Forest of the Dead

(Cold Open)

[Stacks]

DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights? Hey, who turned out the lights?

(River uses the squareness gun on the wall.)

RIVER: This way, quickly. Move!
DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?

[Girl's home]

(Our heroes escape is on the television.)

GIRL: Dad, the library, it's on television now.
FATHER: How many times, darling? The library is just your imagination.

(She changes channels and gets different views of the library, until the exterior of a hospital appears, with an ambulance driving up to it. A patient is taken out of the back.)

GIRL: Donna?

[Hospital]

(It is a posh private hospital. Donna is sitting on the bed looking at herself in a large mirror. There is a knock on the door then Doctor Moon enters.)

MOON: Hello, Donna.
DONNA: Who are you?
MOON: I'm Doctor Moon. I've been treating you since you came here, two years ago.
DONNA: Oh God. Doctor Moon, I'm so sorry. What's wrong with me? I didn't know you for a moment.
MOON: And then you remembered. Shall we go for a walk?

[Hospital grounds]

MOON: No more dreams, then? The Doctor and the blue box, time and space.
DONNA: How did we get here?
MOON: We came down the stairs, out the front door. We passed Mrs Ali on the way out.

(A small sign in front of the building reads CAL.)

DONNA: Yeah. Yeah, we did. I forgot that.
MOON: And then you remembered. Shall we go down to the river?

[River]

DONNA: You said river, and suddenly we're feeding ducks.
LEE: Doctor Moon. Morning.

(A man with fishing gear walks up to them.)

MOON: Donna Noble, Lee McAvoy.
DONNA: Hello, Lee.
LEE: Hello, D, D, D-
DONNA: Ooo, you've got bit of a stammer there. Bless.
LEE: D, D-
DONNA: Oh, skip to a vowel. They're easy.

[Hospital grounds]

DONNA: How did we leave it, him and me?
MOON: I got the impression he was inviting you fishing tomorrow.

[Lee's room]

(Donna enters in a sequined dress.)

DONNA: So. Fishing.

[River]

(Yes, really fishing, sitting under a large umbrella in the rain.)

LEE: D. D.
DONNA: Gorgeous, and can't speak a word. What am I going to do with you?

[House]

(Get carried over the threshold in a white wedding dress, that's what.)

LEE: Welcome home, M, Mrs McAvoy.

[Living room]

(Doctor Moon is looking through the family album while the children run around.)

DONNA: Stop it. Stop it now. We've got a visitor.
MOON: You've done so much in seven years, Donna.
DONNA: Sometimes it feels more like seventy. Mind you, sometimes it feels like no time at all.

(Doctor Moon picks up his briefcase to leave.)

MOON: Can I just say what a pleasure it is to see you fully integrated.

(Moon fritzes out to be replaced by the Doctor fiddling with his sonic screwdriver.)

DOCTOR: No, the signal's definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through. Donna!

(Moon returns.)

MOON: Sorry. Mrs Angelo's rhubarb surprise. Will I never learn?
DONNA: Oh, the Doctor. I saw the Doctor.
MOON: Yes, you did, Donna. And then, you forgot.
DONNA: Doctor Moon. Oh, hello. Shall I make you a cup of tea?

[Rotunda]

(The large moon is hanging high in the orange sky. River cuts a square in the wall with her gun and enters.)

RIVER: OK, we've got a clear spot. In, in, in! Right in the centre. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross. Doctor.
DOCTOR: I'm doing it.
RIVER: There's no lights here. Sunset's coming. We can't stay long. Have you found a live one?
DOCTOR: Maybe. It's getting harder to tell. What's wrong with you?
RIVER: We're going to need a chicken leg. Who's got a chicken leg? Thanks, Dave.

(She throws the meat into the shadow, and once again it is just bone before it hits the ground.)

RIVER: Okay. Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet.
DOCTOR: They won't attack until there's enough of them. But they've got our scent now. They're coming.
OTHER DAVE: Oh, yeah, who is he? You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him?
RIVER: He's the Doctor.
LUX: And who is the Doctor?
RIVER: The only story you'll ever tell, if you survive him.
ANITA: You say he's your friend, but he doesn't even know who you are.
RIVER: Listen, all you need to know is this. I'd trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been.
ANITA: He doesn't act like he trusts you.
RIVER: Yeah, there's a tiny problem. He hasn't met me yet.

(She goes over to where the Doctor is still scanning shadows.)

RIVER: What's wrong with it?
DOCTOR: There's a signal coming from somewhere, interfering with it.
RIVER: Then use the red settings.
DOCTOR: It doesn't have a red setting.
RIVER: Well, use the dampers.
DOCTOR: It doesn't have dampers.
RIVER: It will do one day.

(The Doctor takes River's sonic screwdriver.)

DOCTOR: So, some time in the future, I just give you my screwdriver.
RIVER: Yeah.
DOCTOR: Why would I do that?
RIVER: I didn't pluck it from your cold dead hands, if that's what you're worried about.
DOCTOR: And I know that because?
RIVER: Listen to me. You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now.
DOCTOR: Less emotional? I'm not emotional.
RIVER: There are five people in this room still alive. Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young.
DOCTOR: Young? Who are you?
LUX: Oh, for heaven's sake! Look at the pair of you. We're all going to die right here, and you're just squabbling like an old married couple.
RIVER: Doctor, one day I'm going to be someone that you trust completely, but I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry.

(River whispers in the Doctor's ear, and he looks stunned.)

RIVER: Are we good? Doctor, are we good?
DOCTOR: Yeah, we're good.
RIVER: Good.

(River takes back her screwdriver and leaves him.)

DOCTOR: Know what's interesting about my screwdriver? Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers, but I'm working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed? Come on! What's new? What's different?
OTHER DAVE: I don't know. Nothing. It's getting dark?
DOCTOR: It's a screwdriver. It works in the dark. Moon rise. Tell me about the moon. What's there?
LUX: It's not real. It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon.
DOCTOR: What's a Doctor Moon?
LUX: A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet.
DOCTOR: Well, still active. It's signalling. Look. Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair. No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through.

(An image of Donna appears.)

RIVER: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Donna!

(Donna disappears again.)

RIVER: That was her. That was your friend! Can you get her back? What was that?
DOCTOR: Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm trying to find the wavelength. Argh, I'm being blocked.
ANITA: Professor?
RIVER: Just a moment.
ANITA: It's important. I have two shadows.
RIVER: Okay. Helmets on, everyone. Anita, I'll get yours.
ANITA: It didn't do Proper Dave any good.
RIVER: Just keep it together, okay?
ANITA: Keeping it together. I'm only crying. I'm about to die. It's not an overreaction.

(River puts the helmet on Anita.)

DOCTOR: Hang on.

(The Doctor sonics the visor black.)

RIVER: Oh God, they've got inside.
DOCTOR: No, no, no. I just tinted her visor. Maybe they'll think they're already in there, leave her alone.
RIVER: Do you think they can be fooled like that?
DOCTOR: Maybe. I don't know. It's a swarm. It's not like we chat.
OTHER DAVE: Can you still see in there?
ANITA: Just about.
DOCTOR: Just, just, just stay back. Professor, a quick word, please.
RIVER: What?
DOCTOR: Down here.

(They crouch down.)

RIVER: What is it?
DOCTOR: Look, you said there are five people still alive in this room.
RIVER: Yeah, so?
DOCTOR: So, why are there six?

(Skeletal zombie Dave has caught up to them.)

DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?
DOCTOR: Run!
DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?

[Girl's home]

DAVE [on TV]: Hey, who turned out the lights? Hey, who turned out the lights?

(She changes channels.)

DONNA [on TV]: Here we are, Doctor Moon.

[Living room]

ELLA: Mummy, I made you!

(Donna's daughter, Ella, has made a plasticine figure.)

DONNA: Oh, that's nice, Ella. Where's the face?
ELLA: I don't know.
DONNA: Did you see Doctor Moon? Did he leave?

(Lee enters, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase.)

JOSHUA + ELLA: Daddy!
LEE: Hey! Hello, you two. Come here. Big hugs. Big Daddy hugs.
ELLA: Look what I made.
LEE: Oh. It's Mummy.
DONNA: Er, it hasn't got a face. Did you see Doctor Moon?
LEE: No. Why, was he here?
DONNA: Yeah, just a second ago. You must have passed him.

(Donna looks out of the window and catches a brief glimpse of a woman in long black Victorian dress walking away.)

LEE: You all right?
DONNA: Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just-
LEE: Just?
DONNA: Nothing. It's been a long day, that's all. I'm just tired.

[Bedroom]

LEE: You okay?
DONNA: I said I was tired, and, and we put the kids to bed, and we watched television.

(The letterbox rattles.)

DONNA: Was that a letter?
LEE: It's midnight.
DONNA: Go and see what it is.

(Lee leaves the room. Donna looks out of the window and sees the woman in black more clearly. She is wearing a veil. Lee returns.)

LEE: The world is wrong.
DONNA: What?
LEE: For you. Weird, though. Dear Donna, the world is wrong. Meet me at your usual playpark, two o'clock tomorrow.

(The woman walks away.)

DONNA: Nutter.

[Girl's home]

GIRL: Don't go. Please don't go.

[Playground]

(Donna brings her children to play. The woman is sitting alone on a bench.)

DONNA: All right, you two, off you go. No fighting.

(Donna sits next to the woman.)

DONNA: I got your note last night. The world is wrong. What's that mean?
EVANGELISTA: No, you didn't.
DONNA: I'm sorry, what?
EVANGELISTA: You didn't get my note last night. You got it a few seconds ago. Having decided to come, you suddenly found yourself arriving. That is how time progresses here, in the manner of a dream. You've suspected that before, haven't you, Donna Noble?
DONNA: How do you know me?
EVANGELISTA: We met before, in the library. You were kind to me. I hope now to return that kindness.
DONNA: Your voice. I recognise it.
EVANGELISTA: Yes, you do. I am what is left of Miss Evangelista.

[Stacks]

(The group run through a high level walkway to another library skyscraper.)

DOCTOR: Professor, go ahead. Find a safe spot.
RIVER: It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit. You can't reason with it.
DOCTOR: Five minutes.
RIVER: Other Dave, stay with him. Pull him out when he's too stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor.

(Zombie Dave barges through the doors.)

DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?
DOCTOR: You hear that? Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him. Talk to me. It's easy. Neural relay. Just point and think. Use him, talk to me.
DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?
DOCTOR: The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests. What are you doing in a library?
OTHER DAVE: We should go. Doctor!
DOCTOR: In a minute. You came to the library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why?
VASHTA NERADA: We did not.
DOCTOR: Oh, hello.
VASHTA NERADA: We did not.
DOCTOR: Take it easy, you'll get the hang of it. Did not what?
VASHTA NERADA: We did not come here.
DOCTOR: Well, of course you did. Of course you came here.
VASHTA NERADA: We come from here.
DOCTOR: From here?
VASHTA NERADA: We hatched here.
DOCTOR: But you hatch from trees. From spores in trees.
VASHTA NERADA: These are our forests.
DOCTOR: You're nowhere near a forest. Look around you.
VASHTA NERADA: These are our forests.
DOCTOR: You're not in a forest, you're in a library. There are no trees in a (the penny drops) library.
OTHER DAVE: We should go. Doctor!
DOCTOR: Books. You came in the books. Microspores in a million, million books.
OTHER DAVE: We should go. Doctor!
DOCTOR: Oh, look at that. The forests of the Vashta Nerada, pulped and printed and bound. A million million books, hatching shadows.
OTHER DAVE: We should go. Doctor!
DOCTOR: Oh, Dave! Oh Dave, I'm so sorry.

(Other Dave is also a skeleton now.)

DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?
OTHER DAVE: We should go. Doctor!
DOCTOR: Thing about me, I'm stupid. I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Want to know the only reason I'm still alive? Always stay near the door.

(The Doctor opens a trapdoor with his sonic screwdriver and drops. The girl watches him on the television as he hangs on to a support strut and inches his way along, screwdriver clenched between his teeth.)

[Playground]

EVANGELISTA: I suggested we meet here because a playground is the easiest place to see it. To see the lie.
DONNA: What lie?
EVANGELISTA: The children. Look at the children.
DONNA: Why do you wear that veil? If I had a face like yours, I wouldn't hide it.
EVANGELISTA: You remember my face, then? The memories are all still there. The library, the Doctor, me. You've just been programmed not to look.
DONNA: Sorry, but you're dead.
EVANGELISTA: In a way, we're all dead here, Donna. We are the dead of the library.
DONNA: Well, what about the children? The children aren't dead. My children aren't dead.
EVANGELISTA: Your children were never alive.
DONNA: Don't you say that. Don't you dare say that about my children!
EVANGELISTA: Look at your children. Look at all of them, really look.

(All the children in the playground are Ella and Joshua, repeated over and over.)

EVANGELISTA: They're not real. Do you see it now? They're all the same. All the children of this world, the same boy and the same girl, over and over again.
DONNA: Stop it. Just stop it. Why are you doing this? Why are you wearing that veil?

(Donna pulls off Evangelista's veil. Her face is distorted, skewed and stretched. Donna and the girl scream.)

[Reading room]

(Night has fallen. River and her remaining team are in another round room. She is checking the shadows with her screwdriver.)

RIVER: You know, it's funny, I keep wishing the Doctor was here.
ANITA: The Doctor is here, isn't he? He is coming back, right?
RIVER: You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere.
DOCTOR: Spoilers. Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that.
RIVER: It does for the Doctor.
DOCTOR: I am the Doctor.
RIVER: Yeah. Some day.
DOCTOR: How are you doing?
RIVER: Where's Other Dave?
DOCTOR: Not coming. Sorry.
ANITA: Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference.

(Anita has two shadows.)

ANITA: It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again.
DOCTOR: Can I get you anything?
ANITA: An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?
DOCTOR: I'm all over it.
ANITA: Doctor. When we first met you, you didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in your ear, and you did. My life so far. I could do with a word like that. What did she say? Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me.
DOCTOR: Safe.
ANITA: What?
DOCTOR: Safe. You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say safe. The data fragment! What did it say?
LUX: Four thousand and twenty two people saved. No survivors.
RIVER: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant, saved!

[Playground]

DONNA: What happened to your face?
EVANGELISTA: Transcription errors. Destroyed my face, did wonders for my intellect. I'm a very poor copy of myself.

[Girl's home]

DONNA [on TV]: Where are we? Why are the children all the same?
EVANGELISTA [on TV]: The same pattern over and over. It saves an awful lot of space.
DONNA [on TV]: Space?
EVANGELISTA [on TV]: Cyberspace.
GIRL: No, don't tell! You mustn't tell!

[Reading room]

(The Doctor has got into a Library Archive File.)

DOCTOR: See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out.
RIVER: It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?
DOCTOR: It succeeded. Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?
RIVER: It saved them.

(The Doctor draws on a large polished table.)

DOCTOR: The library. A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive.

[Bandstand]

EVANGELISTA: Your physical self is stored in the library as an energy signature. It can be actualised again whenever you or the library requires.
DONNA: The library? If my face ends up on one of those statues.
EVANGELISTA: You remember the statues?
DONNA: Wait, no, just hang on. So this isn't the real me? This isn't my real body? But I've been dieting!
EVANGELISTA: What you see around you, this entire world-

[Girl's home]

EVANGELISTA [on TV]: Is nothing more than virtual reality.

[Bandstand]

DONNA: So why do you look like that?
EVANGELISTA: I had no choice. You teleported. You're a perfect reproduction. I was just a data ghost caught in the Wi-Fi and automatically uploaded.
DONNA: And it made you clever?
EVANGELISTA: We're only strings of numbers in here. I think a decimal point may have shifted in my IQ. But my face has been the bigger advantage. I have the two qualities you require to see absolute truth. I am brilliant and unloved.
DONNA: If this is all a dream, whose dream is it?
EVANGELISTA: It's hard to see everything in the data core, even for me, but there is a word. Just one word. Cal.

(The girl is crying. She changes channels.)

[Playground]

(Ella has fallen from a swing.)

ELLA: Mummy, my knee!
DONNA: Oh! Oh, look at that knee. Oh, look at that silly old knee!
EVANGELISTA: She's not real. They're fictions. I'm sorry, but now that you understand that, you won't be able to keep a hold. They are sustained only by your belief.
DONNA: You don't know. You don't have children.
EVANGELISTA: Neither do you.

[Girl's home]

EVANGELISTA [on TV]: Donna, for your own sake, let them go!
GIRL: Stop it! You'll spoil everything! I hate you! You're going to ruin everything! Stop it!
FATHER: Sweetie, what's wrong?
GIRL: Shut up!

(She points the remote at her father and presses a button. He vanishes.)

GIRL: Daddy! No! Daddy!

(She throws the remote on the floor.)

[Reading room]

(An alarm sounds.)

LUX: What is it? What's wrong?
COMPUTER: Autodestruct enabled in twenty minutes.

[Girl's home]

ELLA [on TV]: Mummy, what did the lady mean? Are we not real?
JOSHUA [on TV]: Where are we going?
DONNA [on TV]: Home!

[Living room]

(The lighting is red and the alarm is sounding.)

JOSHUA: That was quick, wasn't it, Mummy?
ELLA: Mummy, what's wrong with the sky?

[Reading room]

RIVER: What's maximum erasure?
DOCTOR: In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg.
LUX: No. No, it's all right. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect Cal.

[Girl's home]

MOON: Now you really must stop this, you know. You've forgotten again it was you who saved all those people, haven't you? And then, you remembered.
GIRL: Shut up, Doctor Moon!

(She grabs the remote and makes him vanish.)

[Reading room]

(The terminal screen goes blank.)

DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
COMPUTER: All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience.
LUX: We need to stop this. We've got to save Cal.
DOCTOR: What is it? What is Cal?
LUX: We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you.
DOCTOR: It's at the core of the planet.
RIVER: Well, then. Let's go.

(River points her screwdriver at the library logo in the middle of the compass rose in the floor. It opens.)

RIVER: Gravity platform.
DOCTOR: I bet I like you.
RIVER: Oh, you do.

(The four step on and go down.)

[Living room]

JOSHUA: Mummy, you're hurting my hand.
DONNA: You just, you just stay where I can see you, all right? You, you don't get out of my sight.
ELLA: Is it bedtime?

[Children's bedroom]

(The children are tucked up in their attic beds.)

DONNA: Okay. That was lovely, wasn't it? That was a lovely bedtime. We had warm milk, and we watched cartoons, and then Mummy read you a lovely bedtime story.
ELLA: Mummy, Joshua and me, we're not real, are we?
DONNA: Of course you're real. You're as real as anything. Why do you say that?
JOSHUA: But, Mummy, sometimes, when you're not here, it's like we're not here.
ELLA: Even when you close your eyes, we just stop.
DONNA: Well, Mummy promises to never close her eyes again.

(The children have vanished. Donna is frantic.)

DONNA: No! Please! No, please! No! No, no! No, no!

[Data core]

COMPUTER: Autodestruct in fifteen minutes.

(The Doctor looks up to see a globe with swirling energy in it.)

DOCTOR: The data core. Over four thousand living minds trapped inside it.
RIVER: Yeah, well, they won't be living much longer. We're running out of time.

[Girl's home]

GIRL: Help me. Please, help me. Please, please help me!

[Data core]

(The Doctor finds an access terminal.)

GIRL [OC]: Help me. Please, help me.
ANITA: What's that?
RIVER: Was that a child?
DOCTOR: The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up. I'm trying.

(The Doctor taps at the keyboard, and toys come to life in the girl's home.)

RIVER: Doctor, these readings.
DOCTOR: I know. You'd think it was dreaming.
LUX: It is dreaming, of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written.
ANITA: Computers don't dream.
GIRL [OC]: Help me. Please help me.
LUX: No, but little girls do.

(Lux pulls a breaker and a door opens. They run in.)

[CAL interface]

(A node turns to face them.)

GIRL NODE: Please help me. Please help me.
RIVER: Oh, my God.
ANITA: It's the little girl. The girl we saw in the computer.
LUX: She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is Cal.
DOCTOR: Cal is a child? A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!
LUX: Because she's family! Cal. Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show.
DOCTOR: So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her.
LUX: This is only half a life, of course. But it's for ever.
DOCTOR: And then the shadows came.
GIRL NODE: The shadows. I have to. I have to save. Have to save.
DOCTOR: And she saved them. She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe.
ANITA: Then why didn't she tell us?
DOCTOR: Because she's forgotten. She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well, me.
RIVER: So what do we do?
COMPUTER: Autodestruct in ten minutes.

[Data core]

DOCTOR: Easy! We beam all the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space.
RIVER: Difficult. It'll kill you stone dead.
DOCTOR: Yeah, it's easy to criticise.
RIVER: It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate.
DOCTOR: I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing.
RIVER: Doctor!
DOCTOR: I'm right, this works. Shut up. Now listen. You and Luxy boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention in passing as you're here, shut up.
RIVER: Oh! I hate you sometimes.
DOCTOR: I know!
RIVER: Mister Lux, with me. Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!

(River and Lux leave.)

ANITA: What about the Vashta Nerada?
DOCTOR: These are their forests. I'm going to seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content.
ANITA: So you think they're just going to let us go?
DOCTOR: Best offer they're going to get.
ANITA: You're going to make 'em an offer?
DOCTOR: They'd better take it, because right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all. You know what? I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying. And she never gave in. And you ate her.

(He clears her visor to reveal a skull.)

DOCTOR: But I'm going to let that pass, just as long as you let them pass.
ANITA: How long have you known?
DOCTOR: I counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Be kind.
ANITA: These are our forests. We are not kind.
DOCTOR: I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go.
ANITA: These are our forests. They are our meat.

(Shadows stretch out from Vashta Nerada Anita towards the Doctor.)

DOCTOR: Don't play games with me. You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.

(There is a pause, then the shadows withdraw.)

ANITA: You have one day.

(The spacesuit collapses.)

RIVER: Oh, Anita.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry. She's been dead a while now. I told you to go!
RIVER: Lux can manage without me, but you can't.

(River punches the Doctor, knocking him out. A little later, River is twisting some wires together.)

COMPUTER: Autodestruct in two minutes.

(The Doctor wakes up.)

DOCTOR: Oh, no, no, no, no. Come on, what are you doing? That's my job.
RIVER: Oh, and I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?
DOCTOR: Why am I handcuffed? Why do you even have handcuffs?
RIVER: Spoilers.
DOCTOR: This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is going to kill you! I'd have a chance, you don't have any.
RIVER: You wouldn't have a chance, and neither do I. I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download.
DOCTOR: River, please. No.
RIVER: Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried.
COMPUTER: Autodestuct in one minute.
RIVER: You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the library. You even gave me your screwdriver. That should have been a clue.

(The two screwdrivers and her diary are just out of the Doctor's reach.)

RIVER: There's nothing you can do.
DOCTOR: You can let me do this.
RIVER: If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.
DOCTOR: Time can be rewritten.
RIVER: Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run.
DOCTOR: River, you know my name.
COMPUTER: Autodestruct in ten
DOCTOR: You whispered my name in my ear.
COMPUTER: Nine, eight, seven
DOCTOR: There's only one reason I would ever tell anyone my name. There's only one time I could.
RIVER: Hush, now.
COMPUTER: Four, three
RIVER: Spoilers.
COMPUTER: Two, one

(River joins two power cables together, and there is a blinding light.)

[Staircase]

LEE: Donna? What's happening?
DONNA: I don't know, but it's not real. Nothing here's real. The whole world, everything. None of it's real.
LEE: Am I real?

(They start to wash out in bright light.)

DONNA: Of course you're real. I know you're real. Oh God, oh God, I hope you're real.

(Lee is pulled away from Donna into the light.)

DONNA: I'll find you. I promise you, I'll find you.

[Reception]

(Lux is working at the desk terminal.)

MAN: Excuse me?

(There are a lot of people here.)

MAN: What happened? How did we get here?
LUX: Look at you. You're back! You're all back! He did it! You're all back. Look at you!

[Staircase]

(Lux goes down the marble stairs to the balcony.)

LUX: Look at that. Oh, look at that. He did it. Four thousand and twenty two people, saved.

(The sad Doctor is still handcuffed to a copper pipe.)

[Shop]

(People are teleporting out.)

COMPUTER: Please be patient. Only three can teleport at a time. Do not state your intended destination until you arrive in your designated slot.
DOCTOR: Any luck?
DONNA: There wasn't even anyone called Lee in the library that day. I suppose he could have had a different name out here, but, let's be honest, he wasn't real, was he?
DOCTOR: Maybe not.
DONNA: I made up the perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word. What's that say about me?
DOCTOR: Everything. Sorry, did I say everything? I meant to say nothing. I was aiming for nothing. I accidentally said everything.
WOMAN: Stand right in the middle of the teleport, please. Keep your hands and feet inside at all times.
DONNA: What about you?
WOMAN: And remember to switch off your mobile comm. unit.
DONNA: Are you all right?
DOCTOR: I'm always all right.
WOMAN: If you are pregnant, please go to teleport seven on the floor above
DONNA: Is all right special Time Lord code for really not all right at all?
DOCTOR: Why?
DONNA: Because I'm all right, too.
DOCTOR: Come on.

(The Doctor and Donna walk out just as Lee stands on the teleport pad. He sees her and starts to stutter her name, but gets teleported away before he can get a sound out.)

[Staircase]

(The Doctor puts River's diary on the balcony rail.)

DONNA: Your friend, Professor Song. She knew you in the future, but she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me.
DOCTOR: Donna, this is her diary. My future. I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?
DONNA: Spoilers, right?
DOCTOR: Right.

(He puts River's sonic screwdriver on the diary.)

DOCTOR: Come on. The next chapter's this way.

(They walk back up the stairs.)

RIVER [OC]: When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it will never end. But however hard you try, you can't run for ever. Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever, for one moment, accepts it.

(The Doctor runs back for the screwdriver.)

DOCTOR: Why? Why would I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that? Thing is, future me had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her, and what he did was give her a screwdriver. Why would I do that?

(Because it also contains a neural relay, which has two green lights on it.)

DOCTOR: Oh! Oh! Oh, look at that. I'm very good!
DONNA: What have you done?
DOCTOR: Saved her.

[Stacks]

(The Doctor is running as one green light goes out.)

DOCTOR: Stay with me! You can do it, stay with me! Come on, you and me, one last run!

[Reading room]

DOCTOR: Sorry, River, shortcut!
COMPUTER: Platform disabled.

(The Doctor dives into the gravity well. The last light is blinking.)

[Data core]

RIVER [OC]: Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day.

(The Doctor plugs the screwdriver into the core, and her neural energy is transferred.)

RIVER [OC]: Not today.

(Charlotte Node smiles.)

[Hospital grounds]

(River is wearing a loose white robe. Charlotte and Doctor Moon walk up to her.)

GIRL: It's okay, you're safe. You'll always be safe here. The Doctor fixed the data core. This is a good place now. But I was worried you might be lonely, so I brought you some friends. Aren't I a clever girl?
EVANGELISTA: Aren't we all?

(Anita, the two Daves and Miss Evangelista with her normal face are walking towards her.)

RIVER: Oh, for heaven's sake. He just can't do it, can he? That man. That impossible man. He just can't give in.
RIVER [OC]: Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all.

(The Doctor returns to the Reception and stares at the TARDIS. He snaps his fingers, and the door opens. Donna is waiting inside.)

RIVER [OC]: Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call

(He snaps his fingers again and the door closes.)

[Children's bedroom]

(River closes her diary.)

RIVER: Everybody lives.

(She kisses Charlotte goodnight and looks at Ella and Joshua.)

RIVER: Sweet dreams, everyone.

Transcript originally provided by Chrissie. Adapted by TARDIS.guide. The transcripts are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.

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