Garner: New York. The city of a million stories. Half of them are true, the other half just haven’t happened yet. Statues, the man said. Living statues that moved in the dark.
Grayle (Mike McShane): So, will you take the case, Mr. Garner?
Sam Garner (Rob David): Sure. Why not.
Grayle: Because you don’t believe me.
Garner: For twenty-five dollars a day plus expenses, I’ll believe any damn thing you like.
Grayle: But you don’t believe statues can move. And you’re right, Mr. Garner. They can’t. Of course they can’t. {he looks out the window} When you’re looking.
Garner: The address Grayle gave me was an apartment block near Battery Park. He said it was where the statues lived. I asked him why he didn’t go look himself. He didn’t answer. Grayle was the scariest guy I knew. If something scared him, I kinda wanted to shake its hand.
Garner: Who are you?
Old Garner (Burnell Tucker): They’re comin’ for ya. They’re gonna send you back.
Garner: Who’s comin’? Back where?
Old Garner: In time. Back in time. They’re gonna send you back in time. I’m you. I’m you.
The Statue of Liberty appears behind him as an Angel, teeth and all:
Garner: You gotta be kidding me.
1. The Dying Detective
The Doctor: “New York growled at my window. But I was ready for it. My stocking seams were straight. My lipstick was combat-ready and I was packing cleavage that could fell an ox at twenty feet.”
Amy: Doctor, you’re doing it again.
The Doctor: I’m reading!
Amy: Out loud. Please could you not.
The Doctor: There’s something different about you, isn’t there?
Rory: What’s the book?
The Doctor: Melody Malone. She’s the private detective in Old Town New York.
Amy: She’s got ice in her heart, and a kiss on her lips and a vulnerable side she keeps well-hidden.
The Doctor: Oh, you’ve read it?
Amy: No, you read it. Out loud. Then went, “Yowzah!”.
Rory: Only you could fancy someone in a book.
The Doctor: I’m just reading. I just like the cover.
Amy: Oo! Let me see the cover.
The Doctor: No. No. I’m busy. It’s your hair. Is it your hair?
Amy: Oh shut up, it’s the glasses. I’m wearing reading glasses now on my nose. See? There you go.
The Doctor: I don’t like them. They make your eyes look all line-y. {he takes them off} No. Actually. Sorry. They’re fine. Carry on.
Amy: Rory. Do I have noticeable lines on my eyes now?
The Doctor: Yes.
Rory: No.
Amy: You didn’t look.
Rory: I noticed them earlier. Didn’t notice them. I specifically remember not noticing them.
Amy: You walk among fire pits, Centurion.
Rory: Do I have to come over there?
Amy: Can if you like.
Rory: Well, we have company.
Amy: I’ll get a babysitter. {they kiss}
The Doctor: You know, it is so humiliating when you do that.
The Doctor: Can I have a go? {he tries on her glasses} Oh. Actually that is much better. That is exciting!
Amy: Read to me.
The Doctor: I thought you didn’t like my reading aloud.
Amy: Shut up and read me a story. Just don’t go “Yowzah!”. {The Doctor laughs and rips out a page from the book} Why did you do that?
The Doctor: Oh I always rip out the last page of a book. Then it doesn’t have to end. I hate endings!
The Doctor: “As I crossed the street I saw the thin guy, but he didn’t see me. I guess that’s how it began…”
The Doctor: “I followed the skinny guy for two more block before he turned and I could ask what he was doing here. He looked a little scared so I gave him my best smile and my bluest eyes.
Amy: Beware the Yowzah! Do not, at this point, yowz. {The Doctor looks startled} Doctor? What did the skinny guy say?
The Doctor: “He said, ‘I just went to get coffees for the Doctor and Amy. Hello, River.’”
River: Hello, Dad.
Rory: Where am I? How the hell did I get here?
River: I haven’t the faintest idea. But you’ll probably want to put your hands up.
Hood (Bentley Kalu): Melody Malone.
Rory: You’re Melody!?
Amy: What’s River doing in a book? What’s Rory doing in a book?
The Doctor: He went to get coffee. Pay attention.
Amy: He went to get coffee and turned up in a book. How does that happen?
The Doctor: I don’t know! We’re in New York.
Rory: What is going on?
Amy: Where did you get this book?
The Doctor: It was in my jacket.
Amy: How did it get there?
The Doctor: How does anything get there? I’ve given up asking. Date. Date. Does she mention a date. When is this happening?
Amy: Yes, hang on. Oo. April 3rd, 1938.
River: You didn’t come here in the TARDIS obviously.
Rory: Why?
River: You couldn’t have.
The Doctor: Couldn’t have! What does she mean, couldn’t have?
River: This city’s full of time distortions. It’d be impossible to land the TARDIS here. Like trying to land a plane in a blizzard. Even I couldn’t do it.
The Doctor: Even who couldn’t do it?!
Amy: Don’t you two fall out. She’s only in a book.
The Doctor: Hunh. 1938. Easy one.
Amy: What was that?
The Doctor: 1938. We just bounced off it.
Rory: Well how did you get here?
River: Vortex manipulator. Less bulky than a TARDIS. A motorbike through traffic. You?
Rory: I’m… not sure.
Amy: The Weeping Angels.
The Doctor: It makes sense.
Amy: It makes what?
The Doctor: That’s what happened to Rory. That’s what the Angels do, it’s their preferred form of attack. They dump you back in time, let you live to death.
Amy: Well we’ve got a time machine. We can just go and get him.
The Doctor:Well, tried that if you’ve noticed, and we are back where we started in 2012!
Amy: We didn’t start in a graveyard. What are we doing here?
The Doctor: Don’t know. Probably causally linked somehow. Doesn’t matter. {yelling into the TARDIS} Extractor fans on!
Amy: Well we’re gonna get there somehow. We’re in the rest of the book.
The Doctor having trouble hearing: I’m what?
Amy: Page 43. You’re going to break something.
The Doctor: I’m what?
Amy: “Why do you have to break mine, I asked the Doctor. He fired and said, ‘Because Amy read it in a book and now I have no choice—’”
The Doctor: Stop! No! No! Stop! You can’t read ahead. You mustn’t, and you can’t do that.
Amy: But we’ve already been reading it.
The Doctor: Just the stuff that’s happening now, in parallel with us. That’s as far as we go.
Amy: But it could help us find Rory.
The Doctor: And if you read ahead and find that Rory dies? This isn’t any old future, Amy. It’s ours. Once we know what’s coming it’s fixed. I’m going to break something because you told me I’m going to do it. No choice now.
Amy: Time can be rewritten.
The Doctor: Not once you’ve read it. Once we know it’s coming, it’s written in stone.
In loving memory
Rory Arthur Williams
River: Huh. Early Chin Dynasty, I’d say.
Grayle: Correct. Are you an archaeologist as well as a detective?
The Doctor: Okay, landing a plane in a timey-wimey blizzard. I can push through, but if I’m off by a nanosecond the engines will phase and I’ll shatter the planet. I’ll need landing lights.
Amy: Landing lights?
The Doctor: Yes, I need a signal to lock on to. What did she say? Early Chin Dynasty?
Grayle: Early Chin Dynasty, just as you say. You’re very well-informed.
River: And you’re very afraid. That’s an awful lot of locks for one door.
{The Chinese on the vase translates itself into Rapture of Summer}
Rory: River, I’m translating.
River: It’s a gift of the TARDIS. It hangs around.
Grayle: This one. Put him somewhere uncomfortable.
Hood: With the babies, sir?
Grayle: Yes. Why not. Give him to the babies.
Hood: The lights are out. You’ll last longer with these. {he throws him some matches}
Rory: What do you care?
Hood: It’s funnier.
River: Let’s see. Crime boss with a collecting fetish. Whatever you don’t want anyone to see has got to be your favorite. Or possibly…. your girlfriend. {she unveils a Weeping Angel} So, girlfriend then.
Grayle: What are you doing?
River on the vortex manipulator: Oh you know. Texting a boy.
Grayle: These things are all over. And people don’t seem to notice. It never moves while you’re looking.
River: Oh, I know how they work.
Grayle: So I understand. Melody Malone, the detective that investigates Angels.
River: It’s badly damaged.
Grayle: I wanted to know if it could feel pain.
River: You realize it’s screaming. The others can hear. Is that why you need all the locks?
{Grayle shuts out the lights briefly, and River is caught by the Angel}
Grayle: You’re going to tell me all about these creatures. And you’re going to do it quickly.
River: The Angels are predators. They’re deadly. What do you want with them?
Grayle: I’m a collector. What collector could resist these. I’m only human.
River: That’s exactly what they’re thinking.
Grayle: What’s that? What’s happening? {the TARDIS sounds outside} Is it an earthquake? What is this!?
River: Oh you bad boy. You could burn New York.
Grayle: What does that mean?!
River: It means, Mr. Grayle, just you wait ’til my husband gets home.
Amy: Come on!
The Doctor: Just a moment. Final checks.
Amy: Since when? {cut to the Doctor checking hair and breath, and a wink}
The Doctor: Sorry I’m late, honey. Traffic was hell. {she laughs and he checks Grayle} Shock. He’ll be fine.
River: Not if I can get loose.
The Doctor: So where are we now, Doctor Song? How’s prison.
River: Oh I was pardoned ages ago. And it’s Professor Song, to you.
The Doctor: Pardoned?
River: Mm. Turns out the person I killed never existed in the first place. Apparently there’s no record of him. It’s almost as if someone’s gone around deleting himself from every database in the universe.
The Doctor: Hm. You said I got too big.
River: And now no one’s ever heard of you. Didn’t you used to be somebody?
The Doctor: Weren’t you the woman who killed the Doctor?
River: Doctor Who?
The Doctor: She’s holding you very tight.
River: At least she didn’t send me back in time.
The Doctor: I doubt she’s strong enough.
River: Well I need a hand back. So which is it going to be? Are you going to break my wrist or hers? {he just looks at her} Oh no. Really? Why do you have to break mine?
The Doctor: Because Amy read it in a book. And now I have no choice. {to Amy} You see?
River: Well what book?
The Doctor: Your book. Which you haven’t written yet. So we can’t read!
River: I see. I don’t like the cover much.
Amy: But if River’s going to write that book she’d make it useful, yeah?
River: Well I’ll certainly try. But we can’t read ahead, it’s too dangerous.
Amy: I know, but there must be something we can look at.
The Doctor: What, a page of handy hints? Previews, spoiler-free.
Amy: Chapter titles.
River: Doctor. Doctor, what is it? What’s wrong? Tell me. Doctor. Doctor, what is it? Tell me. {The Doctor reads Amelia’s Last Farewell} Okay. I know that face. Calm down! Calm down! Talk to me! Doctor!
The Doctor: No! You get your wrist out! You get your wrist out without breaking it!
River: How?
The Doctor: I don’t know! Just change the future!
Amy: Did they get Rory? Where is he, did they take him?
The Doctor: Yes, I think so. Yes. {they hear a child’s giggle}
Amy: So is this what’s going to happen? We just keep chasing him back in time and they keep pulling him further back?
River walking in: He isn’t back in time. I’m reading a displacement but there are no temporal markers. He’s been moved in space, but not in time. And it’s not that far from here by the look of it.
The Doctor: You got out.
Amy: So where is he?
The Doctor: Well come on, come on, come on! Where is he?
River: If it was that easy I’d get you to do it.
The Doctor: How did you get your wrist out without breaking it?
River: You asked, I did. Problem?
The Doctor: You just changed the future!
River: It’s called marriage, honey. Now hush! I’m working.
The Doctor: She’s good, huh? Oh! Have you noticed? Really really good.
River: Ah! Wherever it is, it’s within a few blocks. There’s a car out front. Should we steal it?
The Doctor: Show me! {he grabs her wrist and realizes it’s broken}
The Doctor: Why did you lie to me?
River: When one’s in love with an ageless god who insists on the face of a twelve-year-old, one does one’s best to hide the damage.
The Doctor: It must hurt. Come here.
River: Yes. The wrist is pretty bad too. {The Doctor uses his energy to heal her} No no. No, stop that! Stop that! Stop it!
The Doctor: There you go. How’s that?
River: Well. Let’s see shall we? {she slaps him} That was a stupid waste of regeneration energy! Nothing is gained by you being a sentimental idiot.
The Doctor: River!
River: No! You embarrass me! {she storms off}
The Doctor: River!
Amy: Tell you what, stick to the science part.
Amy: Okay, why did you lie?
River: Never let him see the damage. And never ever let him see you age. He doesn’t like endings.
River: Why would the send him here? Why not zap him back in time like they normally do?
The Doctor: We’ll know that when we know what this place is.
Amy: Winter Quay.
River: Doctor. Look at this. Why is it smiling?
The Doctor: Amy. Rory! Get out of here, don’t look at anything. Don’t touch—
Amy: Who is that?
Old Rory: Amy? Amy please… please….
Amy: Rory? {to Young Rory} He’s you.
Old Rory: Amy…
Rory: Could someone please tell me what is going on.
The Doctor: I’m sorry, Rory. But you just died.
11. Death at Winter Quay
The Doctor: This place is policed by Angels. Every time you try to escape you get zapped back in time.
Amy: So this place belongs to the Angels. They built it?
The Doctor: Displacing someone back in time creates time energy. And that is what the Angels feed on. But normally its a one-off. A hit-and-run. If they could keep hold of their victims, feed off of their time energy over and over again…. This place is a farm. A battery farm. How many Angels in New York?
River: It’s like they’ve taken over every statue in the city.
The Doctor: Yeah, the Angels take Manhattan because they can. Because they’ve never had a food source like this one. The City That Never Sleeps.
Rory: What was that?
The Doctor: I don’t know. But I think they’re coming for you.
Rory: What does that mean? What is going to happen to me? What is physically going to happen?
The Doctor: The Angels will come for you, they’ll zap you back in time to this very spot—thirty, forty years ago. And you will live out the rest of your life in this room. Until you die in that bed.
Rory: And will Amy be there?
The Doctor: No.
Amy: How do you know?
The Doctor: Because he was so pleased to see you again.
Rory: Okay. Well they haven’t taken me yet. What if I just run? What if I just get the hell out of here. Then that never happens.
The Doctor: It’s already happened, Rory. You’ve just witnessed your own future.
River: Doctor, he’s right.
The Doctor: No he isn’t.
River: If Rory got out it would create a paradox.
Amy hearing the noise again: What is that?
River: This is the Angels’ food source. The paradox poisons the well. It could kill them all. This whole place would literally un-happen.
The Doctor: It would be almost impossible.
River: I’m loving the almost.
The Doctor: But to create a paradox, like that, takes almost unimaginable power. What have we got, eh? Tell me. Come on.
Amy: I won’t let them take him. That’s what we’ve got.
The Doctor: Rory, even if you got out you’d have to keep running for the rest of your life. They would be chasing you forever.
Amy: Well then. Better get started. Husband. Run!
The Doctor: River, I’m not sure this can work.
River: Husband, shut up.
Amy: Up.
Rory: What good’s up?
Amy: Better than down.
The Doctor: I can’t keep doing this.
River: Any ideas?
The Doctor: Yeah, the usual. Run.
Rory: I always wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty. I guess she got impatient.
Amy: Is there a way down?
Rory: No. But there’s a way out.
Amy: What are you doing? Rory, what are you doing? Rory, stop it. You’ll die.
Rory: Yeah, twice. In the same building on the same night. Who else could do that.
Amy: Just come down, please.
Rory: This is the right thing to do. This will work. If I die now, it’s a paradox right? The paradox’ll kill the Angels. Tell me I’m wrong, Go on, please. Because I am really scared. {she’s quiet} Great. The one time you can’t manage it.
Rory: Amy. I’m gonna need a little help here.
Amy: Just stop it!
Rory: Just think it through, this will work. This will kill the Angels.
Amy: it will kill you too.
Rory: Will it? River said that this place would be erased from time, never existed. If this place never existed what did I fall off?
Amy: You think you’ll just come back to life.
Rory: When don’t I?
Amy: Rory—
Rory: Anyway, what else is there? Dying of old age downstairs, never seeing you again? Amy, please. If you love me, then trust me and push.
Amy: I can’t.
Rory: You have to!
Amy: Could you? Could you if it was me? Could you do it?
Rory: To save you, I could do anything.
Amy: Prove it.
Rory: But I can’t take you too.
Amy: You said we’d come back to life. Money-where-your-mouth-is time.
Rory: Amy, but—
Amy: Shut. Up. Together. Or not at all.
The Doctor: What the hell are you doing?!?!
Amy: Changing the future. It’s called marriage.
The Doctor: Amy! Amy! Amy.
River: Doctor! What’s happening?
The Doctor: The paradox! It’s working! The paradox is working!
Rory: Where are we?
The Doctor: Back where we started! The paradox worked! You collapsed the timeline! We all pinged back where we belong.
Rory: What, in a graveyard?
Amy: This happened last time. Why always here?
The Doctor: Does it matter? We got lucky! We could have blown New York off the planet. I can’t ever take the TARDIS back there, the timelines are too scrambled. Oh… I could have lost you both. Don’t ever do that again.
Rory: What, what did we do? We fixed it. We solved the problem.
The Doctor: I was talking to myself.
River: It could do with a repaint.
The Doctor: I’ve been busy.
River: Does the bulb on top need changing?
The Doctor: I just changed it.
River: So. Rory and Amy then.
The Doctor: Yes, I know, I know.
River: I’m just saying. They’re going to get terribly bored hanging around here all day.
Rory: Doctor!
The Doctor: Ha!
Rory: Look, next time could we just go out to the pub?
The Doctor: I want to go to the pub right now. Ah, are there video games there? I love video games?
River: Right. Family outing then.
River: Where the hell did that come from?
The Doctor: It’s a survivor. Very weak, but keep your eyes on it.
Amy: Where’s Rory?
The Doctor: I’m sorry. Amelia. I’m so, so sorry.
Amy: No. No we can just go and get him in the TARDIS. One more paradox.
The Doctor: Would rip New York apart.
Amy: No, that’s not true. I don’t believe you.
River: Mother, it’s true.
The Doctor: Amy, what are you doing?
Amy: That gravestone, Rory’s, there’s room for one more name isn’t there?
The Doctor: What are you talking about? Back away from the Angel. Come back to the TARDIS, we’ll figure something out.
Amy: The Angel, would it send me back to the same time, to him?
The Doctor: I don’t know. Nobody knows.
Amy: But it’s my best shot, yeah?
The Doctor: No!
River: Doctor, shut up! Yes, yes, it is!
The Doctor: Amy—
Amy: Well then. I just have to blink, right?
The Doctor: No!
Amy: It’ll be fine. I know it will. I’ll be with him like I should be. Me and Rory together. {calling River over} Melody.
The Doctor: Stop it! Just, just, stop it!
Amy: You look after him. And you be a good girl and you look after him.
The Doctor: You are creating fixed time. I will never be able to see you again.
Amy: I’ll be fine. I’ll be with him.
The Doctor: Amy. Please. Just come back into the TARDIS, Come along, Pond. Please.
Amy: Raggedy Man, goodbye.
In loving memory
Rory Arthur Williams
Aged 82
And his loving wife
Amelia Williams
Aged 87
The Doctor: River. They were your parents. Sorry. I didn’t even think.
River: Doesn’t matter.
The Doctor: Course it matters.
River: What matters is this, Doctor. Don’t travel alone.
The Doctor: Travel with me then.
River: Whenever and wherever you want. But not all the time. One psychopath per TARDIS, don’t you think?
River: Okay, this book I’ve got to write. Melody Malone. I presume I send it to Amy to get it published?
The Doctor: Yes.
River: I’ll tell her to write an afterword. For you. Maybe you’ll listen to her.
The Doctor: The last page!
Afterword by Amelia Williams: Hello, old friend. And here we are. You and me, on the last page. By the time you read these words, Rory and I will be long gone. So know that we lived well and were very happy. And above all else, know that we will love you always. Sometimes I do worry about you though. I think once we’re gone you won’t be coming back here for awhile. And you might be alone. Which you should never be. Don’t be alone, Doctor. And do one more thing for me. There’s a little girl waiting in a garden. She’s going to wait a long while, so she’s going to need a lot of hope. Go to her. Tell her a story. Tell her that if she’s patient, the days are coming that she’ll never forget. Tell her she’ll go to see and fight pirates. She’ll fall in love with a man who’ll wait two thousand years to keep her safe. Tell her she’ll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived. And save a whale in outer space. Tell her, this is the story of Amelia Pond. And this is how it ends.