The New Doctor! A Doctor Who Alternate History Story

Part 4 - The Monsters of Ness, synopsis, part two

SYNOPSIS

The Doctor, his companions, and the security chief are investigating a break in at an electronics shop. Although there were no witnesses, the Doctor finds a webbed footprint, as if from a large reptile. He wonders out loud why they would bother dressing up as giant lizards if there weren't going to be any witnesses. 

Heart says that she cannot pick up any psychic traces. 

Diamond wonders if they were robots. 

Robots disguised as humans disguised as lizards? The Doctor laughs. The security chief thinks the whole thing is crazy. 

'Who knows?' says the Doctor, and winks at the camera.

ROLL TITLES - THE NEW DOCTOR WHO... Disco musical theme with visual fireworks.

They track the webbed footprints to the middle of the street, where they vanish. The Security Chief says that they obviously got on a truck and departed. The Doctor points out that there's no tire tracks. A helicopter? No landing signs. Having ruled out the possible, the only solution is the impossible, they must have teleported. Struck by an inspiration, the Doctor says 'to the library.'

At the library, the Doctor dances around a huge map of the countryside sticking pins in, while Diamond and Heart, going through binders of old newspapers call out the times and dates of Reptile-man sitings. The Security Chief mocks them. But the Doctor explains that teleportation is unreliable over long range. Short trips only. And it takes a lot of power - the reptile men aren't carrying a power source with them, so they must be projected and received from a central location. So by mapping out the sightings, we can narrow down the source.

The Security Chief is frankly skeptical, if men could teleport, why would they do it so pointlessly? Not men, the Doctor says, some of the sightings go back 200 years.

They proceed to a rocky bay. The Doctor is carrying an instrument. He says that the teleport residues are strongest here. Looking around, he finds a cave, leading his companions within.

Inside the cave, on the shore of an underground lake, they encounter a reptile man. The Security Chief fights and overpowers him. They remove his helmet, and underneath it a metallic skullcap, a mind control device. Removing it, Heart announces she can hear his thoughts, he is human. The man begs them to take him away.

But it's too late. An army of fishmen rise from the waters around the cave shore and converge upon them, capturing them.

They are taken into a lair filled with junk, bits and pieces of television sets, stereo equipment, electronic and mechanical parts, all assembled into a machine. There are shots of Reptile-men labouring everywhere. The Doctor commands Diamond to act now. Projecting beams of telekinetic force, Diamond disables the Reptile men.

Freed, the Doctor examines the great machine the Reptile-men are building. He pronounces it not a bomb, but a beacon. A flashlight to light up the universe and project a beam of pure energy between the stars. The backwash of the beam would be incredibly destructive enough to sterilize a large area.

Suddenly, they are bathed in paralyzing green light. An unearthly voice announces that the Doctor is correct. It is a rescue beacon, and it is almost ready. The alien, revealed as a monstrously large amoeboid creature, has been trapped on Earth for an immense span of time. Once before, long ago, he tried to send a beacon home, but it must have malfunctioned while he waited in stasis for rescue.

The Doctor realizes why the humans are disguised as Reptiles. Because the alien still thinks dinosaurs are the dominant race on Earth. This was seventy million years ago. When the beacon malfunctioned, it destroyed the dinosaurs, and its going to happen again...