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SAM: What?

[The Doctor indicates a name plate set into the side of the incubator’s casing. SAM reads it.]

SAM: Mark Lessing? [Realising.] But he’s the one who –

DOCTOR: Who sold the Ordificans out to the aliens. Who will sell the Ordificans out to the aliens. Who will, twenty-seven years from now, arrange for them to be placed on board the carrier ship to the colony.

[The DOCTOR looks at the baby inside the incubator.]

DOCTOR: We always expect them to be so innocent, don’t we?

[He raises his hand, and we see what he’s holding. It’s a syringe, full of something red and slightly fluorescent.]

SAM [shocked]: What are you…? I mean, how…?

[The DOCTOR looks at her, but doesn’t answer.]

SAM: No. No, you can’t seriously –

DOCTOR: We don’t have a choice. If the aliens transmit from Ordifica, we lose everything. Earth. Gallifrey. Every civilisation in this continuum, and probably quite a few others.

SAM: There’s got to be another way of doing this! Some other change you can make… anything…

DOCTOR: It has to be this. It has to be now. It’s all in the equations.

[SAM shakes her head. She doesn’t seem able to speak.]

DOCTOR: He’s destined to die anyway, Sam. We saw what happened to Mark Lessing back on Ordifica. The aliens betrayed him, just as he betrayed the colony. We’ve already seen him lose his life once. And nobody seemed sorry then.

SAM [quietly]: I know.

DOCTOR: If you want to go back to the TARDIS –

[The DOCTOR is interrupted by a quiet hissing noise, the sound of one of the doors opening. Startled, both he and SAM peer through the doorway into the first nursery chamber.]

* * *

Scene 51. The Nursery

[One of the other doors in the blue room has opened. We get a glimpse of two dark, leathery shapes entering the nursery, folding up their wings as they step through the doorway. Then we cut away.]

* * *

Scene 52. The Nursery (Section 2)

[The DOCTOR grabs SAM’s hand, and presses the syringe into it, not taking his eyes off the doorway. SAM looks at the thing in her palm, obviously horrified.]

DOCTOR: Hold that.

[Then the DOCTOR dashes across the violet section, and disappears through the doorway.]

SAM: Doctor!

* * *

Scene 53. The Nursery

[We see the scene from the doorway where the CREATURES entered, so we’re looking straight at the DOCTOR as he hurries into the room. Hence, we don’t get to see the CREATURES face on: we can just see their wings flexing in the foreground, at the edges of our vision.

[The DOCTOR stops halfway across the floor, between the rows of incubators. Faster than we can comfortably follow, he reaches into his pocket, and draws out the sonic screwdriver. Then he holds it up in front of his face, aiming it at the CREATURES.]

DOCTOR: Stay back. You know I’m not afraid to use this.

FIRST CREATURE [FX on voice]: We also know it’s not a weapon.

DOCTOR: Well, of course it’s not a weapon. That’s why I’m not afraid to use it.

SECOND CREATURE: Drop the sonic device, Time Lord.

[The DOCTOR thinks about this for a few moments.]

DOCTOR: No.

[He presses the trigger on the screwdriver. Immediately, the air is filled with a high-pitched – almost ultrasonic – screeching sound.

[The DOCTOR screws up his face, the noise evidently causing him some discomfort. The effect on the CREATURES is far greater, though. We get the impression they’re swaying on their feet, falling to their knees.]

* * *

Scene 54. The Nursery (Section 2)

[SAM holds the syringe in her hand, which is quite clearly shaking.]

SAM [shouting]: Doctor –

DOCTOR [shouting back]: They’re more receptive to high-frequency noise than we are, but it’s not going to hold them off for ever.

SAM [shouting]: Doctor, I can’t –

DOCTOR [shouting back]: Sam, please! The power cells are almost drained. I can’t keep this up for much longer.

[SAM stares at the syringe in her hand. The screeching continues.]

SAM: You mean… you want me to…?

* * *

Scene 55. The Nursery

[The DOCTOR holds down the trigger, a pained