gallery
CAST
Regular Cast
Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy), Arthur Darvill (Rory)
Guest Cast
Alex Kingston (River Song), Mark Sheppard (Canton Everett Delaware III), Stuart Milligan (President Richard Nixon) Marnix Van Den Broeke (The Silent), Chukwudi Iwuji (White House Secret Service Man), Sydney Wade (little Girl), Nancy Baldwin (Joy), Mark Griffin (Phil), Kerry Shale (Dr. Renfrew), Tommy Campbell (Sergeant)
CREW
| Written by | Steven Moffat |
| Directed by | Toby Haynes |
| Produced by | Marcus Wilson |
sypnosis
The Doctor is locked in the perfect prison. Amy, Rory and River Song are being hunted down across America by the FBI. With the help of new friend and FBI-insider, Canton Everett Delaware the Third, our heroes are reunited to share their discoveries, if not their memories. For the world is occupied by an alien force who control humanity through post-hypnotic suggestion and no one can be trusted.
Aided by President Nixon and Neil Armstrong’s foot, The Doctor must mount a revolution to drive out the enemy and rescue the missing little girl. No-one knows why they took her.
Or why they have kidnapped Amy Pond
plot
Three months after the events of the warehouse, Amy is chased down the Valley of Gods in Utah. She has strange pen markings all over her skin and arms. She is cornered between two SUVs and a cliff-face. Canton Everett Delaware III advises her to surrender. When she wonders if he remembers what happened at the warehouse, he responds by shooting her down.
In Area 51, the Eleventh Doctor, is held as a prisoner in a straitjacket and under heavy security. Canton tosses a file of pictures taken of the markings on Amy to The Doctor, questioning him about their meaning. The Doctor suggests Canton ask Amy himself, getting no response, implying her death.
River Song, also covered in markings, explores an unfinished skyscraper in New York City filled with the mysterious aliens. FBI agents corner her at the edge of the building. Again, Canton advises her to surrender, but she warns them of the alien occupation and smiles sadly before falling off the side of the building.
Back at Area 51, Canton informs The Doctor that they found River. The Doctor notes that the employees are placing blocks of dwarf star alloy in a square around him, knowing that nothing can get past it, not light, radio waves or sound. He then asks Canton what happened to River, learning she jumped off the 50th floor.
Finally, Rory is at the Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona. He runs from Canton and the FBI until they corner him. Willing to give up, Rory asks why he isn’t shooting him; Canton believes it would look better if he shot Rory while he was running, shooting him after finishing his sentence.
Back in Area 51, Canton enters the completed cell with body bags containing Amy and Rory. The Doctor questions Canton, wondering if he knows why he is doing this. Canton jokes he wants to let The Doctor know where he stands; in a cell. Sealing the door, Canton explains the cell’s material will keep anything from escaping. He then says no one can hear them now. The Doctor congratulates Canton and asks if the door’s sealed properly. Once confirmed, The Doctor frees himself easily and Amy and Rory emerge from the body bags. Rory complains about the lack of air holes; Canton jokes that no one’s complained before. Amy points out a tiny flaw with the cell; they can’t get out without the guards noticing them. The Doctor says she is right; no matter what the guards think they are doing in there, they know they can’t leave. He then falls against the invisible TARDIS, opening it for his companions.
Canton then questions The Doctor about River as she jumped off a rooftop. The Doctor explains, “She does that”, ordering Amy and Rory to open all the doors to the swimming pool. He parks the TARDIS sideways on the skyscraper right after River falls, catching her. As everyone cleans themselves up, The Doctor tells his companions not to worry as he’s got a secret weapon; the TARDIS lands a short distance away from Cape Kennedy, where Apollo 11 is being prepared for launch. River questions The Doctor about his plan; Apollo 11 is his secret weapon? The Doctor tells her it’s not because that would be “silly”, saying it’s Neil Armstrong’s foot.
The Doctor implants a nano-recorder in each of his companions’ palms, explaining they are to activate it and leave themselves a message each time they have an encounter with the mysterious aliens. When it flashes red, they’ll know they’ve seen one of the creatures. Canton looks towards the doors for a moment and then casually adjusts The Doctor’s bowtie, but is horrified to find his nano-recorder is flashing. The message, “How the hell did it get here?” makes them realise there is an alien near the TARDIS doors. It is not real; The Doctor has extrapolated the image from Amy’s phone and projected it into the TARDIS as a hologram, yet the effect is the same. The message also contains The Doctor’s voice ordering Canton to straighten his bowtie upon turning around.
Turning off the image, The Doctor orders Canton to tell him what the alien looked like. However, neither Canton nor he can describe it. The Doctor then explains that Canton straightened his bowtie because he planted the idea in his head while looking at the image of the creature. Amy and Rory ask The Doctor if the creatures use post-hypnotic suggestion to rule the world. Knowing that the creatures got the spacesuit from NASA, The Doctor decides that they must have taken the girl from a nearby children’s home. Ordering his companions to look into it themselves, The Doctor explains that he’s off to NASA to do the prep work on his secret weapon.
Canton and Amy head for Graystark Hall, despite it being closed two years ago. They meet Dr Renfrew, who is quite erratic. He leads them inside, explaining that the orphanage will close in 1967. However, Canton corrects him, explaining that it’s 1969. Amy goes off on her own to investigate, calling The Doctor to inform him they found the place; with Renfrew like he is and the messages on the walls, there is no doubt. The Doctor, in the meantime, has been busy messing around with the electronics in Apollo 11, adding one of his own devices. After telling Amy that repeated memory wipes can fry one’s mind, he hangs up because security has caught him.
Amy continues searching the orphanage, finding a nest of hibernating aliens on the ceiling of a room. Her nano-recorder flashes red; she has left a message warning herself to leave and there are tally marks all over her arms and face. Eventually, she departs, forgetting, but one of the aliens wakes as the door slams behind her.
Down the hall, Amy spots a woman with an eyepatch looking at her through a slot in one of the doors. When she steps inside, the room is empty and the slot is gone. It is a child’s bedroom, scattered with toys and pictures of the little girl. Amy discovers one picture of herself with the girl as a baby. While trying to make sense of it, the little girl, still in the astronaut suit, enters behind her, begging for help. Amy apologises for shooting her and tries to explain that she will kill The Doctor in the future. The girl continues to beg for help, confusing Amy further. Two of the aliens enter. Amy screams.
In Renfrew’s office, Canton questions what the man has been doing there since the closing of Graystark, learning that Dr Renfrew was told the child must be cared for. A knocking at the door has Renfrew answer to someone and explains that he’s being questioned. Once Renfrew returns to Canton, he is questioned as to who was on the other side of the door. However, once Dr Renfrew asks him what he means, the door opens and an alien enters. Canton activates his nano-recorder, asking the alien if it’s armed as he hears Amy screaming for help. The alien gloats that its kind has ruled the Earth since the Stone Age, having no need of weapons. Canton shoots the alien thrice, sarcastically saying, “Well, welcome to America.”
In the meantime, The Doctor has been caught by NASA security and is being questioned. Despite telling them the truth about being on a secret mission for the president, The Doctor is met with doubt; he tells them that he sent Nixon a message for help. As they laugh at the idea, President Nixon arrives in the TARDIS with River and Rory and orders The Doctor’s release. As they depart, The Doctor receives a call from Canton, who is asking for help.
They rendezvous at the orphanage, where Canton is trying to break into the child’s room. Amy can be heard inside, crying for help. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to open the door, but they are horrified to find Amy missing. All that’s left of her is her nano-recorder on the floor, broadcasting her words, and the abandoned astronaut suit; unbeknownst to them, the little girl lurks around the corner, listening to them. On learning Canton has shot one of the aliens, The Doctor rushes to the warden’s office to confront the creature. He asks what it is and the alien replies that it is the Silence and silence will fall. This echoes warnings The Doctor has received from Prisoner Zero and Rosanna Calvierri.
Rory, River, and the Doctor set about finding Amy, returning the empty astronaut suit to the warehouse. Canton brings the wounded alien to The Doctor’s prison at Area 51, where he is met with hostility as it has been days since he sealed the prison. When they refuse to bring a military doctor on Canton’s orders, President Nixon emerges from the prison, having been brought by the TARDIS, and calms the soldiers with a speech. When the military doctor comes and Nixon departs, Canton treats the alien’s wounds, which the creature threateningly warns is a mistake. When Canton asks what he should have done, it replies that the humans should “kill [them] all on sight”. Canton smugly reveals that he has recorded this on Amy’s video phone.
In the Florida warehouse, River and the Doctor dissect the space suit, learning it is the perfect life support machine. This explains how the little girl was able to survive Amy shooting her. It is fitted with at least twenty types of alien tech, meaning the little girl must be very strong to have fought her way out of it. River wonders if the suit could move without an occupant, remembering that the little girl’s original phone call claimed the space man was coming to eat her. Rory, meanwhile, is devastated by Amy’s disappearance, keeping her nano-recorder with him at all times. In one instance, Amy tells the listener that her life was so boring before he “dropped out of the sky” and that he needs to get his “stupid face” where she can see it. Rory believes she is referring to The Doctor, who tries to reassure him of Amy’s love for him by reminding him of the two thousand years he spent protecting her. Rory then wonders why the life support suit looks like something an astronaut would wear. The Doctor explains that the Silence never make anything themselves, being “super parasites”, going on to explain that the reason humanity wanted to go to the moon was because the Silence were in need of a spacesuit.
Amy wakes to find herself tied to a standing framework, surrounded by the Silence, in their console room. The Silence inform her that she has been with them for several days and that she will help “bring the silence”. They order her to sleep repeatedly, but she fights it off just as the sound of the TARDIS materialisation occurs; The Doctor tracked the signal from Amy’s nano-recorder to her location. He emerges from the TARDIS and is met with surprise at the appearance of the Silence’s lair — “Very Aickman Road. Saw one of these before; abandoned, wonder how that happened. Well, guess I’m about to find out.”
He sets a television on the console, telling the Silence that he is not violent, but River will not hesitate to shoot any of them. He asks the Silence why the little girl is so important to them but they do not answer. He gets the television set working for the live broadcast of the moon landing and uses the device he put in the command module to hack the broadcast signal just as Neil Armstrong’s foot touches the lunar surface. The image is replaced with the video Canton took on Amy’s phone: the Silence saying that humans should kill them all on sight.
This seals the fate of the Silence. Every human in future history will see this famous broadcast. Through their power of post-hypnotic suggestion, the Silence have just ordered their own execution. People who watch the live broadcast obey this order, shooting the Silence without thinking. Enraged by The Doctor’s victory, the Silence attack. Rory goes to free Amy, but she orders him to get his “stupid face” to safety. With The Doctor’s assistance, he gets her to the TARDIS, where they wait as River kills every alien in the room. Rory, perplexed, asks what kind of doctor she is. River replies that she’s an archaeologist, and shoots a remaining member of the Silence without even looking before calmly joining the others in the TARDIS.
They return Canton to the Oval Office and the Doctor tells Nixon to record everything that goes on in the office. Nixon, who has been told that The Doctor is from the future, wonders if the American people will remember him. The Doctor replies that he will never be forgotten. He informs Nixon that all Canton wants to do is get married and insists that Nixon should give his permission and allow Canton to return to the FBI as a parting favour. As the TARDIS disappears, Nixon confirms with Canton that his fiance is black, considering allowing the marriage as he is perhaps “more liberal” than people think. Canton then explains that his fiance is a man, prompting Nixon to remark that “the moon is far enough for now”.
River is returned to prison. The Doctor offers her a chance to travel with him but she declines, saying she has made a promise and he’ll soon understand. As The Doctor turns to leave, River pulls him into a lingering kiss. When he is confused, she realises that, from The Doctor’s perspective, this is their first kiss — meaning that, from her perspective, it may be their last.
The Doctor sends Rory on an errand in the TARDIS, giving him and Amy time to talk about her pregnancy. She admits that she didn’t tell Rory about it because she was afraid that her time spent in the TARDIS would give the baby some deformity. Unbeknownst to her, Rory is listening to their conversation via her nano-recorder, which is still broadcasting. She catches him and reassures him she is safe and she is not pregnant. The Doctor, however, is less certain. While he sets the TARDIS on course for a new destination, he secretly has the console scan Amy for pregnancy. He is disturbed to find the results state that Amy is both pregnant and not pregnant.
Six months later, in New York City, a homeless man comes across the little girl in an alley near 44th Street. Coughing, the little girl explains that she is dying, but it is okay because she can easily fix it. Telling him to watch, she begins glowing and initiates a regeneration, causing the man to flee in terror.
NOTES
Dwarf star alloy is again used for its dense, impenetrable qualities. (Warriors’ Gate, The Family of Blood).
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