‘I can’t tell the future, I just work there.’
THE DOCTOR, THE BELLS OF SAINT JOHN
‘Every great decision creates ripples, like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences.’
THE DOCTOR, REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS
‘Highness, it is not well to think of the past, there is still the future to make.’
SHOLAKH, THE RIBOS OPERATION
DODO: Doctor, do you think we’ll ever see him again?
THE DOCTOR: Well, who knows, my dear? In this strange complex of time and space, anything can happen. Come along, little one. We must go. We mustn’t look back.
THE SAVAGES
THE DOCTOR: Our lives are important, at least to us. But as we see, so we learn.
IAN: And what are we going to see and learn next, Doctor?
THE DOCTOR: Well, unlike the old adage, my boy, our destiny is in the stars, so let’s go and search for it.
THE REIGN OF TERROR
‘Hello, Stormageddon. It’s the Doctor. Here to help. Shush. Hey. There, there. Be quiet. Go to sleep. Really. Stop crying. You’ve got a lot to look forward to, you know. A normal human life on Earth. Mortgage repayments, the nine to five, a persistent nagging sense of spiritual emptiness. Save the tears for later, boy-o. Oh, no. That was crabby. No, that was old. But I am old, Stormy. I am so old. So near the end. You, Alfie Owens, you are so young, aren’t you? And, you know, right now, everything’s ahead of you. You could be anything. Yes, I know. You could walk among the stars. They don’t actually look like that, you know. They are rather more impressive. Yeah. You know, when I was little like you, I dreamt of the stars. I think it’s fair to say in the language of your age, that I lived my dream, I owned the stage, gave it a hundred and ten per cent. I hope you have as much fun as I did, Alfie.’
THE DOCTOR, CLOSING TIME
‘You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you’re going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day . . . Hold on . . . This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world.’
THE DOCTOR, THE END OF THE WORLD
‘So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I’m not interfering because you’ve got to handle this on your own. That’s when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand.’
THE DOCTOR, ALIENS OF LONDON
‘There are fixed points through time where things must always stay the way they are. This is not one of them. This is an opportunity. A temporal tipping point. Whatever happens today will change future events, create its own timeline, its own reality. The future pivots around you, here, now. So do good, for humanity, and for Earth.’
THE DOCTOR, COLD BLOOD
‘People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.’
THE DOCTOR, BLINK
‘Time will tell. It always does.’
THE DOCTOR, REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS
‘Destiny. Isn’t that just a fancy name for blind chance?’
PERI, THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD: MINDWARP
‘When faced with the inevitable, don’t waste precious time by resisting it.’
THE DOCTOR, PLANET OF THE DALEKS
THE DOCTOR: Sometimes knowing your own future’s what enables you to change it. Especially if you’re bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable.
RORY: So basically, if you’re Amy, then?
THE DOCTOR: Yes, if anyone could defeat pre-destiny, it’s your wife.
THE GIRL WHO WAITED
‘You wanted advice, you said. I never give it. Never. But I might just say this to you. Always search for truth. My truth is in the stars and yours is here.’
THE DOCTOR, THE DALEKS
‘Never mind the mights, my dear, just concentrate on what you’re doing.’
THE DOCTOR, THE CRUSADE
DAVROS: Do you believe your puny efforts can change the course of destiny?
THE DOCTOR: Well, let’s just say I might tamper with it.
DESTINY OF THE DALEKS
‘I’ve never struggled against the inevitable. It’s a vain occupation. But I should always advise you to examine very closely what you think to be inevitable. It’s surprising how often apparent defeat can be turned to victory.’
TEMMOSUS, THE DALEKS
‘The universe hangs by such a delicate thread of coincidences. It’s useless to meddle with it, unless, like me, you’re a Time Lord.’
THE DOCTOR, DOCTOR WHO (TV MOVIE)
‘There’s no such thing as foretelling. Trust a time traveller.’
THE DOCTOR, THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE
‘Nothing in the world can stop me now!’
ZAROFF, THE UNDERWATER MENACE
‘Sit down and write out the menus. First course interrupted by bomb explosion. Second course affected by earthquakes. Third course ruined by interference in the kitchen. I’m going out for a walk. It’ll probably rain.’
GRIFFIN, THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD
ROMANA: There must be a huge nuclear war going on down there.
THE DOCTOR: Not at all, no.
ROMANA: What else could it be.
THE DOCTOR: I don’t know. Probably someone giving a huge breakfast party . . . Why do you always assume the worst?
ROMANA: Because it usually happens.
THE DOCTOR: Empirical poppycock! Where’s your joy in life? Where’s your optimism?
ROMANA: It opted out.
THE ARMAGEDDON FACTOR
‘Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day. One day.’
THE DOCTOR, AN UNEARTHLY CHILD
‘You must travel with understanding as well as hope.’
THE DOCTOR, THE ARK
‘Nil desperandum, Jo.’
THE DOCTOR, THE GREEN DEATH
‘No one knows how they’re going to be remembered. All we can do is hope for the best.’
THE DOCTOR, THE UNICORN AND THE WASP
THE DOCTOR: I don’t know, but every single instinct of mine is telling me to get off this planet right now.
CHRISTINA: And do you think we can?
THE DOCTOR: I live in hope.
CHRISTINA: That must be nice.
PLANET OF THE DEAD
‘You see, I know that although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years, I know also that out of their evil must come something good.’
THE DOCTOR, GENESIS OF THE DALEKS
ROMANA: How did you know?
THE DOCTOR: Oh, knowing’s easy. Everyone does that ad nauseam. I just sort of hope.
STATE OF DECAY
‘Any hope is better than none.’
IAN, AN UNEARTHLY CHILD
‘When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. And behind our house, there sat under a tree an old man, a hermit, a monk. He’d lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and he’d learned the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me . . . I’ll never forget what it was like up there. All bleak and cold, it was. A few bare rocks with some weeds sprouting from them and some pathetic little patches of sludgy snow. It was just grey. Grey, grey, grey. Well, the tree the old man sat under, that was ancient and twisted and the old man himself was, he was as brittle and as dry as a leaf in the autumn . . . He just sat there, silently, expressionless, and he listened whilst I poured out my troubles to him. I was too unhappy even for tears, I remember. And when I’d finished, he lifted a skeletal hand and he pointed. Do you know what he pointed at? . . . A flower. One of those little weeds. Just like a daisy, it was. Well, I looked at it for a moment and suddenly I saw it through his eyes. It was simply glowing with life, like a perfectly cut jewel. And the colours? Well, the colours were deeper and richer than anything you could possibly imagine. Yes, that was the daisiest daisy I’d ever seen . . . I got up and I ran down that mountain and I found that the rocks weren’t grey at all, but they were red, brown and purple and gold. And those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow, they were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight.’
THE DOCTOR, THE TIME MONSTER
THE DOCTOR: Nothing’s impossible. There’s always an answer if you can find it.
JO: Yeah, such as?
THE DOCTOR: Well, that’s the trouble, finding it.
CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS
‘It’s never too late, as a wise person once said. Kylie, I think.’
THE DOCTOR, THE IDIOT’S LANTERN
LOGIN: A little patience goes a long way.
THE DOCTOR: Yes. Too much patience goes absolutely nowhere.
FULL CIRCLE
JUDSON: Oh yes, the machine can do it. This is the first. In the future there’ll be many more computing machines, thinking machines.
MILLINGTON: Yes, but whose thoughts will they think?
THE CURSE OF FENRIC
TEGAN: What year are we in?
THE DOCTOR: Around 2084.
TEGAN: Little seems to have changed since my time.
THE DOCTOR: Absolutely nothing, Tegan. There are still two power blocs, fingers poised to annihilate each other.
WARRIORS OF THE DEEP
‘If it is a disease, what has caused it? Once we were farmers and hunters. The land was green, the rivers ran clear, the air was sweet to breathe. And then the Overlords came, bringing Earth’s poisons with them, calling it progress. We toiled in their mines, we became slaves. Worse than slaves!’
KY, THE MUTANTS
‘Well, the Earth these people know now, Jo, in the thirtieth-century empire, is even more grey and misty . . . Land and sea alike, all grey. Grey cities linked by grey highways across grey deserts . . . Slag, ash, clinker. The fruits of technology.’
THE DOCTOR, THE MUTANTS
‘Veruna is where one of the last surviving groups of mankind took shelter in the great, er . . . Yes. Well, I suppose you’ve got all that to look forward to, haven’t you.’
THE DOCTOR, FRONTIOS
‘Wheel turns, civilisations arise, wheel turns, civilisations fall.’
PANNA, KINDA
DONNA: 4126? It’s 4126. I’m in 4126.
THE DOCTOR: It’s good, isn’t it?
DONNA: What’s the Earth like now?
THE DOCTOR: Bit full. But you see, the Empire stretches out across three galaxies.
DONNA: It’s weird. I mean, it’s brilliant, but . . . Back home, the papers and the telly, they keep saying we haven’t got long to live. Global warming, flooding, all the bees disappearing . . .
THE DOCTOR: Yeah. That thing about the bees is odd.
DONNA: But look at us. We’re everywhere. Is that good or bad, though? I mean, are we like explorers? Or more like a virus?
THE DOCTOR: Sometimes I wonder.
PLANET OF THE OOD
ARAK: No more executions, torture, nothing.
ETTA: It’s all changed. We’re free.
ARAK: Are we?
ETTA: Yes.
ARAK: What shall we do?
ETTA: Dunno.
VENGEANCE ON VAROS
THE BRIGADIER: It’s pretty hard to keep an eye on all these scientist chaps at home, so I had these cubicles put up on several floors. Confined the whole lot to barracks. All my eggs in one basket, so to speak.
THE DOCTOR: That’s fine, so long as no one steals the basket.
THE TIME WARRIOR
‘You know how it is. You put things off for a day, next thing you know it’s a hundred years later.’
THE DOCTOR, ARC OF INFINITY
THE DOCTOR: A quarter of a mile straight ahead, and from there we’re going to stabilise the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Amy.
RIVER: How?
THE DOCTOR: I’ll do a thing.
RIVER: What thing?
THE DOCTOR: I don’t know. It’s a thing in progress. Respect the thing.
FLESH AND STONE
JO: How does it work?
THE DOCTOR: Anti-magnetic cohesion, I should think.
JO: Never heard of it.
THE DOCTOR: No, you wouldn’t have done, Jo. You were born about a thousand years too early for that.
JO: Oh, I do love being with you, Doctor. You make me feel so young.
CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS
KHAN: Oh, what a trial old age is.
THE DOCTOR: It must be borne with dignity, sir.
MARCO POLO
‘I’m old enough to know that a longer life isn’t always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you’ll end up alone.’
THE DOCTOR, THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT
‘There’s no doubt about it, all this rushing around takes it out of you – particularly when you’re 1250 years old.’
THE DOCTOR, THE LEISURE HIVE
‘The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends.’
SARAH, SCHOOL REUNION
‘Everything has its time and everything dies.’
THE DOCTOR, THE END OF THE WORLD
EMMA: What’s wrong?
CLARA: I just saw something I wish I hadn’t.
EMMA: What did you see?
CLARA: That everything ends.
EMMA: No, not everything. Not love. Not always.
HIDE
‘Never let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn’t like endings.’
RIVER SONG, THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN
‘Why aren’t there any lights? I miss lights. You don’t really miss things till they’re gone, do you? It’s like what my nan used to say. You’ll never miss the water till the well runs dry.’
RORY, NIGHT TERRORS
‘My Aunt Vanessa said, when I became an air stewardess, if you stop enjoying it, give it up.’
TEGAN, RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS
‘End the day with a smile.’
COLBY, IMAGE OF THE FENDAHL
‘Time Lord, last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling.’
THE DOCTOR, UTOPIA
‘Day I know everything? Might as well stop.’
THE DOCTOR, THE SATAN PIT
‘It’s hard to leave when you haven’t said goodbye.’
RIVER SONG, THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR
‘Even after all this time he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions. He did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. Now they’re all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan, or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton – Chesterton. They were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can’t. I can’t.’
THE DOCTOR, THE MASSACRE
‘That’s right, yes, you’re going. Been gone for ages. Already gone, still here, just arrived, haven’t even met you yet. It all depends on who you are and how you look at it. Strange business, time . . . Think about me when you’re living your life one day after another, all in a neat pattern. Think about the homeless traveller and his old police box, his days like crazy paving.’
THE DOCTOR, DRAGONFIRE
SARAH: Don’t forget me.
THE DOCTOR: Oh, Sarah. Don’t you forget me.
SARAH: Bye, Doctor. You know, travel does broaden the mind.
THE DOCTOR: Yes. Till we meet again, Sarah.
THE HAND OF FEAR
SARAH: Goodbye, Doctor.
THE DOCTOR: Oh, it’s not goodbye.
SARAH: Do say it. Please. This time. Say it.
THE DOCTOR: Goodbye, my Sarah Jane.
SCHOOL REUNION
‘If you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That’s all, one thing. Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life.’
THE DOCTOR, THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
‘One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear.’
THE DOCTOR, THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH
‘On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered.’
DORIUM MALDOVAR, THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG
RIVER: There are so many theories about you and I, you know.
THE DOCTOR: Idle gossip.
RIVER: Archaeology.
THE DOCTOR: Same thing.
THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG
THE DOCTOR: You didn’t listen, did you? You lot never do. That’s the problem. The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered. He wasn’t talking about my secret. No, no, no, that’s not what’s been found. He was talking about my grave. Trenzalore is where I’m buried.
CLARA: How can you have a grave?
THE DOCTOR: Because we all do, somewhere out there in the future, waiting for us.
THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR
‘So many secrets, Doctor. I’ll help you keep them, of course . . . but you’re a fool nonetheless. It’s all still waiting for you. The fields of Trenzalore, the fall of the Eleventh, and the question . . . The first question. The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. The question you’ve been running from all your life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor who?’
DORIUM MALDOVAR, THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR: I saw Trenzalore, where we’re buried. We die in battle among millions.
THE TENTH DOCTOR: That’s not how it’s supposed to be.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR: That’s where the story ends. Nothing we can do about it. Trenzalore is where you’re going.
THE TENTH DOCTOR: Oh, never say nothing. Anyway, good to know my future is in safe hands.
THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
‘OK, so that’s where I end up. Always thought maybe I’d retire. Take up watercolours or bee-keeping, or something. Apparently not.’
THE DOCTOR, THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR
THE DOCTOR: I could be a curator. I’d be great at curating. I’d be the great curator. I could retire and do that. I could retire and be the curator of this place.
THE CURATOR: You know, I really think you might.
THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
THE DOCTOR: I never forget a face.
THE CURATOR: I know you don’t. And in years to come, you might find yourself revisiting a few. But just the old favourites, eh?
THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
THE TENTH DOCTOR: Trenzalore. We need a new destination because I don’t want to go.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR: He always says that.
THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
‘Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. Of course I dream, I tell her. Everybody dreams. But what do you dream about, she’ll ask. The same thing everybody dreams about, I tell her. I dream about where I’m going. She always laughs at that. But you’re not going anywhere, you’re just wandering about. That’s not true. Not any more. I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone’s. It’s taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I’m going. Where I’ve always been going. Home, the long way round.’
THE DOCTOR, THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
(WELL, THE ONES WE HEARD ANYWAY)
‘Ah, yes! Thank you. It’s good. Keep warm.’
THE FIRST DOCTOR, THE TENTH PLANET
‘No! Stop! You’re making me giddy! No, you can’t do this to me! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no . . .’
THE SECOND DOCTOR, THE WAR GAMES
‘A tear, Sarah Jane? No don’t cry. While there’s life, there’s . . .’
THE THIRD DOCTOR, PLANET OF THE SPIDERS
‘It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for.’
THE FOURTH DOCTOR, LOGOPOLIS
‘Might regenerate. I don’t know. Feels different this time . . . Adric?’
THE FIFTH DOCTOR, THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI
‘Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice.’
THE SIXTH DOCTOR, THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD: THE ULTIMATE FOE
‘I’ve got to stop him.’
THE SEVENTH DOCTOR, DOCTOR WHO (TV MOVIE)
‘Physician, heal thyself.’
THE EIGHTH DOCTOR, THE NIGHT OF THE DOCTOR
‘Oh yes, of course. I suppose it makes sense. Wearing a bit thin. I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time.’
THE WAR DOCTOR, THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
‘Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I.’
THE NINTH DOCTOR, THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
‘I don’t want to go.’
THE TENTH DOCTOR, THE END OF TIME
‘We all change, when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives. And that’s OK, that’s good – you’ve gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me . . . Hey.’
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR, THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR
