01x01 - Assignment One: Part 1

[bunniefuu]

One three is three,
two threes are six,

three threes are nine,
four threes are... twelve...

Five threes are fifteen,
six threes are...

Come on, six threes are eighteen,
seven threes are twenty-one...

eight threes are twenty-four,
nine threes are twenty-seven...

Ten threes...

Ten threes are thirty!
Ten threes are thirty.

Eleven threes are thirty-three
twelve threes are thirty-six.

Now, come along Helen,
it's time for bed.

- But you promised I could
have one more! - Oh, Henry!

- Please, Daddy!
- All right, all right. I know,

- Little Miss Muffet. - Yes!

- But this time you read for Mummy
and Daddy all by yourself. - Yes.

Little Miss Muffet
sat on her tuffet

eating her curds and whey

There came a big spider which
sat down beside her...

And frightened Miss Muffet away!

- One more!
- No, no more, it's late.

- Oh, please, Mama.
- No.

- Please. - Oh, come on,
there's time for another one.

Well, all right then,
but just the one.

♪ Ring-a-ring o' roses
A pocketful of posies

♪ Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down! ♪

Dad?

Dad, what's that noise?
All the clocks have...

Assignment One
Escape through a cr*ck in Time
Episode 1

All irregularities will be handled by the
forces controlling each dimension.

Transuranic heavy elements
may not be used where there is life.

Medium atomic weights are available.

Gold, Lead,

Copper,

Jet, Diamond, Radium,

Sapphire, Silver and Steel.

Sapphire and Steel
have been assigned.

- Where's Mum and Dad? - Gone.

It's all right, Helen, I'm here.

So where are they, Mum and Dad?

- Gone.
- Gone? Gone where?

Out of the door downstairs?

Well, where, then?

Just... just went away.

Here? In the room?

You mean they disappeared, Helen?

Yes. Mummy and Daddy,
they just went away.

But not here, not in the room?

Yes. Just went away.

It's all right.

Drink your milk, Helen.
Everything's all right, see?

I ran all the way to the phone box at Skarl's Edge,

telephoned the policeman's
house at the Point.

I told him.

He's coming out here.

So everything's all right, then,
isn't it?

I mean that policeman,

He'll only have to come to the
other side of the Point,

and cross the bay in a boat
and he'll be here.

So just drink your milk, Helen.
I think it's going to be all right.

Stay there.

Who is it?

- Robert Steven Jardine?
- Yes.

- You asked for help.
- I did, yes.

Then unlock the door.

That was quick...

I've only just phoned...

I don't know you!

Only... the policeman at the Point.

The policeman at the Point isn't coming.

I contacted him and told him that
everything down here is under control.

But it isn't!

I know. That's why we're
here and not him.

He's a shade too serious but
you'll get used to him.

But he's got no right to
tell the policeman...

- Your parents have
disappeared, right? - Yes.

- And you want them back,
- Oh course I want them...

- Safely?
- Yes.

Well then, your policeman at the Point

with his idiot notebook and
his idiot questions

stands no chance of getting them
back for you. But we do.

What ever it is that's happened
to them, my mother and father...

is it serious?

Yes.

How old would you say the house was?

At a rough estimate, 250 years.

It's old land, arable land.
It's probably been that way for centuries.

There could have been other buildings
on these foundations, back in time,

Yes. Genuine antiques?

I'd say most of them.

- Some vibrations.
- And the surname, "Jardine. "

Old French.
The father's name is Henry,

the mother's name is Sarah,
and the child is called Helen.

How do you know?

Old names, an old house.
Lots of old things.

- Lots of old... old echoes.
- A pressure point, then?

Could well be.

Could well be it.

- You know so much about us...
- We do, yes.

Then perhaps you'd like to say who you are, what your names are.

My name is Sapphire
and my friend's name is Steel.

- Sapphire?
- Yes.

- That's...
- What?

- Well, that's a beautiful name.
- Thank you.

There are lots of clocks
in this house.

Yes, my father collects them
and makes them work.

- Then why aren't they working now?
- They do work.

- They all stopped when...
- Yes?

Well, just before it happened.
I did search the house after.

At the time it happened,
where were you?

- Down here in this room.
- And your parents were where?

In Helen's room at the top,
they were reading to her.

Mummy and Daddy just went away.

- I think we'd all better go up
to the top room. - Yes.

We'll take some clocks with us.
Bring the child.

When the clocks stopped,
did you hear anything?

I heard Helen crying.

Anything else?

Well, there was this kind of sound.

What kind of sound?

- Well...
- Describe it.

It was like a low murmur,
a low rumbling sound.

So where have they gone?
My parents!

Look, I want to know!

Now!

I mean, you... you come here
just like that,

this place, where we can hear people
or cars approaching from miles away,

But you two... you arrived,
just like that.

Yes.

So... well I want to know
at least something

before we go in there to do
whatever we're going to do."

- There is a corridor...
- 'It can't be explained to him. '

'It can in a way,
but not by you, perhaps. '

There is a corridor,
and the corridor is time.

It surrounds all things
and it passes through all things.

Oh, you can't see it.

Only sometimes, when it's dangerous.

This corridor, can you enter it?

No, not in the way you imagine,
you cannot enter into time.

But sometimes, time can try
to enter into the present, break in,

burst through and take things.
Take people.

The corridor is very strong,
it has to be

but sometimes in some places
it becomes weakened.

Like fabric, worn fabric. And when
pressure is put upon the fabric...

- Time comes in.
- Reaches in and takes out what it wants.

And we think that
time has broken into that room,

broken through
and taken away your parents.

Come on.

- Will they work again?
- Yes.

They've simply wound
themselves down, that's all.

But my father winds those
clocks almost every day!

I expect he does.

But clocks don't do that,
it isn't possible.

No. And yet it happened.

You were in this room with your mother and father and sister before you went downstairs.

- Yes. - And that's the last you saw of your parents.

Yes.

- Where was the child?
- Sitting up in bed.

- Like that?
- Kneeling.

- Kneel.
- It's all right, Helen.

- Your father was where?
- Sitting in that chair.

Sit in it will you, please?

What?

Just sit there.

Please don't touch anything.

Your mother was sitting in
the rocking chair?

Yes.

- All three like this, then?
- Yes.

I take it your mother was reading aloud to the child.

Yes.

- Reading from this book?
- She did it...

She does it every night.

My dad often sits with them.

Traditional nursery rhymes.

Do you know which particular
rhyme was being read

- when the clocks began to stop?
- No.

- When things began to happen.
- No, I was downstairs.

It is important
to know the exact rhyme.

Do you know which one it was?

- Helen? - She's not very
talkative with strangers.

Then you try.

Helen, when mumma...just before mum went away, you remember

What was she reading to you,
which nursery rhyme?

Don't know.

You do know, Helen.
Tell us. Please.

The first one.

Your favourite,
Ring-a-ring o' roses?

Good.

Ring-a, Ring-a Roses dates back to the time of the plague

Yes, another echo,
another ingredient.

- I've found it.
- Wait.

Read the rhyme carefully.

Whenever I raise my hand stop,
when I lower it continue.

Right.

If I say back, back... reverse the order of the words immediately.

- I know.
- But carefully.

Not one mistake,
not even one wrong letter.

No.

All right.

Now... begin.

Ring-a-ring o' roses
A pocketful of posies

Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

The king has...

The king has sent his daughter
To fetch a pail of water...

Go on.

Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

The bird upon the steeple...

Sits high above the people

Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

The cows are in the meadow
Lying fast asleep

Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all get up again

The cows are in the meadow
Lying fast asleep

- Atishoo! Atishoo, we all get up again.
- 'Cattle in the meadow

- The wedding bells are ringing,
- 'Lying fast asleep

- the boys and girls are singing,
Atishoo! Atishoo! - 'Hush, hush, hush... '

- We all fall down.
- 'now we all get up again! '

'Cattle in the meadow
Lying fast asleep

'Hush, hush

'Hush, now we all get up again...'

No!

- Back, backwards!
- The cattle...

- ...in the meadow, lying fast asleep.
- Ringing are bells wedding the

Singing are girls and boys the

Tishoo-a! Tishoo-a!
Down fall all we

Down fall all we.

- Pictures! Saw pictures!
- Yes, Helen.

- So it's there, then.
- Yes.

- We can't seal it yet? - No, not till
we've brought those people back.

But tear the rhyme out of
the book. Destroy it.

Has the child
somewhere else to sleep?

- She can sleep in my room
- Take her there, then, will you?.

Come on.

Becca!

- Is there a key to this door?
- No. It was lost years ago.

No one is to come back into this
room, do you understand?

Not till we've done what we have to.

Take it downstairs... and burn it.

Helen's fast asleep.

Oh, I suppose I've surprised you.
Well, I fancied a change.

Steel says I shouldn't use Time
as if it's some sort of wardrobe but...

Well, he's so serious.

I get bored wearing
the same old clothes.

- Now, salt and pepper?
- Over there.

But, where did you get them from?

- What?
- The clothes.

Oh these aren't real.

- Not real?
- No, these aren't real ones.

Salt and pepper.

Look, this was my favourite
last week, what do you think?

- Well, I think that...
- Yes?

- I just think that you're beautiful.
- Thank you.

And the name, Sapphire,
like blue, as if you were blue.

- And Steel? - Well, I suppose
he's like steel. Grey.

The corridor, have you ever
seen it, seen inside it?

Not properly, I did catch
a glimpse once on a ship.

- A ship?
- Mm, in the middle of the sea.

- Anyway, it was a simple operation,
we fixed it. - And, you say you saw...

Well, just a glimpse. It was like... looking through frosted glass,

all the images were
blurred, and broken.

- Like the images upstairs?
- Something like that, yes.

Sorry.

Perhaps when you're finished telling the
boy about the nicer aspects of our job,

you'll tell him about the dangers.

- He knows about them.
- He knows about them?

About the dangers in this house?

- The corridor...
- Don't try and imagine it.

It's immense. Time is immense.

Try and imagine instead,
you, Rob, or your lifetime,

as approximately one inch in length.

Then compare it to the
corridor of time which is...

a thousand million miles long.

One inch, you.

Time and the unknown,
a thousand million miles.

Just compare them.

It's very, very big
and it's very, very dangerous.

Dangerous?

There are things,
creatures, if you like,

from the very beginnings of time
and the very end of time.

And these creatures
have access to the corridor.

They're forever moving along it.

Searching, looking,
trying to find a way in.

They're always searching.

Always looking.

- For the hole in the fabric?
- Yes.

But they must never be allowed in.
Never ever.

You've already seen what can happen,
upstairs this evening.

But we stopped them.

Held them.

Took the trigger away from them.

The trigger?

Yes, the final ingredient.

A certain traditional nursery rhyme
spoken in a certain room.

Mama? Daddy?

No pictures.

No pictures, Rebecca.

♪ Ring-a-ring o' roses

♪ A pocketful of posies...

That's why we tore it
out of the book.

♪ Ring-a-ring o' roses...

- ♪ a pocketful of posies
- That's why we b*rned it.

♪ Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down ♪

That's why Sapphire and I...

♪ The king has sent his daughter
To fetch a pail of water

♪ Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

♪ The wedding bells are ringing
the boys and girls are singing

♪ Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

♪ The birds upon the steeple
Sit high above the people

♪ Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

♪ The cows are in the meadow...

- ♪ lying fast asleep,
- Helen!

♪ Atishoo... ♪