The Beast Below

[Class room]

(A city is flying through space, stuck on the back of a giant shell with a Union Flag painted on it. The skyscrapers have illuminated names down their sides - Yorkshire, Devon, Kent, Essex. The second R in Surrey is broken. The school bell is ringing for end of classes. The children file out except for one red-headed boy who is still sitting at his desk. The Auto-teacher is praising them as they pass.)

COMPUTER: Well done, Mabel. Well done, Alfie. Good girl, Tabitha. Very well done, Ranjit. Good girl, Chloe. Well done, Ben. Well done, Mandy.

(It is the little boy's turn.)

COMPUTER: Bad boy, Timmy.

(The head on the Auto-teacher turns around from a smiling face to a frowning one.)

COMPUTER: Zero.

[By the lift]

MANDY: You got a zero, didn't you?
TIMMY: Yeah? So?
MANDY: You'll have to walk home then.
TIMMY: Walk to London? That's twenty decks!
MANDY: You can't ride a Vator with a zero. You know what happens. You'll get sent below.

(A man in a black cloak, with a clock key on a string around his neck, stops Timmy getting in the lift. He is a Winder, apparently.)

MANDY: I'll wait for you.

(The lift doors close. They look like tube train doors, and the logo above them is London Underground. Timmy gets into the next lift.)

[Lift]

(There is an Automaton here too, like the Auto-teacher in the classroom. The cast list says that these are called Smilers.)

SMILER: Welcome to Vator Verse, sponsored by McLintock's Candy Burgers.
TIMMY: London, please.

(A little girl appears on a small screen at the back of the lift.)

GIRL [on screen]: A horse and a man, above, below. One has a plan, but both must go. Mile after mile, above, beneath. One has a smile, and one has teeth.

(The Smiler head turns from smile to frown.)

GIRL [on screen]: Though the man above might say hello, expect no love from the beast below.

(The lift starts to drop very fast. Timmy goes to the intercom.)

TIMMY: Help! Help me!

(The lift stops at floor 0 and the floor opens up over a long drop. The Smiler face turns from frown to angry scowl. Timmy falls through the bottom of the lift with a scream.)

[TARDIS]

(Amy is floating in space, with the Doctor holding on to her ankle from the open door of the TARDIS.)

AMY [OC]: My name is Amy Pond. When I was seven, I had an imaginary friend. Last night was the night before my wedding.
DOCTOR: Come on, Pond.
AMY [OC]: And my imaginary friend came back.

(The Doctor pulls Amy back inside the TARDIS.)

DOCTOR: Now do you believe me?
AMY: Okay, your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! What are we breathing?
DOCTOR: I've extended the air shell. We're fine.

(They are above the city in space.)

DOCTOR: Now that's interesting. Twenty ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations.

(The Doctor runs back to the console and the doors close.)

AMY [OC]: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Migrating to the stars.
AMY [OC]: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Isn't that amazing?
AMY [OC]: Doctor!

(He has shut her outside.)

DOCTOR: Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship. This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home.
AMY: Can we go out and see?
DOCTOR: Course we can. But first, there's a thing.
AMY: A thing?
DOCTOR: An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets.

(Sorry, nearly spat my tea over my keyboard. An image of Mandy waiting by the lifts is on the scanner.)

DOCTOR: Ooo, that's interesting.
AMY: So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die. It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?

(Amy sees the Doctor on the scanner, speaking to the weeping Mandy.)

AMY: Doctor?

(He gestures for her to join him.)

[London Market]

TANNOY: Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored.
AMY: I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries.
DOCTOR: Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?
AMY: What's wrong?
DOCTOR: Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?
AMY: Is it the bicycles? Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles.
DOCTOR: Says the girl in the nightie.
AMY: Oh my God, I'm in my nightie.
DOCTOR: Now, come on, look around you. Actually look.
TANNOY: London Market is a crime-free zone.
DOCTOR: Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me.

(He takes a pint glass of water from a table.)

MAN: What are you doing?

(And puts it on the floor. He looks at it for a moment then returns it to the table.)

DOCTOR: Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?
AMY: Why did you just do that with the water?
DOCTOR: Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?
AMY: Where?
DOCTOR: There.

(The weeping Mandy, all alone. The Doctor goes to her and a Winder watches them.)

[Tower]

(A field telephone rings. A thin faced man answers whilst watching the Doctor on a screen.)

HAWTHORNE: Are you sure?

[London Market]

(The Winder is using a red Telephone kiosk to report in.)

PETER: Saw it myself.

[Tower]

PETER [OC]: Are you going to tell her?
HAWTHORNE: We're under orders to tell her.

[London Market]

HAWTHORNE [OC]: Well done. Keep tabs on him.

[State apartments]

(A woman in a long red cloak is sitting on the floor with her back towards us, in front of an array of glasses of water and a lit chandelier. Her mobile phone rings.)

HAWTHORNE [OC]: Sorry to interrupt. There's been a sighting. London block, Oxford Street. A man.

(We focus on a white mask by her feet.)

LIZ: Did he do the thing?
HAWTHORNE [OC]: Apparently.
LIZ: I'll have a look on the monitors.

[London Market]

AMY: One little girl crying. So?
DOCTOR: Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that.
AMY: Are you a parent?
DOCTOR: Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state.

(A Smiler watches Mandy get into a lift.)

AMY: Where'd she go?
DOCTOR: Deck two oh seven. Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere.

(The Doctor gives Amy a colourful wallet.)

AMY: But they're just things.
DOCTOR: They're clean. Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Look. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?
AMY: No, hang on. What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed.
DOCTOR: It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose? Ha ha, gotcha. Meet me back here in half an hour.
AMY: What are you going to do?
DOCTOR: What I always do. Stay out of trouble. Badly.
AMY: So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?
DOCTOR: Yes.

[Deck 207]

(Amy leaves footprints in the dirt of Dean Street.)

MANDY: You're following me. Saw you watching me at the marketplace.
AMY: You dropped this.
MANDY: Yeah, when your friend kept bumping into me.
AMY: What's that?
MANDY: There's a hole. We have to go back.
AMY: A what? A hole?

(Right outside Magpie Electricals is a striped workman's hut with yellow flashing lights and a keep out sign.)

MANDY: Are you stupid? There's a hole in the road. We can't go that way. There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps. What are you doing?
AMY: Oh, don't mind me. Never could resist a keep out sign. What's through there? What's so scary about a hole? Something under the road?

(The workman's hut is padlocked.)

MANDY: Nobody knows. We're not supposed to talk about it.
AMY: About what?
MANDY: Below.
AMY: And because you're not supposed to, you don't? Watch and learn.

(Amy picks the lock with a hairpin, watched by a Smiler.)

MANDY: You sound Scottish.
AMY: I am Scottish. What's wrong with that? Scotland's got to be here somewhere.
MANDY: No. They wanted their own ship.
AMY: Hmm. Good for them. Nothing changes.
MANDY: So, how did you get here?

(The Smiler changes to a Frowner.)

AMY: Oh, just passing through, you know, with a guy.
MANDY: Your boyfriend?
AMY: Oh.
MANDY: What?
AMY: Nothing. It's just, I'm getting married. Funny how things slip your mind.
MANDY: Married?
AMY: Yeah, shut up, married. Really, actually married. Almost definitely.
MANDY: When?
AMY: Well, it's kind of weird. A long time ago tomorrow morning. I wonder what I did? Hey, hey. Result! Coming?
MANDY: No!

(The Frowner turns to a Scowler.)

AMY: Suit yourself.
MANDY: Stop! You mustn't do that!

(Amy goes inside the workman's hut, which is pulsing with red light. She finds a wind-up torch.)

AMY: Oh, my God. That's weird. That's.

(A tentacle lashes at her. She backs out to find herself surrounded by Winders. One points his ring at her. It emits a gas and she passes out.)

[Engine room]

(The Doctor climbs down a ladder and starts feeling the walls.)

DOCTOR: Can't be.

(He scans it with his screwdriver. There is a glass of water on the floor. The woman is wearing her mask now.)

LIZ: The impossible truth in a glass of water. Not many people see it. But you do, don't you, Doctor?
DOCTOR: You know me?
LIZ: Keep your voice down. They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass.
DOCTOR: Who says I see anything?
LIZ; Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?
DOCTOR: No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So, I thought I'd take a look. It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see? And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was
BOTH: No engine at all.
DOCTOR: But it's working. This ship is travelling though space. I saw it.
LIZ: The impossible truth, Doctor. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.
DOCTOR: How?
LIZ: I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope. Your friend is safe. This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!

(Princess Leia hands over a tracking device and turns to leave.)

DOCTOR: Who are you? How do I find you again?
LIZ: I am Liz Ten, and I will find you.

[Voting cubicle]

(Amy wakes up in a chair in front of four screens and two large buttons labelled Forget and Protest, watched a Smiler.)

COMPUTER: Welcome to voting cubicle three thirty C. Please leave this installation as you would wish to find it. The United Kingdom recognises the right to know of all its citizens. A presentation concerning the history of Starship UK will begin shortly. Your identity is being verified on our electoral roll. Name, Amelia Jessica Pond. Age, thirteen hundred and six.

(Pity the four screens all say 1308...)

AMY: Shut up.
COMPUTER: Marital status, unknown.
MORGAN [on screen]: You are here because you want to know the truth about this starship, and I am talking to you because you're entitled to know. When this presentation has finished, you will have a choice. You may either protest. or forget. If you choose to protest, understand this. If just one percent of the population of this ship do likewise, the programme will be discontinued with consequences for you all. If you choose to accept the situation, and we hope that you will, then press the Forget button. All the information I'm about to give you will be erased from your memory. You will continue to enjoy the safety and amenities of Starship UK, unburdened by the knowledge of what has been done to save you. Here then, is the truth about Starship UK, and the price that has been paid for the safety of the British people. May God have mercy on our souls.

(The presentation is fast, and leaves Amy reeling. She presses Forget. The screen displays Message Waiting. Play.)

AMY [on screen]: This isn't a trick. This is for real. You've got to find the Doctor and get him back to the TARDIS. Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get the Doctor off this ship!

(The door opens. Mandy is waiting outside, then the Doctor bounces in.)

AMY [on screen]: Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real.
DOCTOR: Amy?
AMY [on screen]: You've got to find the Doctor.

(Amy turns off the message.)

DOCTOR: What have you done?

(The Doctor scans a device in the ceiling.)

DOCTOR: Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes.
AMY: But why would I choose to forget?
MANDY: Because everyone does. Everyone chooses the Forget button.
DOCTOR: Did you?
MANDY; I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years.
DOCTOR: And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action.
MANDY: How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me.
AMY: It played for me.
DOCTOR: The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human.
AMY: Why not? You look human.
DOCTOR: No, you look Time Lord. We came first.
AMY: So there are other Time Lords, yeah?
DOCTOR: No. There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government.

(The Doctor hits the Protest button. The door slams shut, trapping him and Amy inside. The Smiler becomes a Scowler and the floor opens up to reveal the long drop.)

DOCTOR: Say wheee!
AMY: Argh!

(Outside, the cubicle sign changes from Occupied to Empty.)

[Outside Voting Cubicle 330C]

(Mandy turns to see the masked woman.)

LIZ: It's all right, love.

(She removes her mask.)

LIZ: It's only me.

[Waste disposal]

(The Doctor drops down a chute into what appears to be organic waste. Star Wars reference number two. Amy follows a few moments later with a scream.)

DOCTOR: Argh! High speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel.
AMY: Where are we?
DOCTOR: Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave.
AMY: It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!
DOCTOR: Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship.
AMY: The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed.
DOCTOR: But feeding what, though?
AMY: It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy.

(A distance animal noise.)

DOCTOR: Er, it's not a floor, it's a. So.
AMY: It's a what?
DOCTOR: The next word is kind of a scary word. You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm.
AMY: Omm.
DOCTOR: It's a tongue.
AMY: A tongue?
DOCTOR: A tongue. A great big tongue.
AMY: This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes. But on the plus side, roomy.
AMY: How do we get out?
DOCTOR: How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach. Though not right now.
AMY: Doctor, how do we get out?
DOCTOR: Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is closed for business.

(A wall of lovely big teeth.)

AMY: We could try, though.
DOCTOR: No, stop, don't move.

(The 'floor' vibrates.)

DOCTOR: Too late. It's started.
AMY: What has?
DOCTOR: Swallow reflex.
AMY: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors.
AMY: Chemo-what?
DOCTOR: The eject button.
AMY: How does a mouth have an eject button?
DOCTOR: Think about it!

(A wave of vomit approaches.)

DOCTOR: Right, then. This isn't going to be big on dignity. Geronimo!

[Overflow pipe]

DOCTOR: There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick.
AMY: Where are we?
DOCTOR: Overspill pipe, at a guess.
AMY: Oh, God, it stinks.
DOCTOR: Oh, that's not the pipe.
AMY: Oh. Phew. Can we get out?
DOCTOR: One door, one door switch, one condition. We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?

(It is a Forget button.)

DOCTOR: That's the carrot. Ooo, here's the stick.

(Two Smiler booths light up.)

DOCTOR: There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?

(The Smilers become Frowners.)

DOCTOR: No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?

(Frowners become Scowlers.)

DOCTOR: Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?

(The booths open and the Smilers step out.)

AMY: Doctor?

(Liz steps up between the Doctor and Amy, and shoots the Smilers.)

DOCTOR: Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask.
LIZ: You must be Amy. Liz. Liz Ten.
AMY: Hi.
LIZ: Yuck. Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick. You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave.
DOCTOR: How did you find us?
LIZ: Stuck my gizmo on you. Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?
DOCTOR: You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it.
LIZ: No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject.
DOCTOR: Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?
LIZ: You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was.
DOCTOR: Your family?
LIZ: They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move.

[Sub basement 4]

LIZ: The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy.
DOCTOR: Liz Ten.
LIZ: Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!

(She turns, they duck, and she shoots the repaired Smilers again.)

LIZ: I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule.

[Corridor]

LIZ: There's a high-speed Vator through there. Oh, yeah. There's these things.

(Tentacles beating at the grating.)

LIZ: Any ideas?
AMY: Doctor, I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root.
DOCTOR: Exactly like a root. It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship.
LIZ: What, like an infestation? Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving.

(Liz and Mandy leave.)

AMY: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Oh, Amy. We should never have come here.
AMY [OC]: Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get the Doctor off this ship.

[Security office]

HAWTHORNE: Winder division one. Ten has penetrated to the lower levels. Initiate the protocol. God save the Queen.

[State apartments]

DOCTOR: Why all the glasses?
LIZ: To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what.
DOCTOR: A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?
LIZ: Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon.
DOCTOR: How old were you when you came to the throne?
LIZ: Forty. Why?
AMY: What, you're fifty now? No way.
LIZ: Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps.
DOCTOR: And you always wear this in public?
LIZ: Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting.
DOCTOR: Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face.
LIZ: Yeah? So what?
DOCTOR: Oh, Liz. So everything.

(A division of Winders enters.)

LIZ: What are you doing? How dare you come in here?
PETER: Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now.
LIZ: Why would I do that?

(Peter's head turns to become a Scowler.)

AMY: How can they be Smilers?
DOCTOR: Half Smiler, half human.
LIZ: Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?
PETER: The highest authority, Ma'am.
LIZ: I am the highest authority.
PETER: Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am.
LIZ: Where?
PETER: The Tower, Ma'am.

[Tower]

(Amy looks through a grating, where tentacles are flailing.)

AMY: Doctor, where are we?
DOCTOR: The lowest point of Starship UK. The dungeon.
HAWTHORNE: Ma'am.
LIZ: Hawthorne. So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do.
DOCTOR: There's children down here. What's all that about?
HAWTHORNE: Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast. For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky.
DOCTOR: Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle.

(The top of a pulsating brain is visible in the middle of the room, with giant electrodes pointing down at it.)

LIZ: What's that?
DOCTOR: Well, like I say, it depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly.
LIZ: Or?
DOCTOR: Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button.
LIZ: I don't understand.
DOCTOR: Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving. Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear.

(The Doctor sonics a tentacle. They hear a screaming sound.)

LIZ: Stop it. Who did this?
HAWTHORNE: We act on instructions from the highest authority.
LIZ: I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now. I said now! Is anyone listening to me?
DOCTOR: Liz. Your mask.
LIZ: What about my mask?
DOCTOR: Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say.
LIZ: Yeah? It's an antique. So?
DOCTOR: Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign.
LIZ: Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years.
DOCTOR: Ten years. And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here.

(Two buttons - Forget and Abdicate.)

LIZ: What have you done?
HAWTHORNE: Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us.
LIZ [on screen]: If you are watching this. If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision.
AMY: I voted for this. Why would I do that?
DOCTOR: Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know.
AMY: I don't even remember doing it.
DOCTOR: You did it. That's what counts.
AMY: I'm, I'm sorry.
DOCTOR: Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home.
AMY: Why? Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!
DOCTOR: Yeah, I know. You're only human.
LIZ: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it.
AMY: That'll be like killing it.
DOCTOR: Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.
LIZ: There must be something we can do, some other way.
DOCTOR: Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!

(Amy and Mandy sit and watch while the Doctor adjusts the machinery. Children enter.)

MANDY: Timmy! You made it, you're okay. It's me, Mandy.

(A tentacle flails behind Mandy, then gently taps her on the shoulder. Amy watches as she strokes it.)

DOCTOR [OC]: Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything. Notice everything.
LIZ [on screen]: Our children screamed. It came, like a miracle.
HAWTHORNE [memory]: It won't eat the children.
LIZ [on screen]: The children screamed, then it came. It's the last of its kind.
DOCTOR [OC]: Just me now.
LIZ [OC]: The last of its kind.
AMY [OC]: Is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere with other peoples or planets.
LIZ [OC]: Children screamed.
AMY [OC]: Unless it's children crying.
LIZ [on screen]: The last of its kind.
DOCTOR [memory]: Just me now.
AMY [OC]: Unless there's children crying.
DOCTOR [memory]: Yes.
HAWTHORNE [OC]: It won't eat the children.
LIZ [OC]: Then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales.
AMY: Doctor, stop. Whatever you're doing, stop it now! Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand.

(Amy drags Liz to the voting buttons.)

DOCTOR: Amy, no! No!

(And pushes Liz's hand down on the Abdicate button.)

(The Whale roars. Starship UK shakes briefly, causing panic.)

DOCTOR: Amy, what have you done?
AMY: Nothing at all. Am I right?
HAWTHORNE: We've increased speed.
AMY: Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Got to help.
LIZ: It's still here. I don't understand.
AMY: The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.

[Observation deck]

AMY: From Her Majesty. She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK.

(Amy holds out Liz's mask.)

DOCTOR: Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship.
AMY: You could have killed a Star Whale.
DOCTOR: And you saved it. I know, I know.
AMY: Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind.
DOCTOR: But you couldn't have known how it would react.
AMY: You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?

(They hug.)

AMY: Hey.
DOCTOR: What?
AMY: Gotcha.
DOCTOR: Huh. Gotcha.

[London market]

AMY: Shouldn't we say goodbye? Won't they wonder where we went?
DOCTOR: For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write. Never mind them. Big day tomorrow.
AMY: Sorry, what?
DOCTOR: Well, it's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones.
AMY: You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning? Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just, just because you could?
DOCTOR: Once, a long time ago.
AMY: What happened?
DOCTOR: Hello.
AMY: Right. Doctor, there's something I haven't told you. No, hang on. Is that a phone ringing?

[TARDIS]

AMY: People phone you?
DOCTOR: Well, it's a phone box. Would you mind?

(Amy answers the trim phone on the console.)

AMY: Hello? Sorry, who? No, seriously, who? Says he's the Prime Minister. First the Queen, now the Prime Minister. Get about, don't you?
DOCTOR: Which Prime Minister?
AMY: Er, which Prime Minister? The British one.
DOCTOR: Which British one?
AMY: Which British one? Winston Churchill for you.
DOCTOR: Oh! Hello, dear. What's up?

[War rooms]

CHURCHILL: Tricky situation, Doctor. Potentially very dangerous. I think I'm going to need you.

(There is a shadow of a Dalek on the wall.)

DOCTOR [OC]: Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister.

[TARDIS]

DOCTOR: We're on our way.

(The TARDIS dematerialises.)

LIZ [OC]: In bed above, we're deep asleep, while greater love lies further deep. This dream must end, this world must know, we all depend on the beast below.

(Starship UK travels on, with a w shaped crack in its side.)

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.

Back to top