02x07 - The Writer's Tale

[bunniefuu]

Join Doctor Who Confidential
on a journey.

A journey with a writer
living his fantasy.

It was just
a great, big, colourful idea.

I mean, really,
for the early ' s, that's the one.

You can read a page of a script
and you can tell that it's Mark's.

You can watch it... You can...

There's an essential Mark Gatiss
that creeps through

and it's a very enviable thing
and we're lucky to have him.

It's time to put on your
blue suede shoes, bright pink skirts
and take a trip back to the s.

Straight from the fridge, man!

MUSIC: "Bittersweet Symphony"
by The Verve

From a very early stage
I kind of wanted the climax

to be at Alexandra Palace.

I thought,
with the huge mast remaining,

it gives a kind of King Kong
resonance to it which is quite nice.

ELECTRICITY FIZZES

I remember getting that script
for the first time

and realising the end battle
is on the mast of Alexandra Palace

and thinking, "Oh, God!"

You never know because of the
constraints whether it was possible.

There was also a bit of, "Actually
we can do this really well."

♪ It's a bittersweet symphony
This life

♪ Trying to make ends meet
You're a sl*ve... ♪

Look up to where Magpie is...

INAUDIBLE

And...action.

♪ I took you down the only road
I've ever been down... ♪

I can't do this!
Please, please don't make me!

♪ The one that takes you
to the places

♪ Where all the veins meet, yeah... ♪

This is the scene of my death,
where I get fried,

because I suddenly -
having been the intermediary,

the servant of the monster,
of Maureen Lipman -

she orders me to k*ll
Doctor Who and I say, "No",

and she fries me

with electric pulses
and things like that.

You promised me peace!

Then peace...you shall have.

ELECTRICITY FIZZES
Arrggghhh!

Magpie's on that bit, isn't he,
by this point? He is, yeah.

We're sh**ting on the helipad
in Cardiff today.

There are a few technical issues
with, when we're looking down
on the transmitter.

We need to contain the actors
within a green screen.

It's a composite sh*t involving
two or three elements, you know,

and that painting based
on a live-action element
of Alexandra Palace,

sh*ts of the Doctor and Magpie
on a part of the transmitter...

I was expecting it would be one of
those days when you were harnessed up
with endless safety-wires

which is always a bit boring,
frankly, but because we were only

on a stretch of faux pylon
which is only about ft tall,

we were allowed to climb
up and down it relatively freely.

It's just climbing... There's no
lines in this bit, is there? No.

You become very precious about lines,
particularly lines you love

and it's always awkward
if you feel they've gone

but in the end,
it's not cut for malicious reasons.

There was a lot of wonderful stuff
in Mark's script

which didn't make the final cut
cos there was too much of it,

some fantastic speeches I had
that we just never filmed

cos it was such
a rich and full episode.

Cutting stuff is just an economy
and it's a briskness and confidence.

It says, "This is working."

The natural enemy
of all writers is blank paper.

It's what offends us and scares us
the most in the whole world.

The best way to overcome it,
I've found, is just to write,

and it means you write
quite a lot of nonsense at first,

but you just have to plough through.

Any other drama you type,
"Scene One, Day, Street".

Or, "Scene Two, Pub",
"Scene Three, Bedroom",

and with Doctor Who,
you could be on a space-station
or a different planet.

The brief was a ' s story,
erm, quite rock'n'roll...

Is there any other way to go,
Daddio?

Three, take three.

The main unit is filming
Maureen Lipman, as the Wire

inside the old TV studio
where she would actually have done it

if she'd really been Sylvia Peters
or one of those people...

Oh, dear! Has our little plan
gone horribly wrong, Doctor?

'This is the place
where television began and, erm...'

So historically, you can smell
the buzz in this room,

you really can feel the electricity.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

The Wire in episode is based
on the archetypal BBC presenter

and everything's incredibly proper.

We wanted an actress who'd have
some fun with it but who'd also
be able to command authority

and be properly scary.

And Maureen Lipman combined
those two things perfectly.

Now. Are you sitting comfortably?

Good. Then we'll begin.

♪ You can take a picture
of something you see... ♪

Feed me-e-e-e!

♪ In the future where will I be... ♪

And I'm hungry-y-y-y-y!

It's quite good to be able to just
go round the corner to Ally Pally

and be ABSOLUTELY NASTY,
really horrible. Horrid.

I knew as soon as she said,
"I shall consume you, Doctor",

that she knows what to do
in these circumstances.

Mark was on set a lot of the time
which is just wonderful,
to have the writer there.

"You can never go back, that's your
tragedy", that's personal to Magpie?

No, it's about...
General, for the world.

That they're... Forging ahead
regardless of consequence, I think.

Mark writes these
fantastic characters like Magpie...

Please...
you're burning me...inside...

behind my eyes...

There's a goodness
that comes out in his characters.

There's a marvellous faded elegance
about Magpie.

He describes, y'know, this man
who's been disappointed by life,

he's sat there in his vest
in his little shop

and it's incredibly evocative
and incredibly detailed.

Well...the thing is,
Detective Inspector Bishop...

How do you know my name? It's...

written inside your collar.

There's a particular scene
between Bishop and the Doctor
which is an interrogation scene

and it's essentially
an inversion joke.

He starts with a light
in the Doctor's face saying,

"Tell me everything you know",
and by the end the Doctor's
standing up and he's sitting down.

"Start from the beginning.
Tell me everything you know."

It was just trying to work out
what the tipping point was,

where the Doctor could rise
and Bishop would sit down.

Where was she before
this happened?

Seeing it realised is always curious,
it's never quite the way you imagine.

Detail's everything
and I think that's what's great
about being able to visit the set,

it's not just about the Coronation,
it's about the whole flavour
of the time.

♪ Calling out around the world

♪ Are you ready for a brand-new b*at

♪ Summer's here and the time is right

♪ For dancing in the street... ♪

Doing a period episode is one of
the most difficult things we do...

♪ It doesn't matter what you wear

♪ Just as long as you are there

♪ So come on, every guy grab a girl

♪ Everywhere around the world
there'll be dancing... ♪

On this show I've got a fantastic
team that I can absolutely rely on,

so that scene is only as good
as they can manage and they've
dramatised it brilliantly.

As you can imagine, this whole
street has had to be closed off now.

Some of the doors have been
replaced, some of the windows

have had to be replaced
so they look authentic, like .

And we've got all these wonderful
motor cars, look. Cue the car!

Look. It's just fabulous.

I thought we'd be going
for the Vegas era, you know,

with the white flares
and the - gr-r-r! - chest hair!

By having them think they were going
to ' we get Billie
in the beautiful dress

and we were always, all of us,
so keen to get something
really iconic

with the two of them together.
The fun of the s.

Yeah, well, me and Mum,

Cliff Richard movies
every Bank Holiday Monday...

Ugh, Cliff?!
I knew your mother'd be a Cliff fan!

And so ends the writer's tale,
leaving the Doctor and Rose
once again united.

From The Idiot's Lantern onwards,
it's them...

Hi-i-i-i!

..two best friends travelling
and what they mean to each other.

The Doctor and Rose love each other.
It's that simple.

That's what I like about you.

Anyway, I'm the Doctor
and this is Rose...

Ah! Hell of a right hook!

♪ So when I see you next
We'll make the most of it

♪ Tell the sun to start moving again

♪ The taste of your kiss
I still got on my lips

♪ And I will take you there
with me... ♪

They have battle after battle
after battle to stay together...

Help me!

It's like the universe is becoming
rougher around them, the challenge
to them is becoming tougher.

They left her in the street.
They took her face and just chucked
her out and left her in the street.

The Doctor is beset by grief
and that kind of
drives him forward to...

That's his big motivating factor,
to save the planet and to save Rose.

There is no power on this earth
that can stop me!

Come on!

And there's just something
twinkling away at the back saying,

are they actually
having too much fun?

There's an increasing feeling,
a thr*at, that someone somewhere's

gonna have to pay the price
for this.

Good night, children!