The Angels Take Manhattan
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!?
River: You didn’t come here in the TARDIS obviously.
Rory: Why?
River: You 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.
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.
River: Huh. Early Chin Dynasty, I’d say.
Grayle: Correct. Are you an archaeologist as well as a detective?
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.
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.
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: 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: 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…
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: 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: River, I’m not sure this can work.
River: Husband, shut up.
The Doctor: I can’t keep doing this.
River: Any ideas?
The Doctor: Yeah, the usual. Run.
River: Doctor! What’s happening?
The Doctor: The paradox! It’s working! The paradox is working!
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.
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.
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: 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.
View all quotes from The Angels Take Manhattan
The Name of the Doctor
Vastra: We are awaiting only one more participant.
Strax: Oh no. Not the one with the gigantic head.
Jenny: It’s hair, Strax.
Strax: Hmph. Hair.
River popping in: Madame Vastra.
Vastra: Professor. Help yourself to some tea.
River: Why thank you. {she has a champagne bucket}
Jenny: How did you do that?!
River: Disgracefully.
Vastra: Ah, perhaps you two haven’t met. This is the Doctor’s companion. That is, his current travelling assistant.
Clara: Assistant?
Strax: Have you gone a darker green?
Vastra: Clara Oswald.
River: Professor River Song.
Clara: Oh yeah. Yeah. Of course he has, Professor Song. Sorry, it’s just that I never realized you were a woman.
Strax: Well neither did I.
Vastra: Clarence DeMarco. Murderer. Under sentence of death. He offered us this in exchange for his life.
River: Space-time coordinates.
Vastra: This, Mr. DeMarco claims, is the location of the Doctor’s greatest secret.
Clara: Which is?
Jenny: We don’t know. It’s a secret.
Vastra: The Doctor does not discuss his secrets with anyone, my dear. If you’re still entertaining the idea that you’re an exception to this rule,
ask yourself one question. What is his name?
River: Well I know it.
Clara: What, you know his name? He told you?
River: I made him.
Clara: How?
River: It took awhile.
Clara: So, So you’re a friend of his then.
River: A little more than a friend, a long time ago.
Vastra: He still never contacted you?
River: He doesn’t like endings.
River: So what else did this DeMarco tell you? He didn’t just buy his life with some coordinates. How did he prove their value?
Vastra: One word only.
River: What word?
Vastra: A word I’ve heard in connection with the Doctor before. Trenzalore.
River: You misunderstood.
Jenny: Ma’am, sorry, I just realized I forgot to lock the door.
Vastra: It doesn’t matter, Jenny. What misunderstanding? Tell me.
Jenny: No, ma’am, please! I should have locked up before we went into the trance.
Vastra: Jenny, it doesn’t matter!
Jenny: Someone’s broken in. Someone’s with us. I can hear them.
Vastra: Jenny, are you all right?
Jenny: Sorry, ma’am, so sorry. So sorry, so sorry. I think I’ve been murdered.
Vastra: Jenny?!
Clara: What’s happened to her?
Vastra: Jenny, can you hear me?
Strax: Speak to us, boy!
Vastra: Jenny!
River: You’re under attack. You must wake up now. Just wake up! Do it!
River: You too, Strax. Wake up now!
The Whisper Men: Tell the Doctor. Tell the Doctor. Tell the Doctor.
Clara: Tell him what?
The Great Intelligence: His friends are lost forevermore. Unless he goes to Trenzalore.
River: No, you can’t say that. He can’t go there. You know he can’t. The Doctor can never go to Trenzalore!
River: Clara. Don’t speak. Don’t say my name. He can’t see or hear me, only you can. We’re mentally linked. It’s the conference call. I kept the line open.
The Doctor: Who are you talking to? We need to get– {he looks at a gravestone} River.
Clara: That can’t be right.
The Doctor: No, it can’t.
Clara: She’s not dead.
The Doctor: Oh she’s dead, I’m afraid. She’s been dead for a very long time.
River: Yeah, probably should have mentioned that. Never the right time.
Clara: But I met her!
The Doctor: Long story. But her grave can’t be here.
River: If it isn’t my gravestone then what is it?
Clara: What do you think that gravestone really is?
The Doctor: The gravestone?
River: Maybe it’s a false grave.
Clara: Maybe it’s a false grave.
The Doctor: Yep, maybe.
River: Maybe it’s a secret entrance to the tomb.
Clara: Maybe it’s a secret entrance to the tomb!
The Doctor: Yes, of course! Makes sense. They’d never bury my wife out here.
Clara: Your what?
Clara: So how come I met your dead wife?
The Doctor: Oh well, you know how it is when you lose someone close to you. I sort of made a backup.
River: I died saving him. In return he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf. Didn’t even say goodbye. He doesn’t like endings.
Dr. Simeon: Doctor who!
The Doctor: Please! {the TARDIS doors open}
River: The TARDIS can still hear me. Lucky thing. Since him indoors is being so useless.
Strax: Why did you open the door, sir? I had them on the run!
The Doctor: I didn’t do it. I didn’t say my name.
River: No. But I did.
River: Whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t.
Clara: If I step in there, what happens?
River: The time winds will tear you into a million pieces. A million versions of you, living and dying all over time and space. Like echoes.
Clara: But the echoes could save the Doctor, right?
River: But they won’t be you. The real you will die. They’ll just be copies.
Clara: But they’ll be real enough to save him. It’s like my mum said, “The soufflé isn’t the soufflé. The soufflé is the recipe.” It’s the only way to save him, isn’t it?
Strax: It was an unprovoked and violent attack, but that’s no excuse.
Vastra: We are all restored. That’s all that matters now.
The Doctor: We are not all restored.
River: You can’t go in there. It’s your own time stream, for God’s sake.
The Doctor: I have to get her back.
River: Of course, but not like this.
Jenny: But how?
Vastra: Is she still alive? It killed Dr. Simeon.
The Doctor: Clara’s got one advantage over The Great Intelligence.
Vastra: Which is?
The Doctor: Me.
River: Doctor, please listen to me. At least hear me.
The Doctor: Now, if I don’t come back–and I might not–
River: Doctor!
The Doctor: –go to the TARDIS. The fast return protocol should be on. She’ll take you home then shut herself down.
River: There has to be another way. Use the TARDIS, use something. Save her, yes. But for God’s sake, be sensible! {she goes to slap him and he stops her} How are you even doing that? I’m not really here.
The Doctor: You’re always here to me. And I always listen. And I can always see you.
River: Then why didn’t you speak to me?
The Doctor: Because I thought it would hurt too much.
River: I believe I could have coped.
The Doctor: No. I thought it would hurt me. And I was right. {he kisses her} Since nobody else in this room can see you, God knows how that looked. There is a time to live and a time to sleep. You are an echo, River. Like Clara, like all of this. In the end, my fault, I know. But you should have faded by now.
River: It’s hard to leave when you haven’t said goodbye.
The Doctor: Then tell me, because I don’t know. How do I say it?
River: There’s only one way I would accept. If you ever loved me, say it like you’re going to come back.
The Doctor: Well then. See you around, Professor River Song.
River: ‘Til the next time, Doctor.
The Doctor: Don’t wait up.
River: Oh there’s one more thing.
The Doctor: isn’t there always.
River: I was mentally linked with Clara. If she’s really dead then how can I still be here.
The Doctor: Okay, How?
River: Spoilers. Goodbye. Sweetie.