Fighters Fight, right?

“Once upon a time, there was 

A King and A Queen. 

And they lived in A Castle. 

And near the castle there was 

A Forest. 

You know there’s always 

A Forest near The Castle. 

And This Forest was like other forests, with one exception: 

when anyone went into it, 

he didn’t come back. 

Five hunters went out, 

and they didn’t come back. 

Ten hunters were sent after them, and they didn’t come back. 

Then twenty hunters went out, 

they did not come back. 

And then thirty hunters were sent after them, 

and they did not come back.

And pretty soon, 

no one went to that part of the forest anymore. 

Only occasionally 

A Hawk or An Eagle flew over it. 

That identifies this as a male story, 

The Hawk and The Eagle are male birds. 

That was the situation, 

and that’s the way it lasted for many years.

Finally, one day a young man came, and he said, 

“Anything dangerous to do around here?” 

And the king said, 

“Yes, there is, but I don’t recommend it, 

because the return rate is not good.” 

And the young man said, 

“That’s the sort of thing I like, 

I think I’ll go.”

So he went, 

taking only his dog with him. 

Maybe the fact that 

he didn’t go in a group 

was a part of it. 

He took only his dog with him, 

and he walked into the forest 

and he walked all the way into the forest 

and all of a sudden, 

a hand came up out of the pond 

and pulled the dog down. 

And he didn’t get hysterical. 

He just said, 

“This must be the place.”

ROCKY :

Man, I'm confused.

I didn't think this was gonna

come along.

Lil’ Marie: 

But this is what you wanted, right?

ROCKY :

I don't know.

You know, I talk and I talk.

Sometimes I think

what I'm saying is True...

and then I look at myself 

and I'm not even sure what is True anymore.

Because it's like, 

I pushed this crazy idea about fighting.

I mean, 

what's it all about?

Do I really care about standing

toe to toe and all that stuff...

or, like my kid says,

is it just, like, ego?

Or am I this old pug 

who's just trying to replace 

old pain with new pain?

I don't know. 

I don't know.

Lil’ Marie: 

Look, I know

I usually don't say a lot.

I'm always 

listening and looking.

But Who You Are, 

the part of you

that's so full of Life...

We all have that feeling, 

that fire...

But usually we never get a chance to use it. 

And then it just goes away.

But you can. 

You've got this opportunity, 

so do it. 

Why not?

I mean, 

This is Who You Are.

This is 

Who You'll Always Be.

And you don't move aside for nobody until you're ready to move.

And it doesn't matter

How This Looks to Other People.

All that matters is 

How it Looks to you.

Rocky.

Rocky, look at me.

How it looks to you.

And if this is something

that you wanna do,

and if this is something that

you gotta do, 

then You Do It.

Fighters Fight.

You're not gonna punch me,

are you?

Listen, I gotta go before I wear out my welcome. 

I'll see you tomorrow.

ROCKY :

Thanks.

Fighters fight, right?

I Will Not Stay to See Her.

DOCTOR: 

Jabel, do your people have a holy purpose? 

JABEL: 

We serve Xoanon and tend the holy places. 

We guard his tower against The Savage. 

We deny the flesh so that our minds may find communion with Xoanon.

DOCTOR: 

Ah. Well, it has a sort of logic. 

Outside the barrier, physical courage and strength, inside the barrier, paraphysical achievement and the sort of psi power you used against Leela. 

It's an experiment in eugenics. 

JABEL: 

Yes, Lord. 

DOCTOR: 

Shall we get up? The floor's very hard. 

Didn't anyone ever tell you kneeling stunts the growth? 

Jabel, do you know where Xoanon is? 

JABEL: 

Yes, Lord. 

DOCTOR: 

Where? 

JABEL: 

He is in no one place, Lord. 

He is all around us, everywhere. 

DOCTOR: 

All right, I didn't think you did. 

JABEL: 

You and he are as one. 

You will show us the way 

DOCTOR: 

Do you know what a computer is? 

JABEL: 

And in perfect communion with him, we will be free and find Paradise. 

DOCTOR: 

Do you know what a computer is? 

JABEL: 

Lord?

LEELA: 

Doctor!

K9: 

Negative! Negative! Negative. 

No entry! No entry!

LEELA: 

Look, whatever you are, I —
K9: 

I am K9 and I am warning you. 

LEELA: 

Look, I came to see the Doctor. 

I arrived with him. 

(She points her gun at K9.) 

K9: 

I, too, have offensive capability. 

You have been warned. 

Retreat. Retreat. 

Patient in total isolation. 

Contagion risk. 

Retreat. Retreat. 

(Marius enters and pushes Leela's gun down.) 

MARIUS: 

Who are you? 

LEELA: 

I am Leela. 

MARIUS: 

Ah, yes, of course. 

The Doctor's aide. 

LEELA: 

I think so. 

MARIUS: 

K9, memorise : “Friend”. 

K9: 

Memorised. Friend. 

LEELA: 

Is that tin thing something to do with you? 

MARIUS: 

That tin thing is My Best Friend 

and constant companion. 

He's a computer. 

You see, on Earth, 

I always used to have a dog. 

But up here, the weight penalty, 

well, it's just not possible. 

So I had K9 made up. 

He's very useful. 

He's my own personal data bank. 

He knows everything that I do, 

don't you, K9? 

K9: 

Affirmative, 

and more, Master. 

MARIUS: 

I'm afraid there's not much I can tell you 

about The Doctor, yet. 

You know, I should like to have you 

scanned and datalysed, 

just to see why you're immune. 

You see, if we can isolate that factor, 

we can inoculate against it. 

You get it? 

LEELA: 

Sorry? 

MARIUS: 

Yes, perhaps it is 

a matter of intelligence. 

[Isolation ward]

K9: 

Replicants do not maintain 

their existence for long 

because of 

possible unsolved 

psychic stress problems. 

DOCTOR: 

How long? How long? 

K9: 

Longest recorded clone life, ten mi —

MARIUS: 

Ten minutes, fifty five seconds. 

DOCTOR: 

Professor Marius, could you clone me? 

MARIUS: 

Certainly. 

The Kilbracken technique is very simple. 

But it's a circus trick. 

It's of no medical value. 

DOCTOR: 

Could you clone me now? 

MARIUS: 

Now? 

DOCTOR: 

Yes. Because if you don't clone me now 

and The Virus gets to me, 

it'll take the whole centre with it. 

(Outside, Leela throws her knife behind her. Lowe sends Cruikshank and Hedges the wrong way and she rolls head over heels into the isolation ward.) 

LEELA: 

Can't hold them off any more. 

Out of ammunition.

MARIUS: 

K9? 

K9: 

Master. 

MARIUS: 

Ka lay lee! 

K9: 

Affirmative. 

(K9 leaves, nozzle sticking out of his muzzle.) 

LEELA: 

What does that mean? 

(Sounds of gunfire outside.) 

MARIUS: 

He knows.

MARIUS: 

Now, you must realise, Doctor, 

this is not in any real sense a clone, 

but a short-lived carbon-based imprint. 

A sort of three dimensional photograph.

DOCTOR: 

Leela. I shall need Leela. 

MARIUS: 

Leela? Why? 

Why Leela? 

LEELA: 

What does he mean, 

he needs me? 

MARIUS: 

Ah, it must be because you are immune. 

I think he wants you cloned as well. 

LEELA: 

But what will happen to me?

The Real Me? 

MARIUS: 

Nothing. Nothing at all. 

LEELA: 

But you said it was just short-lived. 

MARIUS: 

Oh, yes. A permanent clonal copy is theoretically possible, 

but it would take years to achieve because of 

the experiential gap. 

Now, you see, in this way, we manage to transfer both heredity and experience, 

but the transfer is unstable. 

LEELA: 

What? 

MARIUS: 

Well, it means that your photocopy twin will deteriorate and expire after 

a maximum life of 

ten or eleven minutes. 

LEELA: 

Oh, well, in that case, 

if you do not mind, 

I will not stay to see Her.

MARIUS: 

Just as you wish. 

LEELA: 

Oh, Professor? 

MARIUS: 

Yes? Now what? 

LEELA : 

If you need me, 

I shall be with K9. 

Walk Away.

Let me tell you one story here, of a Samurai Warrior, a Japanese warrior, who had The Duty to avenge the murder of his overlord. 

And he actually, after some time, found and cornered the man who had murdered his overlord. 

And he was about to deal with him with his samurai sword, when this man in the corner, 

in The Passion of Terror, spat in his face. 

And The Samurai sheathed The Sword 

and walked away. 

WHY Did He Do That?

BILL MOYERS: 

Why?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Because, he was made ANGRY, and if he had killed that man then, it would have been 

A PERSONAL Act, 

of another kind of act, 

and 

That’s NOT What He Had Come to DO.

The Physical Envelope is of No Importance

The alien Ovoids inadvertently taught Doctor Doom the process of psionically transferring his consciousness into another nearby being through simple eye contact, as well as showing him other forms of technology which Doom uses to escape from incarcerations and to avoid being killed. 

However, if his concentration is broken, his mind can transfer back, and he rarely uses this power unless absolutely necessary due to his ego about his own appearance.

If We're seeing them out in the open now, it's because they want us to know.

Man : 

Comrade Shcherbina is on the phone.

GORBACHEV :

Put him through.

Well? 

SHCHERBINA :

The fire's nearly out.

The bubbler tanks are being drained.

We have successfully eliminated the risk of a thermal explosion.

Premier GORBACHEV :

And? 

SHCHERBINA :

The situation inside the core is deteriorating faster than anticipated.

The concrete pad will last for six to eight weeks, but after that, Legasov estimates a 50% chance that the fuel will breach the pad and melt down into the groundwater itself.

Premier GORBACHEV :

And where does this groundwater go? 

SHCHERBINA :

The Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dnieper.

The primary water supply for approximately 50 million people, not to mention crops and livestock, would be unusable.

We're recommending we install a heat exchanger under the pad to lower to core temperature and halt the meltdown.

And in order to do that, 

I'm told that we will need all of the liquid nitrogen in the Soviet Union.

Premier GORBACHEV :

Oh.

All right.

SHCHERBINA :

Yeah, and of course, we'll also need — 

Premier GORBACHEV :

Whatever you need, you have it.

That should be clear by now.

SHCHERBINA :

Yes.

Premier GORBACHEV :

Anything else?

SHCHERBINA :

No, no, no.

Premier GORBACHEV :

Thank you.

LUGASOV :

Yes.

I'd like to address the 30-kilometer exclusion zone.

Premier GORBACHEV :

Wait, what? 

Professor Legasov, is that you? 

What exclusion zone? 

SHCHERBINA :

Minor details, General Secretary.

Um, Premier Ryzhkov has determined that —

Premier GORBACHEV :

If he determined, 

then he determined.

Look, Professor Legasov, you are there for one reason only.

Do you understand? 

To make this stop.

I don't want questions.

I want to know when this will be over.

LUGASOV :

If you mean when will Chernobyl be completely safe, 

the half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,000 years.

So perhaps we should just say, 

"Not within our lifetimes." 

SHCHERBINA :

I think you and I 

should take a walk.

LUGASOV :

It's late.

I'm tired.

SHCHERBINA :

We're taking a walk.

LUGASOV :

Was it it you want? 

An apology? 

Not gonna sit back and —

SHCHERBINA :

What will happen to our boys? 

LUGASOV :

Which boys? 

The divers? 

SHCHERBINA :

The divers, the firefighters, the men in the control room.

What does the radiation do to them precisely? 

At the levels some of them were exposed? 

LUGASOV :

Ionizing radiation tears the cellular structure apart.

The skin blisters, 

turns red, then black.

This is followed by a latency period.

The immediate effects subside.

The patient appears to be recovering.

Healthy, even.

But they aren't.

This usually only lasts for a day or two.

SHCHERBINA :

Continue.

LUGASOV :

Then the cellular damage begins to manifest.

The bone marrow dies, 

the immune system fails, 

the organs and soft tissue begin to decompose.

The arteries and veins 

spill open like sieves, 

to the point where you can't 

even administer morphine for the pain, 

which is unimaginable.

And then three days to three weeks, you are dead.

That is what will happen 

to those boys.

SHCHERBINA :

And what about us? 

LUGASOV :

Well, we've —

We've gotten a steady dose, 

but not as much of it.

Not strong enough to kill the cells, 

but consistent enough to damage our DNA.

So, in time cancer.

Or aplastic anemia.

Either way, fatal.

SHCHERBINA :

Well in a sense, 

it would seem we've gotten off easy then, Valery.

LUGASOV :

I've seen them before.

SHCHERBINA :

Now you know why 

I wanted to take a walk.

We can presume 

the work site is bugged.

And our rooms, even our bathrooms.

LUGASOV :

They've been here the whole time.

SHCHERBINA :

Of course they've been here the whole time.

But  if we're seeing them out in the open now, 

it's because they want us to know.

Big Wheel Keep on Turnin’

I left a good job in the city

Working for the man every night and day

And I never lost one minute of sleeping

I was worrying 'bout the way the things might've been

You know that big wheel keep on turning

Proud Mary keep on burning

And we're rolling, rolling, rolling yeah

Rolling on the river (the river)

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis

Pumped a lot of tane down in New Orleans

But I never saw the good side of the city

Until I hitched a ride on a riverboat queen

You know that big wheel keep on turning

Proud Mary keep on burning

And we're rolling, rolling, rolling yeah (rolling)

Rolling on the river

Say we're rolling (rolling) rolling yeah

Rolling on the river

The river

Oh I left a good job in the city

Working for the man every night and day

And I never lost one minute of sleeping

Worrying about the way the things might've been

Big wheel keep on turning

Proud Mary keep on burning

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

Say we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

Oh I cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis

And I pumped a lot of tane down in New Orleans

But I never saw the good side of the city

Until I hitched a ride on a riverboat queen

Big wheel keep on turning

Proud Mary keep on burning

And we're rolling, tell you rolling, we're rolling on the river

I tell you we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

If you come down to the river

I bet you gonna find some people who live

And you don't have to worry if you got no money

People on the river are happy to give

Big wheel keep on turning

Proud Mary keep on burning

And we're rolling, tell you rolling, we're rolling on the river

Tell you we have no time (rolling, rolling, rolling on the river)

(Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river)

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river)

Tell you we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

I tell you we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river)

Self-Induced Cataleptic

 

 

 

 

LEELA: 

Doctor! Doctor! 


 

(Leela runs forward and tries to remove the circlet.) 


 

BORUSA: 

The Matrix rejects The Candidate.

Guards, seize him! 


 

GOLD USHER: 

No! No one may lay hands on The President. 


 

BORUSA: 

The Matrix has rejected him. 


 

GOLD USHER: 

He is The Matrix now. 

It cannot reject him.

 

 Surgeon General. 


 

(Gomer goes to the Doctor.) 


 

LEELA: 

Will he be all right? 


 

BORUSA: 

This is unheard of. 

For a candidate to be attacked by The Matrix. 


 

GOLD USHER: 

There's no longer a candidate.

There's only The President.

 

After his official induction,

The Matrix can only be worn by The President.

Therefore This is The President. 


 

GOMER:

If you continue to argue legal niceties,

we may well have to go through

this whole boring business again

in the very near future. 


 

LEELA:

Is he going to die? 


 

GOMER:

He has retreated. 


 

LEELA:

Never! The Doctor is no coward. 


 

GOMER: 

A self-induced cataleptic. 

 

A simple defense reaction brought about

by a sudden unexpected attack upon his consciousness. 


 

BORUSA: 

There! Do you hear? 

An Attack. 


 

GOMER: 

Have the kindness to be quiet, Borusa.

The President needs peace, rest and medical attention

which I shall supervise myself. 


 

 

BORUSA:

Take him to the Chancellory. 


 

GOMER:

Indeed, that would be perfect. 


 

Guards half-carry the Doctor away.

 

GOMER:

And Borusa, I suggest you

cut off your communications, prohibit visitors

and keep all your tedious bureaucratic problems

to yourself. 


 

Gomer leaves.

 

BORUSA:

Impertinent!

 


KELNER:

He is Young yet, Chancellor.

Impetuous, I know, but I still believe

his hearts are in the right places.

 

[Vardan spacecruiser]

 

LEADER:

Very close. He has little strength. 


 

VARDAN:

It will take a long time to replace him. 


 

LEADER:

Too long.

Signal all commanders to increase speed

and evaluate implementation Plan Three.

 

[Panopticon]

 

BORUSA:

High Lords, we have taken the President to the Chancellory.

Please remain calm. Bring the girl. 


 

Leela touches Borusa's arm.

 

BORUSA:

What? 


 

LEELA:

I didn't hurt him. I saved him. 


 

BORUSA:

The enquiry can determine that. Bring her.

 


ANDRED:

Sir. 


 

Leela pulls her knife on Andred,

and another guard puts his gun to her head.

She puts the knife away.

[Chancellory]

 

BORUSA:

Well, Lord Gomer? 


 

GOMER:

He has suffered a severe sub-mental shock.

I've given him a massive deranger dose,

but even that will take hours to 
--

 

(The Doctor opens his eyes.) 


 

GOMER:

Incredible. 


 

LEELA:

Are you all right?

 


BORUSA:

Quietly, now. 


 

DOCTOR:

Lord Chancellor, What Happened? 


 

 

BORUSA:

Your alien friend almost killed you.

She openly attacked you. 


 

LEELA:

No, it was The Crown!

The Crown almost killed him! 


 

 

DOCTOR:

What's she doing here? 


 

 

LEELA:

Well, you brought me. 


 

DOCTOR:

Impossible. No aliens are allowed in here.

Get rid of her.

 

 

 


LEELA:

Doctor, What's Happened to You? 


 

BORUSA:

Put her out, Commander. 


 

ANDRED:

Where, sir? 


 

DOCTOR:

Outside The Citadel, of course. 


 

 

ANDRED:

In The Outer World? 


 

 

DOCTOR:

Yes, expel her. 


 

LEELA:

No! I will not go! 


 

BORUSA: 

Take her! 


 

Leela pushes Andred aside, kicks another guard below the belt and runs out.

 

BORUSA: 

Stop her, before she does any more damage!

 

Valery Alexeyevich Lugasov

There are two kinds of stories we tell our children.

The First Kind :

Once upon a time, there was a fuzzy little rabbit named Frizzy-Top who went on a Quantum, fun adventure 

only to face a big setback, which he overcame 

through perseverance 

and by being adorable.

This kind of story teaches Empathy.

‘Put yourself in Frizzy-Top's shoes’, 

in other words.

The Other Kind : 

‘Valery Alexeyevich Lugasov, 

if you get too close to That RBMK Reactor, 

you'll be sucked into Ideological Heresy and DROWNED!’

This kind of story teaches them

Fear.

And for the rest of their lives, these two stories compete.

Empathy and Fear.

And so I bring you tonight's play, 

A Work in Five Acts 

About a Fuzzy Little Bunny 

Who got too close to The Core. 

and What Happened Next.

Let us begin.