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.

58. Chapter 58 - Madam Holu

INT. DUNGEON - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS

Three SNAKE MEN writhe around on a bed of hot coals in an erotic display while a leather-clad SEDUCTRESS fans the flames. Across the dungeon, a door opens and Brick enters. He motions to the seductress.

BRICK
Out. Everyone.

The snake men unravel from each other and "stand" up from the coals.

SNAKE MAN 1
We paid creditssss for the full hour.

BRICK
It's actually already been an hour. You just lost track of time.

Brick points a gun at him.

BRICK
Time flies when there's a gun pointed at your head.

The snake men quickly slither out, mumbling alien cusses under their breath. The seductress follows.

With the dungeon empty, four enforcers drag the Doctor and Rat the Mic inside. They chain their hands above their heads to a stone wall.

RAT THE MIC
You have no right to do this to us.

DOCTOR
That'll show 'em. I'm sure they just forgot that part.

The enforcers leave. Brick opens up a nearby chest. Within can be seen many nefarious instruments, some designed to induce pleasure, others pain. He removes a short whip with a beanbag ball at the end. He faces his prisoners.

BRICK
I told you not to come back.

DOCTOR
Actually, you said you never wanted to see us try to get inside again. And you didn't. We were already inside when you found us.

Brick whips the Doctor in the chest. It makes a deep "thud" sound and knocks the air out of him momentarily. He coughs to breathe.

RAT THE MIC
(to the Doctor)
By all means, antagonize the dungeon master. That's a great plan.

DOCTOR
Dungeon "master"? Hardly. He whips like your Mamey.

Brick whips the Doctor in the chest a second time, then he whips Rat the Mic.

RAT THE MIC
Ah! You- He said it!

BRICK
Who are you? Why are you here?

DOCTOR
I already told you that. That's the problem, these days. People don't listen. I want to see Madam Holu. You want more, you're going to have to hit me a hell of a lot harder than that.

Brick hits him a hell of a lot harder. The Doctor coughs up a little blood... and laughs.

RAT THE MIC
I don't believe this. You're a masochist. It's the prison all over again.

BRICK
You were in prison?

RAT THE MIC
He was.

DOCTOR
You're not helping.

BRICK
What were you in for?

RAT THE MIC
Genocide.

BRICK
What?

RAT THE MIC
It's complicated. You see, they sort of blamed him for all this stuff someone else did, but the someone else was also kind of him, and-

DOCTOR
No, you yutz, he doesn't know what the word "genocide" means.

RAT THE MIC
Oh. He killed lots and lots of people.

DOCTOR
Yeah, except, I didn't, though. Look, we're not cops. I'm a Doctor. He's a lawyer.

RAT THE MIC
We're practically criminals.

Brick looks confused.

BRICK
I thought he was a monk.

DOCTOR
He is. He's a lawyer monk.

BRICK
Who saves orphans?

DOCTOR
Right. And he's also a diabetic. He has to eat every two to three hours. So, unless you want this man to slip into a coma, you had better get some juice up in this sex dungeon.

RAT THE MIC
It's also a little hot in here. Could you turn up the air conditioning?

Brick shakes his head.

BRICK
Wait here.

The Doctor tugs on his chains once, ringing them like a bell.

DOCTOR
If you insist.

Brick leaves.

INT. OFFICE - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS

Brick enters an office in the back. Clouds of cigar smoke fill the room around a large oval table where gangsters discuss business. At the head of the table is the abominable GREEVO SHANBOR (50s). He wears a tailored white suit and looks like a yeti. Brick waits by the door for his opportunity to speak.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Gentlemen, the timing of this operation needs to be precise. We've been working towards this moment for over a year. Failure is not an option. The fate of our entire organization depends on completely flawless execution of my plan.

Greevo looks up, sees Brick, acknowledges him, then looks back at the gangsters seated around the table.

GREEVO SHANBOR
You all know your roles. Make sure this happens. Go.

The gangsters around the table leave. Greevo motions Brick over.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Yes?

BRICK
Couple of mooks, snuck in twice. One of them keeps insisting on speaking with Madam Holu. He calls himself the Doctor.

Brick walks over and hands Greevo a digital pad with pictures of both the Doctor and Rat the Mic. Greevo looks them over.

GREEVO SHANBOR
You ever seen them before?

BRICK
First timers. I had our guy in the box run their identifiers. No matches. They're completely off the grid.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Cops?

BRICK
No, sir... I think they're idiots.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Idiots who just so happen to show up today of all days.

Greevo thinks. He sighs.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Well, he wants to see the Madam. I say we give the poor fool what he wants.

BRICK
And what do I do with the other one?

GREEVO SHANBOR
Leave him where he is until we know who these jokers are. Then, kill him.

Brick nods and leaves.

Greevo turns in his chair and the entire far wall of the room opens up to reveal a huge communications monitor (think Vader in The Empire Strikes Back). A second passes and then an image appears on the screen of a sultry gothic suite lit by candlelight. In the back, on the far right, there's a man cocooned in a spider-web, hanging upside down, with spiders crawling all over him. His moans are muffled.

MADAM HOLU (V.O.)
I'm with a client.

The angle of the image changes to focus on MADAM HOLU'S stunning pink face. She is the perfect vision of beauty, a woman in every way except the youth she clings to like a vice. Golden yellow hair starts lower on her forehead than on a human's, but she wears it slicked back, tight to the elegant lines of her head, long neck, and back.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Anyone important?

She looks over her shoulder, then shrugs.

MADAM HOLU (V.O.)
Eh.

GREEVO SHANBOR
Then let the babies have him. I'm sending someone up. He calls himself "the Doctor". Been stickin' his nose in my trough, asking to see you. Get everything and report back.

MADAM HOLU (V.O.)
I'll take good care of him, Pompi.

GREEVO SHANBOR
I know you will.

The screen goes dark.

INT. SUITE - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS

A door opens and Brick shoves the Doctor inside. The henchman then immediately shuts the door. We hear it lock from the other side.

The Doctor stays by the door and takes a look around at the ornate suite. There's a triple-king luxurious bed on the opposite side of the room, with sheer white curtains surrounding it. Jewel-encrusted gothic furniture, as if designed by Edgar Allen Poe, gives the impression of a castle chamber crossed with a slightly more modern aesthetic. In the very center of the room is a single chair, pointed towards the bed.

DOCTOR
Madam Holu?

MADAM HOLU (O.S.)
Sit in the chair.

The Doctor looks around for the source of the voice.

DOCTOR
I'm here because-

MADAM HOLU (O.S.)
Sit in the chair.

The Doctor spies movement in a corner... or is it just a dancing candle flame playing tricks with his mind?

He approaches the chair with caution and sits. He rests his arms on the armrests.

DOCTOR
Madam?

TST! TST! TST!

Three blasts of webbing shoot out from the shadows. They hit him on the arms and across his chest and secure him to the chair. He struggles to move, but quickly realizes the futility of his efforts. He sighs.

DOCTOR
That was premature. I really liked this shirt, but that's never coming out, is it?

Behind the sheer curtain surrounding the bed, there's movement from above that catches the Doctor's attention. In a sultry horizontal position, Madam Holu lowers down onto the bed from a hole in the ceiling. Her pink skin is radiant beneath wispy silk lingerie that floats weightless about her body, like gentle waves. There's a certain arachnid quality to her that lends just a hint of creepiness to the frighteningly sensual Holu.

DOCTOR
Madam Holu, I presume?

She closes her eyes and smells the air.

MADAM HOLU
You have a strong scent, Doctor.

DOCTOR
I might have stepped in some urine behind the dumpster.

MADAM HOLU
It's not that.

She sits up and leans over, revealing a considerable amount of her ample cleavage.

MADAM HOLU
Your thread is long.

DOCTOR
(he blushes)
Well, I try to be modest.

MADAM HOLU
Your soul thread.

She stands up on the bed, still behind the curtain. She places her hands on her hips with her legs spread apart and looks down at him.

MADAM HOLU
You think you are amusing. From this point on, every time you make a joke, I will hurt you. It will not feel good.

DOCTOR
Knock, knock.

He grins.

She grins and parts the curtain surrounding the bed. She steps down, walks over, and straddles him in the chair. She wraps her arms around him.

DOCTOR
Which part of this isn't supposed to feel good?

MADAM HOLU
This part.

She leans over, as if she's going to kiss him, but instead opens her mouth doubly wide and uses a retractable vampire-like fang to carve a jagged line into his right cheek. The Doctor cringes as blood drips down his face. She stands up, wipes the blood from her lips with the back of her hand, then licks her hand. Smiling, Madam Holu sits on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed and arms out at her sides.

MADAM HOLU
That will leave a very visible scar.

DOCTOR
Good thing I've already retired from the pageant circuit.

She smiles and tugs with her hand, as if on an invisible rope. All of a sudden, the blood flow from his open wound increases. It literally sprays a little from his face, but only for a second.

MADAM HOLU
Your blood is mine as long as it flows.

DOCTOR
Point very much taken.

MADAM HOLU
Why have you come for me?

DOCTOR
It has recently come to my attention that I have a weakness, one the universe can't afford. I wish to rectify that situation by eliminating it, whatever "it" is.

MADAM HOLU
Doctor, I do believe you are confused about what I do here.

DOCTOR
I know exactly what you do here, which is why you're the perfect person to help me. You see things others don't, where others don't. You're an expert in crawling inside of a person's skin. You exploit, demean, hurt and combine them with pleasure to heighten sensation.

MADAM HOLU
Such a cold and clinical analysis. I can see why you need me so desperately.

DOCTOR
I can pay you anything.

MADAM HOLU
Payment is no issue. I can take from you what I want since your concept of the things that have real value is so warped and unfortunate. It is a matter of principle.

DOCTOR
You're a dominatrix operating out of a mob-run strip club. I'm missing where "principles" crossover into your line of work.

MADAM HOLU
Even gangsters have principles; codes of conduct and honor. They may not conform to society's standards, but I wouldn't be of much use to them if they didn't have them.

DOCTOR
So, what's stopping you from helping me?

She turns and admires a vase on display atop a gremlin stand in the corner. It's a blunt turquoise piece with inlaid illustrations and characters of gold. She walks over and picks it up to show him.

MADAM HOLU
Do you like this piece? It's early Maramanian, over twenty-thousand years old.

DOCTOR
It's a vase.

Madam Holu drags over a small table to just in front of the Doctor. She sits on the edge of the table and stands the vase next to her leg.

MADAM HOLU
It was a wedding present from King Horgromi to his daughter, who was bound to marry the Prince of the Agar. It was a political arrangement between their fathers to avoid a war that would have cost tens of thousands of lives. Men and their petty feuds. Princess Heke was only nine years old at the time, but even at such a young age, it says she knew the significance of her role, and played her part. She saved her people, and yet there's only one additional mention of her in the surviving archaeological record, and it doesn't even mention her by name. She's referred to as "a'k taga remmso ib sam". Loosely translated, it means-

DOCTOR
"She whose worth derives from the king's shadow".

Madam Holu hides her surprise with a smile. She nudges the vase perilously close to the edge of the table and watches the Doctor's expression for any sign of change.

MADAM HOLU
This vase is the only record in existence that names the Princess Heke. It's priceless. From this height, were it to drop, it would surely shatter.

DOCTOR
It holds dead things in water.

Madam Holu leaves the vase on the edge of the table and stares at it.

MADAM HOLU
It has worth because it is rare, because it is a representation of a significant moment in history, but part of its value also derives from its fragility. See how it sits here, next to us, in defiance of all circumstances that could have rendered it destroyed over the centuries. Even now, it would take but a whisper for me to breathe it over the edge and yet that only makes it more itself. I could dip it in bronze, reinforce it, stick it behind glass inside of a vacuum and away from the light. But would I not be robbing the thing of part of what makes it so precious? She was just a little girl, so fragile and yet so strong. If I told you she were a marble statue, would it not take away from who she was?

The Doctor looks at the vase, then back at Madam Holu. He kicks the table, causing the vase to topple over the edge. It shatters.

DOCTOR
I don't much go in for artifacts. I had a bad experience in a museum once. Are you going to help me or not?

Madam Holu stares at the shattered pieces of the vase, her expression cold.

MADAM HOLU
The fee is thirty-thousand. Non-negotiable.

She looks back at him with a single tear in her eye.

DOCTOR
I'll pay you triple and you don't tell Greevo Shanbor I'm here.

MADAM HOLU
You and Greevo don't get along?

DOCTOR
Actually, I've never met him, and he has no idea who I am. But I'm guessing, since your name is on the sign, that you're his favorite. I don't need any jealous crime lords breathing down my neck right now.

MADAM HOLU
Very well. Ninety-thousand and Greevo never knows you're here.

DOCTOR
Deal. Now, break me like I broke your vase.

Madam Holu nods.

INT. DUNGEON - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS

Rat the Mic, still chained to the wall, yanks hard to break free. He's alone.

RAT THE MIC
Helloooooo?! You can't just leave me here like this. I mean, you probably can, technically, but I would certainly rather you didn't! I want to see Madam Holu, too! Or something. Not really. Stupid Doctor.

He looks up at the chains wrapped around his crab-like arms. Putting one foot against the wall for leverage, he pulls down hard for several seconds until he hears a loud "snap", like you might hear when someone's cracking open some crab legs at a seafood restaurant. Around both wrists, Rat the Mic's shell has cracked. We can see the softer, fleshier, skin underneath. He looks around to make sure no one's noticed, then slides his hands out of his shell as if they were gloves.

Moaning can be heard coming from the other side of the door. It's getting louder, prompting Rat the Mic to quickly slide his hands back into the shell hands to make it look as if he's still trapped. A second later, the door opens. Brick enters followed by a pair of enforcers who are dragging a MOANING WOMAN with a bag over her head.

BRICK
On the wall.

The enforcers shackle the woman to the wall about six feet over from Rat the Mic, who watches.

RAT THE MIC
Who's this, now?

BRICK
Don't you worry about it.

Once the woman is secured to the wall, Brick pulls the bag off of her head. She's a pretty blonde, with brown skin and gills, maybe twenty years old, wearing an ornate blue pants suit that has seen better days. Her bottom lip is a little swollen, probably from being punched, and she's clearly drugged.

BRICK
(to the enforcers)
Go let the boss know the package is secure.

The enforcers leave.

Brick pulls a switchblade from his pocket and approaches the woman. He cuts open her sleeve, then presses the tip of the blade into her arm. She cries a little, barely conscious enough to register the pain.

RAT THE MIC
Hey, what are you doing?! Stop that!

Brick ignores him and pulls a small computer chip out from under the girl's skin. He then presses the chip up against the wall and stabs it with the knife, disabling it.

BRICK
(to the woman)
Now, we find out how much Daddy loves his little girl.

Brick slams the door as he leaves.

Rat the Mic looks over at the young woman.

RAT THE MIC
Are you okay?

She screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeams!

-To be Continued...-