PinkPaper.com popped along to a screening of the new Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, the other day. Here’s what producer and writer Russell T Davies and The Doctor himself, David Tennant, had to say about it.
that one of the darkest/scariest episodes you’ve done?
Russell T Davies: Is that one of the scariest? Probably, yes.
David Tennant: I think it tells a different sort of story. It’s a long time in the episode before the Doctor can take control. That’s what’s unnerving about it. It’s not the standard kind of structure I think. We expect the Doctor to take control earlier, we expect the Doctor to know how he’s going to do it and how he’s going to win through and he sort of doesn’t. And although he wins in the end, it’s a bittersweet victory and people die. And that’s part of the story we had to tell to go where we’re going.
RTD: It’s not so much scary, it’s intense.
DT: Yeah, it’s intense.
Are you still getting ideas for Doctor Who, and if so what are you doing with them given that you can’t use them anymore?
RTD: I don’t really, no. Because I knew I was finishing two years ago so I stopped then, in a way. I think there’s a good Twitter Doctor Who story to be told, I’ve got to say. You can only communicate in 140 characters. Because I’m just so young and hip and with it. But no, to be honest. It’s dead to me. Like an old cat.
DT: What?!
Are you still aiming this at children?
DT: Oh yes.
RTD: Absolutely! Have you read a Harry Potter book? Seriously, have you read a Harry Potter book?
DT: Have you seen a Harry Potter film?!
RTD: It’s his (Harry Potter’s) own mum and dad, let alone complete strangers on Mars. I think kids would laugh at your worries. Seriously. What I love about that, it’s a complicated story. Frankly, it’s very intelligent. The Doctor’s moral choices there are caught up in a temporal conundrum – and six-year-olds could follow that. Absolutely easy…and I think that’s fantastic television for children. If anyone doesn’t watch I’ll slap them. It’s the sort of challenges you give them.
Is there any indication of where things might be going in the future, or can you not say?
DT: Well, I think this gives you a bit of a hint, the fact that the [SPOILER REMOVED!] have come to summon the Doctor and the fact that the Doctor now knows incontrovertibly that he’s running from his own demise. At the very end he says, ‘No, I’m not going there, I’m going to rage against the dying of the light,’ which kind of beats at the final story, I suppose.
RTD: All those chickens come home to roost.
DT: Yeah.
RTD: Not space chickens. At the end of the series with Catherine Tate, Davros told him he was responsible for many people’s deaths – and all these things are coming to an end. This shows why he travels with a human companion. That’s the point of this story, he would have had someone to talk to, a release valve, an escape valve, and he would have found a different way out of it. But because he’s alone, he’s lost in his own head and he goes too far. All these things are coming to an end. It’s time.
Do you feel that you’ve wrapped it up satisfyingly for yourself?
DT: Yeah. It feels like we tell a big end of an era story and at the same time handing it on, which I think is important in this show, which has, let’s face it, been going a long time before we showed up and no doubt will carry on into the far distant future. So, yes, I think we tell a big old farewell story and then hand it over in rude health.
RTD: It’s nice knowing when you’re coming to an end so far in advance, you get a chance to do everything. It’s not like you’ve forgotten anything. We see the [SPOILER ALERT] summon the Doctor…for Children In Need in a few weeks’ time, you get the first scene of the Doctor arriving on the [SPOILER ALERT!], which was actually a hilarious scene. That scene is so funny. You shouldn’t think it’s going to be as dark and as doom-laden from now on.
Did either of you take any souvenirs from the set?
DT: You’re not allowed. You really aren’t allowed. I think people think we just walk away with our pockets stuffed full of stuff. But, you know, the licence fee is very well protected and so it should be. I did get a little gift box at the end of stuff they didn’t need anymore. [Laughs] I think there’s a new sonic screwdriver now…
RTD: I wouldn’t know… I’ve got my little orb from The End of the World. I had to pay a thousand for it at a charity auction. I actually was very drunk and I thought I’d bought a weekend in Devon…then it turned out it was an orb.
Photos have leaked out of the new Doctor Who series being filmed at the moment. Do either of you feel any regret?
RTD: I’m straight on them! [Does a hand mime] That was a computer.
DT: It’s weird, I remember before it was the case, thinking, ‘Oh that’ll probably happen, we’ll probably start seeing snaps of them on street corners and wearing anoraks and having cups of tea between takes.’ And I was nervous about how I’d feel about that. I’m thrilled that it’s carrying on and I know that everyone who’s there is a great choice. But of course, you feel a little bit proprietorial. But I’ve been very cheered by the fact that I haven’t, actually. I’ve just been really excited to see that it’s going on, teased by what I’m seeing, and I just can’t wait to see it. I suppose because I remember what it felt like, as well, to be where Matt [Smith, the new Doctor] is now. I just was really excited and I’m really excited to be seeing somebody else starting out on that journey, I guess.
RTD: It’s funny because when you’re inside the programme and you see those things, you think, ‘Oh it’s spoiled and it’s ruined and it’s dreadful.’ But when you’re outside, you think, ‘Ooh, that’s exciting.’
Are you currently putting together, conceiving, writing an American version of Doctor Who to pitch to American networks?
RTD: Absolutely not. No. As you know, I lie my way through these things, but no, absolutely not. I bet you a hundred quid that I’m not. I’m developing things – but new things. And I’m not going to tell you what they are because they’ll probably never exist. There’s a recession out there as well. We’ll see. American Doctor Who. Who would play that?
DT: I can do that. I can do the accent.
RTD: Oh you shouldn’t have done that…
DT: That was a joke! Don’t print it!
Do you feel you’ve done everything you wanted to do with this series?
RTD: I do feel that. I think when I started, I could never imagine you could go so far with it, like to do episodes with Peter Kay or to do monsters that are statues or to bring Davros back…you never would have thought it would go that far. So I feel more than happy and vindicated, actually, that all these things worked.
DT: I got to do so many more things than I ever imagined I would, just playing the part itself, let alone working with all the incredible actors who came through – all the things I got to do, hanging off things, being blown up and wearing make-up of myself as a nine-million-year-old-man. All these things that I would never have dreamed of. So, no, I didn’t have a checklist, thinking, ‘When am I going to get to ride on a unicycle, it’s just not fair.’ No, it was just an incredible, continually surprising trip. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
RTD: You got to ride on a robot with Lindsay Duncan. Hilarious. All those posh things she’s done. We brought her down to this.
We know some of the companions are returning for your final episodes, are you happy to confirm which ones?
DT: Well you saw Catherine Tate as Donna. You saw Bernard Cribbins as Wilf. John Simm as the Master…not a companion but he’s part of the gang.
RTD: Jacqueline King, who plays Donna’s mum Sylvia and The Master’s wife – she’s back and suffering more than ever.
David, how did you feel giving up the role?
DT: Like I just said, it was an incredible experience. It was something that I suppose I fantasised about as a child, so it was an incredible, slightly surreal thing to finally be up there and be part of that. It’s been something that I will be forever proud of.
Elisabeth Sladen said recently that she was worried about you David, as to how you’re going to cope not being the Doctor and she thought you might end up in rehab?
DT: If I’m in rehab I will phone The Star immediately and make sure you’re outside. You’ll be first on my list of calls. But it’s not looking that likely at the moment but who knows. Never say never.
RTD: She’s still in that drunk tank, Liz.
What was your last day like?
DT: Actually my last day was on The Sarah Jane Adventures, which is on this afternoon.
RTD: It got 1.3 million [viewers] yesterday, how brilliant…
DT: The last line I say as the Doctor is half way through the episode tonight, which is, ‘You two, with me, spit spot.’ They were the last words I uttered in the suit. So I guess it was robbed of any epic quality. But that was probably best. It was very emotional saying cheerio. Filming the very, very final scenes was very sad. There’s lots of scenes in the final, final episode that are very sad and were very sad to play. And I think if one of them had co-incided with the actual final day, I’d have been in trouble. I was a bit in trouble as it was, but I was alright.
What was in the souvenir box you were given?
DT: I do have my own sonic screwdriver and I put it in a secure location because I suddenly got worried my house would get burgled and I’d lose it. So I’ve locked it up somewhere.
Your face has been on all kinds of merchandise – including underwear. Where’s the strangest place you’ve seen your face?
DT: Pants has got to be up there, certainly. Yoghurts for a while. Healthy yoghurts, obviously. I don’t know, it just keeps coming – bath bombs.
RTD: The cake. I like cutting your face on a cake. I do that everyday.
DT: Straight through my nose! I think pants are probably the oddest, just because they’re pants.
RTD: Is your face actually on pants? Really?
DT: It really is.
RTD: Where on the pants?
DT: [Motions to crotch area] It’s… It’s… It’s right in the middle. I’m wearing some now. [RTD howls with laughter] I’ll give them to the Daily Record later.
RTD: Auction your pants for Children In Need!
Did you keep any of that stuff as a souvenir – like you on yoghurt pot?
DT: I never got the yoghurt. Did you get the yoghurt?
RTD: I never saw them actually…
DT: No, I never saw the yoghurt. [Someone tells him he’s been seen eating them] Did I? I’ve clearly been drunk for four years. That’s a joke!
RTD: Lis Sladen however…
DT: I don’t think I was on a lunchbox. Was I on a lunchbox?
RTD: Oh yes.
DT: I do have some plastic men. There’s now little plastic William Hartnell’s, Patrick Troughton’s, Jon Pertwee’s, Tom Baker’s and you know… I quite like having a plastic homunculus of myself. It’s a very odd thing and I’m not sure if it is entirely healthy but it’s quite fun.
The Waters Of Mars is dedicated to Barry Letts, who died earlier this month.
RTD: He was one of the finest producers of Doctor Who and many programmes, actually. He used to do the Sunday afternoon classic serials and he actually produced the Jon Pertwee years really. And then he cast Tom Baker. He cast Lis Sladen as well. He was an extraordinary figure in Doctor Who history and in pop culture – and he passed away, sadly. So, of course, we wanted to have that tribute to him on screen.
DT: He was one of the people who has written, produced and directed Doctor Who.
Does David see a future filled with Doctor Who conventions?
DT: Never say never. I don’t know. It would be fun to try. The three of us went to the San Diego Comic-Con, which wasn’t quite like a Doctor Who convention because it’s almost a media event really, as much as it’s a fan convention. Although it started as a fan convention and that’s still, at heart, what it is. I don’t know. I’ve got no immediate plans. But never say never.
Which episodes or specials have you been most proud of?
RTD: We always get asked that…
DT: It’s hard to pick favourites because it feels unfair.
RTD: I love them all… And also, there really are no episodes we don’t like. You feel if you did leave an episode out, you’re insulting all your friends and colleagues who worked on that episode.
DT: And I haven’t seen the last two yet, so I can’t comment.
RTD: They will be up there…definitely.
Can you ever wear a blue suit again?
DT: Do you know, the only thing…there is a certain brand of footwear – similar things are very much available – I used to wear quite a lot and I don’t any more because it feels a bit wrong. They were my shoes to start with, four years ago when we began, they were my battered pair. Maybe I’ll get over that.
Are you able to share one of the more inspiring or moving things a child has said or written to you about Doctor Who?
RTD: Drawings. We do get all sorts of lovely letters and things, from adults as well. Extraordinary letters, truly emotional letters about it sometimes. But kids’ drawings – Daleks fighting Cybermen – we’ve filled that space in children’s imaginations and their joy when they’re writing. I’ve genuinely found that moving.
DT: It’s funny. Quite often when I meet kids they don’t know what to say, they get a bit overwhelmed by it. I remember what it did to me, I suppose. I remember how enthused I got by this show, by the worlds that it took me to and how special it seemed. And when you feel like you’re creating a similar world for a child now and you can see it reflected back, because they don’t know how to express or how to say it to you, that’s very special.
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars is on BBC One, Sunday 15 November, 7pm
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How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Single Father (2010)
Fright Night (2011)
