Part Four
[Dig site]
DOCTOR: Tell Morgaine to call off the Destroyer.
MORDRED: Surrender to our justice and the children will live.
DOCTOR: Your justice? Tell her to call it off or I will decapitate you.
(The Doctor uses his umbrella and hand to pull Mordred's sword against his throat)
[Gore Crow Hotel]
(Morgaine walks around the outside of the circle with her crystal ball.)
MORGAINE: Now we shall see what is happening. Oh. He must care for you very much to threaten my son so. Fear not. It is a deception.
[Dig site]
MORGAINE [OC]: He is bluffing.
MORDRED: We know you of old, Merlin. You will not kill.
DOCTOR: I wouldn't count on it.
MORDRED: Come then, look me in the eye. End my life. (The Doctor removes the sword and Mordred laughs.) It is a weakness, this lack of spirit.
(The Brigadier puts his revolver to Mordred's head.)
BRIGADIER: Try me.
(Mordred's smile fades)
[Gore Crow Hotel]
MORGAINE: Ware this man, Mordred. He is steeped in blood.
[Dig site]
DOCTOR: Brigadier, this is not the way.
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, Doctor. Can Morgaine hear me?
MORDRED: Yes.
BRIGADIER: Listen to me, Morgaine. Leave my world or your son dies.
MORDRED: Deathless Morgaine.
[Gore Crow Hotel]
MORDRED [OC]: Save me!
MORGAINE: Die well, my son.
[Dig site]
MORDRED: Mother!
[Gore Crow Hotel]
MORGAINE: Knight Commander.
[Above the dig site]
COMMANDER: Your Majesty.
MORGAINE [OC]: Recommence your attack.
[Gore Crow Hotel]
MORGAINE: Take no prisoners.
ACE: No!
[Above the dig site]
COMMANDER: We shall make honour our standard. Put down your guns, draw your swords. Good steel will be our conscience. Do them honour. Kill them all.
(Morgaine's troops go running down the slope)
[Dig site]
ANCELYN: This is our path, to fight and die.
BAMBERA: That's what we're paid for, so let's do it with some style!
(The battle is rejoined. Bambera picks up a fallen knight's sword and has a go herself.)
MORDRED: My mother will destroy you.
BRIGADIER: Just between you and me, Mordred, I'm getting a little tired of hearing about your mother. Get in.
(The Brigadier pushes Mordred into the back of Bessie and climbs in beside him.)
DOCTOR: Hold tight.
[Gore Crow Hotel]
(Morgaine watches the little roadster on her crystal ball.)
MORGAINE: Your friends will soon be dead. (The ball floats away from her hand.) Now, give me Excalibur.
ACE: If you're so powerful, why don't you come and get it?
MORGAINE: An excellent suggestion. (But she cannot push her hands past the circle.) The sword is protecting you.
ACE: The Doctor was right. You can't touch us while we're in the circle. Not while we've got the paper knife.
MORGAINE: This is true. I cannot break such an enchantment.
DESTROYER: But I can.
ACE: If you're so bad, why haven't you done anything yet?
DESTROYER: First I must be freed. This mortal has me chained.
MORGAINE: With silver.
DESTROYER: It burns.
MORGAINE: Good.
DESTROYER: She fears me.
MORGAINE: I fear nothing.
DESTROYER: Then free me, and let me claim this world.
MORGAINE: Perhaps.
ACE: What does he want the world for?
DESTROYER: Why, to devour it. What else?
(Green energy flickers between the Destroyer's claws)
[Outside Gore Crow Hotel]
(Bessie stops by the main entrance as green explosions start to happen inside.)
DOCTOR: Ace!
BRIGADIER: Doctor, no!
(The Doctor is knocked off his feet, and Mordred and the Brigadier are thrown out of Bessie.)
DOCTOR: Morgaine! If they're dead..
(The Doctor goes into the hotel while Mordred runs away)
BRIGADIER: Decisions, decisions.
[Gore Crow Hotel]
(The main bar is a charred wreck.)
DOCTOR: Ace!
BRIGADIER: Doctor, I'm afraid that Mordred m..
DOCTOR: Ace? Shou Yuing?
ACE: We're here, Professor.
(The Doctor helps them get a easy chair off their backs.)
DOCTOR: What happened?
SHOU: The hotel fell on us.
ACE: There was this woman with a pet demon, and I seem to remember a chalk circle that was supposed to protect us from harm.
DOCTOR: Yes, I get the idea, Ace. Where's Excalibur?
SHOU: Er, the woman seemed to want it very badly.
ACE: Very, very badly.
SHOU: So we gave it to her.
DOCTOR: Good.
ACE: But it's not our fault. I mean, if I'd had some Nitro, then maybe I could. What do you mean, good?
DOCTOR: Exotic alien swords are easy to come by. Aces are rare.
BRIGADIER: Doctor? What do you make of this?
(A shimmering curtain in the room.)
DOCTOR: I don't know. Which way did Morgaine leave?
ACE: A flash of light and gone.
DOCTOR: I wonder.
(He pushes a table leg into the curtain)
[Castle]
MORGAINE: Where is my army?
DESTROYER: Gone the way of all flesh.
[Dig site]
(So have a lot of UNIT troops. Bambera gazes at the face of a dead knight while Ancelyn cleans his sword.)
ANCELYN: A good fight. (Bambera gives him a Look.) You are hurt, my lady.
BAMBERA: I told you not to. Oh, never mind.
(Ancelyn dabs tenderly at her injured hand)
[Gore Crow Hotel]
ACE: Where is she now?
DOCTOR: At the other end of that interstitial vortex.
ACE: So what's our next move?
DOCTOR: Well, first we go through this. Brigadier, I'll go first. Ace..
ACE: Stay here.
DOCTOR: Correct. And you. Now, high drama is very similar to comedy. It's all a matter of (The Doctor hands the scabbard to Ace and pirouettes his way into the vortex. The Brigadier copies him.) Timing.
(Mordred hides from patrolling soldiers then makes his way to the castle.)
CHOU: They're going to be killed. You saw the Destroyer.
ACE: Morgaine could control the Destroyer. She had it chained up with silver chains. Get it?
SHOU: The silver bullets!
ACE: Keep an eye on the vortex.
(Ace holds the scabbard and searches in the rubble.)
SHOU: It's fading.
ACE: Got them!
SHOU: It's going. What're you going to do, throw them through?
ACE: Do me a favour. Geronimo!
(Ace throws herself into the vortex)
[Castle]
DESTROYER: You would do well to release me, Morgaine.
MORGAINE: Release you?
DESTROYER: Merlin is mighty and cunning. I cannot destroy him while I am chained.
MORGAINE: What matter? I have Excalibur. Without it, Arthur sleeps forever. Merlin cannot find me ere I leave. See! The gateway home is almost complete.
DESTROYER: He comes even as we speak.
MORGAINE: How? He cannot come through the vortex. You have allowed him access. Why?
DESTROYER: So that you would be forced to release me.
(The Doctor and the Brigadier arrive.)
DOCTOR: Morgaine. (The Brigadier fires all his rounds into the Destroyer. They have no effect.) Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: Well, nothing ventured, Doctor.
DESTROYER: Nothing gained.
(The Destroyer lassoes the Brigadier with green energy and throws him through the planks nailed across the windows, out onto the grass.)
DOCTOR: That was uncalled for.
(The Doctor makes for Excalibur, but Morgaine grabs it first.)
MORGAINE: Your move, Merlin.
(They circle each other.)
DOCTOR: You haven't won the game yet, Morgaine.
MORGAINE: I could always defeat you at chess, Merlin.
DOCTOR: Who said anything about playing chess? I'm playing poker. (Ace twirls in and knocks Morgaine down before falling over herself. The Doctor catches Excalibur.) And I have an Ace up my sleeve.
ACE: Very funny.
MORGAINE: Destroy him.
DESTROYER: Release me.
DOCTOR: What is it to be, Morgaine? Who do you fear more?
MORGAINE: This is no idle threat, Merlin. Give me Excalibur or I will loose the Destroyer upon the world.
DOCTOR: Don't be a fool.
(Morgaine makes a gesture, and the Destroyer pulls the chain links apart, then rips off the silver breast plate.)
ACE: Nice work, Doctor.
DOCTOR: But I thought she was bluffing.
[Outside the castle]
(The Brigadier come to. Mordred kneels over him.)
MORDRED: Where is she?
BRIGADIER: To whom are you referring?
[Castle]
(The Destroyer rips at the silver chainmail.)
DESTROYER: Free!
DOCTOR: You fool, Morgaine. (Morgaine snatches Excalibur.) Do you think this'll solve anything?
MORGAINE: Yes. Too late, Merlin. The gateway is open. I am gone and you have lost.
ACE: Doctor, I've got a silver bullet!
MORDRED: Mother!
MORGAINE: Mordred?
DOCTOR: About time.
(The Doctor takes back Excalibur as Mordred joins Morgaine between the glowing spheres.)
MORGAINE: You live.
MORDRED: In spite of thee, false parent. Witch!
MORGAINE: I thought you dead.
MORDRED: Thought? Or wished it so.
MORGAINE: Mordred, no. That was not the way of it. No.
(Morgaine and Mordred vanish through circle of light.)
ACE: Doctor, can I have a word?
BRIGADIER: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Brigadier, you're going the wrong way. Ace!
(The Doctor sends the Brigadier back outside then grabs Ace, who is picking up the box of silver bullets and follows him.)
DESTROYER: At last.
[Outside the castle]
DESTROYER: Devour.
BRIGADIER: What was that?
DOCTOR: That, Brigadier, was the beginning of the end of the world.
BRIGADIER: Same as ever, eh, Doctor?
[Castle]
DESTROYER: I hunger.
[Outside the castle]
DOCTOR: It's no good. It's not good at all.
BRIGADIER: I can have an air strike here in minutes.
DOCTOR: It's no good, Brigadier. Conventional weapons won't harm it.
BRIGADIER: No, I didn't think so.
DOCTOR: Ace, give me the silver bullets.
ACE: How did you know?
DOCTOR: Silver bullets'll do the trick.
ACE: How did you know I had them?
DOCTOR: It's all a matter of timing, Ace. Give me your gun.
(The Brigadier hands over his revolver.)
BRIGADIER: What, those will stop the Destroyer? What, you just shoot the bullets into it?
(The Doctor loads the revolver.)
DOCTOR: Simple, isn't it? Just like most killings.
BRIGADIER: Good lord, is that a spaceship?
(Ace and The Doctor turn and looks up, and the Brigadier chops the Doctor across the throat, knocking him out. He grabs back his the revolver.)
ACE: You scumbag!
BRIGADIER: Sorry, Doctor, but I think I'm rather more expendable than you are.
[Castle]
DESTROYER: This world shall be mine. And then another, and another. (Green explosions come out of the castle. The Brigadier walks in.) Ah, little man. What do you want of me?
BRIGADIER: Get off my world.
[Outside the castle]
(The Doctor wakes to the sound of an explosion)
DOCTOR: We've got to stop him.
[Castle]
DESTROYER: Pitiful. Can this world do no better than you as their champion?
BRIGADIER: Probably. I just do the best I can.
(The Brigadier fires the silver rounds into the Destroyer's exposed chest and the creature explodes.)
[Outside the castle]
(Ace and the Doctor see the building reduced to ruins.)
ACE: No chance. He's had it.
[Dig site]
BAMBERA: Sergeant, where's that coffee? Sergeant!
(Mordred comes round the back of a truck and puts his sword to Bambera's throat.)
MORDRED: The battle's not over yet.
[Outside the castle]
(The Doctor finds the Brigadier amidst the burning ruin and cradles him in his arms.)
DOCTOR: You stupid, stubborn, pig-headed numbskull. You were supposed to die in bed. I could have handled it, done your job.
BRIGADIER: Nonsense, Doctor.
DOCTOR: You're supposed to be dead.
BRIGADIER: Oh, really, Doctor. You don't think I'd be so stupid as to stay inside, do you?
DOCTOR: Well..
BRIGADIER: Really, Doctor, have a little faith. Ace?
ACE: Yes, Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. He's all yours from now on. I'm going home to Doris.
DOCTOR: Doris?
BRIGADIER: Yes, my wife.
DOCTOR: Ha, ha, ha. So she caught you in the end.
BRIGADIER: Yeah.
ACE: Oi, shouldn't we be getting back?
BRIGADIER: Yes, Ace is right. I suspect there's some clearing up to be done.
DOCTOR: Yes, just a small nuclear missile bogged down in a nature reserve.
[UNIT Mobile Command post]
(Prelaunch sequence complete, says the computer screen. Enter failsafe release code. Mordred has Bambera at swordpoint.)
BAMBERA: It's a nuclear missile. The blast will kill you as well.
MORGAINE: We shall be long gone ere that happens. Now tell me, what is the secret incantation?
BAMBERA: I don't know what you're talking about.
MORGAINE: The magic words. The failsafe release code.
BAMBERA: I've no idea.
MORGAINE: Oh, I doubt that. What is the code?
(Morgaine stares into Bambera's eyes)
[Spacecraft]
DOCTOR: Ancelyn, replace Excalibur and Arthur will arise.
ANCELYN: I think the honour belongs to the Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: Oh, the Doctor should do it.
ANCELYN: No, my lord. You were the victor.
ACE: Give me that.
DOCTOR: Ace, have you no sense of occasion?
ACE: No.
(So the person that pulled it out puts it back in, and the spacecraft powers up.)
ANCELYN: Listen, she is alive.
ACE: Which is more than can be said for Arthur the freeze-dried.
DOCTOR: This is very odd.
ACE: Well, you put him there.
DOCTOR: I will put him there.
ACE: What's wrong, Doctor?
(The Doctor removes Arthur's helm, and sand pours out. There is also a note.)
ANCELYN: Where is the King?
ACE: Doctor, this is for you.
DOCTOR: What does it say?
ACE: Dear Doctor. King died in final battle. Everything else propaganda.
DOCTOR: Who signed it?
ACE: The Doctor.
DOCTOR: Ah well, that sorts that out.
ACE: PS, Morgaine has just seized control of the nuclear missile.
DOCTOR: Tut. I could have given myself more warning. Brigadier, you and Ace see to this ship.
BRIGADIER: Explosives, Doctor.
ACE: Now you're talking.
DOCTOR: Yes, we'll give Arthur a warrior's burial.
[UNIT Mobile Command post]
(Mordred lays Bambera's body on the ground by the Mobile Command post, then Ancelyn charges in. The two rivals fight, parting briefly as the Doctor walks between them and goes inside. The countdown passes 60)
MORGAINE: Too late, Merlin.
DOCTOR: Is it? Not while there's an abort button. (Morgaine and the Doctor struggle.) If this missile explodes, millions will die, you will die.
MORGAINE: I shall die with honour.
(45, 44)
DOCTOR: All over the world, fools are poised ready to let death fly. A spark could turn into an inferno.
MORGAINE: What do I care? This is war.
DOCTOR: Is it? Death falling from the sky, blind, random, anywhere, anytime. No one is safe, no one is innocent? Machines of death, Morgaine, are screaming from above, of light brighter than the sun. Not a war between armies nor a war between nations, but just death, death gone mad. The child looks up in the sky, his eyes turn to cinders. No more tears, only ashes. Is this honour? Is this war? Are these the weapons you would use? Tell me!
MORGAINE: No.
DOCTOR: Then put a stop to it, Morgaine. End the madness.
(4, 3, 2. Morgaine presses the red abort button at 1.)
MORGAINE: Then tell Arthur to face me with honour in single combat. Tell him to show himself. It's time he ceased hiding behind your coat tails, Merlin.
[Dig site]
(The spacecraft explodes in the lake. Ace leaps up and down.)
ACE: And you said two kilos wouldn't be enough.
BRIGADIER: Hey, mind you, don't get your feet wet.
[UNIT Mobile Command post]
DOCTOR: Arthur is dead.
MORGAINE: No.
DOCTOR: He's dead, Morgaine.
MORGAINE: Merlin, prince of deceit. Another trick.
DOCTOR: No.
MORGAINE: I don't believe you.
DOCTOR: Don't you?
MORGAINE: It can't be.
DOCTOR: He died over a thousand years ago.
MORGAINE: Arthur, who burned like star fire.
DOCTOR: Gone.
MORGAINE: And was as beautiful. Where does he lie? I would look at him one final time.
DOCTOR: He's gone to dust.
MORGAINE: Then I shall not even have that comfort. I shall never see him again. Arthur. We were together in the woods of Celadon. The air was like honey.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, Morgaine. It's over.
(The Doctor removes the key from the firing controls and puts it in his breast pocket)
[Dig site]
(Mordred finally bests Ancelyn.)
ANCELYN: I do not fear death, Mordred. You have slain my beloved. There is no life without her.
MORDRED: So be it. Tis time!
(The Doctor stops Mordred swinging his sword. He forces him to his knees and puts his fingers on Mordred's forehead.)
DOCTOR: Time and Time Lords wait for no man.
(Mordred falls unconscious. Bambera gets up, and so does Ancelyn.)
DOCTOR: Ah, Brigadier. Before Mordred recovers, lock him up. And while you're at it, lock up his mother.
[Lethbridge-Stewart's garden]
DOCTOR: Peaceful, isn't it?
ANCELYN: The silence after a battle, Doctor.
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, I'm not being a very good host. Are you all right out here?
DOCTOR: Oh, just admiring the garden.
BRIGADIER: I don't suppose you've seen Doris, have you?
DORIS: Bye!
(The Brigadier goes to her.)
DOCTOR: I think the battle may be about to begin.
BRIGADIER: You going somewhere, dear?
DORIS: Out.
BRIGADIER: Out?
DORIS: Out, with the girls.
[Lethbridge-Stewart's driveway]
(Ace is polishing Bessie's bonnet.)
DOCTOR: I thought you said this was a piece of antiquated junk?
ACE: Did I say that, Professor?
DOCTOR: Yes.
SHOU: We'll try not to break too many speed records.
BAMBERA: Or traffic laws.
DORIS: Hey, what's that?
ACE: Do you want to drive, Doris?
DORIS: Oh, no. Er, I'll drive on the way back, okay?
DOCTOR: Allow me.
(The Doctor hands Doris into the passenger seat.)
DORIS: Thank you, Doctor. Whee!
BRIGADIER: Er, exactly how far are you intending to go, Doris?
DORIS: Well, I don't know, but there's lots of work to be done in the garden. Roll the grass.
BRIGADIER: What about supper?
DORIS: Oh, that's a good idea. Have something really delicious ready for us when we get home, okay? (Ace drives Bessie away with a honk of the horn.) Oh, wicked!
ANCELYN: Ah, are they not magnificent?
BRIGADIER: Yeah. Are you any good with a lawn mower, Ancelyn?
DOCTOR: I'll cook supper.
