Plans Change

The

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I flashed in, seeing Vastra holding up a photo of a dead man’s eye. I ran up to it, seeing what looked like the Doctor frozen in his eyeball.

Vastra: “Good grief.”

THURSDAY: “Oh, god.”

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I tilted my head, curiously staring at the man. “Hmm. Never had that reaction before.”

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(Terra and Vastra make enlargements of the photographs.)

Terra: “I leave him on his own, and he screws it up.”

(The enlargement reveals an image of a red-faced, screaming Doctor.)

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Vastra: “According to my research, Sweetville’s proprietor holds recruitment drives for her little community. She is only interested in the fittest and the most beautiful.”

Strax: “You may rely on me, ma’am.”

Vastra: “I was, in fact, speaking to Terra.”

Strax: “Terra. If this weak and fleshy boy is to represent us, I strongly recommend the issuing of scissor grenades, limbo vapour and triple blast brain splitters.”

“What did you just call me?” I snapped at Strax.

The potato held up his arms. “Nothing sir!”

“That’s what I thought.” I grinned, turning back to Vastra.

Vastra: “What for?”

Strax: “Just generally. Remember, we are going to the north.”

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(The poster advertising the meeting proclaims Mrs Winifred Gillyflower on the Present Moral Decay and the Coming Apocalypse.)

Gillyflower: “Bradford, that Babylon of the moderns with its crystal light and its glitter, all aswarm with the wretched ruins of humanity. Men and women crushed by the devil’s juggernaut.”

(She has a good congregation, who agree with her. Terra is listening carefully.)

Gillyflower: “And moral turpitude can destroy the most delicate of lives. Believe me, I know. I know.”

(A curtain is drawn back.)

Gillyflower: “Me own daughter, blinded in a drunken rage by my late husband. Her once beautiful eyes, pale and white as mistletoe berries.”

(The daughter gets up from a chair and taps her way to a covered board.)

Gillyflower: “And what, my friends, is your story? Will you be found wanting when the End of Days is come, when judgement rains down upon us all? Or will you be preserved against the coming apocalypse? Do not despair. I offer a way out. There is a different path. Sweetville!”

(The blind woman pulls the cover from an illustration of an ideal community. Factory with two rows of terraced homes, its own chapel and bandstand and gardens. Think along the lines of the original model village of Bourneville.)

Gillyflower: “Join us. Join us in this shining city on the hill.” (sings) “Bring me my bow of burning gold. Bring me my arrows of desire.”

(Later, the congregation are queuing up in front of the pulpit.)

Gillyflower: “You wish to join us, my dear?”

Terra: “If it’s all the same with you, ma’am.”

Gillyflower: “Oh yes, dear. You’ll do very nicely.”

(Terra signs the big book.)

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(Prospective employees both male and female are queuing up. A red-headed woman is talking to Terra.)

Abigail: “I’m dead nervous, aren’t you? They have to be sure, you see. Only the best for Sweetville. I hope me teeth don’t let me down. I’m Abigail.”

Terra: “Pleased to meet you.”

Abigail: “You’re not local, are you.”

Terra: “Nah. Up from London.”

Abigail: “Different here, I bet.

Terra: “Yeah. Like a bleeding horse market. Do you know anyone who’s come to live here? In Sweetville, I mean.”

Abigail: “I had a pal who come here three month back. She wrote to tell me how perfect it all were. Funny, though. I’ve not heard a peep from her since.”

PILGRIM: “Next, please!”

Abigail: “Hang on, we’re moving.”

(Terra steps aside to a door and gets her roll of lockpicking tools out.)

Abigail: “What’re you doing?”

Terra: “Do me a favor. Cause a distraction.”

Abigail: “What?”

Terra: “Swoon. Have a funny turn. Fit of the vapors.”

Abigail: “Are you crackers?”

Terra: “Go on. There’s a guinea in it for you.”

Abigail: “Done.”

(Abigail gasps for breath loudly then faints. A crowd gathers around her and Terra gets through the locked door. It takes her to the factory floor, where the deafening thumps of machinery are being broadcast through three large gramophone horns. There is nothing else here. Terra sees two men carry a large bottle of red liquid through the room and get into a lift.)

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(Terra has taken the lift up to the corridor with the red lit door. There is a rhythmic thumping noise coming from above, so she climbs a spiral staircase to another floor and finds another locked door. The one with the hatch at the bottom. She raises the hatch and a red hand grabs her. She struggles free and the hatch slides shut again.)

Terra: “You do that again, and I am going to break you in ways you can’t even dream of. Understood?”

There was a thump, but softer this time. The chain rattled.

“You are an impatient little bugger.” I commented, as I brought out my lock picking needles. “I could open this door. Would you like that?” Another thump. “Thought you might. But you and I are going to come to an arrangement. Got it?” (thump) “Now, you stand back, do you hear me? I don’t want to hurt to you, but you try anything funny and I’ll do bad things to you. Is that understood?” (thump, thump) “Right.”

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Terra: “Doctor!”

I saw the Doctor. His eyes widened by just so at seeing me. I ran up to him. “Manboy, are you okay?” I looked him over.

The Doctor just made that groaning sound.

“Don’t talk. I’ve been wax before, and it wasn’t very comfortable.” I said, carefully helping him to his feet. “Let’s...get you...out of here.”

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(Terra helps the Doctor stagger stiff-legged along the corridor.)

Terra: “Come on.”

(The lift comes up.)

Terra: “Come on!”

(It is Ada. She hears their footsteps but heads for the stairs while Terra guides the Doctor into the red glow room.)

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(Through a window they watch people on a frame being manoeuvred over a large vat of bubbling red liquid, then lowered in.)

Terra: “Oh my Story.”

(The Doctor struggles to point at a row of metal doors behind them.)

It was nerve racking.

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The Doctor walked out, a confident look on his face.

The Doctor: “Ah! Missed me?”

Terra: “Doctor!”

The Doctor: “Terra. Terra, Terra, Terra, Terra. Just when you think your favorite time jumping Traveller Queen will never turn up. Terra.”

He grabbed me, and kissed me.

I reached my hand up, running a hand through his hair. Man, this guy liked kissing me. And my hair.

(The Doctor takes her in his arms, bends her backwards and kisses her long and hard on the lips. She slaps his face.)

The Doctor: “You have no idea how good that feels. Right. Mrs Gillyflower. We’ve got to stop her. And then there’s Clara. Poor Clara. Where’s Clara?”

Terra: “Doctor, wait.”

The Doctor: “Can’t. Clara. Got to find.”

Terra: “I leave you to your own devices, and you turn into a waxy red thing. What did you do?”

The Doctor: “Days, weeks, don’t know. Long story. I’ll keep it short.”

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The Doctor: “Poor Edmund must have come looking for us and then fallen into a vat of the pure venom. Or was pushed. Didn’t stand a chance.”

Terra: “What is that stuff, though?”

The Doctor gave me a curious look. “You already know.” He reminded me.

“Yes, but I like hearing your speeches.” I gave him a flirty smile.

The Doctor: “Deadly poison. And Mrs Gillyflower’s been dipping her pilgrims in a dilute form to protect them. Preserve them. Process didn’t work on me. Maybe because I’m not human. I ended up on the reject pile.”

Terra: “Preserve them against what?”

The Doctor: “Well, according to her, the coming apocalypse.” (The Doctor makes the universal cuckoo gesture.)

Terra: “Not gonna argue with you there.” I said. “When the End of Days is come and judgement rains down upon us all.”

The Doctor: “What?”

Terra: “Something Mrs. Gillyflower said. One of her sermons. Vastra and Jenny will come looking for me. We’d best get on.”

The Doctor: “Yes, Clara. Got to find Clara.”

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“If Clara is dead, you will join her.” I promised him.

(He runs over to a house and looks inside.)

The Doctor: “I couldn’t see much from where I was, but I think she survived the process. She must be here somewhere.”

Terra: “It’s been a year!”

“You’re you.” The Doctor pointed out.

“So? You think I memorized every house in the show?” I scoffed. “I skipped that.”

(The Doctor bursts in to find Clara in a bell jar with another man. He breaks it with a chair.)

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(They have put Clara into a metal cubicle.)

Terra: “Can she be revived, like you were?”

The Doctor: “I hope so.”

(Pilgrims enter.)

Terra: “Doctor.”

The Doctor: “Oh, great. Great. Attack of the supermodels. Time for a plan.”

Terra: “Nah, Doctor. This one’s on me.”

(Terra removed her bonnet and dress to reveal a tight all leather outfit. She deals with the three male pilgrims in three moves.)

The Doctor: “That is a plan.”

(More pilgrims advance, with rounders bats.)

The Doctor: “Okay, time for a new plan. Run!”

STRAX: “Sontar ha!”

(Enter Strax, in his Sontaran armour, firing his honking big gun. The pilgrims flee. Vastra is close behind with a sword.)

Vastra: “Let’s go.”

Terra: “No, ma’am. We’re not escaping. We’ve got to help the Doctor with Clara.”

Jenny: “But, Doctor. Clara’s dead. The Ice Lady? Doctor.”

The Doctor: “Long story.”

Strax: “What now, madam? We could lay mimetic cluster mines.”

Vastra: “Strax.”

Strax: “Or dig trenches and fill them with acid.”

Vastra: “Strax! You’re overexcited. Have you been eating Miss Jenny’s sherbet fancies again?”

Strax: “No.”

Vastra: “Go outside and wait for me until I call for you.”

Strax: “But madam, I-”

Vastra: “Go!”

Strax: “I’m going to go play with my grenades.” (Strax leaves.)

The Doctor: “Okay, I think she’s about done.” (The Doctor opens the cubicle.) “I know who you think she is, but she isn’t. She can’t be.”

Vastra: “I was right, then. You and Clara have unfinished business.”

(Clara falls into the Doctor’s arms.)  The Doctor: “There, there. Hello, stranger.”

Clara: “Doctor. Terra.”

The Doctor: “Ah ha.”

“Howdy. 14.”

Clara: “Hi. What’s going on?”

The Doctor: “Oh, haven’t you heard, love? There’s trouble at mill. She’s a lizard.”

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Vastra: “My people once ruled this world, as well you know, but we did not rule it alone. Just as humanity fights a daily battle against nature, so did we. And our greatest plague, the most virulent enemy, was the repulsive red leech.”

The Doctor: “Ooo, the Repulsive Red Leech. Nah. On balance I think I prefer the Crimson Horror. What was it, exactly?”

Vastra: “A tiny parasite. It infected our drinking water. And once in our systems, it secreted a fatal poison.”

The Doctor: “If it’s been hanging around, lurking in the shadows, maybe it’s evolved. Or maybe it’s had help.”

Clara: “Doctor, I’ve been thinking. The chimney-”

The Doctor: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Way past that now. Yucky red parasite from the time of the dinosaurs pitches up in Victorian Yorkshire. Didn’t see that one coming.”

Clara: “Yeah, but the chimney-”

The Doctor: “But what’s the connection to Mrs Gillyflower? Judgement will rain down on us all. An empty mill.”

Clara: “A chimney that doesn’t blow smoke.”

The Doctor: “Clever clogs.”

Clara: “Missed me?”

The Doctor: “Yeah, lots.”

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The Doctor: “She’s going to poison the air.”

Jenny: “How?”

(A pilgrim pulls a lever. They are looking at the base of a rocket.)

Clara: “With that, I should think.”

The Doctor: “And there’s the poison. All right, gang, I’ve got a plan.”

(They stand up and something metal clatters. They duck down as the pilgrims turn towards the sound.)

The Doctor: “Shush. Okay.”

(Mrs Gillyflower pulls out the stops on a small pipe organ then presses a lever. The contraption turns to present a control board to her.)

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Ada: “Who is that? Who is there?”

I walked up to Ada. “Hello.”

She froze, trying to find me. “Who are you?”

“My name is Terra.” I said kindly. “I am your monster’s...future wife. Apparently.”

Ada slowly rose up, using her stick to guide her to me. “What?”

“Your monster. He is someone I...” I looked back to him, seeing an encouraging smile on his face. I looked back to Ada. “Sorry. I’m still working those out.”

Ada: “You. It’s you. My monster. You’ve come back. But you’re

The Doctor: “Warm. And alive, thanks to you, Ada. You saved me from your mother’s human rubbish tip. Now then, what’s wrong?

Ada: “She does not want me, monster. I am not to be chosen. Perhaps it was my own sin, the blackness in my heart that my father saw in me.

“I thought that too, for a long, long time.” I told Ada, carefully holding her hand. “Kids treated me horribly, and I just sat there and took it. I thought, maybe there was something wrong with me. I thought that they were just trying to fix me, to stop whatever darkness they saw, that I deserved it.”

The Doctor’s eyes burned on the back of my head. I knew he wasn’t staring in anger, but in empathy. He knew this story, I had probably told one of his earlier selves. It wasn’t an easy story to share at first, but it got easier as time went on. Once I embraced the story, and what really happened, it became as easy as walking on air.

“But you know what Ada?” I got back to it. “What I realized? “She sniffled, her hand reaching up to wipe her white eyes. “They had it backwards.”

She sniffled again. “B-Backwards?”

“They saw the light in you, in us.” I explained, smiling. Ada started to blink rapidly as tears started to fall. “They saw it because of the darkness in them, and hated it. So they did they one thing they knew to do, they blew it out. They blew out our light because they didn’t have it, Ada, that’s all.”

Ada was nearly starting to cry, so I held her hand tighter. “You are amazing, Ada. You’re just a shining light that they wanted to put out.”

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Clara: “What is it?”

Ada: “Who is that?”

Clara: “I’m, I’m a friend. A friend of his.”

Ada: “Then you are fortunate indeed. It isn’t good to be alone.”

The Doctor: “Now, Ada, I need you to tell me something. Who is Mister Sweet? Ada?”

Ada: “Oh, dear monster-”

The Doctor: “Please, tell me.”

Ada: “I cannot. Even now, I cannot. I cannot betray Mama.”

The Doctor: “Well, come with us, then. There’s something you need to know.”

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(This is where the control mechanism is.)

Gillyflower: “Oh, you do seem to keep turning up like a bad penny, young man.”

The Doctor: “Force of habit.”

Gillyflower: “Can I offer you something? Tea? Seed cake? Oh, a glass of Amontillado?”

The Doctor: “No, thanks. We’ve had a skinful already, as you might say.”

Gillyflower: “Ha, ha. Very funny.”

The Doctor: “Yes. I’m the Doctor, you’re nuts and I’m going to stop you.”

Gillyflower: “I’m afraid Mister Sweet and I cannot allow that.”

The Doctor: “Ah, yes. Would it be impolite to ask why you and Mister Sweet are petrifying your workforce with diluted prehistoric leech venom?”

Clara: “So when do we get to meet him, this silent partner of yours? Why’s he so shy.”

Gillyflower: “Mister Sweet is always with us.”

The Doctor: “You seem to have a very close relationship, you and your pal.”

Gillyflower: “Oh yes, Doctor. Exceedingly close. Symbiotic, you might say.” (She opens the top of her dress to reveal a large red leech attached to her skin. Meanwhile, the pilgrims continue to load bottles of venom into the rocket.)

Clara: “Doctor, what is it?”

Gillyflower: “A survivor. He has grown fat on the filth humanity has pumped into the rivers. That’s where I found him.”

The Doctor: “Very enterprising.”

Gillyflower: “His needs are simple, and in return he gives me his nectar.”

The Doctor: “Mrs Gillyflower, you have no idea what you are dealing with. In the wrong hands, that venom could wipe out all life on this planet.”

(Mrs Gillyflower holds out her hands.) Gillyflower: “Do you know what these are? Ha, ha! The wrong hands.”

(She goes to the control panel and pulls a lever. Red lights come on all the way up the factory chimney. Young Thomas Thomas points them out to Strax.)

The Doctor: “Planning a little fireworks party, are we?”

Gillyflower: “You have forced me to advance the Great Work somewhat, Doctor, but my colossal scheme remains as it was. My rocket will explode high in the atmosphere, raining down Mister Sweet’s beneficence onto all humanity.”

Clara: “And wiping us all out. You can’t!”

Gillyflower: “My new Adam and Eve’s will sleep for but a few months before stepping out into a golden dawn. Is it not beautiful, Doctor?”

The Doctor: “Now, tell us about Ada, Mrs Gillyflower.”

Gillyflower: “What?”

The Doctor: “Your daughter. You do remember your daughter? Tell us about your daughter.”

Gillyflower: “How can you speak of such trivia when my hour is at hand? The child is of no consequence.”

The Doctor: “Is that why you experimented on her?”

Clara: “Experimented?”

The Doctor: “The signs are all there. The pattern of scarring. You used her as a guinea pig, didn’t you.”

Clara: “God.”

Gillyflower: “Sometimes sacrifices must be made.”

The Doctor: “Sacrifices?”

Gillyflower: “It was necessary. I had to find out how much of the venom would produce an antitoxin to immunise myself. Don’t you see? It was necessary!”

Ada: “Mama? Is it, is it true?”

Gillyflower: “Ada.”

Ada: “It is. It’s true. True.”

Gillyflower: “Ada, listen to me.”

Ada: “You hag! You perfidious hag! You virago! You harpy! All these years I have helped you, served you, looked after you. Do they count for nothing, nothing at all?”

(Ada starts slashing at her mother with her white stick.)

Gillyflower: “No, stop. Stop.”

(Clara runs forward.)

The Doctor: “Hang on, I’ve got a sonic screwdriver.”

Clara: “Yeah? I’ve got a chair!” (Clara smashes it into the control panel, with a satisfying shower of sparks.)

Gillyflower: “No!”

The Doctor: “Yeah. That worked. I’m afraid your rocket isn’t going anywhere, Mrs G.”

Gillyflower: “Please, come to me, Ada. Oh, my child. You have always been so very useful.”

(Mrs Gillyflower puts a small revolver to Ada’s head.)

The Doctor: “No, Mrs Gillyflower. &

Ada: “Please, Mama. No more. No more.”

Gillyflower: “And now, if you’ll please forgive us, we must be going. It is long past Ada’s bedtime.”

(Mrs Gillyflower forces Ada out of the room and locks the door behind her.)

The Doctor: “No, no, Clara. If we follow straight after her, she’ll shoot Ada on the spot.”

Clara: “She wouldn’t.”

The Doctor: “She would. Chairs are useful.”

(He pulls the chair out of the panel and uses it to break the window.)

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(Mrs Gillyflower drags Ada up the staircase encircling the rocket. The Doctor and Clara run through Sweetville and get to the bottom of the stairs.)

Gillyflower: “Stop!”

The Doctor: “Just let her go, Mrs Gillyflower. Let Ada go.”

Gillyflower: “Secondary firing mechanism, Doctor. Mister Sweet and I are too smart for you, after all.”

The Doctor: “Just let your daughter go, Mrs Gillyflower.”

(Ada gets free and stumbles down to the corner between the Doctor and Mrs Gillyflower.)

Gillyflower: “Ada!”

Ada: “Shoot if you wish, Mama. It is of no matter, for you killed me a long time ago.”

(Mrs Gillyflower shoots at the Doctor, making him retreat.) Gillyflower: “(sings) I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.”

(The Doctor gets to Ada as Mrs Gillyflower pulls the lever and the rocket’s engines ignite. He shields her with his body as it takes off, with so little flame as to not even singe any of them as it passes mere inches away.)

Gillyflower: “Now, Mister Sweet, now the whole world will taste your lethal kiss!”

The Doctor: “I don’t think so, Mrs Gillyflower.”

(The Doctor snaps his fingers. Jenny and Vastra appear, in pilgrim clothes, holding a bottle of venom.)

Gillyflower: “Very well, then. If I can’t take the world with me, you will have to do. Die, you freaks. Die! Die!”

(Strax points his honking big gun down the chimney.)

Strax: “Put down your weapon, human female.”

(Mrs Gillyflower shoots at Strax. He returns fire, sending her tumbling over the railing to the floor two stories below.)

The Doctor: “Ouch.”

(The leech detaches itself from her, and drags itself across the floor by its suckered forelimbs.)

Gillyflower: “No. No. Mister Sweet, where are you going? You can’t leave me now, Mister Sweet.”

Clara: “What’s it doing?”

The Doctor: “It knows she’s dying. She’s no longer of any use to it.”

Gillyflower: “Mister Sweet. Ada?” (Ada taps her way down the stairs.) Gillyflower: “Ada. Are you there?”

Ada: “I’m here, Mama.”

Gillyflower: “Forgive me, my child. Forgive me.”

Ada: “Never.”

Gillyflower: “That’s my girl.”

(Mrs Winifred Gillyflower dies. The rocket explodes in the sky.)

Jenny: “What will you do with that thing?”

The Doctor: “Take it back to the Jurassic era, maybe. Out of harm’s way.”

(Ada taps her way across the floor until her stick finds something squishy. She smashes the leech to smithereens.)

The Doctor: “On the other hand.”

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The Doctor: “Right. Right, London. We were heading for London, weren’t we?”

Clara: “Was there any particular reason?”

The Doctor: “No. No. Just thought you might like it.”

Clara: “Yeah. Maybe had enough of Victorian values for a bit.”

The Doctor: “You’re the boss.”

Clara: “Am I?”

The Doctor: “No. No. Get in.”

(Clara enters the TARDIS. The Doctor walks back to Ada and the Paternoster Gang.)

The Doctor: “Now, Ada, I’d love to stay and help clear up the mess, but-”

Ada: “I know, dear monster. You have things to do.”

The Doctor: “And what about you?”

Ada: “Oh, there are many things a bright young lady can do to occupy her time. It’s time I stepped out of the darkness and into the light.”

The Doctor: “Good luck, Ada. You know, I think you will be just-”

(He kisses her cheek.)

The Doctor: “Splendid. Well, thanks a million, you three, as ever. Have some Pontefract cakes on me. I love Pontefract cakes. See you around, eh, I shouldn’t wonder.”

Jenny: “But Doctor. That girl, Clara. You haven’t explained.”

The Doctor: “No, I haven’t.”

(He goes to the TARDIS.)

The Doctor: “Ah, look at the muck in here. Right!”

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I swallowed the lump in my throat, looking up at him. “My first day here.” I briefly looked at him, seeing a sad look in his eyes. “You knew something, a secret.”

The Doctor paused, leaning against the walls of his TARDIS. “The show.”

I nodded. “I would only tell it to you if I cared a lot of about you.”

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“S-so...what?” I asked, my voice quivering. “I said I figured it out, I said nothing about fixing it. I’m not worth it. I never was. Other people out there need it, like Rose is gonna need it and River, and maybe even Clara. Why should I get it, and cut them off from it?”

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“New clothes.” I called back. “This one is way too constrictive.”

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I loved it.

It was similar to a bellboy uniform. It was red, with gold tassels along the shirt. It came with black jeans, and boots. I had my manipulator on one wrist, and a watch on the other.

I ran out to the TARDIS, showing off my clothing. “It any good?”

The Doctor nodded, looking me up and down. “Everything you wear is good.”

I blushed, biting my lip. “Yeah...thanks.”

The Doctor flicked a switch. “Tell Donna I said hello.”

I gave him a shocked look as the manipulator turned on. “DONNA NOBLE?!”