O'Donnell: Did you see that spaceship in the hangar? Yeah, we found it on the lake bed.
O'Donnell: In here!
Clara: Wait, are they saying something?
The Doctor: The dark, the sword, the forsaken, the temple. These words actually rewrite the synaptic connections in your brain. They're coordinates. Someone is deliberately getting people k*lled and turning them into transmitters. I can save you.
Clara: A new ghost, oh, no, no, no, no...
[ TARDIS ]
The Doctor: So there's this man. He has a time machine. Up and down history he goes, zip zip zip zip zip, getting into scrapes. Another thing he has is a passion for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. And one day he thinks, "What's the point of having a time machine if you don't get to meet your heroes?" So off he goes to 18th-century Germany. But he can't find Beethoven anywhere. No-one's heard of him, not even his family have any idea who the time traveller is talking about. Beethoven literally doesn't exist. This didn't happen, by the way. I've met Beethoven. Nice chap. Very intense. Loved an arm-wrestle. No, this is called "The Bootstrap Paradox". Google it. The time traveller panics, he can't bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven. Luckily he'd brought all his Beethoven sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos and the symphonies... and he gets them published. He becomes Beethoven. And history continues with barely a feather ruffled. But my question is this. "Who put those notes and phrases together?" Who really composed Beethoven's 5th?
(Plays the opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony)
[ Train Station ]
The Doctor: Where's Bennett? We need to get going.
O'Donnell: Oh, he's still throwing up. "One small step for man, one giant... Bleaurgh."
The Doctor: Time travel does that sometimes.
O'Donnell: Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on their first trip.
The Doctor: You seem to know an awful lot about me.
O'Donnell: I used to be in m*llitary intelligence. I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window.
The Doctor: In anger?
O'Donnell: Is there another way to dangle someone out the window? What year are we in?
The Doctor: 1980.
O'Donnell: So, pre-Harold Saxon. Pre-the Minister of w*r. Pre-the moon exploding and a big bat coming out.
The Doctor: The Minister of w*r?
O'Donnell: Yeah.
The Doctor: Never mind. I expect I'll find out soon enough.
Bennett: Sorry about that. Had a prawn sandwich. Might have been off.
The Doctor: Don't worry. Shall we go?
O'Donnell: Just one sec, I've just got something in my boot...
O'Donnell: It's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside. How can it be bigger on the inside, Bennett? OK, let's roll.
[ Town ]
Bennett: Why have we gone to Russia?
The Doctor: Er, we haven't. We're still in Scotland. This is the town before it flooded. The TARDIS has brought us to when the spaceship first touched down. But here and now, it's the height of the Cold w*r. The m*llitary were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil.
[ Spaceship ]
O'Donnell: Oh, is that the pilot? God, look at size of it.
The Doctor: No, that's the body.
O'Donnell: What do you mean, "the body"?
The Doctor: This isn't just any spaceship. It's a hearse.
Bennett: The suspended animation chamber is still here, and the power cells for the engine.
O'Donnell: And there are no markings on the wall.
The Doctor: Yet.
[ EXT. Church ]
Prentis: Greetings!
O'Donnell: It's him. That's the ghost from the Drum.
Prentis: Remarkable. Oh, and humans, too... Albar Prentis, Funeral Director.
Bennett: You're from Tivoli, aren't you?
Prentis: The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, "If you occupied us, you'd be home by now."
The Doctor: Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before. I can't say I'm a fan.
Prentis: No, we do tend to antagonise.
The Doctor: What are you doing here?
Prentis: Ah, yes. Of course. This... is the Fisher King. He and his armies invaded Tivoli and enslaved us for ten glorious years! Until we were liberated by the Arcateenians. But, thank the Gods, soon we'd irritated them so much, they enslaved us, too!
Bennett: My first proper alien, and he's an idiot.
Prentis: And now, in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost.
O'Donnell: You mean the town?
The Doctor: He means the planet.
Prentis: Although, at the risk of starting a bidding w*r, you could enslave me. In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items that you can oppress me with.
The Doctor: Listen. We've come from the future. You're about to send some sort of signal. How do you do it? Is it a special pen?
Prentis: What are you talking about?
The Doctor: The technology you use, the thing that wrenches the soul out of the body and makes it repeat your coordinates for eternity. Give it to me now, I'm going to take the batteries out.
Prentis: We don't have anything like that. Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians.
The Doctor: So who sends the message?
(He sniffs the Doctor)
The Doctor: Back to the TARDIS. I need to talk to Clara.
[ Mess hall ]
Lunn: You've been here before, in situations like this before.
Clara: Yeah, not exactly like... But, yeah, once or twice.
Lunn: So you've had to deal with people who are scared. What do you say to them? I'm asking what I should say to you.
Clara: That it will be all right. That the Doctor will save us.
Lunn: And when you say it, do you believe it?
Clara: Yeah. Yeah, I do.
Lunn: And now?
Lunn: Cass thinks the Doctor is saying something different to the others. He's saying... "Moran... Pritchard... Apprentice"? No, "Prentis... O'Donnell... Clara... Doctor... Bennett... Cass..." It's a list of all our names and when he finishes, he just goes back to the beginning again, over and over. That's it.
Clara: Who's Prentis?
(Phone rings)
Clara: It's the Doctor.
Lunn: He's alive?
Clara: For the moment.
Clara: Doctor? Doctor, are you all right?
The Doctor (O.C.): Yeah, fine. So listen, the spaceship, it's a hearse.
[ TARDIS / Mess hall ]
The Doctor: Clara, what's wrong?
Clara: Another ghost has appeared.
The Doctor: What? Who? Has someone d*ed?
Clara: Doctor... it's you. Are you OK?
The Doctor: Yeah. Well... currently.
Clara: What does it mean?
The Doctor: It means I die.
Clara: No, not necessarily. We can change the sequence of events so...
The Doctor: This isn't a potential future... this is the future now. It's already happened. The proof is right there in front of you. I have to die.
Clara: No. You can change things.
The Doctor: I can't. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastroph... could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond. Ah, well, I've had a good innings. This regeneration is a bit of a clerical error anyway. I've got to go sometime.
Clara: Not with me! Die with whoever comes after me. You do not leave me.
The Doctor: Clara, I need to talk to you, just on your own.
The Doctor: Listen to me. We all have to face death eventually, be it ours... or someone else's.
Clara: I'm not ready yet. I don't want to think about that, not yet.
The Doctor: I can't change what's already happened. There are rules.
Clara: So break them. And anyway, you owe me. You've made yourself essential to me. You've given me something else to to be. And you can't do that and then die. It's not fair.
The Doctor: Clara.
Clara: No. Doctor, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you love me in any way, you'll come back. Doctor, are you...?
The Doctor: I can't save Moran or Pritchard.
Clara: No... but like you said, if you can find out why this is happening, maybe you can stop them k*lling anybody else, you can save us. And you can stop it happening to you.
The Doctor: I'll do what I can, but the future has already happened. We've just met the Undertaker and he's still alive.
(He gasps)
(Heavy footsteps)
(Loud roar)
The Doctor: So. Ghost me. You've got a better view than me. How do I look? Any signs of trauma, any scars? Any clues as to how I die?
Clara: No, nothing. You're the same as all the other ghosts with the weird black eyes and... No. No, wait. Your coat. It's torn. The right shoulder.
The Doctor: I assume I'm just saying... the same thing as the others.
Clara: No. You're saying a list of names. Our names, mainly. "Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell, Clara, Doctor, Bennett, Cass." Who's Prentis?
The Doctor: The mole-faced chap.
The Doctor: What's the matter, Clara, what's happening?
Clara: You've moved inside. You're inside here now.
The Doctor: What am I doing?
(He mouths)
Clara: Er, nothing. You're, you're just standing there.
The Doctor: I'm not trying to k*ll you? Why am I not trying to k*ll you?
Clara: No, wait, you're moving, going toward the control panel.
Clara: Oh, no. He's opened the Faraday Cage. He's let the other ghosts out.
The Doctor: I need to talk to me now.
Clara: Didn't you hear me? You opened the Faraday Cage. The other ghosts are outside. Shouldn't we be hiding?
The Doctor: In a minute. I need to talk to the ghost me.
Clara: OK, Doctor, you're on.
The Doctor: Doctor. Such an honour. I've always been a huge admirer. This is really a delight. Finally someone worth talking to. So firstly, why are you here?
The Doctor: Clara? Clara, what's happening?
Clara: Erm... Er... you've just stopped. Oh, no, wait, you've started again.
Cass via Lunn: His message has changed. He's saying something different. He's saying...
Clara: What?
The Doctor: What?
Lunn: What?
Cass via Lunn: He's saying... "The chamber will open tonight."
The Doctor: Clara, now the ghosts are out, go to the Faraday Cage. They won't be able to get you in there. Oh, there's a problem.
Clara: Problem? What problem? Oh, really? Because everything else is going so smoothly...
The Doctor: The phone signal won't be able to get through. What you'll have to do... Clara, put the phone outside, and you can watch it through the little round porthole, and when you see it ringing, if it's safe to do so, go out and answer it.
Clara: OK, how long are you going to...?
The Doctor: Clara, listen to me. Don't let that phone out of your sight. I need to be able to reach you, I need to know everything my ghost does. Do you understand? I'll come back for you. I swear.
[ TARDIS ]
The Doctor: Come on. Oh, wait a minute. Not you, O'Donnell.
O'Donnell: Why not?
The Doctor: Someone needs to stay here and mind the shop. What if Clara calls?
O'Donnell: The last bloke that said something like that to me got dangled out of a window.
Bennett: Maybe the Doctor's right. Maybe it's best if you stay here.
O'Donnell: Never going to happen. Seriously, have you two met me?
[ Spaceship ]
The Doctor: Prentis. Prentis!
O'Donnell: Guess that dead body wasn't so dead after all.
Bennett: And now we've got the writing.
The Doctor: The Fisher King did it himself. The future is still coming.
[ EXT. Church ]
The Doctor: He's taken the suspended animation chamber to the church.
(Huge roar)
O'Donnell: What was that?
The Doctor: We need to get back to the TARDIS. Now!
(Louder roars and screams)
[ Building ]
The Doctor: It's cut us off.
O'Donnell: Let's split up. Go on, Bennett.
(Heavy breathing and footsteps)
(Loud roar)
The Doctor: No, Bennett! Wait!
(O'Donnell moans)
Bennett: Why did you come? You shouldn't have come. I mean, you never listen to anyone. It drives me mad.
O'Donnell: To keep an eye on you, idiot. So, don't die.
Bennett: Who's next on the list?
Bennett: That list your ghost was saying, that's the order in which people are going to die, isn't it? I mean, I've only just figured that out. But you knew that all along, didn't you?
Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell.
The Doctor: I thought perhaps, because her ghost wasn't there in the future, like Prentis's was, I thought maybe... maybe it wouldn't happen. Maybe she stood a chance.
Bennett: Yeah, but you didn't try very hard to stop her, though, did you? It was almost like you wanted to test your theory. So who's next?
The Doctor: Clara.
Bennett: Yeah. Yeah. Except now you're going to do something about it, aren't you? Yeah, because it's getting closer to you. You're going to change history to save yourself but not to save O'Donnell. You wouldn't save her.
The Doctor: This isn't about saving me. I'm a dead man walking. I'm changing history to save Clara.
[ Faraday Cage ]
Clara: O'Donnell's dead.
Clara: Oh, no. No, no, no, no, don't you dare... Don't you dare...
[ TARDIS ]
The Doctor: Big day for you. Time travel - twice!
Bennett: Whoa, really? When are we going to?
The Doctor: Off the map! Out of the rule book. What if I don't die? What if I refuse? I'm going to go back to the base and I'm going to save Clara, because that's what I do. And I don't see anyone here who's going to stop me.
[ Town ]
The Doctor: Why are we still here?
The Doctor: No, no, no, no, no, no.
Bennett: What?
The Doctor: We've moved half an hour backwards. I'm locked in my own time-stream. The TARDIS won't let me leave.
Bennett: What do we do?
The Doctor: Now we have to keep out of sight, until time catches up.
Later Doctor: Where's Bennett? We need to get going. Oh, he's still throwing up.
Bennett: Prentis. He's alive.
The Doctor: No, he's just not dead yet. And we don't tell him.
Bennett: Yeah, but he's right there. I mean, we can just...
The Doctor: No. However that sentence ends, no, we can't. Save him, and you'll want to save O'Donnell. You can't cheat time. I've just tried. You can't just go back and cut off tragedy at the root. Because you find yourself talking to someone you just saw dead on a slab. Because then you really do see ghosts. We don't tell him. Understand? Not a word. We don't have that right.
[ EXT. Church ]
Later Prentis: Albar Prentis, Funeral Director.
Later Bennett: You're from Tivoli, aren't you?
Later Prentis: The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, "If you occupied us, you'd be home by now."
Later Doctor: Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before. I can't say I'm a fan.
Later Prentis: No, we do tend to antagonise!
(g*nsh*t)
Later Doctor: What are you doing here?
Later Prentis: Ah, yes. Of course.
[ Faraday Cage ]
Clara: The dark. The sword. The forsaken. The temple. When we found out what the ghosts were saying, we weren't surprised because the words, they were already inside us.
(He mouths)
Clara: But you, you were, weren't you? You didn't know what the words were going to be.
Lunn: No, I didn't. How did you know?
Clara: Who was the one person who didn't see the writing in the spaceship?
Lunn: Me. Cass wouldn't let me go inside.
Clara: That's why the ghosts didn't hurt you when they had the chance. The message isn't inside you.
Lunn: Yes, I suppose that makes sense.
Clara: So you can get the phone back.
Lunn: What?
Lunn: She's saying I should go and get the phone back.
Cass: No.
Clara: Listen, listen. I need... We, we need to be able to contact the Doctor and you are the only one who can do this.
Lunn: OK. No, she's right. Neither of you can get it back.
Clara: What? What is it? What did she say?
Lunn: It doesn't matter.
Clara: Please.
Lunn: She said to ask you whether travelling with the Doctor changed you, or were you always happy to put other people's lives at risk.
Clara: He taught me to do what has to be done. You should get going.
[ EXT. Church ]
The Doctor: Oh. I need more time. It's too soon. I haven't saved her yet. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. I've got no choice now, I have to face the Fisher King. You, back to the TARDIS.
[ Outside the Faraday Cage ]
Clara: Look, he'll be fine, I promise.
Clara: OK. Didn't need anyone to translate that.
[ EXT. Church ]
The Doctor: Now I'm ready.
(Wind howls)
[ Basement ]
The Doctor: I've come from the future. I've seen the chaos you cause. The bloodshed.
Fisher King (O.C.): Tell me what you have seen.
The Doctor: Ghosts.
Fisher King (O.C.): Ghosts?
The Doctor: Souls wrenched from the dead. Repeating directions to here, to this spot, over and over.
Fisher King (O.C.): How many ghosts do I create? How many?
The Doctor: Four that I know of. Maybe five by now. Probably more since I left.
Fisher King (O.C.): My ghosts will make more ghosts. Enough to bring an armada. Enough to wake me from my sleep.
(Machine dings)
(Machine beeps)
(Indistinct hissing)
(Indistinct hissing)
(Rhythmic thumping)
The Doctor: What will happen when your people arrive?
Fisher King (O.C.): We will drain the oceans and put the humans in chains.
The Doctor: This world is protected by me.
Fisher King (O.C.): Yes. One man, lost in time.
[ Mess hall ]
Computer: Door emergency security lock.
[ Basement ]
Fisher King: The seed of their destruction is already sown. They will die. The message will be sent. My people will come, and you will do nothing to stop it, Time Lord.
[ Faraday Cage ]
Clara: Hey, no, no, no, no. Cass! Wait, what are you doing? Look, Lunn, he is going to be fine, I promise. We have to stay here. I know that look. I do that look. OK, fine. But we stick together.
[ Basement ]
Fisher King: Time Lords. Cowardly, vain curators who suddenly remembered they had teeth and became the most warlike race in the galaxy. But you, you! You are curious. You have seen the words, too. I can hear them tick inside you. But you are still locked in your history. Still slavishly protecting Time. Willing to die rather than change a word of the future.
[ Corridors ]
Clara: Lunn. Lunn. Lunn. Oh, Cass. Cass. Cass. Idiot. I'm an idiot.
(Metallic scraping)
(Metallic scraping)
[ Basement ]
Fisher King: You will be a strong beacon. How many ghosts can I make of you?
The Doctor: You know, you've got a lot in common with the Tivoleans; you'll both do anything to survive. They'll surrender to anyone. You will hijack other people's souls and turn them into electromagnetic projections. That will to endure. That refusal to ever cease. It's extraordinary. And it makes a fella think. Because you know what? If all I have to do to survive is tweak the future a bit, what's stopping me? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the ripple effect. Maybe it will mean that the universe will be ruled by cats or something, in the future. But the way I see it, even a ghastly future is better than no future at all. You robbed those people of their deaths. Made them nothing more than a message in a bottle. You violated something more important than Time. You bent the rules of life and death. So I am putting things straight. Here, now, this is where your story ends.
(Fisher King growls)
[ Corridor ]
(Machine beeps)
(Metallic scraping)
(Silence)
(Metallic scraping)
(Silence)
(Metallic scraping)
(Silence)
(Metallic scraping)
Clara: Oh, there you are.
[ Basement ]
Fisher King: There is nothing you can do.
The Doctor: I've already done it. The words have gone. I got rid of them. The future I saw, none of that will happen now. The message will never contaminate my friends, no-one will die, no-one is coming to save you. That's the thing about knowing you're going to die. You've got nothing left to lose.
(Fisher King growls)
[ Mess hall ]
Lunn: No, no, you've got to get out of here. The ghosts locked me in. It's a trap.
Clara: Come on. Faraday Cage now!
[ Spaceship ]
Fisher King: The Time Lord... lied.
(Device beeps)
(Beeping intensifies)
(Fisher King growls)
(Rumbling)
(Wind howls)
[ TARDIS ]
The Doctor (hologram): This is security protocol 7-1-2. The echelon circuit has been activated. Please stow any hand luggage and prepare for departure.
[ Main hangar ]
Clara: Back, get back.
(Machine beeps)
(Rumbling)
(Fisher King growls)
(Fisher King roars)
The Doctor: Don't kiss me. Morning breath.
Clara: Doctor?
The Doctor: Follow me.
[ Bridge ]
(Fisher King roars)
Clara: What's that noise?
The Doctor: It's the call of the Fisher King. The call of their master.
(Fisher King roars)
Clara: Where are they going? So what was it? Your ghost.
The Doctor: A hologram. Like the one we made of you to lure the ghosts into the Faraday Cage. With a soupcon of artificial intelligence, and a few prerecorded phrases thrown in. Uh... All beamed from the sonic glasses. As soon as you brought me and the chamber on board, it connected with the base's wi-fi and Bob's your uncle, you've got a ghost Doctor.
Clara: Why did they only come out at night?
The Doctor: They're electromagnetic projections that were out of phase with the base's day mode. Right. That's it. I've erased the memory of the writing. Though you might find you've lost a couple of other memories too. You know, like people you went to school with, or previous addresses or how to drink liquids. That's you two done. Where's Bennett?
[ Outside the Faraday Cage ]
Bennett: What will happen to them?
The Doctor: UNIT will cut out the Faraday Cage with them inside and take it away. Then the space-hearse will be destroyed, so the writing doesn't infect anyone else.
Bennett: What do I do now?
The Doctor: I don't understand.
Clara: I do. You keep going. You have to. Take it from me, there is a whole world out there. A galaxy, a life. What would O'Donnell have wanted?
The Doctor: I need to erase that message from your mind, but it's fine, I'll do it later.
Bennett: Lunn. Will you translate something to Cass for me?
Lunn: Of course.
Bennett: Tell her that you're in love with her and that you always have been.
Lunn: What?
Bennett: Tell her there is no point wasting time because things happen and then it's too late. Tell her I wish someone had given me that advice.
Lunn: Oh, God. I was just passing on what he said. Please, don't feel...
[ TARDIS ]
Clara: What will UNIT do with the ghosts?
The Doctor: Drag the cage into space, away from the Earth's magnetic field. With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away.
Clara: Here's what I don't understand. You did change the future. You stopped the Fisher King from returning.
The Doctor: The Fisher King had been dead for 150 years before we even got here. But once I went back I became part of events. But here's the thing. The messages my ghost gave, they weren't for you, they were for me. That list. Everyone after you was random, but you being the next name, that's what made me confront the Fisher King.
Clara: And saying the chamber will open?
The Doctor: That was me telling me to get inside and when to set it for.
Clara: Smart.
The Doctor: Except that's not why I said them.
Clara: How do you mean?
The Doctor: I programmed my ghost to say them because that's what my ghost had said. And the only reason I created my ghost-hologram in the first place was because I saw it here. I was reverse engineering the narrative.
Clara: OK, that's still pretty smart.
The Doctor: You do not understand. When did I first have those ideas, Clara?
Clara: Well, it must have been... Wow.
The Doctor: Exactly. Who composed Beethoven's 5th?
Doctor, help me!
Yes, you're the very next thing on the list.
We are Vikings!
(Cheering)
You fight or you die.
They're called the Mire.
You will beg for mercy.
The deadliest warrior race in the galaxy?
One of them, yes, why?
This village declared w*r on them.
There's going to be a w*r and here's some news. We'll win the hell out of it.
Why are you here?
I'm the Doctor, and I save people.
09x04 - Before The Flood (2)
Moderator: Kitty Midnight
Time and Space traveling adventures of a Gallifreyan Time Lord only known as "the Doctor" and his companions.
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Classic Who Specials
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