03x07 - Space Craft

[bunniefuu]

Doctor Who journeys back
into outer space.

It is the first story we've done
entirely within a spaceship.

I'll save you!

This was calling it the episode
, giving yourself minutes.

It happens in real time.

minutes until what? minutes
until we crash into the sun.

The first draft came in - it was the
spaceship hurtling towards the sun.

As we talked about it, it needed
another element, another layer.

Action. Got to get it out of of me.

It's Abi. Open your eyes,
I need to take a look at you.

Is he OK?

Not only do you have to play the
scene, but you are under pressure

that if you don't hurry up,
time is ticking.

Help me, it's burning me.How long has he been like this?We've just brought him in.

When the clock runs out, the episode
is over. It's a sprint to the
finish line from that point of view.

That gives it a dynamic
and an energy.

The difficulty I had was to
make sure everybody in every scene

was giving it pace, energy,
remembering the clock is ticking.

You have Graeme Harper directing
and before every take, he bellows,
"Loads of pace!"

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 with problems,
always under pressure.

Suited and booted, saving the world
today means a death-defying space
walk for the Doctor.

Rather than just waving a sonic
screwdriver, one of those moments

where you think he is the hero,
he has to physically risk his life,

there has to be physical exertion.

Action!

He's got to get in a space suit,
expose himself to the sun, reach
for a button that is out of reach.

LAUGHTER

'The hardest bit for me'

was when I am outside the spaceship
in the space suit hanging on.

Although you have a big wind
machine blasting you, nothing

is going to be able to recreate
that sense of a solar storm.

You're having to fling yourself
around in old Star Trek fashion.

It is one of those scenes where there
has got to be sacrifice, effort, pain
involved in getting someone back.

On Martha's end of it,
there has to be...contemplation.

Doctor!

I'll save you.

I can't hear you!

It is literally separating
the Doctor from his companion in
the middle of a boiling sun.

Nice load of energy, here we go.
Action.

I can't hear you!

We sh*t tracking back
looking from both angles.

In reality, it is just being pulled
back into studio technology,

so you just see ladders, lamps
and bits of paraphernalia.

By the time the audience sees
that, that is the sun.

Then what we do, we take over
from the camera move
and it becomes a CG move.

My sh*t becomes a computer graphic
and it is taken over by The Mill,

then you see the pod becoming smaller
and smaller against a massive sun.

Although the effects are brilliant,
although the set is brilliant,

it is about David and Freema
acting their socks off.

I'll save you.

I can't hear you!
INAUDIBLE

INAUDIBLE

Before you can cruise the cosmos,
you need the perfect spaceship.

I've never been in a spaceship
before.

When I first walked on the set,
I thought it was incredible.

It's all metal.

And it's all the real deal.

It is a worry when the writers
start talking about spaceships,

cos you never know
where you'll end up.

It's not just the pristine
spaceship gliding through space.

It's actually an old industrial
lorry of a ship.

It's wrecked.

These guys are on that ship
to earn money. They are not on it
because they love space travel.

What we're trying out
on Doctor Who...

what I like is that slightly British,

knackered, slightly home-made
feel to it.

Don't!

I think it's something that
we tend to do on the series now.

We show the future as
a slightly decrepit place.

We show it as something
that is atrophying.

We limit our gleaming
white surfaces.

Whatever you do on Doctor Who,
whatever technology or
futurism you're putting

on screen, it is always going to look
like it was made now and it should.

Science fiction in the ' s
looks like it was made in the
' s, the ' s, ' s.

These programmes are a record of the
era in which they were made and
should be. You should show that off.

One of the advantages of
having spaceships made with CGI

rather than models, as they used
to do traditionally,

is that you have complete control
over it until you are finished.

When you sh**t a model that's
sh*t on film in the studio
at the time you sh**t it,

it's very expensive to go back and
say you want a sh*t that does this.

Because we have the same
style of thing, we have a model -

it's just not physical,
it exists on the computer.

That's just not fair.

The Arachnos!

I think each generation of
spaceship is extremely exciting,

because our spaceships that we
have done for Doctor Who would be
really dated in years' time.

The ultimate design for a spaceship
has to be the Tardis, doesn't it?

It's so mundane,
so domestic, so wooden and yet it's
more powerful than all the rest.

From hero to sub-zero
in a matter of minutes.

Now it's the Doctor
that needs saving, and there's
only one person who can help.

I can do it. Martha, where are you?It's all right, I'm here!

Just save everything up.

She needs to think fast,
and that's a moment

where they have this shift
in the relationship,

she's 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, no more.

Martha! Yeah?

It's burning me up,
I can't control it.

If you don't get rid of it,
I could k*ll you.

I could k*ll you all.

He's genuinely scared. She's
never heard him say he's scared,

I don't suppose there's many times
he has 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
honest about how frightened he is.

I mean, 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.

It's interesting
to hear him admit that.

This burning's k*lling me!
I don't know what will happen.

Whether it will work...That's enough. I've got you.

HE SCREAMS

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'han, fancy it?

Whatever you like.

By the way, you'll be needing this.

Really? Frequent flyer's 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,
in inverted commas.

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."

In this, he sets her up, he does her
phone so that she can phone home,

she gets all the accoutrementsIt'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 that thing off,
they might not be able to find us.
How did you think of that?

I saw it in a film.
Oh, right, you staying?Till you talk to me properly, yes.

Wait!

And so we leave this adventure,
with Martha holding the key

to an exciting and unpredictable
future with the Doctor.