Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [38]
SAM: Where am I?
[There’s no answer, although SAM has presumably noticed the figure lurking in the shadows.]
SAM: I said, where am I?
COMPASSION: You’re safe.
SAM: Oh yeah? What kind of ‘safe’ is that, then?
COMPASSION: Our kind of safe. Obviously.
SAM [looking around]: How did I get here?
[There’s a pause. Then COMPASSION – as played by NICOLE KIDMAN (but with an English accent) – steps out of the shadows.
[Note that we’re seeing COMPASSION as SAM sees her, so the woman’s usual slightly superior attitude is going to be exaggerated in this scene.]
COMPASSION: You don’t remember? We didn’t think the weapons caused brain damage.
SAM: I was… running.
* * *
Scene 2. The Hotel Stairwell
[Flashback sequence, so black and white. We see SAM burst through the doors into the stairwell, and hurl herself down the stairs. A second figure hurries through the doors behind her.
[The sequence lasts only a second, before we cut back to…]
* * *
Scene 3. The Hotel Room
SAM: The stairwell. You were following me –
COMPASSION: Obviously.
* * *
Scene 4. The Hotel Stairwell
[Flashback, black and white. Fast‐paced sequence, so lots of rapid cuts. SAM hurtles down the stairs, two at a time, finally reaching the stairwell on the next level down. She turns, to look up at her pursuer.
[COMPASSION holds GUEST’s gun. As soon as we see her, she opens fire. Cut back to SAM as a metallic dart flies from the end of the gun, trailing a length of metal wire behind it.
[The dart plants itself in SAM’s chest. She shrieks. There’s the crackling of electricity.
[The moment she hits the ground, we cut back to the present.]
* * *
Scene 5. The Hotel Room
SAM: Ow.
COMPASSION: Just a stun gun. From COPEX. We thought we’d use contemporary technology for once. They told us the guns go up to 150,000 volts, but we thought that’d be pushing it.
SAM: ‘Contemporary’?
COMPASSION [sighs]: What I mean is, we thought we’d try out the local weapons. They do the job pretty well.
SAM [irked]: I know what ‘contemporary’ means. You’re human, aren’t you?
COMPASSION: Obviously I’m human. Why?
SAM: You don’t look human. Guest doesn’t, either. You look like all the wrinkles have been ironed out. Is that natural? Or is it just a PR thing?
[COMPASSION absent‐mindedly starts stroking her own face.]
COMPASSION: It’s the way it goes. The last Compassion looked more human than I did.
SAM: The last Compassion?
[COMPASSION stops stroking her face. Perhaps realising she’s said too much, she doesn’t answer the question.]
SAM: Come on. You’ve got me tied up. You can tell me everything now. Who are you? I mean, who are you really?
[COMPASSION frowns, then touches the receiver in her ear.]
SAM: What are you doing?
COMPASSION: Shh. I’m trying to figure out whether I’m supposed to be talking to you or not.
SAM: You’re getting instructions? Through that thing in your ear? [SAM suddenly realises what’s on her neck.] Wait a minute. I’ve got one of those things, too. Are you trying to…?
COMPASSION [irritated]: I’m not getting instructions. Don’t be stupid.
SAM: Then what are you doing?
COMPASSION: Listening. To the transmissions. [Shakes her head.] Your planet’s hopeless, you know that? The transmissions are so slow around here.
SAM: Hold on, hold on. What transmissions?
COMPASSION: The local transmissions. From your medianets.
SAM: You mean… television?
COMPASSION: Whatever you want to call it. I’m picking up a lot of radio waves, as well.
SAM: I don’t get it. What are you listening to our transmissions for? What good’s that going to do you?
COMPASSION [as if it were a stupid question]: So I can decide what to do. I don’t know how I’m supposed to deal with you, all right? And I’m the one who’s meant to be looking after security around here.
[SAM thinks about this.]
SAM: OK. Let me make sure I’ve got this right. You’ve got those… receiver things… in your ears all the time?
COMPASSION: Most of the time.
SAM: So you’re always picking up signals. From anything that’s