Doctor Who s09e04 Episode Script

Before the Flood

- Did you see that spaceship in the hangar? - Yeah, we found it on the lake bed.
- In here! - Wait, are they saying something? 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 killed and turning them into transmitters.
I can save you.
A new ghost, oh, no, no, no, no 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.
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? BEETHOVEN'S 5th SYMPHONY Where's Bennett? We need to get going.
Oh, he's still throwing up.
"One small step for man, one giant Bleaurgh.
" Time travel does that sometimes.
Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on their first trip.
You seem to know an awful lot about me.
I used to be in military intelligence.
I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window.
In anger? Is there another way to dangle someone out of a window? What year are we in? So, pre-Harold Saxon.
Pre-the Minister of War.
Pre-the moon exploding and a big bat coming out.
The Minister of War? Yeah.
Never mind.
I expect I'll find out soon enough.
Sorry about that.
Had a prawn sandwich.
Might have been off.
Don't worry.
Shall we go? Just one sec, I've just got something in my boot 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.
Why have we gone to Russia? 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 War.
The military were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil.
Oh, is that the pilot? My God, look at size of it.
No, that's the body.
What do you mean, "the body"? This isn't just any spaceship.
It's a hearse.
The suspended-animation chamber is still here.
And the power cells for the engine.
And there are no markings on the wall.
Greetings! It's him, the ghost from the Drum.
And humans, too Albar Prentis, Funeral Director.
You're from Tivoli, aren't you? The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, "If you occupied us, "you'd be home by now.
" Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before.
- I can't say I'm a fan.
- No, we do tend to antagonise.
What are you doing here? 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! My first proper alien.
And he's an idiot.
And now in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost.
You mean the town? He means the planet.
Although, at the risk of starting a bidding war, you could enslave me.
In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items you can oppress me with.
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? What are you talking about? 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.
We don't have anything like that.
Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians.
So who sends the message? Back to the TARDIS.
I need to talk to Clara.
You've been here before, in situations like this before.
Yeah, not exactly like But, yeah, once or twice.
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.
That it will be all right.
That the Doctor will save us.
And when you say it, do you believe it? Yeah.
Yeah, I do.
And now? 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.
Who's Prentis? It's the Doctor.
He's alive? For the moment.
Doctor? Doctor, are you all right? Yeah, fine.
So listen, the spaceship, it's a hearse.
Clara, what's wrong? Another ghost has appeared.
What? Who? Has someone died? Doctor it's you.
Are you OK? Yeah.
Well Currently.
What does it mean? It means I die.
No not necessarily.
We can change the sequence of events so 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.
You can change things.
I can't.
Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic.
It 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.
NOT WITH ME! Die with whoever comes after me.
You do not leave ME.
Clara, I need to talk to you, just on your own.
Listen to me.
We all have to face death eventually.
Be it ours or someone else's.
I'm not ready yet.
I don't want to think about that, not yet.
I can't change what's already happened.
There are rules.
So break them.
And anyway, you owe me.
You made yourself essential to me.
You gave me something else to to be.
And you can't do that and then die.
It's not fair.
- 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? I can't save Moran or Pritchard.
No but like you said, if you can find out why this is happening, maybe you can stop them killing anybody else, you can save us.
And you can stop it happening to you.
I'll do what I can, but the future has already happened.
We've just met the Undertaker and he's still alive.
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? 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.
I assume I'm just saying the same thing as the others.
No, you're saying a list of names.
Our names, mainly.
"Moran, Pritchard, 'Prentis', O'Donnell, Clara, Doctor, "Bennett, Cass.
" - Who's Prentis? - The mole-faced chap.
What's the matter, Clara, what's happening? You've moved inside.
You're inside here now.
What am I doing? Nothing, you're you're just standing there.
I'm not trying to kill you? Why am I not trying to kill you? No, wait, you're moving, going toward the control panel.
Oh, no.
He's opened the Faraday Cage.
He's let the other ghosts out.
- I need to talk to me now.
- Didn't you hear me? You opened the Faraday Cage.
The other ghosts are outside.
- Shouldn't we be hiding? - In a minute.
I need to talk to the ghost me.
OK, Doctor, you're on.
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? Clara, Clara, what's happening? Erm Er you've just stopped.
Oh, no, wait, you've started again.
His message has changed, he's saying something different.
He's saying - What?! - What?! What?! He's saying "The chamber will open tonight.
" 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.
Problem? What problem? Because everything else is going so smoothly The phone signal won't 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.
- OK.
How long are you going to? - 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.
Come on.
- Oh, wait a minute.
Not you, O'Donnell.
- Why not? Someone needs to stay here and mind the shop.
What if Clara calls? The last bloke that said something like that to me got dangled out of a window.
Maybe the Doctor's right, maybe it's best if you stay here.
Never going to happen.
Seriously, have you two met me? Prentis.
Prentis! Guess that dead body wasn't so dead after all.
And now we've got the writing.
The Fisher King did it himself.
The future is still coming.
He's taken the suspended-animation chamber to the church.
What was that? We need to get back to the TARDIS.
It's cut us off.
Let's split up.
Go on, Bennett.
No, Bennett! Wait! Why did you come? You shouldn't have come.
You never listen, it drives me mad.
To keep an eye on you, idiot.
So, don't die.
Who's next on the list? 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 it out.
But you knew all along, didn't you? Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell.
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.
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? - Clara.
- Yeah.
Except now you're going to do something about it, aren't you? 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.
This isn't about saving me.
I'm a dead man walking.
I'm changing history to save Clara.
O'Donnell's dead.
Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, don't you dare don't you dare Big day for you.
Time travel twice! Whoa, really? When are we going to? 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.
Why are we still here? No, no, no, no, no, no.
What? We've moved half an hour backwards.
I'm locked in my own time-stream.
The TARDIS won't let me leave.
What do we do? Now we have to keep out of sight, until time catches up.
- 'Where's Bennett? We need to get going.
- Oh, he's still throwing up.
' Prentis.
He's alive.
No, he's just not dead yet.
And we don't tell him.
Yeah, but he's right there, we can just 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.
Albar Prentis, Funeral Director.
You're from Tivoli, aren't you? The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, "If you occupied us, - "you'd be home by now.
" - Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before.
I can't say I'm a fan.
No, we do tend to antagonise! - What are you doing here? - Ah, yes.
Of course.
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.
But you, you were, weren't you? You didn't know what the words were going to be.
No, I didn't.
How did you know? Who was the one person who didn't see the writing in the spaceship? Me.
Cass wouldn't let me go inside.
That's why the ghosts didn't hurt you when they had the chance.
The message isn't inside you.
Yes, I suppose that makes sense.
So you can get the phone back.
What?! She's saying I should go and get the phone back.
Listen, listen.
I need We, we need to be able to contact the Doctor and you are the only one who can do this.
No, she's right.
Neither of you can get it back.
- What? What is it? What did she say? - It doesn't matter.
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.
He taught me to do what has to be done.
You should get going.
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.
Look, he'll be fine, I promise.
Didn't need anyone to translate that.
Now I'm ready.
I've come from the future.
I've seen the chaos you cause, the bloodshed.
Tell me what you have seen.
Ghosts? Souls wrenched from the dead.
Repeating directions to here, to this spot, over and over.
How many ghosts do I create? How many? Four that I know of.
Maybe five by now.
Probably more since I left.
My ghosts will make more ghosts.
Enough to bring an armada.
Enough to wake me from my sleep.
What will happen when your people arrive? We will drain the oceans and put the humans in chains.
This world is protected by me.
One man, lost in time.
'Door emergency security lock.
' 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.
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.
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.
Oh, Cass.
I'm an idiot.
You will be a strong beacon.
How many ghosts can I make of you? 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.
Oh, there you There is nothing you can do.
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.
No, no, you've got to get out of here.
The ghosts locked me in.
It's a trap.
Come on! Faraday Cage now! The Time Lord lied.
This is security protocol 712.
The echelon circuit has been activated.
Please stow any hand luggage and prepare for departure.
Back, get back.
Don't kiss me.
Morning breath.
Doctor? Follow me.
What's that noise? It's the call of the Fisher King.
The call of their master.
Where are they going? So what was it? Your ghost.
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.
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.
Why did they only come out at night? They're electromagnetic projections that were out of phase with the base's day mode.
That's it.
I've erased the memory of the writing.
Though you might find you've lost a couple of other memories too.
People you went to school with, previous addresses or how to drink liquids.
That's you two done.
Where's Bennett? What will happen to them? 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.
What do I do now? I don't understand.
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? I need to erase that message from your mind, but it's fine, I'll do it later.
Will you translate something to Cass for me? Of course.
Tell her that you're in love with her and that you always have been.
What? 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.
Oh, God.
I was just passing on what he said, please don't feel What will UNIT do with the ghosts? Drag the cage into space, away from the Earth's magnetic field.
With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away.
Here's what I don't understand.
You did change the future.
You stopped the Fisher King from returning.
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 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.
And saying the chamber will open? That was me telling me to get inside and when to set it for.
Except that's not why I said them.
How do you mean? 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.
OK, that's still pretty smart.
You do not understand.
When did I first have those ideas, Clara? Well, it must have been - Wow.
- Exactly.
Who composed Beethoven's 5th? Doctor, help me! Yes, you're the very next thing on the list.
We are Vikings! 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 war on them.
There's going to be a war 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.