(DOCTOR WHO THEME)
Rigor mortis.
- What is that? - He's been dead for hours.
- That is not possible. He was in his room. - Not Reuben.
But he was. I saw him.
The chameleon factor, sometimes called lycanthropy.
Leela, I've made a terrible mistake.
I thought I'd locked the enemy out.
Instead I've locked it in with us.
Reuben.
You all right now?
You shouldn't have come up here. I'll hang on till morning. You get some sleep.
No... No...
(SCREAMS)
This alien must have great powers to change its shape at will.
It has.
- But it needed to study human life first. - That is why it took the engineer.
Organic restructuring is elementary for Time Lords.
- Then there is nothing we can do. - What?
- If this creature is a Time Lord. - Not a Time Lord.
Elementary physiology for us takes lesser species a few thousand centuries.
Then we have nothing to worry about.
- We don't? - No.
You will easily dispose of this primitive creature, Doctor.
You are a Time Lord.
Yes, but it took Reuben's form for a reason.
(LEELA) To kill us stealthily, one by one.
- Doctor! - What is it?
Suppose we pretend that we still think Reuben is Reuben,
we can get close enough and kill it.
No, no, no, no. We can't.
If we got within touching distance, we're dead. It packs too many volts.
What is it?
- It's a power relay. - Does it belong to the alien?
Yes. Rule one after a crash landing, set up a distress beacon.
To do that, it needed a power source. That's why it came here.
There must be a signal transmitter somewhere.
To whom?
To its own kind.
- Leela, get the survivors to the lamp room. - That's the easiest place to defend.
- Where shall we look for this mognal signalator? - I'll do the looking. Hurry.
Do keep still!
It's like some terrible dream.
Pity it's not a dream. We'd stand a chance of waking up.
(FOOTSTEPS)
- Is Harker dead? - Yes.
Like the others. The creature has got into the lighthouse.
Now we must fight for our lives.
Adelaide. Drink this. Drink it.
Hurry! The Doctor wants us in the lamp room.
- Why? - It is the best place to defend ourselves.
- Right. Come on, Adelaide. - No.
Come along.
Back! Back! Get back!
(SCREAMS)
(PULSING)
Run! Run!
(PULSING)
Adelaide, Doctor! It's got Adelaide!
- Where's Leela? - Doctor, the creature!
- Behind us. We must find weapons. - Shh! Now, listen.
In the service room is a locker full of maroons.
Break them open and scatter the powder down the lamp room stairs. Vince'll help.
May I help you? Having trouble, Reuben, hmm?
Not easy holding a human form stable, is it?
No longer necessary. We can abandon this ridiculous shape.
Good idea. You'll find it a lot comfier.
(PULSING HUM)
- Like the others. - Then there is nothing we can do.
- The maroons. - This thing will destroy us all.
- Poor chap. - You must forget him now.
It is time for us to fight.
- (CRACKLING) - Listen.
Now I remember - Reuben the Rutan.
- You know our form? - Seen one Rutan, seen them all.
We are a Rutan scout. We are specially trained in the new metamorphosis techniques.
Well, I expect you'll get better at it in time. What are you doing here?
That doesn't concern you. You are to be destroyed.
Got it. You're losing that interminable war with the Sontarans.
- That is a liel - Is it?
You controlled the whole of the Mutter's Spiral once.
Now the Sontarans have driven you from the galaxy.
The glorious Rutan army is making a series of strategic withdrawals
to selected strongpoints.
Rutan, that's the empty rhetoric of a defeated dictator.
- I don't like your face, either. - Your mockery will end with your race,
when the Rutan battle fleet occupies this planet.
Why invade an obscure planet like Earth?
- It's of no value to you. - The planet is obscure,
but its strategic position is sound.
We shall use it as a launch point for our final assault on the Sontaran rabble.
If you set up a base here,
the Sontarans will bombard it with photonic missiles.
That is unimportant. It will serve the cause of our final glorious victory.
- And what about its people? - Primitive bipeds of no value.
We scouted all the planets of this solar system.
Only this one suits our purpose.
I can understand your military purposes, but why murder a hatful of harmless humans?
It is necessary, till we return to our mother ship
and the mother ship informs the fleet, no one must know of our visit.
But you crashed, didn't you? Just as you made your discovery, you failed.
Failed? We are sending a signal to the mother ship
with the power from the primitive mechanism below.
You're not, you know.
(CRACKLING)
It is of no importance. The ship will home in on the primary signal.
Sorry. I fixed that as well, oyster face.
All your interference is useless.
The beam was transmitted long enough for the mother ship to trace the signal.
- You can't be certain. - It will come.
But by then, you'll be dead.
What could you Earthlings possibly do to us?
Well, if you'll just step this way, I'll show you.
(CRACKLING)
- Here he comes! - I've brought someone to see you.
The fuses, quickly.
- Is this advisable? - Probably not, but we've no choice.
Would you oblige me with a light?
- A what? - Match.
- Of course. Here. - Thank you.
- Move over. - How did you hold it back?
Oh, a little bit of chit-chat.
- What kept you? - The time for talk is over.
Correct.
(WAILS)
(LEELA) Where is it? Have you killed the thing?
- Unlikely. - That's horrible. What the devil is it?
An intelligent, highly aggressive species from Ruta 3.
- Was it a sea creature? - It evolved in the sea, adapted to land.
- Any more gunpowder? - We're lucky that it fears flame.
Ruta 3 is an icy planet.
Its inhabitants find heat intensely painful.
- Now, if we had a flame-thrower... - Well, there is this, Doctor.
- What? - I got it from the service room.
It looks like a kind of mortar.
- It's an early Schermuly. - An early Schermuly?
It fires a hook and a line.
- A projectile? - Yes. It won't do, though.
Stay calm, Skinsale.
- Here. Take this. - Right. Got it.
Loaded with a few odds and ends, it should cover the stairs.
Empty your pockets and mine.
It's not just this Rutan, there are others.
Others? There are more of these beasts?
There's a whole battle fleet. By the time the Rutans and Sontarans...
- Sontarans? - Yes. By the time they've finished,
this planet'll be a cinder.
- There's a whole battle fleet coming here? - Yes.
Unless we could knock out the mother ship AND the scout ship.
If we could, they might conclude that this place was too dangerous.
- How can we do that? - I don't know.
We've nothing that would stop a Rutan spaceship.
They have a crystalline infrastructure, you see.
Still, landing on a planet like this,
they might just cut off the energy fields to save power.
I'd need an amplified carbon oscillator.
- What is an am... What did you say? - Like a laser beam. More destructive.
- Laser beam? - That's a very powerful light, isn't it?
Yes, put in its simplest terms.
- Why don't we use this? - What?
- This. - That?
Are you suggesting I convert the carbon arc beam?
Well, obviously.
Leela...
That's a beautiful notion.
Unfortunately, I'd need a focusing device,
a fairly large piece of crystalline carbon.
- A diamond. - Yes.
No, that's too small. I'd need a bigger one for the primary oscillator.
Palmerdale... Palmerdale, he always carried diamonds.
- He did? - His insurance.
- The crew room. - Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Well, let's get this working first.
(CRACKLING)
(ECHOING BUBBLING)
- Are you sure you've got it? - Mm-hmm.
- Good. - Doctor, I'm coming with you.
- That's not necessary. - I want to. You'll need someone.
All right. Remember, Leela,
don't fire till you see the green of its tentacles.
Doctor, how are you going to get past the Rutan?
With discretion.
Come on, Colonel.
(WHISPERS) Hurry. Hurry!
(CRACKLING)
(WHISPERS) Body belt! Body belt!
(SCREAMS)
(PULSING)
- Ready, Leela? - Yes.
(DOCTOR) Now!
(SHRILL WAILING)
Are you all right?
You singed my scarf.
- And the Colonel? - Dead with honour.
- At least we have avenged him. - Yes.
And the diamond?
(ECHOING BUBBLING)
It is here, Doctor!
I did it! Finished!
Your triumph... will be short... Earthling.
Our mother ship will blast this island... into molten rock.
Empty threats, Rutan.
Enjoy your death as I enjoyed killing you.
We die... for the glory... of our race...
Long live the Rutan... empirel
Leela? Leela!
(DULL CRUNCH)
- They are hard to kill, these Rutans. - Been celebrating?
It is fitting to celebrate enemies' deaths.
Not in my opinion. I haven't time to discuss morality. Look out there.
Is that the Rutan mother ship?
It is. When it gets within range,
this will lock onto its carbon resonator and knock out its anti-grav, I hope.
We've got about 117 seconds to get out of here. Understand?
- Perfectly. - Good.
So when I switch on,
you run for it, all right?
Yes.
It's getting nearer, Doctor.
Come on.
Better if you don't look back... I said don't look back!
- Now! - (PIERCING WHINE)
Leela, come on.
Leela!
- Leela! - All right!
(PIERCING WHINE)
(GULLS CALL)
That'll teach them.
I thought I told you not to look back.
- Slay me, Doctor. - What?
I am blind.
Slay me now. It is the fate of the old and crippled.
You're neither old nor crippled.
The effects of the flash will pass.
- You are sure? - Mmm. Blink.
- That's interesting. - What is?
Pigmentation dispersal caused by the flash.
Your eyes have changed colour.
Leela, stop blinking now.
Let's go.
- What colour are they? - Blue.
"Aye, though we hunted high and low,
- "And hunted everywhere..." - What?
"The Ballad of Flannan Isle" by Wilfred Gibson.
"Aye, though we hunted high and low,
"And hunted everywhere,
"Of the three men's fate we found no trace
"In any time, in any place
"But a door ajar and an untouched needle
"And an over-toppled chair."
(WHOOSHING)