The Scream of the Shalka
A BBC Webcast for the 40th Anniversary. Original Airdate: 13 Nov 2003.
Starring Richard E Grant as the Doctor.
Part One - The Sound of Silence
(We see a shot of Earth in space. A meteor flies towards it.)
[Island]
(There is a volcano in the distance on this rocky island. Dawson, a man in a suit, picks up his radio, which emits static.)
DAWSON: Mount Ruapehu Field Camp to Tracking Aircraft, over. Tracking aircraft, can you hear me?
(Dave, a man in a Hawaiian shirt, is holding a clipboard. There is more static)
DAVE: Weird. What's going to be interfering with it up here?
DAWSON: Probably a new radio station. Volcano FM.
DAVE: Volcano FM, cool! Rock by day, radio by night!
DAWSON: Is that the aircraft?
DAVE: No, it's a, it's a meteor!
(The meteor streaks across the sky.)
DAVE: Sweet! It's going to land just over the ridge.
DAWSON: I've got to see this. Come on!
(The meteor hits the ground with fiery results. Both men approach the crater.)
DAWSON: Look at it! I never thought I'd get to see one of these close up!
(We see the meteor in the crater.)
DAVE: Do you see something moving down there?
DAWSON: It's just the smoke. No, I see it too.
(Another shot of the meteor. Another shot of the thing moving.)
DAVE: What is it?
DAWSON: Some kind of worm,
(He steps closer to the crater. We get a close up of a blue eye with a slit pupil.)
DAWSON [OC]: Cute little guy,
(Dawson reaches for the worm.)
DAWSON: There's a home waiting for you in Turangi. Come here,
(The Worm snarls at them then jumps into suddenly molten rock.)
DAVE: What was that? Where is it?
DAWSON: It burrowed into the rock. I think it made it molten!
(Green ominous smoke starts rising from the crater. Dave starts coughing.)
DAVE: The gases, from the meteorite, got to get some air!
(Dave walks away from the crater, still coughing.)
DAWSON: Dave, this is huge. We've got to get a crew down here. Fence this off.
DAVE: Give me a second.
(Dave takes a deep breath.)
DAWSON [OC]: You all right? Why have you stopped?
DAVE: I was gonna ask you that.
DAWSON: I can't, I can't move. My body's not,
(Another shot of the crater. The ground starts shaking.)
DAVE [OC]: There's something,
(Back to Dave.)
DAVE: Can you feel it? Underneath the ground.
DAWSON: What's going on? Stop! Grab something!
DAVE: I can't!
(The gas is getting stronger.)
DAWSON: Stop! Don't go in there!
(We get another close up on the alien eye as it shrieks.)
[Street]
(We see the underneath of a bridge. It's dark, a bit dingy and otherwise un-noteworthy. A leaflet and a couple of leaves float past on the wind. Then we hear the familiar wheezing noise. With this materialisation, however, there is the odd flash of energy, like lightning, from the beacon on top. It flickers in and out until the final groan and then flicks into substance with a final flash. The TARDIS has arrived. The doors unlock and a tall man in silhouette steps out. As the camera pans up, we get a proper look at him. He's dressed almost completely in black, save for an inverness cloak similar to the one worn by the Third Doctor and a white shirt. He has a bowtie worn in the style of the First Doctor. A pocket watch hangs from a pocket on the cape. His hair is long, hangs around his eyes and brown, save for a patch of silver. He is very pale. Pale blue eyes look around. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Shalka Doctor.)
DOCTOR: No! It's not where we're supposed to be. I'm going to take a look around.
(The door closes and with a beep and flash of the beacon, the door locks.)
DOCTOR: I don't want to be here! I won't do it!
(We see a pub.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Whatever it is.
(The Doctor sniffs the air.)
DOCTOR: From the smell of the air, England. 2003. Ugh. But something's odd about it.
(The pub is in view again.)
DOCTOR [OC]: And where is everybody?
(The Doctor is clearly annoyed by now.)
DOCTOR: Oh, for goodness sake!
(He opens a panel on the TARDIS and takes out a phone - which is TARDIS blue - before he sets off towards the pub.)
[Pub]
(The interior of the pub is reasonably well lit, but it's all but deserted. Apart from Alison and her boss, Max, there is one man there. Alison pulls a beer and puts it down in front of him.)
ALISON: There you go. On the house. I've got a sore throat. I'm too ill to use a till.
BARFLY: I love you. Marry me, Alison.
ALISON: You going to take me away from all this?
MAX: Alison, don't give away the beer.
ALISON: Why not? We're never gonna get any more. We might as well empty the cellar.
MAX: It might just stop.
(Alison holds up a piece of paper, probably a payslip.)
ALISON: And you're not paying me enough for this, by the way. Nobody else will come in.
MAX: It'll stop. It has to.
ALISON: Everyone's been saying it's gonna stop since it started. Everyone's waiting for it to change but nobody is doing anything about it. Everyone's too scared to leave their houses.
MAX: I don't agree with her. This is all her. I told her to shut up.
(The door opens and the Doctor walks in. He gets a few odd looks off Max and the Barfly. Being the Doctor, he ignores them and focuses on Alison.)
DOCTOR: Single glass of Marceau '96, if you please. I've heard so much about it.
ALISON: Sorry, we only do dry or sweet.
DOCTOR: And I don't do sweet.
(He looks at her payslip.)
DOCTOR: Miss Cheney? Any relation to Lon? Wonderful chap. Hairy hands.
ALISON: What are you on about?
MAX: Haven't seen you around here.
DOCTOR: No, in a bustling town centre on a Saturday night, I suppose you don't get many strangers.
(Alison hands him his wine. Max glares at him as the Doctor drinks. Apparently he does not approve as he groans after draining the glass. The Doctor stares intently at Alison.)
DOCTOR: You're scared. Less than these two are though.
ALISON: That's why they're both looking at me like that.
(Max and the Barfly are giving her worried looks.)
ALISON [OC]: They're scared of anyone who isn't. Scared somebody might talk.
(Alison glares back at them.)
MAX [OC]: Do you want to do this, Alison? Do you really?
(Max and the Barfly watch the Doctor intently as he walks over to the other side of the room, to a jukebox.)
DOCTOR: So, none of you are going to tell me anything?
(He rustles through some change.)
DOCTOR: You haven't even thought to charge me for the drink. And there's no Pachelbel on this jukebox. I'd have thought he'd get a look in on “Smooth Classics Two”. But no.
(The Doctor leaves. Alison walks to the door and looks outside after him.)
[Street]
(Alison is highlighted in the doorway. The Shalka Prime, hidden by shadows, slithers across the streets.)
ALISON: It's all right, whatever you are. We're all being good.
(The Shalka Prime slithers closer. Alison closes the door. She takes a couple of deep breaths. We get a close up of its eye, which is the same as the worm, before it lets out a similar shriek.)
(The Doctor is sniffing a grate. The shriek can be heard in the distance.)
DOCTOR: Either something very odd is going on down there, or the rats have discovered the delights of the D'Oyly Carte.
(He walks away from the grate, which starts emitting ominous green smoke and some red glow.)
(The ground beneath the TARDIS starts shaking, as glowing orange cracks spread out beneath it. Alison walks by and sees it being swallowed by the earth, leaving a smoking hole in the ground. She immediately backs off.)
(A street light flickers above a statue of a human. The Doctor walks up to it and studies it for a moment or two.)
DOCTOR: Solidified lava,
VOICE: Never knew what he'd think.
(The Doctor looks around and sees a homeless woman sat in some rubbish.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Who? That?
WOMAN: No. My Oswald. He was run over in 1987. He was such a lovely kitten. Grew up to be an awkward cat.
DOCTOR: He must've used up his nine lives. Rather like me. I'm terribly pleased to meet you. What's your name?
MATHILDA: Miss Mathilda Pierce.
(The Doctor kisses her hand.)
DOCTOR: Charmed.
MATHILDA: What are you doing here?
DOCTOR: I don't know. They keep putting me in places where terrible things are going to happen.
MATHILDA: Oh! Right. Spare change?
(The Doctor pulls out an assortment of currency, most not from Earth, from his pocket.)
DOCTOR: Oh! Let's see. Uh, I got here, Attraxian Seemble seed.
MATHILDA: Oh.
DOCTOR: You'll need to grow those into a tree before they'd be worth anything. Zornic Groats. No, you don't want currency that talks back. Uh, do you lot use Euros yet?
MATHILDA: You're being cruel to me.
DOCTOR: Oh, never, Mathilda. I'm a homeless person myself. It's the first thing I am. Here.
(He hands over the lot, including the alien currency.)
MATHILDA: Oh.
(She chuckles.)
DOCTOR: What do you know about that lump of rock?
(She stammers and looks around, scared.)
DOCTOR: Only, you're the first human being I've seen on the streets tonight and I was hoping for some assistance.
MATHILDA: Nowhere else to go. I've left my house. The floor wasn't solid.
DOCTOR: Not solid?
MATHILDA: I used to have 28 cats, but they all ran away. All the cats and dogs and birds have left this town. All the animals.
DOCTOR: Why?
MATHILDA: Well, cats get scared of things they can hear. You know, it's how a tiger marks its territory.
DOCTOR: By low-frequency sounds?
MATHILDA: Mmm.
DOCTOR: A booming in the throats keeps all the other top predators away. But what about the people? Why aren't they out and about?
MATHILDA: You seem a nice, young man, you should stay off the grass.
(A low rumbling starts.)
DOCTOR: Why?
MATHILDA: It's down there.
DOCTOR: What?
(The ground starts shaking.)
MATHILDA: Oh no! No. Oh! Stop it!
DOCTOR: It's all right. It's all right.
MATHILDA: Stop it!
DOCTOR: It's just some kind of earth tremor.
MATHILDA: Oh, oh, oh,
DOCTOR: Just hang onto something.
(Mathilda screams for a long time and then, just as suddenly, she stops. The tremor stops as well.)
DOCTOR: Are you all right? Mathilda? Mathilda?
(He reaches out to touch her.)
DOCTOR: Oh!
(He recoils from her body before staring up to the sky.)
DOCTOR: All right. All right.
[Flat]
(Joe is sat on the sofa as the door closes and Alison walks in.)
ALISON: Hiya.
JOE: Hey.
(She kisses his head before sitting down next to him.)
JOE: How was work?
ALISON: This weird guy came in, asking questions.
JOE: You always get the nutters. They can tell you're gonna listen to them. It won't last now though, there aren't many left.
(Alison holds up the TV remote. Joe, just as quickly, puts his hand over it.)
ALISON: I was only gonna see what was on.
JOE: It's just,
ALISON: I know. Don'
t raise the volume so we can actually hear anything.
JOE: Next door hasn't got theirs turned up and the street is quiet. I like it like this.
ALISON: Don't say that, Joe. Don't say you like it.
(Alison crosses her arms and turns away from him.)
JOE: Sorry. I went into my surgery today. There were even a few patients, all throat complaints.
ALISON: Yeah, I've been getting hoarse and it's not like I've had anyone to yell at. Must be a bug going around. It'll be the death of me.
JOE: Don't,
ALISON: I don't care anymore, Joe. This has to change.
JOE: We have to keep on living, Ali. We have to keep on going in case,
ALISON: In case there's a chance to fight?
JOE: That's not what I meant.
(Someone knocks on the door.)
ALISON: No.
(The person knocks again. Alison stands up.)
ALISON: Don't worry. I'll get it.
(She opens the door.)
ALISON: What are you doing here?
DOCTOR: Around the corner, a lovely old lady has just died. <
br> (He barges in.)
DOCTOR: Does anyone here care?
JOE: Who are you?
ALISON: It's the weird guy from the pub.
(She closes the door.)
DOCTOR: You care, don't you? You were going to tell me. What's going on? Why is everyone staying off the streets?
ALISON: How'd you find me?
DOCTOR: Your pay slip had your address on it.
(He picks up the phone then puts it down.)
DOCTOR: The phones don't work, there are no current newspapers or magazines, nobody on the streets. So this town has been cut off for what? Three weeks? And somehow, nobody in Britain has noticed. What have you allowed to happen? As you humans allow so many things.
ALISON: We humans?
JOE: How can you come in here and start,
(Somehow, a cup is knocked over and shattered on the floor. Joe's expression changes from angry to terrified.)
DOCTOR: The floor! You're afraid of something coming up out of the ground. You're all pussyfooting around, walking on eggshells.
(The Doctor pushes some dishes onto the floor. They shatter.)
DOCTOR: If you don't tell me what you're afraid of, I'll keep making noise until I find out for myself
ALISON: You,
(Alison tries to smack him. The Doctor grabs her hand in mid-air.)
DOCTOR: So, one of you is willing to fight?
ALISON: You give me a way to fight and I'll fight.
JOE: She doesn't know what she's saying.
(The Doctor ignores him.)
DOCTOR: Tell me!
ALISON: Three weeks ago, like you said, some kind of sound deep underground, a vibration, It was there when you listened to the pipes. It was there when you slept, right at the edge of hearing.
JOE: Alison, don't.
ALISON: Joe, I have to do this, somebody has to.
DOCTOR: I've heard this noise myself. So it seems you're living above an angry landlord with a long broom handle who wants you all to stay very, very quiet.
ALISON: I see one of them in the street sometimes, keeping an eye on me. I saw it tonight.
JOE: I don't know what she's talking about. I've never seen anything. Everything here is normal. Please, leave us alone.
DOCTOR: Tell me about the solidified lava. That was a person, wasn't it?
ALISON: That was Kim, my mate from work. Max didn't like her because she talked too much. More than me even. She wanted to get a message out. Wanted to do something. Then, one night, on the way home, the ground opened up and, She started covering herself with lava. Just kept smearing it onto her body. She was screaming out all the time, calling out to us to stop her.
JOE: But we couldn't
ALISON: We couldn't move. In the end, she didn't even have hands anymore. And then she, She put her face in, And just solidified. There.
DOCTOR: I'm so sorry. I give you my word, this ends tonight.
JOE: Well, thanks for that. Because we might see some of those punishments now. The lava is for the ones who really push it. If you're lucky, you'll just get your brain fried by the sounds. Do you know what it's like to be a doctor and stand by and watch these things and not be able to do anything?
(The Doctor sighs.)
DOCTOR: So many answers to that. But, no. No interest in giving them. No wonder you're all afraid.
ALISON [OC]: The sound makes you afraid.
(The ground starts shaking.)
JOE- Oh, no.
DOCTOR: Get behind me!
JOE: They say they're down there, in the rocks. They say they're monsters.
DOCTOR: That's why I've been sent here.
ALISON: Who are you?
DOCTOR: I know about monsters. I'm the Doctor.
(The floor bursts up and two giant rock-snake creatures burst through. They immediately begin shrieking at the Doctor, Alison and Joe. Everyone, meet the villains of this serial - the Shalka!)