Doctor who the unquiet dead Page #3

Season #1 Episode #3

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[Living room]

(Gwyneth pours tea.)

ROSE:
First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man.

SNEED:
I won't be spoken to like this!

ROSE:
Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!

SNEED:
It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless.

DICKENS:
Tommyrot.

SNEED:
You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps.

(Gwyneth places the Doctor's cup on the mantlepiece beside him.)

GWYNETH:
Two sugars, sir, just how you like it.

SNEED:
One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned.

DICKENS:
Morbid fancy.

DOCTOR:
Oh, Charles, you were there.

DICKENS:
I saw nothing but an illusion.

DOCTOR:
If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up. What about the gas?

SNEED:
That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that.

DOCTOR:
Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through.

ROSE:
What's the rift?

DOCTOR:
A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.

SNEED:
That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations.

(Dickens slams the door as he leaves.)

SNEED:
Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.

[Hallway]

(Dickens stops by a gas lamp and tries to listen to the whispers.)

DICKENS:
Impossible.

[Chapel of Rest]

(Dickens takes the lid off Redpath's coffin, and waves his hand in front of the dead man's face. The Doctor watches from the doorway as Dickens searches the coffin.)

DOCTOR:
Checking for strings?

DICKENS:
Wires, perhaps. There must be some mechanism behind this fraud.

DOCTOR:
Oh, come on, Charles. All right. I shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry. But you've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gas creatures.

DICKENS:
I cannot accept that.

DOCTOR:
And what does the human body do when it decomposes? It breaks down and produces gas. Perfect home for these gas things. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, just like your driver and his coach.

DICKENS:
Stop it. Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?

DOCTOR:
Not wrong. There's just more to learn.

DICKENS:
I've always railed against the fantasists. Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, revelled in them, but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack-o'-lanterns. In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has it all been for nothing?

[Pantry]

(Gwyneth lights the gas lamp. Rose starts the washing up.)

GWYNETH:
Please, miss, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right.

ROSE:
Don't be daft. Sneed works you to death. How much do you get paid?

GWYNETH:
Eight pound a year, miss.

ROSE:
How much?

GWYNETH:
I know. I would've been happy with six.

ROSE:
So, did you go to school or what?

GWYNETH:
Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper.

ROSE:
What, once a week?

GWYNETH:
We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second.

ROSE:
Me too.

GWYNETH:
Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own.

ROSE:
I did plenty of that. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go and look at boys.

GWYNETH:
Well, I don't know much about that, miss.

ROSE:
Come on, times haven't changed that much. I bet you've done the same.

GWYNETH:
I don't think so, miss.

ROSE:
Gwyneth, you can tell me. I bet you've got your eye on someone.

GWYNETH:
I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher’s boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him.

ROSE:
I like a nice smile. Good smile, nice bum.

GWYNETH:
Well, I have never heard the like.

ROSE:
Ask him out. Give him a cup of tea or something, that's a start.

GWYNETH:
I swear it is the strangest thing, miss. You've got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing.

ROSE:
Maybe I am. Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed.

GWYNETH:
Oh, now that's not fair. He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve.

ROSE:
Oh, I'm sorry.

GWYNETH:
Thank you, miss. But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you too, miss.

ROSE:
Maybe. Er, who told you he was dead?

GWYNETH:
I don't know. Must have been the Doctor.

ROSE:
My father died years back.

GWYNETH:
But you've been thinking about him lately more than ever.

ROSE:
I suppose so. How do you know all this?

GWYNETH:
Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss?

ROSE:
No, no servants where I'm from.

GWYNETH:
And you've come such a long way.

ROSE:
What makes you think so?

GWYNETH:
You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss.

ROSE:
It's all right.

GWYNETH:
I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it.

DOCTOR:
But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?

GWYNETH:
All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head.

DOCTOR:
You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key.

GWYNETH:
I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts.

DOCTOR:
Well, that should help. You can show us what to do.

GWYNETH:
What to do where, sir?

DOCTOR:
We're going to have a séance.

[Living room]

(Everyone is gathered around a table.)

GWYNETH:
This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands.

DICKENS:
I can't take part in this.

DOCTOR:
Humbug? Come on, open mind.

DICKENS:
This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing.

DOCTOR:
Now, don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium.

ROSE:
I can't believe you just said that.

DOCTOR:
Come on, we might need you.

(Dickens sits down between Rose and Gwyneth.)

DOCTOR:
Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out.

GWYNETH:
Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden.

(The whispering starts.)

ROSE:
Can you hear that?

DICKENS:
Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly.

ROSE:
Look at her.

GWYNETH:
I see them. I feel them.

(Gas tendrils drift above their heads.)

ROSE:
What's it saying?

DOCTOR:
They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through.

GWYNETH:
I can't!

DOCTOR:
Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link.

GWYNETH:
Yes.

(Blue outlines of people appear behind Gwyneth.)

SNEED:
Great God! Spirits from the other side.

DOCTOR:
The other side of the universe.

(The figures speak with two children's voices, and Gwyneth speaks with them.)

GELTH:
Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us.

DOCTOR:
What do you want us to do?

GELTH:
The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge.

DOCTOR:
What for?

GELTH:
We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction.

DOCTOR:
Why, what happened?

GELTH:
Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came.

DICKENS:
War? What war?

GELTH:
The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state.

DOCTOR:
So that's why you need the corpses.

GELTH:
We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us.

ROSE:
But we can't.

DOCTOR:
Why not?

ROSE:
It's not. I mean, it's not

DOCTOR:
Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives.

GELTH:
Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth.

(The Gelth go back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapses across the table.)

ROSE:
Gwyneth?

DICKENS:
All true.

ROSE:
Are you okay?

DICKENS:
It's all true.

(A little later, Gwyneth has been laid on the chaise longue.)

ROSE:
It's all right. You just sleep.

GWYNETH:
But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?

DOCTOR:
They do need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival.

ROSE:
I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles. Drink this.

SNEED:
Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?

DOCTOR:
Aliens.

SNEED:
Like foreigners, you mean?

DOCTOR:
Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there.

SNEED:
Brecon?

DOCTOR:
Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes.

DICKENS:
Which is why they need the girl.

ROSE:
They're not having her.

DOCTOR:
But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through.

DICKENS:
Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers.

DOCTOR:
Good system. It might work.

ROSE:
You can't let them run around inside of dead people.

DOCTOR:
Why not? It's like recycling.

ROSE:
Seriously though, you can't.

DOCTOR:
Seriously though, I can.

ROSE:
It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death.

DOCTOR:
Do you carry a donor card?

ROSE:
That's different. That's

DOCTOR:
It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying.

ROSE:
I don't care. They're not using her.

GWYNETH:
Don't I get a say, miss?

ROSE:
Look, you don't understand what's going on.

GWYNETH:
You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid.

ROSE:
That's not fair.

GWYNETH:
It's true, though. Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?

DOCTOR:
You don't have to do anything.

GWYNETH:
They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me.

DOCTOR:
We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?

SNEED:
That would be the morgue.

ROSE:
No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?

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