No Cause For Concern (TV story)

***No Cause for Concern*** was the sixth episode of Series 8 of *Doctor Who*.

## Synopsis

The Ruby City Starfighter Corps are the best in the galaxy and everyone wants to meet and be friends with its best pilot: Lexi Tuno!

Never mind that the head of the Corps seems to have been missing for the past 3 years or that the sun seems to have exploded but no one has noticed or that people are waking up to find their pets talking back to them, but look, the talking squid on TV is reminding you that there is no reason for concern and everything is normal.

A malicious plot to harvest people’s minds to make them slaves? Impossible!

Everything is fine.

## Plot

*(The entire episode is set during a chat show and is hence shot like one)*

**Day One:**

The episode starts in black before static and then a voiceover, stating a sponsored message from the state will play before the regularly timetabled show will play. A humanoid squid appears, against a black background and proclaims that there is nothing to worry about; no cause for concern.
More static leads into the show’s opening credits and then the show begins, with Marko Strickland as the host, addressing the audience. He introduces Lexi Tuno as the show’s first guest, calling her the Ruby City’s Starfighter Corps’ best pilot, which she accepts with glee.
They perform a very standard interview, but over time, Lexi grows more and more annoyed at the questions and eventually snaps, ranting about how blind the population of the planet is, citing that they’ve all missed that the sun has exploded and the head of the Corps is now missing. A voice from the audience cries out, backing her up. The cameras move around to see the Fifteenth Doctor in the audience, standing up from her seat, who also calls the population completely blind. Marko calls for security and the Doctor is dragged out, Lexi protesting off-camera who is then silenced.
**Day Two:**

More static and another broadcast from the Squid before Marko introduces the show again to the audience. He announces the planet’s latest news; the Squid has ordered a 30% cull of the population, citing the lack of resources as the reason, annual train journeys have increased by 40% and Lexi Tuno has returned to active service, apologising for her outburst the previous day and claims she is back to normal, having undergone “classical conditioning.” He reassures the audience that there’s nothing to worry about and that she’s fine, also apologising for there only being one camera in use this episode, the crew members for the other two cameras have appeared to have gone missing.
To confirm this, they cut to live footage of starfighters flying above the city, Tuno being seen from the lead cockpit of the front ship. However, the footage is interrupted by foreign video, the screen at first being black, voices being heard and then someone takes the cap off the camera. The Doctor adjusts herself and then begins to ask the audience why no one can seem to stop watching this show when it’s on, in fact, every day, the entire population of the planet is watching it. She wonders why a simple chat show should be announcing the news and criticises the population for not asking these questions. She turns off the broadcast and it cuts back to Marko who sits at his desk stunned before he ends the show.
**Day Three:**

The next day, Marko proclaims that he is simply “the Host” now and makes vague references to Parliament deciding the people cannot be trusted with names anymore, ‘lest they be inspired to revolt. He introduces his next guest, a woman who brings on her pet dog, who is now apparently speaking to her. Marko puts the dog on his desk and encourages him to speak, but the dog remains silent for a while. Marko then lightly mocks the woman for thinking the dog could talk, which prompts the dog to start screaming about how he used to be Comparian before he broke free of what he calls “the message” and Parliament punished him for it with a brain transplant. He runs off. A faint gunshot. The woman is unconcerned. Marko is in disbelief.
**Day Four:**

No static or Squid broadcast, Marko just sits at his desk, staring at the camera blankly before putting his head in his hands and sighs. Someone rushes onset and begins to wheel him away just as it cuts to black.
**Day Five:**

The new host apologises for Marko's behaviour, such as Marko had done for Lexi, but made no references to any form of "classical conditioning". He then goes over local city news, which are read out in a slightly bored tone, despite their eccentric nature.
**Day Six:**

Static again but no broadcast, the host looks worse for the wear as he apologises again for the only one camera and monotonically announces the news that Parliament has been concerned with the increasing number of rebels, conducting protests in cities around the planet.
Breaking news interrupts the show as a journalist reports that the Squid’s ship is leaving the planet due to rebels having stormed his palace and gets her cameraman to focus on it as it flies off before it suddenly explodes. The journalist simply stares at it as it turns back to the chat show. The audience and the host are silent, simply watching the news being displayed on the wall when the Doctor bursts in and demands the attention of the camera, to which the cameraman obeys. The Doctor addresses the audience at home directly through the camera, stating that whilst she cannot condone the destruction of the Squid’s ship which was destroyed by angry protestors who had already broken free of the Squid’s conditioning, she encourages everyone to start a revolution against the remaining government, lamenting that she never did find out the identity of the Squid, but explains he just wanted to control a planet and so arrived one day with the technology, quickly and secretly fitting himself into Parliament in order to be able to plant the technology into their culture.
The Doctor explains that she has been introducing counter-signals with her companion, who have been secretly working behind the scenes on the show (they are sometimes seen throughout the episode in the background as cameramen or behind stage runners, etc) through the broadcasts of the show, that slowly counter and remove the brainwashing signals of the Squid. Her sudden appearances have therefore been to introduce new ideas and messages that the audience could then start to properly think about now the brainwashing signals have been overruled.
She states that it’s now down to them, the counter-signals have been running long enough to properly reach everyone. She turns off the camera with her sonic and it pans out to view a family all watching TV together who begin to gather items to fight with and then out of the window to show the whole city coming outside and preparing to storm Parliament.
## Cast

* The Doctor - Eva Green
* Michelle Moore - Gillian Jacobs
* "The Squid" - Andy Serkis
* Lexi Tuno - TBC
* Marko Strickland - TBC
* Chat Show Host - TBC
* Woman - TBC
* Journalist - TBC

## Story Notes

* A working title for this episode was *Everything is Fine*.

 Christmas Special | *TBA*