Amy Pond: The Girl Who Waited
My name is Amy Pond. When I was seven, I had an imaginary friend. On the night before my wedding, my imaginary friend came back. He took me to amazing places through time and Space, some were scary, some were beautiful, faces so many aliens good and bad, my imaginary friend, the raggedy man, his name is the Doctor, this is the story of how we first met and how it ended.
Meeting the Doctor
Easter 1996
A windmill is turning. Pan across an overgrown garden with a slightly dilapidated shed, abandoned tools, a park bench and a swing set. We see a modest house through an arbour and follow through. We hear Amelia's voice.
Amelia: Dear Santa, thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you.
Amelia was in her room, kneeling beside her bed, eyes closed, saying her prayers
Amelia: But honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. (turns to wall where there is a crack spreading across it. Returns to prayer) Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but... I know it's not, because, at night, there's voices. So please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or...
We hear a crash and glass breaking outside. Amelia turns her head towards the window.
Amelia: Back in a moment.
She gets up from the floor, picks up a torch from the nightstand, runs to the window and pulls back the curtain to look outside. The TARDIS has materialized on his side and knocked down part of the shed. There is smoke rising from it.
Amelia: (looks up at the sky) Thank you, Santa.
Amelia steps outside wearing a red jacket and matching wellies. By the light of the torch, she makes her way through to where the TARDIS has crashed. The doors suddenly open at the top and a rope with a grappling hook is thrown out. It latches onto a lawn roller. The girl watches as first one hand then the other come over the edge followed by the Doctor's head.
The Doctor: Can I have an apple? All I can think about - apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new - never had cravings before. (straddles the TARDIS and looks back inside) Whoa! Look at that!
Amelia: Are you OK?
The Doctor: (puts both legs over the side, sitting on the edge) Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up.
Amelia: You're soaking wet.
The Doctor: I was in the swimming pool.
Amelia: You said you were in the library.
The Doctor: So was the swimming pool.
Amelia: Are you a policeman?
The Doctor: Why? Did you call a policeman?
Amelia: Did you come about the crack in my wall?
The Doctor: What cra...? (falls to the ground) Agh!
Amelia: Are you all right, mister?
The Doctor: (kneeling) No, I'm fine, it's OK. This is all perfectly norm... (opens mouth and releases regeneration energy)
Amelia: Who are you?
The Doctor: (energy rising from his hands) I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?
Amelia: No, it just looks a bit weird.
The Doctor: No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?
Amelia: Yes.
The Doctor: (jumps up) Well, then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off. (strides away with purpose and walks into a tree, knocking him to the ground)
Amelia: You all right?
The Doctor: (lying on the ground) Early days. Steering's a bit off.
Amelia took the Doctor into her house and into the Kitchen while she finding some food.
Amelia: If you're a doctor, why does your box say "Police"?
The Doctor: (takes a bite of the apple she offers, chews and then spits it out before coughing) That's disgusting. What is that?
Amelia: An apple.
The Doctor: Apples are rubbish. I hate apples.
Amelia: You said you loved them.
The Doctor: No, no, I love yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt.
Amelia runs to the fridge and gets him a yoghurt. The Doctor opens the container and pours it into his mouth. He spits that out as well.
The Doctor: I hate yoghurt, it's just stuff with bits in.
Amelia: You said it was your favourite.
The Doctor: New mouth, new rules. (wipes back of hand across his mouth) It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wro-agh! (has a small fit)
Amelia: What is it? What's wrong with you?
The Doctor: Wrong with me? It's not my fault. Why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish - fry something.
Amelia turns on the stove and begins to fry up bacon as the Doctor uses a towel to dry his hair.
The Doctor: Ah! Bacon!
The Doctor sits and the table and eats the bacon from a plate and Amelia watches with a laugh. The Doctor makes a face and agains spits out the food.
The Doctor: Bacon. That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?
Amelia turns on the stove again and cooks some baked beans as the Doctor watches.
The Doctor: Ah, you see, beans.
Once more at the table, the Doctor takes a forkful of beans and promptly spits them into the sink as the poor Amelia makes a face.
The Doctor: Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans.
Next, the girl simply spreads butter over a slice of bread.
The Doctor: Bread and butter. Now you're talking.
Again on the table, but the Doctor went outside the door, he throws the plate outside. We hear it crash and a cat meow.
The Doctor: And stay out! (closes the door behind him)
Amelia looks in the fridge as the Doctor paces.
Amelia: We've got some carrots.
The Doctor: Carrots? Are you insane? No, wait, hang on. I know what I need. I need... I need... I need... (looks in both the fridge and freezer) Fish fingers and custard. (takes out both items)
Later, sitting at the table, the Doctor dips a fish finger into a bowl of custard then takes a bite. Across from him, Amelia eats ice cream from the container. The Doctor then picks up the bowl and drinks the custard from it. It leaves a mustache which he wipes away with his hand.
Amelia: Funny.
The Doctor: Am I? Good. Funny's good. What's your name?
Amelia: Amelia Pond.
The Doctor: Ah, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?
Amelia: No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish.
The Doctor: So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now.
Amelia: I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt.
The Doctor: I don't even have an aunt.
Amelia: You're lucky.
The Doctor: I know. So, your aunt. Where is she?
Amelia: She's out.
The Doctor: (surprised) And she left you all alone?
Amelia: I'm not scared.
The Doctor: 'Course you're not. You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of box, man eats fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?
Amelia: What?
The Doctor: Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall.
Amelia takes the Doctor up to her room to examine the crack in the wall. She also offers him an apple with a smiley face carved into it, like her mother used to make for her to help her like them. Upon inspecting the crack closer, the Doctor is astonished to hear a voice on the other side of the crack transmitting the message, "Prisoner Zero has escaped." Ascertaining that an alien prison lies on the other side of the crack, he opens it fully with the sonic screwdriver and is faced with the alien guard — which appears to be a giant eyeball — who sends him a message on the psychic paper before the crack shuts once more. The message reads the same thing: "Prisoner Zero has escaped." The Doctor, realising the prisoner has escaped through Amelia's bedroom, rushes out into the corridor to investigate and deduces that he's missing something out of the corner of his eye. Before he can discover it, though, the Cloister Bell chimes.
The Doctor: (runs down the stairs) No, no, no, no, no, no!
Amelia follows him as he heads outside to the TARDIS
The Doctor: (runs outside) I've got to get back in there! The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!
Amelia: But... it's just a box! How can a box have engines?
The Doctor: (frees grappling hook and gathers the rope) It's not a box. It's a time machine.
Amelia: (disbelieving) What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?
The Doctor: Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised. Five-minute hop into the future should do it. (loops rope through door handles)
Amelia: Can I come?
The Doctor: Not safe in here, not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back. (hops onto the edge and prepares to go inside)
Amelia: People always say that.
The Doctor: (jumps down to the ground and looks into her face) Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor.
Amelia smiles and the Doctor climbs back onto the TARDIS. Holding onto the rope, he gives her a last look before jumping.
The Doctor: GERONIMO!
The TARDIS doors slam shut and Amelia watches as the TARDIS dematerializes. When it's gone, she runs back inside. Amelia runs up to her room, pulls a small suitcase from under her bed and begins to pack. As she runs across the hall, one of the doors that was closed on her way up is now open. Packing done, Amelia heads back downstairs, not noticing the open door. Now wearing a warm coat and hat, Amelia runs to where the TARDIS disappeared, puts her suitcase on the ground, sits on it and waits.