Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 3, Episode 7 - Space Craft - full transcript
NARRATOR: Prepare for lift-off
as Doctor Who journeys
back into outer space.
It is the first story we've done set
entirely within a spaceship, actually.
I'll save you.
I suppose calling the episode 42,
giving yourself 42 minutes...
It happens in real time, which
I don't think we've ever done before.
42 minutes until what?
KATH: 42 minutes
until we crash into the sun.
(ALARM BLARING)
I think the first draft
of the script came in,
and it was a spaceship
hurtling towards the sun.
And it was just as we talk about it,
it just needed
another element, another layer.
Action.
Got to get it out of me!
-I've got to stop it!
-Korwin, it's Abi.
Open your eyes.
I need to take a look at you.
Korwin! What's happened? Is he okay?
Not only have you got to play the scene,
but you're also under this huge pressure
that if you don't hurry up,
then time is ticking.
Help! Help me! It's burning me!
-How long's he been like this?
-Ashton just brought him in.
When the clock runs out,
the episode is over.
And it's a sprint to the finish line
from that point of view,
and I suppose that just gives it
a dynamic and an energy.
The difficulty I had was to make sure
that everybody in every scene
was giving it pace, energy,
remembering the clock is ticking.
And certainly,
you've got Graeme Harper directing,
and before every take
he bellows, "Loads of pace and energy!"
HARPER: Loads of energy and pace.
Here we go. Action.
Martha, Riley, how are you doing?
The Doctor is at his best
when he's putting out
lots of fires simultaneously.
He's having to run
from one place to the next,
always having to deal with problems,
always under pressure.
NARRATOR: Suited and booted,
saving the world today
means a death-defying space walk
for the Doctor.
Rather than just waving the sonic
screwdriver, it's one of those moments
where you think, "He's the hero,
he's got to physically risk his life."
There's got to be
physical exertion involved.
Action!
He's got to get in a spacesuit and
he's got to expose himself to the sun.
He's got to be reaching for a button
that is out of reach.
(CREW LAUGHING)
The hardest bit for me was the sequence
when I'm outside the spaceship
in the spacesuit, hanging on,
because, of course, although you've got
a big wind machine blasting you,
nothing's going to be able to recreate
that sense of a solar storm,
so you're having
to fling yourself around
in the old Star Trek fashion.
(SCREAMING)
It's one of those scenes where you
think, "There's got to be sacrifice."
"There's got to be effort,
there's got to be pain involved"
"in getting someone back."
And on Martha's end of it,
there has to be contemplation.
-Doctor!
-I'll save you.
I can't hear you.
(INAUDIBLE)
Last of the Mohicans we used to call it.
You know, when Daniel Day-Lewis
is shouting underneath the waterfalls,
"I will find you."
It's literally separating the Doctor
from his companion
in the middle of a boiling sun.
HARPER: Right, nice load of energy.
Here we go. And action.
I can't hear you.
We shoot tracking back,
looking from both angles.
(INAUDIBLE)
HARPER: In reality,
it's actually just being pulled back
into studio technology,
So you just see ladders, lamps
and bits of paraphernalia around.
But by the time the audience sees that,
that is the sun.
Then what we do is
we take over from the camera move
and it becomes a CG move.
My shot becomes a computer graphic
and then it's taken over by The Mill,
and you then see the pod
become smaller and smaller
against a massive sun.
Although the effects are brilliant,
although the set is brilliant,
it's about David and it's about Freema.
It's about them acting their socks off.
I'll save you.
I can't hear you.
(INAUDIBLE)
NARRATOR: Of course,
before you can cruise the cosmos,
you need the perfect spaceship.
Well, I've never been
in a spaceship before,
and when I first walked on the set
I just thought it was incredible.
It's all metal,
and it's all the real deal.
It's always a worry when the writers
start talking about spaceships
'cause you never quite know
where you're gonna end up.
It's not just the pristine spaceship,
gliding through space.
It's actually
an old, industrial lorry of a ship.
Oh, it's wrecked.
CHIBNALL: These guys, they're doing...
They're on that ship to earn money.
They're not on it
because they love space travel.
What we try and get onto Doctor Who
is what I like, is that sort of
slightly British, slightly knackered,
slightly home-made feel to it.
-What's he doing?
-Doctor, don't!
I think it's something
that we tend to do on the series now,
is we show the future
as a slightly decrepit place.
We show it as something
that's atrophying rather than...
We limit our gleaming white surfaces.
(ALARM BLARING)
Whatever you do on Doctor Who,
whatever technology or futurism
you're putting on screen,
it's always gonna look like
it was made now. And it should.
Science fiction in the '60s looks like
it was made in the '60s. '70s, '80s...
These programmes are a record
of the year in which they're made,
and they should be
and they should show that off.
One of the advantages of having
spaceships being made with CGI
rather than models,
as they used to do traditionally,
is that you have complete control
over it, right up until you're finished.
So whenever you shoot a model,
that's shot on film in a studio,
at the time you shoot it and
it's very expensive to go back and say,
"Actually, I'd really like
a shot that does this."
And because we have exactly the same
style of thing... We have a model.
It's just not physical,
it exists on the computer.
Oh, that's just not fair.
The Racnoss.
So I think that each generation
of spaceships is extremely exciting
because our spaceships
that we've done for Doctor Who
will probably look really dated
in 20 years' time.
But the ultimate design for a spaceship
has got to be the Tardis, hasn't it?
Because it's so mundane.
It's so domestic.
It's so wooden,
and yet it's more powerful
than all the rest.
NARRATOR: From hero to sub-zero
in a matter of minutes,
now it's the Doctor that needs saving,
and there's only one person
that can help.
I can do it.
-Martha, where are you?
-It's all right. I'm here.
Just setting everything up.
She needs to think fast,
and that's a moment where they have
this shift in the relationship,
where she's just got to take control.
He needs Martha
to return the help he gave her.
Ten seconds.
That's all I'll be able to take.
(GROANING) No more.
-Martha!
-Yeah?
It's burning me up. I can't control it.
If you don't get rid of it,
I could kill you. I could kill you all.
He's genuinely scared.
She's never heard him say he's scared,
and I don't suppose there's many times
that he has actually said it.
-I'm scared. I'm so scared.
-Just stay calm.
You saved me. Now I return the favour.
Just believe in me.
It's quite new
to hear the Doctor be that honest
about how frightened he is.
I think the Doctor is often scared
of things he comes up against,
but I think what makes him brave
is he doesn't show it, perhaps.
And it's interesting
to hear him admit that.
It's burning. Kill me.
I don't know what'll happen,
whether it'll work.
That's enough. I've got you.
I think it's important that,
as an audience,
we see the Doctor has gone somewhere new
and that he's faced something
that he's never quite faced before.
So, didn't really need you
in the end, did we?
Sorry.
I think it's also important that we see
the Doctor not indulging that too much,
that he tries and swallows it down
as hard as he can.
I think that's what he does,
and I think that's what he has done
and will continue to do
with moments like that.
How are you doing?
Now, what do you say?
Ice-skating on the mineral lakes
of Kur-ha. Fancy it?
Whatever you like.
By the way, you'll be needing this.
-Really?
-Frequent flyers' privilege.
Key to the flat!
It's like she's moved in.
-Thank you.
-Don't mention it.
In a way, this is Martha's first story
as a "proper companion"”.
It's like last week,
at the end of The Lazarus Experiment,
the Doctor accepted her.
He stopped saying,
"We're just doing this for one trip."
He welcomed her on board.
In this, he sets her up.
He does her phone
so that she can phone home.
She gets all the accoutrements
of being a companion.
It's testimony to where they're at.
If they were having
a normal relationship,
they would be moving in at this point.
It's serious.
-When I say "now", push the button.
-But I don't know which one!
Now!
Hey, nonny, nonny.
Your breath doesn't half stink.
Turn everything off.
They might not be able to find us.
-How did you think of that?
-I saw it on a film.
-All right, you staying?
-Till you talk to me properly, yes.
Wait!
NARRATOR: And so we leave this adventure
with Martha holding the key
to an exciting and unpredictable future
with the Doctor.
as Doctor Who journeys
back into outer space.
It is the first story we've done set
entirely within a spaceship, actually.
I'll save you.
I suppose calling the episode 42,
giving yourself 42 minutes...
It happens in real time, which
I don't think we've ever done before.
42 minutes until what?
KATH: 42 minutes
until we crash into the sun.
(ALARM BLARING)
I think the first draft
of the script came in,
and it was a spaceship
hurtling towards the sun.
And it was just as we talk about it,
it just needed
another element, another layer.
Action.
Got to get it out of me!
-I've got to stop it!
-Korwin, it's Abi.
Open your eyes.
I need to take a look at you.
Korwin! What's happened? Is he okay?
Not only have you got to play the scene,
but you're also under this huge pressure
that if you don't hurry up,
then time is ticking.
Help! Help me! It's burning me!
-How long's he been like this?
-Ashton just brought him in.
When the clock runs out,
the episode is over.
And it's a sprint to the finish line
from that point of view,
and I suppose that just gives it
a dynamic and an energy.
The difficulty I had was to make sure
that everybody in every scene
was giving it pace, energy,
remembering the clock is ticking.
And certainly,
you've got Graeme Harper directing,
and before every take
he bellows, "Loads of pace and energy!"
HARPER: Loads of energy and pace.
Here we go. Action.
Martha, Riley, how are you doing?
The Doctor is at his best
when he's putting out
lots of fires simultaneously.
He's having to run
from one place to the next,
always having to deal with problems,
always under pressure.
NARRATOR: Suited and booted,
saving the world today
means a death-defying space walk
for the Doctor.
Rather than just waving the sonic
screwdriver, it's one of those moments
where you think, "He's the hero,
he's got to physically risk his life."
There's got to be
physical exertion involved.
Action!
He's got to get in a spacesuit and
he's got to expose himself to the sun.
He's got to be reaching for a button
that is out of reach.
(CREW LAUGHING)
The hardest bit for me was the sequence
when I'm outside the spaceship
in the spacesuit, hanging on,
because, of course, although you've got
a big wind machine blasting you,
nothing's going to be able to recreate
that sense of a solar storm,
so you're having
to fling yourself around
in the old Star Trek fashion.
(SCREAMING)
It's one of those scenes where you
think, "There's got to be sacrifice."
"There's got to be effort,
there's got to be pain involved"
"in getting someone back."
And on Martha's end of it,
there has to be contemplation.
-Doctor!
-I'll save you.
I can't hear you.
(INAUDIBLE)
Last of the Mohicans we used to call it.
You know, when Daniel Day-Lewis
is shouting underneath the waterfalls,
"I will find you."
It's literally separating the Doctor
from his companion
in the middle of a boiling sun.
HARPER: Right, nice load of energy.
Here we go. And action.
I can't hear you.
We shoot tracking back,
looking from both angles.
(INAUDIBLE)
HARPER: In reality,
it's actually just being pulled back
into studio technology,
So you just see ladders, lamps
and bits of paraphernalia around.
But by the time the audience sees that,
that is the sun.
Then what we do is
we take over from the camera move
and it becomes a CG move.
My shot becomes a computer graphic
and then it's taken over by The Mill,
and you then see the pod
become smaller and smaller
against a massive sun.
Although the effects are brilliant,
although the set is brilliant,
it's about David and it's about Freema.
It's about them acting their socks off.
I'll save you.
I can't hear you.
(INAUDIBLE)
NARRATOR: Of course,
before you can cruise the cosmos,
you need the perfect spaceship.
Well, I've never been
in a spaceship before,
and when I first walked on the set
I just thought it was incredible.
It's all metal,
and it's all the real deal.
It's always a worry when the writers
start talking about spaceships
'cause you never quite know
where you're gonna end up.
It's not just the pristine spaceship,
gliding through space.
It's actually
an old, industrial lorry of a ship.
Oh, it's wrecked.
CHIBNALL: These guys, they're doing...
They're on that ship to earn money.
They're not on it
because they love space travel.
What we try and get onto Doctor Who
is what I like, is that sort of
slightly British, slightly knackered,
slightly home-made feel to it.
-What's he doing?
-Doctor, don't!
I think it's something
that we tend to do on the series now,
is we show the future
as a slightly decrepit place.
We show it as something
that's atrophying rather than...
We limit our gleaming white surfaces.
(ALARM BLARING)
Whatever you do on Doctor Who,
whatever technology or futurism
you're putting on screen,
it's always gonna look like
it was made now. And it should.
Science fiction in the '60s looks like
it was made in the '60s. '70s, '80s...
These programmes are a record
of the year in which they're made,
and they should be
and they should show that off.
One of the advantages of having
spaceships being made with CGI
rather than models,
as they used to do traditionally,
is that you have complete control
over it, right up until you're finished.
So whenever you shoot a model,
that's shot on film in a studio,
at the time you shoot it and
it's very expensive to go back and say,
"Actually, I'd really like
a shot that does this."
And because we have exactly the same
style of thing... We have a model.
It's just not physical,
it exists on the computer.
Oh, that's just not fair.
The Racnoss.
So I think that each generation
of spaceships is extremely exciting
because our spaceships
that we've done for Doctor Who
will probably look really dated
in 20 years' time.
But the ultimate design for a spaceship
has got to be the Tardis, hasn't it?
Because it's so mundane.
It's so domestic.
It's so wooden,
and yet it's more powerful
than all the rest.
NARRATOR: From hero to sub-zero
in a matter of minutes,
now it's the Doctor that needs saving,
and there's only one person
that can help.
I can do it.
-Martha, where are you?
-It's all right. I'm here.
Just setting everything up.
She needs to think fast,
and that's a moment where they have
this shift in the relationship,
where she's just got to take control.
He needs Martha
to return the help he gave her.
Ten seconds.
That's all I'll be able to take.
(GROANING) No more.
-Martha!
-Yeah?
It's burning me up. I can't control it.
If you don't get rid of it,
I could kill you. I could kill you all.
He's genuinely scared.
She's never heard him say he's scared,
and I don't suppose there's many times
that he has actually said it.
-I'm scared. I'm so scared.
-Just stay calm.
You saved me. Now I return the favour.
Just believe in me.
It's quite new
to hear the Doctor be that honest
about how frightened he is.
I think the Doctor is often scared
of things he comes up against,
but I think what makes him brave
is he doesn't show it, perhaps.
And it's interesting
to hear him admit that.
It's burning. Kill me.
I don't know what'll happen,
whether it'll work.
That's enough. I've got you.
I think it's important that,
as an audience,
we see the Doctor has gone somewhere new
and that he's faced something
that he's never quite faced before.
So, didn't really need you
in the end, did we?
Sorry.
I think it's also important that we see
the Doctor not indulging that too much,
that he tries and swallows it down
as hard as he can.
I think that's what he does,
and I think that's what he has done
and will continue to do
with moments like that.
How are you doing?
Now, what do you say?
Ice-skating on the mineral lakes
of Kur-ha. Fancy it?
Whatever you like.
By the way, you'll be needing this.
-Really?
-Frequent flyers' privilege.
Key to the flat!
It's like she's moved in.
-Thank you.
-Don't mention it.
In a way, this is Martha's first story
as a "proper companion"”.
It's like last week,
at the end of The Lazarus Experiment,
the Doctor accepted her.
He stopped saying,
"We're just doing this for one trip."
He welcomed her on board.
In this, he sets her up.
He does her phone
so that she can phone home.
She gets all the accoutrements
of being a companion.
It's testimony to where they're at.
If they were having
a normal relationship,
they would be moving in at this point.
It's serious.
-When I say "now", push the button.
-But I don't know which one!
Now!
Hey, nonny, nonny.
Your breath doesn't half stink.
Turn everything off.
They might not be able to find us.
-How did you think of that?
-I saw it on a film.
-All right, you staying?
-Till you talk to me properly, yes.
Wait!
NARRATOR: And so we leave this adventure
with Martha holding the key
to an exciting and unpredictable future
with the Doctor.