Anthony Head: Mr. Finch

School Reunion

Mr. Finch

The Doctor: If I don't like your plan, it will end.
Mr. Finch: Fascinating. Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor?
The Doctor: I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it.

[first lines]
Mr. Finch: [walking the halls while making fingerings with his left hand as if playing a three-keyed brass instrument, then sings softly] Bom bom bom bom / Da-bom bom bom.
Mr. Finch: [He walks just past Nina waiting in a chair by his Headmaster office, stops, and turns taking notice of her] What do you want?
Nina: The nurse sent me, sir. I was in English and I got a headache.
Mr. Finch: Then don't bother me, go home.
Nina: I can't.
Mr. Finch: Why, is your mother at work?
Nina: I live in Ambrose Hall. The children's home.
Mr. Finch: [conciliatory] No parents. No one to miss you. I see why the nurse sent you. You poor child. Poor... thin... child. Come inside. It's nearly time for lunch.

The Doctor: The Skasas Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasas Paradigm.
Sarah Jane Smith: The Skasas what?
The Doctor: The god-maker. The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control.
Rose Tyler: What, and the kids are like a giant computer?
The Doctor: Yes. And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil. That oil from the kitchens, it works as a conducting agent, makes the kids cleverer.
Rose Tyler: But that oil's on the chips. I've been eating them.
The Doctor: What's 59 times 35?
Rose Tyler: 2065. Oh, my God!
Sarah Jane Smith: But why use children? Can't they use adults?
The Doctor: No, it's got to be children. The god-maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code; they're using their souls.
Mr. Finch: Let the lesson begin.

Mr. Finch: Think of it, Doctor. With the paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it.
The Doctor: Oh, yeah, the whole of creation with the face of Mr Finch. Call me old-fashioned, I like things as they are.
Mr. Finch: You act like such a radical and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order. Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good.
The Doctor: What, by someone like you?
Mr. Finch: No. Someone like you. The paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a god at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Ascinta, your own people, Doctor. Standing tall. The Time Lords... reborn.
Sarah Jane Smith: Doctor, don't listen to him.
Mr. Finch: [to Sarah Jane] And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh. Never wither, never age, never die.
[to The Doctor]
Mr. Finch: Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us.
The Doctor: [suddenly tempted] I could save everyone.
Mr. Finch: Yes.
The Doctor: I could stop the war.