The Doctor and The Captain - Book One

S1 EP7: The Long Game Part 3

"It may interest you to know that this is NOT the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." he informs the two men.

"Grrr!"

"Yep. Yep. Sorry." he says, as the Doctor and Captain look over to Rose. "It's a place where humans are allowed to live, by kind permission of my client" he points up to the ceiling.

All three look up to see a giant lump hanging from the ceiling, with a very nasty set of teeth in a mouth on the end of a pseudopod.

"Grrr!" it growls.

"What is that?" Rose asks.

"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" the Doctor asks looking up.

"That 'thing', as you put it, is in charge of the human race." he says making both men look back down to the Editor. "For almost 100 years, mankind has been shaped and guided. His knowledge and ambition, strictly controlled, by its broadcast news. Edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe."

The Doctor smiles and nods, the Captain is still looking up at the creature. "That's a mouthful." the Captain says.

"I call him Max." the Editor says.

___________

Adam walks through the cafeteria and as Cathica approaches he pretends he's looking at his watch, she walks past him and to the open mainframe that the Doctor and Captain had opened. Adam walks off through a doorway. Cathica moves the monitor so she can see it.

She then walks to the lift and puts in a code, the door closes.

___________

"Create a climate of fear, and it's easy to keep the borders closed." he says to the three people that have been placed in hefty sets of manacles. "It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy. Invent an enemy. Change a vote."

"So all the people on Earth are like... slaves?" Rose asks the Editor.

"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

"Yes." the Doctor and Captain reply at the same time.

"Oh, I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm gonna get? 'Yes'?" the Editor complains.

"Yes." the two men reply at the same time again.

"You're no fun." the man laughs.

"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am." the Doctor says.

"Oh, he's tough, isn't he? But come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

"You can't hide something on this scale, somebody must've noticed." Rose says.

"From time to time, someone, yes. But the computer-chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt. And crush it." he walks down the room and turns around to face the three again.

Cathica arrives on Floor 500. Adam goes to the broadcast room on 139.

"And then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs.." the Doctor, Rose and the Captain notices on a monitor behind the Editor that Cathica has entered Floor 500. "..and all over the surface of the Earth, like they're SO individual. When, of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."