(This is the folkloric/ supernatural episode. Inasmuch as if affects locations and characters’ accents, it takes place in the Scottish highlands.)
1. (A deserted valley in the Scottish highlands, seen by moonlight. At first, we only hear owls. Then we start to hear human voices calling, growing louder. Figures with lights appear, first at a distance but coming closer. As they approach the calling becomes louder and more audible.)
VOICES: Stuart! Stuart!
(Still calling, the figures become discernible. All are male, carrying flaming torches and wearing traditional highland dress.)
VOICES: Stuart, come back to us! We wish no harm upon you! We just want to bring you home!
(Two young men become discernible in the lead, then come to fill the screen. CAMERON is a leading man type, who may or may not resemble Richard Madden. LACHLAN is slightly older, with a full beard. As they walk he continues to address CAMERON, who looks resolutely ahead.)
LACHLAN: It’s no use! Appealing to him like this. He’s no fool.
CAMERON: And you’ve a better notion, I suppose.
LACHLAN: We’ll no’ find him out here, anyway, not in the dark.
CAMERON: (grimly): We have to find him soon. Harvest time is nearly here. You know this as well as I. Besides… (shifting to more positivity) …it’s we who know this country. We’ll find him. (calling again) Stuart! Let’s just talk!
(They pass. STUART appears from behind a crop of heather, a young man. He is dressed like the others, but has become dishevelled and sports a hunted expression. He watches them go for a second, and looks at his wrist. He’s wearing a digital watch with a coloured plastic strap. He starts off in the other direction.)
2. (STUART rushes across open country, trying to look behind him as much as he can, sometimes stumbling. He trips, and hurriedly gets up. He sees the mouth of a small cave and goes inside.)
3. (STUART enters the shallow cave and flops down exhausted against the cave wall. He pulls a nail from his pocket and starts scratching on the wall, the viewer not seeing what he writes. His head falls back and his eyes close. In a time dissolve his head becomes a skull. Pan down. His clothes also dissolve, leaving a skeleton seated against the wall.)
4. (Another stretch of Scottish highlands by moonlight, with a railway line. A train passes through.)
5. (On board train. It’s like a Forties train with wooden seats and pull-down windows, but passengers are in modern dress and have mobile phones and laptops. Pan down carriage. CONDUCTOR appears at end of it.)
CONDUCTOR (cheerily): Tickets, please.
(Camera moves down with CONDUCTOR. Someone offers a ticket, which he briefly looks at, clips and returns.)
CONDUCTOR: There you go now.
(CONDUCTOR works forward down the carriage, inspecting, clipping and returning peoples tickets, giving thanks each time he does it. He goes past camera. THREE MPS walk into carriage, now in Transport Police uniforms. Camera moves towards them. They look around alertly and spot a YOUNG MAN and WOMAN, approximately the Doctor and Isobel’s age. They go up to them.)
FIRST MP (brusquely): Your papers.
YOUNG MAN: Our what?
FIRST MP: Obey your instructions.
YOUNG MAN (bridling): See here...
(Pacifiying, YOUNG WOMAN intervenes.)
YOUNG WOMAN: We’ve our passports on us. Will that do yer?
(YOUNG WOMAN gets her passport from her bag, and shows it to FIRST MP, who inspects it.)
YOUNG WOMAN (to YOUNG MAN): G’won then.
(With ill grace, YOUNG MAN gets his passport from his jacket pocket and passes it over. FIRST MP inspects it, and pushes it back at him. THREE MPS start to move off.)
YOUNG MAN (pointedly): Trouble at home, is there?
(Ignoring him, the THREE MPS move down the train, scrutinising passengers. Pan back, until we see whole of carriage again. This reveals ISOBEL, watching them from far end. She moves off.)
6. (DOCTOR is asleep on the hard bench-like seat. ISOBEL walks up, and shakes him awake.)
ISOBEL (quietly but urgently): Doctor, wake up.
(DOCTOR wakes and looks quizzically at her.)
ISOBEL: They’re on the train. Those same three. While you were supposed to be keepin’ watch, I might add.
DOCTOR (still sleepy): I was just resting my eyes.
ISOBEL (sharply): So it would seem. There’s nowhere on the train t’ hide. We’ll have to jump.
(THE DOCTOR looks perturbed at this.)
ISOBEL: No’ while it’s movin’, yer gommy. I’ll pull the emergency cord.
(THE DOCTOR doesn’t look reassured.)
ISOBEL (sharply): What?
DOCTOR: Look out the window.
7. (Outside of train. ISOBEL looking out of window. It’s on a long viaduct, possibly resembling the Glenfinnan viaduct.)
8. (Back inside train. ISOBEL at window)
ISOBEL: It just goes on an’ on.
(ISOBEL comes back in, pulls window closed.)
ISOBEL (thinking out loud): Okay, we need to slow them down ‘till we’re past this viaduct. How are we going to do that?
(The DOCTOR goes to speak.)
ISOBEL (quickly): I’m thinkin’ out loud here! Okay, t’ slow them down... we can slow them down with… (triumphantly) string! Give me string.
(DOCTOR looks at her, confused.)
DOCTOR: Sorry, what?
ISOBEL: String, I’m sayin’! Go through yer pockets. Y’ve always got funny stuff in yer pockets like that.
(DOCTOR empties his pockets, and holds the amassed contents up in cupped hands. They do indeed contain a motley array of stuff.)
ISOBEL: Aha!
(ISOBEL spots the end of a piece of string sticking out of the jumble, and pulls it free. She holds it up happily.)
ISOBEL: Now this is us…
9. (Outside toilet cubicle. As with the rest of the train, its the old-fashioned kind with a bolt on the door. As the DOCTOR watches, ISOBEL ties string to the bolt. She then shuts the door, and yanks at the string until it’s free. She tests the door with a push. It’s bolted shut. From inside.)
ISOBEL: Good.
DOCTOR: Isobel, what are you…?
ISOBEL: Ye’ll see.
(ISOBEL looks round, sees CONDUCTOR at a distance.)
ISOBEL (calling): Hey!
CONDUCTOR (moving towards her): What’s up there?
ISOBEL (gesturing to the toilet cubicle): Someone’s been in there ages, and they’re no’ answerin’.
(CONDUCTOR starts firmly knocking on the door.)
CONDUCTOR: Hello? Hello? Can ye’ hear me?
ISOBEL: An’ tell him to hurry up. I’m fair bustin’!
(While CONDUCTOR continues knocking on the door, ISOBEL signals to the DOCTOR and they sneak off. The THREE MPS approach.)
CONDUCTOR: Is anyone in there?
FIRST MP: What’s this?
CONDUCTOR: Seems someone’s in there, but there’s no…
FIRST MP: Step away.
CONDUCTOR: Now hold on now…
FIRST MP: Step away!
(Reluctantly, CONDUCTOR does. FIRST MP pushes at door, which doesn’t open. He signals to other two to be ready, then steps back to kick at door.)
10. (Jump-cut to close-up of ISOBEL’S hand pulling emergency cord.)
11. (FIRST MP kicks door open. Just as he does, train lurches to a halt. Jolted, he has to be held up by other TWO MPS. They look to one another, then inside cubicle. It’s empty.)
FIRST MP: Quickly!
12. (THREE MPS stand outside now-stopped train, door open behind them, waving torches across the moorland.)
FIRST MP: Nothing.
SECOND MP: Should we go after them?
FIRST MP: In the dark? What could we do? Besides, whatever he did to us back at base, it’s starting to wear off.
THIRD MP (to SECOND): You were even shot.
(SECOND MP puts his hand to his injured shoulder.)
SECOND MP: Starting to feel it now. I’ll need painkillers soon.
THIRD MP: But if they got away, what does that mean for us?
FIRST MP: You know what it means. We face confession.
(As they speak camera pans down. Close to their feet is a small cave in the rock, inside which are huddled THE DOCTOR and ISOBEL.)
[CREDITS]
13. (Whiteness.)
ISOBEL’S VOICE (from off): Doctor, Doctor…
14. (Inside small cave. DOCTOR wakes up and sees ISOBEL sitting beside him. He’s still in his sleeping bag, she’s already up and dressed.)
ISOBEL: It’s mornin’. An’ time we were off.
DOCTOR: Okay.
ISOBEL: You know, you nae introduced me to your friend.
(DOCTOR looks round to where she’s looking. He jumps back to discover a bare skeleton is seated right next to him.)
DOCTOR: Was that there all night?
ISOBEL: Gi’en the state o’ him, I doubt he crawled in after the pubs closed.
(DOCTOR starts to examine the skeleton.)
DOCTOR: Must have been here a long time. The bones are quite clean.
ISOBEL: Years, most like. Nae-one but us will have been this way in a long time.
DOCTOR: Longer than years. Look at these.
(The DOCTOR points the cave wall. ISOBEL moves to look. Symbols have been scratched in them.)
DOCTOR: That’s centuries old. Early Modern at the latest.
ISOBEL: You sure?
DOCTOR: Uh-huh.
ISOBEL: What d’ they mean?
DOCTOR: They were put by portal and entry ways, to ward off evil spirits.
ISOBEL: You’re sayin’ they were magic?
DOCTOR: More like anti-magic.
(ISOBEL looks from wall to DOCTOR.)
ISOBEL: How can you know this stuff, and not your own name?
DOCTOR (thoughtfully, still looking at wall): Good question.
ISOBEL: Strange.
(ISOBEL turns away, starts rolling up her sleeping bag. She stops, and looks at the skeleton again.)
ISOBEL: So he’s been lyin’ here for centuries, then?
DOCTOR (still studying graffiti): Must have been.
ISOBEL: I see. And could you tell me one more thing?
DOCTOR (still looking at the wall): What’s that?
ISOBEL: How come his watch is still tellin’ the right time?
(DOCTOR looks at ISOBEL in surprise, then to skeleton. She points to his wrist, with a working digital watch still attached to it. The DOCTOR looks at it, and back to ISOBEL.)
DOCTOR (bewildered): Well how can that be?
ISOBEL: Now he’s back to askin’ me stuff, we see.
15. (DOCTOR and ISOBEL, backpacks shouldered, look out over the open vista of the Highlands. ISOBEL has a map open. No sign of human habitation.)
DOCTOR: So what now?
ISOBEL: We wait for a bus.
(THE DOCTOR looks quizzical, goes to reply.)
ISOBEL: Joke. No bus. We walk. An’ we try not t’ end up like your friend back there.
(They start walking.)
DOCTOR: How long..?
ISOBEL (interrupting, firmly): Long.
(The DOCTOR looks chastised. They walk a little further, ISOBEL going ahead. She suddenly stops, listens and turns round.)
ISOBEL: Wait! You hear that?
DOCTOR: What?
ISOBEL (not looking to him, listening intently): The music.
DOCTOR: There’s no music.
ISOBEL: There’s music.
(ISOBEL walks a few steps, then points.)
ISOBEL: From over there.
(ISOBEL starts walking keenly in that direction.)
DOCTOR (insistent): There’s nothing.
ISOBEL (without looking back): Come on.
(Annoyed, the DOCTOR follows.)
ISOBEL (glancing back): Hear it now?
DOCTOR (crossly): No!
(A folk tune starts to fade in, lively yet haunting. ISOBEL follows it like a Bisto kid. She starts to hum along.)
16. (Shallow ford. ISOBEL reaches it, and strides splashingly across the stream like she doesn’t notice it’s there. The DOCTOR arrives after her, pauses, and carefully steps across the stepping stones.)
17. (As if we’ve crossed a threshold, ISOBEL is now not in the austere moorland but moving through long meadow grass. She’s humming more loudly, behaving in a carefree and childlike manner, her hands outstretched to brush the grass as she walks. The colour scheme also changes, from the naturalistic dark hues of the Highlands to the lush Technicolour of classic Hollywood, as below. A less obvious change than the jump to colour in ‘Wizard of Oz’, but still distinct.)
18. (Village. It’s built around a central square, itself centred by a well. Behind it is a stone church with two bells in a low, open tower. Around it are low-roofed, stone, thatched cottages. In the square the villagers are playing the tune. Bagpipers and fiddlers play, a drummer drums, though not separated from the watching crowd. CAMERON and LACHLAN dance a sword dance, over crossed swords. They also carry swords, which they ritualistically clang together, in time with the music. The MEN of the village stand in an inner circle watching, the WOMEN behind them. Everyone wears traditional highland dress. As the tune ends, with a flourishing gesture CAMERON strikes out with the sword. It ends up a few inches from ISOBEL’S face, the DOCTOR behind her. CAMERON sees her.)
CAMERON: I do beg your pardon, lassie. That’s no welcome to be havin’. I didnae ken you were there.
(CAMERON quickly sheathes sword, and instead offers ISOBEL a broad smile.)
CAMERON: We were just havin’ a bit o’ a tune. Cameron’s the name’s. My partner in the dance here would be Lachlan... (points at LACHLAN) And these…(gestures around him) …are the good people of Meirlich Anam, at your service.
ISOBEL (unimpressed): I’m Isobel. He’s the Doctor.
CAMERON (heartily, to the Doctor): A Doctor, eh? A Doctor of what?
ISOBEL (quickly): Is there a bus that stops here?
(Everybody laughs heartily. ISOBEL looks nonplussed and disaffected.)
CAMERON: There’s nae bus here, I’m afeared to say. Should we see one, we’d most like think it a beastie and… (unsheathing his sword again) ...take up arms against it.
(CAMERON laughs heartily at his joke, the villagers all joining in with him again.)
ISOBEL (tartly): And that’ll be the local sense of humour you have there?
CAMERON: What passes for one, aye. But why this talk of leavin’ when you’ve only just arrived? Surely you’ll be stayin’ a while?
ISOBEL (coldly): I’m obliged to you. But we’ve places to be.
CAMERON (gesturing flamboyantly around him): Here’s a place, is it not?
19. (Inside a Highland cottage, a single room. It’s charmingly rustic and old-fashioned, whitewashed walls, wooden beams across ceiling, wooden beds and furniture, fireplace in the chimney breast which doubles as a cooker. Mirror not fixed to wall but on an angled stand. Shafts of light pour in through the thin windows. UNA, a young woman also in highland dress, is finishing tucking the sheets into the second bed. CAMERON enters, followed by ISOBEL and the DOCTOR, carrying their backpacks by hand.)
CAMERON: Thanks to yer, Una.
(UNA nods thanks, and walks out backwards, still facing them, like a servant.)
CAMERON (to ISOBEL): It’s basic, that I’ll give yer. Not so many o’ yer mod cons.
ISOBEL (looking around, awed): I’ve done nothin’ but sleep in a tent for days. This is… it’s hard to believe it’s real.
(ISOBEL drops her bag and starts to walk around room, taking everything in. CAMERON taps a wall.)
CAMERON: It’s real, right enough. The beds are soft and the fire warm. Well, when it’s goin’, that is.
(CAMERON watches ISOBEL a second, looking around room, almost entranced.)
CAMERON: Well, I’ll leave yer to get y’selves settled.
(CAMERON leaves. ISOBEL immediately flops back on her bed, luxuriating in the feel of it.)
ISOBEL: A proper bed! It’s been a-while.
(ISOBEL looks over to DOCTOR. He’s stayed standing in the same spot.)
ISOBEL: What’s up wi’ you?
DOCTOR: There’s something… (struggles for words) …not right here.
ISOBEL: Comfort, I believe it might be called.
DOCTOR: I don’t think we should stay.
(ISOBEL sits up, and looks sharply at him.)
ISOBEL: Lis’sen, it was a stroke o’ luck us findin’ this place. We could have been wanderin’ the moors for days. Others have died o’ exposure out there. Besides, I could like it here e’en if you prefer gripin’.
DOCTOR: It seemed to me it was him you took to.
ISOBEL (laughing): So that’s it! Him! You’ve nae need to fret there. I couldnae have as high opinion o’ that one as he does o’ himself. No, it’s this place. Where is it we need to be? Out o’ sight. This looks about as far from pryin’ eyes as you’re likely to find.
DOCTOR: I still don’t like it.
ISOBEL: Oh dinna haver, misery guts! Get some sleep. The sun will set soon here, wi’ all the high hills. Then you’ll have more energy for moanin’ in the mornin’.
(ISOBEL turns on her side, away from THE DOCTOR.)
21. (Dawn over village.)
22. (Front of cottage. ISOBEL opens door and, wooden bucket on her arm, walks out purposefully towards well.)
CAMERON (from off): if it’s water you’re after, I’ve left yer some just there.
(ISOBEL sees CAMERON, leaning casually against front of cottage. Nearby is a full bucket of water, and beside that a flagon.)
CAMERON: And a flagon o’ fresh cider too, if that’s to your taste.
ISOBEL: White wine an’ spritzer more’s my line.
(ISOBEL picks up bucket, and moves to go back inside. Then she pauses.)
ISOBEL (formally, without looking round): I’m obliged.
CAMERON: Think nothin’ of it.
ISOBEL: Okay, then.
(ISOBEL goes back into cottage.)
23. (Dawn over village.)
24. (Front of cottage. ISOBEL walks purposefully out of cottage, empty bucket on her arm. She takes a few steps and her eyes inadvertently shift over to the side. CAMERON is there, with another filled bucket.)
CAMERON (with relish): You looked round, so yer did! Yes, I’ve a fresh pail for yer.
ISOBEL: No white wine and spritzer?
CAMERON: No, that proved hard to come by in these parts. Here.
(CAMERON picks up bucket and passes to ISOBEL. She takes it, but he doesn’t let go, and keeps looking at her.)
CAMERON: I’m hopin’, wi all me good actions, I’m proving me good intentions.
ISOBEL: Ulterior motives is all I can see.
CAMERON: One may bed down beside the other.
ISOBEL: Perhaps. Will yer be lettin’ go o’ that before the winter sets in?
(CAMERON releases the bucket, and ISOBEL takes it. She turns to go back inside.)
CAMERON (advancing slightly): And have you thought an o’ what we spoke of?
ISOBEL: I don’t think I have, as I’ve no notion what yer mean.
CAMERON: Why, takin’ a wee walk wi’ me across the moor.
(ISOBEL turns back, and fixed CAMERON with a hard glare.)
ISOBEL: You’re very sure o’ yourself, it seems.
CAMERON: I may be.
ISOBEL: Well, one o’ us has to, I suppose.
CAMERON: Say you’ll come, and I’ll let you have the other thing.
ISOBEL: What other thing?
CAMERON: Intrigued?
ISOBEL: No.
(ISOBEL turns to go back inside, then pauses and looks back.)
ISOBEL: What?
CAMERON: How about we make a proper highland lass of you?
20. (ISOBEL and CAMERON walk along Highland countryside, hills teeming with bright flowering heather. ISOBEL is now wearing a traditional dress, and admiring herself in it.)
ISOBEL: I’m still no’ gettin’ over how well it fits me.
CAMERON: Aye, like it was made for yer.
ISOBEL: Am I okay to wear it a while?
CAMERON: Och, the thing’s yours for keepin’. We’ve had no use of it since me Ma’s demise.
ISOBEL (pleasantly surprised): Yer sure?
CAMERON: Why ever not? Here’s the place now.
(A bucolic spot beside a brook. ISOBEL and CAMERON sit side-by-side.)
ISOBEL (flirtingly): I hope a young lass like me is safe all the way out there wi’ a strange man, and you won’t be takin’ any advantage.
CAMERON: Ah, I’m the way me Ma raised me. I feel a rap on the knuckles for so much as thinkin’ wrong.
ISOBEL: I’m not quite sure you’ve got my meanin’. I said…
(ISOBEL moves closer to CAMERON.)
ISOBEL: ...I hope a young lass like me is safe wi’ you.
CAMERON: Aye, quite safe.
ISOBEL (laughing): It seems I must make me meanin’ clearer still..
(ISOBEL pulls CAMERON in and goes to kiss him. A second’s hesitation, then he returns it. As they kiss the folk tune fades back in. They stop.)
CAMERON: Well you’re a forward one an’ no mistake.
ISOBEL: If I’d o’ left it to yew, I’d ha’ been fendin’ you off with me bus pass. And precious use that’d be, when there’s no bus here.
CAMERON: Will it taste as good again, wi’out the surprise?
(ISOBEL acts out considering this.)
ISOBEL: We can find out.
(They kiss again. Pause.)
CAMERON: Well, ye’ve been forward with me, and no mistake. Can I be as forward wi’ yew?
ISOBEL: You can.
CAMERON: I’d like you stay.
ISOBEL (laughing): Seems to me I already am!
CAMERON (more seriously, awkwardly, not looking to ISOBEL): No. I mean… stay. You know, just… (at a loss for words) ...stay.
ISOBEL: Y’mean… no’ leave?
CAMERON: I do.
ISOBEL: Here wi’ you?
CAMERON: That’s my meanin’, aye.
(Pause)
ISOBEL (lightly): Okay, then.
CAMERON (joyously, now looking straight at her): D’ye mean it now?
ISOBEL: I do. I was nae really goin’ anywhere anyway. Now c’mere you…
(ISOBEL moves towards CAMERON again. But he jumps up.)
CAMERON: The moment needs markin’. I’ll cut ye’ a sprig o’ bonny heather, as a token o’ me esteem.
ISOBEL (laughing): I preferred that other token if I’m truthful.
CAMERON: Gi’ us our traditions.
(CAMERON pulls out a small pocket knife and enthusiastically cuts into some heather. As he cuts he keeps looking back to ISOBEL.)
CAMERON: We’re folk who keep to the old ways… ow!
(CAMERON pulls his hand away, then shelters it behind his other arm.)
ISOBEL (moving forward, concerned): Are yer cut there?
CAMERON (defensively): Och, I’m fine.
ISOBEL (reaching out with her hand): Let me see. I’m a nurse. Or was…
CAMERON (turning away): It’s just a wee nick.
(ISOBEL tries to come round the other side of him.)
ISOBEL: Just let me see.
CAMERON (sharply, turning away again): I tell yer I’m fine.
(Pause)
ISOBEL (taken somewhat aback): I was just seein’ you were okay.
CAMERON: I know. Sorry. I… I just can’t abide any fussin’.
ISOBEL (slightly indignantly): And I was fussin’, was I?
CAMERON: No. It was just… look, I’ll be off now. I should be puttin’ a bindin’ on this.
(CAMERON starts to move off.)
ISOBEL: Before you do, wash the cut. Clean water, straight from the well. Y’ don’t want any infection.
CAMERON: Aye, I’ll do that. I… I’ll see you later then.
ISOBEL (tartly): So it would seem.
CAMERON: Aye, I…
(CAMERON can’t think how to finish what he’s saying and goes. ISOBEL sits alone, looking put out. She looks down on the ground, spots the cut heather sprig and picks it up. Some drops of blood have fallen on it. She holds it up and looks at it more closely.)
ISOBEL: So tell me, Mr. Bloodstain, why would you be black?
More to come...
No comments:
Post a Comment