Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 3, Episode 4 - A New York Story - full transcript
NARRATOR: He's travelled the galaxy
through space and time,
but start spreading the news,
because the Doctor has landed
in old New York, New York.
Confidential crosses the Atlantic
to the city that never sleeps
and spends every waking hour
in the company of writer Helen Raynor.
Join us as we go stateside
to find out the real-life inspirations
behind Daleks in Manhattan.
We've had the Daleks in the far future.
We've had them in the present day.
So, a new setting to re-vitalise them
is the past.
The challenge of the series is for us
to keep coming up with new ideas,
and keep taking it to different places.
And I think it's kind of the ultimate
to take the Daleks into Manhattan.
Just over there
is the Empire State Building.
Martha doesn't know
that she's coming to New York,
and they're just taking
one final little detour in the Tardis
before she thinks she's going home.
-Where are we?
-Ah! Smell that Atlantic breeze.
Realise they are at the bottom of
the Statue of Liberty...
Martha, have you met my friend?
...and then look out to Manhattan,
which is even further around that way.
Look, the Empire State Building's
not even finished yet.
Work in progress.
Martha sees the unfinished
Empire State Building,
and that's how they work out that
they must be somewhere
around the early 1930s.
They've still got
a couple of floors to go,
and if I know my history,
that makes the date somewhere around...
-November 1st, 1930.
-You're getting good at this.
They would have a clear perspective
all the way up Manhattan
towards the Empire State Building,
which would have been the tallest thing
in the skyline at that point.
I love the history,
I love the kind of back story
that we're telling really
in these episodes.
Initially, I was casting round,
thinking, well, which kind of great
New York iconic building or event
am I actually interested in?
Because it's always nice
to try and tie the stories
into something real and identifiable.
In 1930, they were building
the Empire State Building.
You know, it's the iconic building
of New York.
And I got really obsessed
by the mast at the top,
and just why would you build
the tallest building in the world?
What would it be for?
Then all of a sudden, it made
complete sense to use that building.
I love the way she's actually made
the building of it
so integral to the whole thing.
NARRATOR: So, the stage is set,
the venue's ready,
it's time to bring on the dancing girls.
Girls, it's show time!
Once they've done the circling,
and they come back to the...
-The lines. Then nip in.
-The lines. That's your cue to nip in.
We're doing basically,
the musical number,
which introduces Tallulah,
who's one of our main characters.
We're kind of on to do the big number,
which is pretty much,
you know, our number that we do.
It's all kind of
Diamond's Are
a Girl's Best Friend equivalent.
It's one of those moments where you
wanna show off what we can do in a way.
It's set in a theatre,
Tallulah's vital to the plot.
It'd be very easy to have
the theatre stuff going on off-stage,
just noises in the background
and actually, we've got the size
and the space to say
they really are in a Broadway theatre.
We can get a chorus line, we can
dress them, we can get the feathers,
we can do that.
It's all about showing the audience
different worlds, and I think,
you know, to show them the theatre is
a world we've never really gone into.
And we've got showgirls.
How marvellous is that!
The moment we said we had showgirls,
Murray said, "Oh, can I write a song?"
We said, "Yes, then, off you go."
♪ You lured me in
with your cold grey eyes
♪ Your simple smile,
your bewitching lies ♪
So, you use a bit of glamour,
a bit of fun and a bit of colour,
so long as there's still a story
ticking away underneath it all.
Ever been on stage before?
I mean, it's not a story
about a theatre,
but it's been very nice to
get that in there as a texture.
You spoil my sashay tonight,
I'm gonna punch you.
Because I've worked a lot in theatre,
then I know the backstage feel of it
very well and the whole kind of rhythm
of being in a theatre
before a performance starts,
I think that's very crucial.
So it's like, if there's a performance
happening and the clock is ticking,
so you can count down and
you've got two minutes till curtain up,
the girls have got to get ready
and so, instantly, on a plate,
you've got a bit of movement
and a clock ticking
to kind of get things rolling on.
Looking glamorous, that's the point.
It's those little pockets of glamour
in a very brown
and sad world. Brilliant.
Musical numbers aren't that common
in Doctor Who, so this is
a kind of rare occasion, but
it's great to work with a choreographer
and actually work to get a dance routine
that kind of works.
Not just looks nice,
but it also has to come back to
the story. It has to fit into the story.
It's gonna be an amazing spectacle
to see them doing it
and you're gonna immediately believe
what's going on on the stage
and on the screen
and then, ultimately, in the story.
D camera. C camera.
And curtains.
And playback.
(TAPPING)
(VAUDEVILLE MUSIC PLAYING)
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
♪ You lured me in
with your cold grey eyes
♪ Your simple smile,
your bewitching lies
♪ One and one and one is three
♪ My bad, bad angel
♪ The devil in me
♪ You put the devil in me
♪ You put the devil in me
♪ You put the devil in me
♪ My bad, bad angel
♪ You put the devil in me ♪
I think the whole script
really came alive
when she came up with Hooverville,
the fact that people were living
in such poverty
and actually living in the city.
They built a city within the city.
The notion that they would be surrounded
by all this wealth
and yet they'd be starving
was quite shocking, I think.
All the people in Hooverville
are really vulnerable,
and therefore easily exploited
and easily taken by the Daleks.
At the end, can we do something...
Once they say, "Yeah,"
they come to my side,
so it's like you can see clearly
who's volunteered and who hasn't.
Well, I think it's only those that do,
isn't it?
In the tunnel, it's only them.
He wants to succeed and make a lot of
money and stuff and he'll do anything
I want to run this city,
whatever it takes.
It's his ambition.
You have rare ambition.
The Daleks kind of find in him
what they wanna use.
You think like a Dalek.
I did initially write him as much more
as a black-and-white,
moustache-twirling villain.
I'll take that as a compliment.
There's an interesting parallel
between Mr Diagoras and Solomon.
That's another thing haunting this,
is that World War I,
for these people, was very recent.
I've been a soldier myself.
And I swore then I'd survive.
They both have very similar speeches,
they talk about having been in the war.
I fought in the Great War,
a lot of us did.
And the only reason we got through,
because we stuck together.
And I like the fact that
they're both haunted by World War I,
they're both changed by it
and they've both gone opposite ways.
Both of them have been through
potentially similar experiences.
Solomon has become a leader of men.
He is wise, compassionate and helpful.
Diagoras is absolutely selfish
as a result.
He's very damaged, I think.
He's a war-damaged man.
And having seen that devastation,
he's simply out for number one.
That's progress.
You gotta move with the times
or you get left behind.
Diagoras has just come out,
having learnt the lesson
that you look after number one
and that actually people are weak
and you can exploit them.
So there was a nice parallel
throughout the story.
-What's the work?
-A little trip down the sewers.
Got a tunnel collapsed,
needs clearing and fixing.
There were so many people out of work,
it was a buyers market
and they could be paid as little
as the employers wanted to pay them.
You don't need the work, that's fine.
And that's something that Diagoras knows
absolutely when he turns up
to recruit in Hooverville.
A dollar a day is a slave wage.
MEN: Yeah, yeah!
And men don't always come back up,
do they?
Accidents happen.
What do you mean,
what sort of accidents?
(SQUEALING)
Frank, no!
It's a great episode.
through space and time,
but start spreading the news,
because the Doctor has landed
in old New York, New York.
Confidential crosses the Atlantic
to the city that never sleeps
and spends every waking hour
in the company of writer Helen Raynor.
Join us as we go stateside
to find out the real-life inspirations
behind Daleks in Manhattan.
We've had the Daleks in the far future.
We've had them in the present day.
So, a new setting to re-vitalise them
is the past.
The challenge of the series is for us
to keep coming up with new ideas,
and keep taking it to different places.
And I think it's kind of the ultimate
to take the Daleks into Manhattan.
Just over there
is the Empire State Building.
Martha doesn't know
that she's coming to New York,
and they're just taking
one final little detour in the Tardis
before she thinks she's going home.
-Where are we?
-Ah! Smell that Atlantic breeze.
Realise they are at the bottom of
the Statue of Liberty...
Martha, have you met my friend?
...and then look out to Manhattan,
which is even further around that way.
Look, the Empire State Building's
not even finished yet.
Work in progress.
Martha sees the unfinished
Empire State Building,
and that's how they work out that
they must be somewhere
around the early 1930s.
They've still got
a couple of floors to go,
and if I know my history,
that makes the date somewhere around...
-November 1st, 1930.
-You're getting good at this.
They would have a clear perspective
all the way up Manhattan
towards the Empire State Building,
which would have been the tallest thing
in the skyline at that point.
I love the history,
I love the kind of back story
that we're telling really
in these episodes.
Initially, I was casting round,
thinking, well, which kind of great
New York iconic building or event
am I actually interested in?
Because it's always nice
to try and tie the stories
into something real and identifiable.
In 1930, they were building
the Empire State Building.
You know, it's the iconic building
of New York.
And I got really obsessed
by the mast at the top,
and just why would you build
the tallest building in the world?
What would it be for?
Then all of a sudden, it made
complete sense to use that building.
I love the way she's actually made
the building of it
so integral to the whole thing.
NARRATOR: So, the stage is set,
the venue's ready,
it's time to bring on the dancing girls.
Girls, it's show time!
Once they've done the circling,
and they come back to the...
-The lines. Then nip in.
-The lines. That's your cue to nip in.
We're doing basically,
the musical number,
which introduces Tallulah,
who's one of our main characters.
We're kind of on to do the big number,
which is pretty much,
you know, our number that we do.
It's all kind of
Diamond's Are
a Girl's Best Friend equivalent.
It's one of those moments where you
wanna show off what we can do in a way.
It's set in a theatre,
Tallulah's vital to the plot.
It'd be very easy to have
the theatre stuff going on off-stage,
just noises in the background
and actually, we've got the size
and the space to say
they really are in a Broadway theatre.
We can get a chorus line, we can
dress them, we can get the feathers,
we can do that.
It's all about showing the audience
different worlds, and I think,
you know, to show them the theatre is
a world we've never really gone into.
And we've got showgirls.
How marvellous is that!
The moment we said we had showgirls,
Murray said, "Oh, can I write a song?"
We said, "Yes, then, off you go."
♪ You lured me in
with your cold grey eyes
♪ Your simple smile,
your bewitching lies ♪
So, you use a bit of glamour,
a bit of fun and a bit of colour,
so long as there's still a story
ticking away underneath it all.
Ever been on stage before?
I mean, it's not a story
about a theatre,
but it's been very nice to
get that in there as a texture.
You spoil my sashay tonight,
I'm gonna punch you.
Because I've worked a lot in theatre,
then I know the backstage feel of it
very well and the whole kind of rhythm
of being in a theatre
before a performance starts,
I think that's very crucial.
So it's like, if there's a performance
happening and the clock is ticking,
so you can count down and
you've got two minutes till curtain up,
the girls have got to get ready
and so, instantly, on a plate,
you've got a bit of movement
and a clock ticking
to kind of get things rolling on.
Looking glamorous, that's the point.
It's those little pockets of glamour
in a very brown
and sad world. Brilliant.
Musical numbers aren't that common
in Doctor Who, so this is
a kind of rare occasion, but
it's great to work with a choreographer
and actually work to get a dance routine
that kind of works.
Not just looks nice,
but it also has to come back to
the story. It has to fit into the story.
It's gonna be an amazing spectacle
to see them doing it
and you're gonna immediately believe
what's going on on the stage
and on the screen
and then, ultimately, in the story.
D camera. C camera.
And curtains.
And playback.
(TAPPING)
(VAUDEVILLE MUSIC PLAYING)
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
♪ You lured me in
with your cold grey eyes
♪ Your simple smile,
your bewitching lies
♪ One and one and one is three
♪ My bad, bad angel
♪ The devil in me
♪ You put the devil in me
♪ You put the devil in me
♪ You put the devil in me
♪ My bad, bad angel
♪ You put the devil in me ♪
I think the whole script
really came alive
when she came up with Hooverville,
the fact that people were living
in such poverty
and actually living in the city.
They built a city within the city.
The notion that they would be surrounded
by all this wealth
and yet they'd be starving
was quite shocking, I think.
All the people in Hooverville
are really vulnerable,
and therefore easily exploited
and easily taken by the Daleks.
At the end, can we do something...
Once they say, "Yeah,"
they come to my side,
so it's like you can see clearly
who's volunteered and who hasn't.
Well, I think it's only those that do,
isn't it?
In the tunnel, it's only them.
He wants to succeed and make a lot of
money and stuff and he'll do anything
I want to run this city,
whatever it takes.
It's his ambition.
You have rare ambition.
The Daleks kind of find in him
what they wanna use.
You think like a Dalek.
I did initially write him as much more
as a black-and-white,
moustache-twirling villain.
I'll take that as a compliment.
There's an interesting parallel
between Mr Diagoras and Solomon.
That's another thing haunting this,
is that World War I,
for these people, was very recent.
I've been a soldier myself.
And I swore then I'd survive.
They both have very similar speeches,
they talk about having been in the war.
I fought in the Great War,
a lot of us did.
And the only reason we got through,
because we stuck together.
And I like the fact that
they're both haunted by World War I,
they're both changed by it
and they've both gone opposite ways.
Both of them have been through
potentially similar experiences.
Solomon has become a leader of men.
He is wise, compassionate and helpful.
Diagoras is absolutely selfish
as a result.
He's very damaged, I think.
He's a war-damaged man.
And having seen that devastation,
he's simply out for number one.
That's progress.
You gotta move with the times
or you get left behind.
Diagoras has just come out,
having learnt the lesson
that you look after number one
and that actually people are weak
and you can exploit them.
So there was a nice parallel
throughout the story.
-What's the work?
-A little trip down the sewers.
Got a tunnel collapsed,
needs clearing and fixing.
There were so many people out of work,
it was a buyers market
and they could be paid as little
as the employers wanted to pay them.
You don't need the work, that's fine.
And that's something that Diagoras knows
absolutely when he turns up
to recruit in Hooverville.
A dollar a day is a slave wage.
MEN: Yeah, yeah!
And men don't always come back up,
do they?
Accidents happen.
What do you mean,
what sort of accidents?
(SQUEALING)
Frank, no!
It's a great episode.