Doctor Who

BIG BAND MUSIC PLAYS

Two minutes to curtain up, c'mon!

Two minutes to curtain up.

Where's Tallulah? Where do you think?

Hey, Tallulah, leave him alone!

It's nearly Showtime, Laszlo - I gotta go.

Promise you'll come on Sunday. My mother will kill me if she doesn't get to meet you.

What if she doesn't like me?

Tallulah, she'll love you just as much as I do.

Aw, you say the sweetest things!

But it's true. Now promise me, Sunday - you'll come?

I promise. Cross my heart.

Here - take this, sweetheart.

Wear it on stage and think of me.

Tallulah! I'm coming! Quit Yelling!

How do I look?

Like an angel.

Wish me luck, Laszlo!

Break a leg, sweetheart.

Tallulah?

Who's there?

Hello?

Hello?

LOW GRUNTING

DOOR SLAMS

Who's there?

Who are you?

GRUNTING AND SQUEALING

Where are we? Ahh, smell that Atlantic breeze.

Nice and cold, lovely!

Martha, have you met my friend?

Is that...?

Oh, my God, that's the Statue of liberty!

Gateway to the New World.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

That's so brilliant. I've always wanted to go to New York...

I mean, the real New York, not the New New New New New one.

Well, there's the genuine article.

So good they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam, originally.

Harder to say twice - no wonder it didn't catch on...

New Amsterdam, NewAmsterdam.

Wonder what year it is? Cos look, the Empire State Building, it's not even finished yet. Work in progress.

They've still got a couple of floors to go, and if I know my history that makes the date somewhere around...

November 1st 1930.

You're getting good at this.

Nearly 80 years ago.

It's funny, cos you see those old newsreels, all in black and white, like it's so far away.

But here we are.

It's real. It's now.

C'mon then, you! Where do you wanna go first?

I think our detour just got longer.

"Hooverville Mystery Deepens". What's Hooverville?

# If you're blue and you don't know where to go to... #

Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the USA, came to power a year ago.

Up till then, New York was a boomtown, the roaring Twenties.

And then... The Wall Street Crash, yeah?

When was that, 1929? Yup. The whole economy wiped out overnight.

Thousands of people unemployed.

All of a sudden, the huddled masses doubled in number, with nowhere to go.

So they ended up here in Central Park.

What, they actually live in the Park?

In the middle of the city?

0rdinary people...

Lost their jobs,

couldn't pay the rent... they lost everything.

There are places like this all over America, and no-one's helping them.

You only come to Hooverville when there's no where else to go.

You thieving low life!

All morning I wait in the bread line for a single loaf. I didn't touch it.

Cut that out! Cut it out, right now!

He stole my bread! That's enough!

Did you take it?

I don't know what happened. He just went crazy.

That's enough!

Now, think real careful before you lie to me.

I'm starving, Solomon.

We all starving.

And we all got family somewhere.

No stealing and no fighting. You know the rules.

Thirteen years ago, I fought in the Great War, a lot of us did.

And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together.

No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings.

It's all we've got.

Come on.

I suppose that makes you the boss around here?

And, er, who might you be? He's the Doctor, I'm Martha.

A doctor?

Well, we got stockbrokers,

we've got a lawyer, but you're the first doctor.

The neighbourhood gets classier by the day.

How many people live here? Any one time... hundreds.

No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville - we're a truly equal society.

Black, white, all the same, all starving.

So you're welcome, both of you.

But tell me, Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me,

that there is going to be the tallest building in the world.

How come they can do that

and we've got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?

Hoist!

I'm telling ya, the men won't stand for it.

I mean, are you out of your mind?

I got 500 men working seven days a week. They're flat out. And you want us to go faster?!

The new masters demand it.

But we're on schedule, what's the problem? Another month and we'll be done.

The mast on this building needs extra work, completed by tonight.

Tonight? No way! It's impossible.

That's an order. Yeah?

Well, one word from me, and every man on this site stops work.

So go on! Tell your masters that!

If that's your attitude, I think you should tell them yourself.

Yeah? Well, I ain't afraid of no man in a suit.

So these new bosses, what's their names?

I think you could say they're from out of town. Italians?

Bit further than that.

How much further?

Beyond your imagination.

What's that supposed to mean? Who are they?

Mr Diagoras, who are we working for?

Behold your masters.

What the hell?

I have been summoned. Explain.

Explain!

It can talk. How does it talk?!

And what the hell are they?! You've gotta be kidding me!

I'm sorry, my lord. But this man is refusing to complete the work.

Then we must replace him.

Is anybody gonna tell me what the hell is happening here?! Use him!

Take him for the Final Experiment.

What's going on? Let go!

Let go of me, let go of me! Get off me!

The Empire State Building must be completed in time.

It will be, trust me.

Labour is cheap, and that man can be replaced.

The plan must not fail.

We calculate the Gamma strike has accelerated.

We need more bodies. Immediately!

Yes, master.

So, men going missing. Is this true?

It's true all right.

But what does "missing" mean?

People must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone keeps a register. Come on in.

This is different.

In what way? Someone takes them.

At night.

We hear something, someone calls out for help.

By the time we get there, they're gone.

Like they've vanished into thin air.

And you're sure someone's taking them?

Doctor, when you've got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got.

A knife, a blanket. You take it with you.

You don't leave bread uneaten, a fire still burning. Have you been to the police?

Yeah, we tried that, another deadbeat goes missing, big deal.

So the question is... who's taking them, and what for?

Solomon! Mr Diagoras is here.

I need men. Volunteers. I've got a little work for you.

And you sure look like you could use the money.

What is the money? A dollar a day.

What's the work?

A little trip down the sewers.

Got a tunnel collapsed, needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?

A dollar a day is a slave wage.

And men don't always come back up, do they? Accidents happen.

What sort of accidents?

You don't need the work, that's fine. Anybody else?

Enough with the questions.

Ah, no, no, no. I'm volunteering.

I'll go.

I'll kill you for this.

Anybody else?

Turn left, go about half a mile, follow tunnel 273.

The fall's right ahead of you, you can't miss it. When do we get our dollar?

When you come back up. And if we don't come back up?

Then I got no-one to pay.

Don't worry, we'll be back.

Let's hope so.

Just gotta stick together.

Easy to get lost. It's like a huge rabbit warren.

Could hide an army down here.

So what about you, Frank?

You're not from around these parts, are you? You can talk!

No, I'm Tennessee born and bred.

So how come you're here?

Oh, my Daddy died...

Momma couldn't afford to feed us all, so I'm the oldest - up to me to feed myself.

So I put on my coat, hitched up here on the railroads.

There's a whole lot of runaways in the camp,

younger than me, from all over - Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas.

Solomon keeps a look out for us.

So, what about you?

You're a long way from home.

Yeah. I'm just a hitcher too.

You stick with me, you'll be all right.

This Diagoras bloke, who is he?

Couple of months ago, he was just another foreman. Now seems like he's running most of Manhattan.

How'd he manage that, then?

These are strange times.

A man can go from being the king of the hill to the lowest of the low overnight.

Guess for some folks it works the other way round. Whoa!

Is it radioactive or something?

It's gone off, whatever it is.