Doctor Who s01e09 Episode Script

The Empty Child

- What's the emergency? - It's mauve.
Mauve? Universally recognised colour for danger.
- What happened to red? - That's just humans.
By everyone else's standards, red's camp.
Oh, the misunderstandings.
All those red alerts, all that dancing.
It's got a very basic flight computer I've hacked in, slaved the Tardis.
Wherever it goes, we go.
- And that's safe, is it? - Totally.
Okay, reasonably.
Should have said "reasonably" there.
No.
No! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us.
- What exactly is this thing? - No idea.
Then why are we chasing it? It's mauve and dangerous and about Know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth? Five days.
Or is that when we're out of milk? Of all the species in all the universe and it has to come out of a cow.
Must've come down somewhere quite close.
Within a mile anyway.
And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago.
Maybe a month.
A month? We were right behind it.
It was jumping time tracks all over the place.
We're bound to be a little bit out.
- Do you want to drive? - Yeah.
- How much is a little? - A bit.
- Is that exactly a bit? - Ish.
What's the plan, then? You going to do a scan for alien tech or something? Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang.
I'm going to ask.
"Dr John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids.
" It's psychic paper, it tells you what - Whatever you want it to, I remember.
- Sorry.
Not very "Spock", is it? Just asking.
Door, music, people.
What do you think? I think you should scan for alien tech.
Give me some Spock, for once.
Would it kill you? You sure about that T-shirt? Too early to say.
I'm taking it out for a spin.
Mummy.
Mummy.
Come on if you're coming.
It won't take a minute.
Mummy? Doctor, there's a kid up there! For nobody else Gave me the thrill When I uphold silence still 1!' had to be you Wonderful you Are you all right up there? Mummy.
12' had to be you Excuse me, could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick.
Hello? Erm might seem like a stupid question but has anything fallen from the sky recently? Mummy.
Okay, hang on, don't move.
Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just there's this thing that I need to find.
Would have fallen from the sky, a couple of days ago.
Would have landed quite near here.
With a very loud Quickly as you can, down to the shelter.
Bang.
Mummy.
Balloon.
Doctor! Doctor! Doctor! Okay.
Maybe not this T-shirt.
Rose? You know, one day.
Just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet somebody who gets the whole "don't wander off" thing.
it's the only thing left to surprise me.
How can you be ringing? What's that about ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone? Don't answer it.
It's not for you.
- And how do you know that? - 'Cause I do.
And I'm telling you.
Don't answer it.
Well, if you know so much, tell me this, how can it be ringing? It's not even a real phone, it's not connected, it's not Hello? This is the Doctor speaking.
- How may I help you? - Mummy? Mummy? Who is this? Who's speaking? Are you my mummy? - Who is this? - Mummy.
How did you ring it? This isn't a real phone, it's not wired up to Mummy? Rose? Rose, are you in there? The planes are coming, can't you hear them? Into the shelter.
None of your nonsense, now move it.
Come on.
Hurry up, get in there.
Come on.
Arthur, will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren? Middle of dinner, every night.
Blooming Germans, don't they eat? I can hear the planes.
Don't you eat? Keep your voice down, will you? It's an air raid.
Get in, look, there's a war on.
I know there's a war on, don't push me.
Get those lights out, please.
Everyone down to the shelter.
Jack? You going down to the shelter? Only I've got to go off on some damn silly guard duty.
Barrage balloon? Must've come loose.
Happens now and then.
Don't you RAF boys use them for target practice? Excellent bottom.
I say, old man, there's a time and a place.
Look, you should really be off.
Sorry, old man.
I've got to go meet a girl.
But you've got an excellent bottom, too.
- Many kids out there? - Yes, miss.
Still carving.
Sit and wait.
Got the whole air raid.
- Look.
Bet it's off the black market.
- That's enough.
- Okay, I got you.
- Who's got me? Who's got me and how? I'm just programming your descent pattern.
Stay as still as you can and keep your hands and feet inside the light field.
Descent pattern? And can you switch off your cell phone? No, seriously, it interferes with my instruments.
No one ever believes that.
Thank you, that? much better.
Yeah, that's a real load off, that is.
I'm hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air raid with a Union jack across my chest but, hey, my mobile phone's off.
Be with you in a moment.
The mobile device indicates non-contemporaneous life-form.
She's not from round here, no.
Ready for you.
Hold tight.
- To what? - Fair point.
I got you.
You're fine, you're just fine.
The tractor beam, it can scramble your head just a little.
- Hello.
- Hello.
Hello.
Sorry.
There was "hello" twice there.
Dull but, you know, thorough.
- Are you all right? - Fine.
Why, you expecting me to faint or something? You look a little dizzy.
What about you? You're not even in focus.
It's got to be black market.
You couldn't get all this on coupons.
Ernie, how many times? We are guests in this house.
We will not make comments of that kind.
Washing up.
Oh, Nancy.
- Haven't seen you at one of these before.
- He told me about it.
- Sleeping rough? - Yes, miss.
All right, then.
One slice each.
And I want to see everybody chewing properly.
- Thank you, miss.
- Thanks, miss.
Thank you, miss.
Thanks, miss.
It's all right.
Everybody stay where they are.
Good here, isn't it? Who's got the salt? Back in your seats.
He shouldn't be here either.
- So, you lot, what's the story? - What do you mean? - You're homeless, right? Living rough? - Why do you want to know that? You a Copper? I'm not a copper.
What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving? I make it 1941.
You lot shouldn't even be in London.
Should've been evacuated to the country by now.
I was evacuated.
Sent me to a farm.
- So why'd you come back? - There was a man there.
Yeah.
Same with Ernie.
Two homes ago.
Shut up.
It's better on the streets anyway.
It's better food.
Yeah.
Nancy always gets the best food for us.
- So that's what you do, is it, Nancy? - What is? Soon as the sirens go, you find a big, fat family meal, still warm on the table, with everyone down in the air raid shelter and bingo.
Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London town.
Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you.
- Something wrong with that? - Wrong? It's brilliant.
I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical.
Why'd you follow me? What do you want? I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call.
- You seem to be the one to ask.
- I did you a favour.
I told you not to answer it.
That's all I'm telling you.
Great, thanks.
And I want to find a blonde in a Union jack.
I mean, a specific one, I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving.
Anybody seen a girl like that? - What have I done wrong? - You took two slices.
No blondes, no flags.
Anything else before you leave? There is, actually.
Thanks for asking.
Something I've been looking for.
Would've fallen from the sky a month ago, but not a bomb.
Not the usual kind anyway.
Wouldn't have exploded.
Probably would've buried itself in the ground somewhere.
And it would've looked something like this.
Mummy? Are you in there, Mummy? Mummy.
- Who was the last one in? - Him.
He came round the back.
Who came in the front? - Me.
- Did you close the door? Did you close the door? Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy.
What's this, then? Never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know.
- I suppose you'd know.
- I do, actually, yes.
It's not exactly a child.
Mummy.
Everybody out.
Across the back garden, under the fence.
Now.
Go.
Move.
Come on, baby, we've got to go.
It's just like a game, just like chasing.
Take your coat.
Go on.
Go.
Mummy.
Mummy.
Please let me in, Mummy.
Please let me in, Mummy.
You all right? Please let me in.
You mustn't let him touch you.
What happens if he touches me? - He makes you like him.
- And what's he like? - I've got to go.
- Nancy, what's he like? He's empty- It's him.
He can make phones ring.
He can.
just like with that police box you saw.
Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Please let me in, Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy.
You stay here if you want to.
Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy Mummy.
Let me in, please, Mummy.
- Please let me in.
- Your mummy isn't here.
- Are you my mummy? - No mummies here.
Nobody here but us chickens.
Well.
This chicken.
I'm scared.
Why are those other children frightened of you? Please let me in, Mummy.
I'm scared of the bombs.
Okay.
I'm opening the door now.
- Better now? - You got lights in here? - Hello.
- Hello.
Hello.
- Let's not start that again.
- Okay.
So, who are you supposed be, then? Captain Jack Harkness, American volunteer.
Liar.
This is psychic paper.
It tells me whatever you want it to tell me.
- How do you know? - Two things.
One, I have a friend that uses this all the time and two, you just handed me a piece of paper telling me you're single and you work out.
- Tricky thing, psychic paper.
- Yeah.
Can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over.
You sort of have a boyfriend called Mickey Smith but you consider yourself to be footloose and fancy free.
- What? - Actually the word you use is "available".
- No way.
- And another one, "very".
Shall we try and get along without the psychic paper? That would be better, wouldn't it? - Nice spaceship.
- Gets me around.
Very Spock.
Who? Guessing you're not a local boy, then? A cell phone, a liquid crystal watch and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades.
- Guessing you're not a local girl.
- Guessing right.
- Burn your hands on the rope? - Yeah.
We're parked in midair.
Can't anyone down there see us? No.
Can I have a look at your hands for a moment? - Why? - Please.
You can stop acting now.
I know exactly who you are.
- I can spot a Time Agent a mile away.
- A Time Agent? I've been expecting one of you guys to show up.
Though not, I must to say, by barrage balloon.
Do you often travel that way? Sometimes I get swept off my feet.
By balloons.
- What are you doing? - Try to keep still.
Nanogenes, subatomic robots.
The air in here is full of them.
They just repaired three layers of your skin.
Tell them thanks.
- Shall we get down to business? - Business? Shall we have a drink on the balcony? Bring up the glasses.
I know I'm standing on something.
- Okay.
You have an invisible spaceship.
- Yeah.
Tethered up to Big Ben for some reason.
First rule of active camouflage.
Park somewhere you'll remember.
How'd you follow me here? I'm good at following, me.
I've got the nose for it.
People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to.
- My nose has special powers.
- Yeah? Is that why it's so - What? - Nothing.
- What? - Nothing.
- Your ears have special powers, too? - What are you trying to say? Good night, mister.
Nancy.
There's something chasing you and the other kids.
It looks like a boy and it isn't a boy.
And it started about a month ago.
Right? The thing I'm looking for.
The thing that fell from the sky.
That's when it landed.
You know what I'm talking about, don't you? There was a bomb.
A bomb that wasn't a bomb.
Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station.
- Take me there.
- No.
Soldiers guarding it.
Barbed wire.
- You'd never get through.
- Try me.
You sure you want to know what's going on in there? I really want to know.
Then there's someone you need to talk to first.
- And who might that be? - The Doctor.
It's getting a bit late.
I should really be getting back.
We're discussing business.
This isn't business, this is champagne.
I try never to discuss business with a clear head.
Are you travelling alone? - Are you authorised to negotiate? - What would we be negotiating? I have something for the Time Agency.
Something they'd like to buy.
Are you empowered to make payment? Well, I should talk to my companion.
- Your companion? - I should really be getting back to him.
- Him? - Do you have the time? Okay.
That was flash.
That was on the flash side.
So, when you say your companion just how disappointed should I be? - Okay, we're standing in midair - Uh-huh.
On a spaceship, during a German air raid.
Do you really think now's a good time to be coming on to me? Perhaps not.
It was just a suggestion.
Do you like Glenn Miller? It's 1941.
The height of the London Blitz.
The height of the German bombing campaign.
And something else has fallen on London.
A fully equipped Chula warship.
The last one in existence armed to the teeth.
And I know where it is because I parked it.
If the agency can name the right price, I can get it for you.
But in two hours a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever.
That's your deadline.
That's the deal.
Now, shall we discuss payment? - You know what I think? - What? I think you were talking just there.
Two hours.
The bomb falls.
There'll be nothing left but dust and a crater.
Promises, promises.
Are you listening to any of this? You used to be a Time Agent, now you're some kind of freelancer.
It's a little harsh.
I like to think of myself as a criminal.
I'll bet you do.
So this companion of yours, does he handle the business? Well, I delegate a lot of that, yeah.
Maybe we should go find him.
- And how you going to do that? - Easy, I'll do a scan for alien tech.
Finally a professional.
The bomb's under the tarpaulin.
They put the fence up overnight.
See that building? The hospital? - What about it? - That's where the Doctor is.
You should talk to him.
For now, I'm more interested in getting in there.
- Talk to the Doctor first.
- Why? Because then maybe you won't want to get inside.
Where you going? There was a lot of food in that house.
I've got mouths to feed.
Should be safe enough now.
Can I ask you a question? - Who did you lose? - What? The way you look after all those kids.
It's 'cause you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it.
My little brother.
Jamie.
One night I went out looking for food.
Same night that thing fell.
Told him not to follow me.
I told him it was dangerous.
But he just He just didn't like being on his own.
What happened? In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened? - Amazing.
- What is? the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe.
Country after country, falling like dominoes.
Nothing can stop it, nothing.
Until one tiny, damp, little island says "no".
No, not here.
A mouse in front of a lion.
You're amazing.
The lot of you.
Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me.
Off you go, then.
Do what you got to do.
Save the world.
You'll find them everywhere.
In every bed, in every ward.
Hundreds of them.
Yes, I saw.
Why are they still wearing gas masks? - They're not.
Who are you? - I'm - Are you the Doctor? - Dr Constantine.
And you are? - Nancy sent me.
- Nancy? That means you must have been asking about the bomb.
Yes.
What do you know about it? Nothing.
Why I was asking.
What do you know? Only what it's done.
These people were all caught up in the blast? None of them were.
You're very sick.
Dying, I should think.
I just haven't been able to find the time.
- Are you a doctor? - I have my moments.
- Have you examined any of them yet? - No.
Don't touch the flesh.
- Which one? - Any one.
Conclusions? Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side.
Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right.
There's scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns.
Examine another one.
- This is impossible.
- Examine another.
- This is impossible.
- No.
- They've all got the same injuries.
- Yes.
- Exactly the same.
- Yes.
Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand.
How did this happen? How did it start? When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim.
- Dead? - At first.
His injuries were truly dreadful.
By the following morning every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries.
By the next morning, every patient on the same ward, the exact same injuries.
Within a week, the entire hospital.
Physical injuries as plague.
Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death? - The head trauma.
- No.
- Asphyxiation? - No.
- The collapse of the chest cavity.
- No.
All right, what was the cause of death? There wasn't one.
They're not dead.
It's all right, they are harmless.
They just sort of sit there.
No heartbeat.
No life signs of any kind.
They just don't die.
And they've just been left here.
Nobody's doing anything? I try and make them comfortable.
What else is there? Just you? You're the only one here.
Before this war began I was a father and a grandfather.
Now I'm neither.
But I'm still a doctor.
Yeah.
I know the feeling.
I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb.
- Probably too late.
- I know.
There are isolated cases.
Isolated cases breaking out all over London.
Stay back.
Listen to me.
Top floor.
Room 802.
That's where they took the first victim.
The one from the crash site.
- And you must find Nancy again.
- Nancy? It was her brother.
She knows more than she's saying.
She won't tell me, but she Mummy.
Are you my mummy? Hello? Hello? Hello? Good evening.
Hope we're not interrupting.
Jack Harkness.
I've been hearing all about you on the way over.
He knows, I had to tell him.
About us being Time Agents.
And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mr Spock.
Mr Spock? What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name.
Don't you ever get tired of "Doctor"? Doctor who? Nine centuries in, I'm coping.
Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz, not the time for a stroll.
Who's strolling? I went by barrage balloon.
- Only way to see an air raid.
- What? Listen, what's a Chula warship? Chula? Please, Mummy.
Please let me in.
I'm scared of the bombs, Mummy.
Please, Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy.
This just isn't possible.
How did this happen? - What kind of Chula ship landed here? - What? He said it was a warship.
He stole it, parked it somewhere out there.
Somewhere a bomb's gonna fall on it.
Unless we make him an offer.
- What kind of warship? - Does it matter? It has nothing to do with this.
This started at the bomb site.
It's got everything to do with it.
- What kind of warship? - An ambulance.
Look.
That's what you chased through the time vortex.
It's space junk, I wanted to kid you it was valuable, it's empty.
I made sure of it, nothing but a shell.
I threw it at you.
Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look by the way, - nice panels, threw you the bait - Bait? I wanted to sell it to you, then destroy it before you found it was junk.
- You said it was a warship.
- They have ambulances in wars.
It's a con.
I was conning you.
That's what I am, I'm a con man.
Thought you were Time Agents.
- You're not, are you? - Just a couple more freelancers.
Oh! Should've known, the way you guys are blending in with the local colour.
Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-boat Captain? Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship.
What is happening here, Doctor? Human DNA is being rewritten.
- By an idiot.
- What do you mean? I don't know, some kind of virus.
Converting humans into these things.
But why? What's the point? Mummy.
Where's my mummy? Mummy.
Are you my mummy? Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy.
- What's happening? - I don't know.
Mummy.
It's me.
Nancy.
Don't let them touch you.
- What happens if they touch us? - You're looking at it.
- Are you my mummy? - It's Nancy, your sister.
You're dead, Jamie.
You're dead.
Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy.
Mummy - Mummy.
- Mummy.
Mummy I don't know what's happening but I had nothing to do with it.
I'll tell you what's happening.
You forgot to set your alarm clock.
It's Volcano Day.
That door should hold it for a bit.
The door? The wall didn't stop it.
Halt.
Don't move.
Go on, ask me anything, I'm on fire.
You've got the moves, show me your moves.
The world doesn't end 'cause the Doctor dances.
Stay back.
Mummy.
- Doctor.
- Secure those gates.
- Why? - Just do it.
All that weapons tech in the hands of an hysterical four-year-old looking for his mummy.
And nothing in the world can stop it.

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