Montgomery, Alabama – 1943
Rosa gets on the bus through the main door
James Blake (Trevor White): Hey you. You don’t go that way. That way’s not for colored. Get off, go around the back and get on there. That’s your entrance. You know that.
Rosa Parks (Vinette Robinson): I don’t see the need for getting off and then on, back there. Not when there’s folks standing in the stepwell. How am I gonna squeeze on there?
Blake: If you ain’t goin’ through that back door, you’re getting off my bus. He grabs her
Rosa: Sir, let me go. Please don’t do that. You better not hit me.
Blake: Get out that door!
Twelve Years Later – 1955
The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) checking outside the TARDIS: Ah… Nearly.
Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill): Sheffield?
The Doctor coming back in: Almost. Really close.
Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh): So not Sheffield then.
The Doctor to the TARDIS: You’re doing this deliberately, aren’t you?
Yaz: Who are you talking to?
Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole): If it’s me, I haven’t touched anything.
The Doctor: I’m talking to the TARDIS. Because this is our ninth attempt.
Graham: Fourteenth. You can’t control this thing, can ya?
The Doctor: Excuse me. Yes I can. Most of the time. Just sometimes, like now, it has a mind of its own.
Graham: 1955? Elvis. Could we see Elvis?
The Doctor: I think he’s in New York this week. I could give him a call.
Graham: You haven’t got Elvis’ phone number?
The Doctor: Don’t ever tell anyone I lent him a mobile phone.
The Doctor: Whoa. What’s that. Traces of Artron energy?
Yaz: Should we know what Artron energy is?
The Doctor: It’s the same type of energy the TARDIS runs off. There really shouldn’t be traces of Artron energy here. Unless they’re ours. Which they’re not.
Yaz: And now you want to check it out.
The Doctor: Yeah, I should. Quick look, but quietly. History’s very delicate. We stick together.
Rosa: Are you crazy?
Ryan: He slapped me.
Rosa: Do you read the newspaper? You know what they did to young Emmett Till.
The Doctor: We’re from out of town.
Rosa: So was Emmet Till. On vacation from the north. A couple of words to… a white woman in Mississippi, and the next thing, they find his body in the river. You want that to be you?
Ryan: No.
Rosa: Did your mother raise you with no manners? I will take a, “No, ma’am.”
Rosa: You all together?
The Doctor: Yes. We’re very grateful, Miss—
Rosa: Mrs. Parks. Rosa Parks.
Yaz: No way.
Graham: You’re kidding.
The Doctor: Brilliant! Rosa Parks. Lovely to meet you, Rosa Parks. Big fan.
The Doctor: Recommend anything for tourists like us?
Rosa: I recommend you get yourselves the hell out of Alabama before you find yourselves in trouble you can’t get out of.
Yaz: We were in Rosa Parks class in primary. Do you remember? All the year 4, 5, and 6 classes were named after inspirational people.
Ryan: She’s the boss woman, right?
Yaz: You do remember what she did?
Ryan: Yeah. First black woman to ever drive a bus.
Yaz: No, Ryan!
Graham: Your nan would have a fit right now. How could you have been in a class named after the woman and not know who she is?
Ryan: She’s American.
Yaz: She refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white passenger, and got arrested for it. Her arrest started a boycott of the buses in Montgomery.
Waitress: We don’t serve Negros.
Ryan: Good. ‘Cause I don’t eat them.
Waitress: Or Mexicans.
Yaz: Is she talking to me?
Waitress: Y’all need to eat somewhere else.
The Doctor: We’re one day out of a tipping point in Earth history. I don’t want anything disrupting that. It’s easy for me here. It’s more dangerous for you. You can walk away from this.
Ryan: Rosa Parks can’t.
Yaz: Rosa Parks doesn’t.
Ryan: If she can live here her whole life, a couple hours ain’t gonna kill me. It ain’t gonna kill me, right?
The Doctor: Not if we look out for each other.
Ryan: I’m cool with it. What do you reckon, Mexican lady?
Yaz: Oi. Keep that up I’ll use you as a pinata.
The Doctor: This is where the Artron signals converge.
Yaz: At the bus company? All roads lead to Rosa Parks.
The Doctor: Yeah. Bit of a worry.
Ryan about the suitcase: Can we open it?
The Doctor: Is the right question! Is anyone excited, ’cause I’m really excited.
Graham: You won’t be if it’s a bomb.
The Doctor: Don’t kill the vibe, Graham.
The Doctor: Oi. Rando. Looking for us? I’m not armed.
Krasko (Josh Bowman): That supposed to make me not shoot you?
The Doctor: Ideally.
Krasko: Blue box in the alley. Is that a TARDIS?
The Doctor: Might be. What’s it to you?
Krasko: Well it could be worth a lot.
The Doctor: Naw, not that one. Second-hand. Huge mileage. One careless owner. Mind you, it’s better than a vortex manipulator. Like the one on your wrist. Cheap and nasty time travel.
The Doctor: So what do you want with Rosa Parks?
Krasko: Who?
The Doctor: See, now you’re being annoying.
Krasko: The feeling’s mutual.
Krasko: Get out of Montgomery.
The Doctor: You’re not the first to say that to us.
Yaz: Are we actually leaving?
The Doctor: Not in a million years.
The Doctor starts writing on the wall
Graham: What are you doing? That is vandalism. We’ll have to pay for that.
The Doctor: Don’t worry. Special pen.
Graham: No! Pack it in. You ain’t Banksy.
The Doctor: Or am I?
The Doctor: Banksy doesn’t have one of those! Or have I?
Officer Mason: You don’t happen to know a couple of mongrels, hm? Negro boy. Mexican girl.
The Doctor: I don’t recognize anyone by that description.
Mason: What’s your business here in Montgomery?
Graham: We’re here to pitch an invention. Yeah, it’s a telephone that plays music, and, ah, it’s a camera—also takes a photo. And it’s a calendar. And it sends letters.
Mason: Sounds ridiculous. What’s your name, sir?
Graham: Steve… Jobs. Steve Jobs.
The Doctor: I did not warm to him.
Ryan: It’s not like Rosa Parks wipes out racism from the world forever. Otherwise how come I get stopped way more by the police than my white mates?
Yaz: Oi. Not this police.
Ryan: Tell me you don’t get hassle.
Yaz: Of course I do, especially on the job. I get called a Paki when I’m sorting out a domestic, or a terrorist on the way home from the mosque.
Ryan: Yeah. Exactly.
Yaz: But they don’t win, those people. I can be a police officer now ’cause people like Rosa Parks fought those battles for me—for us. And in 53 years they’ll have a black president as leader. Who knows where they’ll be 50 years after that. That’s proper change. Ryan seems skeptical What?
Ryan: Were you born this positive?
Yaz: Guess so. Must be my Mexican blood.
Graham about : She had a t-shirt that said, “The Spirit of Rosa”. And, um, well, I wish that she was here.
Ryan: I don’t. She’d start a riot.
Rosa: And how do I know you’re not a spy for the police or the FBI?
Ryan: ‘Cause if they were going to send a spy, they’d send one who could actually follow you without being spotted. And didn’t have a British accent. I thin who Also, don’t think they know any black guys.
Krasko fires on the Doctor, who launches his suitcase into the blast
The Doctor: Whoops. Shame. You just sent your equipment to goodness knows where. 79th century, judging by the weapon setting. Which, by the way, overheat very easily. Cheap and nasty. Now we’re even.
The Doctor: First things first, tell me about Stormcage.
Krasko: Storm what?
The Doctor: Oh, a rubbish liar.
The Doctor: Escape or release?
Krasko: I did my time. I’m… rehabilitated.
The Doctor: What were you there for in the first place?
Krasko: Well if I tell you, I’d color your view of me. I was young, nobody got hurt. But a few people got killed. A few hundred people. Thousand tops. Two thousand.
The Doctor: What’s your name?
Krasko: Krasko.
The Doctor: Don’t like it. Listen, Krasko, I’ll give you one warning: go somewhere else. Find a beach. Read a book. ‘Cause you’re a criminal who’s lost his kit. Lost his weapons.
Krasko: You think that makes a difference? History changes when tiny things don’t go to plan.
The Doctor: You mean tomorrow. Won’t work. Not while I’m here.
Rosa: …And this is Dr. King from Dexter Baptist Avenue Church.
Ryan: What? Martin Luther King?
Dr. Martin Luther King (Ray Sesay): shaking his hand: That’s correct.
Ryan: Oh my days. My nan loves you.
Rosa: Ryan?
Ryan: Excuse me, Dr. King. Yes, Rosa Parks. {to himself} Woah.
Ryan: Meeting you guys—listening to you all talk—I can’t believe it. It’ll get better, you know. Not perfect, but… better.
Rosa: I hope so.
Ryan: It’s worth the fight. Thank you. From me and my nan.
Rosa: I haven’t done anything.
The Doctor: Now we know what our task is. Keep history in order. No changing it, just guarding it against someone who wants to disrupt it. Tomorrow we have to make sure Rosa Parks gets on the bus driven by James Blake, and that the bus is full so Rosa sits when she’s asked to stand for white passengers.
Ryan and Yaz: I’ve got an idea.
The Doctor: Same idea?
Ryan: Fishing takedown.
Yaz: Raffle winner.
The Doctor: God job Elvis lent Frank that mobile phone—against everything I told him!
Ryan: Ever seen a man juggle fish?
I know, I literally get everywhere.
You know us Brits, very imperious.
But. Don’t you have a bus to get?
I can always walk.
I might have known pretty boy’s in the road.
Come on, out of the way.
No. You get out of my way.
Cut your losses.
And your kind won’t get above themselves.
My kind?
Yeah, your kind.
So why don’t you stay there.
Move the car, find the boss, and Rosa Parks will change the world.
I just got rid of Krasko.
How?
I think I dialed the back as far as it could go. He’s gone.
The Doctor: We’re here. We’re part of the story. We’re part of history.
No no, I don’t want to be part of this.
The Doctor: We have to. Sorry.
Blake: Y’all better make it light on yourself and let me have those seats.
Blake: If you don’t stand, I’m going to have you arrested.
Rosa: You may do that.
The Doctor: She loses her job, so does her husband. It’s a struggle. And in 1999, Rosa Parks receives the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Clinton.… She changed the world. In fact she changed the universe. Asteroid 279486. Also known as Rosa Parks.
Arthur (Morgan Deare):
Elias Griffin, Jr. (David Dukas):
Bus Driver (Mark Williams):
Mr. Steele (Richard Lothian):
Fred Gray (Aki Omoshaybi):
Raymond Parks (David Rubin):