[London 5:02pm 22nd April, 2011]

(Not the London we know though, with steam trains running on aerial tracks through the Zurich Re building, cars carried by balloons)

NEWSMAN [OC]: And it's another beautiful day in London. There are reports of sunspot activity and solar flares causing interference across all radio signals so apologies for that. Pterodactyls fly over children playing in Hyde Park.)

GIRL: Guys, look!

(The pterodactyls swoop and the children run to the trees, past the sign 'Pterodactyls are vermin. Do not feed.'

A Roman centurion in a chariot waits at the traffic lights and the headline on the Londinium Cotide is - War of the Roses enters second year.

On a TV in a shop window is a breakfast television programme -)

BILL TURNBULL [on TV]: So do you think you can top last year's Christmas Special?

SIAN WILLIAMS [on TV]: And can you tell us anything about it?

DICKENS [on TV]: Well, all I can say now is that it involves ghosts, and the past, the present and future, all at the same time.

SIAN WILLIAMS [on TV]: Ooo, we love a ghost story.

NEWS ANCHOR [on TV]: Crowds lined the Mall today as Holy Roman Emperor, Winston Churchill, returned to the Buckingham Senate on his personal mammoth.

[Churchill's office]

(Winston Churchill is having his blood pressure checked by his Silurian male nurse.)

MALOHKEH: Not too many late nights in Gaul, I hope.

CHURCHILL: Just the one. I had an argument with Cleopatra. Dreadful woman. Excellent dancer.

MALOHKEH: I can tell from your blood pressure.

CHURCHILL: What time do you have, doctor?

MALOHKEH: Two minutes past five, Caesar.

CHURCHILL: It's always two minutes past five. Day or night, it's always two minutes past five in the afternoon. Why is that?

MALOHKEH: Because that is the time, Caesar.

CHURCHILL: And the date. It's always the twenty second of April. Does it not bother you?

MALOHKEH: The date and the time have always been the same, Caesar. Why should it start bothering me now?

CHURCHILL: I want to see the Soothsayer. Where is he?

MALOHKEH: In the Tower, where you threw him the last time.

CHURCHILL: Get him.

(A bedraggled figure in toga and shackles is brought it.)

CHURCHILL: Leave us. Tick tock goes the clock, as the old song says. But they don't, do they? The clocks never tick. Something has happened to time. That's what you say. What you never stop saying. All of history is happening at once. But what does that mean? What happened? Explain to me in terms that I can understand what happened to time.

DOCTOR: A woman.

[Disabled spaceship]

(Earlier -)

DOCTOR: Imagine you were dying. Imagine you were afraid and a long way from home and in terrible pain. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, you looked up and saw the face of the devil himself. Hello, Dalek.

DALEK: Emergency. Emergency. Weapon system disabled. Emergency.

(The Doctor opens up the top of the Dalek.)

DOCTOR: Hush, now. I need some information from your data core. Everything the Daleks know about the Silence.

[The Docks of Calisto B]

(A cloaked figure walks through destruction towards the figure in the stetson, who then steps into a seedy space bar.)

DOCTOR: Gideon Vandaleur. Get him. Now.

BARMAN: Who says he's here?

(The Doctor drops the Dalek's eyestalk onto the counter. A short while later, the Doctor is at a table reading Knitting for Girls when the cloaked figure sits down with him.)

DOCTOR: Father Gideon Vandaleur, former envoy of the Silence. My condolences.

VANDALEUR: Your what?

DOCTOR: Gideon Vandaleur has been dead for six months.

(The Doctor sonicks the figure, which is wearing the same style eyepatch as Madam Kovarian, and it goes rigid.)

DOCTOR: Can I speak to the Captain, please?

(The small figure in the eye nods and runs.)

[Teselecta]

DOCTOR [on viewscreen]: Hello again, the Teselecta time-travelling shape-changing robot powered by miniaturised people. Never get bored of that. Long time since Berlin.

CARTER: Doctor, what have you done to our systems?

DOCTOR [on viewscreen]: They'll be fine if you behave. Now, this unit can disguise itself as anyone in the universe, so if you're posing as Vandaleur, you're investigating the Silence. Tell me about them.

CARTER: Tell you what?

DOCTOR [on viewscreen]: One thing. Just one. Their weakest link.

[Calisto B space bar]

(A game of chess is in progress, and a Queen is sizzling with voltage. The Doctor's opponent is an alien in an eyepatch.)

DOCTOR: The crowd are getting restless. They know the Queen is your only legal move, except you've already moved it twelve times, which means there are now over four million volts running through it. That's why they call it Live Chess. Even with the gauntlet you'll never make it to Bishop Four alive.

GANTOK: I am a dead man, unless you concede the game.

DOCTOR: But I'm winning.

GANTOK: Name your price.

DOCTOR: Information.

GANTOK: I work for the Silence. They would kill me.

DOCTOR: They're going to kill me too, very soon. I was just going to lie down and take it, but you know what? Before I go, I'd like to know why I have to die.

GANTOK: Dorium Maldovar is the only one who can help you.

DOCTOR: Dorium's dead. The Monks beheaded him at Demon's Run.

GANTOK: I know. Concede the game, Doctor, and I'll take you to him.

[Charnel house]

(Lots of skulls, some on shelves, some on the floor.)

GANTOK: The Seventh Transept, where the Headless Monks keep the leftovers. Watch your step. There are traps everywhere.

DOCTOR: I hate rats.

GANTOK: There are no rats in the transept.

DOCTOR: Oh, good.

GANTOK: The skulls eat them.

(The skulls on shelves turn to look at the visitors.)

GANTOK: The headless monks behead you alive, remember.

DOCTOR: Why are some of them in boxes?

(Nice boxes on pillars.)

GANTOK: Because some people are rich, and some people are left to rot. And Dorium Maldovar was always very rich.

(The Doctor opens Dorium's box. The blue head sneezes.)

DOCTOR: Thank you for bringing me, Gantok.

GANTOK: My pleasure. It saves me the trouble of burying you. Nobody beats me at chess.

(Gantok draws his weapon and moves forward, triggering a trap. He falls down into a pit of ravening skulls.)

DOCTOR: Gantok!

(Gantok gets eaten, then the skulls turn their attention upwards. The Doctor sonics the pit closed again. Dorium opens his eyes.)

DORIUM: Hello? Is someone there? Ah, Doctor. Thank God it's you. The Monks, they turned on me.

DOCTOR: Well, I'm afraid they rather did, a bit.

DORIUM: Give it to me straight, Doctor. How bad are my injuries?

DOCTOR: Well

DORIUM: Ha, ha! Oh, your face.

[Churchill's office]

CHURCHILL: This is absurd. Other worlds, carnivorous skulls, talking heads. I don't know why I'm listening to you.

DOCTOR: Because, in another reality, you and I are friends. And you sense that. Just as you sense there is something wrong with time.

CHURCHILL: You mentioned a woman.

DOCTOR: Yes. I'm getting to her.

CHURCHILL: What's she like? Attractive, I assume.

DOCTOR: Hell, in high heels.

CHURCHILL: Tell me more.

[Charnel house]

DORIUM: Oh, it's not so bad, really, as long as they get your box the right way up. I got a media-chip fitted in my head years ago, and the Wi-Fi down here is excellent, so I keep myself entertained.

DOCTOR: I need to know about the Silence.

DORIUM: Oh. A religious order of great power and discretion. The sentinels of history, as they like to call themselves.

DOCTOR: And they want me dead.

DORIUM: No, not really. They just don't want you to remain alive.

DOCTOR: That's okay, then. I was a bit worried for a minute there.

DORIUM: You're a man with a long and dangerous past, but your future is infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted.

DOCTOR: You know, you could've told me all this the last time we met.

DORIUM: It was a busy day and I got beheaded.

DOCTOR: What's so dangerous about my future?

DORIUM: On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered.

DOCTOR: Silence will fall when the question is asked.

DORIUM: Silence must fall would be a better translation. The Silence are determined the question will never be answered. That the Doctor will never reach Trenzalore.

DOCTOR: I don't understand. What's it got to do with me?

DORIUM: The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?

DOCTOR: Yes.

DORIUM: Are you sure? Very, very sure?

DOCTOR: Of course.

DORIUM: Then I shall tell you. But on your own head be it.

[Tardis]

DORIUM [in box]: It's not my fault. Put me back. Ow! I've fallen on my nose. Have you got wi-fi here? I'm bored already and my nose is hurting. We all have to die, Doctor, but you more than most. You do see that, don't you? You know what the question is now. You do see that you have to die.

[Senate room]

CHURCHILL: But what was the question? Why did it mean your death?

DOCTOR: Suppose there was a man who knew a secret. A terrible, dangerous secret that must never be told. How would you erase that secret from the world? Destroy it forever, before it can be spoken.

CHURCHILL: If I had to, I'd destroy the man.

DOCTOR: And silence would fall. All the times I've heard those words, I never realised it was my silence, my death. The Doctor will fall. Why are we here?

CHURCHILL: This, this is the Senate Room.

DOCTOR: Why did we leave your office?

CHURCHILL: Well, we wanted a stroll, didn't we?

DOCTOR: I think I've been running. Why do you have your revolver?

CHURCHILL: Well, you're dangerous company, Soothsayer.

(There is a single tally mark on the Doctor's arm.)

DOCTOR: Yes. I think I am.

CHURCHILL: Resume your story.

[Tardis]

DORIUM [in box]: Doctor, please, open my hatch. I've got an awful headache. Which to be honest means more than it used to. It's like some terrible weight pressing down on my

(The Doctor has put Dorium's box down upside down.)

DORIUM: Oh. I see.

DOCTOR: Why Lake Silencio? Why Utah?

DORIUM: It's a still point in time. Makes it easier to create a fixed point. And your death is a fixed point, Doctor. You can't run away from this.

DOCTOR: Been running all my life. Why should I stop?

DORIUM: Because now you know what's at stake. Why your life must end.

DOCTOR: Not today.

DORIUM: What's the point in delaying? How long have you delayed already?

(The Doctor makes a telephone call.)

DOCTOR: Been knocking about. A bit of a farewell tour. Things to do, people to see. There's always more. I could invent a new colour, save the Dodo, join the Beatles. Hello, it's me. Get him. Tell him, we're going out and it's all on me, except for the money and driving. I have got a time machine, Dorium. It's all still going on. For me, it never stops. Liz the First is still waiting in a glade to elope with me. I could help Rose Tyler with her homework. I could go on all of Jack's stag parties in one night.

DORIUM: Time catches up with us all, Doctor.

DOCTOR: Well, it has never laid a glove on me! Hello?

[Nursing home]

NURSE: Doctor, I'm so sorry. We didn't know how to contact you. I'm afraid Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart passed away

[Tardis]

NURSE [OC]: a few months ago. Doctor?

DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, I

NURSE [OC]: It was very peaceful. He talked a lot about you, if that's any comfort. Always made us pour an extra brandy in case you came round one of these days.

DORIUM: Doctor? What's wrong?

DOCTOR: Nothing. Nothing. It's just.

(He puts the phone down and takes the Tardis blue envelopes from his pocket.)

DOCTOR: It's time. It's time.

[Calisto B space bar]

VANDALEUR: Surely you could deliver the messages yourself?

DOCTOR: It would involve crossing my own time stream. Best not.

[Teselecta]

CARTER: According to our files, this is the end for you. Your final journey. We'll deliver your messages. You can depend on us.

DOCTOR [on viewscreen]: Thank you.

[Calisto B space bar]

VANDALEUR: Doctor, whatever you think of the Teselecta, we are champions of law and order just as you have always been. Is there nothing else we can do?

[Senate room]

CHURCHILL: Why would you do this?

(The postman delivers the invitation to Rory and Amy. River gets hers, too.)

CHURCHILL: Of all the things you've told me, this I find hardest to believe. Why would you invite your friends to see your death?

DOCTOR: I had to die. I didn't have to die alone.

[Road]

AMY: Doctor!

DOCTOR [OC]: Amy and Rory. The last Centurion and the girl who waited. However dark it got, I'd turn around, and there they'd be.

[Senate room]

DOCTOR: If it's time to go, remember what you're leaving. Remember the best. My friends have always been the best of me.

CHURCHILL: And did you tell them this was going to happen?

DOCTOR: It would help if you didn't keep asking questions.

(There are three tally marks on his arm now.)

DOCTOR: (sotto) We don't have much time.

[Road]

(River shoots off his stetson.)

CHURCHILL [OC]: And this woman you spoke of. Did you invite her?

RIVER: Hello, sweetie.

DOCTOR [OC]: Yes, she was there. River Song came twice.

[Lakeside]

(The picnic.)

DOCTOR: Napoleon gave me this bottle. Well, I say gave. Threw. Salud!

ALL: Salud!

RORY: So, when are we going to 1969?

DOCTOR [OC]: Everything was in place. I only had to do one more thing. I only had to die.

(The Doctor waves at Delaware by his pickup, and River sees the Impossible Astronaut.)

RIVER: Oh, my God.

DOCTOR: You all need to stay back. Whatever happens now, you do not interfere.

RORY: That's an astronaut. That's an Apollo astronaut in the lake.

(The Doctor goes to the astronaut, who is now the adult River, not the child Melody as before.)

DOCTOR: Well, then. Here we are at last.

RIVER: I can't stop it. The suit's in control.

DOCTOR: You're not supposed to. This has to happen.

RIVER: Run.

DOCTOR: I did run. Running brought me here.

RIVER: I'm trying to fight it, but I can't. It's too strong.

DOCTOR: I know. It's okay. This is where I die. This is a fixed point. This must happen. This always happens. Don't worry. You won't even remember this. Look over there.

RIVER: That's me. How can I be there?

DOCTOR: That's you from the future, serving time for a murder you probably can't remember. My murder.

RIVER: Why would you do that? Make me watch?

DOCTOR: So that you know this is inevitable. And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.

RIVER: Please, my love, please, please just run!

DOCTOR: I can't.

RIVER: Time can be rewritten.

DOCTOR: Don't you dare. Goodbye, River.

(The Doctor winks, then shuts his eyes. The astronaut suit zaps him multiple times but he doesn't die this time.)

RIVER: Hello, Sweetie.

DOCTOR: What have you done?

RIVER: Well, I think I just drained my weapon systems.

DOCTOR: But this is fixed. This is a fixed point in time.

RIVER: Fixed points can be rewritten.

DOCTOR: No, they can't. Of course they can't. Who told you that

(Everything dissolves into white.)

[Senate room]

CHURCHILL: Well? What happened?

DOCTOR: Nothing.

CHURCHILL: Nothing?

DOCTOR: Nothing happened. And then it kept happening. Or, if you'd prefer, everything happened at once, and it won't ever stop. Time is dying. It's going to be five oh two in the afternoon for all eternity. A needle stuck on a record.

CHURCHILL: A record? Good Lord, man, have you never heard of downloads?

DOCTOR: Said Winston Churchill.

CHURCHILL: Gunsmoke. That's gunsmoke. Oh, I appear to have fired this.

(The Doctor has a spear.)

DOCTOR: We seem to be defending ourselves.

CHURCHILL: I don't understand.

DOCTOR: The creatures that lead the Silence. Remarkable beings. They're memory-proof.

CHURCHILL: But what does that mean?

DOCTOR: You can't remember them. The moment you look away, you forget they were ever there.

(Four tally marks on his arm.)

DOCTOR: Don't panic. In small numbers, they're not too difficult.

(But his other arm is covered in marks. They are hanging from the ceiling in a big cluster. A grenade rolls in. The Doctor knocks Churchill down. Boom, and soldiers enter.)

SOLDIER: Go! Go! Go! Keep the Silence in sight at all times, keep your eye drives active.

CHURCHILL: Who the devil are you? Identify yourselves.

AMY: Pond. Amelia Pond.

DOCTOR: No! She's on our side. It's okay.

(Amy is wearing an eyepatch.)

DOCTOR: No. No, Amy. Amy, why are you wearing that?

(Amy shoots the Doctor.)

[Railway carriage]

(The Doctor wakes on a couch, looking up at a ceiling fan. There is the sound of a train whistle.)

NEWSMAN [OC]: The Government has again apologised for extensive radio interference caused by solar flare and sun spot activity.

DOCTOR: Amy?

AMY: Those stun guns aren't fun. I'm sorry. I wanted to avoid a long conversation. You need to get up, though. We'll be in Cairo shortly.

DOCTOR: Amy Pond. Amelia Pond from Leadworth, please, listen to me. I know it seems impossible, but you know me. In another version of reality you and I were best friends. We, we travelled together. We had adventures. Amelia Pond, you grew up with a time rift in the wall of your bedroom. You can see what others can't. You can remember things that never happened. And if you try, if you really, really try, you'll be able to

(He is gesturing with a model Tardis.)

DOCTOR: Oh.

(And on the far wall are her sketches - Dalek, Silurian, vampire, pirate, Weeping Angel.)

DOCTOR: Oh.

AMY: You look rubbish.

DOCTOR: You look wonderful.

AMY: So do you. But don't worry, we'll soon fix that.

(She holds up a tweed jacket.)

DOCTOR: Oh, Geronimo.

(A little later, shaved and dressed.)

DOCTOR: Okay, you can turn round now. How do I look?

AMY: Cool.

DOCTOR: Really?

AMY: No.

DOCTOR: Cool office though. Why do you have an office?! Are you a special agent boss lady? What's that mean? Not sure about the eye patch, though.

AMY: It's not an eye patch. Time's gone wrong. Some of us noticed. There's a whole team of us working on it, you'll see.

DOCTOR: And you've got an office on a train. That is so cool. Can I have an office? Never had an office before. Or a train. Or a train slash office.

AMY: God, I've missed you!

DOCTOR: Okay. Hugging and missing now. Where's the Roman?

AMY: You mean Rory.

DOCTOR: Mmm.

AMY: My husband Rory, yeah?

(She gets a drawing from her desk.)

AMY: That's him, isn't it? I've no idea. I can't find him, but I love him very much, don't I?

DOCTOR: Apparently.

AMY: I have to keep doing this, writing and drawing things. It's just it's so hard to keep remembering.

DOCTOR: Well, it's not your fault. Time's gone wrong. Do you remember why?

AMY: The lakeside.

DOCTOR: Lake Silencio, Utah. I died.

AMY: But then you didn't. See, I remember it twice, different ways.

DOCTOR: Two different versions of the same event, both happening in the same moment. Time split wide open. Now look at it. All of history happening at once.

AMY: But does it matter? I mean, can't we just stay like this?

DOCTOR: Time isn't just frozen, it's disintegrating. It will spread and spread and all of reality will simply fall apart.

(A soldier enters. Guess who.)

RORY: Ma'am? We're about to arrive. Eye drives need to be activated as soon as we disembark.

AMY: Good point. Thank you, Captain Williams.

DOCTOR: Hello.

RORY: Hello, sir. Pleased to meet you.

AMY: Captain Williams, best of the best. Couldn't live without him.

(The Doctor compares him to his sketch, and laughs. Rory leaves.)

DOCTOR: No.

AMY: What is wrong?

DOCTOR: Amy, you'll find your Rory. You always do. But you have to really look.

AMY: I am looking.

DOCTOR: Oh, my Amelia Pond. You don't always look hard enough.

AMY: Why are you older? If time isn't really passing, then how can you be ageing?

DOCTOR: Time is still passing for me. Every explosion has an epicentre. I'm it. I'm what's wrong.

AMY: What's wrong with you?

DOCTOR: I'm still alive.

(The train crosses a viaduct into a pyramid with a Stars and Stripes on the side and the title Area 52.

[Storage area]

RORY: You have to put it on, sir.

DOCTOR: An eye patch. What for?

AMY: It's not an eye patch.

RORY: It's an eye drive, sir. It communicates directly with the memory centres of the brain. Acts as external storage.

AMY: Only thing that works on them. Because no living mind can remember these things.

RORY: The Silence.

(Held in individual tanks filled with liquid.)

RORY: We've captured over a hundred of them now, all held in this pyramid.

DOCTOR: Yeah. I've encountered them before. Always wondered what they looked like.

AMY: Well, put your eye drive on and you'll retain the information, but only for as long as you're wearing it.

DOCTOR: The Silence have human servants. They all wear these.

AMY: They'd have to.

RORY: This way.

(The Doctor puts the eye drive on.)

RORY: They seem to be noticing you.

DOCTOR: Yeah, they would.

AMY: So why aren't the human race killing the Silence on sight any more?

DOCTOR: That was another reality. What are the tanks for?

RORY: They can draw electricity from anything. It's how they attack. The fluid insulates them. And I really don't like the way they're looking at you.

DOCTOR: Me neither.

RORY: Ma'am, I'm sure it's nothing, but I should really check this out. They haven't been this active in a while. You two, upstairs. Check all the tank seals. Then the floors above. Get everyone checking.

SOLDIER: Sir.

RORY: You go ahead, Ma'am.

AMY: Thank you, Captain Williams. Doctor, this way.

DOCTOR: Captain Williams, nice fellow. What's his first name?

AMY: Captain. Just through here.

DOCTOR: Just give us a moment. Just need to check something, Ma'am.

(The Doctor goes back to Rory. Amy speaks into a hidden microphone on her lapel.)

AMY: We're in. He's on his way.

DOCTOR: The loyal soldier, waiting to be noticed. Always the pattern. Why is that?

RORY: Sorry, sir?

DOCTOR: Your boss, you should just ask her out. She likes you. She said so.

RORY: Really, sir. What did she say?

DOCTOR: Oh, she just sort of generally indicated.

RORY: What exactly what did she say?

DOCTOR: She said that you were a Mister Hottie-ness, and that she would like to go out with you for texting and scones.

RORY: You really haven't done this before, have you?

DOCTOR: No, I haven't.

RORY: See you in a moment, sir.

DOCTOR: Yes. Yes.

AMY: Come on, Doctor. Time for you to meet some old friends.

RORY: Attention all personnel.

[Control room]

RORY [OC]: Attention all personnel. Please check all assigned containment units.

(A lady in a white coat is watching a screen.)

KENT: You were right. Just his presence in the building caused the loop to extend by nearly four chronons.

(The clock now reads 05:02:57, 58, 59.)

DOCTOR: Hi, honey. I'm home.

RIVER: And what sort of time do you call this?

KOVARIAN: The death of time. The end of time. The end of us all. Oh, why couldn't you just die?

(She is tied to a chair.)

DOCTOR: Did my best, dear. I showed up. You just can't get the psychopaths these days. Love what you've done with the pyramids. How did you score all this?

RIVER: Hallucinogenic lipstick. Works wonders on President Kennedy. And Cleopatra was a real pushover.

DOCTOR: I always thought so.

RIVER: She mentioned you.

DOCTOR: What did she say?

RIVER: Put down that gun down.

DOCTOR: Did you?

RIVER: Eventually.

KOVARIAN: Oh, they're flirting. Do I have to watch this?

RIVER: It was such a basic mistake, wasn't it, Madame Kovarian. Take a child, raise her into a perfect psychopath, introduce her to the Doctor. Who else was I going to fall in love with?

DOCTOR: It's not funny, River. Reality is fatally compromised. Tell me you understand that.

RIVER: Dinner?

DOCTOR: I don't have the time. Nobody has the time, because as long I'm alive, time is dying. Because of you, River.

RIVER: Because I refused to kill the man I love.

DOCTOR: Oh, you love me, do you? Oh, that's sweet of you. Isn't that sweet. Come here, you.

AMY: Get him!

(Soldiers grab the Doctor.)

RIVER: I'm not a fool, sweetie. I know what happens if we touch.

(The Doctor grabs River's arm.)

RIVER: Get off me. Get him off me! Doctor, no. Let go! Please Doctor, let go!

WOMAN: It's moving. Time's moving!

(05:03 and counting.)

RIVER: Get him off me! Doctor!

DOCTOR: I'm sorry, River. It's the only way.

(They flash back to the lakeside, then the soldiers pull him off.)

RIVER: Cuff him.

DOCTOR: Oh, why do you always have handcuffs? It's the only way. We're the opposite poles of the disruption. If we touch, we short out the differential. Time can begin again.

RIVER: And I'll be by a lakeside killing you.

DOCTOR: And time won't fall apart. The clocks will tick. Reality will continue. There isn't another way.

RIVER: I didn't say there was, sweetie.

(In the storage area, a Silence puts its hand onto the glass of its tank, and it begins to crack. Captain Williams notices liquid dripping through to a lower level.)

RIVER: There are so many theories about you and I, you know.

DOCTOR: Idle gossip.

RIVER: Archaeology.

DOCTOR: Same thing.

RIVER: Am I the woman who marries you, or the woman who murders you?

DOCTOR: I don't want to marry you.

RIVER: I don't want to murder you.

(Amy feels a drop on her head.)

DOCTOR: This is no fun at all.

RIVER: It isn't, is it?

AMY: Doctor, what's that?

DOCTOR: The pyramid above us. How many Silence do you have trapped inside it?

KOVARIAN: None. They're not trapped. They never have been. They've been waiting for this, Doctor. For you.

RORY: They're out! All of them.

(And the soldiers are getting slaughtered. Rory bars the door.)

RORY: No one gets in here! Ma'am, my men out there should be able to lock this down. We have them outnumbered.

KOVARIAN: And you're wearing eye drives based on mine, I think. Oops.

DOCTOR: What do you mean?

(Electricity surges through Doctor Kent's eye drive. She screams.)

DOCTOR; Help her! Help her!

(Soldiers are being affected, too.)

AMY: She's dead.

(The Doctor's eye drive tries to zap him.)

DOCTOR: Eye drives off now. Remove them.

(Amy takes the Doctor's eye drive off him, but then her own powers up.)

KOVARIAN: The Silence would never allow an advantage without taking one themselves. The effects will vary from person to person. Either death or debilitating agony. But they will take you all, one by one.

(Madame Kovarian's eye drive starts to zap.)

KOVARIAN: What are you doing? No, it's me. Don't be stupid. You need me. Stop it. Stop that!

DOCTOR: We could stop this right now, you and I.

KOVARIAN: Get it off me.

DOCTOR: Amy, tell her.

AMY: We've been working on something. Just let us show you.

DOCTOR: There's no point. There's nothing you can do. My time is up.

AMY: We're doing this for you!

DOCTOR: Then people are dying for me. I won't thank you for that, Amelia Pond.

KOVARIAN: Get it

RIVER: Just let us show you.

AMY: Please. Captain Williams, how long do we have?

RORY: Er, a couple of minutes.

RIVER: That's enough. We're going to the Receptor Room right at the top of the pyramid. I hope you're ready for a climb.

RORY: I'll wait down here, Ma'am. Buy you as much time as I can.

AMY: You have to take your eye drive off.

RORY: Can't do that, Ma'am. Might forget what's coming.

AMY: But it could activate any second.

RORY: It has activated, Ma'am. But I'm of no use to you if I can't remember. You have to go now, Ma'am.

AMY: Yes.

RORY: Now!

AMY: Yes, thank you, Captain Williams.

(Amy leaves, taking one last look back. Rory fights the pain to keep his gun hand steady as three Silence break through the door.)

SILENCE: Rory Williams, the man who dies and dies again. Die one last time and know she will never come back for you.

(Amy lets loose a machine gun at them.)

AMY: Come on, you. Up you get. You all right?

(She takes his eye drive off.)

KOVARIAN: Amy, help me.

(Her eye drive is hanging off.)

AMY: You took my baby from me and hurt her. And now she's all grown up and she's fine, but I'll never see my baby again.

KOVARIAN: But you'll still save me, though. Because he would, and you'd never do anything to disappoint your precious Doctor.

RORY: Ma'am, we have to go, now.

AMY: The Doctor is very precious to me, you're right. But do you know what else he is, Madame Kovarian? Not here.

(Amy puts Kovarian's eye drive back in place.)

AMY: River Song didn't get it all from you, sweetie.

(Amy takes Rory's arm and they leave as Kovarian starts screaming.)

AMY: So, you and me, we should get a drink some time.

RORY: Okay.

AMY: And married.

RORY: Fine.

[Receptor room]

(Open to the sky, where the cap of the pyramid should be.)

DOCTOR: What's this? Oh, it's as timey-wimey distress beacon. Who built this?

RIVER: I'm the child of the Tardis. I understand the physics.

DOCTOR: But that's all you've got, a distress beacon.

RIVER: I've been sending out a message. A distress call. Outside the bubble of our time, the universe is still turning, and I've sent a message everywhere. To the future and the past, the beginning and the end of everything. The Doctor is dying. Please, please help.

DOCTOR: River! River, this is ridiculous. That would mean nothing to anyone. It's insane. Worse, it's stupid. You embarrass me.

AMY: We barricaded the door. We've got a few minutes. Just tell him. Just tell him, River.

RIVER: Those reports of the sun spots and the solar flares. They're wrong. There aren't any. It's not the sun, it's you. The sky is full of a million, million voices saying yes, of course we'll help. You've touched so many lives, saved so many people. Did you think when your time came, you'd really have to do more than just ask? You've decided that the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree.

DOCTOR: River, no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered. Time is disintegrating.

RIVER: I can't let you die.

DOCTOR: But I have to die.

RIVER: Shut up! I can't let you die without knowing you are loved by so many, and so much, and by no one more than me.

DOCTOR: River, you and I, we know what this means. We are ground zero of an explosion that will engulf all reality. Billions on billions will suffer and die.

RIVER: I'll suffer if I have to kill you.

DOCTOR: More than every living thing in the universe?

RIVER: Yes.

DOCTOR: River, River, why do you had have to be this? Melody Pond, your daughter. I hope you're both proud.

RORY: I'm not sure I completely understand.

AMY: We got married and had a kid and that's her.

RORY: Okay.

DOCTOR: Amy, uncuff me now. Okay, I need a strip of cloth about a foot long. Anything will do. Never mind.

(The Doctor takes off his bow tie.)

DOCTOR: River, take one end of this. Wrap it around your hand, and hold it out to me.

RIVER: What am I doing?

DOCTOR: As you're told. Now, we're in the middle of a combat zone, so we'll have to do the quick version. Captain Williams, say I consent and gladly give.

RORY: To what?

DOCTOR: Just say it. Please.

RORY: I consent and gladly give.

DOCTOR: Need you to say it too, mother of the bride.

AMY: I consent and gladly give.

DOCTOR: Now River, I'm about to whisper something in your ear, and you have to remember it very, very carefully, and tell no one what I said.

(He whispers something very short.)

DOCTOR: I just told you my name. Now, there you go, River Song. Melody Pond. You're the woman who married me. And wife, I have a request. This world is dying and it's my fault, and I can't bear it another day. Please, help me. There isn't another way.

RIVER: Then you may kiss the bride.

DOCTOR: I'll make it a good one.

RIVER: You'd better.

(The clock starts moving forward as we go to a white-out and flashbacks of the events at the lakeside when the Doctor died and was cremated.)

DOCTOR [OC]: And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.

(The steam railways and cars on balloons vanish from London. The pterodactyls go away.)

CHILDREN [OC]: Tick tock goes the clock, he gave all he could give. Tick tock goes the clock, now prison waits for River.)

[Garden]

(Amy is sitting at the patio table looking up at the night sky. There is a flash of light nearby.)

AMY: Heard there was a freak meteor shower two miles away, so I got us a bottle.

RIVER: Thank you, dear.

AMY: So where are we?

RIVER: I just climbed out of the Byzantium. You were there. So young. Didn't have a clue who I was. You're funny like that. Where are you?

AMY: The Doctor's dead.

RIVER: How are you doing?

AMY: How do you think?

RIVER: Well, I don't know unless you tell me.

AMY: I killed someone. Madame Kovarian, in cold blood.

RIVER: In an aborted time line, in a world that never was.

AMY: Yeah, but I can remember it, so it happened, so I did it. What does that make me now? I need to talk to the Doctor, but I can't now, can I?

RIVER: If you could talk to him, would it make a difference?

AMY: But he's dead, so, so I can't.

RIVER: Oh, Mother, of course he isn't.

AMY: Not for you, I suppose. You're seeing the younger versions of him running around, having adventures.

RIVER: Yeah, I am. But that's not what I mean.

AMY: Then what do you mean?

RIVER: Okay. I'm going to tell you what I probably shouldn't. The Doctor's last secret. Don't you want to know what he whispered in my ear?

AMY: He whispered his name.

RIVER: Not his name, no.

AMY: Yes, it was. He said it was.

RIVER: Rule One?

AMY: The Doctor lies.

RIVER: So do I, all the time. Have to. Spoilers. Pretending I don't know you're my mother, pretending I don't recognise a space suit in Florida.

AMY: What did he whisper in your ear?

RIVER: Oh, that man. He's always one step ahead of everyone. Always a plan.

AMY: River, what did he tell you? River.

(Rory gets home to see Amy and River hugging and dancing around the garden.)

RORY: Hey. What?

AMY: He's not dead. He's not dead.

RORY: Are you sure, River? Are you really, properly sure?

RIVER: Of course I'm sure. I'm his wife.

AMY: Yes! And I'm his (pause) mother in law.

RIVER: Father dear, I think Mummy might need another drink.

RORY: Yes. Yes.

[Charnel house]

(Dorium's box is being returned to its pedestal by a cloaked figure.)

DORIUM [OC]: Who's carrying me? I demand to know. I'm a head, I have rights. I want my doors open this time. I demand that my doors are open.

(The figure opens his door and turns to leave.)

DORIUM: Is it you? It is, isn't it. It is you, I can sense it. But how did you do it? How could you possibly have escaped?

[Calisto B space bar]

CARTER [memory]: Is there nothing else we can do?

(The Doctor leaves, then pops back again with a big grin on his face.)

DOCTOR: Actually, thinking about it

[Receptor room]

(What the Doctor whispered was -)

DOCTOR: Look into my eye.

(The Doctor waves at River from the eyeball of the Teselecta.)

[Charnel house]

(The Doctor removes the cloak.)

DOCTOR: The Teselecta. A Doctor in a Doctor suit. Time said I had to be on that beach, so I dressed for the occasion. Barely got singed in that boat.

DORIUM: So you're going to do this? Let them all think you're dead?

DOCTOR: It's the only way, then they can all forget me. I got too big, Dorium. Too noisy. Time to step back into the shadows.

DORIUM: And Doctor Song, in prison all her days?

DOCTOR: Her days, yes. Her nights? Well, that's between her and me, eh?

DORIUM: So many secrets, Doctor. I'll help you keep them, of course.

DOCTOR: Well, you're not exactly going anywhere, are you?

DORIUM: But you're a fool nonetheless. It's all still waiting for you. The fields of Trenzalore, the fall of the Eleventh, and the question.

DOCTOR: Goodbye, Dorium.

DORIUM: The first question. The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. The question you've been running from all your life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor Who.