Ah, horror movies, a safe way of experimenting with different forms of horror tropes, from safe to extreme, they've all had a common thread.
The characters doing something foolish getting themselves into the plot of the movie, despite seasoned movie goers seeing the threads early on, knowing that yelling at the screen meant nothing.
It's one of those, as Theodore and Lila made their way to the one place that science fiction horror made near impossible to trust unless there's guarantees in place: the medical bay.
Avoided the vents, kept an eye for a stream of liquified KY jelly coming from the ceiling, all in the name of not being an unwilling host to an alien.
Going towards the double doors that slid open automatically, the two entered, their eyes moving around as they watched for sudden movement, or something hiding in a spot waiting for an ambush.
Despite it being empty, void of patients or the doctor, the empty beds weren't helping, and the absence of patients drew Theodore's curiosity as he went towards the computer, Lila standing by and watching while he turned on the monitor.
Needed a sign-in, but that wasn't a problem, Theodore found a sticky note with it underneath the desk, guess someone's scatterbrained.
Entered the sign-in and Theodore's greeted with messages spanning years, it took him a while to get to the recent ones, because someone never heard of the 'delete' button.
In the recent messages, Doctor Gilmore's describing how one of the crew mates started complaining about abdomen pains, he thought there's a chance of appendicitides, due to the sickly nature of the man, that the patient was held for observation.
There's one last message.
HELP. US.
Short and to the point, always a good thing, but also a terrifying thing, because they know now that something happened to the crew aboard the Ourang Medan.
The parallels continue!
"I don't see anything," Lila frowns as she looked around the medical bay, there's no remnants of anything that transpired, no patients, dead or alive, no blood spatter, so Lila assumed that whatever happened, the patients were the first ones moved from the medical bay.
His icy blue eyes slowly moved around as he joined her side, Theodore glimpsed at the seemingly sterile medical bay, nothing out of place, no blood, struggle, anything.
As he moves around, something caught his sight, there's a door in the back of the medical bay.
Passing the row of empty beds, Theodore went towards the locked door, finding it sealed off. When he checked the numeral pad next to the door, he found it's been locked under quarantine.
The codes he grabbed didn't work, there wasn't any distinct code on the post-it.
"Ah, you sure you wanna break quarantine?" Lila looked towards him as she joined his side, seeing cogs turning in his head.
Breaking quarantines isn't the wisest or brightest ideas, but unfortunately, there's times when they have no other choice, and Theodore used his trusty Sonic Screwdriver to override the numpad, the door opening sliding open automatically.
The cold air blasted them as they entered through the doorway into the quarantine zone.
Sterile like a hospital, the familiar scent of the sterilizing cleaners they use wafted through the air, the cold air like they're in an ice box.
Walking through the hallway, ahead Theodore and Lila see doors leading into the quarantined ward.
There's another numpad with a screen above it, one patient occupied the quarantined ward, the same patient that was referenced in the doctor's message.
Reading through the lines on the screen, Theodore sees they didn't have to worry about catching anything in the air or something infected, that's always good, no risk becoming infected by an unknown pathogen.
What's not good, he sees the patient with the abdomen receiving sedatives because of the pain increasingly causing him to scream.
Slowly, he opened the doors with Lila behind him, the room's colder than in the hallway, there they see the beds systemically covered in plastic, unoccupied, and their eyes moved towards the beds further down.
"Lee, stay put," Theodore ordered her as his icy blue eyes narrowed on the bed furthest in the back. It looked different than the others and he suspected that the patient was put there.
Nodding, her chestnut hair stiffly moved as its tied back in a loose ponytail, Lila watched from afar as Theodore went ahead, walking past the rows of empty beds, towards the furthest one in the back.
Instantly, something's wrong, Theodore sees that the plastic barrier enrobing the bed's stained with red. It's not quite fresh, but with the cold air, it's difficult for him to know when it was splattered against the plastic barrier.
Going around to the part that opened, Theodore thoughtfully grabbed objects nearest to him, allowing him to pull the flaps to the sides, the metal rings clanking against each other.
His eyes widened and his mouth dropped.
No.
To describe the sight, let it be only known that the only left was a pair of legs. Nothing else. Only red.
"What's going on?" Theodore heard Lila as he hurried back to her side, pulling her close.
His icy blue eyes darting back and forth, Theodore tells her, "Cockroaches!"
Hesitantly, Lila goes, "C-cockroaches?"
Quickly nodding, Theodore tells her that the patient complaining about his abdominal pains was an unknowing host to…
It doesn't translate well, so that's why they've always called them cockroaches, they are, but they're not, it's just something they're able to remember.
Still, both annoying, but earth cockroaches don't erupt from human hosts.
One hand, it's bad, but unlike earth cockroaches, these ones are quite large, easy to spot, and tricky.
"So, that's why they said it was your wheelhouse," Lila flinches as Theodore's eyes darted around.
Next time someone says it's the Doctor's wheelhouse without properly explaining themselves, they're in for a world of hurt when Lila catches up to them.
Learning what they're dealing with, Theodore mulled their choices, as these cockroaches would've made quick work of the crew.
Even if there's a sliver of chance there's someone alive, he couldn't risk them being bitten.
Fast as the buggers are, a bite from them's a certain death, the egg's transported by the bloodstream, gets itself lodged in the warmest part of the human being, usually the chest and stomach area, where it'll mature within a time frame between an hour and an hour and a half.
His father and mother did what they could when they ran into them, but once someone's bitten, there's nothing to be done, even with surgery, removing the implanted egg's an impossible task.
Many died trying to thwart the cockroaches, but to no avail, they've discovered a way of successfully removing the egg.
It's believed that if a patient had an egg implanted, that euthanizing them's a mercy than letting them witness their demise, for no more than a second.
"How the hell did he get bit?" Lila wondered how the patient ended up bitten by a cockroach and Theodore pondered this before suggesting that the crew sent the unfortunate soul to the planet that the ship's orbiting.
Cockroaches don't kill the hosts of their eggs, dead hosts meant dead eggs, they need living hosts keeping their eggs warm while they gestate in their hosts.
One of the ways Theodore's parents tried to save people infected by the cockroaches was freezing them to the point of near frostbite, in hopes of killing the eggs, but it risked killing the infected, too.
That said, the patient descended to the planet, for whatever purpose, ran into the cockroaches, got bit, but was able to make it off the planet, shortly before the egg took.
The coldness of the quarantine ward probably helped lengthen the time it took before the egg hatched, by then, it was too late.
"We're leaving," Theodore finally said to Lila.
His father would've made the same call and his mother would approve of it.
It's too dangerous and Theodore will not risk himself or Lila's lives.
Nodding, Lila agreed with Theodore's assessment, while it's a difficult position, cockroaches weren't to be overlooked.
As Theodore described them, they make earth cockroaches look cuddly.
Large, territorial, capable of swarming, just overall a danger.
When Daleks hate something, no one blinks an eye, but when Daleks explicitly hate these insects because of how they swarm and destroy their fleshy brethren, enough to destroy over a hundred and twenty planets and moons due to their scanners showing indicators that the cockroaches have hives on them, it's telling.
Even being the Doctor, Theodore hadn't risked the planets he stood on being obliterated from space!
Lila close to him, he led them out of the quarantine zone, Theodore reached out to Al, telling him that they're abandoning the ship, to override the commands, destroy it.
"Cockroaches? Oh, god. That'd explain why my scanners show there's a hotspot somewhere in the engine room," Al tells Theodore how he noticed an unusual hotspot in the engine room, of course it's an engine room, of course it's going to be hot, but then the red started to move and became dots.
Retracing their steps, Theodore led them back the way they came, bent on returning to the TARDIS, and writing off the ship.
He ordered Al to keep an eye on the dots, if they're coming closer to him and Lila's position, and Al affirmed he would, while telling Theodore he'll prep for the ship's denotation, but won't hit the countdown until they're back to the TARDIS.
They're almost towards the hallway where they entered from the cargo bay, when there's a shot, sending them to the ground.
"Yes! Let's fire aboard a spaceship! I'm sure that makes perfect sense!" Lila had to shout as she felt Theodore use himself to shield her as they braced for another gunshot.
When they opened their eyes, they see someone standing in front of them, wielding a futuristic pistol, trained on their heads.
"Who are you?" Theodore heard a man ask them, a look in his eyes.