03x10 - Do You Remember the First Time

[bunniefuu]

I'm on a quest to find out

whether growing up as a Doctor Who fan makes you a better person,

and how it might influence what you do for a living.

Steven Moffat made his name in television

writing about dysfunctional relationships in the st Century.

But maybe what he wanted to write about

was malfunctioning spaceships in the st.

So, Steven Moffat, television writer of some repute,

where did you grow up?

I grew up in Paisley.In Paisley? Just down the road from me.

That's right.

So, growing up in Paisley in the windswept west of Scotland,

what did...how remote did Television Centre feel to you?

It was more Hollywood than Hollywood.

This place is more exciting to me to this day.

That, Roy Castle and Recordbreakers. Exactly.

Did you grow up watching Doctor Who? Oh God, yes.What do you remember?

I remember Patrick Troughton bewildering me,

often being confused by that.

And really from the start of Jon Pertwee,

I was watching every single episode devotedly.

This is Studio .

In this very studio - this list here will tell.Very good.

We have done our research on this.

In TC , we had, the Sea Devils was in here.

Planet of the Spiders was in here.

Sarah, struggle against the spider, Sarah.

Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker in this room somewhere.

There were a few studios used for Planet of the Spiders, so...

Let's just say he did. On this very spot.It was here.

Here we go again.

I've got a list of all of them here.

There we go, TC , the Silurians.

Do you want this species to destroy us?

I watched the Silurians. It was in here.

All species can live together.

All those events happened in this dull grey room.Quite...

♪ You better shake him off

♪ Before he gets ya

♪ He's coming to getcha... ♪

Where are my specimens?

had a direct result of what you're now doing for a living?

Yes, I got into television, seriously, tragic but true,

in order to write Doctor Who.

Everyone sees and knows too much!

This is TC .

I think all the studios in TV Centre have been used at some point.

This is currently being used by Newsnight, but we're gonna inv*de it.

MUSIC: NEWSNIGHT THEME

I always thought that was London. It's just a big picture.

Studio . Robot filmed in here.

How about this?Much better, Doctor.

Now, if you've quite finished... I'll try again, if you like.

What was it about... Doctor Who in particular that fired your infant imagination?

It was a children's programme, it was also frightening.

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 it's the hardest thing to write, why is that?

Doctor Who, you've got two minutes, if that,

of the Doctor and the companion in the TARDIS.

You walk out the door and there's a new world of some kind,

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, "I've just blown that feature film idea for ever!"

That's the size of story that gets you through minutes of Dr Who.

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 years old!

And I am reborn!

Why is it peculiarly hard to write Doctor Who?

It's a tough balancing act, you know.

Particularly, the Saturday night bear-pit.

I remember having conversations about the seance scene in The Unquiet Dead.

So much of it wanted to be played in the dark, with a little gaslight

and it was like, "You can't! People might think the TV has gone off."

All these things you never consider.

You want to have mass appeal,

and at the same time, try and do something different,

you want to have lots of fun, but you want to scare.

The format 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 for them.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 incredibly exciting to children,

the idea of having anything to do with something as exciting as that, it looks like tremendous fun.

Elsewhere in TV Land, life-long fans Jon Culshaw and Nev Fountain

have found a slightly different way

of exploiting their passion for all things Who.

Are you Dr Who? I'm known only as the Doctor.

When Tom Baker appeared on Dead Ringers,

you were referencing something that was years previous in the cultural imagination,

but that was, presumably, your influence, together?

The first time I found out that John was a Doctor Who fan

was sitting in the audience of Dead Ringers.

He was being the Doctor. "That's a very good impression."

Greetings, everyone. This is most fascinating, isn't it?

It seems we're on a large observation wheel.

If only that were true.

This is a galaxy grade interstitial time configuration helix,

created by the Sontarans from their base on Phobos the moon of Mars.

How old were you when you started watching it? , I remember.

I would've been about four years old. I remember Ogrons.

Argh!

I loved that!

Whenever they said bring Doctor Who back,

the first person they mention is Tom Baker.Anyone for a jelly baby?

There was something about that big voice and that presence.

The Sontarans must want to capture us and turn us into reptilian hatchlings

to swell their populations for their w*r with the Rutans.

Each doctor had their own, kind of, particular facial expression.

Patrick Troughton seemed to have a scowl, sort of, "Oh, dear!"

Oh, dear!

Jon Pertwee was very sharp like that.Who are you?

Omega.That's impossible!

Tom Baker, the wide eyes and the alien.

Peter was very breathless, hands in pockets, running off.

Sorry, no time, must dash, come back later.

Colin used to enunciate a lot, didn't he?Oh, he did, didn't he?

Hmm, how very interesting! Goodbye.

There's only one recourse.

Contemplation, self-abnegation in some hellish wilderness.

And on then, Sylvester McCoy...

"Oh, no, no, the Daleks!"

Um, say hello, hello, hello.

Chris Eccleston with his swagger, and the jacket on.

Turn everything up - all transmitters, full power, wide-open, now! Do it!

Tom Baker had one kind of eyes and teeth...

And you have another kind.

It's a happier one. Here we are then, London, Earth.

I remember we did sketches of you as well.

Oh, another scarf! That's just what I need(!)

Oh, my giddy aunt! Now, that's bang out of order!

You know all of his villains were made out of tin foil!

Ooh, ohh, mm, hmm...

I was so much younger then.

I'd say that Billie and I were utterly thrilled to be on your show.

When Doctor Who moved down the M to set up production in Cardiff,

head writer, Russell T Davies, and producer, Phil Collinson

found themselves working on the show they'd 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 towalk round and think up,

we always used to play Daleks and Cybermen in the yard.

I thought up stories and drew them.

When you were into Doctor Who, when you were a Doctor Who fan, itwas the only show

you had any sort of insight into producers and directors

cos there was a Making of Doctor Who book

which came out in or something like that. I was ten.

It talked about script editors and producers and directors.

I think I'd have done what I'm doing anyway, but the shape of that was Doctor Who.

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 reasons I wanted to be an actor,

so,I suppose, by default, it's a bigreason why I ended up 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 to be an actor,

but, without doubt, one of the big shows that was influencing me,

probably the only show at first, was Doctor Who.

So, if you've managed to turn something you 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 intomy heart,

is that I used to walk home from school when I was a little kid,

and you'd walk around a corner and imagine the TARDIS would be there,

and you'd run towards it, that's what got into my heart.

Why I still love it is that I think you canbelieve

you can become part of the Doctor's voyages, which you can do with no other show.

Do you think, in years' time the industry will be full of people

who watch the show now, as children?

I'd love to think there will be people sat here, making it, in years.

Cos it's them, I mean, theletters, you must get the letters and the stories.Yeah.

They're writing stories, I get them constantly.

One imagines it will be reinvented. Oh, definitely.

I think it will, definitely. I thinkit's like Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan.

It's a true British icon. They'll be sitting here in years, going, "That was a big success, twice."

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'd make me pleased anyway.Me too.

MUSIC: "Thanks For The Memories" by FALL OUT BOY

Hello, Fox Inn!Are we in Scotland?

My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he seems.Hello!

My dear, nobody could be as stupid as he seems.Hello, there!

There must be no regrets, no tears.

No anxieties.

Touch these two strands together, and the Daleks are finished.

You lie!Have I that right? Watched it happen.

Made it happen!

Have you ever thought what it's like

to be wanderers in theFourth Dimension?

The exiles...?It's alive!

They come, they come!

I'm not just a Time Lord.

I'm the last of the Time Lords.