[Market place]

(The Tardis materialises under a nice mediaeval archway, in the falling snow. The Doctor steps out and smiles, and walks into a busy Victorian market where sellers are calling out their wares. The policeman on the beat acknowledges the Doctor.)

POLICEMAN: Good afternoon.

SELLER: Hot chestnuts. Chestnuts.

CHOIR: Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. Oh, tidings

(The Doctor does his Ebenezer Scrooge impression.)

DOCTOR: You there, boy. What day is this?

BOY: Christmas Eve, sir.

DOCTOR: What year?

BOY: You thick or something?

DOCTOR: Oi. Just answer the question.

BOY: Year of our Lord 1851, sir.

DOCTOR: Right. Nice year. Bit dull.

ROSITA [OC]: Doctor! Doctor!

DOCTOR: Who, me?

(He runs towards the call.)

[Alleyway]

ROSITA [OC] Doctor!

(He finds a dark-skinned young woman.)

DOCTOR: Don't worry, don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here? (The large double doors in the wall move and something snarls behind it.)

DOCTOR: Ooo. Okay, I've got it. Whatever's behind that door, I think you should get out of here.

ROSITA: Doctor!

DOCTOR: No, no. I'm standing right here. Hello.

ROSITA: Don't be stupid. Who are you?

DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.

ROSITA: Doctor who?

ROSITA: Just the Doctor.

ROSITA: Well, there can't be two of you.

(Another man runs up.)

ROSITA: Where the hell have you been?

NEXT DOCTOR: Right then. Don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here then?

DOCTOR: Hold on, hold on. Who are you?

NEXT DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best. Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver.

DOCTOR: The what?

NEXT DOCTOR: Now quickly, get back to the Tardis.

DOCTOR: Back to the what?

NEXT DOCTOR: If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord.

DOCTOR: Job for a what lord?

(The doors burst open and an animal with Cyberman-style head is visible.)

DOCTOR: Oh, that's different.

NEXT DOCTOR: Oh, that's new.

(They both point their screwdrivers at it.)

TOGETHER: Allons-y.

NEXT DOCTOR: I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight. Now step back, sir.

(The beast leaps and lands way up the opposite wall. It has a furry body and metal hands and feet.)

DOCTOR: Some sort of primitive conversion, like they took the brain of a cat or a dog.

NEXT DOCTOR: Well, talking's all very well. Rosita?

ROSITA: I'm ready.

(Rosita hands over a large coil of rope.)

NEXT DOCTOR: Now, watch and learn.

(The rope is a lasso, and this Next Doctor gets it around the beast in one try.)

NEXT DOCTOR: Excellent. Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to earth.

(The beast climbs higher, pulling him up with it.)

DOCTOR: Or not.

NEXT DOCTOR: I might be in a little bit of trouble.

DOCTOR: Nothing changes. I've got you.

(But the beast is strong enough to pull the pair of them off the ground.)

ROSITA: You idiots!

NEXT DOCTOR: Perhaps if you could pull?

DOCTOR: I am pulling. In this position, I couldn't not pull, could I?

(The beast leaps through a window into the top floor of the warehouse.)

NEXT DOCTOR: Then I suggest you let go, sir.

DOCTOR: I'm not letting you out of my sight, Doctor. Don't you recognise me?

NEXT DOCTOR: No, should I? Have we met? This is hardly the right time for me to go through my social calendar. Argh!

[Warehouse]

(The beast pulls them in through the window.)

DOCTOR: Whoa!

(And across the dusty floor, on their bottoms, to the opposite window.)

DOCTOR: It's going to jump!

NEXT DOCTOR: We're goanna fall!

(The beast leaps through the window. Rosita cuts the rope with a big axe. The sore men get up and the Next Doctor starts laughing. Then they hug.)

[Alleyway]

ROSITA: Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny. You're mad. Both of you. You could've got killed.

NEXT DOCTOR: But evidently we did not. Oh, I should introduce Rosita. My faithful companion. Always telling me off.

DOCTOR: Well, they do, don't they? Rosita. Good name. Hello, Rosita.

ROSITA: Huh. Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps. All that for nothing. And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget. Then back to the Tardis, right?

DOCTOR: Funeral?

NEXT DOCTOR: Oh, long story. Not my own, not yet. Oh, I'm not as young as I was.

DOCTOR: Well, not as young as you were when you were me.

NEXT DOCTOR: When I was who?

DOCTOR: You really don't recognise me?

NEXT DOCTOR: Not at all.

DOCTOR: But you're the Doctor. The next Doctor. Or the next but one. A future Doctor anyway. No, no, don't tell me how it happened. Although, I hope I don't just trip over a brick. That'd be embarrassing. Then again, painless. Worse ways to go. Depends on the brick.

NEXT DOCTOR: You're gabbling, sir. Now might I ask, who are you, exactly?

DOCTOR: No, I'm, er, I'm just. Smith. John Smith. But I've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend, if I say so myself.

NEXT DOCTOR: Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir. But yes. Yes, I am.

DOCTOR: A legend with certain memories missing. Am I right?

NEXT DOCTOR: How do you know that?

DOCTOR: You've forgotten me.

NEXT DOCTOR: Great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing.

DOCTOR: Going how far back?

NEXT DOCTOR: Since the Cybermen. Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town. You won't believe this, Mister Smith, but they are creatures from another world.

DOCTOR: Really. Wow.

NEXT DOCTOR: It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light. And they found me. Something was taken. And something was lost. What was I like, in the past?

DOCTOR: I don't think I should say. Sorry. Got to be careful with memory loss. One wrong word

NEXT DOCTOR: It's strange, though. I talk of Cybermen from the stars and you don't blink, Mister Smith.

DOCTOR: Ah, don't blink. Remember that? Whatever you do, don't blink? The blinking and the statues? Sally and the angels? No?

NEXT DOCTOR: You're a very odd man.

DOCTOR: Hmm, I still am. Something's wrong here.

NEXT DOCTOR: Oh, the funeral! The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mister Smith. Don't breathe a word of it.

DOCTOR: Oh, but can't I come with you?

NEXT DOCTOR: It's far dangerous. Rest assured, I shall keep this city safe. Oh, and, er merry Christmas, Mister Smith.

DOCTOR: Merry Christmas, Doctor.

(The Doctor follows at a short distance.)

[Vault]

(A Cyberman with brain visible through the front of its helmet is in charge.)

CYBERLEADER: Report.

CYBERMAN: Cybershade sixteen has made contact.

CYBERLEADER: Then observe the enemy. This man is dangerous. This man is our enemy. This man is the Doctor.

NEXT DOCTOR [on monitor]: I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight. Now step back, sir.

CYBERLEADER: The attack is scheduled for fourteen hours. Plans for the Ascension demand a successful intervention. Is everything in position?

(A Victorian lady answers him.)

HARTIGAN: That's rather dependent on you. All I can promise is to do my best.

CYBERLEADER: Define the parameters of best.

HARTIGAN: As you would say, I will operate at maximum efficiency. And you'll keep your part of the bargain?

CYBERLEADER: You will be heralded in the new age, at the Court of the CyberKing.

ALL: The CyberKing will rise.

HARTIGAN: The CyberKing will rise, indeed. How like a man. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a funeral to attend.

[Street]

(It is a well attended cortege, with quite a solemn crowd following the four black horses pulling the hearse.)

NEXT DOCTOR: The late Reverend Fairchild, leaving his place of residence for the last time. God rest his soul. Now, with the house empty, I shall effect an entrance at the rear while you go back to the Tardis. This is hardly work for a woman.

ROSITA: Oh, don't mind me saving your life. That's work for a woman, isn't it?

NEXT DOCTOR: The Doctor's companion does what The Doctor says. Off you go.

(The Doctor watches Rosita leave. The Next Doctor works on a back door, which suddenly opens.)

DOCTOR: Hello.

NEXT DOCTOR: How did you get in?

DOCTOR: Oh, front door. I'm good at doors. Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?

NEXT DOCTOR: Yes. I'd be lost without it.

(It's an ordinary screwdriver.)

DOCTOR: But that's a screwdriver. How's it sonic?

NEXT DOCTOR: Well, er, it makes a noise. That's sonic, isn't it? Now, since we're acting like common burglars, I suggest we get out of plain view.

[Rev Fairchild's house]

DOCTOR: This investigation of yours, what's it about?

NEXT DOCTOR: It started with a murder.

DOCTOR: Oh, good. I mean bad, but whose?

NEXT DOCTOR: Mr Jackson Lake, a teacher of mathematics from Sussex. He came to London three weeks ago and died a terrible death.

DOCTOR: Cybermen?

NEXT DOCTOR: It's hard to say. His body was never found. But then it started. More secret murders, then abductions. Children, stolen away in silence.

DOCTOR: So whose house is this?

NEXT DOCTOR: The latest murder. The Reverend Aubrey Fairchild, found with burns to his forehead, like some advanced form of electrocution.

DOCTOR: But who was he? Was he important?

NEXT DOCTOR: You ask a lot of questions.

DOCTOR: I'm your companion.

NEXT DOCTOR: The Reverend was the pillar of the community, a member of many parish boards. A keen advocate of children's charities.

DOCTOR: Children again. But why would the Cybermen want him dead? And what's his connection to the first death, this Jackson Lake?

NEXT DOCTOR: It's funny. I seem to be telling you everything, as though you engendered some sort of trust. You seem familiar, Mister Smith. I know your face. But how?

DOCTOR: I wonder. I can't help noticing you're wearing a fob watch.

NEXT DOCTOR: Is that important?

DOCTOR: Legend has it that the memories of a Time Lord can be contained within a watch. Do you mind?

(The Next Doctor hands him the watch.)

DOCTOR: It's said that if it's opened

(He opens it and the works fall out.)

DOCTOR: Oh. Maybe not.

NEXT DOCTOR: It was more for decoration.

DOCTOR: Yeah. Anyway, alien infiltration.

NEXT DOCTOR: Yes. Just look for anything different. Possibly metal. Anything that doesn't seem to belong. Perhaps a mechanical device that could fit no earthly engine.

(The Doctor surreptitiously scans with his sonic screwdriver.)

NEXT DOCTOR: It could even seem to be organic, but unlike any organism of the natural world. Shush! What's that noise?

DOCTOR: Oh, it's just me, whistling. I wonder what's in here, though.

(He opens the writing desk.)

DOCTOR: Ah. Different and metal, you were right.

(He takes out two cylinders.)

DOCTOR: They are infostamps. I mean, at a guess. If I were you, I'd say they worked something like this.

(He presses one end and images are projected from the other.)

DOCTOR: See? Compressed information. Tons of it. That is the history of London, 1066 to the present day. This is like a disc, a Cyberdisc. But why would the Cybermen need something so simple? They've got to be wireless. Unless, they're in the wrong century. They haven't got much power. They need plain old basic infostamps to update themselves. Are you all right?

NEXT DOCTOR: I'm fine.

DOCTOR: No, what is it? What's wrong?

NEXT DOCTOR: I've seen one of these before. I was holding this device the night I lost my mind. The night I regenerated. The Cybermen, they made me change. My mind, my face, my whole self. And you were there. Who are you?

DOCTOR: A friend. I swear.

NEXT DOCTOR: Then I beg you, John. Help me.

DOCTOR: Ah. Two words I never refuse. But it's not a conversation for a dead man's house. It'll make more sense if we go back to the Tardis. Your Tardis. Hold on. I just need to do a little final check. Won't take a tick. There's one more thing I cannot figure. If this room's got infostamps, then maybe, just maybe, it's got something that needs infostamping.

(He opens a door. There is a Cyberman behind it.)

DOCTOR: Okay.

(He closes it again.)

DOCTOR: I think we should run.

(The Cyberman smashes the door down.)

DOCTOR: Run, Doctor! Now, Doctor!

CYBERMAN: Delete. The Doctor will be deleted.

CYBERMAN 2: Delete.

DOCTOR: Stairs! Can't lead them outside!

(The Doctor grabs something only to discover it is an umbrella. He takes a sword from the wall instead.)

CYBERMAN: Delete.

DOCTOR: I'm a dab hand with a cutlass. You don't want to come near me when I've got one of these. This is your last warning. No? Olay, this is really your last warning! Okay, I give up.

CYBERMAN: Delete.

DOCTOR: Listen to me properly. Whatever you're doing stuck in 1851, I can help! I mean it. I'm the only person in the world who can help you! Listen to me!

CYBERMAN: Delete.

DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. You need me. Check your memory banks. My name's the Doctor. Leave this man alone. The Doctor is me!

(The Doctor gets a foot onto the leading Cyberman's chest and pushes them back downstairs.)

CYBERMAN: Delete.

DOCTOR: The Doctor, remember? I'm the Doctor! You need me alive. You need the Doctor, and that's me!

(The Next Doctor is on the landing, studying the second infostamp. The Cybermen knock the Doctor down.)

CYBERMAN: Delete.

(The Next Doctor activates the infostamp and aims the beam at the Cybermen. They fall to their knees then their heads explode.)

DOCTOR: Infostamp with a Cyclo-Steinham core. You ripped open the core and broke the safety. Zap! Only the Doctor would think of that.

NEXT DOCTOR: I did that last time.

DOCTOR: Come here. You'll be okay. Let me just check.

NEXT DOCTOR: You told them you were the Doctor. Why did you do that?

DOCTOR: Oh, I was just protecting you.

NEXT DOCTOR: You're trying to take away the only thing I've got, like they did. They stole something, something so precious, but I can't remember. What happened to me? What did they do?

DOCTOR: We'll find out. You and me together.

[Cemetery]

(The coffin is lowered into the grave.)

VICAR: Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto Himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes and dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working

(Miss Hartigan's red dress and umbrella are putting the clergyman off.)

HARTIGAN: Do continue.

VICAR: Madam, I must protest.

HARTIGAN: Whatever for?

VICAR: A lady at the graveside is debatable enough, but your apparel.

HARTIGAN: Is it too exciting?

COLE: You're disgracing the ceremony, dressed like a harlot.

HARTIGAN: Oh, and you should know, Mister Cole.

COLE: How do you know my name?

HARTIGAN: You've walked past me so many times, all you good men of charity, never once asking my name.

SCOONES: It's Miss Hartigan, isn't it?

HARTIGAN: Oh, you noticed. I saw you looking, you cheeky boy.

VICAR: I'm sorry, but who is she?

HARTIGAN: Matron of the St Joseph Workhouse, your humble servant. Oh, I've watched you all. Visiting, smiling, bestowing your beneficence upon the poor while I scrubbed down their filthy beds.

VICAR: I must insist that you depart.

HARTIGAN: But that's why the late Reverend Fairchild had to die. To gather you all in one place. Where better than a funeral? Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live. Although I've got some friends who might disagree with that. Would you like to meet them? Hark! I can hear them now.

(Many feet, stamping in unison on the snow, then the Cybermen appear through the snow shower and surround the men.)

HARTIGAN: Mister Cole, Mister Scoones, Mister Fetch, Mister Milligan, stay where you are. You're needed. The rest of you are disposable. Sorry.

VICAR: What manner of men are they?

HARTIGAN: Cybermen.

(Several Cybershades are there, too.)

MAN: Save yourselves!

(Chaos and consternation. A Cybershade pounces on a man's back as he flees. Others get electrocuted by the Cybermen.)

HARTIGAN: I repeat. Mister Cole, Mister Scoones, Mister Fetch, Mister Milligan. Stay.

(Bodies litter the tombstones.)

COLE: You monstrous witch.

HARTIGAN: Merry Christmas to you, too.

SCOONES: But why are we spared? What do you need us for?

HARTIGAN: Your children. It's funny, now I think of it, but in all these years not one of you has asked my first name. It's Mercy.

[Alleyway]

ROSITA: Doctor! I thought you were dead!

(Rosita hugs her Doctor.)

NEXT DOCTOR: Now then, Rosita. A little decorum.

ROSITA: You've been gone for so long. He's always doing this, leaving me behind. Going frantic.

NEXT DOCTOR: What about the Tardis?

ROSITA: Oh, she's ready. Come on.

DOCTOR: I'm looking forward to this.

[Stables]

(No horses. The stalls have been converted into the Next Doctor's living space.)

NEXT DOCTOR; You were right though, Rosita. The Reverend Fairchild's death was the work of the Cybermen.

DOCTOR: So, you live here?

NEXT DOCTOR: A temporary base, until we rout the enemy. The Tardis is magnificent, but it's hardly a home.

DOCTOR: And where's the Tardis now?

NEXT DOCTOR: In the yard.

DOCTOR: Er, what's all this luggage?

NEXT DOCTOR: Evidence. The property of Jackson Lake, the first man to be murdered. Oh, but my new friend is a fighter, Rosita, much like myself. He faced the Cybermen with a cutlass. I'm not ashamed to say, he was braver than I. He was quite brilliant.

(The Doctor scans the luggage.)

NEXT DOCTOR: Are you whistling again?

DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, I am, yeah. Yeah.

(The Doctor mouths shush to Rosita as he puts the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket and takes a suitcase off the pile.)

ROSITA: That's another man's property.

DOCTOR: Well, a dead man's.

(He opens the suitcase.)

DOCTOR: How did you two meet, then?

ROSITA: He saved my life. Late one night, by the Osterman's Wharf, this creature came out of the shadows. A man made of metal. I thought I was going to die. And then, there he was. The Doctor. Can you help him, sir? He has such terrible dreams. Wakes at night in such a state of terror.

NEXT DOCTOR: Come now, Rosita. With all the things a Time Lord has seen, everything he's lost, he may surely have bad dreams.

DOCTOR: Yeah. Oh, now. Look. Jackson Lake had an infostamp.

NEXT DOCTOR: But how? Is that significant?

DOCTOR: Doctor, the answer to all this is in your Tardis. Can I see it?

NEXT DOCTOR: Mister Smith, it would be my honour.

[Yard]

NEXT DOCTOR: There she is. My transport through time and space. The Tardis.

(An elaborately patterned, but mostly blue, Montgolfier.)

DOCTOR: You've got a balloon.

NEXT DOCTOR: Tardis. T A R D I S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Do you see?

DOCTOR: Well, I do now. I like it. Good Tardis. Brilliant. Nice one. And is it inflated by gas, yeah?

NEXT DOCTOR: We're adjacent to the Mutton Street Gasworks. I pay them a modest fee. Good work, Jed.

(He slaps a strapping young man on the shoulder and hands him a big five pound note. I know that because it is white.)

JED: Glad to be of service, sir.

DOCTOR: You've got quite a bit of money.

NEXT DOCTOR: Oh, you get nothing for nothing. How's that ripped panel, Jed?

JED: All repaired. Should work a treat. You never know, maybe tonight's the night, Doctor. Imagine it, seeing Christmas from above.

NEXT DOCTOR: Not just yet, I think. One day, I will ascend. One day soon.

(Jed leaves.)

DOCTOR: You've never actually been up?

ROSITA: He dreams of leaving, but never does.

NEXT DOCTOR: I can depart in the Tardis once London is safe. And finally, when I'm up there. Think of it, John. The time and the space.

DOCTOR: The perfect escape. Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?

NEXT DOCTOR: With every moment.

DOCTOR: Then do you want me to tell you? Because I think I've worked it out now. How you became The Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?

[Street]

(The four men face Miss Hartigan. They all have blinkies in their ears.)

HARTIGAN: Mister Cole, Mister Scoones, Mister Fetch and Mister Milligan, you have your instructions and the Court of the CyberKing is waiting. First of all, let's just see. A little test. Turn right. Turn left. And face me. Oh, I could do this forever. But now, set about your appointed tasks, and bring them to me.

(The men walk off. Miss Hartigan gets into a hackney cab and a Cybershade drives her away.)

[Stables]

DOCTOR: The story begins with the Cybermen. A long time away, and not so far from here, the Cybermen were fought, and they were beaten. And they were sent into a howling wilderness called The Void, locked inside forever more. But then a greater battle rose up, so great that everything inside the Void perished. But, as the walls of the world weakened, the last of the Cybermen must have fallen through the dimensions, back in time, to land here. And they found you.

NEXT DOCTOR: I fought them, I know that. But what happened?

DOCTOR: At the same time, another man came to London. Mister Jackson Lake. Plenty of luggage, money in his pocket. Maybe coming to town for the winter season, I don't know. But he found the Cybermen too. And just like you, exactly like you, he took hold of an infostamp.

NEXT DOCTOR: But he's dead. Jackson Lake is dead. The Cybermen murdered him.

DOCTOR: You said no body was ever found. And you kept all his suitcases, but you could never bring yourself to open them. I told you the answer was in the fob watch. Can I see?

(The Next Doctor hands the watch to the Doctor. The case is plain except for two initials.)

DOCTOR: J L. The watch is Jackson Lake's.

ROSITA: Jackson Lake is you, sir?

LAKE: But I'm the Doctor.

DOCTOR: You became the Doctor because the infostamp you picked up was a book about one particular man.

(The Doctor projects the infostamp onto the wall. We see dear old William Hartnell, then Patrick and all the others.)

DOCTOR: The Cybermen's database. Stolen from the Daleks inside the Void, I'd say, but it's everything you could want to know about the Doctor.

(The images get to number ten.)

LAKE: That's you.

DOCTOR: Time Lord, Tardis, enemy of the Cybermen. The one and the only. You see, the infostamp must have backfired. Streamed all that information about me right inside your head.

LAKE: I am nothing but a lie.

DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, no. Infostamps are just facts and figures. All that bravery. Saving Rosita, defending London town, hmm? And the invention. Building a Tardis. That's all you.

LAKE: And what else? Tell me what else.

DOCTOR: There's still something missing, isn't there?

LAKE: I demand you tell me, sir. Tell me what they took.

DOCTOR: Sorry. Really, I am so sorry, but that's an awful lot of luggage for one man. Because an infostamp is plain technology. It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called a fugue. A fugue state, where the mind just runs away because it can't bear to look back. You wanted to become someone else, because Jackson Lake had lost so much.

(A church bell tolls the hours.)

ROSITA: Midnight. Christmas Day.

LAKE: I remember. Oh, my God.

LAKE [memory]: Caroline, get out!

LAKE: Caroline. They killed my wife. They killed her.

(The infostamp beeps. The button on the end is lit up. And there are more of them in a trunk.)

DOCTOR: Oh, you found a whole cache of infostamps.

ROSITA: But what is it? What's that noise?

DOCTOR: Activation. A call to arms. The Cybermen are moving!

(The Doctor runs outside, and sees marching shadows against a wall.)

LAKE: The Doctor needs help. I learnt that much about him. There should be someone at his side. Now go. Go.

(Rosita leaves.)

[Street]

{It is children, not Cybermen, marching past.}

ROSITA: What is it? What's happening? That's Mister Cole. He's Master of the Hazel Street Workhouse. Maybe he's taking them to prayers.

DOCTOR: Oh, nothing as holy as that.

(The Doctor catches up with Cole.)

DOCTOR: Can you hear me? Hello? No? Mister Cole, you seem to have something in your ear. Now, this might hurt a bit, but if I can just

(A Cybershade growls nearby.)

DOCTOR: Ah. They're on guard. Can't risk a fight. Not with the children.

ROSITA: But where are they going?

JED: They all need a good whipping, if you ask me. There's tons of them. I've just seen another lot coming down from the Ingleby Workhouse down Broadback Lane.

DOCTOR: Where's that?

ROSITA: This way.

[Lane]

(They watch the children being walked past.)

ROSITA: There's dozens of them.

DOCTOR: But what for?

[Outside the sewage works]

(The children stop outside a large pair of double doors. Suddenly it is opened by a Cyberman.)

SCOONES: You will continue. You will enter the Court of the CyberKing. March. That is an order. March!

(Cybershades stop the children from scattering.)

[Stables]

(Lake starts searching the luggage.)

LAKE: Where is it? Where is it?

[Outside a building]

ROSITA: That's the door to the sluice. All the sewage runs through there, straight into the Thames.

DOCTOR: Yeah, that's too well guarded. We'll have to find another way in.

(But they are spotted by two more Cybermen on guard.)

DOCTOR: Whoa! That's cheating, sneaking up. Do you have your legs on silent?

HARTIGAN: So, what do we have here?

DOCTOR: Listen. Just walk towards me slowly. Don't let them touch you.

HARTIGAN: Oh, but they wouldn't hurt me, my fine boys. They are my knights in shining armour, quite literally.

DOCTOR: Even if they've converted you, that's not a Cyber speech pattern. You've still got free will. I'm telling you, step away.

HARTIGAN: There's been no conversion, sir. No one's ever been able to change my mind. The Cybermen offered me the one thing I wanted. Liberation.

ROSITA: Who are you?

HARTIGAN: You can be quiet. I doubt he paid you to talk. More importantly, who are you, sir, with such intimate knowledge of my companions.

DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.

CYBERMAN: Incorrect. You do not correspond to our image of the Doctor.

DOCTOR: Yeah, but that's because your database got corrupted. Oh, look, look, look. Check this. The Doctor's infostamp.

(He throws it to a Cyberman.)

DOCTOR: Plug it in. Go on. Download.

CYBERMAN: The core has been damaged. This infostamp would damage Cyberunits.

DOCTOR: Oh, well. Nice try.

CYBERMAN: Core repaired. Download.

(The Cyberman plugs the infostamp into its chest.)

CYBERMAN: You are the Doctor.

DOCTOR: Hello.

CYBERMAN: You will be deleted.

DOCTOR: No, no. Oh, but let me die happy. Tell me, what do you need those children for?

HARTIGAN: What are children ever needed for? They're a workforce.

DOCTOR: But for what?

HARTIGAN: Very soon now, the whole Empire will see. And they will bow down in worship.

DOCTOR: And it's all been timed for Christmas Day. Was that your idea, Miss ?

HARTIGAN: Hartigan. Yes. The perfect day for a birth, with a new message for the people. Only this time, it won't be the words of a man.

DOCTOR: The birth of what?

HARTIGAN: A birth, and a death. Namely, yours. Thank you, Doctor. I'm glad to have been part of your very last conversation. Now, delete them.

CYBERMAN: Delete.

(The Cybermen stomp forward, then their heads light up and they collapse. Jackson Lake is wearing a bandolier of infostamps.)

LAKE: At your service, Doctor.

HARTIGAN: Shades! Shades!

DOCTOR: Run! Come on!

HARTIGAN: Shades!

ROSITA: One last thing.

(Rosita hits Hartigan, and she falls.)

DOCTOR: Can I say, I completely disapprove. Come on.

(The Doctor, Rosita and Lake run off. The Cybershades run to their mistress.)

HARTIGAN: Get off me. I said, get off. Tell your masters we're not waiting till dawn. The CyberKing will rise tonight!

[Alley]

DOCTOR: That stronghold down by the river. I need to find a way in.

LAKE: I'm ahead of you. My wife and I were moving to London so I could take up a post at the university. And while my memory is still not intact, this was in the luggage. The deeds. Fifteen Latimer Street. And if I discovered the Cybermen there, in the cellar, then

DOCTOR: That might be our way in. Brilliant.

LAKE: There's still more. I remember the cellar and my wife, but I swear there was something else in that room. If we can find that, perhaps that's the key to defeating these invaders. So, onwards!

DOCTOR: Maybe you should go back

ROSITA: Don't even try.

[Control room]

CYBERLEADER: You have wisdom. If the Doctor is planning to intervene, then the Ascension will commence immediately.

HARTIGAN: Excellent. And as for you, Mister Cole, Mister Scoones, Mister Fetch and Mister Milligan, your work is done.

(She moves a lever and their earpieces electrocute the men.)

HARTIGAN: Children! Pay attention. Now let the new Industrial Revolution begin. I want to see you work!

(The children turn capstans and stoke boilers in the engine house.)

CYBERLEADER: Energy levels sixty percent and rising. Soon the CyberKing will awake.

HARTIGAN: Then show me.

[Cellar]

(A Cyberman stands guard at the bottom of the cellar steps at 15 Latimer Street.)

CYBERMAN: Delete.

(Lake zaps it with an infostamp. The Doctor runs over to a high tech device in the middle of the room.)

DOCTOR: It must've been guarding this. A Dimension Vault. Stolen from the Daleks again. That's how the Cybermen travelled through time. Jackson, is this it? The thing you couldn't remember?

LAKE: I don't think so. I just can't see. It's like it's hidden.

DOCTOR: Not enough power. Come on! Avanti!

[Throne room]

(A drawbridge leads to an electrical chair with two Cybermen standing either side.)

HARTIGAN: Oh, that is magnificent. That is royalty, indeed. And that's quite a throne. Oh, you will look resplendent.

CYBERLEADER: The chair you designate as throne is not intended for me. My function is to serve the CyberKing, not to become the CyberKing.

HARTIGAN: Then who sits there?

(The CyberLeader looks at her.)

HARTIGAN: No! Now, just. I think if you remember correctly you said I was to be heralded.

CYBERLEADER: All hail the CyberKing.

ALL: All hail the CyberKing.

HARTIGAN: But you promised me. You said I would never be converted.

CYBERLEADER: That was designated a lie.

[Sewers]

(Remarkably dry and rat-free.)

ROSITA: What do the Cybermen want?

DOCTOR: They want us. That's what Cybermen are. Human beings with their brains put into metal shells. They want every living thing to be like them.

[Throne room]

(Mercy Hartigan has been secured to the throne.)

HARTIGAN: You can't do this to me!

CYBERLEADER: Incorrect. It is done.

HARTIGAN: But I would have served you anyway!

CYBERLEADER: Your mind is riven with anger and abuse and revenge. These have no place in a Cybermind. Activate. Emotions have tormented you all of your life. Now you will be set free. This is your liberation.

HARTIGAN: Oh, for the love of God, have you no pity?

CYBERLEADER: Correct.

(An open faced brass helmet descends, and Miss Hartigan is converted.)

CYBERLEADER: A CyberKing is born.

ALL: All hail the CyberKing.

(Hartigan opens her eyes. They are completely black.)

[Sewer]

(The Doctor, Lake and Rosita look down on the child labourers from a sewer opening high in the wall.)

LAKE: Upon my soul.

ROSITA: What is it?

DOCTOR: It's an engine. They're generating electricity, but what for?

LAKE: We can set them free.

DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Throne room]

HARTIGAN: Behold such information.

[Control room]

DOCTOR: Power at ninety percent. But if we stop the engine, the power dies down, the Cybermen'll come running. Ooo. Hold on. Power fluctuation. That's not meant to happen.

LAKE: It's going wrong.

DOCTOR: No, it's weird. The software's rewriting itself. It's changing.

[Throne room]

HARTIGAN: I can see the stars, the worlds beyond, the Vortex of Time itself, and the whole of infinity. Oh, but this is glorious!

CYBERLEADER: That is incorrect. Glorious is an emotional response.

HARTIGAN: Exactly. There is so much joy in this machine.

CYBERLEADER: Joy is not acceptable.

HARTIGAN: Don't you see? My mind is stronger than you ever thought. It dominates, sir. It dominates you.

CYBERLEADER: Alert. You are operating beyond the standard parameters.

HARTIGAN: I am new. The might of your technology combined with my own imagination. Yes! There will be a new race of Cybermen. My Cybermen. Logic and strength combined with fury and passion.

CYBERLEADER: Diagnosis, system failure. You will be removed from the processor.

(The Cyberleader steps forward. A beam comes from the top of Hartigan's helmet, and he explodes.)

[Control room]

(The control panel goes bang, too.)

DOCTOR: Whoa! What the hell's happening? It's out of control.

LAKE: It's accelerating. Ninety six percent, ninety seven.

ROSITA: When it reaches a hundred, what about the children?

DOCTOR: They're disposable. Come on!

[Throne room]

HARTIGAN: I am CyberKing. My mind inside the Cybermen. And you will obey me!

ALL: All hail the CyberKing!

[Control room]

CYBERMAN: Power levels now at one hundred percent. Delete the workforce.

[Engine house]

CYBERMAN 2: Delete.

(A klaxon sounds. The children look around in alarm.)

CYBERMAN 3: Delete. Delete.

(The Doctor runs in as Lake zaps the Cyberman, then Rosita takes over.)

DOCTOR: Right. Now, all of you, out! Do you hear me? That's an order! Every single one of you, run!

LAKE: All of you, come on, as fast as you can. Come on!

DOCTOR: There's a hot pie for everyone, if you leg it!

LAKE: Go!

DOCTOR: Rosita, get them out of sluice gate. Once you're out, keep running. Far as you can! Come on, come on, come on.

ROSITA: Turn right at the corner! Fast as you can. And don't stop! Keep running! Keep running!

[Throne room]

HARTIGAN: Come, my soldiers. Come to me.

(The Cybermen march forward.)

[Outside the sewage works]

ROSITA: Come on! Come on! Keep running! Keep running!

[Engine house]

(The Doctor chases some more of the urchins out.)

DOCTOR: Go! Quick, quick. It's some sort of starter motor, but starting what?

(Lake watches the last boys leaving, and remembers his wife's death and the Cybermen carrying his son away.)

FREDERICK [memory] Help! Father! Father! Father

(Lake sees a little boy stranded on a platform high up on the machine.)

LAKE: That's my son. My son. Doctor, my son!

DOCTOR: What?

LAKE: They took my son. No wonder my mind escaped. Those damned Cybermen, they took my child! But he's alive, Doctor. Frederick!

DOCTOR: Come on!

LAKE: No, he's too scared. Stay there! Don't move! I'm coming.

(An explosion knocks him down.)

[Throne room]

HARTIGAN: CyberKing rising.

(The drawbridge falls away and the stage containing the throne and the Cybermen begins to rise.)

[Engine house]

LAKE: I can't get up there. Fred!

DOCTOR: They've finished with the motor. It's going to blow up.

LAKE: What are we going to do, Doctor? What are we going to do?

(The Doctor draws the cutlass he got from the Reverend's house.)

DOCTOR: Come on, Jackson. You know me.

(The Doctor grabs hold of a rope and cuts it free from its tether. He goes up into the air and lands on the platform by Frederick.)

DOCTOR: Oh, that's it. Hello. Now, hold on tight. Don't let go.

(Frederick clings on to the Doctor's back as he uses the rope to swing across the vault, then brings the boy down to his father.)

DOCTOR: Merry Christmas.

[Street]

ROSITA: Go to St Stephen's. Ask for the Warden, he'll take care of you. Now run! Quickly!

(Rosita heads back to the sewage works, against the flow of panicking people.)

MAN: It's under the water! There's something in the Thames!

(A giant Cyberman is rising up, containing Miss Hartigan and her entourage where its mouth should be.)

[Cellar]

(Lake carries young Frederick back to their house.)

DOCTOR: Head for the street.

LAKE: Come on, Doctor. Hurry up!

(The Doctor takes a long thin piece from the Dimension vault.)

DOCTOR: Gotcha!

[CyberKing]

(The steampunk Cyberman towers over old London town.)

HARTIGAN: Behold, I am risen. Witness me, mankind, as CyberKing of all.

[Street]

DOCTOR: It's a CyberKing.

LAKE: And a CyberKing is what?

DOCTOR: It's a ship. Dreadnought class. Front line of an invasion. And inside the chest, a Cyberfactory, ready to convert millions.

[CyberKing]

HARTIGAN: And I will walk. I will stride across this tiny little world.

(The giant feet crush buildings and people.)

HARTIGAN: My people. Why do they not rejoice?

(It strides up St Martin Le Grand and Aldersgate, missing Saint Paul's Cathedral.)

[Street]

DOCTOR: Just head south. Take him south. Go to the parkland.

LAKE: But where are you going?!

DOCTOR: To stop that thing.

LAKE: But I should be with you.

DOCTOR: Jackson, you've got your son. You've got a reason to live.

LAKE: And you haven't? God save you, Doctor.

(They part as the CyberKing keeps walking. With those big strides it should be in Islington by now.)

[Stable]

(The Doctor searches the luggage.)

JED: What the hell is that thing, sir?

DOCTOR: Oh, good man. Jed, wasn't it? Jed, I need your help!

JED: I'm not going out there.

DOCTOR: I'll give you five pound notes.

JED: Er. All right. What do you want me to do?

(The Doctor has another bandolier of infostamps.)

DOCTOR: The Tardis is going to fly.

[CyberKing]

HARTIGAN: People of the world, now hear me. Your governments will surrender. And if not, then behold my power.

(The CyberKing turns its arms into megacannons, and shoots indiscriminately.)

[Yard]

(The Doctor climbs into the air balloon's basket.)

JED: You're flaming bonkers, sir.

DOCTOR: It's been said before. Now give me.

(Jed hands over the item from the Dimension vault.)

DOCTOR: Not enough power. Come on! Jed, let her loose.

JED: Ever flown one of these before?

DOCTOR: Nope, never.

JED: Can I have my money now?

DOCTOR: Oh, get on with it.

[Street]

ROSITA: Oh, sir. I thought I'd lost you.

LAKE: My son, Rosita. This boy is my son.

(There is an explosion nearby. They duck into a doorway for cover.)

[Yard]

(Jed unties the last rope holding the balloon down, and up she floats.)

JED: Good luck to you, sir!

[Street]

LAKE: It's the Tardis. She's flying.

(The Doctor throws out the sandbags and a picnic hamper.)

YOUNG MAN: Who the hell is that?

LAKE: His name, sir, is the Doctor.

[CyberKing]

CYBERMAN: Attention. Proximity alert.

HARTIGAN: How is that even possible? Oh, this I would see. Turn!

(The Doctor readies his infostamps as the CyberKing swings around so that he and it are level, facing each other.)

HARTIGAN: Excellent. The Doctor. Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night.

DOCTOR: Miss Hartigan? I'm offering you a choice. You might have the most remarkable mind this world has ever seen. Strong enough to control the Cybermen themselves.

HARTIGAN: I don't need you to sanction me.

DOCTOR: No, but such a mind deserves to live. The Cybermen came to this world using a Dimension vault. I can use that device to find you a home, with no people to convert, but a new world where you can live out your mechanical life in peace.

HARTIGAN: I have the world below, and it is abundant with so many minds ready to become extensions of me. Why would I leave this place?

DOCTOR: Because if you don't, I'll have to stop you.

HARTIGAN: What do you make of me, sir? An idiot?

DOCTOR: No. The question is, what do you make of me?

HARTIGAN: Destroy him.

DOCTOR: You make me into this.

(The Doctor fires his array of infostamps into Miss Hartigan.)

HARTIGAN: Then I have made you a failure. Your weapons are useless, sir.

DOCTOR: I wasn't trying to kill you. All I did was break the Cyber-connection, leaving your mind open. Open, I think, for the first time in far too many years. So you can see. Just look at yourself. Look at what you've done.

(Mercy Hartigan's eyes have returned to normal. The Cybermen are staring at her.)

DOCTOR: I'm sorry, Miss Hartigan, but look at what you've become.

(She screams and realises she is secured to the throne.)

DOCTOR: I'm so sorry.

(She continues to scream. Electricity dances around the Cybermen and they all explode. She also vanishes. The CyberKing begins to sway.)

[Street]

LAKE: He's killed it! Whatever he did, he's killed it.

(Explosions go off inside the CyberKing.)

ROSITA: But it's going to fall!

(Much screaming and running away.)

[Balloon basket]

(The Dimension vault thing beeps.)

DOCTOR: Ooo, now you're ready.

(He aims it at the CyberKing. Swirls of energy surround it and it vanishes.)

[Street]

LAKE: Well, I'd say he used that Dimension vault to transfer the wreckage of the CyberKing into the Time Vortex, t here to be harmlessly disintegrated. Oh, I've picked up a lot. Ah, but here. Ladies and gentlemen, I know that man, that Doctor on high. And I know that he has done this deed a thousand times. But not once. No, sir, not once, not ever, has he ever been thanked. But no more. For I say to you, on this Christmas morn, bravo, sir! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo, sir!

(Up in the sky, the Doctor hears the cheers and applause, and waves back, ringing the basket's bell.)

LAKE: Bravo, Doctor.

[Market place]

LAKE: The city will recover, as London always does. Though the events of today will be history, spoken of for centuries to come.

DOCTOR: Yeah. Funny that.

LAKE: And a new history begins for me. I find myself a widower, but with my son and with a good friend.

DOCTOR: Now, take care of that one. She's marvellous.

LAKE: Frederick will need a nursemaid and I can think of none better. But you're welcome to join us. We thought we might all dine together at the Traveller's Halt. A Christmas feast in celebration, and in memory of those we have lost. You won't stay?

DOCTOR: Like I said, you know me.

LAKE: No I don't think anyone does.

(He sees the real Tardis underneath the archway.)

LAKE: Oh! And this is it. Oh! Oh, if I might, Doctor. One last adventure?

DOCTOR: Oh, be my guest.

[Tardis]

LAKE: Oh. Oh my word. Oh. Oh, goodness me. Well. But this is, but this is nonsense.

DOCTOR: Well, that's one word for it.

LAKE: Complete and utter, wonderful nonsense. How very, very silly. Oh, no. I can't bear it. Oh, it's causing my head to ache. No. No, no, no, no, no, no

[Market place]

LAKE: Oh! Oh, gracious. That's quite enough. I take it this is goodbye.

DOCTOR: Onwards and upwards.

LAKE: Tell me one thing. All those facts and figures I saw of the Doctor's life, you were never alone. All those bright and shining companions. But not any more?

DOCTOR: No.

LAKE: Might I ask why not?

DOCTOR: They leave. Because they should. Or they find someone else. And some of them, some of them forget me. I suppose in the end, they break my heart.

LAKE: That offer of Christmas dinner. It's no longer a request, it's a demand. In memory of those we've lost.

DOCTOR: Oh, go on then.

LAKE: Really?

DOCTOR: Just this once. You've actually gone and changed my mind. Not many people can do that. Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you.

LAKE: The feast awaits. Come with me. Walk this way.

DOCTOR: I certainly will. Merry Christmas to you, Jackson.

LAKE: Merry Christmas indeed, Doctor.