Doctor Who (1963–1989): Season 14, Episode 3 - The Masque of Mandragora: Part Three - full transcript

Very sensible

The Deadly Assassin
Part two

I confess you're a bigger indiot
than I thought you were.

There are 15 intesity levels
in this device, Doctor.

At the moment you are only
experiencing level 9,

much easier to talk.

- I've got nothing to say.
- You'll think of something, soon.

- Tweedledum.
- Turn it off.

- Tweedledee.
- I must apologise for my subordinate.

He lets his enthusiasm
run away with him.

I see.
The hot and cold technique.



We are simply seekers of the truth
and we haven't got much time.

Chancellor Goth has ordered
you immediate trial.

I'd like to help you.

- How about a signed confession?
- That will help.

I hate going to court
without possessing the full facts,

- motive, for example.
- Now that's a sensible question.

Why should anyone want to assassinate
a retiring president?

- A personal grudge?
- I never met him!

I know. I have seen you biog.

And you still think I did it?

I think you're going to be
executed for it.

They are preparing the vaporisation
chamber now.

You have about three hours to live, Doctor.

What? That's monstrous.



Vaporisation without representation
is against the constitution.

You are an embarrassment.

You realize I've been framed, don't you?

- Framed?
- Yes, framed.

It's an Earth expression.
It means that someone's

gone through a great deal of trouble
to get me into this mess.

Why did you come back here?

To try and save the President's life.

- If you remember, I left a note for you.
- Yes.

Which presumably,
you did nothing about.

All that I could. So you knew the
President was going to be assassinated?

- Yes. In a way, I experienced it.
- Go on.

Well, this is the bit you won't believe.

People talk of a premonition of tragedy,
but I actually saw it happening.

I saw the President die as vividly,
as clearly as I can see this room now.

And where were you
when this happened?

In the TARDIS, travelling in vortex,
after I'd heard the Panopticon summons.

- What do you think?
- Precognitive vision is impossible.

He knows that
and he knows that we know it,

- and yet he maintains it happened.
- And that's why you believe him?

- I am beginning to.
- Nobody else will.

I think he's being framed.
- Framed?

An Earth expression.

You were going to check for me
who had withdrawn the Doctor's DE.

Nobody. I'm afraid you were wrong
about that, Castellan.

- I don't think so.
- The machine is infallible.

Data extraction is impossible
without an operating key like this.

And the code of the particular key
is recorded here.

opposite the archive number
of the data extract.

Now, as you can see,

my key is the only one entered
against the Doctor's DE.

And how many of those keys are there?

They are only issued
to High Counsellors.

Nobody else is allowed to inspect
the DEs of Time Lords,

except for yourself,
Castellan, in the line of duty.

The records could have been erased,
I take it.

You obviously have no idea of
the complexity of excitonic circuitry.

No, I haven't, but if somebody knew
what he was doing.

It wold require a mathematical genius

with a phenomnal grasp
of applied excitonics.

Really?

There can't be many of those
on the High Council.

We should allow time for reflection,
for passions to cool.

A wise and beloved President

brutally shot down in his
last hour of office.

No matter how much time we allow,
that fact won't alter.

A violent action is causing
an equally violant reaction.

Oh, I understand that, Cardinal,
but there is another consideration.

Quite possibly, after the election,

I shall have the honour
of being President of the Council.

You are being over-modest, Chancellor.
I'm sure of it.

Just as I'm sure that the President
would have named you as his successor.

Who knows what was
in the President's mind?

But it is the custom, as you know,

for an incoming president to pardon
political prisoners.

Is he to set free the murderer
of his predecessor or break the custom?

Either cause would be difficult.

I intend to avoid the dilemma

by seeing this affair through
before he takes office.

Chancellor, all presidents
are faced with difficult decisions.

It is by their decisions
that they are judged.

The prisoner eluded us at that time.

Later I went with Castellan Spandrell
to the Capitol Museum

where the TT capsule
had been transferred.

Erogan tracer immediately became active.

I concluded the prisoner must have been
in the vicinity sometime previous.

He seemed nervous, well, apprehensive.

He was looking around
all the time that we were talking.

Then, just before
the President appeared,

he turned and started to run across
the Panopticon.

After that, I thought he said...

He pushed past me
in loutish and unmannerly way.

Never in all my years of attendance
at the Panopticon, can I recall...

If you could confine yourself
to this incident, sir.

What happened next?

Well, I caught him by the arm
to remonstrate with him

and he shouted,
"Let me go, they'll kill him."

Are you quite sure of that?

What?

Are you perhaps getting a little
hard of hearing these days?

Well, at my age one can expect
these things.

I've been having a bit of trouble
with my hip lately.

Let me put it to you.

Could the accused have said,
"Let me go, I kill him"?

Well, yes, I suppose it is possible.

He could have said that.

Thank you.

Has the accused anything to say
before sentence is pronounced?

Yes.

Article 17.

Article 17?

I offer myself as a candidate
for the Presidency.

- The application is frivolous.
- No, sir.

I invoke Article 17 of the constitution
which is a guarantee of liberty.

and says, in part,

that no candidate for office
shall in any way

be debarred or restrained
from presenting his claim.

The guarantee of liberty
does not extend to murderers.

As a jurist, Chancellor,
I must point out,

that, until the accused
is pronounced guilty,

he is protected by Article 17.

He is abusing a legal technicality.

No, sir. I am claiming a legal right.

Chancellor, this court must be adjourned
until the election is over.

Very well.

But do not think
you will escape justice.

Castellan Spandrell?

Sir?

See that the accused gets
no opportunity to leave the Capitol.

Yes, sir.

- 48 hours, Doctor.
- Well, it's better than three.

What are you going to do?

Suppose... Suppose I can convince you
I didn't do it.

All right, convince me.

- Well?
- The trial was adjourned, Master.

He pleaded Article 17.

He remains as genious as ever.

- He will not escape.
- Escape?

Escape is not in his mind.

Now he is hunting you.

It was a mistake to bring him here.
We could have used anyone.

No, we could not have used anyone.

You do not understand the hatred
as I understand it.

Only hate keeps me alive.

Why else should I endure this pain?

I must see the Doctor die
in shame and dishonour.

Yes, and I must destroy the Time Lords.

Nothing else matters. Nothing!

Don't get any ambitious ideas.

I just wanted to check
it was the same staser.

You see that symbol
at the end of the corridor?

What about it?

- You try and hit it.
- What?

Go on. You try and hit it.

Just a kind of vandalism we're always
running the Shabogans in for.

- Miles away.
- The sights.

So, you see, I couldn't have shot
the president if I tried.

And equally,
I couldn't hit the assassin.

That's why they are fixed.

The assassin, according to you,
being on of the High Council.

Yes. Yes, he was in the party
surrounding the President.

I saw him draw a staser
and step forward.

I aimed a bolt at him, but at that time
I didn't know the sights had been fixed.

One of the High Council.
It's getting better and better.

- What is?
- Your story, but still a story.

Where is the evidence, Doctor?

- I'll tell you where the evidence is.
- Where?

In the public register camera.
I was standing right beside it.

Doctor, you may yet end up as President.

- Hildred?
- Yes, Castellan.

- Take the Doctor to the Panopticon.
- Now, sir?

Of course, now! And I want
Commentator Runcible there, too.

- And wait for me.
- Very good, Castellan.

That's an unusual request.

You want the Panopticon
open at this hour?

- For further investigation, sir.
- I see.

Well, if there anything further
to be discovered, Castellan.

Thank you, sir.

You're keeping a close watch
on the Doctor, I hope.

- Someone is with him all the time.
- Good.

You know that, apart from myself,

is the only other candidate
in this election.

Is that so?

A murderer and a renegade.

That exposes the highest office
in the land to ridicule.

My first action as President

will be to have Cardinal Borusa
draft an amendment to Article 17.

I shall see that this sort of thing
never happens again.

It's not really my field, of course.

The technician
would normally be responsible.

Your technician disappeared.

Probably scared to death
of being involved.

All I want to see is the last sequence
leading up to the assassination.

I expect that will be
in the last band of the drum.

Splended. So, perhaps
you'll be good enough to fetch it.

Yes, all right, Castellan.

About there.

Then the bullet would have
passed over and to the left.

- Yes.
- Let's see.

- Castellan.
- What is it?

- I saw a movement up there.
- Oh, that's Runcible.

Might be something across here.

Here, Castellan.

Is that it?

Stasers don't do a lot of damage,
except to body tissue.

Looking at the President,

you couldn't say whether
he was hit in the leg or the head.

That was Runcible!

Runcible, are you all right?

- Well, at least he is alive.
- Come on, What happened?

Horrible, horrible.

- What are you talking about?
- My technician.

- Where?
- In the camera.

- Good grief. What's happened to him?
- Matter condensation.

- A particularly nasty sort of death.
- No wonder we couldn't find him.

- I've never seen anything like that.
- I have, I'm afraid.

- You have?
- Yes.

It's a technique the Master picked up
somewhere on his travels.

- Who is the Master?
- "Who is the Master?"

He is my sworn arch-enemy,

a fiend who glories
in chaos and destruction.

- A Time Lord?
- Yes, a long time ago.

You know, a lot of things
are becoming clearer.

Not to me.

If the Master is here on Gallifrey,

then this represents
the final challenge.

It explains why I was brought here.
There are old scores to settle.

And that's just a sort of
greetings cards.

Shut that thing up.

Runcible, we are still waiting for you
to find the last sequence.

It's here, Castellan,
you can tell by the numbers.

I can tell when I can see it.
Take it to Records.

I'll have a look at it there.

I want to know all you can tell me
about this Master.

And I warn you now,

if there is some private feud
between you

do not try to settle it on Gallifrey.

It cannot be avoided.
Like or not, Gallifrey is involved

and I'm afraid things
will never be quite the same again.

Shall we go down?

If he is a Time Lord,

there will be a DE on him
in the archives.

Perhaps, perhaps.

What d'you mean, "perhaps, perhaps"?

There is a full biog on every Time Lord.

Runcible!

- Help.
- What?

I'm sorry, so sorry.

- Four cold-blooded killings in one day.
- Flea biting, Spandrell, flea biting.

- Things will get a lot worse.
- Not here in the Capitol.

It might rouse some of them
from their lethargy.

They live for centuries and have about
as much sense of adventure as dormice.

Nothing, Castellan.

There's no record of any Time Lord
adopting that title.

I told you so.

If there had been a DE on the Master,

the first thing he would have done
would be to destroy it.

According to Coordinator Engin,

the Time Lord data extracts
cannot be withdrawn.

without the fact being recorded.

I thought that yours
had been scanned recently,

but he assured me it was impossible.

Rubbish! Anyone with a little
criminal know-how could do it.

I can do it myself.

More than criminal know-how,
Doctor, excitonic circuitry.

Child's play to the Master.

Do you think this stuff
is sophisticated?

There are worlds out there

where this kind of equipment would be
considered prehistoric junk.

What is Master like on mathematics?

He is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
He's almost up to my standard.

- What is that?
- The APC controll.

- APC?
- Amplified Panatropic Computations.

- Brain cells.
- Yes.

Trillions of electrochemical cells
in a continuous matrix.

The cells are the repository
of departed Time Lords.

At the moment of death,

an electrical scan is made
of the brain pattern

and these millions of impulses
are immediately transferred to...

I understand the theory.
What is the function?

To monitor life in the Capitol.

We use all this combined knowledge
and experience.

to predict future developments.

Ah! Like the assassination
of a president.

For some reason that was not foreseen.

Oh, yes, it was foreseen, Engin.
It was foreseen by me.

How very clever.

- This time he's surpassed himself.
- What are you talking about?

Don't you see what he's done?
We Time Lords are telepathic.

That's simply a brain storage system.

He intercepted its forecast that
the President was to be assassinated

- and beamed into my mind.
- Is that possible?

- No.
- Yes, yes.

He could do it.
You said my DE had been scanned.

- Yes.
- Yes.

He'd need a biography print

to beam a message accurately
over that distance.

- It makes sense, Spandrell.
- Maybe, but why?

I told you, because he has
an old score to settle.

Doctor, I simply cannot believe

that anybody could do
what you're suggesting.

How can one intercept a thought pattern
within the Matrix itself?

- By going in there and joining it.
- You mean a living mind?

Well, in a sense,
that's all a living mind is,

electrochemical impulses.

If I went in there, I could discover
where he intercepted the circuit.

I couldn't allow that,
it's too dangerous.

The psychosomatic feedback
might kill you.

- I'm aware of that.
- It's never been done.

Weii, it's better than being vaporised.

and that's what in store for me,
if I don't produce the Master.

- Let him try.
- Well...

All right.

Lie down.

Is this what happens
to near deceased?

They are normally unconscious.
I think there might be some pain.

- I'm ready when you are.
- Are you quite sure?

Get on with it.

- It stopped.
- What?

Brain activity.
Look, there's nothing.

- You mean he's dead?
- Virtually.

I warned him the psychic shock
of that environment...

But he's still breathing.

Motor functions
often continue for some...

He's back.

His brain must have an unusually high
level of artron energy.

What do you think
happened in there?

I don't know.

You were a fool, Doctor,
to venture into my domain.

It's an illusion.

Dreams.

I deny this reality.
The reality is a computation Matrix.

I am the creator here, Doctor.

This is my world.
There is no escape for you.