Doctor Who (1963) s15e02 Episode Script

(DOCTOR WHO THEME) Right.
It's Reuben.
There's a ship off the rocks.
She's going to strike.
You'm right.
Steam yacht, by the look of it.
- And going fast.
- He's a fool to be going at all in this.
- Warning devices, Vince.
- Got 'em.
Take over this siren.
She'll strike any minute.
- (WOMAN) Help! Please! Somebody help! - (BELL RINGS) (MAN) Steer the boat! It's no use.
They're too late to alter course.
She's going to strike.
(SHOUTS OF PANIC) (CRUNCHING AND CRACKING) (FOGHORN BELLOWS) Too late.
She's struck.
- They will all die, then.
- Any survivors will be on the east crag.
Keep that siren going, mister.
- Vince - Keep that siren going.
(FOGHORN BELLOWS) Bring that rope, mister.
(CRACKLING) (REUBEN) Bring that rope! (CHUCKLES) (FOGHORN BELLOWS) (WAVES CRASHING) Ahoy! - She's on again now.
- Damned electricity.
Wouldn't happen with oil.
Ahoy! No, I don't suppose it would.
It seems to need electricity.
(FOGHORN BELLOWS) - Why did you take so long? We nearly died! - You'll be all right.
Come and dry out.
No cause for jumping like that.
- His Lordship was anxious to get ashore.
- Help the young lady, Vince.
- Oh, get me a brandy! - Here, ma'am.
Thank you.
- Get her a blanket, boy.
- I'm all right, really.
- Well, I'm soaked to the skin.
- Sea water's healthy, Henry.
I need a drink.
I'll catch my death like this.
- Get me a brandy.
- No, hot soup's the ticket for you.
Don't tell me what I need.
Hasn't anyone a flask round here? You see to 'em, Vince.
I'd better get up to that lamp.
Here, ma'am.
Come over to the stove and get warm.
Excuse me, sir.
Thank you.
What's your name? Hawkins.
Vince Hawkins.
Thank you, Hawkins.
- What was it like? - I could not see clearly.
It shone likelike a fungus in the forest.
Luminous.
- Could you show me the spot? - Yes.
- Yes, I think so.
- Good.
Don't tell the others.
We mustn't start a panic.
- What be going on? - When I find out, I'll let you know.
- Don't try to find out.
- What do you mean? Reckon I know.
They said the Beast of Fang Rock would be back.
The Beast of Fang Rock? Aye.
I need some dry clothes now! All in good time, sir.
Just get the lady some soup.
- I'll catch my death of cold.
- You shouldn't be so impulsive.
When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it.
What about brandy? Surely, in the medical supplies, you keep brandy.
No liquor allowed in a lighthouse.
Against regulations.
- To hell with regulations! - Where's Harker, your coxswain? He stayed to secure the boat.
I'll wait.
- He'll be up directly.
- Good.
- His seamanship got us ashore.
- Whose seamanship got you on the rocks? - Are you in charge here? - No, but I'm full of ideas.
Beg your pardon.
Time I stoked the boiler.
Of course, Vince.
Off you go.
Leela, you'd better go with him.
Yes, Doctor.
- So, you're a doctor? - Yes.
You send women to stoke boilers? One of the keepers was electrocuted earlier.
Vince doesn't like going down there.
Disturbing for a young fellow, first sight of death.
In India Not one of your army stories, Jimmy, they're so boring.
Just a moment! We haven't been introduced.
Well, this is Miss Lessedge, Lord Palmerdale's secretary.
The wet gentleman is Lord Palmerdale, the financier.
I'm Skinsale, the member for Thurley, Doctor.
Where were you heading when you struck? Southampton.
I've a special train waiting to take me to London.
If only we'd stayed in Deauville.
We had a flutter at the casino, though Jimmy had more of a plunger.
- You lost your yacht.
- Insured.
What about the rest of the crew? We didn't wait to see.
His Lordship was in rather a hurry.
I must reach London before the market opens.
- Ah, you want to get to London! - Yes, yes.
You've no chance in this fog.
(CHUCKLES) The wheel of fortune, eh, Henry? - What? - Perhaps you didn't win all you thought.
- Listen.
- What? I don't hear nothin', miss.
There.
Something's being dragged over the rocks.
Ben.
He'll be coming back for us.
Fetch the Doctor.
Do not let the others know.
Go and get the Doctor! Do not tell the others.
Give me that instrument.
Go! - Do not move! - What? - I said do not move.
- It's all right.
He's a friend.
Yes, sir.
Oh, poor wretch.
(LEELA) What is it? - What's left of Ben.
Where did you find him? - In the sea.
Came floating in.
What the sea can do to a man - Wasn't the sea that did that.
- What, sir? There's some hot soup in the crew room.
- Right.
- The others are already there.
Quick! Get that door closed! - Do you think the beast ate him? - What beast? - The Beast of Fang Rock.
- No such animal.
- But Reuben said there was.
- The people here are fisher folk.
They're almost as primitive and superstitious as your lot are.
- So how do you explain the body? - Post-mortem.
- What is that? - Something wants to study human anatomy.
(VINCE) Doctor? Get it out.
- You there, Doctor? - Yes, I'm here, Vince.
- You find out what that noise was? - It was Harker.
He was carrying Ben's body.
So he WAS walking.
Oh, do not be stupid, Vince.
The dead do not walk.
- He must have been to have got out there.
- He did not walk! You secured the boat safely? Good.
When you've rested, we'll make for the mainland.
- Are you mad? - It's the only way.
Out of the question, Henry.
In this fog? It can be no more than six miles.
- Harker would have no trouble.
- Reason with him, Adelaide.
You can do as you wish, but my mind is set.
So is mine.
I'm not taking a boat out in this, not after what I've seen tonight.
Damn your insolence! You're an employee! You'll do as you're told! Will I? Hang him from the yardarm, Henry.
It's mutiny.
- You said he was dead.
How did he get there? - Obviously, I was wrong.
The shock stunned him, he partly recovered, staggered out into the sea and drowned.
Get on about your work.
There's nothing supernatural going on.
I saw him.
He weren't breathing.
- Electricity has strange effects, Vince.
- Oh - Electricity? - Mmm.
Sorry, sir.
I made a bit of a fool of myself.
That's all right, Vince.
Why did you not tell him the truth? Because I don't know what the truth isyet.
The accident was due to the inefficiency of the lighthouse service, so they must see I reach the mainland.
That argument won't wash, Henry.
You can't blame the lighthouse people.
- But if the light had been working - We'd have still hit the rocks.
Right.
We should have been going dead slow.
- Weren't captain's fault, neither.
- That's enough, Harker.
The light was not working.
There'll be an inquiry.
The inquiry's already begun.
Move over.
What inquiry? What are you talking about? Just you stay here, all of you.
Harker, you try and get some rest.
Speaks with an amazing air of authority.
- I wonder who the devil he is.
- I don't think he's quite Those eyes.
- The girl is very strange too.
- But she's not a bad looker.
Perfectly grotesque.
Were you a long time in India, Colonel? Long enough, my dear, to learn to appreciate nature.
Lord Palmerdale, if we're compelled to spend the night here, do you think there's a private room for me? How should I know? Fat chance of me sleeping with a fortune slipping away.
If this contraption works, I'll see what the proprietors have to say.
(WHISTLING) Ahoy there.
What is it? There's bunks in the sleeping quarters.
She's welcome to any of them.
Trouble with the gentry, they always want running after.
- Here, Reuben.
- What? There's someone down there.
Look.
See them lights? - I reckon it's that Doctor.
- No call to be out there.
Can't say I didn't warn 'em.
- What about? - The beast.
- Oh, that old tale.
- More than a tale, boy.
That girl saw it tonight.
Heard her telling the Doctor.
Shining, she said it was, just like they reckon.
- She couldn't have seen it.
- Last time that beast was seen on Fang Rock, two men died that very same night.
Somewhere around here.
What?! A strong electrical field.
Strong enough to kill a man on contact.
Interesting.
Probably explains the phosphorescent glow.
- And fish at a distance of several yards.
- What? What do you think it is, Doctor? I don't know, Leela.
I think it's desperate and I think it's cunning and I think it's time we were getting back.
(CRACKLING) Well, I think Adelaide should settle now.
Splendid.
That's the main thing, that my secretary should sleep.
- You'd do well to get some yourself.
- In this hovel? It's quite a snug little bivouac.
I've slept in worse places in the army.
That was before you resigned and went into politics.
- Acquired a taste for high living then.
- Feeling a little frustrated, old chap? Why the hell shouldn't I when I've been cheated? I kept my side of the bargain.
I gave you the information you wanted.
I was a fool, but I did it, and you tore up my IOUs.
What use is information if I can't use it? Quite! Rather amusing, isn't it? - I could still expose you.
- But if the information's never used, where's the proof I ever gave it? - And you're forgetting something else.
- What? I'm an officer and a gentleman, Henry.
You're a nobody, a jumped-up little money-grabber for all your title.
Besmirch my good name and I'll sue you for every penny you've got.
So goodnight to you.
- Do you think the creature will come back? - I do.
He was taking Ben's body for examination earlier.
- Into the sea.
- Under the sea.
Vince saw a fireball fall into the sea.
- Another Tardis.
- Not another Tardis.
A spaceship, perhaps.
Yes.
An alien creature which has never encountered humans might behave that way.
Why come here? There's nothing on this foggy rock.
There's electricity.
Perhaps that's what attracted it.
- An alien creature - Yes.
- Travelling though space - Yes.
And yet desperate, you said.
Why? Just a minute Its behaviour pattern is furtive.
- What is furtive? - It keeps out of sight while spying, hoping to mount a successful attack.
- Then it is not an enemy that is bold.
- No, but cunning.
- I don't think this fog's freak weather.
- What? It's been contrived to isolate us.
That creature, or whatever it is, will be getting bolder now.
It's had time to calculate the strength of its enemies.
I think we're in terrible trouble.
Do not be afraid, Doctor.
If what you say is true, we must arm ourselves and post guards.
What about the others? They'll think we're mad if we mention creatures from space.
- We're from space - Shh! Don't tell them that.
What do you mean, do not be afraid? (FOGHORN BELLOWS) (WHISPERS) Wake up, man.
Wake up.
- (MUMBLES) What? - Will you wake up? What do you want? - Can you use Morse apparatus? - Course I can What? Use a Morse telegraphic apparatus like that one.
- Of course I can.
- Good.
I want you to send a coded message to my brokers in London.
- What for? - That's none of your business.
Just do it.
It's a business matter.
Money's involved.
- Money? - Don't worry.
You'll be rewarded.
I had urgent reasons for getting back to London.
Vital business affairs.
- This'll have to do.
- You was mad to get back.
I remember, when the fog came down, Captain begging for permission to slow down, you telling him, ''Full ahead.
Damn the consequences.
'' He should have ignored you anyway.
- It was his duty to obey me.
- He was scared he'd never get another ship.
Do as I say.
You'll be well paid.
When she struck, it was, ''Get the owner away and his fancy woman and friend.
'' - I'll have no more of this - They're dead because of you! - Get off! - Don't be a damn fool, man! - Harker! - Let go, Harker.
There are good seamen dead because of you.
Come on.
Sit down.
All that can wait.
Gentlemen, I've got news for you.
This lighthouse is under attack, and by morning we might all be dead.
Anyone interested? Time that boiler was stoked, boy.
'Ere, Reuben.
You don't really think what happened before, back in the '20s, you don't really think it's happening again? There's three of us.
There were three of them.
Two dead, one mad.
Ben's dead, isn't he? Boiler, boy.
Hey, you're shaking too much to lift a shovel.
You stay here, boy.
I'll do it.
If you're sure.
I'll do it if you like.
Understand this - no one, but no one, is to leave this lighthouse for any reason.
- Is that clear? - No, it's not.
Mysterious mumbo-jumbo.
Just what is this threat lurking outside? You've seen it, then.
The beast's back.
- What beast? - There's death here when the beast's about.
Preposterous! What is the fool saying? I'm saying it's happened before it'll happen again.
Superstitious idiot! If we're expected to listen to a fisherman's tale Silence! Do as the Doctor instructs, or I will cut out your heart.
You heard what she said.
Doctor, it's getting cold again.
- Are you sure? - Yes.
Last time it came like this, like a cold wave.
- I believe you're right.
- I don't feel anything.
Leela's senses are particularly acute.
If she says it's getting colder, it is.
- What's going on? - (SKINSALE) Nothing for you to worry about.
I don't understand.
Lord Palmerdale, what is happening? Nothing, my dear.
Absolutely nothing is happening here.
(REUBEN SCREAMS) What the devil was that?