DOCTOR WHO

1.6 “STREETS OF SORROW”

BY

entertain-me
 NARRATOR
Previously, on the Doctor Who Fan Series...

(play snippets from previous ep, ending with the last

bit of dialogue)

(play theme music)

INT. JANET’S HOUSE - MARY KING’S CLOSE - EVENING

ALICIA
(quietly)
Is he still asleep?

JANET
Aye, he’s been mumbling a bit, though.

ALICIA
What’s he been saying?

JANET
Not sure, really. He’s been saying people’s
names, now and again.

ALICIA
Whose?

JANET
Well, there was quite a few names but the
only ones that stick in my mind are Jamie
and Jack. His brothers?

ALICIA
I.. I don’t know. I don’t think he has any
family left anymore. Where’s Alun?

JANET
He’s gone up to do what he can for Isabel,
God rest her soul. Lord knows how long we’ll
be trapped here and the body will start to
rot, soon.

ALICIA
(sighs)
He expects me to figure all this out, doesn’t
he? The Doctor, I mean.

JANET
Can you?

ALICIA
I honestly don’t know. I still can’t believe
he lied to me. He told me he couldn’t get the
plague. And like a fool, I actually believed
him.

JANET
You know men, they’ll say anything to
impress us. Though this is unusual.

ALICIA
What do you mean?

JANET
Well, I know I’m not medically-minded, but
it’s like he’s had the fever for days not
hours.

ALICIA
Maybe it affects him, differently.

JANET
Something’s not right here.

ALICIA
Nothing’s been right here since we arrived.

JANET
(quietly)
And he’s not helping matters.

ALICIA
Who?

NARRATOR
Janet pointed to the little boy, Andrew, who
was sat on the floor, creating shapes in the
light dust which coated the floor.

JANET
(quietly)
He gives me the willies.

ALICIA
Why? He’s just a little boy.
(Alun enters)

ALUN
That’s Isabel sorted, now. I found a couple
of clean blankets and wrapped her in them.
I’ve burned some lavender, too, to get rid
of the smell. Now, let’s sort this business
out.
(to Alicia)
What or who do you think is trapping us in
here?

ALICIA
What? Oh, um..

ALUN
The Doctor’s wee gadget didn’t work and we
can’t seem to knock the stones out - I tried
in one of Isabel’s windows. So, what do we
think? Alien?

JANET
Alun, would you stop talking nonsense?
Alien, for goodness sake? Why would a foreigner
do this to us?

ALICIA
No, he doesn’t mean “alien” as in -

ALUN
Look, Janet, just trust me. I’ll explain it
all afterwards. I know the Doctor. He deals
with this sort of thing all the time. Isn’t
that right, Alice?

ALICIA
Alicia.
(to Janet)
He’s right. This is right up the Doctor’s
street, so to speak.

JANET
Well, I think you’re both daft. And in need
of some sleep. I’m quite tired, myself.

ALUN
Well, get yerself away to bed, woman. I’ll
keep an eye on the Doctor.
 ANDREW
I’m sleepy, too.

ALUN
Well, you go with Janet, wee man.

JANET
What about you, Alicia?

ALICIA
I don’t think I could sleep, to be honest.
JANET
Right. Well, good night, then.

ALUN
Good night, my love.

ALICIA
Night, night.

NARRATOR
Alun and Alicia made themselves comfortable,
sitting on some blankets on the floor, and
spoke quietly as to not waken the Doctor.

ALICIA
So, you knew the Doctor then?

ALUN
Aye, when I was fourteen years old. People
kept disappearing in the village where I
lived, then the Doctor and his granddaughter
arrived and, well, they saved the day and
my life.

ALICIA
What happened?

NARRATOR
Suddenly, a loud groan came from the blanket
where the Doctor was sleeping under. Then the
blanket was thrown aside and the Doctor leapt
up and stared at them, with a manic smile
on his face.

DOCTOR
(very quickly)
Hello. Bonjour. Guten Tag. Ciao! Hola. Bore
Da. Shalom. Aloha. Namasthe. Jambo!
 ALICIA
Doctor, are you all right?

DOCTOR
Ah, Nyssa, never better, thank you for asking.
Fetch Tegan and Adric, we’ve got to get back
to the TARDIS.

ALICIA
It’s Alicia. Remember?

DOCTOR
Nope.
(very seriously)
Now, listen, this is very important. Have you
voted for Harold Saxon, at all?

ALICIA
Who?

DOCTOR
Ah, good. There’s still time, yet.

ALUN
Doctor, I think you’d better sit down. You’re
not well.

DOCTOR
Are you a doctor?

ALUN
No, but -

DOCTOR
Then I’ll ask you very kindly to shut up, I’m
thinking.
(realising)
I’m not well!

ALICIA
That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you.

DOCTOR
But it cannot be the plague. We Gallifreyans
can’t get it. We did tests.

ALUN
Then what is it?

DOCTOR
What’s what?
 ALICIA
What is it that you have?

DOCTOR
Why, what have I got?

ALICIA
(irked)
That’s what we’re asking you.

DOCTOR
Why are you asking me? I’m not a doctor.

ALICIA
Yes, you are. You’re THE Doctor!

DOCTOR
I know I am. I’m perfectly capable of knowing
who I am. I’m the Doctor, you’re Romana and
he’s the Moxx of Balhoon. Come along, now.

ALICIA
Doctor, I’m only half-sorry for doing this
but..

NARRATOR
Alicia grabbed the Doctor’s arm as he passed
her, and slapped him across the face, hard.
The Doctor recoiled in surprise.

DOCTOR
Ow! That hurt, Alicia! Why did you do that?

ALICIA
Oh, for many reasons. Now, listen. You’re
not well. You’ve got what might be the
plague.

DOCTOR
But I can’t get the plague.

ALICIA
Yes, yes. We’ve been through all that. If
you can’t get the plague, then it’s not the
plague you’ve got, but something else.

DOCTOR
Like what?
 ALICIA
How should I know? You’re the Doctor!

ALUN
Oh, please don’t start all that again.

DOCTOR
Yes, you’re right, Rory. Sorry. Ah, look.
I’m obviously not in the best of
conditions at the moment. So you two will
have to do the leg work.. or is it arm
work...?

ALICIA
Doctor..!

DOCTOR
Yes, getting off the point, a little. If
it is something alien behind all this,
chances are they or it are still in the
building. There’s a reason why they wanted
this tenement blocked off. Go find out.

ALICIA
Right, well.. you stay here. And try and stay
out of trouble.

DOCTOR
Trouble? Me? I never get into any - well, there
was that time in.. and the other time in.. in
fact, I get into trouble quite a lot, don’t
I?

ALICIA/ALUN
Yes!

DOCTOR
Well, run along, then. I’ve got a lunch
appointment with Arthur Conan Doyle and I
can’t keep him waiting.

INT. TENEMENT STAIRWELL. MARY KING’S CLOSE. EVENING

ALICIA
It’s so quiet.

ALUN
Everyone’s afraid this is God’s work.
Punishing us for our sins.
 ALICIA
You don’t sound like you believe it,
yourself.

ALUN
It’s not God’s work. The Doctor was
right, this is alien. The stones,
his illness, all of it.

ALICIA
And we have to deal with it.

ALUN
I’ve done it before. I can do it again.
What about you?

ALICIA
Oh, it’s become a bit of a recent hobby
of mine, defeating bad beings from other
worlds. Though the Doctor’s usually well
enough to help.

NARRATOR
Alicia and Alun reached the very top of
the stairwell. They waved their candles to
take in their surroundings.

ALICIA
What is that?

ALUN
What?

ALICIA
I think it’s a pile of rags. Looks like
someone’s been sleeping here. But why
wouldn’t they just sleep in their own
homes?

ALUN
Is that something.. glowing.. underneath
that bowl?

ALICIA
Be careful!

NARRATOR
Alun lifted up the bowl. He and Alicia were
immediately knocked out by a pure bright
 light, emitting from a small, square liquid-
filled block underneath.

INT. JANET’S HOUSE. MARY KING’S CLOSE. MORNING

NARRATOR
When the Doctor awoke the next morning, he
found Andrew back in the corner of the room,
playing with a small horse carved roughly
out of wood.

DOCTOR
(yawns)
Good morning. Where is everyone?

ANDREW
Don’t know.

DOCTOR
Thanks for your help.
(gets up)
I bet I look terrible. Had some very strange
dreams, last night. Very strange, indeed.

NARRATOR
The Doctor got up from his seat and went
through to the kitchen area, picking up a shiny
steel pan and looking at his reflection.

DOCTOR
Eugh! That is a lot of spots.

JANET
(entering kitchen, tired)
Morning, Doctor. How are you feeling this
morning?

DOCTOR
Oh, I’m feeling..
(looks at Janet)
.. a lot better than you.

JANET
What? I feel fine.

DOCTOR
You don’t look it.
 NARRATOR
The Doctor held the pan up so Janet could see
her reflection. She shrieked, seeing her
plague mark-ridden face.

JANET
(panicking)
Oh, no! Oh, sweet lord, no!

DOCTOR
Now, Janet, calm down -

JANET
It’s punishment! I’m being punished for my
sins, Doctor! I knew it would get me!

DOCTOR
Janet, it may not be the actual plague. It
may be whatever I had.. have.

JANET
No! It’s the devil’s work! I know it! It’s
because I couldn’t keep any of my babies
alive! They all died within days of being
born! It’s all my fault!

(Alun and Alicia enter, looking slightly groggy)

ALUN
Janet? Janet - oh, jesus!
JANET
(crying)
Alun, don’t come near me!

ALUN
What?

JANET
There’s nothing you can do for me. I’ll
just go and lie down.

ALICIA
Janet, please -

JANET
It’s all right. I’m almost thirty, I’ve had
a good life. Before they bury me -

ALUN
Janet, stop it.
 JANET
Before they bury me, put me in my wedding
dress, will you? I did look bonnie in it.

ALUN
Aye, you did.

DOCTOR
No, sorry, but no. I’m not having this. She
can’t have suddenly developed the disease
this fast.
(to Janet)
You were feeling well. Yesterday. Weren’t
you?

JANET
Aye. I felt fine. Very well, actually.

DOCTOR
And now you’re at death’s door? Give me a
break!

ALICIA
You seem back to your usual perky self,
I see, Doctor.

DOCTOR
Was a sniffle, that’s all. Where did you two
get to, anyway?

ALUN
We found something. At the top of the
stairwell.

ALICIA
It was so bright. Knocked us unconscious. We
just woke up a couple of minutes ago.

DOCTOR
And where is this thing now?

ALUN
Here.

NARRATOR
Alun held forward the bundle of rags in his
arms. Gingerly, the Doctor unfolded the
cloth until the small liquid square was
revealed.

DOCTOR
Hmm. That’s interesting.
(uses sonic screwdriver)
Definitely not from Earth. So, it was just
at the top of the stairs.

ALUN
Aye. It looked as though somebody had been
sleeping in amongst all these rags, too. That
thing was underneath a dish bowl.

DOCTOR
Okay, so probably someone who doesn’t live
in any of the flats, or else they would just
sleep in their own beds.

ALICIA
That’s what we figured.

DOCTOR
Hmmm...
(long pause)
Andrew, care to tell us what this thing is,
exactly?

ANDREW
What?

ALICIA
What’s he got to do with anything?

DOCTOR
Oh, quite a lot, I’d guess.

JANET
He did this? He caused the pestilence?

DOCTOR
Don’t be silly. No, that was the work of
rats and flies and the severe lack of
sanitation and hygiene. No, he didn’t cause
the pestilence but I think he’s connected
in some way.

ALICIA
Come here, Andrew. Don’t worry, you won’t
get in any trouble.

DOCTOR
Now, Andrew, when you say your parents are
gone, what exactly do you mean?
 ANDREW
They’re dead.

DOCTOR
And how exactly did they die? The truth,
please.

ANDREW
(whispers)
In battle. They died in battle.

JANET
Battle? But there’s -

ALUN
Shoosh, woman!

DOCTOR
Where was the battle, Andrew? Can you
remember?

ANDREW
(quietly)
They called it the Time War. It was..
everywhere. My parents set the co-ordinates
and sent me here before they enlisted.

ALICIA
So, how do you know your parents died?

DOCTOR
Psychic link. You would have felt it.
Their deaths.

ANDREW
Yes. I’ve been.. adjusting to this century
ever since.

ALICIA
Not the best time to arrive on the planet.

DOCTOR
Every century as their high and low points.
So, the entrance and windows. That was you,
wasn’t it?

ANDREW
(quietly)
Yes.
 JANET
Why?

ANDREW
I was lonely.

JANET
Lonely? Why, I’ve got a good mind to -

DOCTOR
Let him continue, Janet.

ANDREW
First, my parents send me away then here,
I was always being sent away from places.
Then I met Isabel. She took me in, fed me
and made me feel safe. Then she died. I
just thought that if I close all the
entrances and exits, then you couldn’t
leave me. Everyone leaves me.

DOCTOR
And what about Janet and I? We haven’t got
the real plague, have we?

ANDREW
No. I wasn’t sure how long the stones would
hold so I gave you the illness, just so
that anyone would think you had the real
disease and left us alone. I’m sorry.
Please don’t send me away, again.

NARRATOR
The little boy broke down in tears. Feeling
the maternal pull, Janet held him in her
arms until he fell asleep.

ALICIA
What do we do now?

DOCTOR
Let him sleep, poor thing. All this because
he was lonely, eh?

JANET
We’ll look after him. We don’t have much, but
we’ll treat him like a son.

DOCTOR
Are you sure? He isn’t human, y’know. Who
knows what he’ll grow up into.
 JANET
Well, right this minute he looks like a wee
boy who needs a mummy and daddy. I’ve lost
too many of my own children. I’m not giving
up the chance to be a mother again.

DOCTOR
Alun?

ALUN
Oh, it’s a wise man that listens to his wife.

INT/EXT. MARY KING’S CLOSE. AFTERNOON.

NARRATOR
Later that day, when Andrew woke from his
sleep, he soon made the stones crumble away
to reveal daylight. He also cheekily told
Janet and the Doctor to scrub their faces.
They did so, and to their amazement, the
spots came away easily.

DOCTOR
I think it’s time to leave the Ferguson
family in peace, don’t you, Alicia?

ALICIA
(quietly)
Doctor, what about the real plague? They
might still get it. Can we not take them
in the TARDIS a couple of years in the
future, after the epidemic’s over?

ANDREW
(cheerily)
Oh, don’t worry about that. Mummy and
Daddy are going to live long and healthy
lives. So are everyone else in this
building. You, too, Alicia.. though I
can’t do anything about those headaches
of yours.

ALICIA
Well, thank you, anyway.. I think.

JANET
(to Andrew)
Come away in, son. You’re having a bath.
 I’ll get that grime off you if it’s the
last thing I do.
(to Alicia and the Doctor)
Visit soon, yes? See how the lad is doing?

DOCTOR
We will. Goodbye, Janet.

(Janet and Andrew exit)

ALUN
Well, Doctor, please don’t make it another
fifteen years before I see you again.

DOCTOR
I’ll try not to.

ALUN
Oh, and here’s a tip for the future; when
you’re taking people back home in yer wee
spaceship, remember to take them back to
their own time. Not a hundred years before
they were born.

DOCTOR
I didn’t...?

ALUN
Aye, ye did.

DOCTOR
I’ve really got to stop doing that.

ALUN
Well, look at it this way, if you hadn’t
left me here, I’d never have met Janet.
Looks like it’s going to start raining
soon, and I’ve got a body to bury. Goodbye,
Doctor, Alicia.

ALICIA
Bye.

NARRATOR
Alun returned to his family and Alicia and
the Doctor headed back to the TARDIS, sitting
where they’d left it, though looking a bit
more dirtier.
 ALICIA
Doctor, promise me one thing.

DOCTOR
Anything.

ALICIA
If you ever have a choice between a taking a
tour, or going to the real thing.. take the
tour.

(play theme music)

THE END