Hello everyone!
Here's the next chapter: the classic Nine Episode - Dalek
Next up is Revolution of the Daleks, and then we get some updated people and a new person!
Please let me know, and continue telling me what two-parter you want to see next (after Revolution)
Thank you for reading
Hope you enjoy
Robyn
The Tardis listened to Donna, leaving the group no time to confront her before the next title showed up on screen.
"Dalek." Yaz muttered in disdain. "That's descriptive."
"Any ideas Doctor?" Rory turned a questioning look on the Doctor.
The Doctor shrugged, "It's a broad title. Could be any number of messes."
"Let's see then." Amy nodded to the screen. There was no further delay from the Tardis, the video immediately rolling.
[Museum]
(The Tardis materialises in dimly lit area with carpeting and display cases.)
ROSE: So what is it? What's wrong?
DOCTOR: Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the Tardis off course.
"Oh!" Rose's eyes widened drastically; the appearance of her first Doctor and lack of Jack really narrowed down the video they could be watching. It really only left one option.
"Ah." The Doctor gave a small nod to themselves before sharing a glance with Rose. She could already hear River and Jack's oncoming arguments.
Martha glanced between the two of them, "I'm guessing you know what this video is about?"
Rose nodded with a grimace, "Unfortunately." Not a reassuring reaction for the onlooking group to hear.
ROSE: Where are we?
DOCTOR: Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground.
"Secret bunker?" Ryan asked curious.
"Secret bunker in America." Bill countered with a grimace, that was usually how horror movies and such started.
ROSE: And when are we?
DOCTOR: Two thousand and twelve.
(He looks at a display case.)
ROSE: God, that's so close. So I should be twenty six.
"You're so old." Yaz couldn't help but mutter. The very idea of 2012 being the future or being 26 then was crazy to her. She would have been about 13 in 2012. The joys of time travel.
(The Doctor finds the light switch, and things become more clear.)
ROSE: Blimey. It's a great big museum.
DOCTOR: An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship.
"An alien walks into an alien museum." River raised an eyebrow at her wife, "This can't end well." The last thing the Doctor needed was to advertise their alien-ness in a place like this, but knowing her that's exactly what they'd do.
ROSE: That's a bit of Slitheen! That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed.
DOCTOR: Oh, look at you.
ROSE: What is it?
(The head of a Cyberman.)
"Cyberman." Mickey sighed at the sight of the familiar helmet. If the title was to be believed, however, it was another familiar enemy Rose and the Doctor would be facing.
DOCTOR: An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old.
Jack snorted, "You're just staying that now?" It seemed ironic that it was a much younger Doctor saying that.
ROSE: Is that where the signal's coming from?
DOCTOR: No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help.
(The Doctor touches the display case and an alarm goes off. Armed guards rush in from all sides and cut them off from the Tardis.)
ROSE: If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A.
"So, you might want to come up with a cover story and quickly." Clara pointed out worried. They were about to have company with all those alarms.
[Corridor]
TANNOY: Attention all personnel. Bad Wolf One descending. Bad Wolf One descending.
The group exchanged looks at the reoccurring phrase 'bad wolf', last video had certainly drawn their attention to it enough that they didn't miss it here. Still, they didn't know what exactly it meant.
Jack, Rose and the Doctor all shared a silent conversation. Rose had scattered those words across time, but they'd been blind to them before they knew the significance.
(A helicopter has landed. Four armed guards line the corridor as a man and his aides stride out of a doorway.)
"Well, they certainly look friendly." Nardole declared, delightful sarcastic.
POLKOWSKI: On behalf of all of us, I want to wish you a very happy birthday, sir. And the President called to convey his personal best wishes.
VAN STATTEN: The President is ten points down. I want him replaced.
POLKOWSKI: I don't think that's very wise, sir.
VAN STATTEN: Thank you so much for your opinion. You're fired. Get rid of him.
POLKOWSKI: What?
(An armed guard drags Polkowski away.)
"Ah, power hungry business man with no regards for people." River clocked the type immediately, "That makes this the wrong place for you to linger Doctor."
The Doctor offered a sheepish shrug, they hadn't left when they should have. When did they?
VAN STATTEN: Wipe his memory, put him on the road someplace. Memphis, Minneapolis. Somewhere beginning with M.
(A woman runs up to take Polkowski's place.)
VAN STATTEN: So, the next President. What do you think? Republican or Democrat?
GODDARD: Democrat, sir.
VAN STATTEN: For what reason?
GODDARD: They're just so funny, sir?
"They're terrified of him." Martha shook her head, "There's no way they're going to disobey." Which means it was going to take some effort for the Doctor and Rose to get some help when they inevitably found trouble.
(Van Statten stops.)
VAN STATTEN: What is your name?
GODDARD: Goddard, sir. Diana Goddard.
VAN STATTEN: I like you, Diana Goddard. So, where's the English kid?
ADAM: Sir! Sir! I bought ten more artefacts at auction, Mister Van Statten.
"Obsessed with aliens, and one intrudes into his museum." Donna crossed her arms with a pointed glance at the Doctor, "I wonder how this is going to go." She tilted her head, voice full of sarcasm.
VAN STATTEN: Bring 'em on, let me see 'em.
GODDARD: Sir, with respect, there's something more urgent. We arrested two intruders fifty three floors down. We don't know how they got in.
VAN STATTEN: I'll tell you how they got in. In-tru-da window. In-tru-da window. That was funny!
(Obedient laughter.)
"Let's hope the Doctor has a better excuse." Yaz declared hopefully, but disbelieving.
VAN STATTEN: Bring 'em in. Let's see 'em. And tell Simmons I want to visit my little pet. Get to it!
(Van Statten goes through a doorway. Goddard steps aside to use her headset.)
GODDARD: Simmons? You'd better give me good news. Is it talking?
"He has something alive in there." Rory sat up further in his seat.
Amy grimaced, "And I have a funny feeling I know what it might be." The title might be a blaring clue, and not a pleasant one.
[Cage]
(Something with blue vision is watching a man wearing a protective suit wielding a chainsaw on itself.)
SIMMONS: Not exactly talking, no.
[Corridor]
GODDARD: Then what's it doing?
[Cage]
SIMMONS: Screaming. Is that any good?
"They're monsters." Bill exclaimed outraged. It didn't matter what they'd captured, they were torturing it! And, worse, they didn't even care!
[Office]
(Adam is showing his boss the latest purchases.)
ADAM: And this is the last. Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it.
(The Doctor, Rose and Goddard enter.)
VAN STATTEN: What does it do?
ADAM: Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel.
"Doesn't look worth eight hundred dollars." Ryan muttered, tilting his head to try and get a better look at the tube.
DOCTOR: I really wouldn't hold it like that.
GODDARD: Shut it.
DOCTOR: Really, though, that's wrong.
ADAM: Is it dangerous?
DOCTOR: No, it just looks silly.
"Doctor." River sighed, they'd just met Van Statten and the Doctor was already antagonising him. The Doctor shrugged, looking completely unrepentant.
(The Doctor reaches for the item, and firing bolts click all around him. Van Stratton hands him the curved, palm sized object.)
"Touchy." Amy muttered, wide eyed at the immediate sounds of guns being readied.
DOCTOR: You just need to be
(The Doctor strokes the artefact and it makes a note.)
DOCTOR: Delicate.
(He plays several different notes.)
VAN STATTEN: It's a musical instrument.
"He's not going to like that." Clara mused; he wasn't the kind of guy to enjoy the joy of an alien musical instrument.
DOCTOR: And it's a long way from home.
VAN STATTEN: Here, let me.
(Van Statten's touch is harsher. Not nice sounds are produced.)
"Erh, not quite." Graham winced at the horrible sounds the instrument produced.
DOCTOR: I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision.
(Van Statten finally gets the hang of it.)
DOCTOR: Very good. Quite the expert.
VAN STATTEN: As are you.
(Van Statten casually tosses it aside, onto the floor.)
Half the room winced at how Van Statten immediately rejected the instrument after getting bored of it; he was a volatile man and they're weren't excited to see when the Doctor inevitably messed up and revealed what he was.
VAN STATTEN: Who exactly are you?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. And who are you?
"He's a pretentious one." Mickey remarked, "He's going to expect you to know."
VAN STATTEN: Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake.
DOCTOR: Pretty much sums me up, yeah.
"It's about standard with the Doctor." Bill nodded. They always ended up somewhere they weren't supposed to be.
VAN STATTEN: The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice. You're quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty.
ROSE: She's going to smack you if you keep calling her she.
"As she should." Donna nodded in eager agreement with Rose.
VAN STATTEN: She's English too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend.
ADAM: This is Mister Henry Van Statten.
ROSE: And who's he when he's at home?
ADAM: Mister Van Statten owns the internet.
"And yet we've never heard of him." Yaz crossed her arms doubtful.
ROSE: Don't be stupid. No one owns the internet.
VAN STATTEN: And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?
"I didn't like him then." Rose sighed, "And I still don't know." All those years passed and Van Statten was still unbearable.
DOCTOR: So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up.
VAN STATTEN: And you claim greater knowledge?
DOCTOR: I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am.
"Doctor." Jack sighed, a mix of exasperated and fond. It was bittersweet seeing his original Doctor, but the Doctor was really pushing Van Statten's buttons which wasn't something they wanted to do.
VAN STATTEN: And yet, I captured you. Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?
DOCTOR: You tell me.
VAN STATTEN: The Cage contains my one living specimen.
DOCTOR: And what's that?
VAN STATTEN: Like you don't know.
DOCTOR: Show me.
"How is this working?" Mickey shook his head in some disbelief at how the Doctor's tactic of answering all Van Statten's questions with more questions was actually working.
VAN STATTEN: You want to see it?
ROSE: Blimey, you can smell the testosterone.
VAN STATTEN: Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet.
"Ah, pretentious, xenophobic and sexist." Amy raised an eyebrow. "He keeps getting better and better."
[Outside the Cage]
VAN STATTEN: We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside.
DOCTOR: Inside? Inside what?
SIMMONS: Welcome back, sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting.
DOCTOR: Metaltron?
"That's a terrible name." Martha snorted. Even if they didn't know it was a Dalek, it was still a terrible name.
VAN STATTEN: Thought of it myself. Good, isn't it? Although I'd much to prefer to find out its real name.
SIMMONS: Here, you'd better put these on. (gauntlets) The last guy that touched it burst into flames.
"Such casual disregard for life." Rory shook his head, with a grimace. It didn't bode well for Rose and the Doctor's fate later.
DOCTOR: I won't touch it then.
VAN STATTEN: Go ahead, Doctor. Impress me.
(The Doctor steps through the heavy door.)
VAN STATTEN: Don't open that door until we get a result.
(Van Statten and Goddard go to a desk with monitors on it.)
"This can't end well." Nardole declared with a glance at the Doctor, especially if it was a Dalek in the cage.
[Cage]
(It is dark inside. The door clangs shut and locks.)
DOCTOR: Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor.
"Maybe not a good idea to introduce yourself to the strange alien prisoner before knowing what it is." Yaz gave the Doctor a pointed look, continually disapproving of their bad life choices.
(A white light blinks next to a blue glow.)
METALTRON: Doc Tor?
DOCTOR: Impossible.
"Oh." Rose's eyes widened; she'd almost forgotten that at this point the Doctor thought the Dalek's were all gone in the Time War.
"Wait why would that be impossible?" Ryan asked curious.
The Doctor sighed, sharing a quick glance with Rose. "This occurred relatively soon after the Time War for me, I thought that the Dalek's had been eradicated alongside Gallifrey." Their explanation earned several understanding and contemplative nods, it certainly added another layer to the Doctor's emotional state.
METALTRON: The Doctor?
(The lights come up to reveal a bad tempered pepperpot being held in chains.)
DALEK: Exterminate! Exterminate!
"Get him out of there." Amy sat up, talking to the screen in a pointless manner. The whole group had tensed up at the Dalek's immediate and familiar response.
(The Doctor hammers on the door in terror.)
DOCTOR: Let me out!
DALEK: Exterminate!
[Outside the Cage]
GODDARD: Sir, it's going to kill him.
VAN STATTEN: It's talking!
"There's no way they're letting him out." Clara grit out, grimacing. They'd seen enough of Van Statten to know that much so far.
[Cage]
DALEK: You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!
(Its gun arm twitches but nothing happens.)
"Oh, thank god." Martha sighed in relief at the gun arm not doing anything. It reduced the immediate threat of the Dalek but it did not make them safe. the Doctor still had to get out of there, and quick.
DOCTOR: It's not working.
(The Doctor laughs as the Dalek looks at its impotent weapon.)
DOCTOR: Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?
"Maybe don't antagonise the Dalek you're trapped in a cage with." Yaz pointed out, more than a little incredulous. The Doctor conveniently avoided eye contact with the group.
DALEK: Keep back!
(The Doctor stands inches away, staring into its eyepiece.)
DOCTOR: What for? What're you going to do to me? If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing.
"Really not a good idea, Doctor." Jack warned with a wary glance between the screen and the Doctor.
The Doctor ignored the rest of the group in favour of a shared glance with Rose, both very aware of how this was going to end.
[Outside the Cage]
DOCTOR [on monitor]: What the hell are you here for?
DALEK [on monitor]: I am waiting for orders.
[Cage]
DOCTOR: What does that mean?
DALEK: I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders.
"Don't think it's going to get any orders anytime soon." Rory crossed his arms.
Amy grimaced, "Which means it might go crazy on its own."
DOCTOR: Well you're never going to get any. Not ever.
DALEK: I demand orders!
DOCTOR: They're never going to come! Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second.
"If only." The Doctor scowled quietly at the floor. Every time she thought she was rid of them; they found a way to slither through the cracks and escape.
DALEK: You lie!
DOCTOR: I watched it happen. I made it happen.
DALEK: You destroyed us?
DOCTOR: I had no choice.
The group all shared knowing glances, they'd heard that story very times with varying ends and truths. The reminder wasn't exactly appreciated, as they knew how much it had messed the Doctor up.
DALEK: And what of the Time Lords?
DOCTOR: Dead. They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost.
"Not until later." The Master sang with a smug smirk in the Doctor's direction. He'd take any opportunity to remind them all of what he'd done to Gallifrey. The Doctor frowned but didn't look in his direction, solely focusing on the screen.
DALEK: And the coward survived.
DOCTOR: Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me. Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left.
DALEK: I am alone in the universe.
"Maybe don't set the crazy Dalek off." Clara strongly suggested to the Doctor, despite the fact this was in the past and no one could do anything.
DOCTOR: Yep.
"Nope." Rose countered; arms crossed with a grin at the Doctor. They may have been the only Time Lord (ish) around, but they certainly weren't alone. Everyone in the room could attest to that.
DALEK: So are you. We are the same.
DOCTOR: We're not the same! I'm not (pause) No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve. Exterminate.
(The Doctor pulls a lever on a nearby console and the Dalek is lit up with electricity.)
"Doctor?" Yaz sat up, wide eyed in surprise. It wasn't often they'd seen the Doctor be so outright … cruel. They were in a bad place mentally but that didn't mean torturing the Dalek was right.
The Doctor was scowling, eyes still locked on the screen; "I'm not proud of it."
"Well, I am. Just delightful dear. Truly." The Master cackled to himself at the Doctor's cruelty. He'd always said they were alike, and here the Doctor was providing them more evidence. The Doctor's frown deepened but she didn't grace him with a response.
DALEK: Have pity!
DOCTOR: Why should I? You never did.
[Outside the Cage]
VAN STATTEN: Get him out.
"Oh, now he wants to get the Doctor out." Jack scowled. Typical, Van Statten was only willing to free the Doctor when its prize was at risk.
"Wait." Bill sat up straighter, having just realised something. "Van Statten was listening that whole time. The Doctor practically just admitted to being alien too!" They'd all been too distracted by the Dalek and the Doctor's confrontation to remember their audience.
"This can't end well." Martha scowled at the screen. They'd all been fearing exactly this situation, they just had to hope Van Statten was too distracted by the Dalek talking to recognise what their words meant.
[Cage]
DALEK: Help me!
(Guards grab the Doctor as he goes to ramp up the voltage again.)
VAN STATTEN: I saved your life. Now talk to me. Goddamn it, talk to me!
(Simmons turns off the electricity.)
DOCTOR: You've got to destroy it!
"Don't think they're going to listen to you." Mickey pointed out.
"Oh, they certainly aren't." Rose answered for her. They hadn't been willing to destroy it until almost everything had been destroyed and so many had been pointlessly killed.
(The Doctor is dragged out.)
VAN STATTEN: The last in the universe. And now I know your name. Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek. I am Henry van Statten, now recognise me! Make it talk again, Simmons. Whatever it takes.
"Doesn't like you." Nardole commented, there was no way the Dalek was going to talk to them.
[Adam's workshop]
ADAM: Sorry about the mess. Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods. What do you think that is?
(Adam gives Rose an inch think piece of metal.)
ROSE: Er, a lump of metal?
"She's not wrong." Rory grinned, entertained by Rose's lack of interest in Adam.
ADAM: Yeah. Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft. The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist.
ROSE: That's amazing.
ADAM: I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life.
"He has no idea." Amy snorted. Rose was just standing there pretending like she hadn't been travelling time and space with an alien. Rose and the Doctor just shared a look, they both knew Adam's fate.
ROSE: I'm gobsmacked, yeah. And you do what, sit here and catalogue it?
ADAM: Best job in the world.
"I'd argue it really isn't." Graham said.
Ryan rolled is eyes, "Yeah, but you'd say being a bus driver was."
"Nothing wrong with being a bus driver. Mighty fine job, it is." Graham argued to Yaz's amuse and Ryan's fond annoyance.
ROSE: Imagine if you could get out there. Travel amongst the stars and see it for real.
"Imagine that crazy scenario." Bill snickered.
ADAM: Yeah, I'd give anything. I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes.
ROSE: Oh, you never know. What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?
ADAM: I think they're nutters.
"And what does that make you." Rose muttered quietly. Mickey was the only one who heard and shot her a confused look which she just shook her head at.
ROSE: Yeah, me too. So, how'd you end up here?
ADAM: Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit.
ROSE: Oh, right. You're a genius.
"And humble too." Clara raised an eyebrow. Adam really wasn't endearing himself to the group.
ADAM: Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System. Nearly caused World War Three.
ROSE: What, and that's funny, is it?
ADAM: Well, you should've been there just to see them running about. Fantastic!
ROSE: You sound like the Doctor.
"I take insult to that." The Doctor huffed. She hadn't liked Adam back then, and she still didn't now; and it wasn't just because of his obvious crush on Rose.
Rose smiled fondly, "You would." She wasn't taking the words back though; they definitely had there differences though.
ADAM: Are you and him?
ROSE: No, we're just friends.
ADAM: Good.
ROSE: Why is it good?
ADAM: It just is.
"He means because he has a huge crush on you." Mickey pointed out, earning an eye roll from Rose. Seriously, had half the galaxy fallen in love with Rose before he'd joined the Doctor and Rose in their travels.
ROSE: So, wouldn't you rather be downstairs? I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff, but Mister Van Statten's got a living creature down there.
ADAM: Yeah. Yeah, well, I did ask, but he keeps it to himself. Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. system.
ROSE: Let's have a look, then.
"Ah, smart." Martha grinned. "Use his desire to show off to get information."
ADAM: It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot.
(They watch the Dalek screaming as Simmons takes a big drill to its casing.)
ROSE: It's being tortured! Where's the Doctor?
ADAM: I don't know.
ROSE: Take me down there now.
"You haven't seen a Dalek before, have you?" River raised an eyebrow. If Rose had she would have recognised the description and not been so eager to defend it, wanting to be with the Doctor more to help.
Rose just shook her head with a grimace. She hadn't and a lot had gone wrong because she had still been naïve; not that she was remotely the only person to blame in everything that had gone wrong.
[Lift]
DOCTOR: The metal's just battle armour. The real Dalek creature's inside.
VAN STATTEN: What does it look like?
DOCTOR: A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate.
"And you aren't afraid of how suspicious your knowledge is?" Amy sighed. The Doctor had been completely taken aback by the Dalek's appearance, and had been blinded in attempts to warn them to realise they were too heartless to do anything.
VAN STATTEN: Genetically engineered. By whom?
DOCTOR: By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him.
GODDARD: It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?
"Because they never stop being threats?" Rory asked, clearly a rhetorical question to all those that knew the Daleks.
DOCTOR: Because I'm here. How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?
GODDARD: The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane.
"It was already insane." The Doctor scowled at the screen. The rest of the group sharing glances around her.
DOCTOR: It must have fallen through time. The only survivor.
GODDARD: You talked about a war?
"Oh no, he definitely heard what was said." Jack frowned. That wasn't good news for the Doctor and Rose's chances of just walking out of there unbothered and without attempts to be added to the collection.
DOCTOR: The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race.
VAN STATTEN: But you survived, too.
DOCTOR: Not by choice.
VAN STATTEN: This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence.
"Doctor." River sighed in frustration.
They really couldn't keep their mouth shut even when it was important for self-preservation. She'd give them a little leeway with the shock they'd experienced at seeing a Dalek for the first time since the end of the Time War, but the emotional breakdown they were having wasn't going to do anyone any favours in that exact moment.
[Doctor's cage]
(So the Doctor is stripped and chained spread-eagled.)
VAN STATTEN: Now, smile!
"That didn't take long." Jack scowled. Van Statten was unfortunately predictable. "It's up to you now Rose." Rose was the Doctor's best chance in their current predicament; however her wince didn't reassure anyone that things had gone smoothly.
The Doctor was busy avoiding the groups' worried looks, the weight of their eyes very heavy on her. She even blocked the tapping at the mental equivalent of a door to her and the Master's mental connection, she really couldn't deal with him right now.
(A painful laser scan runs down the Doctor's body.)
VAN STATTEN: Two hearts! Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this.
"Oh no you're not Mister." Donna scowled, sitting up in her seat as if she was about to try and find Van Statten to verbally abuse him. None of the group was happy about the Doctor's current situation, and the lack of ability to stop it was becoming a frustratingly familiar experience.
DOCTOR: So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it.
VAN STATTEN: This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?
"Because this guy couldn't get much worse." Amy glared at the screen, then turned to Rose and the Doctor. "Please tell me he's not still around in a position of power?"
Rose frowned at the screen, glancing at the Doctor who was still avoiding eye contact, before turning to answer the group trying to be purposefully vague. "He wasn't in a position of power when we left."
DOCTOR: Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you.
"The bar was on the ground, yet he found a shovel and started digging." Bill crossed her arms. None of them had any patience for people like Van Statten, and unfortunately, they'd all experienced their fair share during their travels with the Doctor.
VAN STATTEN: In that case, I will be true to myself and continue.
DOCTOR: Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!
VAN STATTEN: Nothing can escape the Cage.
"Famous last words." Mickey frowned. All of them had no doubt in their mind that the Dalek would get free and wreak havoc on the whole base, it was only a matter of time.
(He blasts the Doctor with the laser again.)
DOCTOR: But it's woken up. It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!
(Van Statten runs the laser scan again, just to hear the Doctor scream.)
The group were all sending dark scowls at the screen, extreme disdain for Van Statten only growing which they thought hadn't been possible.
"Focus on getting free and getting yourself and Rose out first, Doctor." River turned to her wife; Van Statten had ignored all the Doctor's warnings whatever happened he'd brought upon himself.
The Doctor shook her head, "They didn't know what they were getting into."
"No, but you tried to warn them." Jack argued, agreeing with River. "You tried Doctor, a man like Van Statten isn't going to listen."
The Doctor continued shaking her head in disapproval but didn't argue further, eyes still locked on the screen. Jack and River shared a knowing look above her head.
[Outside the Cage]
BYWATER: Hold it right there.
ADAM: Level three access. Special clearance from Mister Van Statten.
[Cage]
ADAM: Don't get too close.
(The door closes behind Rose and Adam.)
"That is exactly the last place you want to be." Nardole gestured to the screen.
ROSE: Hello. Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler. I've got a friend, he can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?
"Rose." Mickey sighed at her naivety. Her desire to help could be admired, but in this circumstance it could only end badly.
Rose grimaced, "I know, I know. I was young and naïve, and we'd not seen Daleks before. I didn't know better."
DALEK: Yes.
ROSE: What?
DALEK: I am in pain. They torture me, but still they fear me. Do you fear me?
ROSE: No.
Rose sighed. She still didn't fear him, but she held a much better understanding of how dangerous and heartless Daleks were. Watching this was frustrating, a million other ways this could have gone if she'd done something different racing through her mind.
DALEK: I am dying.
ROSE: No, we can help.
DALEK: I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die I have met a human who was not afraid.
ROSE: Isn't there anything I can do?
DALEK: My race is dead, and I shall die alone.
"Good." Amy crossed her arms, though she had a strong suspicion that wsn't how this was going to go.
(Rose reaches for the Dalek's head.)
ADAM: Rose, no!
"Don't touch it!" Donna shouted pointlessly. Touching a Dalek was never a good idea, and they'd literally just heard how the last people that touched it had disintegrated.
(A brief touch leaves a golden handprint which quickly fades. The Dalek becomes more animated.)
DALEK: Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction!
Jack sat up straighter, body tense as he immediately realised what had happened. "You rejuvenated it."
"Not on purpose." Rose sighed, barley resisting the urge to hang her head in her hands. Things were only going to get worse from here.
(The Dalek breaks its chains. Simmons enters.)
SIMMONS: What the hell have you done?
"A mistake." Rose answered for her past self.
(He goes to the Dalek, carrying his drill. The Dalek raises its sink plunger.)
SIMMONS: What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?
(However did you guess? The sucker covers his nose and mouth and the Dalek creates a vacuum inside it. Ouch!)
"Yep." Martha grimaced, "And now you have a loose and very angry Dalek. Everyone's in danger." No one was safe anymore, Rose needed to find the Doctor, free him and then both of them needed to get out of there and quick.
[Outside the Cage]
ROSE: It's killing him! Do something!
BYWATER: Condition red! Condition red!
[Doctor's cage]
GUARD [OC]: I repeat, this is not a drill!
DOCTOR: Release me if you want to live.
"Listen to him." River begged the people on the screen. It was the only chance the humans had, and it would secure the Doctor's freedom from the torture room.
[Office]
(The scene in the Cage is on a large wall TV.)
DOCTOR: You've got to keep it in that cell.
ROSE [on screen]: Doctor, it's all my fault.
GUARD [on screen]: I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations.
"That's not going to stop it." Jack shook his head, the humans had not idea what they'd just started.
DOCTOR: A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat.
[Outside the Cage]
(And that is precisely what the Dalek uses its sucker to do.)
BYWATER: Open fire!
"Still not going to work." Mickey frowned, concerned about Rose's predicament. A private army controlled by a pompous businessman and a locked underground base didn't give many options for Rose and the Doctor to run or escape.
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed.
DOCTOR: Rose, get out of there!
[Outside the Cage]
BYWATER: De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?
"Finally, a sensible person!" Donna threw her hands up in the air in frustration. It was a miracle to find someone with a brain cell in this bunker.
(The woman guard obeys.)
DE MAGGIO: You, with me.
[Outside the Cage]
(The Dalek glides up to the wall monitor and smashes it, absorbing the electricity. It's battered armour starts to mend, turning from brown to golden.)
BYWATER: Abandoning the Cage, sir.
"Run. Just run." Ryan urged the people on screen. It was pointless to try and shoot at the Dalek like that, the only thing they could do was run and hope the Doctor had a solution.
[Office]
GODDARD: We're losing power. It's draining the base. Oh, my God. It's draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah.
DOCTOR: It's downloading.
VAN STATTEN: Downloading what?
"The internet." Yaz quickly made the connection, "It's working out everything it's missed and where it is."
GODDARD: Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down.
DOCTOR: It's not just energy. That Dalek just absorbed the entire internet. It knows everything.
[Outside the Cage]
DALEK: The Daleks survive in me!
(The Dalek uses its weapon on its surroundings.)
"Unfortunately." Nardole muttered, "And its not the last one." The Daleks always managed to find a way to survive.
[Office]
GODDARD: The cameras in the vault have gone down.
DOCTOR: We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it now!
"He's not going to be eager to kill it." Clara shook her head. They all knew Van Goddard prized his possessions more than human life, that had been shown several times already.
GODDARD: All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately.
[Corridor]
DE MAGGIO: Civilians! Let them through!
(Rose and Adam, and de Maggio, run through the incoming phalanx of guards.)
"Just get far away from there and find the Doctor." Amy said, it was Rose and Adam's best way of staying safe.
BYWATER: Cover the north wall. Red division, maintain suppressing fire along the perimeter. Blue division argh!
(The guard dies the traditional extermination death, by turning black and white and having his skeleton exposed. The guards open fire, but the Dalek just absorbs the bullets. It kills another man. More guards come up behind it, so it swivels its eyepiece around then its middle section turns to open fire on them. Back and forward it alternates, killing someone each time.)
"This is a slaughter." Rory shook his head; they'd all been expecting it but it was still terrible to see. So many people pointlessly killed.
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: Tell them to stop shooting at it.
GODDARD: But it's killing them!
VAN STATTEN: They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me? Do you hear me?
"You -." Donna scowled at the screen, cutting herself off with muffled curses. They'd all been expecting it, had all seen it before, but for Van Statten to outright say it, it was horrible.
(The gunfire stops, but only because there is no one left to shoot. Goddard calls up a schematic of the base.)
GODDARD: That's us, right below the surface. That's the cage, and that's the Dalek.
DOCTOR: This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?
That earned a few raised eyebrows from the group, the Doctor wasn't a big supporter of aliens so for him to be suggesting them now showed both his mentality and how serious it was.
GODDARD: Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them.
VAN STATTEN: We've got to keep that thing alive. We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there.
DOCTOR: Leaving everyone trapped with it. Rose is down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that? It's got to go through this area. What's that?
"He's not going to listen to you Doctor." River turned to her wife, serious look in her eyes. She waited until the Doctor finally met her eyes. "A man like him; he's never going to listen to you. You have to do what you have to do." The Doctor frowned, but couldn't come up with a reply.
GODDARD: Weapons testing.
DOCTOR: Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it.
"Don't leave anyone defenceless." Ryan nodded; even if the guns didn't work it was better than being completely defenceless.
[Staircase]
ROSE: Stairs! That's more like it. It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!
Rose groaned at her lack of knowledge; she'd been so hopeful but she'd known nothing about Daleks. The group that knew about the Daleks, all winced as they realised what was about to happen.
DE MAGGIO: It's coming! Get up!
(They run a flight and look down on the Dalek.)
ADAM: Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs.
"Don't get ahead of yourself mate." Mickey shook his head, disproving. He wasn't liking Adam in general, let alone how he was actin around Rose – and not because of his own former crush/being boyfriend to Rose. He just got the wrong kind of vibes from him.
DE MAGGIO: Now listen to me. I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate then I can guarantee that Mister van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?
"The Dalek is never going to listen to that." Amy frowned, waving a hand at the screen.
Rory snorted, "Would anything listen to a demand like that after being caged and tortured?"
DALEK: Elevate.
(The Dalek glides up the stairs, just like its forebears did at Coal Hill School.)
"That's a definite no." Graham announced.
ROSE: Oh my God.
DE MAGGIO: Adam, get her out of here.
ROSE: Come with us. You can't stop it.
DE MAGGIO: Someone's got to try. Now get out! Don't look back. Just run. (Despite the closing range, de Maggio doesn't hit the eyepiece. She suffers the usual fate.)
The group winced, feeling some remorse for De Maggio's fate; she'd at least tried to help the two escape. She hadn't deserved to be killed like that, none of them had. It wasn't their fault their employer was Van Statten.
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something.
"It needs to kill." Jack crossed his arms, glaring at the screen as if to convey his anger to Van Statten through it. "There's no negotiating with a Dalek." The Doctor and Clara shared a quick glance, though Jack's words were predominantly true but they had one or two small exceptions that weren't relevant here.
DOCTOR: What's the nearest town?
VAN STATTEN: Salt Lake City.
DOCTOR: Population?
VAN STATTEN: One million.
DOCTOR: All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs.
"You need to stop it." Bill stated, staring the Doctor down. That as non-negotiable, the Dalek had to be stopped by any means necessary before it escaped and reached civilisation.
VAN STATTEN: But why would it do that?
DOCTOR: Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose! The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible.
"As the Doctor has proven time and time again." Rose remarked. There was a reason the Doctor was the Dalek's number one enemy, well one of many.
[Loading bay]
DOCTOR [OC]: If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece.
[Office]
DOCTOR: That's the weak spot.
[Loading bay]
COMMANDER: Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot. Positions!
"Ignorant idiots are going to get everyone killed." Donna scowled. None of them were learning anything from all the deaths and destruction; they were only going to end up suffering the same fate.
(His men take cover behind various corners, packing cases, boxes and up on a catwalk with him. Rose and Adam run into view.)
COMMANDER: Hold your fire! You two, get the hell out of there!
(Rose and Adam run past a guard at the entrance. The Dalek enters, turns and zooms in on Rose's face. They get out of the bay.)
"The Dalek's following you two." Mickey noticed. It made sense seeing as they'd been in the cage with the Dalek when they'd escaped, but they hadn't managed to outpace it and reunite with the Doctor.
[Outside the loading bay]
ROSE: It was looking at me.
ADAM: Yeah, it wants to slaughter us.
ROSE: I know, but it was looking right at me.
"You brought it back." River remarked, giving Rose a considering look, "Maybe it might take note of that." If it was going to give anyone some kind of mercy it might be Rose, which could be useful if things go even more drastically wrong.
Rose sighed to the reminder of what she'd done, River was certainly right and it had saved her but that didn't mean she had to like it. This whole adventure had been a mess from start to end.
ADAM: So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking all around.
ROSE: I don't know. It's like there's something inside, looking at me, like, like it knows me.
[Loading bay]
COMMANDER: On my mark. Open fire!
[Office]
GODDARD: We've got vision.
DOCTOR: It wants us to see.
"It wants you to know what it's doing." Martha crossed her arms with a scowl, "It knows you can't do anything to stop its path of destruction."
[Loading bay]
(The hail of bullets is having no effect. Then the Dalek starts to rise straight up into the air. It zaps the fire alarm and the sprinklers are set off. Once the concrete floor is covered with a layer of water, it fires downwards and electrocutes every wet person on the ground.)
"Its clever." Clara reluctantly admitted, grimacing at the path of destruction and death the Dalek was paving. That's what made the Daleks so dangerous, they were smart killers.
COMMANDER: Fall back! Fall back!
(The Dalek exterminates kills him and the rest of his men with another strategic shot, then continues to hang there, water pouring down its shell, crying in the rain.)
"Killed by your pride." Donna commented with no joy. If he'd listened to the Doctor, he might have been alive, but he'd refused based on his pride and stubbornness and got his whole team killed alongside him.
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place.
"Oh, he's finally seeing sense!" Yaz threw her hands in the air as she scoffed. It was far past time.
GODDARD: Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out.
DOCTOR: You said we could seal the vault.
VAN STATTEN: It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads
GODDARD: There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive.
DOCTOR: We've got emergency power. We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors.
"Seal the Dalek in, and then what? Destroy it or leave it to die?" Ryan asked, receiving no answer as Rose and the Doctor shared a long glance.
GODDARD: We'd have to bypass the security codes. That would take a computer genius.
VAN STATTEN: Good thing you've got me, then.
"And Adam if he fails." Amy added on, "Neither of them have been quiet about their achievements. We just have to hope they live up to their words."
DOCTOR: You want to help?
VAN STATTEN: I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me.
GODDARD: Sir.
(The Dalek is back on the ground.)
"It wants to talk." Jack raised an eyebrow, curious what it wanted to say.
DALEK [on screen]: I shall speak only to the Doctor.
"Of course, it will." River sighed, not sure what else she expected.
"But about what?" Jack pushed; he had a weird feeling about all this. River caught his eye upon hearing his tone, raising an eyebrow to which Hack replied with a half-frown and nod to the Doctor.
DOCTOR: You're going to get rusty.
DALEK [on screen]: I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me.
DOCTOR: What's your next trick?
DALEK [on screen]: I have been searching for the Daleks.
"Oh." Bill said, "It's found out you weren't lying in the cage." That was her best bet based on how the Daleks was reacting and its questions. It did leave the questions of what it was going to do with the information, and why it felt the need to talk to the Doctor about it.
DOCTOR: Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What did you find?
[Loading bay]
DALEK: I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes.
[Office]
DOCTOR: And?
DALEK [on screen]: Nothing. Where shall I get my orders now?
DOCTOR: You're just a soldier without commands.
"Which is not necessarily a good thing where a Dalek is concerned." Clara pointed out. The Dalek had already proven it didn't need orders to just go round killing everyone.
DALEK [on screen]: Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer.
DOCTOR: What for? What's the point? Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for.
"Existential conversation with a Dalek." Amy raised an eyebrow, "Now I have seen it all." She'd seen Daleks in weird positions – the Dalek Asylum had been good for that - but this conversation with the Doctor was spiralling.
[Loading bay]
DALEK: Then what should I do?
[Office]
DOCTOR: All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself.
There was several startled gasps and coughs at the Doctor's very direct orders, the group all shooting unsure glances their way. The Doctor wasn't necessarily wrong, the Dalek needed to die if it was going to be stopped, but to have the Doctor say those words so vehemently like that was startling.
The Master, smirking and leaning back casually in his chair let out a startled chuckle. "Well, well, well, dear. Didn't know you had it in you."
The Doctor scowled at the floor, not wanting to see everyone's reactions to her younger self. There was still more to come too.
[Loading bay]
DALEK: The Daleks must survive!
"No, they must not." Nardole countered.
[Office]
DOCTOR: The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don't you just die?
[Loading bay]
DALEK: You would make a good Dalek.
"He's not going to take that well." Clara winced, eyeing the screen warily. That was the last thing the Doctor needed to hear right in that moment.
[Office]
(The screen goes blank.)
DOCTOR: Seal the Vault.
VAN STATTEN: I can leech power off the ground defences, feed it to the bulkheads. God, it's been years since I had to work this fast.
"Or since you've had to actually work." Yaz crossed her arms. Van Statten wasn't redeeming himself in any of their eyes, this was pure self-preservation.
DOCTOR: Are you enjoying this?
GODDARD: Doctor, she's still down there.
[Staircase]
(Rose's phone rings.)
ROSE: This isn't the best time.
"When is it ever?" Rose snorted, shaking her head.
DOCTOR [OC]: Where are you?
ROSE: Level forty nine.
[Office]
DOCTOR: You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty six.
"Great a time limit to add to the imminent threat of death." Martha rolled her eyes, "Just what we need." Rose and Adam would have to move fats to get above the sealed-off levels and avoid getting caught by the Dalek.
[Staircase]
ROSE: Can't you stop them closing?
[Office]
DOCTOR: I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you.
[Staircase]
DOCTOR [OC]: Now for God's sake, run.
"Always with the running." Graham remarked, "It's not good for my bones."
"You're just old grandad." Ryan countered.
(The Dalek is at level fifty one.)
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: Done it. We've got power to the bulkheads.
GODDARD: The Dalek's right behind them.
[Level 46]
ROSE: We're nearly there. Give us two seconds.
"C'mon, c'mon." Mickey urged, leaning forward in his seat. Realistically he knew Rose would be fine, she was sitting next to him after all, but it didn't stop the fear of what was about to happen.
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: Doctor, I can't sustain the power. The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
[Level 46]
(The Doctor hits Enter. A klaxon sounds and the bulkhead starts to lower.)
ADAM: Come on!
(Adam rolls under the bulkhead with eighteen inches to spare.)
"He just left Rose!" Amy threw a hand at the screen in frustration.
"Doctor!" Mickey turned an annoyed look on the Doctor, couldn't he have waited two more seconds!?
"Leave him alone." Rose spoke up to protect the Doctor, "He couldn't have done anything. Besides it turned out alright in the end."
"Somehow." The Doctor remarked, sharking a knowing look with Rose. The room grumbled but allowed the video to continue, eager for answers.
[Office]
VAN STATTEN: The vault is sealed.
DOCTOR: Rose, where are you? Rose, did you make it?
[Level 46]
ROSE: Sorry, I was a bit slow.
(The Dalek comes round the corner.)
"Oh no." Rory muttered. "You have to hope the Dalek has mercy because you revived him." Rose being trapped with a murderous Dalek couldn't end well, they had to hope the Doctor comes up with a plan and quickly.
ROSE: See you, then, Doctor. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault.
[Office]
ROSE [OC]: And do you know what?
[Level 46]
ROSE: I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
"And I stand by those words." Rose stared the Doctor down; she'd grown a lot since that mess but she didn't regret her words. The Doctor nodded once, meeting her eyes briefly before turning their attention back to the screen.
[Office]
DALEK [OC]: Exterminate!
(Zap!)
"No!"
"Rose!"
"How?!" Jack turned to Rose and the Doctor panicked. Rose can't have died there, that made no sense.
Rose rolled their eyes at the panic, grateful they cared but she'd expected they'd now better with the context of what they'd seen and talked about. "Calm down and just watch."
DOCTOR: I killed her.
VAN STATTEN: I'm sorry.
DOCTOR: I said I'd protect her. She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me.
VAN STATTEN: It was the prize of my collection!
"He's still obsessed with his collection and not everyone who has died for his stupid museum." Bill scowled at the screen.
DOCTOR: Your collection? But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Rose? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater.
VAN STATTEN: Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!
DOCTOR: You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you. She was nineteen years old.
Rose blinked, it felt so weird to think she was only nineteen back then, time had flown past even with all the time travel shenanigans. The Doctor was on a full rant as well, it was admittedly interesting to see everything she missed and get the full context for the situation – especially as she was one of the few that knew how this all ended so she was much more relaxed than the majority of the group.
[Level 46]
ROSE: Go on then, kill me. Why're you doing this?
DALEK: I am armed. I will kill. It is my purpose.
"Yet its hesitating." Martha noticed immediately, "That's a promising sign." A promising sign that Rose wasn't about to die.
ROSE: They're all dead because of you.
DALEK: They are dead because of us.
"Sharing the blame and not taking credit for its deeds. Not very Dalek like." Amy raised an eyebrow.
ROSE: And now what? What're you waiting for?
DALEK: I feel your fear.
ROSE: What do you expect?
DALEK: Daleks do not fear. Must not fear.
"You've altered it." Clara shot up in her seat, curious. The rare occasion where something like this happened to a Dalek it usually had an unexpected ending.
(The Dalek shoots at either side of the bulkhead door.)
DALEK: You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated.
"Which might just be enough to save Rose and everyone else." Jack announced cautiously hopeful.
[Office]
(Adam enters.)
DOCTOR: You were quick on your feet, leaving Rose behind.
ADAM: I'm not the one who sealed the vault!
"Play the blame game later." Mickey argued, "Save Rose first."
DALEK [on screen]: Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies.
DOCTOR: You're alive!
ROSE [on screen]: Can't get rid of me.
"Never want to." The Doctor grinned, sharing a smile with Rose.
DOCTOR: I thought you were dead.
DALEK [on screen]: Open the bulkhead!
ROSE [on screen]: Don't do it!
DALEK [on screen]: What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?
DOCTOR: I killed her once. I can't do it again.
(The bulkhead opens. Rose and the Dalek walk through.)
"Rose is a bit safer." Barring the Dalek still threatening her, "Now what are you going to do about the Dalek?" Donna pointed out.
None of them questioned the Doctor's decision to open the door, all knowing what they'd do in the situation, and that the Doctor would have done it for any of them.
VAN STATTEN: What do we do now, you bleeding heart. What the hell do we do?
ADAM: Kill it when it gets here.
GODDARD: All the guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the vault.
ADAM: Only the catalogued ones.
"What's he hiding up his sleeve?" Yaz narrowed her eyes in suspicion at Adam onscreen, still not trusting him remotely.
[Adam's workshop]
DOCTOR: Broken. Broken. Hairdryer.
ADAM: Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day.
DOCTOR: What, you in a fight? I'd like to see that.
ADAM: I could do.
DOCTOR: What're you going to do, throw your A-Levels at 'em? Oh, yes. Lock and load.
"Not the important thing at the moment Doctor." River shook her head with an exasperated roll of her eyes.
"Am I wrong?" The Doctor countered, just earning another a sigh from her wife.
[Lift]
ROSE: I'm begging you, don't kill them. You didn't kill me.
DALEK: But why not? Why are you alive? My function is to kill. What am I? What am I?
"Existential crisis from a Dalek." Ryan muttered, "What is the world coming to?"
[Office]
ROSE: Don't move. Don't do anything. It's beginning to question itself.
DALEK: Van Statten. You tortured me. Why?
"Because he wants to own things and doesn't care about life." An angry Bill answered for Van Statten.
VAN STATTEN: I wanted to help you. I just, I don't know. I was trying to help. I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you. I wanted you better. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I swear, I just wanted you to talk!
(Van Statten is backed up against the wall.)
"Coming up with excuses now that his life is the one being threatened." Martha shook her head with a frown.
DALEK: Then hear me talk now. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!
ROSE: Don't do it! Don't kill him! You don't have to do this anymore. There must be something else, not just killing. What else is there? What do you want?
DALEK: I want freedom.
"That is a terrible idea." Jack shook his head, "No can do." No matter what the Dalek said it couldn't be trusted to not just go on a murder spree the second it left the bunker.
(The Doctor is running up the stairs with his big gun.)
[Level 1]
(The Dalek blasts a hole in the roof, and a shaft of sunlight streams down straight onto its eyepiece.)
ROSE: You're out. You made it. I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again.
Rose nodded along with herself on screen. "That bunker was depressing."
DALEK: How does it feel?
(The Dalek opens its middle and dome sections to reveal the one-eyed mutant within. It holds out a tendril.)
"Ugly things." Mickey grimaced, he never got used to the sight of an actual Dalek and not just the shell.
DOCTOR: Get out of the way. Rose, get out of the way now!
ROSE: No. I won't let you do this.
DOCTOR: That thing killed hundreds of people.
ROSE: It's not the one pointing the gun at me.
"She raises a good point." Clara nodded to Rose, "But it does have to die." She landed on the Doctor's side of the fence with an apologetic shrug at Rose.
Rose just nodded, "First encounter with a Dalek." He just reminded the group; she didn't know enough about them to agree with the Doctor. Knowing more now she agreed, but it hadn't been a traditional first encounter with a classic Dalek – what with the whole existential crisis and everything.
DOCTOR: I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left.
"Doctor." River had tensed upon hearing the Doctor's words, turning to her wife who was conveniently avoiding eye contact. "That's not true. You know that right?" They had so much to live for, even in this moment – they had Rose.
The Doctor shrugged, non-committedly.
River glanced at Jack who was matching her frown. "Doctor. You have a lot to live for, and a lot of people who care about you. We need you, the last video proved how important you were." Jack tried to push River's point. He and River were eager to use the last video as ammunition in their continual war against the Doctor's self-importance issues.
The comment caught the Doctor's attention, but not her eyes. "It showed Donna how important she was." They attempted to argue.
The rest of the group was watching intensely, not even pretending to not be listening in, yet none but Donna decided to speak up. "Actually, it proved how important our choices were. We were both needed to stop the destruction of last video." Donna countered, arms crossed and stubbornly staring the Doctor down.
The Doctor was about to argue again, but a pillow to her face stopped her mouth open. She turned an annoyed expression in the culprit, a smirking Master. "I'm always going to be here. You're never alone Doctor, and you'll never escape me." It was said with menace and sincere promise, but somehow it was a reassuring message amongst the sinister undertones.
River leaned in to whisper to her wife, "We're not letting this go, Doctor." However stubborn the Doctor could be, River and Jack were prepared and willing to persevere past. This was something they were passionate about, and not willing to drop no matter how much the Doctor wanted to avoid the conversation.
The Tardis took that as a que to continue the video, even as River and Jack shared another exchange – they needed to keep challenging the Doctor's perspectives.
ROSE: Look at it.
DOCTOR: What's it doing?
ROSE: It's the sunlight, that's all it wants.
DOCTOR: But it can't
ROSE: It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's changing. What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?
DOCTOR: I couldn't. I wasn't. Oh, Rose. They're all dead.
Rose winced at her lack of knowledge and context, knowing what she knew now her comment seemed a bit insensitive. She managed to catch the Doctor's eye mouthing a 'sorry' to which the Doctor nodded with an understanding smile; she wasn't exactly proud of herself in the moment either.
DALEK: Why do we survive?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
DALEK: I am the last of the Daleks.
"No, it's not, unfortunately." Nardole reminded the group rather pointlessly.
DOCTOR: You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating.
DALEK: Into what?
DOCTOR: Something new. I'm sorry.
"Worst thing a Dalek can hear." Jack grimaced. Who knows what the Dalek would do with that knowledge, it could only go one of two ways and he was certainly hopeful for it to swing a certain way.
ROSE: Isn't that better?
DOCTOR: Not for a Dalek.
DALEK: I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die.
ROSE: I can't do that.
No one could blame Rose for hesitation, that was a heavy thing to ask someone, especially a nineteen year old girl who'd just made a connection with the Dalek and had no context/knowledge of the background. Rose just grimaced at the screen; this had lingered on her mind for a long time after they escaped.
DALEK: This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!
ROSE: Do it.
"You did the right thing." River told Rose quietly. There was no other way that could have ended, the Dalek was always going to have to be destroyed.
Rose nodded once, "I know." But it hadn't made it any easier.
DALEK: Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?
ROSE: Yeah.
DALEK: So am I. Exterminate.
(The Dalek shuts its eye. Rose retreats as it closes up its armour again then rises into the air. The balls on its lower body spread out around it creating a forcefield, then it implodes safely.)
"Self-destruction with no more casualties." Rory said, "Surprising." Not often you saw with Daleks, but Rose had managed to change this one irreversibly and in the end that may have been the catalyst to this event but it had also been its end.
[Corridor]
(Van Statten is under guard, wherever they came from.)
VAN STATTEN: What the hell are you doing?
GODDARD: Two hundred personnel dead, and all because of you, sir. Take him away, wipe his memory, and leave him by the road someplace.
"A bit of his own medicine." Martha raised an eyebrow, "A fitting fate." It was more appropriate than him dying certainly, and while it wasn't right it was likely the only way those people would ever get any form of justice.
VAN STATTEN: You can't do this to me. I am Henry van Statten!
GODDARD: And by tonight, Henry van Statten will be a homeless, brainless junkie living on the streets of San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento. Someplace beginning with S.
"She's been waiting to say that for a while." Amy snorted.
[Museum]
DOCTOR: A little piece of home. Better than nothing.
ROSE: Is that the end of it, the Time War?
"Not for a long time." The Doctor answered Rose, eyes locked on the screen. It hadn't ended for real until the first video they'd seen. Her current regeneration was the first to be fully free from the war, and then the Master had brought it back with his own destruction of Gallifrey. The Master seemed to know exactly what she was thinking based on the smirk he was sending her.
DOCTOR: I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?
ROSE: The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too.
The Master gave a little wave from his corner with a smirk. Far too happy at all the attention, suddenly directed his way even if they were all glares.
DOCTOR: I'd know. In here. (his head) Feels like there's no one.
Which there hadn't been. The Master had been stuck as Yana at the end of the universe, there was no way he'd of been able to sense his continued existence until they met. Though she strongly suspected he'd had contingencies in place in case Yana had never been found.
ROSE: Well then, good thing I'm not going anywhere.
DOCTOR: Yeah.
The Doctor and Rose shared a bittersweet smile, their days together had been good but nothing really lasted forever.
ADAM: We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed.
ROSE: About time.
ADAM: I'll have to go back home.
"Yeah, you do that." Bill crossed her arms with a scowl at Adam. She really didn't like him.
DOCTOR: Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours.
ROSE: Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars.
"No, Rose." Mickey groaned. "Please tell me you didn't."
Rose winced, giving him a grimace in answer, which only made Mickey and several others groan. Rose was too nice for her own good.
DOCTOR: Tell him to go and stand outside, then.
That earned several snorts from the group, the Doctor playing oblivious was certainly entertaining.
ROSE: He's all on his own, Doctor, and he did help.
DOCTOR: He left you down there.
ROSE: So did you.
"Completely different." The Doctor tried to argue, nose pointed to the air.
ADAM: What're you talking about? We've got to leave.
DOCTOR: Plus, he's a bit pretty.
ROSE: I hadn't noticed.
Both Mickey and the Doctor sent her matching raised eyebrows which she responded with a roll of her eyes and crossed arms at the pair. There was a good reason the two had butted heads a lot to begin with, they were quiet alike in some ways.
DOCTOR: On your own head.
(The Doctor unlocks the Tardis.)
ADAM: What're you doing? She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in.
"Oh, so naïve and stupid for a supposed genius." Yaz shook her head. She didn't like where this was going.
(The Doctor and Rose go inside the Tardis.)
ADAM: Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box? Rose?
(Adam creeps inside the Tardis, and it dematerialises.)
The screen turned blank, telling the group the video had finally ended.
"How did Adam get on?" Clara raised an eyebrow curious. It can't have gone well if Adma wasn't there, no one else knew of him, and the Doctor and Rose never spoke of him.
The Doctor just scoffed with a scowl. Rose sighed in exasperation at him but answered the group in her place. "Badly, sent home after one adventure."
"For a good reason." The Doctor added on, with a pointed finger in Rose's direction, then she turned to the group at large. "One more than a break?"
With mumbled agreements and no more immediate questions (although there were some shared glances), the room nodded in consent to the proposed plan. That just left it up to the Tardis what they'd see next.