Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 2, Episode 8 - You've Got the Look - full transcript
GATISS: So what makes
Doctor Who look so good?
Every week, Doctor Who is different.
That's one of the continual delights, really,
what the design department manage to achieve.
It's not just a different location,
it's not just a different cast,
it's a whole different ethos
behind every single episode.
GATISS: So what's in store
for the Doctor Who team this week?
Sit back and find out.
-What are they called?
-The Ood.
-The Ood.
-They're the Ood.
The Ood?
I thought of that name, the Ood.
That's ood.
I like calling them the Ood.
I was just thought, "We need a really
simple name. Really, really simple."
And I just thought of Ood. And they
were odd. It sort of fitted them, slightly.
The squishiest, softest...
(CREW CHATTERING)
...rubberiest things.
And the ears, I just want to bite them off.
-And the back of the neck is also satisfying.
-Yeah.
(CREW CHATTERING)
Earthquake in three, two, one, earthquake!
Emergency hull breach.
Emergency hull breach.
Which section?
Everyone, evacuate 11
to 13. We've got a breach.
Wrap there.
The Ood are down to Neill Gorton, really.
Again, he did an incredible job on, I think,
one of our favourite monsters in the show.
The starting point
really is script, as always,
and it says albino clone things with...
I think Russell described it
as mouths like sea anemones.
Fronds, I think I said.
Fronds coming from the mouth.
Big, red, dangly things.
With a translation device in their hands.
And that was it. So we did some doodles,
as usual, and sent them off to Russell.
We hardly ever talk, me and Neill.
Just email all the time.
Literally, the first design,
Russell said, "Great."
It was one of the lucky ones
where it was all agreed really quickly.
DANTES: I sent a quick description,
he emailed back with a drawing,
we just went, "Oh, yeah, that's it."
I thought the fronds, added to a ball,
would just get around mouth manipulation
and mouth prosthetics.
We did one as an animatronic.
It makes the eyes blink and the forehead
move so it gives it facial expression.
So it's like having two remote-controlled
cars either side of my ears.
The eyes of the Ood weren't eye-level.
When the head's on, your eyes were kind
of ... The mouth was here, if you like.
So, effectively, the guys
in the suits were blind.
They've got this group, hive-mind,
which is one of servility.
Actually, they need a function in life.
They need to be given a function.
So, um, they are happy slaves.
So when they turn nasty, it's really scary.
-Watch me tentacles.
-Yeah, I know.
They're very sensitive, you know.
They're a great design, the Ood.
They're a bit like a squid,
but they're all kind of mushy and...
And they're great to touch.
You've got to touch an Ood head.
There's something about the spongy kind of
stuff that they use to make these things.
They're very tactile.
GATISS: And in creating the look
of the impossible planet,
the tone had to be set from the very start.
The big thing Russell said when we
were having the tone meeting, really,
from the start was, the word was “tough“.
The point of 8 and 9 is to go further
with the Tardis than we've ever gone before
in terms of the threat and the danger,
so I was always very...
I always had this story in mind to go to
one of those old-fashioned space bases
where you can't take the air for granted
and the water and the food,
and they're absolutely remote. Pioneers.
The script called for this planet to be
sort of really uninhabitable
with this temporary base structure on it.
This we wanted to feel real.
We wanted to feel that these guys were
working, as if they were working on an oil rig.
It has to have a kind of feeling
that what they're doing was very dangerous.
The planet's moving.
STRONG: It's a working environment.
It's not a very comfortable, glossy, futuristic
sci-fi, it's real gritty sci-fi, if you like.
Open door 19.
Science fiction shows with ships like
the Enterprise and stuff like that,
they're all comfortable and marvellous,
and in real life, look at something like the
Mir space station or one of the space shuttles,
and it's cramped and the food's rubbish and
they're all bumping up against each other.
So we wanted to put a bit of that
into the Sanctuary Base set
and say, "Look what it's really like."
It's not all antigravity
and posh and shiny and beautiful.
It's really hard work.
What's happening? Rose, what's going on?
Come on!
I can't contain the oxygen field.
We're gonna lose it.
I wanted the idea of it all to be sort of flapping
and the noise and wind running through there.
Rickety old tub, actually, that's what that
base is meant to be, it's rattling in the wind.
It's a dirty place, it's a dangerous place.
I think one of James Strong's greatest
feats on this is to get smoke all the time.
It is like the hell is underneath them.
And every shot, almost,
there's some sort of smoke
rising up in the background
or the foreground.
I love that. It's so atmospheric.
The colours are very important.
You establish the colour of the black hole
and we decided that would be a red colour.
And, of course, that affects the lighting
coming through the walls and the windows.
Open door 40!
Today we've been filming the scenes
where Scooti, the character I play,
gets chucked into space and dies.
WOMAN: 366, take 1.
Action.
Zack, we've got a problem.
Scooti's still missing.
ZACK: But it says Habitation 3.
Well, that's where I am
and I'm telling you, she's not here.
I've found her.
There's a scene where you see everyone
looking up from the spaceship
and they see her floating past
one of the windows.
And that's the scene we're shooting today.
Report Officer Scootori Manista, PKD...
deceased.
We'll be filming that underwater
to get the effect of her floating
in the big, dark black.
We're at Pinewood, that's a kind
of a big deal, really, for us, both in...
Just in budget and logistical terms,
it's a big deal.
The stage itself is containing a tank
which is 20 metres long,
10 metres wide and 6 metres deep.
We wanted to come here and film underwater,
just for the kind of the dynamic
that it would give the shot.
It's expensive, but, you know, the whole
sequence has been quite an expensive one,
for what would be a couple
of seconds on-screen.
I wanted for it to feel like she was
weightless and with her hair to be going...
So these shots that we've done today
would give it a particular feel
The other options were to do it
on wires in the studio and stuff,
but I think we felt in the end that you'd never
really feel like it was actually in space.
It's a much slower environment but obviously
the shots are much more specialised,
so therefore it took longer to set up.
Because of what's involved
is potentially very dangerous
and so there's lots of people involved
to make sure it was safe.
WOMAN: Great. Now clear the bubbles
from your face and do your hair.
The diving supervisor, Dave Shaw,
is responsible for training
all of the actors underwater.
BURING: There's divers down there with you
and they've got a mouthpiece for you with air.
(WOMAN INSTRUCTING)
...and three, two, one.
The countdown, three,
two, one, you take it out...
Action!
...and hold your breath for a while.
Start all of their acting...
And then they film you
in whatever pose you're meant to be doing.
And cut. Cut, guys. Very
nice, guys. Well done.
And then they would give a special sign so
that they can have the air returned to them,
rather than have them swim to the surface
and swim down again.
It's really beautiful 'cause the water and
the light gives a really sort of, yeah...
It's a surreal, eerie
effect, trying to be dead.
Yeah, it's fascinating.
I think the shots we got are fantastic
and they're really dynamic.
They look really different.
And when the Mill have cleaned up
the bubbles and painted in the black hole
and space behind them,
I think they're going to look incredible,
really thrilling and very different.
And probably, you know,
when we put the sequence together,
one of the most expensive and sophisticated
we've ever done on Doctor Who.
I think episode 8 is lovely.
It's such a triumph like...
It's where you see the Mill and Ed Thomas
and all the design teams coordinating.
It's like the costumes match the walkways,
which matches the location.
It's really, really, really got a feel to
it. The whole thing is knitted together.
Everybody is really thrilled with the end
results and I hope everybody is too watching.
Hang on, because it's about to
go even further in the next episode.
Doctor Who look so good?
Every week, Doctor Who is different.
That's one of the continual delights, really,
what the design department manage to achieve.
It's not just a different location,
it's not just a different cast,
it's a whole different ethos
behind every single episode.
GATISS: So what's in store
for the Doctor Who team this week?
Sit back and find out.
-What are they called?
-The Ood.
-The Ood.
-They're the Ood.
The Ood?
I thought of that name, the Ood.
That's ood.
I like calling them the Ood.
I was just thought, "We need a really
simple name. Really, really simple."
And I just thought of Ood. And they
were odd. It sort of fitted them, slightly.
The squishiest, softest...
(CREW CHATTERING)
...rubberiest things.
And the ears, I just want to bite them off.
-And the back of the neck is also satisfying.
-Yeah.
(CREW CHATTERING)
Earthquake in three, two, one, earthquake!
Emergency hull breach.
Emergency hull breach.
Which section?
Everyone, evacuate 11
to 13. We've got a breach.
Wrap there.
The Ood are down to Neill Gorton, really.
Again, he did an incredible job on, I think,
one of our favourite monsters in the show.
The starting point
really is script, as always,
and it says albino clone things with...
I think Russell described it
as mouths like sea anemones.
Fronds, I think I said.
Fronds coming from the mouth.
Big, red, dangly things.
With a translation device in their hands.
And that was it. So we did some doodles,
as usual, and sent them off to Russell.
We hardly ever talk, me and Neill.
Just email all the time.
Literally, the first design,
Russell said, "Great."
It was one of the lucky ones
where it was all agreed really quickly.
DANTES: I sent a quick description,
he emailed back with a drawing,
we just went, "Oh, yeah, that's it."
I thought the fronds, added to a ball,
would just get around mouth manipulation
and mouth prosthetics.
We did one as an animatronic.
It makes the eyes blink and the forehead
move so it gives it facial expression.
So it's like having two remote-controlled
cars either side of my ears.
The eyes of the Ood weren't eye-level.
When the head's on, your eyes were kind
of ... The mouth was here, if you like.
So, effectively, the guys
in the suits were blind.
They've got this group, hive-mind,
which is one of servility.
Actually, they need a function in life.
They need to be given a function.
So, um, they are happy slaves.
So when they turn nasty, it's really scary.
-Watch me tentacles.
-Yeah, I know.
They're very sensitive, you know.
They're a great design, the Ood.
They're a bit like a squid,
but they're all kind of mushy and...
And they're great to touch.
You've got to touch an Ood head.
There's something about the spongy kind of
stuff that they use to make these things.
They're very tactile.
GATISS: And in creating the look
of the impossible planet,
the tone had to be set from the very start.
The big thing Russell said when we
were having the tone meeting, really,
from the start was, the word was “tough“.
The point of 8 and 9 is to go further
with the Tardis than we've ever gone before
in terms of the threat and the danger,
so I was always very...
I always had this story in mind to go to
one of those old-fashioned space bases
where you can't take the air for granted
and the water and the food,
and they're absolutely remote. Pioneers.
The script called for this planet to be
sort of really uninhabitable
with this temporary base structure on it.
This we wanted to feel real.
We wanted to feel that these guys were
working, as if they were working on an oil rig.
It has to have a kind of feeling
that what they're doing was very dangerous.
The planet's moving.
STRONG: It's a working environment.
It's not a very comfortable, glossy, futuristic
sci-fi, it's real gritty sci-fi, if you like.
Open door 19.
Science fiction shows with ships like
the Enterprise and stuff like that,
they're all comfortable and marvellous,
and in real life, look at something like the
Mir space station or one of the space shuttles,
and it's cramped and the food's rubbish and
they're all bumping up against each other.
So we wanted to put a bit of that
into the Sanctuary Base set
and say, "Look what it's really like."
It's not all antigravity
and posh and shiny and beautiful.
It's really hard work.
What's happening? Rose, what's going on?
Come on!
I can't contain the oxygen field.
We're gonna lose it.
I wanted the idea of it all to be sort of flapping
and the noise and wind running through there.
Rickety old tub, actually, that's what that
base is meant to be, it's rattling in the wind.
It's a dirty place, it's a dangerous place.
I think one of James Strong's greatest
feats on this is to get smoke all the time.
It is like the hell is underneath them.
And every shot, almost,
there's some sort of smoke
rising up in the background
or the foreground.
I love that. It's so atmospheric.
The colours are very important.
You establish the colour of the black hole
and we decided that would be a red colour.
And, of course, that affects the lighting
coming through the walls and the windows.
Open door 40!
Today we've been filming the scenes
where Scooti, the character I play,
gets chucked into space and dies.
WOMAN: 366, take 1.
Action.
Zack, we've got a problem.
Scooti's still missing.
ZACK: But it says Habitation 3.
Well, that's where I am
and I'm telling you, she's not here.
I've found her.
There's a scene where you see everyone
looking up from the spaceship
and they see her floating past
one of the windows.
And that's the scene we're shooting today.
Report Officer Scootori Manista, PKD...
deceased.
We'll be filming that underwater
to get the effect of her floating
in the big, dark black.
We're at Pinewood, that's a kind
of a big deal, really, for us, both in...
Just in budget and logistical terms,
it's a big deal.
The stage itself is containing a tank
which is 20 metres long,
10 metres wide and 6 metres deep.
We wanted to come here and film underwater,
just for the kind of the dynamic
that it would give the shot.
It's expensive, but, you know, the whole
sequence has been quite an expensive one,
for what would be a couple
of seconds on-screen.
I wanted for it to feel like she was
weightless and with her hair to be going...
So these shots that we've done today
would give it a particular feel
The other options were to do it
on wires in the studio and stuff,
but I think we felt in the end that you'd never
really feel like it was actually in space.
It's a much slower environment but obviously
the shots are much more specialised,
so therefore it took longer to set up.
Because of what's involved
is potentially very dangerous
and so there's lots of people involved
to make sure it was safe.
WOMAN: Great. Now clear the bubbles
from your face and do your hair.
The diving supervisor, Dave Shaw,
is responsible for training
all of the actors underwater.
BURING: There's divers down there with you
and they've got a mouthpiece for you with air.
(WOMAN INSTRUCTING)
...and three, two, one.
The countdown, three,
two, one, you take it out...
Action!
...and hold your breath for a while.
Start all of their acting...
And then they film you
in whatever pose you're meant to be doing.
And cut. Cut, guys. Very
nice, guys. Well done.
And then they would give a special sign so
that they can have the air returned to them,
rather than have them swim to the surface
and swim down again.
It's really beautiful 'cause the water and
the light gives a really sort of, yeah...
It's a surreal, eerie
effect, trying to be dead.
Yeah, it's fascinating.
I think the shots we got are fantastic
and they're really dynamic.
They look really different.
And when the Mill have cleaned up
the bubbles and painted in the black hole
and space behind them,
I think they're going to look incredible,
really thrilling and very different.
And probably, you know,
when we put the sequence together,
one of the most expensive and sophisticated
we've ever done on Doctor Who.
I think episode 8 is lovely.
It's such a triumph like...
It's where you see the Mill and Ed Thomas
and all the design teams coordinating.
It's like the costumes match the walkways,
which matches the location.
It's really, really, really got a feel to
it. The whole thing is knitted together.
Everybody is really thrilled with the end
results and I hope everybody is too watching.
Hang on, because it's about to
go even further in the next episode.