Watching Remembrance of the Daleks. There’s this black actor who showed up momentarily running the cafe. I looked at him for a moment, then asked my roommate ‘isn’t that the butler from Fresh Prince of Bel’air?’ We had to look it yup. Yes. Yes it was.
Joseph Marcell
(The sign says open, but there are no lights on and no customers. A Jamaican man comes out from the kitchen.)
JOHN: Can I help you?
DOCTOR: A mug of tea, please.
JOHN: Cold night tonight.
DOCTOR: Yes, it is. Bitter, very bitter. Where’s Harry?
JOHN: Visiting his missus. She’s in hospital.
DOCTOR: Of course. It’ll be twins.
JOHN: Hmm? Your tea. Sugar?
DOCTOR: Ah. A decision. Would it make any difference?
JOHN: It would make your tea sweet.
DOCTOR: Yes, but beyond the confines of my tastebuds, would it make any difference?
JOHN: Not really.
DOCTOR: But
JOHN: Yeah?
DOCTOR: What if I could control people’s tastebuds? What if I decided that no one would take sugar? That’d make a difference to those who sell the sugar and those that cut the cane.
JOHN: My father, he was a cane cutter.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Now, if no one had used sugar, your father wouldn’t have been a cane cutter.
JOHN: If this sugar thing had never started, my great-grandfather wouldn’t have been kidnapped, chained up, and sold in Kingston in the first place. I’d be a African.
DOCTOR: See? 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.
JOHN: Life’s like that. Best thing is just to get on with it.
(The little girl looks in the window at them, and leaves as the Doctor notices her.)
DOCTOR: Did you see that?
JOHN: See what?
DOCTOR: Nothing. What would you do if you had a decision, a big decision?
JOHN: How big?
DOCTOR: Saving the world.
JOHN: Really?
DOCTOR: Really.
JOHN: I wish you the best of luck.
DOCTOR: Let’s hope I make the right decision. Things could get unpleasant round here. I’d take a holiday if I were you.
JOHN: Oh, sure. How long?
DOCTOR: Two or three days. After that, it won’t matter one way or the other. Thanks for the tea.
JOHN: Any time.
(The Doctor puts a coin on the counter and leaves. John picks it up.)
JOHN: Nineteen ninety one?
