EXT. HELIPAD – DAY
A military helicopter emerges from the glare of the sun as it flies in from the east over the desert. In the middle of the flat, dusty, terrain stands PAULA POLKOWSKI (38), a staunch woman without a sense of humor. She wears a black pants suit with a security badge latched to a purple tie.
Instead of landing, the helicopter hovers overhead and the door slides open. A man repels from it down to Paula's side, where she helps him undo his harness. This is VAN CLIVE (43), a new money CEO type with chutzpah to spare.
PAULA
Welcome back, sir.
VAN CLIVE
Thank you.
PAULA
And may I be the first on the ground to wish you a happy birthday. I think you're going to like your present.
VAN CLIVE
You had better hope so. I was in the middle of a business deal with President Hartnell. If you pulled me away from that over a security hiccup, I'm going to put you on a plane and drop you in an impoverished Middle Eastern city wearing a thong and pasties.
PAULA
How did the meeting go?
VAN CLIVE
Let's just say he'll have to do better if he wants a second term.
Free of his harness, Van Clive motions to the helicopter. The repelling line is drawn up and it flies away. Meanwhile, he and Paula open a previously hidden latch leading down into the secret underground facility.
INT. CORRIDOR
Van Clive marches through the corridor like a man with a mission. Armed guards salute as he passes by. He makes like he doesn't see them, but...
VAN CLIVE
The third one was a little late on his salute. He's fired.
PAULA
Right, sir. With respect, about the intruders...
VAN CLIVE
Have they identified themselves?
PAULA
The woman's name is Rose Taylor. We're running her profile through the CIA database, but they changed their firewalls again. It took us a couple of minutes to break back in.
VAN CLIVE
Isn't it cute that they still try? They fail and fail and fail, but dammit, they get right back on that horse.
PAULA
We weren't able to get a name out of the man. He keeps referring to himself as 'the Doctor'.
Van Clive stops, grabs her arm.
VAN CLIVE
Did you say... 'the Doctor'?
PAULA
Yes.
Van Clive pulls a red card out of his suit pocket. A key dangles from it. He hands them both to Paula.
VAN CLIVE
Gonna need the red briefcase.
Nervous, but excited, Paula's heart skips a beat. She stares at the key.
PAULA
The red one? Really, sir? I mean...
VAN CLIVE
"Duh wed one? Reawwy?" Why are you still standing there when you should have run out ahead of me already? Get me the damn briefcase!
She runs.
VAN CLIVE
And where are they?
PAULA
Your office!
VAN CLIVE
This is what I get for hiring family.
He rolls his eyes and keeps walking.
At the end of the corridor, an elevator opens. ADAM, Van Clive's wide-eyed personal assistant, bolts out carrying a gun-shaped device. He spins out of the way of Paula, narrowly colliding with her as she enters the elevator to ride it down.
PAULA
Watch it, Adam!
ADAM
Sorry, Paula.
PAULA
That's Mrs. Polkowski to you, you little pri-
The elevator doors shut before she finishes.
Adam runs up to Van Clive.
ADAM
Mr. Van Clive! Mr. Van Clive! Look what I bought at the Maywood auction. Paid eight hundred thousand for it. A steal, right?
He hands Van Clive the gun. Van Clive points it at Adam and pulls the trigger five times in rapid succession.
VAN CLIVE
Hm. Doesn't work.
He tosses it in the air over his shoulder and keeps walking. Adam catches it, disappointed.
INT. VAN CLIVE'S OFFICE
The Doctor and Rose sit on ornate wooden chairs opposite a fifteen foot wide cherry behemoth of a desk. Two armed guards stand watch over them with handguns at the ready. The room is partially lit by artificial candlelight, to give it an old-fashioned feel, but there are also video screens embedded in the walls to look like windows. The image on the screen almost passes for a real forest, except when Rose notices something peculiar about the video.
ROSE
I think I saw that rabbit already.
DOCTOR
It's not real. That's a video screen, on a loop. I think we're underground. Really really underground.
ROSE
Is that why my head hurts?
Two metal doors, painted to look like oak, swing open behind them. They turn to see Van Clive and Adam staring at them. Van Clive presses his hands together with his lips.
VAN CLIVE
(to the Doctor)
Oh my god. It's you. It's really you.
Van Clive walks up to the Doctor and shakes his hand vigorously.
VAN CLIVE
It is such an honor to meet me... I mean, you. Listen to me. I don't often get like this. I hate this. It's just, wow, you.
DOCTOR
Me.
Rose waves.
ROSE
And me.
Van Clive ignores Rose.
VAN CLIVE
Rumor was you were dead.
ROSE
The rumors of his death appear to have been an exaggeration.
Impressed, the Doctor smiles.
DOCTOR
Twain.
Rose nods.
DOCTOR
You know, I was there when he said that.
ROSE
Oh, shush. No, you weren't.
DOCTOR
No, I wasn't.
She laughs at his joke.
VAN CLIVE
Any-way... I never believed you were dead, but... Well, you can imagine.
DOCTOR
I really can't. Why don't you explain it to me, whoever you are.
Van Clive looks at him, confused, maybe even a little hurt. He tries to laugh it off, unconvincingly.
VAN CLIVE
Like you don't know who I am.
DOCTOR
I really don't.
Paula races in carrying a red briefcase. She slams it down on the desk in front of Van Clive, louder than she had planned.
PAULA
(out of breath)
Red briefcase.
VAN CLIVE
Oh yeah, we're only in the middle of the desert, hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the entire world, and you don't know who I am. Right. How the hell did you get in, by the way? We're a thousand feet down.
Van Clive enters an eight-digit code into the lock on the red briefcase and it opens.
ADAM
This is Henry Van Clive. He owns the United States.
ROSE
Don't be an idiot. No one owns the United States. It's a country. You can't own a country.
VAN CLIVE
A country drowning under twenty-eight trillion dollars of debt with no way to pay its bills. You see a flailing capitalist democracy. I saw a hostile takeover waiting to happen. I'm not surprised you haven't heard of me, though. In the interest of preserving civil sanity, the President and I thought it best if no one find out about it. But I am a little disappointed that you've never heard of me, Doctor. I would have thought someone so familiar with history would be well familiar with my work.
Van Clive pulls various photographs from the briefcase and, one by one, places them in front of the Doctor on the desk. They are from all different times in history. The first one shows a picture of the Doctor during the American Civil War, posing alongside some Union soldiers. The second photograph shows the Doctor in the crowd during the Kennedy Assassination. The third photograph is actually of an Egyptian hieroglyph that shows a man holding a sonic screwdriver.
Van Clive points to the sonic screwdriver in the picture.
VAN CLIVE
Look familiar?
ROSE
(to the Doctor)
You do get around. I used this one with General Lee in a Powerpoint presentation once.
VAN CLIVE
I've got pictures, journal entries, archaeological finds. I've spent my entire life piecing together the history of the Doctor, and what a history it is. I've even got a tabloid newspaper article from the early nineties where you and some guy and his daughter helped save the world from a dragon. I mean, wow!
DOCTOR
You've done your homework, Van Clive. I'll give you that.
VAN CLIVE
I just never thought I'd get the chance to actually meet you.
Van Clive pulls both sonic screwdrivers out of the briefcase. He shows the Doctor one of them.
VAN CLIVE
I got this when one of my agents smuggled it out of a top secret government facility years ago. Rumor was they confiscated it from an extra-terrestrial, but that he died while under their custody. Or was it this one?
Van Clive alternates between showing the one sonic screwdriver versus its identical counterpart.
VAN CLIVE
This one? Or this one? This one? Or this one? This one? Or this one? It doesn't matter! Because they're the same damn one! Aren't they? What is it, anyway?
The Doctor grabs them both from Van Clive, like a Dad pulling a toy away from a child.
DOCTOR
It's a bloody sonic screwdriver, you imp.
VAN CLIVE
Damn, really? I was betting it was a laser torch or something.
DOCTOR
Couldn't figure out what it was, so you locked it up behind glass, is that it? Can I expect the same treatment?
While Van Clive and the Doctor converse, Rose seizes the opportunity to look through some of the things from the red briefcase. A tabloid newspaper article captures her attention. The headline reads "My Dad Saved the World from an Alien Dragon". Adam notices her reach for it and closes the briefcase. She has to pull her hand back to avoid it getting caught.
VAN CLIVE
No, no, you misunderstand me, Doctor. I'm thrilled you're here. You see, I may be an expert on... well.. just about everything when it comes to Earth, but I'm still just a novice when it comes to all this alien stuff. Whereas you, well, I can only imagine the wonders you've seen. And to be honest, I'm kind of counting on your expertise. You see, the 'sonic screwdriver' wasn't the only thing my man smuggled out of that government complex. You want to see my pet?
DOCTOR
Your pet?
Van Clive smiles.
VAN CLIVE
Adam, tend to Miss Taylor. Get her a donut or something. Paula, I'm still waiting on that file. Check on the hold up. The Doctor and I will be in the cage.
INT. CAGE OBSERVATION ROOM
A sadistic scientist of even temperament, SIMMONS, sits safely behind a computer screen surrounded by walls of solid concrete. To his right and behind him are two thick metal doors like one might find in a bank vault. Flashes of light reflect on his glasses as he watches whatever's happening in the next room. We hear the sound of electricity crackling each time Simmons presses a red button on his console. We also hear screaming.
The vault door behind him opens up and Van Clive and the Doctor step inside.
VAN CLIVE
This is Dr. Simmons, my head of research. Dr. Simmons, this is THE Doctor.
Simmons flips a switch to turn off his monitor, then stands to shake the Doctor's hand.
SIMMONS
Doctor...
The Doctor keeps his hand at his side. He sniffs the air.
DOCTOR
Why do I smell burning flesh?
Simmons and Van Clive share a glance.
DOCTOR
You call yourself a Doctor?
The Doctor runs to the other door, the one that leads into the cage.
DOCTOR
Open the door. Open this door, right now, Van Clive, or I'll use your head as a battering ram to knock it down.
Despite the threat, Van Clive happily nods to Simmons, indicating he should follow the Doctor's command. Simmons enters the code to enter the vault door and it swings open. The Doctor rushes into the Cage.
INT. CAGE
The Doctor races inside. It's dark and there's smoke around. He holds his hand to his face to fight back against the smell. He squints his eyes to see.
DOCTOR
Hello? I'm not with Van Clive. I'm here to help.
INT. CAGE OBSERVATION ROOM
Simmons turns the monitor back on. He and Van Clive watch the monitor and listen.
VAN CLIVE
Close the door.
Simmons clicks his keyboard and the vault door into the cage swings shut. On the monitor, we see the Doctor notice the door and then look directly at the video camera.
VAN CLIVE
All right, Doctor. Impress me.
He smiles.
INT. CAGE
The Doctor scowls at the video camera in the corner of the room, then turns his attention back on the subject he still can't yet see.
DOCTOR
If you can hear me, if you can speak, say something. I'm here to help. I'm the Doctor.
Something growls.
UNKNOWN GROWL
Doc-tor?
The Doctor's face goes pale at the sound of the familiar voice.
DOCTOR
Oh no. You?
The lights come up in the cage. In front of the doctor, strapped to a vertical metal bed by steel cable is an eight-legged human head, scarred and mangled, missing one eye and a couple teeth. It is... what's left of... Daga Rumm.
DAGA
Death to the Doctor! Death to the Doctor!
The Doctor backs up to the vault door, leans back, deflated.
DOCTOR
Oh, Daga.
DAGA
Death to the Doctor! Death to the Doctor!
Daga struggles against his restraints, screaming the same thing over and over. The Doctor slides down the door and sits with his head between his legs.
-To be Continued...-