(This is a transcript of Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 7 : The Bells of Saint John. I thank Tardisblue.net for hosting streams of this episode, and hope fellow Whovians find this transcript useful.)
(We see a dark globe. Points of light mark cities, threads of light connect them, even across oceans.
Our view shifts: we then see someone's fingers typing on a keyboard, then a computer screen, as someone mouses over the wi-fi button. We flit around the globe, watching people connect to wi-fi.
We then see a MAN holding a sign, which reads “DANGER”, and speaking to the camera.)
MAN:
Danger.
(We see more people connecting to the internet, even via phones, then we see the MAN again, as if through a webcam.)
MAN:
This is a warning...
(The MAN holds up a new sign, which reads “WARNING”)
MAN:
...a warning to the whole world.
(We see people connecting to the internet even in moving trains.)
MAN:
You're looking for wi-fi,
and sometimes you see something. Bit like this.
(He holds up a sign with blocky writing, which looks vaguely like 7 Γ U = /Δ M .
On other screens, we see similar writing, / [ ] V [ X , \\ ][ V X .)
MAN:
Don't click it! Do not click it!
(We see people clicking to log into the blocky particular wi-fi network.)
MAN:
Once you've clicked it,
they're in your computer.
They can see you. If they can see you, they might choose you. And if they do, you die.
(Around the world, we see the people who had clicked on the blocky wi-fi network collapse, lifeless.)
MAN:
In 24 hours, you're dead... for a while.
People's souls are being uploaded to the internet, [and] some people get stuck. Their minds, their souls, trapped, in the wi-fi...
(We see a Japanese person look up as, in the background, a voice says “I don't know where I am.”)
MAN:
...like echoes, or ghosts... sometimes, you can hear their screams. On the radio, on the telly, on the net...
This is real. This is not a hoax...
(Somewhere along a corniche, a vlogger says “I don't know where I am”.)
MAN:
... or a joke, or a story.
(More people cry out.)
MAN:
This is real, and I know that.... because... (he is emotional) I don't know where I am.
Please... please, if... if you can hear me... if you can hear me, I don't know where I am...
(The camera pans out, and he is seen to have been viewed on a small screen, in a bank of small screens.)
(The lava-lamp intro plays, introducing Matt, Jenna, and the title of the episode: The Bells of Saint John.)
(We see a quiet inlet, with “Cumbria 1207” floating in the waves to identify it. A monk is pounding upon huge wooden doors. After a moment, someone opens a small viewing-latch in the bottom of the door, from inside.)
MONK:
Wake the abbot! The bells of Saint John are ringing!
(The man closes the latch on the camera.
Our perspective shifts, and we see the monk standing in a courtyard a bit later. Other monks stand by him, and then two other monks come up behind him.)
OLD MONK (ABBOT):
We must go to him.
(The monks make their way down a stone corridor.)
MONK:
They call him the Mad Monk, don't they?
ABBOT:
They shouldn't... he's definitely not a monk.
(Entering the room, the abbot clears his throat to rouse a hooded figure, who has nodded off in a chair.)
ABBOT:
I'm sorry to intrude. The bells of Saint John are ringing.
(The hooded figure removes his hood: he is the DOCTOR.)
DOCTOR:
I'm going to need a horse.
