She Said, He Said - a prequel by Steven Moffat
[Citadel, Gallifrey]
(A very long time ago, an alarm is sounding.)
ANDRO: Something wrong?
FABIAN: It's the repair shop. What kind of idiot would steal a faulty Tardis?
(The monitor screen shows a white-haired old man in a black frock coat and a teenaged girl getting into a non-camouflaged Type 40.)
[Repair shop]
CLARA: Doctor? Doctor?
DOCTOR 1: Yes, what is it? What do you want?
CLARA: Sorry, but you're about to make a very big mistake.
CLARA [OC]: I don't know where I am. It's like I'm breaking into a million pieces and there's only one thing I remember. I have to save the Doctor. He always looks different.
(The sixth Doctor walks across behind her.)
CLARA: Doctor!
(The fourth Doctor walks past her, scarf flying.)
CLARA [OC]: But I always know it's him. Sometimes I think I'm everywhere at once, running every second just to find him.
(The seventh Doctor is dangling from the ice cliff on the lower levels in Dragonfire.)
CLARA: Doctor!
CLARA [OC]: Just to save him.
(The third Doctor drives past in Bessie.)
CLARA: Doctor!
(The second Doctor, in his fur coat, runs past her in a palm-fringed park. She tries to follow, but falls onto a clear surface, where the fifth Doctor is floating beneath her in the reactor chamber in Warriors of the Deep.)
CLARA: Doctor?
CLARA [OC]: But he never hears me.
(The Eleventh Doctor in Victorian clothes, in Snowmen.)
CLARA: Oi.
CLARA [OC]: Almost never. I blew into this world on a leaf.
(The leaf that blew into the face of her father, that made him meet her mother.)
CLARA [OC]: I'm still blowing. I don't think I'll ever land. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm the Impossible Girl. I was born to save the Doctor.
[London 1893 - prison cell]
DeMARCO: Do you hear the Whisper Men? The Whisper Men are near. If you hear the Whisper Men, then turn away your ear. Do not hear the Whisper men, whatever else you do. For once you've heard the Whisper Men, they'll stop and look at you. One word from you could save me from the rope.
VASTRA: Then you may rely on my silence.
DeMARCO: I have information. Valuable information.
VASTRA: Are you bargaining for your life? You have the blood of fourteen women on your hands. There are no words you can speak that will save your neck.
DeMARCO: The Doctor. Ah, yes. I know all about him, your dangerous friend.
VASTRA: How?
DeMARCO: In the babble of the world, there are whispers, if you know how to listen. The Doctor has a secret, you know.
VASTRA: He has many.
DeMARCO: He has one he will take to the grave. And it is discovered. Well?
[Paternoster Row]
JENNY: We can't let that terrible man live.
VASTRA: He lives 'till I understand what he told me. We're going to need a conference call. I'll send out the invitations, you fetch the candles.
JENNY: Yes, ma'am.
(Jenny walks out of the room and hears voices whispering.)
VASTRA: Where's Strax got to?
JENNY: The usual. It's his weekend off.
VASTRA: I wish he'd never discovered that place.
[Glasgow]
STRAX [OC]: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!
(Strax and a big man go flying through a window.)
ARCHIE: Come here while I kill ye, ya filthy wee midden.
STRAX: Prepare to die in agony for the glory of the Sontaran Empire!
MESSENGER BOY: Excuse me. Mister Strax?
STRAX: What is it, girl? Can't you see I'm trying to crush the brains of this stinking primitive? Sorry about this.
ARCHIE: No problem.
MESSENGER BOY: It's a telegram, sir. Very urgent.
(Strax reads it.)
STRAX: Conference call. Sorry, Archie. I'm going to have to ask you to render me unconscious.
ARCHIE: Fine.
(Archie raises his large mallet.)
STRAX: Better use this.
(Strax's even larger shovel.)
STRAX: It might take a while.
[Paternoster Row]
(Vivaldi's Four Seasons plays in the background as Vastra and Jenny settle themselves into high backed chairs around a five sided table.)
VASTRA: Sleep well, my love.
JENNY: You too.
[Higher plane]
(They are still seated around the five sided table, but the decor has changed.)
WHISPER [OC]: The trap is set for the Doctor's friends. They will travel where the Doctor ends.
JENNY: Oh, I like the new desktop.
VASTRA: I was getting a little bored of the Taj Mahal. The tea should be superb. It's drawn from one of my favourite memories. Strax, good of you to join us.
STRAX: It had better be important. I was in the middle of destroying some very pleasant primitives.
VASTRA: I apologise for the interruption, but there is urgent news concerning the Doctor.
STRAX: Who else is coming?
VASTRA: The women.
[Maitland home]
(The children are doing their homework.)
ANGIE: Oh, no. You're going to try and make a souffle again, aren't you?
CLARA: My mum's souffle, yeah. Although this time I'll get it right. This time I will be Souffle Girl.
ARTIE: How can it be your mum's souffle if you're making it?
CLARA: Because, Artie, it's like my mum always said. The souffle isn't the souffle, the souffle is the recipe.
ANGIE: Was your mum deep on puddings?
CLARA: She was a great woman.
(She picks up an envelope. Neat cursive writing and a wax seal on the flap, and the instructions Open When Alone.)
CLARA: What's this?
ANGIE: Oh, it arrived today. It's for you.
[Clara's room]
VASTRA [OC]: My dearest Clara. The Doctor entrusted me with your contact details in the event of an emergency, and I fear one has now arisen. Assuming this letter will have reached you as planned, on April the tenth, 2013, please find and light the enclosed candle. It will release a soporific which will induce a trance state, enabling direct communication across the years. However, as I realise you have no reason to trust this letter, I have taken the liberty of embedding the same soporific into the fabric of the paper you are now holding. Speak soon.
[Higher plane]
(Clara drops in.)
VASTRA: So glad you could make it.
CLARA: Where am I?
JENNY: Exactly where you were, but sleeping.
VASTRA: Time travel has always been possible in dreams. We are awaiting only one more participant.
STRAX: Oh, no. Not the one with the gigantic head?
JENNY: It's hair, Strax.
STRAX: Hair.
(And she arrives in a puff of smoke.)
RIVER: Madame Vastra.
VASTRA: Professor. Help yourself to some tea.
RIVER: Why, thank you.
(River creates a champagne bottle and flute for herself.)
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. The Doctor might have mentioned me?
CLARA: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, of course he has. Professor Song. Sorry, it's just I never realised you were a woman.
STRAX: Well, neither did I.
VASTRA: Perhaps we should get down to the business at hand.
JENNY: That might be good, dear, yes.
VASTRA: Clarence DeMarco. Murderer, under sentence of death. He offered us this in exchange for his life.
RIVER: Space time coordinates.
VASTRA: This, Mister 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 are an exception to this rule, ask yourself one question. What is his name?
(Something invisible touches Jenny's cheek.)
RIVER: Well, I know it.
CLARA: What, you know his name? He told you?
RIVER: I made him.
CLARA: How?
RIVER: It took a while.
CLARA: So you're a friend of his, then?
RIVER: A little more than a friend, a long time ago.
VASTRA: He's still never contacted you?
RIVER: He doesn't like endings.
(Something is going on back where Vastra and Jenny are asleep.)
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: How exactly did he describe what he was giving you?
HOLO-DeMARCO: The Doctor has a secret, you know. He has one he will take to the grave. And it is discovered.
RIVER: You misunderstood.
JENNY: Ma'am, I'm sorry. I just realise I forgot to lock the doors.
VASTRA: It doesn't matter, Jenny. What misunderstanding? Tell me.
JENNY: No, ma'am, please. I should've 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.
(Astral Jenny starts to fade away.)
VASTRA: Jenny!
CLARA: What's happened to her.
RIVER: 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 slaps Vastra.)
[Paternoster Row]
(Vastra wakes up.)
VASTRA: Who are you? What have you done to her?
(A group of 'men' with just mouths, like the Trickster from Sarah Jane Adventures, snarl at her.)
[Higher plane]
RIVER: You too, Strax. Wake up now!
(River throws her champagne into his face. Strax sits up in Glasgow, surrounded by the same creatures. Apparently they are known as Whisper Men. They are also with Clara and River.)
WHISPER MEN: Tell the Doctor. Tell the Doctor. Tell the Doctor.
CLARA: Tell him what?
(The face of the Great Intelligence appears.)
HOLO-SIMEON: His friends are lost for ever more, unless he goes to Trenzalore.
RIVER: No! You can't say that. He can't go there. You know he can't.
DOCTOR [OC]: Angie? Artie?
RIVER: The Doctor can never go to Trenzalore.
DOCTOR [OC]: Am I getting warm?
[Maitland home]
(Clara wakes up at the top of the stairs.)
DOCTOR: Angie? Artie? Am I getting warm? Am I getting warm?
(The Doctor is blindfolded.)
DOCTOR: Am I getting warm? Look, I'm pretty sure you have to tell me if I'm getting warm. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty sure that's in the rules.
(Clara goes downstairs.)
CLARA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Ha! Clara. How are you? Don't worry, everything is under control.
CLARA: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: Oh. Mister Maitland went next door, so I said I'd look after the kids. They wanted to go to the cinema, but I said no. I said no, not until you wake up. I was very firm.
CLARA: At which point they suggested Blind Man's Buff.
DOCTOR: Yes. Where are they?
CLARA: At the cinema.
(She removes his blindfold.)
DOCTOR: The little Daleks. What's wrong?
(Clara makes tea.)
CLARA: So who was she, the lady with the funny name and the space hair?
DOCTOR: An old friend of mine.
CLARA: What, like an ex?
DOCTOR: Yes, an ex. River asked Vastra for the exact words. What were they?
CLARA: The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered. Doctor?
(The Doctor cries.)
DOCTOR: Sorry. And it was Trenzalore? Definitely Trenzalore?
CLARA: Yeah.
DOCTOR: Oh dear. Sorry.
(He runs out of the house.)
[Tardis]
(Clara finds the Doctor under the time rotor.)
CLARA: Well?
DOCTOR: Trenzalore. I've heard the name, of course. Dorium mentioned it. A few others. Always suspected what it was, never wanted to find out myself. River would know, though. River always knew. Right, come here. Give me your hand. Now, the coordinates you saw will still be in your memory. I'm linking you into the Tardis telepathic circuit. Won't hurt a bit.
CLARA: Ow!
DOCTOR: I lied.
CLARA: Okay, what is Trenzalore? Is that your big secret?
DOCTOR: No.
CLARA: Okay, what then?
DOCTOR: When you are a time traveller, there is one place you must never go. One place in all of space and time you must never, ever find yourself.
CLARA: Where?
DOCTOR: You didn't listen, did you? You lot never do. That's the problem. The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered. He wasn't talking about my secret. No, no, no, that's not what's been found. He was talking about my grave. Trenzalore is where I'm buried.
CLARA: How can you have a grave?
DOCTOR: Because we all do, somewhere out there in the future, waiting for us.
(They go up to the console.)
DOCTOR: The trouble with time travel, you can actually end up visiting.
CLARA: But you're not going to. You just said it's the one place you must never go.
DOCTOR: I have to save Vastra and Strax. Jenny too, if it's still possible. They, they cared for me during the dark times. Never questioned me, never judged me, they were just kind. I owe them. I have a duty. No point in telling you this is too dangerous.
CLARA: None at all. How can we save them?
DOCTOR: Apparently, by breaking into my own tomb.
(He puts the Tardis into flight. It is a very bumpy ride.)
CLARA: What's that?
DOCTOR: She's just figured out where we're going. She's against it. I'm about to cross my own timeline in the biggest way possible. The Tardis doesn't like it. She's fighting it. Hang on! Hang on!
(Lots of bangs and sparks. They get thrown over to the railings, and the Tardis powers down.)
CLARA: Now what?
DOCTOR: She doesn't want to land. She's shut down.
CLARA: So we're not there?
DOCTOR: We must be close.
(He goes to the door, opens it and looks down.)
DOCTOR: Okay, so that's where I end up.
(An angry volcanic planet.)
DOCTOR: Always thought maybe I'd retire. Take up watercolours or bee-keeping, or something. Apparently not.
CLARA: So, how do we get down there? Jump?
DOCTOR: Don't be silly. We fall.
(They go back inside.)
DOCTOR: She's turned off practically everything, except the anti-gravs. Guess what I'm turning off.
(He uses the sonic screwdriver, and Clara screams as the Tardis tumbles to the planet.)
[Trenzalore]
(The Tardis hits ground so hard it breaks one of the glass panes in the door.)
DOCTOR: Oops.
(The sky is dark, and occasionally riven with lightning.)
CLARA: You okay? You're visiting your own grave. Anyone would be scared.
DOCTOR: It's more than that. I'm a time traveller. I've probably time-travelled more than anyone else.
CLARA: Meaning?
DOCTOR: Meaning my grave is potentially the most dangerous place in the universe. Shall we?
CLARA: Gravestones are a big basic?
DOCTOR: It's a battlefield graveyard. My final battle.
CLARA: Why are some of them bigger?
DOCTOR: They're soldiers. The bigger the gravestone, the higher the rank.
(Up ahead is the biggest of all, a familiar shape with a light on top.)
CLARA: It's a hell of a monument.
DOCTOR: It's the Tardis.
CLARA: I can see that.
DOCTOR: No. When a Tardis is dying, sometimes the dimension dams start breaking down. They used to call it a size leak. All the bigger on the inside starts leaking to the outside. It grows. When I say that's the Tardis, I don't mean it looks like the Tardis, I mean it actually is the Tardis. My Tardis from the future. What else would they bury me in?
(The Doctor walks on.)
RIVER: Clara. Don't speak, don't say my name. He can't see or hear me. Only you can.
DOCTOR [OC]: Well, come on, then.
RIVER: We're mentally linked. It's the conference call. I kept the line open.
DOCTOR: Who are you talking to? We need to get. River.
(A gravestone with River Song carved in it.)
CLARA: That can't be right.
DOCTOR: No, it can't.
CLARA: She's not dead.
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.
DOCTOR: Long story. But her grave can't be here.
(Whispers.)
CLARA: Doctor!
(Whisper men are there.)
WHISPER MEN: This man must fall as all men must. The fate of all is always dust.
(The sonic screwdriver does not work on them.)
RIVER: If it isn't my gravestone, then what is it?
CLARA: What do you think that gravestone really is?
DOCTOR: The gravestone?
RIVER: Maybe it's a false grave.
CLARA: Maybe it's a false grave.
DOCTOR: Yeah, maybe.
RIVER: Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb.
CLARA: Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!
DOCTOR: Yes, of course. Makes sense. They'd never bury my wife out here.
CLARA: Your what?
(He zaps River's headstone with the sonic screwdriver. A hole opens in the ground and they fall through.)
WHISPER MEN: The man who lies will lie no more when this man lies at Trenzalore.
[Outside the tomb]
(Vastra and Strax wake up at the base of the Tardis monument.)
STRAX: This base is surrounded! Lay down your weapons and your deaths will be merciful!
VASTRA: Jenny. Jenny!
(Vastra runs to her wife's body.)
STRAX: This planet is now property of the Sontaran Empire. Surrender your women and intellectuals.
VASTRA: Strax, please! She's dead.
(He scans Jenny.)
STRAX: No heart beat. Complete cardio-collapse, shock induced.
VASTRA: Get her back for me. Get her back for me now or I will cut you into pieces.
STRAX: Unhand me, ridiculous reptile.
(He uses his medi-scanner to transmit an electric pulse, and Jenny coughs.)
STRAX: There we go. Just a standard electro-cardio restart. She'll be fine.
VASTRA: Are you all right, my love? Can you hear me?
STRAX: The heart is a relatively simple thing.
VASTRA: I have not found it to be so.
(The Whisper Men approach them, with their leader.)
SIMEON: I see you have repaired your pet. No matter. I was only attracting your attention. I presume I have it.
VASTRA: Doctor Simeon. This is not possible.
SIMEON: And yet here we are, meeting again, so very far from home.
JENNY: But he died. You told me.
VASTRA: Simeon died, but the creature that possessed him lived on. I take it I am now talking to the Great Intelligence?
SIMEON: Welcome to the final resting place of the cruel tyrant. Of the slaughterer of the ten billion, and the vessel of the final darkness. Welcome to the tomb of the Doctor.
(Cue lightning.)
[Catacombs]
(The Doctor lights a handy firebrand or torch.)
CLARA: Where are we?
DOCTOR: Catacombs.
CLARA: I hate catacombs. So how come I met your dead wife?
DOCTOR: Oh well, you know how it is when you lose someone close to you. I sort of made a back-up.
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.
DOCTOR: Clara, come on! Run, run!
(Whisper men are behind them.)
[Outside the tomb]
SIMEON: It was a minor skirmish, by the Doctor's blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War, but enough to finish him. In the end, it was too much for the old man.
JENNY: Blood-soaked?
VASTRA: The Doctor has been many things, but never blood-soaked.
SIMEON: Tell that to the leader of the Sycorax, or Solomon the trader, or the Cybermen, or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end. The Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard.
VASTRA: Even if any of this were true, which I take the liberty of doubting, how did you come by this information?
SIMEON: I am information.
JENNY: You were a mind without a body last time we met.
VASTRA: And you were supposed to stay that way.
SIMEON: Alas, I did.
(Simeon pulls at his face, to reveal that he is an empty shell. His clothes tumble to the ground, then a Whisper Man steps forward and becomes him again.)
SIMEON: As you can see.
[Tomb basement]
(The Doctor bursts through a steel door.)
DOCTOR: Come on, quickly, we're in.
(A Whisper Man grabs Clara's arm.)
CLARA: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Clara!
(He pulls her out of its grasp and slams the door. It's hand is trapped until it pulls it back, and the door closes properly.)
DOCTOR: Yowzah.
(They head up metal stairs.)
DOCTOR: Still a bit of a climb. I think I remember the way. Clara? Clara.
(Clara is feeling dizzy.)
DOCTOR: Hey, it's okay. You're fine. The dimensioning forces this deep in the Tardis, they can make you a bit giddy.
CLARA: I know, I know. How do I know? How do I know that?
DOCTOR: Clara, it's okay. You're fine.
CLARA: Have we, have we done this before? We have. We have done this before. Climbing through a wrecked Tardis.
(Journey to the Centre of the Tardis, with the complete reboot so it never happened.)
CLARA: You said things, things I'm not supposed to remember.
DOCTOR: We can't do this now. The Tardis is a ruin. The telepathic circuits are awakening memories you shouldn't even have.
DOCTOR [memory]: Why do I keep meeting you?
DOCTOR: Clara.
DOCTOR [memory]: The Dalek Asylum. There was a girl in a shipwreck and she died saving my life. And she was you.
DOCTOR: Clara.
DOCTOR [memory]: In Victorian London there was a governess, who was really a barmaid, and she died. And she was you.
DOCTOR: Clara? Clara, what's wrong?
CLARA: What do you mean, you keep meeting me? You said I died. How could I die?
DOCTOR: That is not a conversation you should even remember.
CLARA: What do you mean I died?
WHISPER MEN: The girl who died he tried to save. She'll die again inside his grave.
DOCTOR: Run. Run!
[Outside the tomb]
SIMEON: The doors require a key. The key is a word. And the word is the Doctor's.
DOCTOR: Here I am, late to my own funeral. Glad you could make it. Jenny.
SIMEON: Open the door, Doctor. Speak, and open your tomb.
DOCTOR: No.
SIMEON: Because you know what's in there?
DOCTOR: I will not open those doors.
SIMEON: The key is a word lost to time. A secret hidden in the deepest shadow and know to you alone. The answer to a question.
DOCTOR: I will not open my tomb.
SIMEON: Doctor, what is your name? The Doctor's friends. Stop their hearts.
(The Whisper Men hiss.)
STRAX: Madam, boys, combat formation. They are unarmed.
JENNY: So are we!
STRAX: Do not divulge our military secrets.
DOCTOR: Stop this. Leave them alone.
SIMEON: Your name, Doctor. Answer me.
CLARA: Doctor?
(Strax picks up a stick and hits a Whisper Man with it. It cuts through its body.)
STRAX: Do you want me to do that again?
(Then the hole closes up.)
SIMEON: Doctor who?
(The Whisper Man reaches into Strax's chest, and closes its hand around his heart.)
DOCTOR: Please, stop it.
SIMEON: Doctor who?
STRAX: Unhand me, sir. Argh.
DOCTOR: Leave him alone. Let him be.
STRAX: Don't worry, sir. I think I've got him rattled.
(One attacks Clara, too.)
CLARA: Doctor! Doctor!
SIMEON: Doctor who?
DOCTOR: Please!
(The tomb door opens. Strax is released.)
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.
DOCTOR: I didn't do it. I didn't say my name.
RIVER: No, but I did.
DOCTOR: Is everyone all right? Is everyone okay? Clara? Clara? Clara, are you okay?
CLARA: That was not nice.
DOCTOR: I know. I'm sorry. Now then, Doctor Simeon, or Mister G Intelligence, whatever I call you, do you know what's in there?
SIMEON: For me, peace at last. For you, pain everlasting. Won't you invite us in?
(The Doctor forces the doors further open.)
[Tomb]
(The console room, except instead of a time rotor and console, there is a bright tangle of shining white energy tendrils, swirling and writhing in a column. The Cloister Bell tolls in the background. There is ivy growing over the railing and other fittings.)
CLARA: What's that?
DOCTOR: What were you expecting, a body? Bodies are boring. I've had loads of them. Nah, that's not what my tomb is for.
VASTRA: But what is the light?
JENNY: It's beautiful.
STRAX: Should I destroy it?
VASTRA: Shut up, Strax.
CLARA: Doctor, explain. What is that?
DOCTOR: The tracks of my tears.
SIMEON: Less poetry, Doctor. Just tell them.
DOCTOR: Time travel is damage. It's like a tear in the fabric of reality. That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through time and space from Gallifrey to Trenzalore.
(He zaps it with his sonic screwdriver. Overlapping clips, sorry if I missed any.)
DOCTOR 1 [OC]: Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?
DOCTOR 4 [OC]: Do I have the right?
DOCTOR 6 [OC]: Daleks, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us.
DOCTOR 2 [OC]: There are corners of the universe that have bred the most dangerous things.
DOCTOR 9 [OC]: You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.
DOCTOR 10 [OC]: I'm the Doctor. I'm from Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous
DOCTOR 11 [OC]: Hello, Stonehenge!
DOCTOR: My own personal time tunnel. All the days,
DOCTOR 3 [OC]: It was the daisiest daisy I'd ever seen.
DOCTOR: Even the ones that I, er, even the ones that I haven't lived yet.
(The Doctor collapses.)
CLARA: Doctor. Doctor!
DOCTOR: No, no. Which is why I shouldn't be here. The paradoxes. It's very bad.
(Simeon steps forward.)
DOCTOR: No. No. No. What are you doing? Somebody stop him!
SIMEON: The Doctor's life is a open wound. And an open wound can be entered.
DOCTOR: No, it would destroy you.
SIMEON: Not at all. It will kill me. It will destroy you. I can rewrite your every living moment. I can turn every one of you victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath.
DOCTOR: It will burn you up. Once you go through, you can't come back. You will be scattered along my timeline like confetti.
SIMEON: It matters not, Doctor. You thwarted me at every turn. Now you will give me peace, as I take my revenge on every second of your life. Goodbye. Goodbye, Doctor.
(Simeon backs into the time stream, and the Whisper Men vanish. There is a big flash. The Doctor writhes in agony.)
CLARA: What's wrong with him? What's happening?
VASTRA: He's being rewritten. Simeon is attacking his entire timeline. He's dying all at once. The Dalek Asylum. Androzani.
CLARA: What did you say? Did you say the Dalek Asylum?
VASTRA: Now he's dying in London, with us.
SIMEON [OC]: It is done.
(The time stream turns red.)
VASTRA: Oh, dear Goddess.
JENNY: What's wrong?
VASTRA: A universe without the Doctor. There will be consequences. Jenny, with me.
CLARA: The Dalek Asylum. You said it was me that saved you. How? Victorian London. How, how could I have been in Victorian London?
DOCTOR: No. Please, stop. My life, my whole life is burning.
[Outside the tomb]
JENNY: What are you scanning for?
VASTRA: Local star systems.
STRAX: Why?
VASTRA: Because they're disappearing.
JENNY: Disappearing how?
VASTRA: The Doctor's timeline has been corrupted. His every victory reversed. Think how many lives that man saved. How many worlds. He saved your life when we met. Jenny?
(Jenny has vanished.)
VASTRA: Please, Jenny, no! Oh God, oh please, no.
STRAX: Reptile scum.
(Strax attacks Vastra.)
STRAX: You are an affront to Sontaran purity. Prepare to perish!
VASTRA: We're friends. Strax, your past is changing, but I swear, we are comrades!
STRAX: Die, reptile.
(She raises her weapon, but Strax disappears.)
VASTRA: Strax! Strax!
[Tomb]
CLARA: I have to go in there.
DOCTOR: Please, please, no.
CLARA: But this is what I've already done. You've already seen me do it. I'm the Impossible Girl, and this is why.
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 souffl� isn't the souffl�, the souffl� is the recipe. It's the only way to save him, isn't it?
(River's image nods.)
VASTRA: The stars are going out. And Jenny and Strax are dead. There must be something we can do.
CLARA: Well, how about that? I'm souffl� girl after all.
DOCTOR: No. Please.
CLARA: If this works, get out of here as fast as you can. And spare me a thought now and then.
DOCTOR: No, Clara.
CLARA: In fact, you know what? Run. Run, you clever boy, and remember me.
DOCTOR: No. Clara!
(Clara steps into the time stream. It turns white again.)
CLARA [OC]: I don't know where I am.
DOCTOR: Clara!
(Reprise the earlier montage.)
CLARA [OC]: I just know I'm running. Sometimes it's like I've lived a thousand lives in a thousand places. I'm born, I live, I die. And always, there's the Doctor. Always I'm running to save the Doctor again and again and again. Oi! And he hardly ever hears me. But I've always been there.
[Gallifrey - Tardis repair shop]
CLARA: Doctor?
DOCTOR 1: Yes, what is it? What do you want?
CLARA [OC]: Right from the very beginning.
CLARA: Sorry, but you're about to make a very big mistake. Don't steal that one, steal this one. The navigation system's knackered, but you'll have much more fun.
CLARA [OC]: Right from the day he started running.
CLARA [Dalek Asylum]: Run, you clever boy.
[Tomb]
CLARA: And remember me.
(Whiteout.)
STRAX: It was an unprovoked and violent attack, but that's no excuse.
VASTRA: We're all restored. That's all that matters now.
DOCTOR: We are not all restored.
RIVER: You can't go in there. It's your own time stream, for God's sake.
DOCTOR: I have to get her back.
RIVER: Of course, but not like this.
JENNY: But how?
VASTRA: Is she still alive? It killed Doctor Simeon.
DOCTOR: Clara's got one advantage over the Great Intelligence.
VASTRA: Which is?
DOCTOR: Me.
RIVER: Doctor, please listen to me. At least hear me.
DOCTOR: Now, if I don't come back, and I might not
RIVER: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Go to the Tardis. The fast return protocols 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.
(River's image goes to hit the Doctor, and he catches her arm in his hand.)
RIVER: How are you even doing that? I'm not really here.
DOCTOR: You are always here to me. And I always listen, and I can always see you.
RIVER: Then why didn't you speak to me?
DOCTOR: Because I thought it would hurt too much.
RIVER: I believe I could have coped.
DOCTOR: No, I thought it would hurt me. And I was right.
(The Doctor kisses River.)
DOCTOR: 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 us, in the end. My fault, I know, but you should've faded by now.
RIVER: It's hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye.
DOCTOR: Then tell me, because I don't know. How do I say it?
RIVER: There's only one way I'd accept. If you ever loved me, say it like you're going to come back.
DOCTOR: Well, then. See you around, Professor River Song.
RIVER: Till the next time, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Don't wait up.
RIVER: Oh, there's one more thing.
DOCTOR: Isn't there always?
RIVER: I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead, then how can I still be here?
DOCTOR: Okay, how?
RIVER: Spoilers. Goodbye, sweetie.
(Melody Pond, daughter of the Tardis, vanishes. The Doctor steps into his own time stream. Whiteout.)
CLARA [OC]: I don't know where I am. I don't know where I'm going or where I've been. I was born to save the Doctor, but the Doctor is safe now. I'm the Impossible Girl, and my story is done.
[Time stream]
(Thud. It looks like the graveyard at Trenzalore.)
CLARA: Doctor?
(Thud.)
CLARA: Doctor! Please, please, I don't know where I am.
DOCTOR [OC]: Clara. You can hear me. I know you can.
CLARA: I can't see you.
DOCTOR [OC]: I'm everywhere. You're inside my time stream. Everything around you is me.
(The first Doctor walks past.)
CLARA: I can see you.
(More figures run past.)
CLARA: All your different faces, they're here.
DOCTOR [OC]: Those are my ghosts. My past. Every good day, every bad day.
(Clara is knocked to the ground.)
CLARA: What's wrong? What's happening?
DOCTOR [OC]: I'm inside my own time stream. It's collapsing in on itself.
CLARA: Well, get out then.
DOCTOR [OC]: Not until I've got you.
CLARA: I don't even know who I am.
DOCTOR [OC]: You're my Impossible Girl. I'm sending you something. Not from my past, from yours. Look up. Look.
(A dead leaf comes floating down.)
DOCTOR [OC]: This is you, Clara. Everything you were or will be. Take it. You blew into the world on this leaf. Hold tight. It will take you home.
(Clara takes the leaf and stumbles forward.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Clara! Clara! Come on. Come on, to me, now.
DOCTOR: You can do it. I know you can.
CLARA: How?
DOCTOR: Because it's impossible. And you're my Impossible Girl. How many times have you saved me, Clara? Just this once, just for the hell of it, let me save you. You have to trust me, Clara. I'm real. Just one more step.
(Clara stumbles into the Doctor's arms.)
DOCTOR: Clara, my Clara.
(The Doctor looks forward to where a man is standing with his back to them.)
CLARA: Who's that?
DOCTOR: Never mind. Let's go back.
CLARA: But who is he?
DOCTOR: He's me. There's only me here, that's the point. Now let's get back.
CLARA: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. Eleven faces, all of them you. You're the eleventh Doctor.
DOCTOR: I said he was me. I never said he was the Doctor.
CLARA: I don't understand.
DOCTOR: Look, my name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like, it's like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise.
(Clara faints.)
DOCTOR: Clara? Clara? Clara!
(The Doctor picks up Clara in his arms.)
DOCTOR: He is my secret.
NOT DOCTOR: What I did, I did without choice.
DOCTOR: I know.
NOT DOCTOR: In the name of peace and sanity.
DOCTOR: But not in the name of the Doctor.
(The Doctor turns and carries Clara away. The figure turns around to introduce John Hurt as the Doctor.)
To Be Continued... November 23rd
END
Source: Chrissie's Transcripts Site
