Doctor Who

I wonder what's wrong with her. She's sort of queasy.

Indigestion. Like she didn't want to land.

If you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else.

I think we've landed inside a cupboard. Here we go.

'Open door 15.' WIND HOWLS

Some sort of base. Moon base, sea base, space base.

They build these things out of kits. Glad we're indoors.

Sounds like a storm out there.

'Open door 16.'

Human design you've got a thing about kits.

It's put together like a flatpack wardrobe, only bigger. And easier.

'Open door 17.'

Oh, it's a sanctuary base!

'Close door 17' Deep space exploration. We've gone way out. And listen to that.

CONTINUOUS WHIRRING Underneath. Someone's drilling.

"Welcome to hell". Oh, it's not that bad.

No, over there.

Hold on. What does that say?

That's weird. It won't translate.

I thought the Tardis translated everything, writing as well.

I should see English. Exactly.

And if that's not working, then it means

this writing is OLD. Very old.

Impossibly old.

We should find out who's in charge.

We've gone beyond the reach of the Tardis' knowledge. Not a good move.

If someone's looking, we shouldn't. . . Oh!

Right. Hello. Sorry. I was just saying, nice base.

We must feed. You've got to what?

We must feed. Yeah I think they mean us. We must feed.

We must feed. We must feed.

We must feed.

We must feed. We must feed.

We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed.

We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. . .

We must feed. . . GLOBE RATTLES

. .you, if you are hungry.

Sorry? We apologise.

Electromagnetics have interfered with speech systems.

Would you like some refreshment?

Um. . . 'Open door 18.'

What the hell?

How did. . . ?

Captain, you're not gonna believe this. We've got people.

Out of nowhere. I mean real people.

I mean two living people, just standing here right in front of me.

'Don't be stupid. That's impossible.'

I suggest telling them that.

But you're a space base.

You must have visitors. It can't be that impossible.

Are you telling me you don't know where you are? No idea! More fun, that way!

'Stand by, everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming.

'And it's a big one. Quake 0.5 on its way.'

Through here. Now.

Quickly! Come on. Move!

Keep moving! Keep moving! Come on! Move it!

Oh, my God, you meant it.

People. Look at that! Real people!

That's us. Hooray! Yeah, definitely real.

My name's Rose, Rose Tyler, and this is the Doctor.

Come on, the oxygen must be offline.

We're hallucinating, they can't be. . . No, they're real!

Come on, we're in the middle of an alert.

Danny, strap up, the quake's coming in.

Impact in 30 seconds. . .Sorry, you two, whoever you are, just hold on.

Tight! Hold on to what? Anything. I don't care, just hold on.

Ood, are we fixed?

Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated.

What's this planet called, anyway? Don't be stupid. It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?

You really don't know, do you? And. . .impact!

Oh, well. That wasn't so. . .

That's it. Everyone all right?

Speak to me, Ida? Yeah, yeah.

Danny? Fine. Toby?

Fine. Scooti? No damage. Jefferson? Check!

We're fine, thanks. Don't worry about us.

Surface caved in. I deflected it onto Storage five through eight,

we've lost them completely.

Toby, go and check the rocket link.

That's not my department.

Just do as I say, yeah?

METAL CREAKS AND GROANS

Oxygen holding. METALLIC CREAKS Internal gravity at 56.6.

We should be OK.

Never mind the earthquake, that's. . .

That's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?

You need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum.

Then what's shaking the roof? You're not joking.

You really don't know. Well.

Introductions!

FYI, as they said in the olden days, I'm Ida Scott, Science Officer.

Zachary Cross Flane, Acting Captain, sir!

You've met Mr Jefferson, he's Head of Security. Danny Bartock, Ethics Committee.

Not as boring as it sounds.

And that man who just left, that's Toby Zed, Archaeology, and this. . .

Scooti Manista, Trainee Maintenance,

and this. . .

This is home.

Brace yourselves.

The sight of it sends some people mad.

That's a black hole.

That's impossible. . .

I did warn you. We're standing under a black hole!

In orbit. We can't be.

You can see for yourself. We're in orbit.

But we can't be.

"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole

"without falling in

"discuss" (!)

And that's bad, yeah?

Bad doesn't cover it. A black hole's a dead star, it collapses in on itself, in and in and in,

until the matter's so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too.

Nothing in the universe can escape it.

Light, gravity, time everything gets pulled inside.

And crushed.

So there can't be an orbit?

We should be pulled right in?

We should be dead. And yet

here we are,

beyond the laws of physics. THUDS AND CREAKS

Welcome on board. But if there's no atmosphere out there, what's that?

Stars breaking up.

Gas clouds.

We have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads,

before falling into that thing.

So a bit worse than a storm, then?

Just a bit. Just a bit, yeah.

Toby y y y. . .

ELECTRICS FIZZ AND POP

Who's that?

Danny?

'Close Door one.' The rocket link's fine.

That's the black hole, officially designated K 3 7 Gem 5.

In the scriptures of the Veltino,

this planet's called Krop Tor. . . The bitter pill.

And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon who was tricked into devouring the planet

only to spit it out

because it was poison.

"The Bitter Pill." I like that.

We're so far out.

Lost in the drifts of the universe. How did you even get here?

We flew in, d'you see?

This planet's generating a gravity field.

We don't know how, we've no idea.

But it's kept in constant balance against the black hole.

And the field extends out there,

as a funnel, a distinct. . .

gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in.

You flew down that thing?

Like a rollercoaster.

By rights, the ship should've been torn apart.

We lost the captain, which is what put me in charge.

And you're doing a good job. Yeah, well. Needs must.

But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out.

Oh, we have fun speculating about that.

Yeah, that's the word, fun.

But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power.

Not just big, but off the scale!

Can I?

Sure, help yourself.

Your refreshment.

Oh, yeah, thanks. Thank you!

I'm sorry, what was your name?

We have no titles.

We are as one.

Um. . . What are they called?

Oh, come on! Where've you been living? Everyone's got one!

Well, not me. So what are they?

They're the Ood. The Ood?

The Ood. That's. . .Ood.

Very Ood. But handy!

They work the mineshaft, all the drilling and stuff, supervision and maintenance. They're born for it.

Basic slave race. You've got slaves?

Don't start! She's like one of that lot, the Friends of the Ood.

Well, maybe I am, yeah. Since when did humans need slaves?

But the Ood offer themselves.

If you don't give them orders, they just pine away and die.

Seriously? You like being ordered about?

It is all we crave. Why's that, then?

We have nothing else in life.

Yeah, well. I used to think like that.

Long time ago. There we go! D'you see?

To generate that gravity field and the funnel you need a power source

with an inverted self extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds. All the sixes.

And it's impossible. It took us two years to work that out.

I'm very good.

But that's why we're here.

This power source is ten miles below, through solid rock.

Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it.

It's giving off readings of over 90 Statts on the Blazen Scale. It could revolutionise modern science.

We could use it to fuel the Empire.

Or start a war.

It's buried beneath us. . . In the darkness. Waiting.

What's your job?

Chief dramatist?

Whatever it is down there, it's not a natural phenomenon.

This planet once supported life,

aeons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk.

I saw that lettering on the wall. Did you do that? I copied it from fragments we've found,

unearthed by the drilling. I can't translate it. No, neither can I.