She Said, He Said
Clara - One day you meet the Doctor. And of course, it's the best day ever. It's just the best day of your life. Because, because he's brilliant, and he's funny, and mad, and best of all, he really needs you. The trick is, don't fall in love. I do that trick quite a lot, sometimes twice a day. And once you start running, you start to forget, slowly. After a while, you just stop asking. Who are you? Where are you from? What set you on your way and where are you going? Oh, and what is your name? You get used to not knowing. I thought I never would. I was wrong. I know who he is. I know how he began and I know where he's going. I know the truth about the Doctor and his greatest secret. The day we went to Trenzalore.
The Doctor - From the beginning, she was impossible. The Impossible Girl. I met her in the Dalek Asylum. Never saw her face, and she died. I met her again in Victorian London, and she died. Saved my life both times, by giving her own. But now she's back and we're running together, and she's perfect. Perfect in every way for me. Except she can't remember that we ever met. Clara. My Clara. Always brave, always funny, always exactly what I need. Perfect. Too perfect. Get used to not knowing. I thought I never would. I was wrong. I know who Clara Oswald is. I know how she came to be in my life, and I know what she will always mean. I found out the day we went to Trenzalore.
Born to save the Doctor
Clara was prepares to make a soufflé in the Maitlands' kitchen. She offers her charges a maxim from her mother.
Angie: Oh, no. You're going to try and make a soufflé again, aren't you?
Clara: My mum's soufflé, yeah. This time I'll get it right. This time I will be Soufflé Girl!
Artie: How can it be your Mum's soufflé, if you're making it?
Clara: Because, Artie, like my mum always said - the soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe!
Angie: Was your mum deep on puddings?
Clara: She was a great woman.
Her attention then wanders to a nearby letter addressed to her
Clara: What's this?
Angie: Oh, it arrived today - for you.
Clara turns the envelope over to see it's sealed with wax and bears the note "Open When Alone" on the back. So she went into her room and open it the letter was from Vastra.
Vastra: "My dearest Clara... The Doctor entrusted me with your contact details, in the event of an emergency, and I fear one has now arisen. Assuming this letter will have reached you, as planned, on April 10th 2013, please find and light the enclosed candle.
Clara reaches into the envelope and pulls out a small candle.
Vastra: It will release a soporific which will induce a trance state, enabling direct communication across the years.
Clara drops the candle and rub her hand while she still read the letter.
Vastra: However, as I realise you have no reason to trust this letter, I have taken the liberty of embedding the same soporific into the fabric of the paper you are now holding. Speak soon!"
Clara falls unconscious, and then she appears in the Dreamscape.
Vastra: So glad you could make it. (passes Clara a cup of tea)
Clara: (takes tea) Where am I?
Jenny: Exactly where you were - but sleeping.
Vastra: Time travel has always been possible in dreams. We are awaiting only one more participant.
Strax: Oh, no - not the one with the gigantic head?
Jenny: It's hair, Strax.
Strax: Hair!
River Song appears in her chair with a puff of smoke like a magician.
River: Madame Vastra!
Vastra: Professor! Help yourself to some tea.
River: Why, thank you. (holds up a flute of champagne)
Jenny: How did you do that?
River: Disgracefully. (sips champagne and looks at Clara)
Vastra: Ah. Perhaps you two haven't met. This is the Doctor's companion.
Clara and River look at Vastra.
Vastra: That is, his current...travelling... assistant.
Clara: Assistant?
Strax: (to Vastra) Have you gone a darker green?
Vastra: Clara Oswald.
River: Professor River Song. The Doctor might have mentioned me.
Clara: Oh, yeah, of course he has. Professor Song. Sorry, it's just I never realized you were a woman.
River faces changes barely imperceptibly. She's hurt and surprised that the Doctor hasn't mentioned her more than in passing.
Strax: Well, neither did I!
Vastra: Perhaps we should get down to the business at hand.
Jenny: That might be good, dear, yes.
Using some floating dust, Vastra displays and recounts the information given to her by the prisoner. It shifts into Gallifreyan symbols, which River identifies as space-time coordinates. Vastra tells the group that the coordinates lead to the location of the Doctor's greatest secret. Vastra says to River that Clarence told her one word that connected to the Doctor: Trenzalore. River asks her to describe what the old man told her, and Vastra plays back Clarence's prophesy in the floating dust. River claims they misunderstood what he was saying. Jenny suddenly says she forgot to lock the door in their house, a factor Vastra dismisses, until Jenny tells them that someone has broken in. She discovers, to her own dismay, that she has in fact already been killed. Her form flickers and fades away. River informs Vastra that she is under attack and must wake up, and then slaps her to shock her awake. Vastra awakens surrounded by the Whisper Men and demands they tell her who they are. River wakes up Strax by throwing her champagne in his face, and he finds himself also surrounded by the Whisper Men upon waking. The Whisper Men then enter the trance with River and Clara, and order Clara to tell the Doctor something: The face of Dr Simeon appears in the dust, to say, "His friends are lost forever more, unless he goes to Trenzalore." River protests against this, and Clara wakes up, she was back in her room, and now she hearing the Doctor's Voice.
The Doctor: Am I getting warm? Angie? Artie? Am I getting warm?
The Doctor sticks his hand in front of him. We then see he is blindfolded as he calls for the children.
The Doctor: Am I getting warm? Look, I'm pretty sure you have to tell me if I'm getting warm. I'm-I'm-I'm pretty sure that's in the rules.
Clara comes down the stairs.
Clara: Doctor?
The Doctor: Ha, Clara! How are you, don't worry. Everything's under control.
Clara: What are you doing?
The Doctor: Oh, um, Mr Maitland went next door, so I said I'd look after the kids. They wanted to go to the cinema, but I said no, I said no - not until you wake up, I was very firm.
Clara: At which point, they suggested Blind Man's Bluff.
The Doctor: Yes. Where are they?
Clara steps down and removes the blindfold.
Clara: At the cinema.
The Doctor: The little…Daleks! (looks at Clara) What's wrong?
Clara asks the Doctor about River. He calls her his ex before changing the subject to Vastra's message. As Clara repeats it a visibly distraught Doctor asks her if it really was Trenzalore. Brought to free-flowing tears, he abruptly snaps out of it and runs off to the TARDIS. Clara went after him and finds him below the console. The Doctor mentions he heard the name Trenzalore before, from Dorium Maldovar and a few others, and that River surely knew as she always did. He links Clara to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits, then cryptically remarks, "When you are a time traveller, there is one place you must never go. One place in all of space and time you must never — ever — find yourself". He tells Clara that she misunderstood the message. It was not the secret the Doctor will take to his grave which was discovered, but the grave itself. The final resting place of the Doctor has been found and it is the one place he must never go. Despite this, he has to save Vastra, Strax and Jenny — if the latter is still alive — as they were there for him during his dark times. As they arrive to Trenzalore, a psychic echo of River Song appears to Clara, saying that only she can see or hear her and to not mention her presence to the Doctor.
River: Clara. Don't speak, don't say my name – he can't see or hear me, only you can.
The Doctor: (calls) Well, come on then!
River: We're mentally linked, it's the conference call. I kept the line open.
The Doctor: (strides over) Who are you talking to? We need to get... (stops at stares) River?(walks over to a stone bearing River's name and runs his fingers along it)
Clara: That can't be right.
The Doctor: No, it can't.
Clara: She's not dead.
The Doctor: Oh, she's dead, I'm afraid. She's been dead for a very long time.
River: Yeah, should probably have mentioned that - never the right time.
Clara: But I met her!
The Doctor: Long story. But her grave can't be here.
Clara hears hushed whispers and turns around.
Clara: Doctor!
The Doctor hurries around in front of Clara as the group of Whisper Men approach. He reaches into his inner jacket pocket and pulls out the sonic and uses it on them. The Whisper Men continue to approach.
Whisper Men: (point at the Doctor) This man must fall as all men must The fate of all is always dust.
The Doctor slaps the sonic against his hand and tries again. When it still doesn't work, he blows on it and tries a third time.
River: If it's not my gravestone, then what is it?
Clara: (to The Doctor) What do you think the gravestone really is?
The Doctor: The gravestone? (spares a look at Clara)
River: Maybe it's a false grave!
Clara: Maybe it's a false grave.
The Doctor: Yeah, maybe.
River: Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!
Clara: Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!
The Doctor: (taps the sonic against his forehead) Yes, of course, makes sense. (uses sonic on gravestone) They'd never have buried my wife out here!
Clara: Your what?
The ground opens underneath them and they fall. The Whisper Men move forward to the hole.
Whisper Men: The man who lies will lie no more When this man lies at Trenzalore.
The Doctor and Clara walk through a doorway into a dark tunnel lined with invading roots. The Doctor finds and lights a torch before removing it from the sconce.
Clara: Where are we?
The Doctor: Catacombs. (starts down the tunnel)
Clara: I hate catacombs. So how come I met your dead wife?
The Doctor: Well, you know how it is when you lose someone close to you. I sort of made a back-up.
Clara looks at River and can see her flicker as she speaks.
River: I died saving him. In return, he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf. Didn't even say goodbye. He doesn't like endings.
A Whisper Man walks right through River, its hand reaching for Clara.
The Doctor: Come on, run, run! (grabs Clara's arm and pulls her along)
The Doctor bursts through a door and we can see the walls are that of the TARDIS.
The Doctor: Come on, quickly, we're in.
Clara follows but is grabbed by a Whisper Man. The Doctor reaches for her hands and pulls.
Clara: Doctor!
The Doctor: Clara!
The Doctor pulls Clara free and pushes the door closed on the Whisper Man's hand. The Doctor leans back against the door. The hand is pulled free and the door closes fully.
The Doctor: Yowzah!
The Doctor drops the torch and they continue on through the corridors. They climb some steps.
The Doctor: Bit of a climb. Think I remember the way.
The Doctor turns around for Clara but she is lagging behind.
The Doctor: Clara. Clara? (runs to Clara as she staggers and leans against a wall) It's OK. The dimensioning forces this deep in the TARDIS, they can make you a bit giddy. (holds her against him as they walk forward)
Clara: I know, I know. (pulls away and looks at the Doctor) How do I know? How do I know that?
The Doctor: Clara, it's OK, you're fine.
Clara: Have we, have we done this before? We have! We have done this before, climbing through a wrecked TARDIS - you said things, things I'm not supposed to remember.
The Doctor: We can't do this now. The TARDIS is a ruin, the telepathic circuits are awakening memories you shouldn't even have.
Clara suddenly starts to remember wandering through a broken down TARDIS and the Doctor telling her about her lives and deaths. He cuts her short as she tries to ask him about it.
The Doctor: Clara, what's wrong?
Clara: (staggers to a wall) What did you mean, you keep meeting me? You said I died! How could I die?
The Doctor: That's not a conversation you should even remember...
Clara: What do you mean I died?
Whisper Men: The girl who died he tried to save She'll die again inside his grave.
The Doctor peers through the wire fencing trying to locate the Whisper Men.
The Doctor: (takes Clara's hand) Run! Run!
The Doctor, Clara and the River echo also arrive. The Great Intelligence stands at the door to the Doctor's tomb, hissing that only the Doctor's real name will open it. Repeatedly asking the question "Doctor who?", he tells the Whisper Men to stop the hearts of the Doctor's friends if he does not answer. As they comply and the Doctor pleads with them to stop, the door suddenly opens. The Whisper Men release their victims, while the Doctor seems confused. He did not speak his name. River Song's apparition comments that the TARDIS is fortunately still able to hear her; she is the one who opened the doors by communicating the Doctor's name to the TARDIS, unheard by anyone else. Inside is an overgrown TARDIS control room, with a glowing, writhing beam of blue-white light where the main console would usually be. The Doctor explains that this is his "mark" on the universe. He has travelled in time more than anyone else, and this is the "scar tissue" left from it. It is his own personal timeline, past and future, and everything that resulted from it. The Doctor collapses from the influence of being so close to his past and future in this way. The Great Intelligence reveals his plan to re-write the Doctor's entire history, turning all his victories into failures. He knows that he will be killed, but the Doctor will surely be destroyed. The Great Intelligence steps into the light and is destroyed; the light turns red, and the Doctor falls to the floor, visibly in pain as he is being destroyed all at once.
The Doctor is dying; Clara had to do something to save him.
Clara: I have to go in there.
The Doctor: (weakly) Please. Please, no...
Clara: But this is what I've already done. You've already seen me do it. I'm the Impossible Girl, and this is why.
River: Whatever you're thinking of doing... don't.
Clara: If I step in there... what happens?
River: The time winds will tear you into a million pieces. A million versions of you, living and dying all over time and space. Like... echoes.
Clara: But the echoes could save the Doctor, right?
River: But they won't be you - the real you will die. They'll just be copies.
Clara: But they'll be real enough to save him. (shrugs) Like my mum said, the souffle isn't the souffle - the souffle is the recipe. (looks down at the Doctor and caresses his face) It's the only way to save him, isn't it?
River nods, then Vastra appear.
Vastra: The stars are going out. And Jenny and Strax are dead. There must be something we can do?
Clara: (stands) Well, how about that? I'm Souffle Girl after all.
The Doctor: (weakly) No... please...
Clara: (walks towards light) If this works, get out of here as fast as you can. And spare me a thought now and then.
The Doctor: (weakly) No, Clara...!
Clara: In fact, you know what? (turns to the Doctor) Run. Run, you clever boy. And remember me.
The Doctor: (weakly) No! Clara!
Clara runs into the light.
The Doctor: (weakly) "CLARA!"