VTV Series Episode 5: The Hill Has Eyes

The Doctor pulled Katie from the side of the tent to the middle of it. The badgers continued to rip the tent apart with their sharp claws. Chris, Lucy and Mae followed the Doctor into the centre of the tent. Bits of cloth flew about the tent, and it wouldn’t be long until the badgers found a gap and got in.

“Doctor do something! Katie shouted.
“Like what?” the Doctor shouted back over the noise of the badgers snapping angrily.
“I dunno, do something alien!” Katie said. “Use the Sonic Screwdriver!”
“To do what?!” the Doctor said. “Use it as a torch when we’re inside the badgers stomachs?”
“Doesn’t it have a super-laser?” Katie asked incredulously.
“No!” the Doctor said.
“What about another weapon? Have you got a laser spanner?”
“No, it was stolen…” the Doctor said.
“Please Doctor! If you don’t do something, we’re all gonna die!” Katie said desperately.
“Lucy, did you bring a car?” the Doctor asked, turning to her.
“Err, yeah!” Lucy replied, terrified.
“Bellisimo!” the Doctor said.

The Doctor extended the barrel of the Sonic Screwdriver, and pressed the button on setting 1374. Outside in the small car park, Lucy Brown’s Street Ka switched on. The car shot forwards and burst into the tent, sending badgers flying. Lucy grabbed her car keys but the Doctor opened the car with the Sonic Screwdriver. Lucy jumped into the driver’s seat, Chris slipped into the front passenger seat, and Mae, the Doctor and Katie piled in the back. The badgers rushed at the car, but Lucy slammed the acceleration down, and the car zoomed out of the other side of the tent, leaving two car sized holes in the tent.

“They’d better not have scratched the paintwork!” Lucy muttered, as the car flew around a corner.
“My poor lovelies!” Chris said. “Do you think any of them were hurt when the car hit them?”
“Nah, course not!” the Doctor said, trying to reassure them. “They’ll be fine!”
“But being hit by a car… Even humans can’t survive it sometimes,” Chris said sadly.
“Don’t worry Chris,” Katie soothed. “You’re badgers were possessed, so they’ll be stronger! They’re bound to have survived!”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at Katie, who shrugged. It was getting dark by the time the car reached central London. Katie’s legs were aching from being squashed into the car, and she was glad to be getting out of it. Lucy had dropped Mae off at her house, and Chris left for the wildlife club to pick up a few leaflets for new spots to see badgers. The Doctor had warned Chris not to go back to the site, in case the badgers were still possessed, but Chris didn’t need telling twice. Lucy stopped the Street Ka down the road where the TARDIS was parked. The Doctor and Katie got out.

“Thanks for the lift!” the Doctor said.
“It’s no problem!” Lucy said. “Any time you need a story putting in the paper, you call.”
“Will do!” the Doctor grinned. “What paper do you write for anyway?”
“The Independent,” Lucy said. “Goodbye Katie!”
“See you around!” Katie grinned, as Lucy drove off in her car.

The Doctor and Katie began walking back to the TARDIS, before they remembered it had lost power and couldn’t move from the spot it had parked in. Katie laughed at the Doctor’s hopelessness, but was worried she wouldn’t be able to return home.

“Now what are we gonna do?” Katie asked. “It’s way past tea time.”
“Well, I know a very amiable woman who’ll let us stay at her B&B, but first let’s have chips!” the Doctor said. “The nearest chippy’s this way!”
“Oooh I fancy some chips!” Katie said.
“Along with Brad Pitt?” the Doctor grinned, running down the street.
“I do not!” Katie protested, running after him. “I’m more of a Milo Ventimiglia person!”

“Do you ever sleep?” Katie asked the Doctor.
“Nope,” the Doctor grinned.

Katie yawned. The Doctor had sat all night in a chair beside the window while she had slept. Even though it was eleven o’clock, Katie would have gladly slept for a few more hours. She didn’t have anymore clothes, they were all in the TARDIS, so she wore the same jacket and jeans. Her hair was a mess. She attempted to comb it with her fingers while she and the Doctor left the B&B.

“You could hardly call that a B&B,” Katie said as they left the building.
“Why not? It’s a lovely place,” the Doctor said.
“Well the duvet was scratchy, and there wasn’t breakfast in sight!” Katie grumbled, annoyed at her failing attempts to comb her hair without a comb. “And I look like a tramp!”
“No change there then!” the Doctor said, laughing.
“What about your hair?” Katie asked.
“What’s wrong with it?” the Doctor asked, subconsciously running his hand through it.

Katie decided it would be funnier to leave it at that. The Doctor stopped at the bus stop.

“What? The bus again?” Katie asked. “Where’s the flashy car I was promised? That’s the only reason I came on this trip.”
“I ain’t got no Ferrari Doll,” the Doctor said, putting on a gruff voice.
“Then gimme the money or I’ll blow your brains out!” Katie replied, putting on a higher gruff voice.

They laughed, and did not notice the other people staring as the bus pulled up. Fifteen minutes and five stops later, the Doctor and Katie reached the Theraflu Club. The field where Chris Fulton was attacked by his lovelies was two minutes away, and when they reached it, the Doctor hopped over the stile as if he and the country were old friends. Katie found it more difficult, and would’ve fallen into a mud puddle if the Doctor hadn’t held her up. Everything was quiet, the bird song the loudest thing around. There were no badgers today, and the Doctor didn’t find any when he looked into their burrows either.

“There’s no one home!” the Doctor said, standing up from the burrow.
“They all went on holiday?” Katie asked.
“Yeah. They’re probably digging up your garden in America now!” the Doctor said.
“D’you think they’ll plant a few roses while they’re at it?” Katie laughed.

A yellow flash from behind the hill stopped the Doctor’s reply. He walked up the field and to the base of the hill. Katie followed him, avoiding cow pats and mud.

“Doctor, why are there cow pats?” Katie asked.
“Well the cows have a full stomach and –” the Doctor began.
“No!” Katie laughed. “I mean, there aren’t any cows!”
“Oh.”

The Doctor ran around the edge of the hill, following the bleeps of his Sonic Screwdriver. Katie followed, looking over the Doctor’s shoulder. He stopped dead as they nearly wandered off the edge of a crater. Inside the vast pit were several skeletons. Katie couldn’t work out what they were, but she had an idea.

“No cows…” Katie repeated to herself.
“Looks like it isn’t the cows that have a full stomach,” the Doctor said darkly.
“Why is there a crater in the base of a hill? Surely someone must’ve noticed it,” Katie said.
“They did,” the Doctor said, pointing to several human skeletons. “Any people who discovered the crater were eaten alive.”
“Chris didn’t mention this…” Katie said.
“He probably didn’t see it,” the Doctor said. “Whoever’s possessing the badgers didn’t want him hanging around, watching them.”
“So what made the crater?” Katie asked. “A meteorite?”
“A spaceship,” the Doctor said, leading Katie around the hill, away from the crater.

The Doctor and Katie stopped at a large hole in the hill. The Doctor whipped out the Sonic Screwdriver and used it as a torch. Katie held the Doctor’s hand so she didn’t get lost in the near dark conditions. They walked down corridors, cut out of the earth.

“This must go right under the hill!” Katie said.
“Like a maze,” the Doctor noticed.
“So we can’t get back out…?” Katie asked.
“It’s ok, the Sonic Screwdriver’s tracking our path, we’ll be ok,” the Doctor said.
“It’s like using string to find our way back!” Katie said.
“But more reliable,” the Doctor muttered.

“We’re in a control room!” Katie said, as they stepped into a larger chamber, and stopped.
“No sign of any aliens,” the Doctor said, looking at a desk full of high tech computers.
“What is that?” Katie asked, pointing at the computers.
“It’s a monitoring circuit,” the Doctor said, studying it.
“What’s that? Why are there no aliens?”
“They’ve left,” the Doctor said. “Monitoring circuits are placed in buildings on planets, and when the alien knows enough about the planet, it invades.”
“How much does this know?” Katie asked, joining the Doctor at the computers.
“Well hardly anything. For starters, shoving it into a hill wasn’t the best idea. I suppose it was to catch humans when they aren’t at work, at their most relaxed. The computer’s spying on you lot!” the Doctor said.
“Not my lot!” Katie reminded him. “England’s lot! The hill has eyes!”
“That’s spooky,” the Doctor said.
“Thanks!” Katie laughed.
“Not that, the noise. Can’t you hear it?” the Doctor asked.
“Nope.”
“My hearing’s better, wait a second and you’ll hear it, it’s getting louder,” the Doctor said, raising a hand to indicate Katie should be quiet.
“I can! But what does it mean?” Katie asked, whispering.
“We’ve been discovered. The circuit’s sending in the troops,” the Doctor said.
“Who? The aliens? Are they coming?” Katie asked.
“No… The badgers!” the Doctor said.

Pulling out the Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor deactivated the computer. The bleeping noise increased. Katie could hear the thump of paws of earth as the badgers ran along the earthen passages. They were coming from all sides. The Doctor and Katie were trapped.

“Doctor what do we do?”
“We have to get rid of the energy; or the monitoring circuit will fix itself. But where do we put it?” the Doctor wondered to himself.
“The STARDIS!” Katie shouted. “You can fix it!”
“Ah ha!” the Doctor shouted, getting to work.
“Doctor the badgers are coming!” Katie shouted.
“Done!” the Doctor said, grinning.

The TARDIS materialised in the control room. Katie grinned and ran into the TARDIS. The Doctor followed and it dematerialised as the badgers burst into the room. The monitoring circuit blew up, and the badger’s eyes turned from yellow to their normal colours. They had been released, and now they had been left alone to live in peace, in their huge under-the-hill burrows!

“Where do you wanna go now the TARDIS is fixed?” the Doctor asked.
“I dunno. Really dunno. Wherever you want,” Katie said, brushing her hair.
“I know just the place!” the Doctor grinned, leaping round the console.

TARDIS Entry 2 – Fixed!

The Doctor and Katie fixed me! Well, not me, I’m the scanner, but the TARDIS herself! We can travel again! Oooh I think we’re going to Florida! Oooh that tickles! Stop it! Doctor stop it! Ha ha ha ha ha! Stop it! The tickling! It’s making me laugh! I can’t complete the entry! Oh the tickling!

The End.