Doctor who, p.19
Doctor Who,
p.19
Jolted into movement, the crew scattered just as the heavy lamp came crashing to the floor, sparks and broken glass exploding everywhere.
The screaming and shouting suddenly took on a different intensity as it became clear that what was unfolding was not part of the filming. People started to run for shelter as the robots began to wreck anything they could get their hands on. Yaz and Ryan did try their best to stop them, their actions finally galvanising other members of the crew to help, but the robots brushed them off with such casual ease that further attempts at quelling the unrest swiftly evaporated.
‘This is getting out of control!’ Ryan groaned. ‘We need the Doctor back here. She’d be able to sort this out with her sonic or something …’
‘Or something …’ An idea suddenly popped into Yaz’s head. ‘Come on!’
She ran from the set, Ryan racing after her.
‘What are you doing. We can’t just run away!’
‘The psychic paper!’ yelled Yaz
‘Eh?’
‘Look, these robots are effectively a blank slate, right? Obeying any order that they’re given. Well, the Doctor’s psychic paper sort of reprograms the brain, doesn’t it? Makes you see what you think you should see.’
‘So?’
‘Well if the robots are so susceptible to suggestion then it might give us some sort of control over them.’
‘But you gave the paper to Graham, remember?’
‘Yeah, I know,’ said Yaz. ‘So I’m going to get it.’
‘You?’ AaRee stared down at the Doctor in disbelief. ‘You’re going to stop me?’
‘Actually,’ Audrey stepped up to the Doctor’s side. ‘We’re going to stop you.’
‘And how are you going to do that, exactly?’ sneered the KaaDok Supervisor.
‘Like this …’
The Doctor reached into her jacket and whipped out her sonic screwdriver, but AaRee was too fast for her. Raising the neurological device he fired it at the Doctor, who was immediately engulfed in the ghostly, flickering white light. She clutched her head in agony, the sonic slipping from her fingers and clattering to the deck.
‘Supervisor! No!’ PhiLit lunged forward to try and stop him, but AaRee swept him aside, sending him crashing against the wall.
‘This device is designed to take a copy of an individual brain pattern, Doctor,’ snarled AaRee. ‘But it is equally capable of removing a brain pattern completely.’
He adjusted the controls, and the beam of light crew brighter. Helpless in the beam, the Doctor gave a cry of agony.
‘Enjoy a mindless future, Doctor. Wandering around those movie sets below with the other rejects till you’re thrown in the gutter …’
Suddenly the air was filled with a high-pitched warble and the shining cocoon of light surrounding the Doctor started to pulse and flicker.
‘What?’ growled AaRee, shaking the neurological scanner. ‘What is wrong with …?’
Before he could finish his sentence, there was a sharp, deafening crack, and the beam of light seemed to fold back on itself, vanishing from around the Doctor and enveloping the KaaDok Supervisor instead.
The Doctor looked up in astonishment to see Audrey, her elfin features set in an expression of grim determination, wielding the sonic screwdriver as if she’d been born holding it.
With a bellow of rage and pain, AaRee tried to shut off the device, but it was no use. Trapped in the ever-brightening bubble of light he sank slowly to his knees.
As the KaaDok Supervisor collapsed face down on the deck, Audrey shut down the sonic and gave a satisfied nod. ‘There. No point in draining his brainwaves completely. We merely want to incapacitate him, not leave him mindless, despite the fact that it was what he intended for you.’
The Doctor scrambled to her feet. ‘What did you do?’ she asked in amazement.
‘I reversed the polarity of the neuron flow,’ said Audrey matter-of-factly. She frowned. ‘I’m not entirely sure why I should know how to do that, but it seemed like the obvious solution.’
The Doctor grinned. ‘I have a feeling that me getting into the path of the beam when PhiLit was scanning your brainwaves might have mixed things up a little.’
‘PhiLit!’ Suddenly remembering the blow that the little KaaDok had taken, Audrey hurried over to where he was sitting dazed against the wall. ‘Oh, you poor thing.’
She helped him to his feet, and the Doctor gave him a quick examination. ‘No bones broken. You’ll have a bit of a bump on your head, but you’ll be fine.’
‘What happened?’ asked PhiLit, looking in astonishment at the motionless body of his Supervisor slumped on the floor.
‘You got a promotion!’ said the Doctor cheerfully. ‘Until you get back to KaaDok Major, you’re the new Supervisor!’
‘What are we going to do with him?’ Audrey nodded at AaRee.
The Doctor glanced across at the empty alcoves where the wax-bots had been stored. ‘I think we should be able to squeeze him into one of those, don’t you?’
It was one of the most toe-curlingly embarrassing hours of his life that Graham could ever remember. In fact, he couldn’t imagine that there would ever be another hour that would be able to top it.
The Doctor had been completely correct in her supposition that no one on the production would be able to tell the wax-bot Audrey and the real Audrey apart; that part of the plan had been fine. The problem was the way that the wax-bot was acting …
The Doctor’s psychic paper had done its job in ensuring that no one questioned Graham’s presence alongside her (although from the looks that he was getting from some of the crew he had to wonder what their subconscious minds had written on the blank parchment) and he was confident that he knew the film well enough to get the wax-bot to do what it should be doing in the scene that they were rehearsing.
The problem was, it kept improvising …
In the last half-hour, it had brought filming to a standstill on at least half a dozen occasions, either by suggesting that it might be nice to do a little dance, or juggle, or play the spoons. On the few occasions that she had got through the scene as directed, her dialogue had been peppered with so many broad Northern phrases that the director had eventually given up and called an extended tea break.
Graham could see him deep in conversation with a huddle of studio executives on the far side of the studio, and he was now such a deep shade of puce that Graham figured that there was a fair chance that he might literally explode.
He sighed. The only mercy was that the scene that they were meant to be filming was of a raucous party. He shuddered to think how things might have turned out if they had been in the middle of filming one of the more sensitive scenes.
Audrey, or rather the replica Audrey, was standing next to the tea trolley trying to engage George Peppard in conversation about whether they should do the next take wearing fezzes. Graham honestly didn’t know how much more of it he could take, so when Yaz came racing across the studio floor towards him he actually felt relieved.
‘Graham, she panted. ‘Please tell me you’ve still got the psychic paper …’
‘Of course I have,’ he said, pulling the wallet from his pocket. ‘Why? What do you need it for?’
‘Would you believe a robot uprising?’
Graham stared at her for a moment. ‘Right. Better lead on, then …’
As they hurried towards the studio doors, Ryan glanced back over at the robot Audrey. ‘What about her? Are we all right leaving her here on her own?’
Graham nodded wearily. ‘Believe me, there’s nothing she can do that’s any worse than what she’s already done.’
The instant that they emerged into the bright Californian sunshine, they could tell that things had become more serious. A dark pall of smoke had begun to rise above the backlot and, in the distance, the sound of sirens could be heard.
Ryan grimaced. ‘That’s not good. If the police discover that they’re robots …’
Yaz nodded, remembering what the Doctor had said about anachronistic technology when they had landed.
They hurried towards the backlot, pushing through the crowds of people fleeing from the rampaging wax-bots. They arrived back onto the set to find that it had been completely wrecked. Lamps and cameras lay strewn everywhere but, to Yaz’s huge relief, there were no bodies visible amongst the wreckage.
The wax-bots were still following their instructions to cause mayhem and were currently on the far side of the set tearing down sections of scenery.
‘Blimey,’ said Graham. ‘They’ve made a mess, haven’t they?’
‘Well,’ Yaz urged him forward, ‘stop them!’
Nervously, Graham edged forward, the psychic paper held in his outstretched hand. ‘Oi!’ he yelled. ‘You lot!’
The robots turned to stare at him.
‘Why don’t you come over here and have a look at this?’
One by one the wax-bots stopped what they were doing and began to converge on Graham.
‘Blooming heck …’ He swallowed hard. ‘This had better work …’
The teleport pod materialised with a sharp crack, and the Doctor hopped down out of her alcove, stretching her jaw to try and get her ears to pop. AaRee had been right about one thing: KaaDok transmat was not the smoothest way to travel. She would have to suggest some improvements that could be made to the technology before PhiLit and the others made their return journey to KaaDok Major.
It had taken all three of them to bundle AaRee into one of the alcoves back on the mothership, and the Doctor had then sealed it using her sonic screwdriver. The last thing that she wanted was the Supervisor escaping before PhiLit and the others got home. PhiLit had already sent an emergency transmission back to his home planet and an investigative team was being dispatched to meet them.
Audrey was concerned. ‘Do you think the poor things will be all right?’
‘They will now …’ The Doctor nodded. ‘I hacked into AaRee’s log and uncovered all sorts of proof of dubious practices that I attached to PhiLit’s report. I imagine that PhiLit and the others are going to be in for quite a bit of compensation. Now we just need to round up those missing wax-bots and get you back onto set so you can finish filming Breakfast at Tiffany’s!’
As PhiLit operated the door controls and the curved walls of the pod curled open, a dozen faces turned to greet them and there was a chorus of voices. ‘Hello, Doc!’
The Doctor looked around in astonishment at the crowd of celebrities that was milling around the prop room. ‘O-kaaaay …’ She spotted Yaz, Ryan and Graham on the far side of the room smiling at her sheepishly. ‘Anyone want to explain?’
‘Sort of my fault, I guess,’ admitted Graham. ‘Kind of underestimated how that psychic paper of yours might work.’
Yaz hurried over and explained what had happened on the backlot.
The Doctor sighed. ‘So you thought you’d use the psychic paper to bring them back under your control.’
‘You should have seen it,’ said Ryan, obviously finding it all very funny. ‘He just marched onto the set, held up the paper, and told all the robots that they needed to do everything he said.’
‘The thing is,’ said Graham, ‘they didn’t stop at taking orders, they started copying everything. What I did, what I said …’
‘It’s like having a dozen Grahams!’ Ryan laughed.
The Doctor nodded. ‘Yeah, well, the psychic paper is designed to operate on an organic psyche. The neural net in the wax-bots got overloaded. They’ve basically taken a complete personality copy.’
‘But you can fix it, right?’ Graham was obviously not keen on having a dozen robots impersonating him.
‘Yeah, I can fix it.’
A sudden frown crossed the Doctor’s brow, and she looked around the crowded room. ‘Where’s the Audrey wax-bot?’
‘Still on set.’ Graham grimaced. ‘There’s a bit of a problem with that to tell you about too …’
‘Problems! Brilliant. You can tell me on the way over there.’ She turned to Audrey. ‘I think we’d better get you back on set.’
Audrey nodded. ‘I think you’re right.’
The Doctor pulled the sunglasses from her pocket. ‘Here.’
Audrey shook her head. ‘You keep them. You’ve given a little bit of yourself to me, these can be my gift to you.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘I think there’s a fair bit of you in me already.’ She turned to the waiting wax-bots. ‘Right, you lot. Into the teleport pod. I think it’s time PhiLit teleported you back to the mothership so that you can get fixed.’
The wax-bots nodded in unison. ‘Too right, cockle.’
Out now from BBC Books
The Target Storybook
by Simon Guerrier, Terrance Dicks, Matthew Sweet, Susie Day, Matthew Waterhouse, Colin Baker, Mike Tucker, Steve Cole, George Mann, Una McCormack, Jenny T. Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Beverly Sanford, Vinay Patel and Joy Wilkinson
ISBN 9781785944741
£16.99
We’re all stories in the end…
In this exciting collection you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and look forward too, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor.
Each story expands in thrilling ways upon aspects of Doctor Who’s enduring legend. With contributions from show luminaries past and present – including Colin Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Vinay Patel, Joy Wilkinson and Terrance Dicks – The Target Storybook is a once-in-a-lifetime tour around the wonders of the Whoniverse.
Journey Out of Terror
Simon Guerrier
Save Yourself
Terrance Dicks
The Clean Air Act
Matthew Sweet
Punting
Susie Day
The Dark River
Matthew Waterhouse
Interstitial Insecurity
Colin Baker
The Slyther of Shoreditch
Mike Tucker
We Can’t Stop What’s Coming
Steve Cole
Decoy
George Mann
Grounded
Una McCormack
The Turning of the Tide
Jenny T. Colgan
Citation Needed
Jacqueline Rayner
Pain Management
Beverly Sanford
Letters from the Front
Vinay Patel
Gate Crashers
Joy Wilkinson
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
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BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing,
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BBC Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
Chasing the Dawn © Jenny T. Colgan 2019
That’s All Right, Mama © Paul Magrs 2019
Einstein and the Doctor © Jo Cotterill 2019
Who-Dini? © Steve Cole 2019
The Pythagoras Problem © Trevor Baxendale 2019
Mission of the KaaDok © Mike Tucker 2019
Cover design: Lee Binding © Woodland Books 2019
Jenny T. Colgan, Paul Magrs, Jo Cotterill, Steve Cole, Trevor Baxendale and Mike Tucker have asserted their right to be identified as the authors of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Doctor Who is a BBC Wales production
Executive producers: Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens
BBC, DOCTOR WHO and TARDIS (word marks, logos and devices) are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.
First published by BBC Books in 2019
penguin.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781473531994
Editorial Director: Albert DePetrillo
Project Editor: Steve Cole
Production: Sian Pratley
A man called John Cox and his Houdini website https://www.wildabouthoudini.com were very helpful with Houdini research.
Steve Cole, Doctor Who
