'The Angels Take Manhattan' (Story Code 7.05) by Steven Moffat

“The Angels take Manhattan! Because they can. Because they’ve never had a food source like this one. The city that never sleeps.” – The Doctor

3rd April 1938: New York, the city of a million statues – some of which actually move… Private Eye Sam Garner is hired by wealthy gang boss Julius Grayle, who wants him to investigate reports of living statues at an apartment block near Battery Park. Taking the case, Garner heads for Winter Quay, unaware that he is being followed by statues – alien creatures of living stone that are better known to some as ‘Weeping Angels’... Watched by the block’s residents, Garner approaches the main doors, which open by themselves; after the elevator arrives of its own accord, Garner heads upstairs to room 702, where he sees that the nameplate outside reads ‘S.Garner’… Stepping inside the apartment, Garner is puzzled to see a hat and raincoat identical to his hanging on a nearby stand; when he finds a wallet and licence exactly the same as his on the nightstand, his confusion increases. Entering the bedroom Garner gets a shock: the old man lying in bed before him is an elderly version of himself ! Heeding his older self’s warning that something is coming for him, Garner staggers out into the hallway, where he encounters a stone Angel, its clawed hands frozen in the act of reaching out for him. Racing for the stairs Garner is stopped by the sight of more Angels, all blocking his escape; as the Angels give chase Garner has no option but to make for the roof – but when he gets there he comes face to face with the biggest, scariest Weeping Angel of all: the Statue of Liberty, it’s face twisted into a terrifying snarl!

New York, 2012: the Doctor, Amy and Rory are enjoying a quiet picnic in Central Park. Well, almost quiet, as the Doctor is reading aloud from a crime novel written by one Melody Malone. Amy stops her friend from spoiling the peace, and then comes under his scrutiny for the reading glasses she is wearing. While Rory heads off to get coffee, the Doctor tears out the last page of his book because he hates endings. Now laden with take-out coffees, Rory makes his way through Central Park, unaware that he is being stalked by stone cherubs from a nearby fountain. Hearing the sound of giggling, Rory looks behind him – and then… Meanwhile, while Amy plays Pooh Sticks from a bridge, the Doctor continues to read aloud from his book; then he suddenly pauses: the next section of the book is about Rory!

1938: Rory suddenly find himself in New York at night-time – and standing before him is his daughter, River Song (a.k.a. Melody Pond a.k.a. Melody Malone). Before Rory can ask why she is dressed in a raincoat and hat like a private eye, he and River are confronted by two hoods with guns and bundled into a car. River explains to her father that the Doctor will not be able to rescue them because the city is full of time distortion; she only got there with the aid of a Vortex Manipulator…

Racing back to the TARDIS, the Doctor and Amy wonder how Rory ended up in a book that the Time Lord found in his jacket. Setting the controls to the date of the story, the Doctor sends his ship back in time – but the TARDIS goes wildly out of control, and after vanishing in a blaze of energy it bounces off 1938 and deposits its crew back in 2012, in a the bleak surroundings of a cemetery. As the Doctor puts out the fire in the console room, Amy skips ahead in the book and reads that the Doctor broke something; the Time Lord quickly stops her from reading any further, concerned that if they hear what happens next they will not be able to alter their future. Nearby, unnoticed, lies a gravestone, the words ‘Rory Arthur Williams’ carved on its surface…

1938: The hoods take Rory and River to the mansion of Mr Grayle. As the duo enter the building River remarks on the crime boss’ collection of expensive objet d’art –

– which the Doctor and Amy read about in the novel. Using River’s description of a particular vase, the Doctor sets the TARDIS’ controls to China in 221 BC, so he and Amy can meet with the man who made the object…

1938: A hood throws Rory into the cellar, with only a box of matches for comfort. Meanwhile, River meets Grayle and his most prized possession: a captive Weeping Angel, its damaged form held in chains. Seeing that the man’s collection of bone china is now showing messages from the Doctor (‘Yowza’), River uses her Vortex Manipulator to send her ‘husband’ a signal to lock onto. Grayle demands that River tell him everything she knows about the Angels; to persuade her he flicks the lights off and on – enabling the Angel to seize River’s wrist in its stone grip. In the cellar, Rory encounters some stone cherubs, just as his match burns out; as Rory struggles to keep a flame going the creatures play a game of cat and mouse with him – a game that Rory loses…

Using River’s signal the Doctor is able to get the TARDIS to land inside Grayle’s mansion; as the time-space ship materialises, the resulting blast of energy renders the crime boss unconscious. Pleased to see her ‘husband’, River explains how she is now ‘Professor Song’, after being pardoned from her prison sentence because the Doctor no longer officially exists (long story, keep up!). The Doctor is worried that the only way to free River from the Angel’s grip is to break her wrist, exactly as detailed in the Melody Malone novel, which River will obviously have to write at some point in the future. To avoid spoilers, Amy suggests just reading the book’s chapter titles; the Doctor concedes, and learns that Rory is in the cellar. However, as Amy races off, the Doctor also reads the title of Chapter 12: ‘Amelia’s Last Farewell’. Furious at what the future holds for his friend, the Doctor leaves River to free herself while he speeds off after Amy. Together the duo makes their way down the cellar steps, only to find that Rory has vanished… Elsewhere, Rory finds himself transported to Battery Park, outside Winter Quays… Having freed herself, River uses a tracking device to try and find Rory, noting that he has moved in space but not time. The Doctor is elated to that River changed history by releasing herself… until he sees that she broke her wrist to do so. Handing the River’s tracker and Vortex Manipulator to Amy, the Doctor uses some of his regeneration energy to heal River’s wrist; but instead of thanking him she just slaps his face for wasting his life-force on her, and then storms off in anger. When Amy goes after her daughter, River observes how the Doctor doesn’t like to see people age, because that means an ending… River’s equipment finally locates Rory, so the trio steal Grayle’s car and speed off in pursuit. Meanwhile, Grayle wakes up and finds that the Weeping Angels have finally come for him… At Winter Quays, Rory enters the building and takes the elevator; the lift automatically takes him to the third floor, but as Rory finds himself drawn to room 302, he fails to see the Angel stalking him… Arriving outside the Doctor, Amy and River rush inside to find their friend; as Amy steps inside apartment 302, the Doctor and River worry at seeing a smiling Angel, and then spot the sign saying ‘R. Williams’. Amy and Rory’s happy reunion is interrupted by the sight of an elderly man lying in the bedroom: an older version of Rory. As Amy approaches the bed and takes the hand of her elderly husband, the younger Rory watches in confusion as his older self dies… The Doctor explains that the Weeping Angels displace their victims in time and then feed off the temporal energy of what their lives might have been; Winter Quays belongs to them: they use it as a battery farm, sending its trapped residents into the past again and again. As a loud noise booms outside, River ignores the Doctor’s protests about changing time and supports Rory’s idea of running: if he were to escape he would cause a paradox that would kill all the Angels, thereby unmaking recent events. The Doctor tells Rory that if he did manage to escape he would spend the rest of his life running from the Angels; but Rory and Amy are resolute, and they rush out of the apartment together. The Doctor and River make to follow them, only to have their way blocked by two Angels. Reaching the roof, Amy and Rory hear more gigantic footsteps; turning around they find themselves confronted by the terrifying sight of the enraged Statue of Liberty. The Doctor and River manage to dodge their attackers, and, on finding the stairway full of Angels, they scramble up the fire escape. With the huge statue looming over him and his wife, Rory takes drastic measures and, while carefully staring at the Statue, he steps up onto the ledge surrounding the roof. Rory explains to Amy that on the basis that he has died and come back to life before, he is prepared to throw himself over the edge so that his death will create the paradox that will destroy the Angels. Rory then implores Amy to push him over the edge; but Amy can’t leave her husband to die alone, and she steps up onto the ledge beside him. As the Doctor and River arrive on the roof they cry out to the couple standing precariously before them – but Rory and Amy jump off into space… and as they fall, everything goes white…

Rory and Amy wake up in the cemetery, along with a jubilant Doctor. The Pond’s sacrifice worked, and the resulting paradox pinged them back to their correct point in time. After some big hugs and kisses, the Doctor joins River in cleaning the TARDIS, and the suggestion of a family outing to a pub is made. Everything seems fine… until Rory notices a gravestone with the same name as his on it. Amy turns to look – just as a damaged Angel appears and zaps Rory into the past. As the Doctor and River rush to Amy’s side the grave inscription changes to ‘Rory Arthur Williams aged 82’. Amy is devastated: she has lost her husband after all, and the Doctor cannot take the TARDIS back to rescue him because another paradox would tear New York in two. Deciding that she wants to be with Rory no matter what, Amy steps towards the surviving Angel. The Doctor desperately pleads with her to come back, but Amy is resolute; bidding goodbye to her daughter, she instructs Melody to look after the Doctor and then steps into the Angel’s reach – and is instantly sent into the past, the Angel vanishing too. The Doctor is inconsolable: he has lost his best friends, and there is no way he will ever see them again. Nearby, the gravestone now says ‘Rory Arthur Williams aged 82 and his loving wife Amelia Williams aged 87’…

Later: River pilots the TARDIS while the Doctor sits, inconsolable. When the Time Lord asks her to travel with him River agrees, albeit on her terms. River then sets off into the ship to begin writing her Melody Malone novel, which she will later send to Amy to publish; when she tells the Doctor that she will ask Amy to include an afterword for him, the Time Lord suddenly remembers the page he tore out. Setting the ship’s controls for Central Park, he races to the site of his recent picnic and quickly finds the page. Sitting on a park bench, the Doctor reads how Amy and Rory lived a long, happy life together; he also reads how they always loved him, although they also worried about him travelling alone. Amy also left a final wish, one that the Doctor is only too happy to grant: somewhere a little girl called Amelia Pond is waiting for a Raggedy Man to return, and someone needs to find her and tell her a story about all the adventures she is going to have…

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Mike McShane (Julius Grayle), Rob David (Sam Garner), Bentley Kalu (Hood), Ozzie Yue (Foreman), Burnell Tucker (Old Garner), Zac Fox (Photoshoot P.A.)*
*Credited but does not appear

Directed by Nick Hurran
Produced by Marcus Wilson
Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
29th September 2012 @ 7.20 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory and River

*Like the previous episodes, the tiles and logo are updated to reflect the story; this time the vortex is stone grey, and the logo is the green texture of the Statue of Liberty

*Music heard in this episode: 'Englishman in New York' by Sting

*A scene for Brian was originally planned by writer Chris Chibnall for the end of this episode, but was never filmed; however, a special version featuring the storyboards and the dialogue, as recorded by Arthur Darvill, was later released on the BBC website. Entitled ‘P.S.', it shows Brian at the Pond’s home wondering what happened to Rory and Amy, when he is interrupted by the doorbell. Standing on the doorstep is a man in his sixties called Anthony, who bears a letter – from Rory! As Brian reads his son’s final goodbye he also finds a picture of Rory, Amy, and a baby they adopted back in 1946: Anthony Brian Williams! Stunned, Brian pulls his newly-discovered grandson into a big hug…