Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 2, Episode 4 - Script to Screen - full transcript
MARK GATISS: There's only one Doctor,
but there's an entire Doctor Who team.
From writers to directors,
set builders to costume designers,
every word on every page,
and every shot in every scene,
is planned meticulously
from start to finish.
The doors whoosh open...
GATISS: The Girl in the
Fireplace is no different.
With countless meetings and discussions
being held before anyone steps foot on set.
You've all seen how episode 4 ends,
but where did it all begin?
(DOCTOR WHO THEME)
Okay, scene 1, so we, erm...
We've got a starscape
and then we've got Versailles,
which we briefly touched
on earlier on that we'd...
we'd look into the possibility
of actually going to Versailles.
My favourite part of the script-to-screen
journey, I mean, there are lots of bits, actually,
but my favourite part is when
you get that first script and it's good.
It's like getting the latest instalment
of this adventure
that's kind of a big part of my life,
so it's really exciting getting it
and kind of flicking through the pages
as quick as I can.
GARDNER: Your second read is, of course,
always about, "Oh, God, how to achieve this?"
And you start to break it down
and that's exciting because it's the job.
And that's when you get to really
admire the crew and their expertise.
And how they come together
to make something possible.
When you see a fireplace on a spaceship
you have to think
this isn't just some novel feature,
this isn't like, "Ooh, original features,
very nice." It's not meant to be there.
The tone meeting has become
"How are we going to make this episode"
meeting, really.
That's the only time everybody
sits round the table at the same time.
Every stage in the development of the episode,
and talk about what we're all trying to do.
It's just to get everyone singing
from the same song sheet, really,
and then, that's how we...
I think it works, those tone meetings
'cause that's how we get
such a coordinated end result.
-Hello, hello, you like that?
-Fantastic. Thank you very much.
GATISS: But before filming begins,
the team hold a read-through
to make sure everything
goes according to plan.
The read-through, for me, is terrifying
because it's the moment
where you get a sense
of what is really coming.
And you know in that moment, largely,
if something is going to work or not.
Hello, everyone.
(CLINKING ON GLASS)
You just feel the pressure
to kind of nail it, there and then.
Of course, that pressure doesn't exist
because ultimately all that matters
is what is finally in the can.
But because it's the first time you're all
kind of doing it together in a room
you wanna kind of get it right, you want to
impress everyone, want everyone to like you.
Doctor.
Doctor who?
It's more than just a secret, isn't it?
For me, it's always terrifying
because it's the first time
you've ever read in front of anyone,
and also because I
didn't audition for this job.
I was offered it straight out
and I suddenly thought,
"What if I turn up to the read-through
and read and they think,"
"'Mmm, actually she's..'"
What did you see?
That there comes a time, Time Lord...
...when every lonely little boy
must learn how to dance.
For us, it's the final dotting the I's
and crossing the T's.
That's where you do final rewrites,
often you can come out of a read-through
change lines
or realise you haven't said something,
or have a word with the director
about the emphasis of a certain scene.
It's your final chance
before it's all put through in the edit,
Just to make sure everything's working.
Okay, so episode 4, scene 1.
Exterior, Versailles, night,
a perfect dazzling starscape.
Pan down to an extraordinary,
magnificent palace,
and then a scream, and more screaming.
We are under attack. There are creatures.
I don't even think they're human.
We can't stop them.
The moment that a scene
that I've read on the page
suddenly comes to life and moves me,
emotionally.
When actors breathe life into words
in that way, that's really exciting.
Listen to me. There is a
man coming to Versailles.
He has watched over me my whole life
and he will not desert me tonight.
(SCREAMING)
The first pages were quite straightforward.
It was classic attack,
okay, set in the 18th century,
but you've got monsters
running down a corridor chasing people.
Doctor! Doctor!
I turned to page two,
which is immediately after titles,
and we'd gone from
Versailles, 18th century,
to a 51st century spaceship.
It's a spaceship. Brilliant!
I got a spaceship on my first go.
At that point, I thought, "Okay, it's not going
to be straightforward in the way I thought."
We will build the corridors of Versailles
alongside the corridors of the spaceship
so we get the interaction
between the two of them.
GATISS: And the link between the two worlds
is an 18th century fireplace,
brought to life
with some 21st century mechanics.
The main thing we were trying to do
with these two sets is, obviously,
make them as contrasting as possible.
Obviously, the spaceship is a utility ship.
It's very rundown, it's very dirty,
there's lots of cables and it's
basically being plundered by the droids.
And that's set against
the plushness of Versailles
and the clean lines of
Versailles and the colours.
We've found it, right under our noses.
MOFFAT: My favourite visual in
The Girl in the Fireplace
is when Reinette dashes
from a corridor in Versailles in one shot
straight into the
corridor in the spaceship.
It looks magical and impossible.
Now, it's not, of course.
It's two sets next to each other
and she walks through a door.
But it seems so extraordinary.
And when she stands there
wearing her beautiful period costume
on a set from Alien,
it is... It's arresting.
It's at that point, I think, when she realises
that she's never going to be with him.
That it is a fantasy
because his world is so alien to her.
-You okay?
-No.
I'm very afraid.
It strikes me that one thing you try to do
all the time in popular television
is give reasons for people not to turn off.
Right, you imagine the audience
sitting down and thinking,
"Och, I'll watch two
minutes, then I'll go,"
and you think, "Well, if I can just keep
eking out the reason to keep watching",
"I may be getting 45
minutes through the show."
So you're playing that game.
So at that moment in the show when we think
we've got the hang of what's going on,
we're starting to become a bit clearer, he
walks in and he's face-to-face with a horse.
(NEIGHING)
The Doctor on horseback
bursting through a mirror into a ballroom.
You said it was easy, Dave.
(LAUGHING)
This is the kind of climactic
scenes in episode 4
where I come through a mirror on a horse,
as you do,
trot around about and save the day again,
you know.
So that's what we're doing today.
It's all fairly extraordinary
'cause it's such a big deal with all
this extra crowd and the mirror breaking.
Of course, the horse isn't actually here
'cause the horse isn't allowed in this hall.
So the horse has to
be done a different day,
and it's all one of those "everything
has to be put together piece by piece."
(WHINNYING)
It's terribly complicated because we
had to shoot elements at Ragley Hall itself
with extras reacting to
the Doctor and the horse.
And crash!
(SCREAMING)
We had to do a separate shoot
of the mirror exploding with blue glass.
And then we had to shoot on a third day
with David and a horse and a stuntman
in a paddock that we had to deck out
completely in green
and turn into a green screen studio.
As you can probably imagine,
that was terrifically expensive.
All of that said] I do think you're not
going to see a horse jump through a mirror
into a period ballroom
every Saturday night.
This morning I know
we're filming absolutely crucial stuff,
dangerous and incendiary stuff,
'cause we're filming the snog
between the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour.
My initial, initial reaction
when I read the script was,
"Oh, my God! I can't believe
I get to kiss Doctor Who."
This is a woman who's a match for him,
she's ridiculously well-educated,
ridiculously civilised.
So if the Doctor was going to
settle down, it would be a girl like this.
(CLEARING THROAT)
Oh. Hello!
-Who is she?
-Jean-Antoinette Poisson.
One of the most accomplished women
who ever lived.
Are you all right?
So here you are.
My lonely angel.
Stuck on the slow path with me.
Yep. The slow path.
Here's to the slow path.
(REINETTE LAUGHS)
She is the one person
who actually knows what it feels like
to be the Doctor.
Such a lonely little boy.
Lonely then and lonelier now.
-How can you bear it?
-How did you do that?
She's been inside his
head, she's seen his past,
and she knows how he feels.
-Wish me luck.
-No.
They had this kind of
extraordinary relationship
and yet it's all over before it can begin,
which is the Doctor's eternal dilemma.
An eternal tragedy.
He's enchanted by Madame de Pompadour
and he goes through very,
very human emotions of love and loss.
And I think it's very intimate
and I think it's good to see the Doctor
suffer in that way occasionally.
GARDNER: “A gust of wind and noise
“and the Doctor looks to see
the fireplace with the fire going out.
"The Doctor's face solemn,
and he turns towards the Tardis,
“at the Tardis noise, as it dematerialises.
"And we're left with the
smiling face of Reinette."
A portrait of her stands
Just behind where the Tardis landed.”
A favourite part of the
script-to-screen journey is the end.
GARDNER: “We're panning across
the exterior of the ship,
“as all its lights go slowly out,
“and we're left with the name of the ship,
SS Madame de Pompadour.”
DAVIES: That's why you did it.
That's why you went through
all those months of writing,
all those rewrites, all those meetings,
all those design meetings,
all that filming, is to get it finished,
and I love that.
I absolutely love it.
but there's an entire Doctor Who team.
From writers to directors,
set builders to costume designers,
every word on every page,
and every shot in every scene,
is planned meticulously
from start to finish.
The doors whoosh open...
GATISS: The Girl in the
Fireplace is no different.
With countless meetings and discussions
being held before anyone steps foot on set.
You've all seen how episode 4 ends,
but where did it all begin?
(DOCTOR WHO THEME)
Okay, scene 1, so we, erm...
We've got a starscape
and then we've got Versailles,
which we briefly touched
on earlier on that we'd...
we'd look into the possibility
of actually going to Versailles.
My favourite part of the script-to-screen
journey, I mean, there are lots of bits, actually,
but my favourite part is when
you get that first script and it's good.
It's like getting the latest instalment
of this adventure
that's kind of a big part of my life,
so it's really exciting getting it
and kind of flicking through the pages
as quick as I can.
GARDNER: Your second read is, of course,
always about, "Oh, God, how to achieve this?"
And you start to break it down
and that's exciting because it's the job.
And that's when you get to really
admire the crew and their expertise.
And how they come together
to make something possible.
When you see a fireplace on a spaceship
you have to think
this isn't just some novel feature,
this isn't like, "Ooh, original features,
very nice." It's not meant to be there.
The tone meeting has become
"How are we going to make this episode"
meeting, really.
That's the only time everybody
sits round the table at the same time.
Every stage in the development of the episode,
and talk about what we're all trying to do.
It's just to get everyone singing
from the same song sheet, really,
and then, that's how we...
I think it works, those tone meetings
'cause that's how we get
such a coordinated end result.
-Hello, hello, you like that?
-Fantastic. Thank you very much.
GATISS: But before filming begins,
the team hold a read-through
to make sure everything
goes according to plan.
The read-through, for me, is terrifying
because it's the moment
where you get a sense
of what is really coming.
And you know in that moment, largely,
if something is going to work or not.
Hello, everyone.
(CLINKING ON GLASS)
You just feel the pressure
to kind of nail it, there and then.
Of course, that pressure doesn't exist
because ultimately all that matters
is what is finally in the can.
But because it's the first time you're all
kind of doing it together in a room
you wanna kind of get it right, you want to
impress everyone, want everyone to like you.
Doctor.
Doctor who?
It's more than just a secret, isn't it?
For me, it's always terrifying
because it's the first time
you've ever read in front of anyone,
and also because I
didn't audition for this job.
I was offered it straight out
and I suddenly thought,
"What if I turn up to the read-through
and read and they think,"
"'Mmm, actually she's..'"
What did you see?
That there comes a time, Time Lord...
...when every lonely little boy
must learn how to dance.
For us, it's the final dotting the I's
and crossing the T's.
That's where you do final rewrites,
often you can come out of a read-through
change lines
or realise you haven't said something,
or have a word with the director
about the emphasis of a certain scene.
It's your final chance
before it's all put through in the edit,
Just to make sure everything's working.
Okay, so episode 4, scene 1.
Exterior, Versailles, night,
a perfect dazzling starscape.
Pan down to an extraordinary,
magnificent palace,
and then a scream, and more screaming.
We are under attack. There are creatures.
I don't even think they're human.
We can't stop them.
The moment that a scene
that I've read on the page
suddenly comes to life and moves me,
emotionally.
When actors breathe life into words
in that way, that's really exciting.
Listen to me. There is a
man coming to Versailles.
He has watched over me my whole life
and he will not desert me tonight.
(SCREAMING)
The first pages were quite straightforward.
It was classic attack,
okay, set in the 18th century,
but you've got monsters
running down a corridor chasing people.
Doctor! Doctor!
I turned to page two,
which is immediately after titles,
and we'd gone from
Versailles, 18th century,
to a 51st century spaceship.
It's a spaceship. Brilliant!
I got a spaceship on my first go.
At that point, I thought, "Okay, it's not going
to be straightforward in the way I thought."
We will build the corridors of Versailles
alongside the corridors of the spaceship
so we get the interaction
between the two of them.
GATISS: And the link between the two worlds
is an 18th century fireplace,
brought to life
with some 21st century mechanics.
The main thing we were trying to do
with these two sets is, obviously,
make them as contrasting as possible.
Obviously, the spaceship is a utility ship.
It's very rundown, it's very dirty,
there's lots of cables and it's
basically being plundered by the droids.
And that's set against
the plushness of Versailles
and the clean lines of
Versailles and the colours.
We've found it, right under our noses.
MOFFAT: My favourite visual in
The Girl in the Fireplace
is when Reinette dashes
from a corridor in Versailles in one shot
straight into the
corridor in the spaceship.
It looks magical and impossible.
Now, it's not, of course.
It's two sets next to each other
and she walks through a door.
But it seems so extraordinary.
And when she stands there
wearing her beautiful period costume
on a set from Alien,
it is... It's arresting.
It's at that point, I think, when she realises
that she's never going to be with him.
That it is a fantasy
because his world is so alien to her.
-You okay?
-No.
I'm very afraid.
It strikes me that one thing you try to do
all the time in popular television
is give reasons for people not to turn off.
Right, you imagine the audience
sitting down and thinking,
"Och, I'll watch two
minutes, then I'll go,"
and you think, "Well, if I can just keep
eking out the reason to keep watching",
"I may be getting 45
minutes through the show."
So you're playing that game.
So at that moment in the show when we think
we've got the hang of what's going on,
we're starting to become a bit clearer, he
walks in and he's face-to-face with a horse.
(NEIGHING)
The Doctor on horseback
bursting through a mirror into a ballroom.
You said it was easy, Dave.
(LAUGHING)
This is the kind of climactic
scenes in episode 4
where I come through a mirror on a horse,
as you do,
trot around about and save the day again,
you know.
So that's what we're doing today.
It's all fairly extraordinary
'cause it's such a big deal with all
this extra crowd and the mirror breaking.
Of course, the horse isn't actually here
'cause the horse isn't allowed in this hall.
So the horse has to
be done a different day,
and it's all one of those "everything
has to be put together piece by piece."
(WHINNYING)
It's terribly complicated because we
had to shoot elements at Ragley Hall itself
with extras reacting to
the Doctor and the horse.
And crash!
(SCREAMING)
We had to do a separate shoot
of the mirror exploding with blue glass.
And then we had to shoot on a third day
with David and a horse and a stuntman
in a paddock that we had to deck out
completely in green
and turn into a green screen studio.
As you can probably imagine,
that was terrifically expensive.
All of that said] I do think you're not
going to see a horse jump through a mirror
into a period ballroom
every Saturday night.
This morning I know
we're filming absolutely crucial stuff,
dangerous and incendiary stuff,
'cause we're filming the snog
between the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour.
My initial, initial reaction
when I read the script was,
"Oh, my God! I can't believe
I get to kiss Doctor Who."
This is a woman who's a match for him,
she's ridiculously well-educated,
ridiculously civilised.
So if the Doctor was going to
settle down, it would be a girl like this.
(CLEARING THROAT)
Oh. Hello!
-Who is she?
-Jean-Antoinette Poisson.
One of the most accomplished women
who ever lived.
Are you all right?
So here you are.
My lonely angel.
Stuck on the slow path with me.
Yep. The slow path.
Here's to the slow path.
(REINETTE LAUGHS)
She is the one person
who actually knows what it feels like
to be the Doctor.
Such a lonely little boy.
Lonely then and lonelier now.
-How can you bear it?
-How did you do that?
She's been inside his
head, she's seen his past,
and she knows how he feels.
-Wish me luck.
-No.
They had this kind of
extraordinary relationship
and yet it's all over before it can begin,
which is the Doctor's eternal dilemma.
An eternal tragedy.
He's enchanted by Madame de Pompadour
and he goes through very,
very human emotions of love and loss.
And I think it's very intimate
and I think it's good to see the Doctor
suffer in that way occasionally.
GARDNER: “A gust of wind and noise
“and the Doctor looks to see
the fireplace with the fire going out.
"The Doctor's face solemn,
and he turns towards the Tardis,
“at the Tardis noise, as it dematerialises.
"And we're left with the
smiling face of Reinette."
A portrait of her stands
Just behind where the Tardis landed.”
A favourite part of the
script-to-screen journey is the end.
GARDNER: “We're panning across
the exterior of the ship,
“as all its lights go slowly out,
“and we're left with the name of the ship,
SS Madame de Pompadour.”
DAVIES: That's why you did it.
That's why you went through
all those months of writing,
all those rewrites, all those meetings,
all those design meetings,
all that filming, is to get it finished,
and I love that.
I absolutely love it.