Transcript for episode ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ • Doctor Who (2024)

[UNIT HQ]

KATE: Gold protocols, everyone! Positions! Helipad doors to open!
VLINX: TARDIS. Vector One.

(The TARDIS flies in and skids through the main control room before stopping.)

IBRAHIM: Doctor on the bridge.

(He salutes as the TARDIS doors open.)

DOCTOR: Give me the loving! Rose! Rosie! Rosa! Rosalinda!
ROSE: Doctor! At last! It's been so long!
DOCTOR: How's your mum? How's your uncle? All good?

(Uncle is 14th Doctor, in case it had slipped your mind. Not asking after great-granddad though, so perhaps Wilfred Mott has died in-universe too.)

ROSE: Yeah.
DOCTOR: Ruby, Rose. Rose, Ruby.
BOTH: Hi!
DOCTOR: Two different shades of red!
KATE: Doctor, welcome back aboard.
DOCTOR: Kate! Kate. Ruby, this is Kate. We love Kate. I knew Kate's dad. He was the best of men. That is the Vlinx.
VLINX: Greetings.
DOCTOR: Oh! Nice upgrade!
VLINX: Hot metal, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Colonel Ibrahim. Someone has been working out.
IBRAHIM: I try. I get busy, you know?
DOCTOR: Looking good, sir. Hi. Sorry, I didn't get your name.
HARRIET: Harriet. Head of the Archive.
DOCTOR: Harriet, nice to meet you.
MORRIS: And I'm Morris Gibbons, UNIT's scientific advisor. Thirteen years old, accelerated genius, thanks to a passing asteroid.
DOCTOR: 13 years old! Nice to meet you, Morris Gibbons.
MORRIS: Nice to meet you.
DOCTOR: Ruby, this is Morris Gibbons.
RUBY: Hey!
MORRIS: Nice to meet you, Ruby.
DOCTOR: Okay. All of you, I need your help. Because something really weird keeps happening. Everywhere I land, a woman appears. Look.

(Sonicks Susan Twist's various roles onto the big screen, plus a couple more, implying more not-seen adventures.)

DOCTOR: So, she is a comms officer in the planet Pacifico del Rio. She's someone's mum in Finetime. She's an ambulance. She's a portrait in 1813, and the list goes on. Planet Sloog, she's a Sloogma. Planet Varsitay, she is a Griffin. The Fivefold Configuration, she is a Bleet. So she's everywhere. She must be here. So I'm hoping that UNIT can find her and analyse her. She's always middle-aged, about so high, 60, slim, fair hair... What? What? What is it?
MORRIS: And right on cue.

(The S Triad Technology CEO giving a speech.)

SUSAN [on screen]: This is when it changes. This is when the whole world is changed... by me. All right, all right. Thank you.
KATE: Susan Triad, IT genius. And today, she's releasing her software worldwide, free of charge, a gift from S Triad Technology.
DOCTOR: Oh, man. Don't you see? It's an anagram. S Triad spells out... TARDIS. The name is TARDIS Technology.
KATE: Well, obviously. Thank you.
IBRAHIM: Even I got that.
MORRIS: That is why we've been watching her. 'Cos it spells TARDIS. We know that. But why?
RUBY: It's not just that. Never mind the anagram, look at her name. Isn't that the point, Doctor? She's called Susan.
KATE: Is that significant?
DOCTOR: Susan is the name of my granddaughter.

(Break for the titles.)

SUSAN [on screen]: It is my honour to be here today...
KATE: Susan Triad, entrepreneur, genius, philanthropist. She's even been the Book At Bedtime on CBeebies. Three years ago, she launched Triad. It only rebranded as S Triad Technology two months ago, and we were straight onto her. Well, even without the TARDIS anagram, evil genius with secret alien software is top of our list. God knows we stopped enough of them. Well, except the obvious.
MORRIS: We'll get him.
KATE: But the research with Susan has come to nothing.
MORRIS: The software's clean. No secret alien signals. Kinda disappointed.
RUBY: But, hold on, excuse me. Doctor, am I being thick here? How do you not know your own granddaughter? I mean, don't you recognise her?
DOCTOR: Er... The truth is, Time Lords can regenerate their faces like a disguise. So we look different, but we're still the same.
RUBY: Right. Okay. But what for?
DOCTOR: It can save us if we're dying, or sometimes we can hide ourselves away...
SUSAN [on screen]: ..to be able to make a global difference.
DOCTOR: ..with a new face.
SUSAN [on screen]: And that is what I intend.
DOCTOR: Does that sound mad?
SUSAN [on screen]: Triad can make a difference.
RUBY: Just don't go changing yours, okay?
DOCTOR: Oh, no. I'm keeping this one for a long, long time. But is this her actual face, or did she choose it?
MORRIS: Name, anagram, TARDIS. Probability of a trap, 95% and rising.
SUSAN [on screen]: ..is the start of a better future, a prosperous future for everyone!
CROWD [OC]: Susan! Susan!
SUSAN [on screen] That's a bit mad, isn't it? Chanting my name? I'm not Beyoncé. I don't like it. Can't we just pipe in a bit of applause?
DOCTOR: Oh, it was just a rehearsal.
KATE: We hacked the link. That's Triad HQ, one mile west of us. She goes live at 1500 to the whole world.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

SUSAN: We're not fooling anyone.
BAILEY: But shareholders like it.
SUSAN: Oh, what do you think, Mel?
MEL: Well, it got me cheering.

[UNIT HQ]

DOCTOR: Oh, that's Mel! That's my mate, Mel. Oh, you would love Mel. Bonkers.
KATE: We got her undercover on the media team, and she's discovered one surprising thing. Susan Triad turns out to be really nice.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

SUSAN: I wish we had a real crowd. It's hard to find the right pitch. Thanks, Mel.
MEL: Okay.
SUSAN: Am I going to sound all grandiose?
BAILEY: No. You sound celebratory. You're giving a gift to the whole planet. You're allowed to enjoy yourself.
MEL: It's going to be brilliant, Susan. I wanted to cheer.
SUSAN: Call me Sue, pet. Everyone does.
MEL: Thank you, Sue.
SUSAN: No rest for the wicked. Two hours till the big one. Come on, I want to rewrite that middle section.

[UNIT HQ]

DOCTOR: So, we have Susan Triad. We also have another mystery woman. Ruby Sunday!
RUBY: God, you could've warned me!
ROSE: That's amazing. You look gorgeous.
RUBY: Oh, that's my 16th.
DOCTOR: Okay, so Ruby is not the mystery woman, but your mother is. Ruby is a foundling and was left on Ruby Road.
KATE: We've got your history after that incursion on December 24th, filed under "goblins". Harriet?
HARRIET: You were quite famous... for a day or two. A Christmas baby.
RUBY: Oh, yeah. We tried to find my mum, but... Actually, we even tried Davina McCall, but we got nothing.
ROSE: Ah, I love Davina.
KATE: I love Davina. Is she nice?
RUBY: Oh, she's absolutely lovely.
KATE: That's one good thing. She's so cool.
MORRIS: Sorry, sorry. You've got a woman that you keep seeing, and a woman that you've never seen. Is it the same woman?
KATE: Susan Triad would've been 40, 42. And women who abandon their children tend to be teenagers or early twenties, statistically.
ROSE: Sorry, but can I say the obvious? You've got a time machine. Doctor, can't you just go back and take a look?
DOCTOR: No. No, I can't. I've been to Ruby Road once, and I can't cross over my own history. The one night that we need to see, and I have time-locked myself out of it.
RUBY: That's not like you. You love to break the rules.
DOCTOR: Yeah, but... it snows.
KATE: It snows?
RUBY: Oh, it really snows.
DOCTOR: It was snowing the night that Ruby was born, and it keeps snowing all around her. Actual snow. Which means that that night is so raw and so open, the last thing that I should do is take a time machine back there.
HARRIET: Excuse me, it all sounds a bit Dickensian, with the baby and the church and the snow, but it was 2004. There was CCTV footage. The camera was positioned in a storage yard 66m away.
KATE: Does it show anything? Does the tape still exist?
RUBY: Oh, no, no, we've got it. Yeah, my gran asked for it 'cos it's mine and it's all I've got. But you can't see anything. It's black and white and snow at midnight.
MORRIS: Yeah, yeah, but look at our technology. We can sharpen the image.
RUBY: Oh, my God. Do you think you can clean it up? I can see my mother?
MORRIS: Yeah.
RUBY: Ah! Okay. Well, it's at home, the VHS. My mum's got it. She's got it in a box.
KATE: I suggest we take Miss Sunday home.
IBRAHIM: At once, ma'am.
RUBY: Ah!
IBRAHIM: This way.
RUBY: Oh. Thank you.
ROSE: I'm coming too.
RUBY: Oh, it's like we're on a mission.
ROSE: I know. They never give me proper work. They had me investigating shoplifting in Catford.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

(In a corridor, Mel activates a device in her palm. Back in the auditorium, the new script is being tried out on the teleprompter.)

BAILEY: I want Triad to be in every home, at the heart of every family, 365 days a year. I took out that bit about coals to Newcastle. Doesn't really work in China.
MEL: Hi. Don't want to interrupt. I got those figures from Hanya. She is so happy. I have never seen anyone smile so much. You okay? All good?
SUSAN: Ah, just terrified, that's all.
MEL: You'll be amazing. I don't know how you think of all this stuff.
SUSAN: Good mum and dad, that's how. I mean, we didn't have much. He was a postman. She was a dinner lady. But they told me, "You can do anything." And look at me now. 90 minutes' time, I address the United Nations.
MEL: Best of luck, Sue.

(Susan shakes Mel's hand with the device in the palm. Mel rides off on a scooter.)

[Ruby's home]

(A shoebox is brought out from under a bed.)

CARLA: Here it is, safe and sound. That's your story, darling. The legend of Ruby Sunday.
RUBY: But they can analyse it. Maybe we can see my birth mother. If we can see her face just once...
ROSE: They've got amazing technology. I mean, they can do anything.
CARLA: You work for UNIT?
ROSE: My mother's part of it.
CARLA: Is she? Well, if your mother's part of it, then, Ruby, you can tell her your mother is too! Now, go and get Mrs Flood.
RUBY: What for?
CARLA: Go and get her! Vamoose! 'Cos I'm coming with you to the Nitwit Tower.

(A short time later, the digital radio signal is rubbish.)

RADIO: There's a warning for thunderstorms across...
FLOOD: Anything I can do to help. It's nice for me to get out. I'm always hiding myself away.
CARLA: I just need you to look after Mum. It's only going to be for a couple of hours.
FLOOD: Oh, leave her to me. I nursed my old mum through diabetes and a hip operation. She died of an ulcer. But that was when I wasn't looking. Aren't you a beauty?
ROSE: Thank you.
FLOOD: You too, Ruby. Still hoping for that growth spurt?
RUBY: Oh...
CARLA: Mum, I'm leaving you with Mrs Flood. You've got your pills. Two yellow tablets at five o'clock.
CHERRY: If you're chasing after that Doctor man, I warnin' you, him is trouble.
CARLA: Everything is trouble. And I've decided it's about time I cause trouble for myself. Thank you, Mrs F. Come on, girls, let's find that woman.
CHERRY: I would love a cup of tea.
FLOOD: Would you, sweetheart? Well, we'd all like a lot of things... that aren't going to happen.
CHERRY: What that supposed to mean?
FLOOD: I'd be very careful, Mrs Sunday. There's a storm coming in. He waits no more.

[UNIT HQ]

KATE: My father, he'd tell me stories about you when I was a kid. He'd sit there in the firelight, telling tales of the Doctor, his eyes... shining. But he never, ever mentioned a granddaughter.
DOCTOR: I was a different Doctor back then, Kate. Great enigma. Still can't shake it off. I'm trying.
KATE: If you've got a granddaughter, that means you've got kids.
DOCTOR: Well, not quite. Not yet.
KATE: But... You mean ..you can have a granddaughter before a daughter?
DOCTOR: Life of a Time Lord.
KATE: But... Okay, the grandchild exists and you've got the TARDIS, but you've never gone back to see her. Why not?
DOCTOR: You've seen my life. I bring disaster, Kate. Disaster. What if I go back and ruin her?
KATE: For what it's worth, I think you bring joy. Hmm? Do you think Susan Triad is her? Do you want it to be? Doctor, what if you just said hello to her face? Look her in the eye. Would you recognise her?
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, but S Triad Technology, the anagram. Like Morris said, probability of a trap, 95%.
MORRIS: Ninety six.
DOCTOR: Ninety... You see? I can't.
KATE: Come here. Come on.

(Big hug.)

MEL [OC]: I'll have some of that.

(Another hug.)

MEL: Oh, yes!
DOCTOR: Hello, trouble.
MEL: Come on, you two. In 65 minutes, it's 1500 UK time, 10am in the USA. That's when Susan Triad addresses the United Nations. And I've got my daily DNA sample which says that Susan Triad is...
VLINX: Susan Triad. Human. Confirmed.
DOCTOR: But we know that already, don't we?
MEL: Mmm. Kate's got a chrysalis theory.
KATE: Just because Susan Triad is nice doesn't mean she can't change. A caterpillar doesn't know it's a butterfly. And a phoenix is just a bird until it burns.
RUBY: I got it! I got it, I got it, got it. Oh, but they've stuck Mum in a room downstairs. They won't let her in.
KATE: Ruby, this is a gold security establishment. Even the Prime Minister can't walk into UNIT.
MORRIS: Especially the Prime Minister.
DOCTOR: Yeah, but it's Carla, Come on.

(Sonicks the computer.)

COMPUTER: Carla Sunday. Access granted.
KATE: Right. Fine. Thanks.
DOCTOR: Yeah. And this... this is the key! Oh, we are not just going to analyse this... Kate, do you have a Time window?
KATE: You expressly told us in the 1970s, UNIT was absolutely forbidden to experiment with any form of time technology.
DOCTOR: Do you have a Time window?
KATE: Ten floors down.

[Time window vault]

COMPUTER: Time window open. Membrane steady at 5,000 chronons in N-dimensional time and holding. Relative temporal distortion standing at -0.1 seconds.
DOCTOR: Oh, this is... this is rough. Wow! You have lashed this together. Whoo! Oh, wow. Ouch! Ouch, Kate.
KATE: Doctor, this is Colonel Winston Chidozie, head of Time Window Security.
CHIDOZIE: An honour to work with you, sir. I've heard so much about you.
RUBY: Hey, is that a Manchester accent?
CHIDOZIE: Proud to say, ma'am, Cheetham Hill.
RUBY: Oh, I'm Ruby, I'm from Tameside.
CHIDOZIE: Good to meet you, ma'am.
DOCTOR: So, so, this room charges up using the entire nuclear output of Europe and projects an image from the past, like 3D history.
KATE: We get glimpses, little fleeting moments. We saw the signing of the Declaration Of Independence, but all I could tell you is the colour of the quill, which was white.
DOCTOR: We've got extra power. We can feed the Time window using massive information from the VHS. Actual positions of the snowflakes. Morris Gibbons?
MORRIS: Yes, Doc?
DOCTOR: Get this VHS wired up to that system because we are going to recreate Christmas Eve 2004. Come on!

(Later, watching a cathode ray television set.)

DOCTOR: There it is, your legend.
RUBY: Me and my mum watch it every Christmas Eve, like a little sort of ritual, but you can't see anything. The CCTV wasn't even pointing at the church.

(Carla enters.)

MEL: Ah, but the information exists. We can see that snowflakes fell on a south-east axis, so we can model that onto the church and predict backwards.
RUBY: Huh! Oh, my God, Mum?
CARLA: This place is insane, Ruby. How much did it all cost?
DOCTOR: Hey, all good? Right, this might get noisy. Direct all comms traffic through me. Now stay back, behind the glass, everyone. Keep the chamber clear. We are going to rock through time, and I don't want to lose anyone. Ruby?
RUBY: (to Mel) Look after her.
MEL: Don't worry, she's safe. I lost my family to the most terrible things. But the Doctor helped me. I swear. Come on.
KATE: Colonel Chidozie, on guard.
CHIDOZIE: Ma'am.
KATE: Close the Time window.
COMPUTER: Time window closing. Time membrane sealed. Security at gold alert.
DOCTOR: Now, tell me when you were born.
RUBY: December 24th, 2004.
DOCTOR: You were born on Christmas Eve.
RUBY: I was abandoned. My mother must have been so alone. She left me at the church on Ruby Road.
DOCTOR: And what else?
RUBY: It was snowing.
KATE: It's snow! That's impossible.
MORRIS: I'll tell you what's impossible. We haven't turned it on yet.
DOCTOR: Now, I warn you that Time has tides and hollows and secrets. And this fixed point on Christmas Eve is the wildest I have ever seen. Now, turn on your machine!
COMPUTER: Warning. Chronon instability. Warning. Chronon instability.
DOCTOR: December the 24th, bring it back!
RUBY: Bring it back!
DOCTOR: Bring it back!

(The 3D image is created.)

RUBY: It's Ruby Road.
DOCTOR: In 2004. Ha, ha, ha! We did it! We brought it back! Oh, Morris, keep it steady.

(Warning. Core unstable.)

MORRIS: Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying. This thing is running way beyond maximum.
KATE: Should we stop?
MORRIS: No way.
DOCTOR: And listen. Listen.

(Carol of the Bells.)

KATE: We've got sound and vision. I've never seen the window this strong.
DOCTOR: We have given it the greatest power of all. Memory. Time is remembered. Memory is time.
CARLA: But what happened? What happened on that night?
DOCTOR: The woman, she went to the church. She left Ruby in the doorway. And then she walked away... towards us. There she is.
RUBY: Oh, my God. Why... why can't we see her properly?
DOCTOR: That is... is... more than just a glitch. It's like she's shadowed.
RUBY: Mum?
DOCTOR: You can't move.
RUBY: She's my mum. Can she see us?
DOCTOR: I don't think she can, but you can't move. You can't. You've got to keep everything exactly as it was. But she's going to walk by. Look at her face. Look. Look, look, look. Here she comes.
RUBY: No!
DOCTOR: Ruby, please. Please. Morris! Morris, what is happening?
COMPUTER: Chronon surge.
MORRIS: Power vent's flooding like crazy!
COMPUTER: Chronon surge.
RUBY: I want to see her!
ROSE: Ruby, don't move. We need to keep the image fixed.
DOCTOR: Did anyone see her face?
KATE: No, nothing.
MEL: Nothing, sorry.
DOCTOR: Colonel Chidozie?
CHIDOZIE: Can't make her out. Sorry, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Why? What is so different about her?

(The TARDIS appears.)

DOCTOR: I am arriving. That's me. The original me, coming back in time in 2004, because... goblins. But I had to go back to the church, to save little baby Ruby. That TARDIS is almost solid. If Time is memory and memory is Time, then what is the memory of a time machine? Oh, no, look, no, no, look. She's still there. Your mother is still there. Why has she stopped? What is she doing? Can we see? Why did she stop? Did she see me fighting? Anyone? Can you see?
CARLA: Doctor, I think she's crying. She's given away her child. She's crying her heart out. I took her in, darling, and she's safe. And she's wonderful.
RUBY: I wish I could tell her I made it. Mum, you should see what I've done. I... I travelled the universe.
DOCTOR: And I er... I came back, running. And that's when I saw the woman. My memory of this keeps changing. Time keeps changing.
RUBY: She's pointing at you. Can she see you? Did my mother see you?
DOCTOR: I... I don't know why she was pointing at me.
CHIDOZIE: There's nothing behind you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Anything? Anyone?
KATE: Does she know who you are? Morris, can... can you magnify the woman?
MORRIS: My hands are on fire here.
CHIDOZIE: She's pointing at you, but she's also pointing north-west.
DOCTOR: Is there anything there?
KATE: Colonel Chidozie, you will return to your position.
DOCTOR: Just see if there's anything there.
KATE: Doctor, you said not to move.
DOCTOR: I know! I know. But just... just look.
CHIDOZIE: Proceeding forward, ma'am. There's nothing. There's just the lamppost and... All I've got is trees and stuff. Houses in the distance. Nothing. Maybe if I try a different angle.
KATE: Colonel, be careful.

(Chidozie backs behind the TARDIS.)

CHIDOZIE: No. Sorry. No. Not even a flicker. I've got nothing, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Why was she pointing at me?
MEL: Doctor! She's walking away.
RUBY: No, don't.
DOCTOR: Ruby.
RUBY: No, Mum, please don't. Please don't. (The image of the faceless woman disappears.)
DOCTOR: And then I just turned away.

(The image of the earlier Doctor goes into the TARDIS and it dematerialises.)

RUBY: I can't see her. She's gone.
MORRIS: Doctor, can I ask?
DOCTOR: Morris, a second, please?
MORRIS: No, I'm sorry, I've got to ask. What... is... that?

(A swirly growling thing with a red glow inside.)

KATE: Doctor... Doctor, what is that thing? Where's Colonel Chidozie?
IBRAHIM: At arms!
KATE: Don't go into the window!
DOCTOR: No, no!
KATE: Don't go into the window! Stay where you are!
DOCTOR: Chidozie, where are you? Are you in there? Winston, are you... in that shape?
KATE: Colonel Chidozie, you will report at once. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Doctor, when is that thing? Is it now, or is it 2004?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
RUBY: What is it, though? Has it come for my mother?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
RUBY: Is it us? Has it come for us?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
KATE: Colonel Chidozie, please report. Morris, can you get any readings?
COMPUTER: Warning. Chronon escalation.
MORRIS: It's off the scale. That thing is hot. It's cold. It's radioactive. It's dead. It's everything. I don't know!
CARLA: I know its name. It's the Beast!
DOCTOR: Winston? Winston, where are you? Are you still in this room? Colonel Chidozie, please report!
RUBY: Where are you, Cheetham Hill?
CHIDOZIE (OC): Cheetham Hill...
KATE: That... that's him!
IBRAHIM: He's alive.
RUBY: Hey, soldier, I'm still here. Tameside girl. We're trying to see... Are you inside that thing?
CHIDOZIE (OC): No. No. No...
RUBY: Then, where are you?
CHIDOZIE (OC): I am lost.
RUBY: Okay, but we can find you. We can help. Just look around and tell us, where are you?
CHIDOZIE (OC): I am in Hell.
KATE: Colonel, I need to know, can you tell us what's happening?
CHIDOZIE (OC): It's seen me. It's seen right into my soul. And it's so old...
DOCTOR: What is it?
CHIDOZIE (OC): Waiting...
DOCTOR: What is?
CHIDOZIE (OC): It's been waiting for so long.

(Circuits finally blow and the image is lost.)

DOCTOR: Get down!
KATE: Open the doors.
IBRAHIM: Keep back, everyone. Keep back.

(Chidozie looks like a sand sculpture.)

KATE: It looks like he's been dead for a hundred years.
DOCTOR: I'm so sorry.
KATE: This is the Commander-in-Chief to the Executive Deletion Team. We have an officer down. Colonel Winston Lemuel Chidozie, Floor 45. I want Psych Ops informed. I want UNIT forensics. I want full Option 10 and 11 schematics immediately.
OFFICER (OC): Yes, ma'am.
DOCTOR: Mel. Take me to Susan Triad.

[Triad HQ foyer]

MEL: She's due to make the speech at three o'clock. We've got ten minutes. I'm with the media team. Thanks.
DOCTOR: I sent him forward.
MEL: That thing killed him, not you.
DOCTOR: What was it? And Ruby's mother. Why was she pointing at me?
MEL: Finished? Now, stop grizzling and fix it. 'Cos if Susan is your granddaughter, then she might be the key to this. Now, come on.

[UNIT HQ / Triad HQ foyer]

KATE: Doctor, we've isolated an image. Whatever that thing was, it burnt itself out of the Time window, but it survived on the VHS.
RUBY: No, it wasn't there before. I swear to you, every time I've watched that tape, it wasn't there.
KATE: The recording has changed.
DOCTOR: Kate, analyse it. Break it down, every single pixel. We need to know what that thing is. I need to see.

[UNIT HQ]

ROSE: I've got image control. All desks link to mine. Coordinating... now.
KATE: What do you think?
ROSE: It's a crude videotape of a snowstorm, 19 years old, kept under the bed in a shoe box. I was born for this.

[Triad HQ]

(Outside the auditorium.)

MEL: Susan, could I introduce my friend?
BAILEY: Not right now. We're about to go on.

(The Doctor shakes Susan's hand.)

DOCTOR: Hello. Hi, there.
SUSAN: Ah.
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
SUSAN: Ah, nice to meet you, pet. Doctor who?
DOCTOR: Just... just the Doctor. Hello.
SUSAN: Ah. Well, top marks for enigmatic.
DOCTOR: Yeah! Yeah. Have we met before?
SUSAN: Well, I don't think so.
DOCTOR: Are you sure?
SUSAN: Well, if you don't mind my saying, I'd remember a handsome chap like you.
DOCTOR: It's just I thought... you were...
BAILEY: We're on in 60 seconds.
DOCTOR: Susan, I need to talk to you, just for a couple of minutes. If you could tell your friend...
SUSAN: Look, a lot of people want my time. All I want is a bit of shuteye. God knows I don't get enough sleep.
DOCTOR: Why not?
SUSAN: I... get a lot of dreams.
DOCTOR: What do you dream about?
BAILEY: I'm sorry, but we're going to be late. Susan? Saleed, these two, no further.
DOCTOR: Dreams about what? What sorts of dreams? Susan, what do you dream about? Susan... Do you dream about a girl called Lindy? Do you dream about a place called Pacifico del Rio? Do you dream... about being an ambulance?
SUSAN: Sorry, I've really got to go.
MEL: Being an ambulance?
DOCTOR: She remembered that. She doesn't know how, but she remembered that.

[UNIT HQ]

(Image resisting scan.)

VLINX: Increase search parameters.
ROSE: Morris, try running it backwards. Let's see what happens if we reverse time and rewind the VHS.
MORRIS: What the hell?
RUBY: Oh, my God.
KATE: Doctor, are you there?

[Triad HQ / UNIT HQ]

DOCTOR: Uh-huh.
KATE: We found something at the heart of that shape.
DOCTOR: What is it?
KATE: It's the TARDIS.
DOCTOR: No. But the TARDIS was there, on Ruby Road, we know that.
KATE: It's there for a second time, which you said couldn't happen, but this time it's 20 metres to the north, and that thing is wrapped around it. But how?
DOCTOR: I don't know.

(The TARDIS groans, a very slowed down Time engine noise.)

KATE: Doctor, what was that?
DOCTOR: It's made that noise before.
MORRIS: Probability of a trap, 99% and rising, except... the trap is here.
KATE: I hate to say this, but the shape exists around the TARDIS on the VHS, but what if it exists around the TARDIS now... and we just can't see it?
DOCTOR: Kate, clear the area. Evacuate the Ops Room. Leave the TARDIS alone. Okay, I've got to stay here. I think Susan Triad is a part of it.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

(Susan enters to pop music, does an awkward little 'Teresa May' jig.)

BAILEY: Cue laughter.

[UNIT HQ]

KATE: On my orders, all non-essential staff will clear the room right now.
IBRAHIM (OC): All non-essential staff, out!
KATE: Ruby! Ruby. I'm sorry, you're part of this. I need you to stay, but your mother will be taken home.
CARLA: I'm staying with her!
KATE: Get her out.
RUBY: Mum, what do you want me to do?
CARLA: Come home with me.
RUBY: Then you're not helping. Which means I love you, thank you, and goodbye.
IBRAHIM: This way, ma'am.
MORRIS: The Vlinx, scan the TARDIS.
VLINX: Commence maximum scan. Analysis confirms lifeform.
MORRIS: Well, we can't see it, but it registers on the quantum search.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

RECORDING: Susan! Susan!
SUSAN: All right, all right. Thank you. Thank you. We've had our fun. Especially you. Whoo! But it's my honour to be here today. And my duty.

(That weird groaning noise in UNIT HQ, coming from the TARDIS.)

SUSAN: Because we know what we've done. The tech billionaires. We've taken your money while our technology spreads lies and fraud and riots. But no more. It ends today.

[UNIT HQ / Auditorium]

KATE: Doctor, to confirm, the TARDIS is... it's surrounded. It's invisible, but it's a living thing.

(The Doctor and Mel enter the back of the theatre.)

SUSAN: ..the hands of the human race. To rebuild. And I think...
VOICE [OC]: I think we can succeed.
SUSAN: I mean, I hope...
KATE: Doctor, we need you here right now.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know, but...
MEL: Doctor.
DOCTOR: I know. Wait, wait, wait. Kate, get Ruby to the Time window.
RUBY: What for?
KATE: You do not question. You move! Sullivan, take her and run.
ROSE: Just go.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

VOICE [OC]: I hope...
SUSAN: I hope... I dare to hope. Er... I said to... to that man. Who was he? But I keep having bad dreams.
KATE [OC]: Doctor, the scan says this lifeform is woven into the fabric of the TARDIS itself.
SUSAN: All my ideas come to me in dreams.
KATE [OC]: Like it's part of it.

[UNIT HQ]

IBRAHIM: At arms, with me.
KATE: My name is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Commander-in-Chief of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, and I demand that you show yourself.
HARRIET: He has hidden in the howling void. He has hidden within the tempest.
KATE: What?
HARRIET: He has braved the storm and the darkness and the pain. And he whispered to the vessel.
MORRIS: Who has? What do you mean?
HARRIET: All this time, he whispered and delighted and seduced, and the vessel did obey, for none should be more mighty and none should be more wise than the King himself.
KATE: Harriet, what are you doing?
HARRIET: And the Lord of Time was blind and vain, and knew nothing.
DOCTOR [auditorium]: What is happening in there?
ROSE: It's Harriet. It's like...
KATE: She's possessed.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

DOCTOR: Kate, who is she?
KATE [OC]: Harriet. You met her.
DOCTOR: Yeah, I know, I know, but what is her full name?

[UNIT HQ]

KATE: Harriet. Harriet Arbinger.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

DOCTOR: Harbinger. The gods bring harbingers to warn us of their coming. But which god?
SUSAN: I dream of... I dream of blue skin. I dream of metal eyes.

(The teleprompt reads I am the loss. I am the never. I am the night. I am the terror. I am returning.)

[Time window vault]

RUBY: I don't know what he wanted me to do. Why am I here?
COMPUTER: Time window closing.
SULLIVAN: They said this thing was broken.
RUBY: It's starting to remember. It's going back to Christmas Eve.

[TriadHQ auditorium]

SUSAN: I dream of worlds with orange skies.

[UNIT HQ]

IBRAHIM: You will step away from your desk.
KATE: Colonel, back away. Stand with me. I'm not losing another officer.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

SUSAN: But in every dream, I'm there.
KATE [OC]: Doctor, we know the TARDIS...
MEL: Doctor!
KATE [OC]: ..is indestructible.
MEL: There's something wrong.
KATE [OC]: If it's turned hostile, how do we fight it?
SUSAN: But who am I?

[UNIT HQ]

HARRIET: There is the Toymaker, the god of games. There is Trickster, the god of traps. There is Maestro, the god of music. There is Reprobate, the god of spite.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

(Susan falls to her knees, wailing. Bailey rushes to her.)

DOCTOR: No, no, no!
HARRIET [OC]: There is the Mara, the god of beasts.
DOCTOR: Get away from her! Don't touch her!

[UNIT HQ]

HARRIET: And the threefold deity of malice and mischief and misery.
VLINX: Warning. Manifestation.
HARRIET: There are gods of skin and shame and secrets. There is Incensor...

(A black cloud is forming around the TARDIS.)

[Triad HQ auditorium]

MEL: Doctor, she needs you!
HARRIET [OC]: ..the god of disaster...

[UNIT HQ]

HARRIET: ..and her children, called Doubt and Dread. And standing on high is the mother and father and other of them all.
KATE: Whatever it is, here it comes.
HARRIET: For the god of all gods has returned, and his names are many.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

HARRIET [OC]: His name has been Set. And Seth. And Sithifer. And his one true name for evermore is...
(The logo rearranges to read:- Sue Tech.)
HARRIET [OC]: ..Sutekh!
DOCTOR: It was the wrong anagram.

(Duh. Not an anagram, a cryptic clue.)

[UNIT HQ]

(The black cloud resolves into a jackal-headed rather than a horse-headed being looming over the TARDIS...)

MORRIS: Probable trap, 100%.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

DOCTOR: Mel, get away from her. Both of you, don't let her touch you.
MEL: Bailey, get back. Leave her alone.
BAILEY: You said you were a doctor. Why don't you try to help...?

(Susan's face is transformed into a red-eyed skull.)

[UNIT HQ]

HARRIET: Sutekh is the god of death, and by his hand, all creation shall fall into dust and ashes and ruin.

[Triad HQ auditorium]

(Susan grabs Bailey's arm and he dissolves into sand. She stands up, joints creaking worse than mine on a cold day.)

SUSAN: I bring Sutekh's gift of death to all humanity.

[UNIT HQ]

SUTEKH: I am Sutekh, the god of death. I am the night. I am the terror. I am the loss.

[Time window vault]

RUBY: Mum?

[UNIT HQ]

SUTEKH: And all life will perish at my hand!

(Harriet's face is a skull.)

[Triad HQ auditorium / UNIT HQ]

SUSAN + SUTEKH: Did you think I was family, Doctor? I bring Sutekh's gift of death for you and for all your tiny, vile, incessant universe!

To Be Continued...

Transcript originally provided by Chrissie. Adapted by TARDIS.guide.The transcripts are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.

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Transcript for episode ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ • Doctor Who (2024)

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