# Bill Potts

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Bill Potts is a fictional character portrayed by Pearl Mackie in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She becomes a companion of the twelfth incarnation of the alien time traveller known as the Doctor, portrayed by Peter Capaldi.

### The Pilot [10.1]

    (15 April 2017)
    Bill Potts: You know you're my foster mum? He's like my foster tutor.
    Moira: Am I going to have to break every bone in his body?
    Bill: It's not like that.
    Moira: You need to keep your eye on men.
    Bill: [sotto] Men aren't where I keep my eye, actually.
    Bill: Going anywhere for Christmas?
    The Doctor; I never go anywhere.
    Bill: That's not true. You go places, I can tell. My mum always said, 'With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes.'
    The Doctor: Oh. She sounds nice.
    Bill: She died when I was a baby.
    The Doctor: Oh.
    Bill: Yeah.
    The Doctor: If she died when you were a baby, when did she say that?
    Bill: In my head. I'm supposed to look like her, but I don't really know. There's hardly any photographs. She hated having her picture taken. But if someone's gone, do pictures really help?
    Bill: Sorry, can I ask? What's that in your eye?
    Heather: It's just a defect in the iris.
    Bill: Looks like a star.
    Heather: Well, it's a defect.
    Bill: At least it's a defect that looks like a star.
    Heather: I'm getting it fixed.
    Bill: Okay...
    Bill: Why'd you run like that?
    The Doctor: Like what?
    Bill: Like a penguin with its arse on fire.
    The Doctor: Ergonomics. [points to his reflection in the puddle] That's my face, yeah?
    Bill: You seem a bit flexible on the subject.
    The Doctor: Oh, you have no idea.
    Bill: (to The Doctor.) Look, I know you know lots of stuff about, well, basically everything, but do you know any sci-fi?
    Bill: Look, this is all mad, I know, but that's the girl I told you about. Heather. Only I don't think it's really her. I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly a sci-fi person [Then she turns around and sees the TARDIS.]
    The Doctor: Time And Relative Dimension In Space. TARDIS for short. You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be. Any questions?
    Bill: Is this a knock-through?
    The Doctor: Well, in a way, yes.
    Bill: Look at this place. It's like a
    The Doctor: Spaceship.
    Bill: Kitchen.
    The Doctor: A what?
    Bill: A really posh kitchen, all metal. What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?
    The Doctor: What you are standing in is a technological marvel. It is science beyond magic. This is the gateway to everything that ever was, or ever can be.
    Bill: Can I use the toilet?
    The Doctor: Pardon?
    Bill: I've had a fright. I need the toilet.
    The Doctor: It's down there, first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser.
    Bill: Thanks.
    Bill: [about the TARDIS] Doctor, it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!
    Nardole: Hey hey, we got there!
    Bill: How is that possible? How'd he do that?
    Nardole: Well, first, you have to imagine a very big box fitting inside a very small box.
    Bill: Okay.
    Nardole: Then you have to make one. It's the second part people normally get stuck on.
    Bill: Is everything out here evil?
    The Doctor: Hardly anything is evil. But most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?
    Bill: What changed your mind?
    The Doctor: Time.
    Bill: Time?
    The Doctor: And relative dimension in space. [Opens the TARDIS door with a snap] It means… "What the hell."

### Smile [10.2]

    (22 April 2017)
    Bill: Why are you Scottish?
    The Doctor: I'm not Scottish, I'm just cross!
    The Doctor: What's the opposite of a massacre?
    Bill: OK, what?
    The Doctor: In my experience, a lecture.
    The Doctor: I re-initialised the entire command structure, retaining all programmed abilities but deleting the supplementary preference architecture.
    Bill: He turned it off and on again.

### Thin Ice [10.3]

    (29 April 2017)
    Bill: So how do we stay out of trouble?
    The Doctor: Well, I'm not the right person to ask.
    Bill: Traveling to the past, there's got to be rules. If I step on a butterfly, it could send ripples through time that mean I'm not even born yet in the first place, and I could just disappear.
    The Doctor: Definitely. I mean, that's what happened to Pete.
    Bill: Pete?
    The Doctor: Your friend, Pete. He was standing there a moment ago. He stepped on a butterfly. Now you don't even remember him.
    [Bill looks concerned, then realizes the Doctor is putting her on.]
    Bill: Shut up! I'm being serious.
    Bill: Regency England. Bit more black than they show in the movies.
    The Doctor: So was Jesus. History's a whitewash.

### Knock Knock [10.4]

    (6 May 2017)
    Bill: OK, now's the time for the plan.
    The Doctor: That was it. No plan. Info-dump, then busk it.
    Bill: Well, start busking!

### Oxygen [10.5]

    (13 May 2017)
to be added

### Extremis [10.6]

    (20 May 2017)
    Nardole: Okay, Bill. Miss Potts. [removes his glasses, serious tone] I'm the only person you've ever met, or will ever meet, who is officially licensed to kick the Doctor's arse! I will happily do the same to you in the event that you do not align yourself with any instructions I have issued which I personally judged to be in the best interest of your safety and survival. [replaces his glasses, back to normal tone] Okay? Bill?
    Bill: Are you secretly a badass?
    Nardole: Nothin' secret about it, babydoll.

### The Pyramid at the End of the World [10.7]

    (27 May 2017)
    Bill: It's an alien spaceship.
    The Doctor: There you go.
    Colonel Brabbit: But what's it doing?
    The Doctor: It could have chosen anywhere on this planet. It chose to sit on the strategic intersection of the three most powerful armies on Earth. So what it's doing, Colonel, is sending us a message.
    Colonel Brabbit: What message?
    The Doctor: "Bring it."

### The Lie of the Land [10.8]

    (3 June 2017)
    The Doctor: Human society is… stagnating. You've stopped moving forward. In fact, you're regressing.
    Bill: Well, this isn't exactly much better.
    The Doctor: It's safer.
    Bill: Not so much for the people the Monks are killing.
    The Doctor: The Romans killed people and saved billions more from disease. War. Famine. And barbarism.
    Bill: No, wait. What about free will? You believe in free will. Your whole thing is -- You made me write a 3000-word essay on free will!
    The Doctor: Yes, well, you had free will, and look at what you did with it. Worse than that, you had history. History was saying to you, "Look, I've got some examples of fascism here for you to look at. No? Fundamentalism? No? Oh. Okay. You carry on." I had to stop you, or at least not stand in the way of someone else who wanted to. Because the guns were getting bigger, the stakes were getting higher, and any minute now, it's gonna be "Goodnight, Vienna". By the way, you never delivered that essay.
    Bill: Because the world was invaded by zombie monks!
    The Doctor: Humanity's doomed to never learn from its mistakes.
    Bill: Well, I guess that's part of our charm.
    The Doctor: No. It's really quite annoying.
    Bill: Why do you put up with us (humanity), then?
    The Doctor: In amongst seven billion, there's someone like you. That's why I put up with the rest of them.

### Empress of Mars [10.9]

    (10 June 2017)
    The Doctor: He's an Ice Warrior.
    Bill: And they're the proper martians, right? They belong here?
    The Doctor: Yes, the indigenous species. An ancient reptilian race. They built themselves a sort of bio-mechanical armour for protection. The creature within is at one with it's carapace. The Ice Warriors. They could build a city under the sand yet drench the snows of Mars with innocent blood. They could slaughter whole civilisations, yet weep at the crushing of a flower.
    Bill: What, you can deal with big green Martians and, and, and rocket ships, but you can't deal with us being the police?
    Godsacre: No, no, no, no, no. It's just such a fanciful notion. A woman in the police force.
    Bill: Listen, yeah? I'm going to make allowances for your Victorian attitudes because, well, you actually are Victorian

### The Eaters of Light [10.10]

    (17 June 2017)
    Bill: There’s, um, something I should explain… This is probably just a really difficult idea. I don’t like men… that way.
    Lucius: What, not ever?
    Bill: No. Not ever. Only women.
    Lucius: Oh. All right, yeah, I got it. You’re like Vitus, then.
    Bill: What?
    Lucius: He only likes men.
    Vitus: Some men. Better-looking men than you, Lucius.
    Lucius: I don’t think it’s narrow-minded. I think it’s fine. You know what you like.
    Bill: And you like… both?
    Lucius: I’m just ordinary. I like men and women.
    Bill: Well, isn’t this all very… modern.
    Lucius: Hey, not everybody has to be modern. I think it’s really sweet that you're so… restricted.
    Bill: Cheers.

### World Enough and Time [10.11]

    (24 June 2017)
    Razor: Do you want the good tea or the bad tea?
    Bill: What's the difference?
    Razor: I call one good, one bad.
    Bill: Er, I'll take the good one.
    Razor: Excellent. Positive attitude. Will help with the horror to come.
    Bill: What horror?
    Razor: Mainly the tea.
    Razor: [Handing Bill a cup of tea] Drink it while it's very hot. The pain will disguise the taste.
    [Bill has been converted into a Mondasian Cyberman]
    The Doctor: Bill? Bill, talk to me. What have they done to you?
    Nardole: Operation Exodus… whatever that is.
    Missy: [from behind them] Well, wrong name, for a start.
    Cyberman Bill: I… waited.
    Missy: [standing at one side of Bill] This is not an exodus, is it? More of a beginning, really, isn't it?
    Cyberman Bill: I… waited.
    The Master: [from behind the Doctor] In fact, d'you know what I'd call it? [enters and stands on the other side of Bill]
    [Realizing who it is, the Doctor looks on in shock.]
    The Master: I'd call it a genesis.
    Missy: You've met the ex.
    The Master: Specifically… the genesis of the Cybermen.
    Cyberman Bill: [pointing at the Doctor] I… waited… for you. [a single tear runs from Bill's left eye and through her cybermask]

### The Doctor Falls [10.12]

    (1 July 2017)
    Bill: You left me alone for ten years! Don't tell me I can't be angry!
    Bill: I am not upset.
    The Master: Oh. Well doesn't that take all the fun out of cruelty?
    Bill: [Looking at her fallen Cyberman body] Am I dead?
    Heather: [kisses her] Does that feel dead to you?
    [Bill looks at her hands. They are "melting" slightly, just as Heather's body does.]
    Heather: You're like me now. It's just a different kind of living.
    Bill: How did you find me?
    Heather: I left you my tears, remember?

### The Best of Days

    (7 June 2020)
    Bill: Actually, I was out today, and I saw more people than I have in weeks. It wasn't just a day out, though, it was more sort of a-- Well, it-- It was a march. I wasn't gonna tell you about it because we're sticking to the good news, keeping it positive and... Well, the reason we were marching isn't good news at all. Turns out, not all Cybermen have got handles on their heads, let's put it that way. And if I'm trying to look on the bright side, and cheer you up, stuck up there on your old spaceship, I'll say this: A lot of very angry people with a very, very good reason to be angry kept their distance and kept their calm. At least where I was, everyone remembered to be kind. It hasn't always worked out that way, which is understandable. There are some things you never seem to get away from, no matter how hard you try. But hey! Maybe this time. I dunno. This time, it feels... different, y'know? I have hope.

## External links

* Bill Potts profile at the TARDIS index file