Act 8: A Race They Ain't Winning
As Eight heads the bike away from the Institute, this conversation happens:
Grace: So, do you know what's going to happen to me?
Eight: You don't want to know!
Grace: Right, you can't not tell me!
Eight: Grace--
Grace: (mock horrified) Oh God! Brian's gonna move in again?!
Eight: (patient) I can't say.
Grace: Please??
Eight: (shaking his head) The universe hangs by such a delicate thread of coincidences, it's useless to meddle with it, unless, like me, you're a Time Lord.
Grace: (resigned) All right. So just give me a few pointers!
Eight: (chuckles)
They ride on and eventually arrive at the TARDIS; the bike snaps the crime scene tape as they drive through it. "There she is," Eight says, fondness in his voice as he looks at the TARDIS. They approach the door--and then Eight stops, remembering he still doesn't have the key because Lee's still got all his stuff.
Grace begins to say, "Now, I always leave a key in a secret compartment--"
"Above the door," Eight finishes with her. "Great minds think alike. Up you go!" He gives her a boost up to where she can reach the top of the TARDIS, right above the words "POLICE BOX." "It's in a cubbyhole above the 'P'," he advises, and she reaches into said compartment and finds the spare key.
She jumps back down and gives him the key, and as he's fitting the key into the strange keyhole, she asks, "Why a police box?"
"Its cloaking device got stuck on a previous misadventure--I like it like this," Eight replies, shrugging.
He gets the door open, but no sooner has he done that than a random motorcycle-riding police officer comes down the alleyway, hollering "I got no brakes!" Eight merely stands aside, allowing the officer to drive straight into the TARDIS; sounds of tires slightly screeching can be heard briefly before it fades away. Eight just stands there, amused; Grace is looking curiously into the TARDIS, and then the officer emerges and drives off, yelling with confusion. The police siren fades away; Eight just grins, and Grace laughs, saying "Oh my!" as they walk in.
As soon as they come in, a strange tolling sound can be heard. Even as Grace exclaims "Wow" upon walking into the TARDIS, Eight is on the alert. "You hear that?" he asks, worry evident in his voice.
"Yeah."
"That's a warning--the TARDIS is dying." He goes to the central console and fiddles with a few of the knobs and levers, too worried about his ship to be concerned with Grace's exclamations of amazement. "It's no good," he says at last. "We don't even have enough auxiliary power to move next door." One of the readouts is blinking "Timing Malfunction," just as it did before Seven landed on Earth at the beginning of the film. Eight motions toward Grace. "The beryllium chip, Grace."
"Yes, Doctor," she says, coming over and handing him the chip.
"Careful."
"Yes, Doctor," she says again, with no small amount of irony in her voice (she is a medical professional, after all).
Eight kneels beside the console, starting to put the beryllium chip in. Grace remarks, "This looks pretty low-tech."
"Low-tech!" Eight tosses aside a random bit of wiring as he says it. "This is a type-40 TARDIS, able to take you to any planet in the universe and to any date in that planet's existence." He looks up at her. "Temporal physics."
"Oh! Like interdimensional transference?" Grace asks. "That would explain the spatial displacement we experienced as we passed over the threshold." (I've watched this movie a bazillion jillion times and I STILL can't figure out if Grace is being dead serious or if she's just messing with him. LOL)
Eight looks at her, appraising. "Yes, if you like." He snaps the beryllium chip into place. "YES!" The machinery beeps, and in the Cloister Room, the Eye of Harmony slowly begins to close. "There! The Eye's closing."
Grace breathes a sigh of relief. "Now, let's see..." Eight muses as he begins to work with the central console again--and finds it unresponsive, despite his best efforts. "Oh, come on, come on!" But he gets no response from his input. "Oh, no," he breathes. "I have a horrible feeling we're already too late."
"Well, it's 11:48, we still have 11 minutes!" Grace protests.
"Yes, but that is no context!" Eight replies. "Hold on." He adjusts one control, and the ceiling above them changes to a view of space, complete with planets and the Sun, like an observatory.
"What are you doing?" Grace asks, as he fiddles with yet another dial.
"I'm setting coordinates for one minute after midnight," Eight explains. Above them, the view of space shows multiple catastrophic explosions. "If this is true, the Eye's been open too long, and there is no future. I only hope...no!"
"Is this thing reliable?"
"Whatever's happening can't be stopped by closing the Eye," Eight concludes.
"Well, how come you didn't know that?" Grace is starting to panic now.
"I...haven't opened the Eye before," Eight admits.
Grace sighs. "Now you tell me!" She stalks to the other side of the console, frustrated.
"Grace," Eight says, seeking to calm her with a plan, "closing the Eye may not be enough. We have to go back to before the Eye was open, maybe even before we arrived."
"Well, this IS a time machine!" Grace points out.
"With no power!"
"What?"
Eight sighs. "The Eye being open so long must have drained the TARDIS."
"Great!"
"I'm sorry!"
Grace is frustrated but not about to give up. "You must have the power to get back--you MUST!"
"Not enough!"
"What about all those glorious predictions?" Grace demands, looking at him through the glass of the central column. "All that knowledge about what's going to happen to Gareth, to me, to this city? That must come from somewhere! Think!"
As she speaks, Eight covers his face with his hands, overwhelmed. Then something occurs to him. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you any good at setting alarm clocks?"
Grace scoffs, incredulous. "No!"
"Grace...!"
"I'll try." She comes back over to his side of the console.
"Listen very carefully, Grace." Eight sets his box of tools on the console. "We preset the coordinates, just as I divert the power from within the Eye itself into the time lock to here."
"We jump-start the TARDIS?" Grace asks, daring to hope again.
"We jump-start the TARDIS!" Eight echoes with relief.
Grace, happy that they have a working plan, asks, "What do I do?"
"Hit the top switch on the console there," Eight instructs. "The top one."
Grace moves the switch from left to right, gingerly. "Good," Eight says from underneath the console. "Now, pass me the neutron ram." But as he speaks, Grace's hands begin to shake, and her fingers curl uncontrollably; she clutches her head, grimacing. "Grace? Grace, the neutron ram," Eight prompts, unaware of what's happening. "Look, I'll show you--"
Grace has already grabbed said neutron ram, but instead of handing it to Eight, she hits him over the head with it, knocking him unconscious. Grasping the tool, we see that her eyes have turned almost completely black; she looks away from Eight toward the other side of the TARDIS...where the Master and Lee stand waiting. The Master smiles at Grace, a sinister expression, and she returns the smile with just as much evil.