London
5:02 pm
22nd April, 2011
And it’s another beautiful day in London. There are reports of sun spot activity and solar flares causing interference across all radio signals—apologies for that.
Londinium Cotide: War of the Roses Enters Second Year
Bill Turnbull: So do you think you can top last year’s Christmas special?
Sian Williams: And can you tell us anything about it?
Charles Dickens (Simon Callow): Well all I can say now is that it involves ghosts and the past and the present and the future all at the same time.
Sian Williams: Oh, we love a ghost story!
Meredith Viera: Crowds lined the Mall today as the Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill returned to the Buckingham Senate on his personal mammoth.
Doctor Malokeh (Richard Hope): Not too many late nights in Gaul I hope.
Emperor Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice): Just the one. I had an argument with Cleopatra. Dreadful woman. Though excellent dancer.
Dr. Malokeh: I can tell from your blood pressure.
Emperor Churchill: What time do you have, Doctor?
Dr. Malokeh: Two minutes past five, Caesar.
Emperor Churchill: It’s always two minutes past five. Day or night, it’s always two minutes past five in the afternoon. Why is that?
Dr. Malokeh: Because that is the time, Caesar.
Emperor Churchill: And the date. It’s always the twenty-second of April. Does it not bother you?
Dr. Malokeh: The date and the time have always been the same, Caesar. Why should it start bothering me now?
Emperor Churchill: I want to see the soothsayer. Where is he?
Dr. Malokeh: In the tower. Where you threw him the last time.
Emperor Churchill: Get him!
Emperor Churchill: “Tick tock goes the clock,” as the old song says. But they don’t, do they? The clocks never tick. “Something has happened to time.” That’s what you say. What you never stop saying. “All of history is happening at once.” But what does that mean? What happened? Explain to me in terms that I can understand. What happened to time?
The Doctor: A woman.
Earlier…
The Doctor: Imagine you were dying. Imagine you were afraid and a long way from home in terrible pain. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, you looked up and saw the face of the Devil himself. Hello, Dalek.
Dalek: Emergency! Emergency! Weapons system disabled! Emergency!
The Doctor: Hush now. I need some information from your data core. Everything the Daleks know about the Silence.
The Docks of Calisto B
The Doctor: Gideon Vandaleur. Get him. Now.
Barman (Sean Buckley): Who says he’s here? {the Doctor slaps down a Dalek eyestalk}.
The Doctor: Father Gideon Vandaleur. Former envoy of the Silence. My condolences.
Gideon Vandaleur (Niall Greig Fulton): Your what?
The Doctor: Gideon Vandaleur has been dead for six months. {he looks into the eye} Can I speak to the captain please?
The Doctor: Hello again. The Teselecta time-traveling, space changing robot powered by miniaturized people. Never get bored of that. Long time since Berlin.
Carter (Richard Dillane): Doctor, what have you done to our systems?
The Doctor: They’ll be fine if you behave. Now, this unit can disguise itself as anyone in the universe. So if you’re posing as Vandaleur you’re investigating the Silence. Tell me about them.
Carter: Tell you what?
The Doctor: One thing. Just one. Their weakest link.
The Doctor: The crowd are getting restless. They know the queen is your only legal move. Except you’ve already moved it twelve times, which means there are now over four million volts running through it. {the crowd grows impatient} That’s why they call it live chess. Even with the gauntlet, you’ll never make it to bishop four alive.
Gantok (Rondo Haxton): I’m a dead man unless you concede the game.
The Doctor: But I’m winning.
Gantok: Name your price.
The Doctor: Information.
Gantok: I work for the Silence. They would kill me.
The Doctor: They’re going to kill me too, very soon. I was just going to lie down and take it. But you know what? Before I go, I’d like to know why I have to die.
Gantok: Dorium Maldovar is the only one that can help you.
The Doctor: Dorium’s dead. The monks beheaded him at Demon’s Run.
Gantok: I know. Concede the game, Doctor, and I’ll take you to him.
Gantok: Seventh transept. Where the Headless Monks keep the leftovers. Watch your step, there are traps everywhere.
The Doctor: I hate rats.
Gantok: There are no rats in the transept.
The Doctor: Good.
Gantok: The skulls eat them.
Gantok: The Headless Monks behead you alive, remember?
The Doctor: Why are some of them in boxes?
Gantok: Because some people are rich. And some people are left to rot. And Dorium Maldovar was always very rich.
Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker): Hello? Is someone there? Ah! Doctor! Thank god it’s you. The monks, they turned on me.
The Doctor: Well. Ah, I’m afraid they rather did a bit.
Maldovar: Give it to me straight, Doctor. How bad are my injuries?
The Doctor: Well… {Dorium starts laughing}
Maldovar: Oh! Your face!
The Doctor: Yeah…
Churchill: This is absurd. Other worlds, carnivorous skulls. Talking heads. I don’t know why I’m listening to you.
The Doctor: Because in another reality you and I are friends. And you sense that. Just as you sense there is something wrong with time.
Churchill: You mentioned a woman.
The Doctor: Yes. I’m getting to her.
Churchill: What’s she like? Attractive, I assume.
The Doctor: Hell. In high heels.
Churchill: Tell me more.
Maldovar: Oh, it’s not so bad, really, as long as they get your box the right way up. I got a media chip fitted in my head years ago and the WiFi down here is excellent. So I keep myself entertained.
The Doctor: I need to know about the Silence.
Maldovar: Oh. They’re a religious order of great power and discretion. The sentinels of history, as they like to call themselves.
The Doctor: And they want me dead?
Maldovar: No, not really. They just don’t want you to remain alive.
The Doctor: That’s okay then. I was a bit worried for a minute there.
Maldovar: You’re a man with a long and dangerous past. But your future is infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted.
The Doctor: You know, you could have told me all this the last time we met.
Maldovar: It was a busy day and I got beheaded!
The Doctor: What’s so dangerous about my future?
Maldovar: On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the Fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never ever be answered.
The Doctor: “Silence will fall when the question is asked.”
Maldovar: “Silence must fall” would be a better translation. The Silence are determined that the question will never be answered, that the Doctor will never reach Trenzalore.
The Doctor: I don’t understand, what’s it got to do with me?
Maldovar: The first question—the oldest question in the universe hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?
The Doctor: Yes.
Maldovar: Are you sure? {the skulls start turning} Very very sure?
The Doctor not very very sure: Of course.
Maldovar: Then I shall tell you. But on your own head be it.
Maldovar: Put me back. {The Doctor sets him down} Ow! I’ve fallen on my nose!
Maldovar: Haven’t got WiFi here. I’m bored already. And my nose is hurting. We all have to die, Doctor. But you more than most. You do see that, don’t you? You know what the question is now. You do see that you have to die?
Churchill: But what was the question? Why did it mean your death?
The Doctor: Suppose there was a man who knew a secret. A terrible, dangerous secret that must never be told. How would you erase that secret from the world—destroy it forever—before it can be spoken?
Churchill: If I had to, I’d destroy the man.
The Doctor: “And silence would fall.” All those times I heard those words, I never realized it was my silence. My death. The Doctor will fall.
The Doctor: Why are we here?
Churchill: This— This is the Senate room.
The Doctor: Why did we leave you office?
Churchill: Well. We wanted a stroll, didn’t we?
The Doctor checking his pulse: I think I’ve been running. Why do you have your revolver?
Churchill: Well. You’re dangerous company, soothsayer.
The Doctor noticing a mark on his arm: Yes. I think I am.
Churchill: Resume your story.
Maldovar: Doctor, please. Open my hatch. I’ve got an awful headache. Which to be honest means more than it used to. It’s like some terrible weight pressing down on my— {realizes he’s upside down} Oh. I see.
The Doctor: Why Lake Silencio? Why Utah?
Maldovar: It’s a still point in time. Makes it easier to create a fixed point. And your death is a fixed point, Doctor. You can’t run away from this.
The Doctor: I’ve been running all my life. Why should I stop?
Maldovar: Because now you know what’s at stake, why your life must end.
The Doctor: Not today.
Maldovar: What’s the point in delaying? How long have you delayed already?
The Doctor: Been knocking about, bit of a farewell tour. Things to do, people to see. There’s always more. I can invent a new color, save the Dodo, join the Beatles. {on the phone} Hello, it’s me! Get him, tell him we’re going out and it’s all on me except for the money and the driving! {to Dorium} I have got a time machine, Dorium. It’s all still going on. For me it never stops. Liz the First is still waiting in a glade to elope with me. I could help Rose Tyler with her homework. I could go on all Jack’s stag parties in one night.
Maldovar: Time catches up with us all, Doctor!
The Doctor: Well it has never laid a glove on me!
The Doctor: Hello.
Nurse (Katharine Burford): Doctor, I’m so sorry. We didn’t know how to contact you. I’m afraid Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart passed away a few months ago. Doctor?
The Doctor: Ah… Yes, yes.
Nurse: It was very peaceful. Talked a lot about you if that’s any comfort. Always made us pour an extra brandy in case you came ’round one of these days.
Maldovar: Doctor, what’s wrong?
The Doctor: Nothing, I… just… {he takes the TARDIS Blue envelopes from his pocket} It’s time. It’s time.
Carter: Surely you could deliver the messages yourself.
The Doctor: It would involve crossing my own time stream. Best not.
Carter: According to our files, this is the end for you. Your final journey. We’ll deliver your messages. You can depend on us.
The Doctor: Thank you.
Carter: Doctor. Whatever you think of the Teselecta, we are champions of law and order, just as you’ve always been. Is there nothing else we can do?
Churchill: Why would you do this? Of all the things you’ve told me, this I find hardest to believe. Why? To invite your friends to see your death?
The Doctor: I had to die. I didn’t have to die alone.
The Doctor: Amy and Rory. The Last Centurion and The Girl Who Waited. However dark it got, I’d turn around and there they’d be. If it’s time to go, remember what you’re leaving. Remember the best. My friends have always been the best of me.
Churchill: And did you tell them this was going to happen?
The Doctor: It would help if you didn’t keep asking questions. {he notices more tic marks on his arm} We don’t have much time
Churchill: And this woman you spoke of, did you invite her?
The Doctor: Yes. She was there. River Song came twice.
The Doctor: Napoleon gave me this bottle. Well I mean, I say gave… threw. Salut!
Everyone: Salut!
Rory: So when are we going to 1969?
The Doctor: Everything was in place. I only had to do one more thing. I only had to die.
River: Oh my god.
The Doctor: You all need to stay back. Whatever happens now you do not interfere.
The Doctor: Well then. Here we are at last.
River: I can’t stop it. The suit’s in control.
The Doctor: You’re not supposed to. This has to happen.
River: Run.
The Doctor: Did run. Running brought me here.
River: I tried to fight it but I can’t. It’s too strong.
The Doctor: I know. It’s okay. This is where I die. This is a fixed point. This must happen—this always happens. Don’t worry. You won’t even remember this. Look over there.
River: It’s me. How can I be there?
The Doctor: That’s you from the future. Serving time for a murder you probably can’t remember. My murder.
River: Why would you do that? Make me watch?
The Doctor: So that you know this is inevitable. And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.
River: Please, my love. Please please, just run.
The Doctor: Can’t.
River: Time can be rewritten.
The Doctor: Don’t you dare. Goodbye, River.
River: Hello Sweetie.
The Doctor: What have you done?!
River: Well I think I just drained my weapons systems.
The Doctor: But this is fixed! This is a fixed point in time!
River: Fixed points can be rewritten.
The Doctor: No they can’t, of course they can’t! Who told you th— ?!
Churchill: Well? What happened?
The Doctor: Nothing.
Churchill: Nothing?
The Doctor: Nothing happened. And then it kept happening. Or if you’d prefer, everything happened at once and it won’t ever stop. Time is dying. It’s going to be five-oh-two in the afternoon for all eternity. A needle stuck on a record.
Churchill: A record? Good lord, man, have you never heard of downloads?
The Doctor: Said Winston Churchill.
Churchill: Gun smoke. That’s gun smoke. {looking at his revolver} Oh. I appear to have fired this.
The Doctor wielding a sword: We seem to be defending ourselves.
Churchill: I don’t understand.
The Doctor: The creatures that lead the Silence. Remarkable things, and memory-proof.
Churchill: But what does that mean?
The Doctor: Well you can’t remember them. The moment you look away you forget they were ever there. Don’t panic! In small numbers they’re not too difficult.
SWAT Guy: Keep the Silence in sight at all times! And keep your iDrives active!
Churchill: Who the Devil are you? Identify yourselves!
Amy: Pond. Amelia Pond. {Churchill aims}
The Doctor: No, she’s on our side. it’s okay, Winston. {notices the eye patch}. No. No, Amy. Amy. Why are you wearing that?
The government has again apologized for extensive radio interference caused by solar flare and sun spot activity.
The Doctor: Amy.
Amy: Those stun guns aren’t fun. I’m sorry. I wanted to avoid a long conversation. You need to get up though. We’ll be in Cairo shortly.
The Doctor: Amy Pond. Amelia Pond from Leadworth, please listen to me. I know it seems impossible but you know me. In another version of reality you and I, we’re best friends. We travel together, we had adventures. Amelia Pond, you grew up with a time rift in the wall of your bedroom. You can see what others can’t. You can remember things that never happened. And if you try, if you really really try, you’ll be able to— {notices he’s brandishing a TARDIS model} Oh.
Amy: You look rubbish.
The Doctor: You look wonderful.
Amy: So do you. But don’t worry. {she pulls out his suit} We’ll soon fix that.
The Doctor: Oh. Geronimo.
The Doctor: Okay, you can turn around now. How do I look?
Amy: Cool.
The Doctor: Really?
Amy: No.
The Doctor: Cool office though. Why do you have an office? Are you like a special agent boss lady or something? Not sure about the eye patch though.
Amy: it’s not an eye patch. Time’s gone wrong. Some of us noticed. There’s a whole team of us working on it. You’ll see.
The Doctor: And you’ve got an office on a train. That is so cool. Can I have an office? Never had an office before. Or a train. Or a train-slash-office.
Amy: God, I’ve missed you!
The Doctor: Okay. Hugging and missing now. Where’s the Roman?
Amy: You mean Rory? My husband, Rory, yeah? {she grabs a drawing} That’s him, isn’t it? I have no idea. I can’t find him but I love him very much, don’t I? {it’s not Rory}
The Doctor: Apparently.
Amy: I have to keep doing this, writing and drawing things. It’s just so hard to keep remembering.
The Doctor: It’s not your fault. Time’s gone wrong. Do you remember why?
Amy: Lakeside.
The Doctor: Lake Silencio, Utah. I died.
Amy: But then you didn’t die. See, I remember it twice, different ways.
The Doctor: Two different versions of the same event. Both happening in the same moment. Time split wide open. Now look at it. All of history happening at once.
Amy: What does it matter? I mean, can’t we just stay like this?
The Doctor: Time isn’t just frozen, it’s disintegrating. It will spread and spread and all of reality will simply fall apart.
The Doctor: Amy, you’ll find your Rory. You always do. But you really have to look.
Amy: I am looking.
The Doctor: Oh, my Amelia Pond. You don’t always look hard enough.
Amy: Why are you older? If time isn’t really passing then how can you be aging?
The Doctor: Time is still passing for me. Every explosion has an epicenter. I’m it. I’m what’s wrong.
Amy: What’s wrong with you?
The Doctor: I’m still alive.
Area 52
Rory: You have to put it on, sir.
The Doctor: An eye patch? What for?
Amy: It’s not an eye patch.
Rory: It’s an iDrive, sir. It communicates directly with the memory centers of the brain. Acts as external storage.
Amy: Only thing that works on them. Because no living mind can remember these things.
Rory: The Silence. We’ve captured over a hundred of them now. All held in this pyramid.
The Doctor: Yeah. I’ve encountered them before. Always wondered what they looked like.
Amy: Well put your iDrive on and you’ll retain the information, but only for as long as you’re wearing it.
The Doctor: The Silence have human servants. They all wear these.
Amy: They’d have to.
Rory: They seem to be noticing you.
The Doctor: Yeah. They would.
Amy: So why aren’t the human race killing the Silence on sight anymore?
The Doctor: That was a whole other reality. What are the tanks for?
Rory: They can draw electricity from anything. It’s how they attack. The fluid insulates them. And I really don’t like the way they’re looking at you.
The Doctor: Me neither.
Rory: Ma’am, I’m sure it’s nothing but I should really check this out. They haven’t been this active in awhile. You two, upstairs. Check all the tank seals, then the floors above. Get everyone checking.
The Doctor: Captain Williams, Nice fella. What’s his first name?
Amy: Captain.
Amy: We’re in. He’s on his way.
The Doctor: Loyal soldier, waiting to be noticed. Always the pattern. Why is that?
Rory: Sorry sir.
The Doctor: Your boss, you should just ask her out. She likes you. She said so.
Rory: Really sir? What did she say?
The Doctor: Well she just sort of generally indicated—
Rory: What exactly did she say?
The Doctor: She said that you were a Mr. Hottie… ness. And that she would like to go out with you for texting and scones.
Rory: You really haven’t done this before, have you?
The Doctor: No I haven’t.
Amy: Come on, Doctor. Time for you to meet some old friends.
Rory: Attention all personnel, attention all personnel. Please check all the site containment units.
Dr. Kent (Emma Campbell-Jones): You were right. Just his presence in the building caused the loop to extend by nearly four chronons.
The Doctor: Hi honey, I’m home.
River: And what sort of time do you call this?
Madame Kovarian: The death of time. The end of time. The end of us all. Oh, why couldn’t you just die?
The Doctor: Did me best, dear. I showed up. You just can’t get good psychopaths these days. Love what you’ve done with the pyramids! How did you score all this?
River: Hallucinogenic lipstick. Works wonders on President Kennedy. And Cleopatra was a real pushover.
The Doctor: I always thought so.
River: She mentioned you.
The Doctor: What did she say?
River: “Put down that gun.”
The Doctor: Did you?
River: Eventually.
Madame Kovarian: Oh they’re flirting. Do I have to watch this?
River: It was such a basic mistake, wasn’t it, Madame Kovarian? Take a child, raise her into a perfect psychopath, introduce her to The Doctor. Who else was I going to fall in love with?
The Doctor: That’s not funny, River. Reality is fatally compromised. Tell me you understand that.
River: Dinner?
The Doctor: I don’t have the time, nobody has the time. Because as long as I’m alive, time is dying. Because of you, River.
River: Because I refused to kill the man I love.
The Doctor: Oh you love me, do you? {he moves toward her}
Amy: Get him!
The Doctor: Oh, that’s sweet of you, isn’t that sweet, come here you. {the guards pull him back}
River: I’m not a fool, sweetie. I know what happens if we touch. {he grabs her arm} Get off me! Get him off me!
Amy: Doctor, no! Let go! Please, you’ve gotta let go!
Dr. Kent: Moving. Time’s moving!
River: Get him off me!
Amy: Doctor!
The Doctor: I’m sorry, River. It’s the only way.
River: Cuff him.
The Doctor: Why do you always have handcuffs? It’s the only way, River. We’re the opposite poles of the disruption. If we touch, we short out the differential. Time can begin again.
River: And I’ll be by a lakeside, killing you.
The Doctor: And time won’t fall apart. The clocks will tick. Reality will continue. There isn’t another way.
River: I didn’t say there was, Sweetie.
River: There are so many theories about you and I, you know.
The Doctor: Idle gossip.
River: Archaeology.
The Doctor: Same thing.
River: Am I the woman who marries you, or the woman who murders you.
The Doctor: Oh… I don’t want to marry you.
River: I don’t want to murder you.
The Doctor: Well this is no fun at all.
River: It isn’t, is it?
Amy noticing the water dripping: Doctor. What’s that?
The Doctor: The pyramid above us. How many Silents have you got trapped inside it?
Madame Kovarian: None. They’re not trapped. They never have been. They’ve been waiting. For this, Doctor. For you.
Rory rushing in: They’re out! All of them!
Madame Kovarian: And you’re wearing iDrives based on mine, I think.
Madame Kovarian: The Silence would never allow an advantage without taking one themselves. The effects will vary from person to person. Either death. Or debilitating agony. But they will take you all. One by one.
Madame Kovarian: What are you doing? {zzt} No, it’s me. Don’t be stupid. {zzt} You need me! {zzt} Stop it! Stop that! Get it off me!
The Doctor: We could stop this right now, you and I. Amy, tell her.
Amy: We’ve been working on something. Just let us show you.
The Doctor: No point. There’s nothing you can do. My time is up.
Amy: We’re doing this for you!
The Doctor: And people are dying for me. I won’t thank you for that, Amelia Pond.
River: Just let us show you.
Amy: Please! Captain Williams, how long do we have?
Rory: A couple of minutes.
River: That’s enough. We’re going to the receptor room right at the top of the pyramid. I hope you’re ready for a climb.
Rory: I’ll wait down here, ma’am. Buy you as much time as I can.
Amy: You have to take your iDrive off.
Rory: Can’t do that, ma’am. I’ll forget what’s coming.
Amy: But it could activate any second.
Rory: It has activated, ma’am. I’m of no use to you if I can’t remember. You have to go now! Ma’am!
Amy: Yes. Yes. Thank you, Captain Williams. {she leaves}
Silent: Rory Williams. The man who dies and dies again. Die one last time, and know she will never come back for you. {she comes back for him} Come on you, up you get. You alright?
Madame Kovarian: Amy. Help me.
Amy: You took my baby from me and hurt her. And now she’s all grown up and she’s fine. But I’ll never see my baby again.
Madame Kovarian: But you’ll still save me though. Because he would. And you’d never do anything to disappoint your precious Doctor.
Rory: Ma’am, we have to go. Now.
Amy: The Doctor is very precious to me, you’re right. But do you know what else he is, Madame Kovarian? Not here. {she puts her iDrive back on her} River Song didn’t get it all from you. Sweetie.
Amy: So, you and me. We should get a drink sometime.
Rory: Okay.
Amy: And married.
Rory: Fine.
The Doctor: What’s this? Oh, it’s a timey-wimey distress beacon. Who built this?
River: I’m a child of the TARDIS. I understand the physics.
The Doctor: But that’s all you’ve got is a distress beacon?
River: I’ve been sending out a message. A distress call. Outside the bubble of our time. The universe is still turning and I’ve sent a message everywhere. To the future and the past, the beginning and the end of everything. “The Doctor is dying. Please, please help.”
The Doctor: River! River! This is ridiculous! That would mean nothing to anyone. It’s insane. Worse, it’s stupid! You embarrass me.
Amy: We barricaded the door. We’ve got a few minutes. Just tell him. Just tell him, River!
River: Those reports of the sun spots and the solar flares. They’re wrong. They’re aren’t any. It’s not the sun. It’s you. The sky is full of a million million voices, saying, “Yes of course. We’ll help.” You’ve touched so many lives, saved so many people. Did you think when your time came you’d really have to do more than just ask? You’ve decided that the universe is better off without you. But the universe doesn’t agree.
The Doctor: River, no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered. Time is disintegrating.
River: I can’t let you die—
The Doctor: But I have to die!
River: Shut up! I can’t let you die without knowing you are loved. By so many and so much. And by no one more than me.
The Doctor: River, you and I, we know what this means. We are ground zero of an explosion that will engulf all reality. Billions and billions will suffer and die.
River: I’ll suffer if I have to kill you.
The Doctor: More than everything living thing in the universe?!
River: Yes.
The Doctor: River— River! Why do you have to be this? Melody Pond—your daughter. I hope you’re both proud!
Rory: I’m not sure I completely understand.
Amy: Ah, we got married and had a kid and that’s her.
Rory: Okay.
The Doctor: Amy, uncuff me now. {she does}. Okay, I need a strip of cloth about a foot long. Anything will do. {grabbing his tie} Never mind. River, take one end of this, wrap it around your hand, and hold it out to me.
River: What am I doing?
The Doctor: As you’re told. Now. In the middle of a combat zone so we’ll have to do the quick version. Captain Williams, say, “I consent and gladly give.”
Rory: To what?
The Doctor: Just say it! Please.
Rory: I consent and gladly give.
The Doctor: I need you to say it too, mother-of-the-bride.
Amy: I consent and gladly give.
The Doctor: Now, River. I’m about to whisper something in your ear and you have to remember it very very carefully and tell no one what I said {he whispers}. I just told you my name. Now. There you go, River Song. Melody Pond. You’re the woman who married me. And wife, I have a request. This world is dying and it’s my fault. And I can’t bear it another day. Please, help me. There isn’t another way.
River: Then you may kiss the bride.
The Doctor: I’ll make it a good one.
River: You better.
The Doctor: And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.
Tick tock, goes the clock. He gave what he could give her. Tick tock, goes the clock. Now prison waits for River.
Amy: Heard there was a freak meteor shower two miles away. So I got us a bottle.
River: Thank you dear.
Amy: So, where are we?
River: I just climbed out of the Byzantium. You were there. So young. Didn’t have a clue who I was. You’re funny like that. Where are you?
Amy: The Doctor’s dead.
River: How are you doing?
Amy: How do you think?
River: Well I don’t know unless you tell me.
Amy: I killed someone. Madame Kovarian. In cold blood.
River: In an aborted timeline. In a world that never was.
Amy: Yeah, but I can remember it, so it happened. So I did it. What does that make me now? I need to talk to the Doctor but I can’t now, can I?
River: If you could talk to him, would it make a difference?
Amy: He’s dead so, so I can’t.
River: Oh, Mother. Of course he isn’t.
Amy: Not for you, I suppose. You’re seeing the younger versions of him. Running around having adventures.
River: Yeah, I am. But that’s not what I mean.
Amy: Then what do you mean?
River: Okay. I’m going to tell you what I probably shouldn’t. The Doctor’s last secret. Don’t you want to know what he whispered in my ear.
Amy: He whispered his name.
River: Not his name, no.
Amy: Yeah it was. He said it was.
River: Rule one?
Amy: The Doctor lies.
River: So do I. All the time. Have to. Spoilers. Pretending I don’t know you’re my mother. Pretending I didn’t recognize the space suit in Florida.
Amy: What did he whisper in your ear?
River: Oh… that man. He’s always one step ahead of everyone. Always a plan.
Amy: River. What did he tell you? River?
Rory: Are you sure? I mean really completely sure.
River: Of course I’m sure. I’m his wife.
Amy: And I’m his— mother-in-law.
River: Father dear, I think mummy might need another drink.
Dorium: Who’s carrying me. I demand to know. I’m a head. I have rights. I want my doors open this time. I demand that my doors are open! Is it you? It is, isn’t it? It is you! I can sense it! But how did you do it? How could you have possibly escaped?
Carter: Is there nothing else we can do?
The Doctor: Actually, thinking about it.
The Doctor: Look into my eye.
The Doctor: The Teselecta. A Doctor in a Doctor suit. Time said I had to be on that beach so I dressed for the occasion. Barely got singed in that boat.
Dorium: So you’re going to do this—let them all think you’re dead?
The Doctor: it’s the only way. Then they can all forget me. I got too big, Dorium. Too noisy. Time to step back into the shadows.
Dorium: And Doctor Song, in prison all her days?
The Doctor: Her days, yes. Her nights… well. That’s between her and me, eh?
Dorium: So many secrets, Doctor. I’ll help you keep them of course.
The Doctor: Well you’re not exactly going anywhere are you?
Dorium: But you’re a fool nonetheless. It’s all still waiting for you. The Fields of Trenzalore. The Fall of the Eleventh. And the question.
The Doctor: Goodbye Dorium.
Dorium: The first question! The question that must never be answered! Hidden in plain sight! The question you’ve been running from all your life! “Doctor Who?” “Doctor Who?” “Doctor Who!”!