EPISODE FOUR
By Bob Baker and Dave Martin
20th January, 1973
5:50pm - 6:15pm
SECOND DOCTOR (OOV): No, Omega! Destroy him and you'll destroy your only chance of freedom.
INT. SINGULARITY ROOM
(The Doctor ceases his strangulation struggles and gets up.)
THIRD DOCTOR: Thank you, Omega. A most interesting demonstration.
OMEGA: Be warned. You have seen my power. You and your friends will learn that it is useless to defy me.
SECOND DOCTOR: But our friends do not defy you!
OMEGA: Oh, yes. They too are trying to escape.
EXT. PLANET SURFACE
(The others are getting into Bessie.)
JO: Where are we going?
BRIGADIER: UNIT HQ.
JO: What?
BRIGADIER: It's nearer than you think.
INT. SINGULARITY ROOM
THIRD DOCTOR: All this exists because you have willed singularity to create it all for you.
OMEGA: Exactly.
SECOND DOCTOR: I say, you mean all you've got to do is think of a thing, rub your magic lamp over there and shally me gally me zoop, there it is? That's jolly clever. That's jolly clever.
OMEGA: Are you sure that you and he are of the same intelligence?
SECOND DOCTOR: You couldn't run me up a quick recorder, could you? It's a little thing about this long with holes in. I've lost mine, you see.
OMEGA: I will tell you of the task that lies before you.
SECOND DOCTOR: It's not much to ask, a small recorder!
OMEGA: Silence!
THIRD DOCTOR: Please, ignore him. Just ignore him. He's incorrigibly frivolous.
SECOND DOCTOR: Just because you're not musical!
THIRD DOCTOR: Please! Will you stop interrupting? Continue.
OMEGA: Continue? (thunder and the palace wobbles) While you play stupid childish games? You face annihilation, do you know that? You, your entire race, your precious terrestrials, everything, and what do you do? Huh? You wrangle and babble of pipes!
SECOND DOCTOR: It's not a pipe!
THIRD DOCTOR: (sotto) What the hell do you think you're trying to do?
SECOND DOCTOR: (sotto) Testing the limits of his self control. They're not very good, are they.
THIRD DOCTOR: (sotto) No. No, they're not, but it'll be dangerous if you push him too far.
SECOND DOCTOR: (sotto) We'll have to risk that. That temper is his only weakness.
OMEGA: What are you saying? Do you plot against me?
THIRD DOCTOR: No, no. I was just explaining to my associate here that he should show you more respect, for both our sakes.
SECOND DOCTOR: I am thoroughly repentant. You mentioned some task.
OMEGA: Yes. I created this world through the power of my will. I created the organisms which brought you here. This is the source of the light stream you travelled along, and I created it. I alone! Omega! And it is not enough. None of it is enough. I am still trapped. As trapped as I was the moment I arrived in this, this desolation. Huh. Ironic, is it not?
SECOND DOCTOR: But surely, if you can transmit matter to Earth down that light stream, you could transmit yourself anywhere.
OMEGA: Yes, so I imagined, but no, there was no way out. No escape.
THIRD DOCTOR: But why?
OMEGA: So long as I control singularity, I can make it do my will. All these things exist because I will them to exist. Without me and the unceasing pressure of my will, the work of thousands of years would collapse into chaos in microseconds. I am, if you like, the Atlas of my world.
THIRD DOCTOR: So, the moment you abandon control, you cannot escape, and you cannot escape without abandoning control.
OMEGA: Exactly. I am a prisoner of my own power, my own creation. Or rather, I was, until now. And that is your task. To take over my burden so that I may escape.
(Outside, Bessie drives along amid a series of explosions.)
INT. SINGULARITY ROOM
OMEGA: Well? Your answer?
THIRD DOCTOR: We will obey you, Omega.
SECOND DOCTOR: We have no choice.
OMEGA: Then you help me make my preparations. You must first remove this mask. Now you, too, will need such masks. The light stream has a slow, corrosive effect, due to the acceleration of the particles, but you are in no immediate danger. The process takes time. Come, the mask.
(He sits down, and the Doctors approach. They set about to remove it very carefully. The frontpiece lifts up on a hinge, and they step back in amazement.)
OMEGA: What is it? Why do you not obey me? Take off the mask.
(They lower it instead.)
OMEGA: What are you doing? I am in haste to be gone!
SECOND DOCTOR: We, we cannot remove the mask, Omega, because.
THIRD DOCTOR: Because beneath that mask there is nothing left of you. The corrosion has already done its work.
OMEGA: What?
(He walks over to a mirror and lifts the entire helmet, revealing nothing underneath.)
THIRD DOCTOR: You exist only because your will insists that you exist. Your will is all that is left of you.
(Omega lets out a slow, painful, convincing wail of despair.)
OMEGA: It is not true. I am Omega, creator of this world! And I can also destroy! Therefore I must exist!
SECOND DOCTOR: But don't you see? You can only exist here!
OMEGA: If I exist only by my will, then my will is to destroy, and all things shall be destroyed! All things! All things!
(The whole place starts to shake and crumble. The Doctors dash for the nearest passageway.)
PALACE DOORS
OMEGA (OOV): All things! All things!
SECOND DOCTOR: I told you he'd got no self control.
THIRD DOCTOR: Come on, out!
(They run from the main entrance.)
EXT. PLANET SURFACE
(Bessie comes to a stop near a dune.)
BENTON: Brigadier, watch it!
BRIGADIER: There it is, over there!
JO: How did it get there?
BRIGADIER: That's a very good question. Miss Grant. Come on!
DR TYLER: Move, man, move man!
(Meanwhile, the Doctors climb another dune.)
THIRD DOCTOR: That's funny. I could have sworn I left Bessie here.
SECOND DOCTOR: You did, old chap. The tracks are leading that way.
THIRD DOCTOR: That's Jo and Benton.
SECOND DOCTOR: They'll be making for UNIT Headquarters.
THIRD DOCTOR: What?
THIRD DOCTOR: Come on! Let's get a move on.
INT. UNIT LABORATORY
(All are talking at once.)
BRIGADIER: Locked. Typical. Just one moment, if you please! Now wait a moment. We may be in a somewhat unusual situation, but you two at least are still supposed to be members of UNIT.
JO: Yes, sir.
BENTON: Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir.
BRIGADIER: The question is this, what offensive action should we or indeed can we take against this chap Omega? Now in the absence of the Doctors it seems to me that
BENTON: Sir, listen!
BRIGADIER: Sounds like a full scale attack.
JO: Maybe they're not firing at us. Maybe
(They're pounding at the front door. The others run and let them in.)
JO: It's the Doctors!
BRIGADIER: Benton, open the door, quick!
JO: Quickly, come on.
(They pile in.)
SECOND DOCTOR: TARDIS, everybody! Into the TARDIS, quickly!
TYLER: But we can't all get in there!
THIRD DOCTOR: Come on, inside. Come on, Brigadier. Inside, inside!
INT. TARDIS
THIRD DOCTOR: Right, force field on.
SECOND DOCTOR: Force field's on.
INT. OMEGA'S LAIR
OMEGA: Fools. Do yo think to deny the might of Omega? Soon you will come crawling to me for mercy, but by that time, your universe will no longer exist.
TIME CONTROL
(Back on Gallifrey, the lights are dim.)
PRESIDENT: Well?
TIME LORD: Energy almost completely exhausted, sir.
PRESIDENT: And the latest transference?
TIME LORD: No contact since we tried to pass him through the black hole. The power level was so low that he may only be able to observe, advise, not to act.
INT. TARDIS
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, there you are, then. They can't get in
SECOND DOCTOR: And we can't get out.
THIRD DOCTOR: We're besieged.
JO: Oh, great.
SECOND DOCTOR: If only I could find my recorder, I could play you a little something to pass the time.
BRIGADIER: We must be thankful for small mercies.
TYLER: Well, this TARDIS of yours is a real marvel, Doctor. I still don't understand how we all got inside it, but I don't wish to spend the rest of my life in it.
JO: True. We can't just stay here for ever.
BENTON: Come on, Doc. I mean, with two of you there should be twice as many ideas. Well surely you can think up something to nobble this Omega bloke?
SECOND DOCTOR: Nobble him? You're talking about one of the most powerful blokes in the cosmos. Nobble him?
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, I. Excuse me. Someone's trying to get through to us.
SECOND DOCTOR: You don't think? (points up)
THIRD DOCTOR: I hardly think so.
FIRST DOCTOR: There you are, then. What's all this, a mass meeting?
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, we had to bring them all in here. It wasn't safe outside.
FIRST DOCTOR: In a pretty pickle, aren't you. Yes, trapped in your own TARDIS!
SECOND DOCTOR: You're trapped in your own bubble. You can talk.
FIRST DOCTOR: Unfortunately, talk's all I can do, and not much of that. The transference isn't stable. Let's get on with it, eh?
SECOND DOCTOR: On with what?
FIRST DOCTOR: Putting our heads together and finding a solution. Ready?
SECOND DOCTOR: Ready.
THIRD DOCTOR: Ready.
SECOND DOCTOR: Contact.
THIRD DOCTOR: Contact.
(We get the funky flickering Doctors.)
FIRST DOCTOR: We're all agreed, then. Risky, but it could work. I'll report back.
THIRD DOCTOR: We'd have to strip down the force field.
SECOND DOCTOR: But that'd mean leaving the TARDIS defenceless.
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, I know, but I think we'll have to risk it.
SECOND DOCTOR: It's worth a try. Come on!
BRIGADIER: What was all that about, Miss Grant?
JO: Another telepathic conference, I think.
BRIGADIER: That old chap?
JO: Afraid so.
BRIGADIER: Three of them. I didn't know when I was well off. Doctor!
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, what is it?
BRIGADIER: Would you mind telling us laymen what you scientists are getting so excited about?
THIRD DOCTOR: We think we've found a way of dealing with Omega.
TYLER: Mind telling me how?
THIRD DOCTOR: Later, old chap. If there's still time.
TYLER: Oh, splendid.
THIRD DOCTOR: How do we know that he'll take the generator? What if he should refuse?
SECOND DOCTOR: Ah, I've found it.
THIRD DOCTOR: Found what?
THIRD DOCTOR: My recorder. It must have been there all the time.
SECOND DOCTOR: Right in the corner of the force field.
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, don't touch it.
SECOND DOCTOR: I wasn't going to.
THIRD DOCTOR: Don't you understand? It's exactly what we want. Far better than the force field generator.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh no, not my recorder!
THIRD DOCTOR: I'll get you another one. I'll get you a hundred, I'll get you a thousand of them. Come on.
INT. GALLIFREY TIME CONTROL
TIME LORD: I've got a contact, sir.
PRESIDENT: Oh?
TIME LORD: The Doctor.
PRESIDENT: Did you find them? Did you make contact?
FIRST DOCTOR [on monitor]: For a while.
PRESIDENT: Is there any chance? We can't hold out much longer. What's happening?
FIRST DOCTOR [on monitor]: There's a possible solution. I'll let you know as soon as I can.
INT. TARDIS
(The Doctors remove the module with the recorder wired up in the middle.)
SECOND DOCTOR: Here we are, then. This should do the trick.
BRIGADIER: I suppose it would be too much to ask for someone to tell us what all this means.
THIRD DOCTOR: It means, Brigadier, that we can now strike a bargain with our friend Omega.
BRIGADIER: With that box of tricks there?
JO: And a flute?
THIRD DOCTOR: This box of tricks, as you call it, is a kind of portable force field.
SECOND DOCTOR: And the recorder is considerably more than just a recorder.
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes. Right, ready?
SECOND DOCTOR: Here, if you'd just hold this.
TYLER: Oh, splendid. Yes.
THIRD DOCTOR: Right, switch on.
SECOND DOCTOR: On.
THIRD DOCTOR: Omega, we want to talk with you.
(Omega appears on the scanner screen.)
OMEGA: I hear you, brother Time Lords.
THIRD DOCTOR: We think we have discovered a way to give you back your freedom. Will you now free the TARDIS so that we can come to you?
OMEGA: Is this some deceit? You cannot escape my world unless I will it.
SECOND DOCTOR: No, not a bit of it, old chap. We just want to avoid a long, tiring walk, that's all.
OMEGA: Very well. Come to me you shall!
THIRD DOCTOR: Right. Now listen to me, everybody. From now on you are to do exactly as you are told.
JO: Why? What's going to happen?
THIRD DOCTOR: Now, Jo, please do as I ask. Do exactly as I tell you. Do you promise?
JO: All right, I promise.
THIRD DOCTOR: Good. Are you ready? Stand by. Here we go.
(The TARDIS dematerializes from the UNIT HQ lab.)
INT. SINGULARITY ROOM
(The TARDIS reappears inside Omega's lair, and they all come out.)
OMEGA: Do you think this trickery will save you for long?
THIRD DOCTOR: We have come to set you free.
OMEGA: What is this?
THIRD DOCTOR: On one condition.
OMEGA: I make the terms, Time Lords!
THIRD DOCTOR: Omega, if you will send these people back to where they came from, we will stay and help you.
THIRD DOCTOR: We think we have devised a way of restoring your freedom to you.
OMEGA: What way? I know now that you cannot give me my freedom, but you can keep me company in the endless empty years that lie ahead. If you will both stay here willingly and share my exile, then I will spare your friends and their universe.
THIRD DOCTOR: We shall give you that promise, Omega. We will not attempt to leave this world before you do.
JO: You can't!
THIRD DOCTOR: Jo! You promised!
OMEGA: Go, then, back to your planet. Be gone, and give thanks that Omega is merciful.
BRIGADIER: Doctor, what shall we do?
(The Doctor walks up an examines the singularity.)
THIRD DOCTOR: Brigadier, I want all of you to step through that column of smoke.
BRIGADIER: What?
THIRD DOCTOR: Don't be alarmed. It won't harm you. On the contrary, it will take you back home.
SECOND DOCTOR: Please, Brigadier, it's the only way.
BRIGADIER: Well, I don't know what you're up to, but all right. Now, Mister Ollis?
OLLIS: Not me. I'm not going in there.
BRIGADIER: Doctor Tyler?
TYLER: Are you sure it's all right?
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, of course I'm sure.
(He steps through and vanishes.)
BRIGADIER: Now then, Mister Ollis.
(Ollis goes, reluctantly. He vanishes too.)
BRIGADIER: Sergeant Benton.
(Benton straightens his uniform and goes.)
BENTON: I'd sooner Miss Grant.
BRIGADIER: Move, Benton.
(He vanishes.)
BRIGADIER: Now then, Miss Grant.
JO: No! No, I want to stay with the Doctor.
THIRD DOCTOR: Jo, please.
BRIGADIER: Come on, Jo.
THIRD DOCTOR: Trust me.
(The Brigadier leads her to the singularity.)
THIRD DOCTOR: You'll be all right.
(She vanishes.)
BRIGADIER: Goodbye, Doctor. Doctors.
(The Brigadier salutes and steps through.)
OMEGA: So, brother Time Lords, I have played your game. Now it is your turn to play mine, and there can be no escape for any of us!
SECOND DOCTOR: You are wrong, Omega. You can have your freedom. It is here.
OMEGA: What is this childish contraption?
SECOND DOCTOR: The only freedom you can ever have. Take it.
(There is a lengthy pause.)
THIRD DOCTOR: Take it, Omega. Take it!
(They mind meld, to no effect.}
OMEGA: Commands? You command me? This is my world! I command! And you pester me with trinkets!
(Omega slaps the device out of the Doctor's hand.)
SECOND DOCTOR: Run!
THIRD DOCTOR: Come on, quick!
The portable force field fizzles, and a new star flares in the middle of the black hole.)
GALLIFREY TIME CONTROL
(The black hole emits a light stream, which is observed on Gallifrey. It turns into a brilliant expl*si*n. A new nebula appears to be created in its place. The lights come back on.)
PRESIDENT: Another source of energy. Once again, Omega.
INT. UNIT LABORATORY
BENTON: We're back!
TYLER: Well, we certainly seem to be.
BENTON: But we're really back.
JO: But the Doctors.
BRIGADIER: Oh, I dare say they'll turn up as usual.
(She begins to sob.)
BRIGADIER: Wonderful chap, both of him.
(The TARDIS appears.)
JO: The TARDIS!
THIRD DOCTOR: I told you he had no self-control, didn't I?
JO: Doctor!
TYLER: How did you manage it?
SECOND DOCTOR: By the skin of our teeth.
TYLER: Splendid.
SECOND DOCTOR: Where's Mister Ollis?
TYLER: What?
SECOND DOCTOR: Where's Mister Ollis?
THIRD DOCTOR: Oh, back where he came from, I imagine.
(Near the lake, Mr Ollis reappears suddenly, then goes on his way.)
INT. UNIT HQ
THIRD DOCTOR: So there you are. Omega's will was like the tension in the elastic. Once that will was broken, all the bits of Earth, UNIT etc just snapped back right into their proper place.
BENTON: But how come you turned up in the TARDIS?
SECOND DOCTOR: Because that was the proper place for us.
JO: What was all that business about the flute?
SECOND DOCTOR: Well, as you know, it accidentally fell into the force field of the TARDIS, so that when we were all transformed into antimatter, that was the only thing that wasn't processed.
THIRD DOCTOR: And when Omega knocked it out of our hands and it fell out of the force field, all the atoms and the anti-atoms annihilated one another.
TYLER: So, big bang, and the black hole becomes a supernova!
THIRD DOCTOR: Exactly.
SECOND DOCTOR: Pity, though. I think it had a lovely tone.
(The first Doctor is heard calling.)
FIRST DOCTOR (OOV): Everything okay?
INT. TARDIS
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, here we are, back safe and sound.
SECOND DOCTOR: Quite a party.
FIRST DOCTOR (on scanner): Yes, well, the party's over now. You young men and I go back to our time zones. Though considering the way things have been going, well, I shudder to think what you'll do with out me.
SECOND DOCTOR: Goodbye. Well, goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. It's been so nice to meet me.
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, I see what you mean. I hope I don't meet me again.
SECOND DOCTOR: Ah.
(He vanishes.)
TYLER: Now I've seen it all.
JO: Pity. He was so sweet.
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, wasn't I?
BRIGADIER: Yes, well, as far as I'm concerned, Doctor, one of you is enough. More than enough. Sergeant Benton!
BENTON: Sir?
BRIGADIER: You and I'd better make a full inventory of the HQ. Make sure everything's back in place. It's all got to be accounted for, you know.
BENTON: Sir?
BRIGADIER: Yes?
BENTON: Well, excuse me, sir, but, well, if anything is missing, where do we say it's gone?
BRIGADIER: Come along, Benton.
TYLER: Well, I think I'd better be on my way, too. Thank you for a fascinating trip, Doctor.
THIRD DOCTOR: Goodbye.
TYLER: Goodbye. Goodbye, Jo.
JO: Goodbye.
TYLER: I don't think I'll write it up in the University journal, not if I want to keep my job.
JO: What's the matter, Doctor? Everything worked out all right, didn't it?
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, for us.
JO: I know what it is. It's because you had to trick Omega.
THIRD DOCTOR: I didn't exactly trick him. I promised him his freedom and I gave it to him. The only freedom he could ever have.
JO: What else could you do? It was either him or everything.
(A materialization sound is heard, and something appears on the time rotor.)
THIRD DOCTOR: The Time Lords! Look, they've sent me a new dematerialisation circuit. And my knowledge of time travel law and all the dematerialisation codes, they've all come back. They've forgiven me. They've given me back my freedom.
JO: I suppose you'll be rushing off, then.
THIRD DOCTOR: No, not straight away, Jo. Of course not. I've got to build a new force field generator first.
EXT. THE LODGE
MRS OLLIS: And where do you think you've been, Arthur Ollis? I've been worried sick about you, I have. Everybody's been searching. Where have you been? Soldiers looking for you. You didn't come home for your dinner. Well?
OLLIS: You'd never believe me, woman. Supper ready?
`
DOCTOR WHO
Jon Pertwee
DOCTOR WHO
Patrick Troughton
DOCTOR WHO
William Hartnell
JO GRANT
Katy Manning
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART
Nicholas Courtney
SARGENT BENTON
John Levene
DOCTOR TYLER
Rex Robinson
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
Roy Purcell
MR. OLLIS
Laurie Webb
CHANCELLOR
Clyde Pollitt
TIME LORD
Graham Leaman
MRS. OLLIS
Patricia Prior
CORPORAL PALMER
Denys Palmer
Written by
Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Title Music
Ron Grainer and the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Incidental Music
Dudly Simpson
Special Sound
d*ck Mills
Film Cameraman
John Baker
Film Sound
Bob Roberts
Film Editor
Jim Walker
Visual Effects Designer
Michaeljohn Harris
Costume Designer
Jim Acheson
Make Up
Ann Rayment
Lighting
Clive Thomas
Sound
Derrick Miller Timmins
Script Editor
Terrence Dicks
Designer
Roger Liminton
Producer
Barry Letts
Directed by
Lennie Mayne
COLOUR
© BBC 1973
Jon Pertwee
DOCTOR WHO
Patrick Troughton
DOCTOR WHO
William Hartnell
JO GRANT
Katy Manning
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART
Nicholas Courtney
SARGENT BENTON
John Levene
DOCTOR TYLER
Rex Robinson
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
Roy Purcell
MR. OLLIS
Laurie Webb
CHANCELLOR
Clyde Pollitt
TIME LORD
Graham Leaman
MRS. OLLIS
Patricia Prior
CORPORAL PALMER
Denys Palmer
Written by
Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Title Music
Ron Grainer and the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Incidental Music
Dudly Simpson
Special Sound
d*ck Mills
Film Cameraman
John Baker
Film Sound
Bob Roberts
Film Editor
Jim Walker
Visual Effects Designer
Michaeljohn Harris
Costume Designer
Jim Acheson
Make Up
Ann Rayment
Lighting
Clive Thomas
Sound
Derrick Miller Timmins
Script Editor
Terrence Dicks
Designer
Roger Liminton
Producer
Barry Letts
Directed by
Lennie Mayne
COLOUR
© BBC 1973