 

LEELA:

Why 'disease'? 

I thought you 

liked Humanity?

DOCTOR: 

Oh, I do, I do. 

Some of my best 

friends are humans. 

But when they get together in great numbers, 

other lifeforms sometimes suffer.

(Andred tries to activate the scanner.)

 

ANDRED: 

It's jammed.

 

DOCTOR:

Yes. And it's going to stay jammed until the invaders have gone. 

You see, while I'm in here, 

they can't touch me, 

and they can't read my thoughts.

 

ANDRED: 
You mean, They can Travel along any form 
of broadcast wavelength?
 
Tom : 
Yes, and materialise at the end of it. 
But until They do materialise, 
I can't identify their planet of origin 

and time-loop it.

 

ANDRED: 
But You have access to 

The Greatest Source 
of Knowledge in The Universe.

 

Tom : 
Well, I do talk to myself 

sometimes, yes.
 

ANDRED: 
I mean, The Matrix.

 

DOCTOR: 
Oh. Oh, that old thing. 
Yeah. There's a problem there. 
I've been under a bit of a strain recently. 
You see, The Matrix has 
been invaded.

 

ANDRED: 

The Matrix has been invaded?

 

DOCTOR: 

Yes.

 

ANDRED : 

Why haven't you explained this to 

The Supreme Council?

 

DOCTOR: 
Shush. 
Because They can read thoughts. 
Even encephalographic patterns. 
That's why I've plugged K9 
into The Matrix instead of Me --
He's got no brains, you see.
 Sorry about that, K9.

 

ANDRED: 
Can you Trust A Machine?
 
DOCTOR: 
This one I can --
He's My Second-Best Friend.

Ultron: 

[as Natasha becomes conscious] 

I wasn't sure you'd wake up. 

I hoped you would, 

I wanted to show you something. 

I don't have 

anyone else. 

I think a lot about meteors, 

the •purity• of them. 

!BOOM! 

The End, start again. 

The World made clean for The New Man to rebuild. 

I was meant to be new. 

I was meant to be beautiful. 

The World would've looked to the sky 

and seen Hope, seen Mercy. 

Instead they'll look up in horror because of YOU. 

You've wounded me. 

I give you full marks for that. 

But, like The Man says, 

"What doesn't kill me…" 

[a much bigger, all-vibranium body of Ultron's rips the previous one in two.] 

"…just makes me stronger." 

[he locks Natasha in a cell]

[Titan base]

LOWE: Drop your weapons. I'm arresting you. All of you! 

(The three spacemen spin round. Lowe kills Silvey then runs. He hides behind a door labelled Kryogenics Sexshun. Safran and Meeker follow him.) 

SAFRAN: 

Close the door. Turn off the oxygen supply. 

(The Doctor briefly looks out of the Tardis, goes back inside then comes out again a few moments later. Leela follows slowly, knife ready.) 

DOCTOR: 

Nobody around. Not a soul. 

(The Doctor sounds a duck call.) 

DOCTOR: 

Anyone home? 

LEELA: 

Doctor, look. 

(They go to Silvey's body.) 

DOCTOR: 

Disregard mayday. 

He said disregard mayday. Why? 

LEELA: 

It is still warm. 

DOCTOR: 

Don't be gruesome. 

LEELA: 

I am a hunter. 

DOCTOR: 

You're a savage. 

LEELA: 

Perhaps. I'm not ashamed of what I am 

and I tell you, Doctor, 

I can smell danger. 

DOCTOR: 

What did you say? 

LEELA: 

I said, I can smell danger. 

DOCTOR: 

Evil again? 

LEELA: 

Everywhere. In this place. 

DOCTOR: 

We'd better find it before it finds us. 

LEELA: 

Right. 

DOCTOR: 

Stay here. 

LEELA: 

I'm no coward. 

(The Doctor moves off. Leela runs in another direction. The Doctor returns, walking backwards.) 

DOCTOR: 

Now listen, whatever happens. 

(He realises she has already gone, and leaves.)

[Base control]

SAFRAN: 

Set temperature and humidity rate 

for optimum breeding conditions. 

MEEKER: 

Set temperature and humidity rate 

for optimum breeding conditions. 

(The Doctor enters.) 

DOCTOR: 

Excuse me, you don't know me. 

Let me introduce myself. 

SAFRAN: 

There is no need. 

We are preparing the hives now. 

DOCTOR: 

People call me the D...

Hives? 

SAFRAN: 

For the nucleus which you carry within you. 

DOCTOR: 

Are you all right? 

I answered your mayday. 

(Safran and Meeker turn, and the Doctor sees the silver growths on their faces. He backs away a little.) 

SAFRAN: 

You answered the call? 

DOCTOR: 

That's right, that's right. 

Has someone been hurt?

SAFRAN: 

It is of no consequence. 

The physical envelope is of no importance. 

MEEKER: 

Of no importance. 

DOCTOR: 

What do you mean, of no importance? 

I just found a dead body out there. 

(Energy passes between Meeker and the Doctor.) 

MEEKER: 

Now that you have arrived. 

DOCTOR: 

I have arrived. 

SAFRAN: 

All that matters is that the reject should be destroyed. 

DOCTOR: 

Reject should be destroyed. 

SAFRAN: 

And breeding begin. 

DOCTOR: 

And breeding from my nucleus begin. 

(Leela finds the Kryogenics door and opens it. Lowe topples out, covered in ice. She drags him away. Meanwhile, Safran gives the Doctor his weapon.) 

DOCTOR: 

Leela The Reject will not suspect me. 

SAFRAN: 

One of us will follow. 

DOCTOR: 

That is not necessary. 

SAFRAN: 

The nucleus within you must not be harmed. 

MEEKER: 

Must not be harmed. 

DOCTOR: 

Very well. 

(The Doctor and Meeker leave.)

[Mess]

(Leela gives the recovering Lowe a hot drink.) 

LOWE: 

Who are you? 

LEELA: 

We answered your mayday. 

LOWE: 

They tried to kill me. The relief crew. 

They're insane. They've already killed these poor devils. 

LEELA: 

But why? Are they your enemies? 

LOWE: 

No. I know them. At least, I thought I did. 

But they've changed. 

LEELA: How changed? 

LOWE: Their eyes, their manner, their whole behaviour is different. One of them said something. 

LEELA: What? 

LOWE: 

Their purpose. 

"This place will be suitable for our purpose. 

For our purpose", whatever that is. 

LEELA: The Doctor will know. He'll be here soon.

[Titan base]

DOCTOR: 

Leela? Leela, where are you?

[Mess]

LEELA: 

That's him. That's The Doctor. 

LOWE: 

No, wait. 

It could be a trap, if they've caught him. 

LEELA: 

What are we going to do? 

LOWE: 

Hide. 

(Leela stands beside the door and Lowe picks up his weapon.) 

DOCTOR [OC]: 

Don't worry, Leela, it's only me. Listen to me, Leela. 

There's nothing wrong with this place. 

It's most suitable. 

It's a good place. 

A good place.

[Titan base]

DOCTOR: 

Come on, Leela. I'm waiting. 

Please leave me. Please. 

I can't do it. I can't do it. 

MEEKER: 

Think of the purpose. 

She is a reject. She must die. 

DOCTOR: I can't. 

MEEKER: 

Think of the purpose! 

DOCTOR: 

I can't. 

MEEKER: 

The purpose is all important! 

(Lowe knocks over a plant.) 

DOCTOR: 

The reject is here. 

(They walk to the Mess door.) 

MEEKER: 

Stay. The nucleus does not wish to be harmed. 

I shall destroy her. 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. Kill her. Kill her.

[Mess]

(Meeker enters and shoots the gun out of Lowe's hand. Leela throws her knife into his back. Meeker falls over a chair. Leela grabs her knife back and runs out, also carrying a gun.) 

LOWE: 

Meeker, this purpose, what is it? 

(Energy transfers from Meeker to Lowe, then he dies. Lowe runs after Leela.)

[Titan base]

LOWE: 

Leave it to me. 

I know this place. 

(Lowe runs off. The Doctor comes up behind Leela, holding a gun in his very hairy hand.)

Part Two

[Titan base]

NUCLEUS [OC]: 

Destroy. The Reject must be destroyed. 

Kill. Kill. 

DOCTOR [OC]: 

I can't. I won't. 

NUCLEUS [OC]: 

You must. 

DOCTOR: 

Leela. 

LEELA: 

Doctor! 

(She turns and sees the gun.) 

DOCTOR: 

Leela, I can't stop it. 

(Leela ducks as he fires.) 

DOCTOR: 

Got to fight it. 

Got to fight it. 

(The Doctor curls up into a ball.) 

LEELA: 

Doctor, what's wrong? 

(He lets go of the gun, and the long silver hairs on his hand disappear.) 

LEELA: 

Doctor, what was all that? 

DOCTOR: 

I'm fighting for my mind. 

Whatever it was that attacked Safran and the others is also affecting me. 

LEELA: 

Why not me? 

DOCTOR: 

Perhaps because...Oh! 

I can feel it gathering strength to attack again. 

LEELA: 

The Evil One? 

DOCTOR: 

Some kind of organism that attacks 

the mind, the intelligence. 

It's trying to take me over, Leela. 

It's trying to change me. 

LEELA: 

No, Doctor, please. 

DOCTOR: 

I need help. 

I must withdraw into myself, save strength. 

(The Doctor becomes very still.) 

LEELA: 

Why not me?

[Titan base airlock]

(Safran has just pressed the button when Lowe comes round the corner. Safran draws his gun.) 

LOWE: 

No, wait. 

Contact has been made. 

(Lowe has the silver scales around his eyes.) 

LOWE: 

We are one, Safran. 

SAFRAN: 

Then why pursue me? 

LOWE: 

For The Purpose. 

The Doctor has not yet succumbed to 

The Power of The Nucleus. 

You will prepare the tanks for incubation. 

They do not suspect me yet. 

I will stay with them to guard The Nucleus 

and to destroy the reject. 

(Leela is running along the corridor. Lowe snatches a pair of goggles from Safran and puts them on.) 

LOWE: 

Give me those. Get down! 

LEELA: 

Did you get him? 

LOWE: 

Yes, but he almost got me. 

My eyes caught a flash from his blaster. 

LEELA: 

Come with me. 

The Doctor's ill, very ill. 

He told me to get help.

LOWE: 

But there are no facilities here. 

LEELA: 

Well, where, then? 

(Lowe and Leela leave, and Safran gets up again.)

[Titan base]

(The Doctor is still sitting very still. The Nucleus speaks inside Lowe's head.) 

NUCLEUS [OC]: 

You must protect The Host. 

LOWE: 

The nearest place is the Centre for Alien Biomorphology. 

But that's in the asteroid belt. 

LEELA: 

We'll take the TARDIS. 

Doctor, we're taking you somewhere to get help, 

but we need the TARDIS. 

Now, where are we going? 

LOWE: 

The Bi-Al Foundation, 

asteroid K four zero six seven. 

LEELA: 

What are the coordinates? 

Doctor, what are the coordinates? 

DOCTOR: 

Vector one nine, 

quadrant three. 

Seven four three. 

LEELA: 

Seven four three.

(They help him up.) 

DOCTOR: 

Eight zero zero.

[Bi-Al Foundation]

The asteroid has been completely hollowed out, and has lots of groups of windows in its surface. 

There is also a Red Cross logo, a tall antenna and a space ambulance on a landing pad. 

Inside, a patient swathed in gold foil has been strapped to a gurney and is being wheeled away down a corridor on level 2X. 

It is The Doctor. 

He is put inside a frosted compartment in the wall, 

the attendant presses a button and leaves. 

At the reception desk, 

Leela is checking him in. 

The TARDIS is neatly parked nearby, next to a potted palm.

WOMAN: 

Patient's name? 

LEELA: 

Er, just The Doctor. 

WOMAN: 

Place of origin? 

LEELA: 

Gallifrey. 

WOMAN: 

Ireland? 

LEELA: 

Oh, I expect so. 

WOMAN: 

Thank you, that's all we need for now. 

LEELA: 

But where is he? 

WOMAN: 

Level X4, Isolation, 

being datalysed. 

LEELA: 

Being what? 

WOMAN: 

Datalysed. 

Treatment is already underway. 

Are you next of kin? 

LEELA: 

Oh, no. Er, yes. 

I don't know. I expect so. 

(Lowe enters, wearing the goggles of course.) 

LOWE: 

Where's The Doctor?

 

LEELA: 

They've taken him away to level X4. 

LOWE: 

X4? 

WOMAN: 

Isolation. 

What's your trouble? 

LOWE: 

Blaster flash. 

Accident. 

WOMAN: 

Eye section straight through. 

They'll deal with you there. 

LOWE: (to Leela) 

I'll find you later. 

(Lowe leaves.) 

LEELA: 

Can I be with the Doctor? 

WOMAN: 

Not until Professor Marius 

has had a chance to examine him. 

LEELA: 

Marius? 

WOMAN: 

He's our specialist in extraterrestrial pathological endomorphisms. 

LEELA: Oh. 

WOMAN: 

Wait over there, please.

[Isolation ward]

(A wild-haired man takes a paper readout from a mobile computer built in the shape of a dog, and turns to his assistant. He speaks with a teutonic accent.) 

MARIUS: 

Blithering idiots, the pair of you. 

This man is in a self-induced coma. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the fellow. 

Oh, look at him. 

(The Doctor is lying on the examination table.) 

MARIUS: 

He's probably one of those good-for-nothing spaceniks. 

Now, why have I been sent for? 

Tell me that. Why? 

Complete and utter waste of time. 

(The dog-computer is producing another printout from its 'muzzle'.)

PARSONS: 

Excuse me, sir. 

MARIUS: 

What, what, what, what, what? 

PARSONS: 

K9 indicates that the, The Patient 

is not a member of The Human Race!

MARIUS: 

Nonsense. 

PARSONS: 

Well, see for yourself.

Look, Two Hearts. 

Symbiotic, self-renewing 

cell structure. 

MARIUS: 

Is this right, K9? 

K9: (for it is he) 

Affirmative, Master. 

MARIUS: 

Is he now. Point of origin? 

K9: 

Beyond the solar system. 

MARIUS: 

Thank you, K9. 

K9: 

Master. 

MARIUS: 

Nurse, let's get an encephalograph out on him, hmm? 

(The Doctor is slid underneath a scanning device. K9 beeps.) 

MARIUS: 

Well, well, what is it? 

K9: 

Unidentified viral type infection with noetic characteristics, 

at present seated in the mind-brain interface 

and therefore having no ascertainable mass or structure, master. 

MARIUS: 

Interesting. Most interesting. 

It isn't every night that we come up with a brand new infection, is it, Parsons? 

PARSONS: 

No, sir. 

(The Doctor sits up.) 

DOCTOR: 

Hello. 

MARIUS: 

Good evening. 

DOCTOR: 

Find anything? 

MARIUS: 

Not yet, my boy, 

but we will, we will. 

(Marius lies the Doctor back down again. An image of the Doctor's head comes up on the scanner.) 

MARIUS: 

Ah, Doctor, I see. 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. What have you found? 

MARIUS: 

Cataleptic trance? 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. 

MARIUS: 

Self-induced. 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. 

MARIUS: 

Ha. Why? 

DOCTOR: 

Self-preservation. 

Whatever it is I'm suffering from 

seems to thrive on intellectual activity. 

MARIUS: 

Oh, I see. 

You mean that the harder you think, 

the more of a grip it seems to take? 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. Non-thinking is the only way to shake it off, 

but I can't stay mindless for eternity, can I.

MARIUS: 

Oh, no, I take your point, I take your point. 

Now my computer here, he's —

DOCTOR: 

Ah. Hello. 

K9: 

Hello. 

DOCTOR: 

How are you? 

MARIUS: 

Well, he seems to think that it's noetic in character, 

that means it's only detectable during consciousness. 

DOCTOR: 

I know what noetic means. 

MARIUS: 

I'm sorry. 

DOCTOR: 

Mind-brain interface. 

MARIUS: 

Well, if it exists. 

DOCTOR: 

But of course. 

How stupid. 

That's why it attacked The 

TARDIS Computer first. 

It was showing the greatest 

amount of mental activity. 

I was just idling, so to speak. 

MARIUS: 

When was this? 

DOCTOR: 

When we were first attacked.

We were on our way to Titan. 

I assumed it was just a static build-up. 

Then when I checked The Computer, 

it jumped into my mind, 

and that explains why Leela was —

MARIUS: 

Hmm? 

DOCTOR: 

Why Leela was unaffected. 

Have you met Leela? 

MARIUS: 

No. 

DOCTOR: 

She's all Instinct and Intuition. 

MARIUS: 

Oh. 

DOCTOR:

That's why The Virus rejected her. 

Of course. I begin to see it all now. 

MARIUS: 

Well, it's possible, it's possible. 

Was anyone else exposed to it? 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. The entire crew on Titan. 

Well, one exception. 

The Supervisor, man called Lowe. 

K9: 

Supervisor Lowe has been 

seen in The Eye Section. 

MARIUS: 

Are you sure? 

K9: 

Affirmative. 

(The Doctor goes back into his coma.) 

MARIUS: 

Are you sure that he was the, oh. 

Oh dear, he's gone again. 

I want him kept under 

constant observation. 

See to it, K9. 

Full monitoring. 

K9: 

Affirmative, Master. 

Other Carriers

The Virus :

I am The Virus of The Nucleus of The Swarm. 

For millennia we have hung dormant in Space waiting for the right carriers to come along.

 

DOCTOR 2:

 Carriers?!? 

What do you mean, carriers?!

I'm not A Porter!!

 

NUCLEUS: 

Consider the Human Species. 

They send hordes of settlers across space to breed, multiply, conquer and dominate. 

We have as much right to conquer you as you have to strike out across the stars.

 

 

WMM: 

A Weak Vaccine against The Virus Agent Scully has been infected with. 

It must be administered within 96 hours. 

That leaves you little time to reach those coordinates.

 

MULDER: 

You're lying.

 

WMM: 

No. Though I have no means to prove otherwise. 

 

The Virus is Extra-Terrestrial. 

 

We know very little about it

except that it was

the original inhabitant of This Planet.

 

MULDER:

(unbelieving) 

A virus...

 

WMM: 

What is A Virus, but a colonizing force that cannot be defeated? 

Living in a cave, underground, until it mutates ... and attacks.

 

 

MULDER: 

This is what you've been conspiring to conceal?

A Disease?

 

WMM: 

No! For God's sake,

you've got it all backwards! 

 

AIDS, the Ebola virus, on an evolutionary scale they are newborns. 

This Virus Walked The Planet long before The dinosaurs.

 

MULDER:

(smiling in disbelief) 

What do you mean “walked"?

 

WMM: 

Your aliens, Agent Mulder. 

Your little green men arrived here millions of years ago. 

 

Those that didn't leave have been lying dormant

underground since the last ice age

in the form of an evolved pathogen,

waiting to be reconstituted by the alien race

when it comes to colonize the planet -- using us as hosts.

 

 Against this we have no defense,

nothing but a weak vaccine. 

 

Do you see why it was kept secret? 

 

Why even The Best Men,

Men like Your Father,

could not let The Truth be known. 

 

Until Dallas we believed The Virus would simply control us,

that mass infection would make us a slave race. 

 

Imagine our surprise when They began to gestate. 

 

My group has been working cooperatively with the alien colonists,

facilitating programs like the one you saw,

to give us access to the virus

in The Hope that we might be able to secretly develop A Cure.

 

MULDER: 

To save your own asses.

 

WMM: 

"Survival is The Ultimate Ideology" 

Your Father wisely refused to believe this.

 

MULDER: 

But he sacrificed My Sister. 

He let them take Samantha.

 

WMM: 

Without a vaccination, the only true survivors of the viral holocaust

will be those immune to it - human-alien clones. 

 

He allowed your sister to be abducted,

to be taken to a cloning program, for one reason...

 

MULDER: 

So she would survive. 

As a genetic hybrid.

 

WMM: 

Your Father chose Hope over Selfishness. 

Hope in the only future he had, his children.

 

His Hope for you was that you would uncover 

The Truth about The Project. 

 

That you would stop it, 

that you would Fight The Future.

 

 

Mulder lets it all sink in.

The driver's eyes look at him through the rear-view mirror.

Darn good driver if he ain't watching the road!

 

MULDER: 

Why are you Telling Me This?

 

WMM: 

For the sake of My Own Children. 

 

Once it's learned What I Have Told You, 

My Life will be over.

 

 

[The Doctor's Brain]

 

Mini-Lowe gets to connection seven and through the gunky bit.

 

NUCLEUS [OC]:

Hurry! Hurry! They are closing in. Hurry, hurry, hurry!

 

Over in the other half of the brain.

 

LEELA 2:

Is this your Land of Dreams and Fantasies?

 

DOCTOR 2:

Well, on the way to it.

 

LEELA 2:

The Evil Thing. Very close. And another.

Doctor, we're going to be trapped.

 

The Doctor goes a little further on,

and finds a three foot high pile of yuk

with a single clawed tentacle flailing around.

 

DOCTOR 2:

Who are you?

 

NUCLEUS:

I am The Nucleus.

 

DOCTOR 2:

You're trespassing, you know.

Treading on my unconscious, affecting my metabolism --

 

Nucleus of what?

 

NUCLEUS:

The Nucleus of The Swarm.

 

DOCTOR 2:

Oh. Oh, I see.

Why did you choose my brain?

 

NUCLEUS:

Because of your intelligence

.

DOCTOR 2:

Oh, well, I can understand that,

but do you realise you have No Right --

 

NUCLEUS:

I have every Right!

 

It is The Right of every creature across The Universe to Survive,

Multiply and Perpetuate it's Species.

 

How else does The Predator exist?

We are all Predators, Doctor.

We Kill, we Devour, to Live.

 

Survival is All, you agree?

 

DOCTOR 2:

Oh yes, I do, I do. And on your argument,

I have A Perfect Right to dispose of you.

 

NUCLEUS:

Of course. The Law is,

'Survival of The Fittest'.

 

DOCTOR 2: Touch�.

 

NUCLEUS:

Your time is running short.

How do you intend to dispose of me?

 

You have no weapons,

and in minutes you will cease to exist.

 

I am The Virus of The Nucleus of The Swarm --

For millennia we have hung dormant in space waiting for the right carriers to come along.

 

DOCTOR 2:

Carriers? What do you mean, ‘carriers'?

I'm not A Porter!!?

 

NUCLEUS:

Consider The Human Species :

They send hordes of settlers across space

to breed, multiply, conquer and dominate.

 

We have as much Right to Conquer you

as you have to strike out across the stars.

 

DOCTOR 2:

But you intend to dominate both worlds,

The Micro and The Macrocosm.

 

NUCLEUS:

We have waited, waited in the cold wastes of space.

Waited for Mankind to come.

 

And now we have not only Space but Time Itself within our grasp.

 

DOCTOR 2:

Time?

NUCLEUS: Through you, Time Lord.

 

Meanwhile, mini-Leela has found mini-Lowe and snuck up behind him.

They grapple briefly. He shoots her then she stabs him.

Phagocytes arrive and attack mini-Lowe as the injured Leela makes her escape.

 

NUCLEUS:

So, Doctor, how can you puny creatures compare yourselves to Us,

The Swarm, The New Masters of Time, Space and The Cosmos.

 

DOCTOR 2:

New Masters?

Not if I can help it.

 

NUCLEUS:

But you cannot. Your time is up.

You have fallen for my stratagem.

Already you cease to exist.

 

Leela arrives.

 

DOCTOR 2:

Get out of My Brain.

 

[Isolation ward]

 

Marius collects something from the Doctor's left tear duct onto a microscope slide.

 

LOWE:

Destroy them!

Destroy them now!

 

MARIUS:

No, no, we must find out What Happened.

We must restore them to their full size and interrogate them.

 

Marius puts the slide in the cubicle and activates the RDS.

Whatever is growing in there, it isn't the Doctor and Leela.

 

[The Doctor's brain]

 

DOCTOR 2:

Get Out of My Brain!

 

There's a flash and the Doctor, Leela and the nucleus vanish.

 

DOCTOR [OC]:

The tear duct. The tear duct. The tear duct. The tear duct. The tear duct. Tear duct.

 

Leela's knife and leather clothes remain.

 

[Isolation ward]

 

The scales disappear from around The Doctor's eyes,

and from his skin.

 

The thing in the cloning cubicle is fully grown,

with several pairs of claws and lots of bristles, but no feet.

 

It's a prawn, sort of.

 

NUCLEUS:

Help me out.

 

DOCTOR:

Professor Marius.

Oh no, not you too.

 

MARIUS:

Yes, Doctor.

Contact Has Been Made.

Now I serve The Purpose.

DOCTOR:

What? That pathetic crustacean, your leader?

MARIUS: You are speaking of the Nucleus, the Nucleus of the Swarm.

NUCLEUS: Take me to him.

DOCTOR: Finding the macro world difficult?

NUCLEUS: It suits me well.

DOCTOR: I thought I'd got rid of you.

NUCLEUS: You were mistaken. I made use of your escape route through the eye.

DOCTOR: Yes, you'd have known about that, wouldn't you.

 

NUCLEUS:

Another mistake, and a costly one, Time Lord, because now, thanks to your dimensional stabiliser, I am no longer forced to exist in the micro world to breed and multiply.

 

My Swarm, when it is hatched on Titan, will no longer be invisible microbes prey to all,

but mighty and invulnerable creatures, invincible.

 

The Age of Man is over, Doctor.

The Age of The Virus has begun.

 

DOCTOR:

— I've heard it all before.

You megalomaniacs are all the same.

 

NUCLEUS:

Bring him with us to Titan,

to be consumed by the Swarm.

 

[Bi-Al Foundation]

 

Elsewhere, Leela has got dressed up in a green nurses uniform,

and applied silver makeup around her eyes.

 

LEELA:

How do I look?

 

K9:

Friend, mistress.

 

LEELA:

If I can just get close enough to that Nucleus,

we'll see how friendly I am.

 

K9:

Hostiles approaching with The Doctor.

 

LEELA:

Come on.

 

(In a corridor.)

 

NUCLEUS:

Hurry, hurry. It is time for The Spawning.

I must get to the place prepared on Titan.

 

MARIUS:

Nurse, take over here.

I must assist The Nucleus.

 

NUCLEUS:

Hurry!

 

MARIUS:

Come with me.

 

NUCLEUS:

Breeding time approaches.

 

Marius and Lowe leave the Doctor's gurney in the hands of the nurse, Leela, and go on ahead.

Leela cuts the Doctor's restraints with her knife.

The party are assembled at Shuttle airlock entrance when Leela wheels him past.

MARIUS:

Nurse, not that way.

The Doctor rolls off the gurney.

 

MARIUS:

Stop them!

The Doctor pushes the gurney at Lowe as Leela takes cover and starts shooting, then they run.

 

LOWE:

They're getting away!

 

NUCLEUS:

No, they are simply trapped.

 

K9 enters.

 

NUCLEUS:

Marius, stay here to make sure the Doctor doesn't escape,

and Make Contact with all other staff in The Foundation.

Bring The Doctor to us later. Hurry!

 

[TARDIS]

 

The Doctor and Leela watch on the scanner. K9 has joined them.

LEELA: Now what?

 

DOCTOR:

Now nothing.

 

LEELA:

Doctor, if we get to Titan first, we can still beat That Thing.

 

DOCTOR:

No, we can't.

The Dimensional Stabiliser's still in the isolation ward.

Without it, The TARDIS won't move an inch.

 

LEELA:

You mean there's nothing we can do?

 

DOCTOR:

I didn't say that.

 

K9. Now listen to me, K9.

 

Do you think you could poleaxe,

do you think you could poleaxe Marius?

 

K9:

Poleaxe?

 

DOCTOR:

Yes, knock him out.

 

K9:

Affirmative.

My photon beam weaponry

has four levels of intensity, Doctor.

Kill, paralyse --

 

DOCTOR:

No, no, no, not kill.

Not kill. Just knock out.

 

K9:

Affirmative.

 

DOCTOR:

Good Dog.

 

The Doctor opens the doors and K9 leaves.

 

[Bi-Al Foundation]

 

Marius activates the tannoy, as seen on the scanner in the previous scene.

 

MARIUS:

All senior staff, report to Reception.

This is Professor Marius speaking.

All senior staff report to Reception.

 

Ah, K9. K9, I no longer require you to obey --

 

K9 shoots him. Marius falls at the base of the TARDIS.

 

DOCTOR:

You're A Good Dog, K9.

Good Dog.

 

The little ambulance spaceship leaves the asteroid.

 

[Isolation ward]

 

Marius is on the examination table.

Leela is back in her leathers.

 

DOCTOR:

Come on, Leela, quickly. We haven't got a moment to spare.

Not frightened of blood, are you? You, The Mighty Huntress.

 

LEELA:

Just hurry up.

 

The Doctor pricks her finger and puts the sample into the scanner.

 

LEELA:

Haven't we been through all this before?

 

DOCTOR:

I had a virus then. I'm immune now.

Something Must Have Happened while you and I

were inside my head.

 

I want to find out what.

 

Ah, that's interesting.

You see that?

 

An image of the blood sample is on the screen.

 

DOCTOR:

That little fish-hook is the only thing that you and I have in common.

It wasn't there before, so it must be the antibody,

The Immunity Factor.

 

LEELA:

How did What I Have

get into your bloodstream?

 

DOCTOR:

Quite simple. Your clone was absorbed into my bloodstream

and passed on the immunity to me.

All we've got to do is isolate it, analyse it, duplicate it

and inject it into Marius here,

and he in turn will be able to cure all the others.

 

LEELA:

What about the Nucleus?

What about Titan?

 

DOCTOR:

Come on, one thing at a time.

One thing at a time.

 

[Shuttle]

 

NUCLEUS:

Faster, faster.

 

LOWE:

We can't. We'll burn out the motors.

 

NUCLEUS:

Let them burn out.

Once we reach Titan and the breeding tanks,

our job is finished.

 

THE PHYSICAL ENVELOPE IS OF

NO CONSEQENCE

 

LOWE:

What about The Doctor?

 

NUCLEUS:

He will follow.

Marius will make sure of that, Whatever Happens.

 

 

It’s been inside his head --

It knows What Marius Will Do,

regardless of whether he still remains infected or not.

 

Faster. Use all the fuel. Faster!

 

[Isolation ward]

 

LEELA:

Doctor, look! It's working.

 

Marius' scales vanish.

 

DOCTOR:

Sometimes my brilliance astonishes even me.

Come on, Marius. Wake up, wake up. Come on.

 

MARIUS:

Where's Parsons?

What Happened?

 

DOCTOR:

He's dead, I'm afraid.

Do you remember anything?

 

MARIUS:

I remember Lowe coming in, and then Parsons,

and then a flash and then nothing.

 

Did The Experiment work?

 

DOCTOR:

Yes and No.

Unfortunately the Nucleus got away by means of the Dimensional Stabiliser.

It's on its way to Titan to breed.

 

MARIUS:

Was I taken over?

 

DOCTOR:

Yes, it got to you.

 

MARIUS:

But we found The Immunity Factor,

so we're safe here for a while. What was it?

 

DOCTOR:

It was something in Leela.

Something we all missed. This is it.

 

You'll have to cultivate a great deal more.

 

MARIUS:

Yes.

 

DOCTOR:

If those antibodies can confer immunity,

they can be used to attack the Nucleus.

 

MARIUS:

Attack The Nucleus?

Oh, that's dangerous.

 

DOCTOR:

Of course it's dangerous.

If we allow the Nucleus to breed and swarm,

it'll go through the entire Solar System like a plague of giant locusts.

 

MARIUS:

But will you get to Titan on time?

 

DOCTOR:

Yes, by means of the Dimensional Stabiliser.

 

[Base control]

 

SAFRAN:

Safran on Titan. Safran on Titan. The Hive is prepared.

The breeding tanks are ready. Temperature and humidity are set.

I await your arrival for The Generation of the Swarm.

 

[Shuttle]

 

LOWE:

Maximum speed. We have reached maximum speed.

 

NUCLEUS:

Faster! We must go faster!

Now the time for spawning is very close.

 

[Isolation ward]

 

Marius has enlisted help to cultivate the antibodies.

 

LEELA:

How much longer?

 

DOCTOR:

We can't rush these things.

They're breeding as fast as They can.

 

K9 will tell us when they've got the most powerful strain.

 

LEELA:

Doctor, why don't we just blow up Titan?

Nucleus, breeding tanks, everything.

 

DOCTOR:

That's Your Answer to everything, isn't it,

Knock it on The Head.

 

LEELA:

Effective, isn't it?

Smash it once and for all. Well?

 

DOCTOR:

With what?

This is A Hospital, not an arsenal.

 

LEELA:

All right, what are you going to do?

 

K9:

Confirm. Confirm strain C five three one has lethal capacity.

 

MARIUS: 

Doctor, we've done it! Congratulations.

There isn't a moment to be lost. Cultivate C five three one.

DOCTOR:

Thank you, K9.

 

LEELA:

And?

 

DOCTOR: 

Now, just get it into the tanks

and wait for it to attack the Nucleus in the same way it attacked us.

Microscopically. It's neat, don't you think?

 

 

LEELA: 

Is that all?

If we can get to Titan on time,

if we can get past Lowe and the others,

if it works when we get it in there. If. 

 

I thought you didn't like Killing?

 

DOCTOR:

I Don't.

 

LEELA: 

Then why are you doing all this?

 

DOCTOR: 

The Virus has A Perfect Right to Exist as A Virus,

not as a Giant Storm threatening The Entire Solar System. 

 

Everything Has its Place. 

 

Otherwise The Delicate Balance of The Whole Cosmos is Destroyed.

 

LEELA:

I still say we should blow it up.