Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 3, Episode 10 - Do You Remember the First Time? - full transcript
I'm the Doctor.
I'm the Doctor.
-Who are you?
-I'm the Doctor.
These days,
Doctor Who is filmed in Cardiff,
but when I was a kid growing up,
it was recorded here
at the BBC Television Centre
near Shepherd's Bush in London.
When I was wee, this place seemed like
a remote, mystical palace
hundreds of miles away
where the two Ronnies lived,
probably in a little flat
with Angela Rippon and Bruce Forsyth.
But it was watching programmes from here
that, in no small part,
inspired me to become an actor.
And it seems to me
that there are quite a few people
working in television today
who grew up as Doctor Who fans.
Quite a few of them
have ended up working on Doctor Who.
So I'm on a bit of a quest
to find out whether
growing up as a Doctor Who fan
makes you a better person,
and how it might end up influencing
what you do for a living.
TENNANT: Steven Moffat
made his name in television
writing about dysfunctional
relationships in the 21st century.
But maybe what he always
wanted to write about
was malfunctioning spaceships
in the 51st.
So, Steven Moffat,
television writer of some repute,
where did you grow up?
-I grew up in Paisley.
-In Paisley.
-Do you know it?
-Just down the road from myself.
So, growing up in Paisley,
in the windswept west of Scotland,
how remote did television
tend to feel to you?
Well, it was more Hollywood
than Hollywood.
I mean, this place is more exciting
to me to this day.
-You grew up watching Doctor Who.
-Oh, God, yes.
-What was your era?
-I remember Patrick Troughton
being bewilderingly the Doctor
and being confused by that.
Right.
And, really,
from the start of Jon Pertwee,
I was watching
every single episode devotedly.
This is Studio 8.
In this very studio,
-this list here will tell me...
-All right. Oh, very good.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, we've done our research on this.
Yeah.
In TC8, we had The Sea Devils
was in here.
Planet of the Spiders was in here.
Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker
in this room somewhere.
There were a few studios used for
Planet of the Spiders, so...
But let's just say he did...
Let's just say the regeneration happened
on this very spot.
Yes, it was here.
All those events happened
-in this dull, grey, very big room.
-Well, quite.
I don't know, maybe like yourself,
I got interested in background stuff
in television,
how television was made
because of Doctor Who.
Yeah, yeah.
It wasn't really background information
on television I was researching,
-it was, "How did they make Doctor Who?*"
-Yeah, in this very studio.
-Yes, how did they do it?
-Yeah.
TENNANT: Here's another one.
This is TC7.
I think all the studios in the TV Centre
have been used at some point
for Doctor Who.
This is being used by Newsnight,
but we're gonna invade it anyway.
So, Studio 7, Robot filmed in here.
-Yes.
-Yeah.
-Tom Baker began.
-This is where Tom Baker began.
In fact,
this might be the very studio...
Famously, I remember there was
a sceneshifter strike, wasn't there?
And Blue Peter transmitted
-from the Doctor Who set.
-From the set of .. Yeah.
I remember my dad
shouting from downstairs saying,
“Doctor Who is on!" I thought,
"That's amazing, it's Wednesday,"
or whatever day it was.
And I went running down
and discovered it was just Blue Peter
-and burst into tears.
-Oh.
Sorry, Blue Peter, but it just doesn't
measure up to Doctor Who.
It's just not the same.
So, what do you think, what was it about
Doctor Who in particular that fired
your little infant imagination?
It was a children's programme,
it was also frightening.
There was no other show like this.
There really is no other example
of this genre.
It works you hard as a writer.
But I think if you're prepared
to work hard, it helps you.
Russell says that.
He says it's the hardest thing to write.
-Why is that?
-In Doctor Who you've got two minutes,
if that, of the Doctor and the companion
in the Tardis.
You walk out the door and it's
a new world of some kind or other.
A whole bunch of people
you have to introduce and dispose of
in one episode.
It needs a big, strong idea every week.
I think you know you've got a good idea
for a Doctor Who story if you think,
"Well, I've just blown that
feature film idea forever, haven't I?"
-Right.
-That's the size of story
that gets you through 45 minutes
of Doctor Who.
You were also charged this year
with writing one
in which the Doctor didn't appear much.
MOFFAT: I used a story
I had written for a Doctor Who annual.
-Right.
-Which was originally called,
What I Did on My Christmas Holidays
by Sally Sparrow, Aged 12 and a Half.
I thought, "Well,
that's actually quite a good story"
“cause it's already taken the Doctor
out of the thing.”
He's leaving messages in the past,
and I added a bit more fear and terror.
And aged Sally Sparrow up a little bit.
Children like watching
older children and adults.
They don't necessarily
like watching kids their own age.
Don't take your eyes off that.
DOCTOR:
That's why they cover their eyes.
They're not weeping,
they can't risk looking at each other.
We've also got DVD extras
saving the universe.
Yes, well, that's bound
to happen eventually, isn't it?
Which is a very post-modern idea,
I suppose.
-What is this? Who is he?
-An Easter egg.
Excuse me?
I've got the message in the wall.
I thought, "What else could he do?"
And I thought,
"I've always found the idea
of Easter eggs really quite exciting,"
'cause I can never find them.
So they seem genuinely exciting
and remote to me.
So, the Doctor being a ghost DVD extra,
I don't know, the moment I thought
of it, that just sounds cool.
He is on 17 different DVDs.
There are 17 totally unrelated DVDs,
all with him on,
always hidden away, always a secret.
There's also something
quite spooky about it as well, though,
until the other side of
the conversation is filled in.
Yes.
Something about a disembodied
conversation is slightly creepy.
People assume that time is
a strict progression of cause to effect,
but actually, from a non-linear,
non-subjective viewpoint,
it's more like a big ball
of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff
It started well that sentence.
It got away from me, yeah.
TENNANT: And Steven
is not the only writer for the series
who grew up loving the show.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am Richard Lazarus.
I am 76 years old
and I am reborn!
Why is it peculiarly hard
to write an episode of Doctor Who?
It's a tough balancing act, you know,
particularly the Saturday night
bear pit.
I remember having conversations about
the séance scene in The Unquiet Dead,
which so much I wanted it to be played
almost in the dark
with a little gaslight.
And it was like, "Well, we can't.
People might think the TV's gone off."
All these things
you never even consider.
You want to have a mass appeal,
at the same time,
try and do something different.
You want to have lots of fun,
but you obviously want to scare.
Because the format of the show
is unique, that's the difficult thing.
It's not like writing for anything else.
There are an incredible number
of people now working on the show
and working elsewhere
in television today
who cite Doctor Who as an inspiration.
You can't move for them.
What was it about
that formative experience
that has inspired people in this way?
I think it makes television look
incredibly exciting to children.
The idea of having anything
to do with something
that looks as exciting as that.
Gareth, this is the third year,
but the first year
-you've written an episode.
-Yeah.
Miss Jones, will you accompany me
to the theatre?
Mr Smith, T will!
When you get home, you can
tell everyone you've seen Shakespeare.
Then I could get sectioned.
I think when I got a copy
of the finished episode
and saw my name on the credits,
that's a really strange feeling.
Right in the middle of the screen,
as the time tunnel is going, it's you!
-Yeah.
-And that was a really strange feeling.
Do you think
you would both be doing what
you're doing today without Doctor Who?
It runs through my career
like a skein of rock.
-Yeah.
-It's everywhere.
I don't think I would have been
as inspired by classic period drama
or The Brothers.
You didn't get the sense
that there was a sort of imagination
-to be lit in the same way.
-The breadth of the imagination.
And it's something
you can aspire to as well.
I always felt
the Doctor was easier to aspire to
than a more conventional superhero type
because it wasn't about
being the strongest or the fastest.
TENNANT: But perhaps surprisingly,
not everyone involved in bringing
Doctor Who back to our screens
grew up wearing Tardis pyjamas.
Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter,
you're both very instrumental
in the comeback of the show.
Why were you both so keen
to bring it back?
Well, I think that there's something
about Doctor Who
that seemed so iconic,
and there was something so magnificent
of the idea of this time traveller
in the Tardis,
and it just seemed that because it
hadn't been on the screens for so long
that it was the moment to do it.
Were you aware
that it had such influence,
that it had such roots in a lot
of people's professional careers?
Yes. I mean that was
one of the reasons why
it seemed like a good idea
to bring it back,
because it's one
of the most talked about dramas,
television dramas, of all time.
When it was first announced
that we were bringing it back,
two things happened.
One was the tabloids
ran loads of speculation
about who we'd cast as the Doctor.
-Sure.
-And it was great fun,
and that was the first time
that you realised
-this is a massive show for people.
-Yeah.
-Front pages of the tabloids.
-Did that take you by surprise?
The truth is we love all of that.
I mean, if you don't have
that constant dialogue with the nation
about who are playing these people
and what's going to happen to them,
and that constant tease
and prolonged flirtation
with everyone about it all
then where would be the fun of it?
Okay, pop quiz.
Let's see how far over to the dark side
you have come.
Can you list the 10 actors
who have played the Doctor in order?
Oh, my Lord. Right.
-BOTH: William Hartnell.
-Into Patrick Troughton.
Into Jon Pertwee.
-Yeah.
-Into Tom Baker.
-Into Colin Baker.
-I get a bit hazy now.
No.
Hold on! Peter Davison!
-Yes, yes.
-Peter Davison into Colin Baker.
-Yes.
-Into Sylvester McCoy.
-Into Paul McGann.
-Yeah.
Into Christopher Eccleston.
-Into...
-Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
-That Scottish guy.
-It does get hazy.
-Into Ewan Tennant!
-Into Michael Sheen, wasn't it?
We tried to get him,
and he wouldn't do it.
(ALL LAUGHING)
TENNANT: When Doctor Who
moved down the M4
to set up production in Cardiff,
head writer Russell T Davies
and producer Phil Collinson
found themselves working on the show
they've been watching all their lives.
You both watched Doctor Who as a child.
Do you think that is where your desire
to work in television came from?
Yes. The first stories I used to
sort of walk around and think up...
We all used to play Daleks and Cybermen
in the yard.
And I would think up stories.
I used to draw them.
Originally, I didn't set out
wanting to work behind the scenes.
I wanted to be an actor.
But I think Doctor Who
was one of the big reasons
I wanted to be an actor.
So I suppose, by default, it's a
big reason why I ended up being in TV.
What about you?
Did it make you want to act?
I think it did. Yeah.
I mean, it's the same.
I grew up... It was watching the telly.
I was tiny when I decided
I wanted to be an actor.
But without doubt
one of the big shows
that was influencing me,
and probably the only show at first,
was Doctor Who.
TENNANT: So, if you've managed to turn
something you've loved as a child
into something you work on
as a grown-up, how does that feel?
To be one of the people here making it,
again, it's absolutely thrilling.
For me,
the reason why it got into my heart
is that I used to walk home from school
when I was a little, tiny kid
and you could walk around a corner
and you could imagine
the Tardis would be there
and you'd run towards it.
That's why it got into my heart.
And why I still love it is that
I honestly think you believe you can
become part of the Doctor's voyages.
You can do that with no other programme.
Do you think in 20 years' time,
the industry will be full of people
who are watching the show now
-as children?
-I'd love to think
there'll be people sat here making it
in 20 years going, "I watched.."
You must get the letters and the stories
they write. They're doing it.
-Yeah, that is true.
-They are doing it.
They're writing those stories now.
I get them constantly.
One imagines
it will be reinvented again.
-Oh, definitely.
-I think it will, yeah, definitely.
I think now it's like Robin Hood,
it's like Sherlock Holmes,
it's like Tarzan.
It's a true British icon.
They'll be sitting here
in 60 years' time going,
"That was a big success twice."
And that's enough to say
let's do it a third time.
That makes me really pleased,
and I suspect that's not
just because I'm in it now.
I think that would make me
really pleased anyway.
DAVIES: Oh, yeah.
COLLINSON: Me, too.
I'm the Doctor.
-Who are you?
-I'm the Doctor.
These days,
Doctor Who is filmed in Cardiff,
but when I was a kid growing up,
it was recorded here
at the BBC Television Centre
near Shepherd's Bush in London.
When I was wee, this place seemed like
a remote, mystical palace
hundreds of miles away
where the two Ronnies lived,
probably in a little flat
with Angela Rippon and Bruce Forsyth.
But it was watching programmes from here
that, in no small part,
inspired me to become an actor.
And it seems to me
that there are quite a few people
working in television today
who grew up as Doctor Who fans.
Quite a few of them
have ended up working on Doctor Who.
So I'm on a bit of a quest
to find out whether
growing up as a Doctor Who fan
makes you a better person,
and how it might end up influencing
what you do for a living.
TENNANT: Steven Moffat
made his name in television
writing about dysfunctional
relationships in the 21st century.
But maybe what he always
wanted to write about
was malfunctioning spaceships
in the 51st.
So, Steven Moffat,
television writer of some repute,
where did you grow up?
-I grew up in Paisley.
-In Paisley.
-Do you know it?
-Just down the road from myself.
So, growing up in Paisley,
in the windswept west of Scotland,
how remote did television
tend to feel to you?
Well, it was more Hollywood
than Hollywood.
I mean, this place is more exciting
to me to this day.
-You grew up watching Doctor Who.
-Oh, God, yes.
-What was your era?
-I remember Patrick Troughton
being bewilderingly the Doctor
and being confused by that.
Right.
And, really,
from the start of Jon Pertwee,
I was watching
every single episode devotedly.
This is Studio 8.
In this very studio,
-this list here will tell me...
-All right. Oh, very good.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, we've done our research on this.
Yeah.
In TC8, we had The Sea Devils
was in here.
Planet of the Spiders was in here.
Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker
in this room somewhere.
There were a few studios used for
Planet of the Spiders, so...
But let's just say he did...
Let's just say the regeneration happened
on this very spot.
Yes, it was here.
All those events happened
-in this dull, grey, very big room.
-Well, quite.
I don't know, maybe like yourself,
I got interested in background stuff
in television,
how television was made
because of Doctor Who.
Yeah, yeah.
It wasn't really background information
on television I was researching,
-it was, "How did they make Doctor Who?*"
-Yeah, in this very studio.
-Yes, how did they do it?
-Yeah.
TENNANT: Here's another one.
This is TC7.
I think all the studios in the TV Centre
have been used at some point
for Doctor Who.
This is being used by Newsnight,
but we're gonna invade it anyway.
So, Studio 7, Robot filmed in here.
-Yes.
-Yeah.
-Tom Baker began.
-This is where Tom Baker began.
In fact,
this might be the very studio...
Famously, I remember there was
a sceneshifter strike, wasn't there?
And Blue Peter transmitted
-from the Doctor Who set.
-From the set of .. Yeah.
I remember my dad
shouting from downstairs saying,
“Doctor Who is on!" I thought,
"That's amazing, it's Wednesday,"
or whatever day it was.
And I went running down
and discovered it was just Blue Peter
-and burst into tears.
-Oh.
Sorry, Blue Peter, but it just doesn't
measure up to Doctor Who.
It's just not the same.
So, what do you think, what was it about
Doctor Who in particular that fired
your little infant imagination?
It was a children's programme,
it was also frightening.
There was no other show like this.
There really is no other example
of this genre.
It works you hard as a writer.
But I think if you're prepared
to work hard, it helps you.
Russell says that.
He says it's the hardest thing to write.
-Why is that?
-In Doctor Who you've got two minutes,
if that, of the Doctor and the companion
in the Tardis.
You walk out the door and it's
a new world of some kind or other.
A whole bunch of people
you have to introduce and dispose of
in one episode.
It needs a big, strong idea every week.
I think you know you've got a good idea
for a Doctor Who story if you think,
"Well, I've just blown that
feature film idea forever, haven't I?"
-Right.
-That's the size of story
that gets you through 45 minutes
of Doctor Who.
You were also charged this year
with writing one
in which the Doctor didn't appear much.
MOFFAT: I used a story
I had written for a Doctor Who annual.
-Right.
-Which was originally called,
What I Did on My Christmas Holidays
by Sally Sparrow, Aged 12 and a Half.
I thought, "Well,
that's actually quite a good story"
“cause it's already taken the Doctor
out of the thing.”
He's leaving messages in the past,
and I added a bit more fear and terror.
And aged Sally Sparrow up a little bit.
Children like watching
older children and adults.
They don't necessarily
like watching kids their own age.
Don't take your eyes off that.
DOCTOR:
That's why they cover their eyes.
They're not weeping,
they can't risk looking at each other.
We've also got DVD extras
saving the universe.
Yes, well, that's bound
to happen eventually, isn't it?
Which is a very post-modern idea,
I suppose.
-What is this? Who is he?
-An Easter egg.
Excuse me?
I've got the message in the wall.
I thought, "What else could he do?"
And I thought,
"I've always found the idea
of Easter eggs really quite exciting,"
'cause I can never find them.
So they seem genuinely exciting
and remote to me.
So, the Doctor being a ghost DVD extra,
I don't know, the moment I thought
of it, that just sounds cool.
He is on 17 different DVDs.
There are 17 totally unrelated DVDs,
all with him on,
always hidden away, always a secret.
There's also something
quite spooky about it as well, though,
until the other side of
the conversation is filled in.
Yes.
Something about a disembodied
conversation is slightly creepy.
People assume that time is
a strict progression of cause to effect,
but actually, from a non-linear,
non-subjective viewpoint,
it's more like a big ball
of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff
It started well that sentence.
It got away from me, yeah.
TENNANT: And Steven
is not the only writer for the series
who grew up loving the show.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am Richard Lazarus.
I am 76 years old
and I am reborn!
Why is it peculiarly hard
to write an episode of Doctor Who?
It's a tough balancing act, you know,
particularly the Saturday night
bear pit.
I remember having conversations about
the séance scene in The Unquiet Dead,
which so much I wanted it to be played
almost in the dark
with a little gaslight.
And it was like, "Well, we can't.
People might think the TV's gone off."
All these things
you never even consider.
You want to have a mass appeal,
at the same time,
try and do something different.
You want to have lots of fun,
but you obviously want to scare.
Because the format of the show
is unique, that's the difficult thing.
It's not like writing for anything else.
There are an incredible number
of people now working on the show
and working elsewhere
in television today
who cite Doctor Who as an inspiration.
You can't move for them.
What was it about
that formative experience
that has inspired people in this way?
I think it makes television look
incredibly exciting to children.
The idea of having anything
to do with something
that looks as exciting as that.
Gareth, this is the third year,
but the first year
-you've written an episode.
-Yeah.
Miss Jones, will you accompany me
to the theatre?
Mr Smith, T will!
When you get home, you can
tell everyone you've seen Shakespeare.
Then I could get sectioned.
I think when I got a copy
of the finished episode
and saw my name on the credits,
that's a really strange feeling.
Right in the middle of the screen,
as the time tunnel is going, it's you!
-Yeah.
-And that was a really strange feeling.
Do you think
you would both be doing what
you're doing today without Doctor Who?
It runs through my career
like a skein of rock.
-Yeah.
-It's everywhere.
I don't think I would have been
as inspired by classic period drama
or The Brothers.
You didn't get the sense
that there was a sort of imagination
-to be lit in the same way.
-The breadth of the imagination.
And it's something
you can aspire to as well.
I always felt
the Doctor was easier to aspire to
than a more conventional superhero type
because it wasn't about
being the strongest or the fastest.
TENNANT: But perhaps surprisingly,
not everyone involved in bringing
Doctor Who back to our screens
grew up wearing Tardis pyjamas.
Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter,
you're both very instrumental
in the comeback of the show.
Why were you both so keen
to bring it back?
Well, I think that there's something
about Doctor Who
that seemed so iconic,
and there was something so magnificent
of the idea of this time traveller
in the Tardis,
and it just seemed that because it
hadn't been on the screens for so long
that it was the moment to do it.
Were you aware
that it had such influence,
that it had such roots in a lot
of people's professional careers?
Yes. I mean that was
one of the reasons why
it seemed like a good idea
to bring it back,
because it's one
of the most talked about dramas,
television dramas, of all time.
When it was first announced
that we were bringing it back,
two things happened.
One was the tabloids
ran loads of speculation
about who we'd cast as the Doctor.
-Sure.
-And it was great fun,
and that was the first time
that you realised
-this is a massive show for people.
-Yeah.
-Front pages of the tabloids.
-Did that take you by surprise?
The truth is we love all of that.
I mean, if you don't have
that constant dialogue with the nation
about who are playing these people
and what's going to happen to them,
and that constant tease
and prolonged flirtation
with everyone about it all
then where would be the fun of it?
Okay, pop quiz.
Let's see how far over to the dark side
you have come.
Can you list the 10 actors
who have played the Doctor in order?
Oh, my Lord. Right.
-BOTH: William Hartnell.
-Into Patrick Troughton.
Into Jon Pertwee.
-Yeah.
-Into Tom Baker.
-Into Colin Baker.
-I get a bit hazy now.
No.
Hold on! Peter Davison!
-Yes, yes.
-Peter Davison into Colin Baker.
-Yes.
-Into Sylvester McCoy.
-Into Paul McGann.
-Yeah.
Into Christopher Eccleston.
-Into...
-Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
-That Scottish guy.
-It does get hazy.
-Into Ewan Tennant!
-Into Michael Sheen, wasn't it?
We tried to get him,
and he wouldn't do it.
(ALL LAUGHING)
TENNANT: When Doctor Who
moved down the M4
to set up production in Cardiff,
head writer Russell T Davies
and producer Phil Collinson
found themselves working on the show
they've been watching all their lives.
You both watched Doctor Who as a child.
Do you think that is where your desire
to work in television came from?
Yes. The first stories I used to
sort of walk around and think up...
We all used to play Daleks and Cybermen
in the yard.
And I would think up stories.
I used to draw them.
Originally, I didn't set out
wanting to work behind the scenes.
I wanted to be an actor.
But I think Doctor Who
was one of the big reasons
I wanted to be an actor.
So I suppose, by default, it's a
big reason why I ended up being in TV.
What about you?
Did it make you want to act?
I think it did. Yeah.
I mean, it's the same.
I grew up... It was watching the telly.
I was tiny when I decided
I wanted to be an actor.
But without doubt
one of the big shows
that was influencing me,
and probably the only show at first,
was Doctor Who.
TENNANT: So, if you've managed to turn
something you've loved as a child
into something you work on
as a grown-up, how does that feel?
To be one of the people here making it,
again, it's absolutely thrilling.
For me,
the reason why it got into my heart
is that I used to walk home from school
when I was a little, tiny kid
and you could walk around a corner
and you could imagine
the Tardis would be there
and you'd run towards it.
That's why it got into my heart.
And why I still love it is that
I honestly think you believe you can
become part of the Doctor's voyages.
You can do that with no other programme.
Do you think in 20 years' time,
the industry will be full of people
who are watching the show now
-as children?
-I'd love to think
there'll be people sat here making it
in 20 years going, "I watched.."
You must get the letters and the stories
they write. They're doing it.
-Yeah, that is true.
-They are doing it.
They're writing those stories now.
I get them constantly.
One imagines
it will be reinvented again.
-Oh, definitely.
-I think it will, yeah, definitely.
I think now it's like Robin Hood,
it's like Sherlock Holmes,
it's like Tarzan.
It's a true British icon.
They'll be sitting here
in 60 years' time going,
"That was a big success twice."
And that's enough to say
let's do it a third time.
That makes me really pleased,
and I suspect that's not
just because I'm in it now.
I think that would make me
really pleased anyway.
DAVIES: Oh, yeah.
COLLINSON: Me, too.