Doctor Who - American Version - Serial

by RevolutionMan

Doctor Who - Presented as a re-imagining of the show Doctor Who for American audiences. It presumes NO connection to the continuity established by the long running British television series, but absolutely WILL borrow heavily from that awesome/amazing show. Some characters will be re-named. Some "laws" will be broken. A serial adaptation, in script form.

52. Chapter 52 - Protocol Override

INT. RESERVE UNIT STORAGE FACILITY – CYBERMEN BATTLEHEAD

Rows of inactive Cybermen stand at attention like wooden soldiers. We close in on Sub-Unit 34 whose cold black eyes appear lifeless, like a robot zombie.

Suddenly, the eyes light up. We hear the hum of new energy, like a tiny generator turning over. Sub-Unit 34 comes to life and steps forward. He is one of many, as all of the reserve units are activated.

INT. FACTORY – CYBERMEN BATTLEHEAD

A scream.

Rose is dragged at gunpoint into the factory by Cyberman Sub-Unit 1. Sentience follows through the door, followed by the army of reserve sub-units. They walk over to a monitoring station where Sub-Unit 2 and Sub-Unit 3 have Doctor Two cornered. He continues to keep them at bay by holding up the fake hyperchain core close to his chest and head.

DOCTOR TWO
Don't come any closer.

Sentience keeps her distance at the sight of the hyperchain core in Doctor Two's hands.

ROSE
Doctor, I'm sorry.

SENTIENCE
We have your ship, we have your crewmate, and we have you. Be logical about your situation. We have the advantage.

DOCTOR TWO
In my experience, the person holding the bomb always has the advantage.

SENTIENCE
There are at least ten different methods I could employ in order to incapacitate you.

DOCTOR TWO
And I'd wager none of them would put me down fast enough, or have a high enough probability of success, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. I have demands. The first one is getting Tinhead over there to put down the gun.

Sentience slowly looks over at Sub-Unit 1. She nods and he drops the gun.

DOCTOR TWO
Rose, pick up the gun and walk over to me.

Rose shakes free of Sub-Unit 1's grip, picks up the gun, and hurries over to Doctor Two's side. She tries to hand it to him, but he shakes his head.

DOCTOR TWO
I need both my hands.

ROSE
Well, I don't want it.

DOCTOR TWO
Just point it at them.

She huffs and reluctantly points the gun at Sentience.

ROSE
(to Doctor Two)
I'm okay, by the way. Thanks for asking.

DOCTOR TWO
Holding the ship hostage with a weapon of mass destruction, sweetheart, maybe we could nix the attitude for five seconds.

Growing impatient, Sentience cuts into their bickering.

SENTIENCE
You are still trapped. Relinquish the hyperchain core and you will not be harmed.

DOCTOR TWO
Yeah, right. Now, since your leader is the only one unaccounted for, I assume he's the one that's been poking around my ship. I want him off my ship, now. Tell him to come here, so I can see him for myself.

Cybermen Leader almost instantaneously transmats in next to Sentience.

DOCTOR TWO
Oh, um, okay. That was really fast. Wasn't expecting that.

ROSE
They can't do that to us, right? Beam us into space or anything?

DOCTOR TWO
No.

ROSE
Are you sure?

DOCTOR TWO
Yeah. You remember that thing I implanted in your neck?

She rubs her neck.

ROSE
You never implanted anything in my neck.

He thinks.

DOCTOR TWO
Oh, I guess you might have been asleep when that happened.

ROSE
You came into my room while I was sleeping?!

CYBERMEN LEADER
State your demands.

ROSE
That is not okay.

Doctor Two raises his voice.

DOCTOR TWO
(to Sentience)
Here's what's going to happen. We know you have a world ender on board. We know you disassembled it to keep us from finding it. You're going to reassemble it and have it delivered to my ship.

SENTIENCE
You seek to steal the world ender?

DOCTOR TWO
More like borrow.

CYBERMEN LEADER
Negative. The world ender is a weapon of considerable destructive power. If we turn it over to you, you could attack us.

Sentience looks right at Rose when she says...

SENTIENCE
You could destroy our homeworld. Or is that how you intend to "contribute something good to history"? By eradicating the Cybermen race?

Rose opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. She looks ashamed.

DOCTOR TWO
I have no intention of deploying the weapon. I told you, I just want to borrow it. Once you've loaded it onto my ship, we will take off and you are not to follow. We will drop the world ender off at a location of my choosing and communicate to you its coordinates when I am convinced we're a safe enough distance away that you can't pursue us.

SENTIENCE
Why do you want to "borrow" the world ender?

DOCTOR TWO
That's my business.

SENTIENCE
What assurances do we have that you will return it to us?

DOCTOR TWO
You're just going to have to trust me on that one.

CYBERMEN LEADER
Your terms are unacceptable. You deceived us on two occasions. A high probability exists you are attempting to deceive us again.

DOCTOR TWO
I count once.

SENTIENCE
You lied about your identity. You lied about your purpose here.

ROSE
No, we didn't. We really were looking for a bomb, and you had one.

CYBERMEN LEADER
You cannot be trusted. Your terms are unacceptable.

DOCTOR TWO
What did you have in mind?

Sentience and Cybermen Leader look at each other. The green light on Cybermen Leader's head blinks in rapid succession as they communicate in private. When finished, Cybermen Leader looks back at Doctor Two.

CYBERMEN LEADER
We do not believe you will destroy yourselves. Counterproposal: sub-units, apprehend the hostiles.

The sub-unit army slowly converges on Doctor Two and Rose.

ROSE
Doctor, what do I do? What do I do?

DOCTOR TWO
Shoot them.

ROSE
I don't want to shoot.

DOCTOR TWO
Now!

ROSE
I really don't want to.

DOCTOR TWO
For the love of nebulae, shoot them!

She screams and starts firing. She hits two sub-units in the chest and they go down. This prompts the rest of the army to move even faster.

SENTIENCE
Protect the leader!

A contingent of sub-units surround Cybermen Leader.

DOCTOR TWO
Cover me!

Doctor Two takes advantage of the hole left in the enemy's lines created when Rose shot the two sub-units. He ducks down and runs over to a metal ladder which leads to a catwalk above the factor floor. She follows, erratically firing into the crowd of pursuers.

ROSE
Wait, Doctor, don't leave me!

Rose runs to catch up with Doctor Two, who is already half-way up the ladder. When he gets to the top, he turns around and reaches down for her as she climbs up.

DOCTOR TWO
Give me your hand.

She reaches for his hand, but Sub-Unit 1 grabs her ankle. She tries to shake him off, but his grip is like a vice. Desperate, she lets go of the ladder with one hand and tries to shoot the sub-unit off, but the gun slips out of her hands and falls to the ground.

DOCTOR TWO
Reach!

She reaches out one more time, but can't grab Doctor Two's hand. Sub-Unit 1 pulls her right off the ladder and she is caught by the army, like a rockstar jumping off of a stage to crowd surf. They pass her along, screaming her head off, all the way to Sentience.

DOCTOR TWO
Rose!

Doctor Two has little time to react to her capture as Sub-Unit 1 climbs the ladder in pursuit. Thinking quickly, Doctor Two turns his attention on a release lever on the side of the ladder. He kicks it and the ladder drops abruptly and disconnects from the catwalk. Sub-Unit 1 crashes to the ground. For the moment, Doctor Two is safe.

But Rose isn't. Sentience drags Rose to the front of the assembly line and points to the machine. In response to that gesture, the machines come alive; conveyors turn, mechanical arms load up metal, memory, and motherboards.

SENTIENCE
Put her into the machines!

DOCTOR TWO
No, don't!

ROSE
Doctor, help!

Doctor Two runs to the other end of the catwalk. He sees sub-units moving along the ground towards a second ladder at the far end. He beats them to it and presses the release lever, but this time he grabs the ladder and pulls it up onto the catwalk with him.

Sentience moves Rose into position in front of the first machine. Two metal arms on either side of a garage-like door extend down and grab Rose around her waist and legs. She tries to pry herself free with her arms, but is no match for the giant metal claws.

Desperate, Doctor Two holds the hyperchain core up over his head.

DOCTOR TWO
If you don't let her go right now, I'll detonate the core!

CYBERMEN LEADER
Negative.

SENTIENCE
We do not believe you, Doctor. Your crewmate's biological material is about to be utilized to create a new sub-unit. Once she is placed into the machine, the conversion process takes approximately two minutes to complete. Then, the person you see here will cease to exist, and a new Cyberman will be born, unless you turn over yourself and the hyperchain core to us.

Rose looks up at Doctor Two, begging him with her eyes to help. But he can't do it. He's helpless. He stares back at her as his shoulders sink. He shakes his head and she realizes... he won't save her.

ROSE
I don't want to be a Cyberman.

SENTIENCE
Irrelevant. In two minutes you won't be programmed to want anything.

Sentience pushes Rose forward and the arms drag her inside. We hear her scream.

DOCTOR TWO
No!

Sentience turns away from the machine and moves to take a step back, but something stops her. She looks down and sees that one of the arms of the machine has grabbed her around the waist.

SENTIENCE
(to the machine)
What are you doing?

The second arm grabs Sentience around her legs and, together, both arms drag her towards the machine after Rose.

SENTIENCE
Leader, I have lost control of the factory. Deactivate the machines.

The green light on the side of Cybermen Leader's head flickers, but he remains still. Sentience sees this and panics.

SENTIENCE
Sub-Units. Deactivate the machines!

Doctor Two watches as Sentience is dragged inside, unsure of what's happening. Then, an idea occurs to him. He searches his pockets for the handheld scanner and reads the message on the screen.

DOCTOR TWO
(reading aloud)
Protocol override? What are you doing?

Doctor Two watches as Sentience is dragged inside the machine after Rose.

INT. TARDIS

On the monitor at Doctor Two's workstation, we see various screens fly by under the general header "Protocol Override". We see a picture of Rose superimposed over a diagram of human anatomy. Another screen pops up with a picture of Sentience superimposed over a schematic.

Next, we see a screen featuring a diagram of a sub-unit. A pop-up message indicates: "Sending new orders: Deactivate."

INT. FACTORY – CYBERMEN BATTLEHEAD

Cybermen Leader and the sub-units all power down. They stand in place, like mannequins. The assembly line also shuts down, but less gracefully. We hear metal grinding, sparks fly, and several of the conveyors lose their belts.

Everything goes quiet. Doctor Two sees this from above and walks back over to the ladder he pulled up onto the catwalk. He lowers it into position and then climbs down, still holding the fake hyperchain core.

Walking up to one of the sub-units, Doctor Two waves his hand in front of it. He touches it with his index finger, right between its eyes, then pushes. It falls over on its back.

DOCTOR TWO
Hm.

Doctor Two suddenly remembers...

DOCTOR TWO
Rose...

He runs around to the front of the assembly line. The door is open, but its dark inside.

DOCTOR TWO
Rose? Are you in there?

Footsteps, faint at first, then louder, coming towards Doctor Two. From out of the machine steps...

Rose. Her clothes are torn and one side of her head is shaved. There's a mechanical implant over the bald spot that looks a little like a chicken (recall the "chicken tattoo" referenced at the Doctor's trial in Episode 8). She teeters as she walks, dazed and confused. She trips as she gets closer and he catches her.

DOCTOR TWO
I've got you.

He inspects the implant.

DOCTOR TWO
Are you all right?

She looks up at him and blinks once... twice... three times. She notices his attention is drawn to the side of her head. She reaches up and touches the implant.

ROSE
Where's... what is...?

She starts to panic, a mix of absolute rage and fear.

A metal CLANG is heard. They both look back at the machine and see Sentience stumble out of the darkness. Oil bleeds from open gashes in her components. A similar implant to the one installed on the side of Rose's head has been installed on Sentience's head. She touches it, confused and panicked herself.

SENTIENCE
I am... I cannot... Sentience... Cybermen. Leader?

She stumbles over to Cybermen Leader, who is frozen.

SENTIENCE
Leader, what are your orders?

When he doesn't respond, Sentience begins to cry.

SENTIENCE
What are your orders? Leader? Leader?

She quivers and shakes. She turns to Doctor Two and Rose, an emotional basket case.

SENTIENCE
What have you done to me?!

Still off-balance, she charges them. Doctor Two, holding Rose, takes one step to the right and Sentience goes right by them, trips, and falls flat on her face.

Rose kicks Sentience in her side, hard.

ROSE
That's for my head, you bitch!

A light on Rose's implant blinks and she immediately cringes and grabs her side. She falls to one knee.

ROSE
Ow!

DOCTOR TWO
What? What is it?

ROSE
Ugh... I feel like someone just kicked me in my stomach.

The words aren't even out of her mouth before she and Doctor Two understand the significance.

DOCTOR TWO
Oh-

ROSE
-crap.

-To be Continued...-