“The Day of the Doctor” quotes from Doctor Who

[Trailer narration] I've been running all my lives... through time and space. Every second of every minute of every day for over nine hundred years. I fought for peace in a universe at war. Now the time has come to face the choices I made in the name of the Doctor. Our future depends on one single moment of one impossible day. The day I've been running from all my life. The day of the Doctor.

Did you ever count?

Count what?

How many children there were on Gallifrey that day?

I have absolutely no idea.

How old are you now?

Uh, I don't know, I lose track. Twelve hundred and something, I think, unless I'm lying. I can't remember if I'm lying about my age, that's how old I am.

Four hundred years older than me and in all that time you never even wondered how many there were. You never once counted?

Tell me, what would be the point?

[angry at The Eleventh Doctor] Two point four seven billion!

You did count!

[to The Eleventh Doctor] You forgot! Four hundred years, is that all it takes?!

I moved on!

Where?! Where can you be now that you can forget something like that?!

Spoilers.

No, no, no. For once, I would like to know where I'm going.

No, you really wouldn't.

...you're not seriously suggesting we change our own history.

We change history all the time! I'm suggesting something far worse.

What, exactly?

Gentlemen. I have had four hundred years to think about this... I've changed my mind!

General, we have a plan.

At the moment, we should point out it is a fairly terrible plan.

And it almost certainly won't work.

I was fine with "fairly terrible".

Sorry, just thinking out loud.

Just about ready to do it.

Ready to do what?

We're going to freeze Gallifrey.

I'm sorry, what?

Using our TARDISes, we're gonna freeze Gallifrey in a single moment in time.

You know, like those stasis cubes? A single moment in time held in a parallel pocket universe.

Except we're going to do it to a whole planet.

And all the people on it.

What? Even if that were possible—which it isn't—why would you do such a thing?

Because the alternative is burning.

And I've seen that.

And I never want to see it again.

We'd be lost in another universe. Frozen in a single moment. We'd have nothing.

You would have hope. And right now that is exactly what you don't have.

It's delusional! Why, the calculations alone would take hundreds of years!

Oh, hundreds and hundreds.

But don't worry. I started a very long time ago.

Calling the War Council of Gallifrey: This is the Doctor!

You might say, I've been doing this all my lives.

I could be a curator. I'd be great at curating. I'd be...the Great Curator! [laughs softly] I could retire and do that. I could retire and be the curator of this place.

[from behind] You know, I really think you might. [The Eleventh Doctor turns and is stunned to see the Curator, who looks and sounds a lot like an elderly Fourth Doctor]

I never forget a face.

I know you don't. And in years to come, you might might find yourself...revisiting a few. But just...the old favorites, eh? You were curious about this painting, I think. I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. What do you make of the title?

Well, which title? There's two: "No More"...or "Gallifrey Falls".

No, you see, that's where everybody's wrong. It's all one title: "Gallifrey Falls No More". Now...what would you think that means, eh?

That Gallifrey didn't fall. It worked! It's still out there!

I'm only a humble curator. I'm sure I wouldn't know.

Then where is it?

Where is it, indeed?

[whispering] Yes.

Lost, shh! Perhaps. Things do get lost, you know. And now you must excuse me. Ohhh...you have a lot to do.

Do I? Is that what I'm supposed to do now, go looking for Gallifrey?

Well, that's entirely up to you. Your choice, eh? I can only tell you what I would do. If I were you... [laughs softly] "If I were you..." [laughs some more] Perhaps I was you, of course. [they both laugh softly] Or, perhaps you are me. [both laugh again as the Curator shakes the Doctor's hand] Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Or, perhaps, it doesn't matter, either way. Who knows? "Who..." [taps his nose] "knows"?

[voice over] 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 anymore. 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.

I didn't know when I was well off. All twelve of them!

No, sir. [Another TARDIS flies into view] All thirteen! [The Twelfth Doctor's hand and eyes appear.]

I have no desire to survive this.

Then that's your punishment. If you do this, if you kill them all, then that's the consequence. You... live. Gallifrey... you're going to burn it... and all those Daleks with it, but all those children too. How many children on Gallifrey right now?

I don't know.

One day, you will count them. One terrible night.

Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?

[waves hands] Yes. No. [turns back to the guards] I demand to be incarcerated in the Tower immediately with my co-conspirators, Sandshoes and Grandad.

Grandad?!

They're not sandshoes!

Yes, they are!

I don't know who you are, either of you. I haven't got the faintest idea!

They're you. They're what you become if you destroy Gallifrey: the man who regrets... and the man who forgets.

How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think? Look over there -- humans and Zygons, working together in peace. How did you know?

Your eyes. They're so much younger.

...then it's time I grew up.

You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning. That sound brings hope wherever it goes.

Yes... yes, I like to think it does.

To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone. However lost. [The TARDIS sound begins.] Even you.

Well, gentlemen, it has been a honour and a privilege.

Likewise.

[pointedly] Doctor.

And if I grow to be half the man that you are, [turns to Clara] Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed.

That's right. Aim high.

I won't remember this, will I?

The time streams are out of sync. You can't retain it, no.

So I won't remember that I tried to save Gallifrey, rather than burn it. And I have to live with that. [His mood brightens slightly.] But for now, for this moment...I am the Doctor again. Thank you.