Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 4, Episode 5 - Sontar-Ha! - full transcript
NARRATOR: Those big-headed
Sontarans are still waging war.
Change of plan!
And they have an almighty chip
on their shoulder.
They look brilliant.
A whole new dynamic of creature.
We will ravage this planet.
Because they have no fear of death,
they are sort of unstoppable.
They're truly brutal, nasty,
monstrous creatures.
NARRATOR: It's battle stations for
the Doctor Who production team
as they plan with military precision
the Sontarans' attack
against UNIT forces.
Retreat! Retreat!
It's big battle time in this episode,
and actually it's the first time
ever on screen
you really get to see
the Sontarans en masse.
I just want to see hoards of them,
armies of them marching,
guns, battleship, action.
To see these soldiers, these famous
soldiers of the Doctor Who universe
at war, in battle, fighting
and loving it.
All troops, Code Red.
This isn't war!
Get them out of there.
This is sport!
They're running like slimebait
from a speelfox.
Retreat!
Get them out of there.
God save us.
North America, online.
United Kingdom, online.
North Korea, online.
The honour of battle. The glory!
With the coordination of Tom,
our stunt coordinator,
and Ailsa, our choreographer,
we really felt the, kind of,
full force of their warrior techniques.
They're truly brutal, nasty,
monstrous creatures,
and that's what Sontarans are.
They fight.
At the moment, we're waiting
to go in to shoot the big battle
that we're gonna be having
with the UNIT troops.
Action!
And shooting various members of them.
It's an interesting way
to spend a morning, certainly.
Keep coming.
What we've seen on there
is the soldiers running around
sort of half-panicking.
(ALL SHOUTING)
And then you have the Sontarans
coming into a set line.
And then we had to work out
different scenarios for
where they're running, falling,
and trying to get away from them
and trying to shoot, but their guns jam.
I think we really did
get a sense of scale
in that we had these two, kind of,
big forces facing each other.
And then throwing in our, you know,
kind of set-piece special effects,
was, yeah, in episode 5,
makes for a very dramatic sequence.
Action!
WOMAN: Cut that!
The brief with the Sontaran really
was to keep the traditional look
of the Sontaran, the way the head looks.
The way it looked in the 70s.
That lovely dome shape.
But obviously now, 30, 40 years on,
we can totally update the technology.
Now it's actually a prosthetic make-up.
It's in two pieces.
There's the large dome part of his head,
and then there's a facial piece
which goes on.
We actually glue it down
to the whole face
so that as the performer moves their
face, everything moves with the face.
Wonderful.
I always wanted Sontarans to be short.
That's my mental image of them.
I think the initial idea
was that they were quite squat.
And then I think they got quite tall.
But we've made them squat again.
Is that a reference to my height?
Short answer? Yes.
A pity. Words are the weapons of
womenfolk. I must judge you unfit.
Oh? What are you gonna do?
Bite our ankles?
One of the design briefs
for the Sontarans
would be that they're quite short
and stocky creatures.
So we picked a size, basically saying
we'd go with five-foot-tall.
Doctor, you impugn my honour!
Yeah, I'm really glad
you didn't say "belittle"
'cause then I'd have a field day.
So fortunately we got cast
Chris Ryan who is five-foot-tall
and is a fabulous actor.
Four hundred million weapons.
(CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
Sontar-ha.
ALL: (CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
We certainly want to give them
that testosterone.
ALL: (CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
They just needed that sort of release,
that joy in battle
beyond just saying, "I'm having fun."
So I thought that chant
brought out their aggression
and their rituals and also their fun,
but also the fact that they're all
of one like mind. They are clones.
They all do things together.
They all join in in exactly the same
actions, the same words.
It just seems really Sontaran
to do that.
Probably about three or four weeks
ago when the guys first came together
for the first time,
we did a few basic exercises.
Just running things, just some marching,
Just to get everybody in the feel
of the quality of movement
that we were actually looking for.
C camera.
Okay. And three, two, one, action.
Four hundred million weapons.
(CHANTING) Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
I seem to remember saying that
quite a few times.
ALL: (CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
My left palm was very sore
at the end of ...
After each session of my Sontar-ha-ing.
ALL: (CHANTING)
Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
-Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
-Give me a break.
It's a good chance,
when we come back to Earth,
mid-series, it's a good chance
for the companion to develop,
to see that, for example,
Donna gets her key to the Tardis.
Oh! I've never given you a key.
Keep that. Go on, that's yours.
Quite a big moment, really.
She's given a key to the Tardis, yeah.
Which in quite a true
Donna fashion, she goes,
“Yeah, never mind.
Don't get all sentimental about it
"cause I'm actually choking to death."
Action!
Ross, look after yourself.
Get inside the building.
What's perhaps different
to the Doctor and Donna's relationship
to relationships that we've seen
the Doctor have before,
is that Donna herself feels no need
to prove herself.
God, this air is disgusting.
It's not so bad for me.
Go and get inside the Tardis.
Oh! I've never given you a key.
She's very much her own woman.
And I think the Doctor, therefore,
goes along with that.
Keep that. Go on, that's yours.
Quite a big moment, really.
Yeah, maybe we'll get all sentimental
after the world's finished
choking to death.
Yeah, good idea.
Donna's not been waiting going,
"Oh..." you know,
"Are you gonna tell me the alarm code?"
You know what I mean?
I don't think she's really
reading into that in any way.
Donna just forces herself upon him.
Donna just inhabits the Doctor's life
from the moment she steps on board.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Neither can I.
Which, I think, for instance,
the moment when the Doctor
gives her a Tardis key,
I think he just assumed
he'd already done it.
She actually treats it
in a much more cavalier way
than either Rose or Martha did.
None of that nonsense.
Just give me the key,
thank you very much,
world's choking to death.
With Rose, and possibly
even more with Martha,
there was always a sense that
perhaps they felt
they didn't quite deserve to be there.
What's happened? Where are you?
Still on Earth, but don't worry,
I've got my secret weapon.
-And what's that?
-You.
Hmm, somehow that's not making me happy.
Companion alone on an alien spaceship,
and all she's got is a hammer.
There's something really
dreadful about that.
I mean, genuinely full of dread in that
the Doctor isn't there to save her.
It's a scary place to be.
It's very alone.
I find that very, very scary.
It's one my favourite sequences
'cause of the loneliness of it.
There's a Sonterrun. A Sontaran.
-Did he see you?
-No, he's got his back to me.
Right. Donna, listen.
On the back of his neck, on his collar,
there's a sort of plug, like a hole,
the Probic Vent.
One blow to the Probic Vent
knocks them out.
But he's going to kill me.
I'm sorry. I swear, I'm so sorry,
but you've got to try.
She does have a wobble.
And it's quite unusual
'cause we haven't
really seen that from her
because she is quite sure of who she is.
She's quite sure of what she can do
and what she can't do.
I can't even mend a fuse.
Donna, stop talking about yourself
like that.
You can do this, I promise.
So when the Doctor really
has to push her, it feels new.
And he's sorry for it.
But what if they find me?
I know, and I wouldn't ask,
but there's nothing else I can do.
The whole planet is choking, Donna.
So the Doctor almost regrets having
to push her into situations
where she wouldn't feel
entirely comfortable.
But, of course,
he does because he has to.
And, of course, she fulfils it
because she is
perhaps more able
than she believes herself to be.
She rises to the occasion.
Yeah, she does.
And I think she sort of finds this
sort of strength within her,
and I don't know if she knew she had it.
'Cause she's cocky
and she's mouthy and she's ballsy,
but it doesn't necessarily mean she's
brave in the face of alien warfare.
But it turns out, she is.
There's something very human about that.
She doesn't sort of suddenly
become some superhero
and step up to the mark
in a way that's just a bit too much.
And action.
Back of the neck.
Here's a little bit of trivia for you.
It was supposed to be a shoe.
But because I'll only wear trainers,
they didn't want it to be a trainer.
Or thought probably a trainer
would be too soft.
It would just bounce
off the back of his neck.
So I had to have a mallet.
I'm through.
Oh, you are brilliant, you are.
Shut up.
Previously, he's been
more used to being admired
and slightly goggled at.
With every passing story,
Donna becomes more of a companion.
And in the second half
of the series now,
there's some really brilliant stuff
to come.
TENNANT: And it's just. ..
It's part of the new...
The different flavour that Donna brings.
Sontarans are still waging war.
Change of plan!
And they have an almighty chip
on their shoulder.
They look brilliant.
A whole new dynamic of creature.
We will ravage this planet.
Because they have no fear of death,
they are sort of unstoppable.
They're truly brutal, nasty,
monstrous creatures.
NARRATOR: It's battle stations for
the Doctor Who production team
as they plan with military precision
the Sontarans' attack
against UNIT forces.
Retreat! Retreat!
It's big battle time in this episode,
and actually it's the first time
ever on screen
you really get to see
the Sontarans en masse.
I just want to see hoards of them,
armies of them marching,
guns, battleship, action.
To see these soldiers, these famous
soldiers of the Doctor Who universe
at war, in battle, fighting
and loving it.
All troops, Code Red.
This isn't war!
Get them out of there.
This is sport!
They're running like slimebait
from a speelfox.
Retreat!
Get them out of there.
God save us.
North America, online.
United Kingdom, online.
North Korea, online.
The honour of battle. The glory!
With the coordination of Tom,
our stunt coordinator,
and Ailsa, our choreographer,
we really felt the, kind of,
full force of their warrior techniques.
They're truly brutal, nasty,
monstrous creatures,
and that's what Sontarans are.
They fight.
At the moment, we're waiting
to go in to shoot the big battle
that we're gonna be having
with the UNIT troops.
Action!
And shooting various members of them.
It's an interesting way
to spend a morning, certainly.
Keep coming.
What we've seen on there
is the soldiers running around
sort of half-panicking.
(ALL SHOUTING)
And then you have the Sontarans
coming into a set line.
And then we had to work out
different scenarios for
where they're running, falling,
and trying to get away from them
and trying to shoot, but their guns jam.
I think we really did
get a sense of scale
in that we had these two, kind of,
big forces facing each other.
And then throwing in our, you know,
kind of set-piece special effects,
was, yeah, in episode 5,
makes for a very dramatic sequence.
Action!
WOMAN: Cut that!
The brief with the Sontaran really
was to keep the traditional look
of the Sontaran, the way the head looks.
The way it looked in the 70s.
That lovely dome shape.
But obviously now, 30, 40 years on,
we can totally update the technology.
Now it's actually a prosthetic make-up.
It's in two pieces.
There's the large dome part of his head,
and then there's a facial piece
which goes on.
We actually glue it down
to the whole face
so that as the performer moves their
face, everything moves with the face.
Wonderful.
I always wanted Sontarans to be short.
That's my mental image of them.
I think the initial idea
was that they were quite squat.
And then I think they got quite tall.
But we've made them squat again.
Is that a reference to my height?
Short answer? Yes.
A pity. Words are the weapons of
womenfolk. I must judge you unfit.
Oh? What are you gonna do?
Bite our ankles?
One of the design briefs
for the Sontarans
would be that they're quite short
and stocky creatures.
So we picked a size, basically saying
we'd go with five-foot-tall.
Doctor, you impugn my honour!
Yeah, I'm really glad
you didn't say "belittle"
'cause then I'd have a field day.
So fortunately we got cast
Chris Ryan who is five-foot-tall
and is a fabulous actor.
Four hundred million weapons.
(CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
Sontar-ha.
ALL: (CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
We certainly want to give them
that testosterone.
ALL: (CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
They just needed that sort of release,
that joy in battle
beyond just saying, "I'm having fun."
So I thought that chant
brought out their aggression
and their rituals and also their fun,
but also the fact that they're all
of one like mind. They are clones.
They all do things together.
They all join in in exactly the same
actions, the same words.
It just seems really Sontaran
to do that.
Probably about three or four weeks
ago when the guys first came together
for the first time,
we did a few basic exercises.
Just running things, just some marching,
Just to get everybody in the feel
of the quality of movement
that we were actually looking for.
C camera.
Okay. And three, two, one, action.
Four hundred million weapons.
(CHANTING) Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
I seem to remember saying that
quite a few times.
ALL: (CHANTING) Sontar-ha.
Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
My left palm was very sore
at the end of ...
After each session of my Sontar-ha-ing.
ALL: (CHANTING)
Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
-Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha.
-Give me a break.
It's a good chance,
when we come back to Earth,
mid-series, it's a good chance
for the companion to develop,
to see that, for example,
Donna gets her key to the Tardis.
Oh! I've never given you a key.
Keep that. Go on, that's yours.
Quite a big moment, really.
She's given a key to the Tardis, yeah.
Which in quite a true
Donna fashion, she goes,
“Yeah, never mind.
Don't get all sentimental about it
"cause I'm actually choking to death."
Action!
Ross, look after yourself.
Get inside the building.
What's perhaps different
to the Doctor and Donna's relationship
to relationships that we've seen
the Doctor have before,
is that Donna herself feels no need
to prove herself.
God, this air is disgusting.
It's not so bad for me.
Go and get inside the Tardis.
Oh! I've never given you a key.
She's very much her own woman.
And I think the Doctor, therefore,
goes along with that.
Keep that. Go on, that's yours.
Quite a big moment, really.
Yeah, maybe we'll get all sentimental
after the world's finished
choking to death.
Yeah, good idea.
Donna's not been waiting going,
"Oh..." you know,
"Are you gonna tell me the alarm code?"
You know what I mean?
I don't think she's really
reading into that in any way.
Donna just forces herself upon him.
Donna just inhabits the Doctor's life
from the moment she steps on board.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Neither can I.
Which, I think, for instance,
the moment when the Doctor
gives her a Tardis key,
I think he just assumed
he'd already done it.
She actually treats it
in a much more cavalier way
than either Rose or Martha did.
None of that nonsense.
Just give me the key,
thank you very much,
world's choking to death.
With Rose, and possibly
even more with Martha,
there was always a sense that
perhaps they felt
they didn't quite deserve to be there.
What's happened? Where are you?
Still on Earth, but don't worry,
I've got my secret weapon.
-And what's that?
-You.
Hmm, somehow that's not making me happy.
Companion alone on an alien spaceship,
and all she's got is a hammer.
There's something really
dreadful about that.
I mean, genuinely full of dread in that
the Doctor isn't there to save her.
It's a scary place to be.
It's very alone.
I find that very, very scary.
It's one my favourite sequences
'cause of the loneliness of it.
There's a Sonterrun. A Sontaran.
-Did he see you?
-No, he's got his back to me.
Right. Donna, listen.
On the back of his neck, on his collar,
there's a sort of plug, like a hole,
the Probic Vent.
One blow to the Probic Vent
knocks them out.
But he's going to kill me.
I'm sorry. I swear, I'm so sorry,
but you've got to try.
She does have a wobble.
And it's quite unusual
'cause we haven't
really seen that from her
because she is quite sure of who she is.
She's quite sure of what she can do
and what she can't do.
I can't even mend a fuse.
Donna, stop talking about yourself
like that.
You can do this, I promise.
So when the Doctor really
has to push her, it feels new.
And he's sorry for it.
But what if they find me?
I know, and I wouldn't ask,
but there's nothing else I can do.
The whole planet is choking, Donna.
So the Doctor almost regrets having
to push her into situations
where she wouldn't feel
entirely comfortable.
But, of course,
he does because he has to.
And, of course, she fulfils it
because she is
perhaps more able
than she believes herself to be.
She rises to the occasion.
Yeah, she does.
And I think she sort of finds this
sort of strength within her,
and I don't know if she knew she had it.
'Cause she's cocky
and she's mouthy and she's ballsy,
but it doesn't necessarily mean she's
brave in the face of alien warfare.
But it turns out, she is.
There's something very human about that.
She doesn't sort of suddenly
become some superhero
and step up to the mark
in a way that's just a bit too much.
And action.
Back of the neck.
Here's a little bit of trivia for you.
It was supposed to be a shoe.
But because I'll only wear trainers,
they didn't want it to be a trainer.
Or thought probably a trainer
would be too soft.
It would just bounce
off the back of his neck.
So I had to have a mallet.
I'm through.
Oh, you are brilliant, you are.
Shut up.
Previously, he's been
more used to being admired
and slightly goggled at.
With every passing story,
Donna becomes more of a companion.
And in the second half
of the series now,
there's some really brilliant stuff
to come.
TENNANT: And it's just. ..
It's part of the new...
The different flavour that Donna brings.