Doctor Who: The Haunting From Deep Space

EPISODE 1 - Scene 1 - Reminder

(Opening titles)

We watch from the empty, black void of space. A few stars are ahead in the background to us. This has changed to the interior of the TARDIS. We see the time column rising up and down as we hear the ship's usual healthy noises. Now, we slowly move down to see the Doctor's hands working at the controls of his wonderful ship. He reads the motion indicator and time path detector, and fiddles with those controls. We look up now to see him concentrating. Dodo enters the console room cheerfully.

Dodo:

Hiya.

Doctor:

Hmph? Ah hello there my dear. Are you feeling better now?

Dodo:

Well, I'm still rather upset that Steven has gone. Do you think he will be alright there rebuilding the world after the oppression?

Doctor:

Oh, I think so, Dodo. He will be quite alright. Dear Steven will have plenty to occupy himself with. He will be far too busy to think of us. But I must say I am very proud of the boy, and think he will do a marvellous job. You know dear Dodo; it was his choice ultimately to go and leave.

Dodo:

I suppose so. We're probably never going to go and see him again, are we?

Doctor:

Well, you never know my dear. You never know at all. It's amazing somehow that with the size of our universe how small you really find it.

Dodo:

I assume that means you've met old friends and old enemies in the past before, rather like the Celestial Toymaker.

Doctor:

Indeed, my dear. Rather like that jester you could say.

Dodo:

Did you ever get a chance to find your granddaughter again?

Doctor:

Hmph. Eh? My granddaughter?

Dodo:

Well, yes. The girl who you say I remind you of.

Doctor:

Ah, well, no. Susan was ready to move on from her grandfather. She had her own life waiting for her, and not stuck with her old useless grandfather, eh?

Dodo:

Oh, I don't think you're useless at all, Doctor. I'm sure you and she loved each other very much.

Doctor:

Ah, we did my dear. We saw many people and many things together, we saw the Spitfires in World War One, met the Aztecs, Marco Polo.

Dodo:

Really?

Doctor:

Yes. Yes. Much like our exploits, we encountered many peoples in various different times. Ah, I miss them. I miss them.

Dodo:

You've still got me remember.

Doctor:

Yes. Quite my dear.

Dodo:

Do her parents know where she is?

Doctor:

Hmph? Her parents? Well... err... they might do. I suppose that thought never really occurred to me, what they might say back home.

Dodo:

Home? I thought this is your home here, Doctor?

Doctor:

Well, yes. This is technically home, home, if you put it like that, but real home back at... back at real home. But we mustn't talk about that my dear. No, we mustn't.

Dodo:

Oh. Ok. So was there anyone else who used to travel with you Doctor before your granddaughter and Steven?

Doctor:

A few people my dear. A few. But they're home safely now. Safe, or content with where they are.

Dodo:

Maybe if your TARDIS is properly running then we could attempt to go and see your old friends again.

Doctor:

Properly running? Properly running my dear?

Dodo:

Well no, I didn't mean it like th-

Doctor:

So you think I can't properly run my own ship then? Then I shall prove it to you dear Dodo that I can run my ship with perfect capability.

The Doctor hurries around his console to program in the controls, as the time column rises faster, and we hear the sound of the TARDIS materializing.

Dodo:

I walked into that one, didn't I?

The Doctor fiddles with the power controls, before hurrying over to the scanner adjustment lever to watch what the scanner says. He is puzzled and intrigued by what he sees. The scanner produces an image where we see a thick web-like substance suspended in space, pulsating, and the edges bulge grotesquely like the white cloud is growing.

Doctor:

Intriguing. Most intriguing. That substance on the scanner.

Dodo:

Well, what is it? It looks like either a cloud or a web. Are we going to pass through it?

Doctor:

In our present course Dodo, we are. You know I am truly baffled at what this strange foam-like stuff is.

Dodo:

I don't think we should get too close to analyse it or go through it. It might not be safe.

The Doctor programs the power controls, time-path detector, motion indicator, gravity monitoring, and fast-return switch to try and get away.

Doctor:

We... can't seem to get away from it. I can't materialize away from it, backwards, through time, or through space.

Dodo:

What? Does that mean we are being pulled towards it?

Doctor:

We are my dear.

We see from the scanner that the TARDIS heads straight towards it!

Dodo:

We're going into it!

The scanner shows that we have entered into the cloud. There is a screeching sound from the ship, and the TARDIS vibrates erratically. Light beams out from the console and knocks the Doctor and Dodo off their feet onto the ground. The TARDIS groans its engines, as now see from the scanner the bubbling and pulsating white mist that has gotten hold...