Original subtitles

Hello, faithful viewer.

My name is David Tennant, and in this episode we're about to watch,

I will be assaying the role of the Doctor.

Who's this next to me?

I am Phil Collinson, and I am executive producer of Doctor Who.

And who's this?

Oh, hello.

I'm Vicki Delow, and I'm the producer of Dr Who.

And we are going to be watching The Star Beast.

David, it's a while since we did one of these.

Well, really, it is. It is a long time, like a lifetime.

And I've never done one,

so you'll have to tell me what to do.

We're just going to give some recollections, some reflections.

Cast your mind back to last summer. Yeah.

At night. At night. In May. In May.

In that heatwave. In the heatwave. Yes.

So, obviously, this recap is just for, it's kind

of for new viewers, isn't it, really?

Just to remind them of the story we told...

I mean, how long ago is it? 15 years ago.

Yeah, it's a while. Yeah, it's a while.

I mean, obviously, the fans among you will not

have forgotten this story.

It was one of the best stories Dr Who's ever told. Oh, yeah.

We do pick up... We pick up exactly where we left off.

Absolutely.

There's no mucking around.

There's no other place to pick up, really. Yeah. Yeah.

Which, obviously, the Doctor's story has continued.

But this particular Doctor and Donna's story.

Doctor and Donna, and Donna's Lottery ticket is very important.

Yes, of course.

The show is going to be on the Disney+ platform.

Young viewers.

Who presumably weren't born when we first did this!

I hope so. I hope so.

See, brand-new titles coming up. Yep.

Erm, we're...

It's probably worth saying to the viewers at home

that the version we are watching right now is probably not exactly

the version that they will be watching finally.

No, no, no. So, we might...

Forgive us if we make references to things that are not

quite the same in the finished cut. Yeah.

Yeah, well, it's... No, it's a finished cut, but it's just...

It might just have a few visual effects missing, to be fair.

Here you are. Camden.

Camden Town.

I'm really excited we went for Camden because it just felt...

People don't do this version of London, ever.

Yeah, we talked a lot about where to set this. We did.

There was a problem because it was the Queen's Jubilee

when we were filming this. That's right.

Much of Central London was forbidden to us.

And so, when we started to think about what other iconic bits

of London there were, Camden was the kind of first candidate, really.

Yeah. It was, and that bridge particularly.

We were all, like, "That's the one."

When we saw the bridge we were, like, "That's it.

"That's where we want to go."

It's beautiful.

There's actually two bits of it that we used, in the end.

Right in the middle of the market, about four in the morning.

Yeah. Yeah.

A proper old night shoot. Yep.

In and out of the rain as well, which I think you can maybe,

you can catch.

Eagle-eyed viewers will catch the odd glimpse of the rain

on the cardboard box, I think.

I think we were lucky, though, because I thought

it was going to rain the whole time we were there.

Oh, no. We had a lot of very clear nights. We were lucky.

I think we only stopped once for the rain.

I love how the script just, you know...

Because other writers

would build up to the reunion of the Doctor and Donna

and I just love how Russell just does not mess about.

It's, like, bang - act one, scene one, bang,

they're back together again.

And here's a spaceship. And here's a spaceship.

No messing about. No doubt where you are, are you?

Here's a character called Rose, which will also slightly wrong-foot

the long-term viewer.

Yeah. Yeah.

When we announced the cast list, there was a lot of consternation

online about Yasmin resuming, playing the part of Rose.

Oh, as if... As if Billie had been recast?

"Has Billie been recast?"

A lot of that went on.

Yeah, there was a lot that went on.

Big, big shout-out to Untold, our VFX team, for that spaceship.

Yes, beautiful. I think it looks absolutely beautiful.

And very much based on the spaceship designed

by Dave Gibbons, the comic book artist.

Yes, indeed. We should say that, shouldn't we?

This is... This episode was inspired by a comic strip from

Doctor Who Weekly, which is a magazine that started in,

I think, 1978. Something like that. Something like that.

Yeah. And I got that very first issue.

So did I. With the little transfers. Yeah, little transfers.

I've still got the transfers on mine.

I was THAT kid. You didn't pull...?

I didn't pull them off.

Oh, I did. Did you? I did, but I did that...

I put them in exactly the place you were told to put them.

What does that say about our respective psychologies, Phil?

I know, right! I know!

Uh, have you still got that magazine?

I think I've got it somewhere.

I've got mine still, in the loft. Yeah. Yeah.

Sorry, Vicki! Vicki's looking...

Sorry, Vicki. No, no, it's fine. It's fine.

It's fine. I'm enjoying the episode.

Yeah, you watch this.

We'll just, we'll reminisce. I'm really enjoying it.

I did just have every single edition of Doctor Who Magazine.

But I don't have them all now.

I've got them all in the loft.

Every single one? Not every single one.

I stopped in... I stopped, you know, in about 1990.

But everything up till then. Right.

I've started, now! Right.

I've started. And did you get them all? Yeah.

I keep everything. I keep everything. Now you're in it...

Now I'm in it, I've got everything.

Everything that's ever got Doctor Who on it, I've got now.

But Nerys said...

Yeah, so, it was a comic strip in the Doctor Who Weekly

and Russell always loved that comic strip.

I mean, it's kind of, it's kind of, among the sort

of Doctor Who fans, it is a very, very celebrated comic.

It was about the third or fourth story, I think, they ever did. Yeah.

And it was drawn by Dave Gibbons, who has since gone

on to be one of the foremost comic book... Yes. ..err...

..pencils in the world.

Yeah, yeah.

But I guess he was at the relative beginning of his career then.

And he, and a lot of the designs from that comic strip

are very faithfully reproduced here. Yeah. Yes.

Oh, definitely. We did that.

The Meep, the Wraith Warriors and the spaceship.

The spaceship. Yeah.

All of that was definitely inspired by those, those designs.

And who wrote the story?

Pat... Pat Mills.

Pat Mills, thank you very much.

And they both came... Didn't they come down?

They both came to visit us.

It was a thrilling moment. Really exciting.

It was this set. This was one of those, kind of...

It was. It was this set. That's right. The power station.

If the eight-year-old me could have been there at that moment,

I would have just not believed it.

Did you get them to sign anything? I didn't. Oh, I did.

Yeah, you did. I remember. Shameless.

Oh, I should have done, shouldn't I? But I didn't.

This looks great, by the way. Yeah. Yeah.

I think we were setting this up while you were inside

doing something else. Not now, obviously.

Because you're here. Yeah.

All filmed at Uskmouth Power Station, this.

Night shoots.

We had to do proper night shoots, because... In May. In May.

..because the inside walls had a big window,

which was really annoying. That's right.

And they're taking this down now, I think.

What, the, the...? The power station. Are they?

They're knocking bits of it down.

So, we only had the bottom of this spaceship.

Yeah, so, we built sort of about 15, 20 feet of the legs,

so that you could get a certain amount of stuff in-camera.

And then obviously we had to extend it up, to turn it into a rocket,

in visual effects.

It looks really cool, now you can see the whole thing.

Really beautiful.

I think they did an amazing job.

But I also thought Matt lit it really beautifully.

Matt, our DOP, lit it so beautifully, because it looks great.

It looks... It looks like we built it,

that power station, and we did not. Yes.

Yeah, it worked beautifully, actually.

And here's the first appearance of Ruth Madeley...

Yes, indeed. Yeah, lovely Ruth.

..who is a new semi-regular, I think I'm right in saying.

Yeah, she is indeed. Scientific adviser number...

Oh, she says in a minute. 52 or something. Yeah.

I wonder if someone's got a list of who all the others are.

I don't think we've met that many of them.

I don't think we have, have we?

So, this is a street we had to find very carefully.

It was Axminster Road.

Axminster Road in Cardiff.

We had to... We did look at a couple of streets.

We did. And we were knocked back by various residents' associations

who were not having it. No.

They thought were going to blow their streets up

through the night in the middle of the summer.

But this road loved us.

They were really up for it.

Oh, they loved us.

Yeah, they loved us.

And, you know,

I'm sure they'll love us forever when all the coach trips come...

..from now on.

I mean, they certainly had a couple of sleepless nights on this street.

They definitely did.

They did, but they knew we were coming, like, we warned them

that we were going to be... Yeah.

And this was all... Oh, I love to see Jacqueline again.

This was the first stuff we shot. It was. This was day one.

This was day one. Scene one, day one.

I remember so clearly, all of this, because I was thinking,

"Oh, we're filming! Here we go." Actually filming. Yeah.

Because I never got on set on day one.

I got to do a rehearsal. That's right. That's right.

I never quite got to film anything. Yeah.

Of the, through the letterbox. Through the letterbox, yeah.

But filmed the first thing the next day, I think.

God, did we do that?

We made you come and do a rehearsal then sent you off?

Just put me in my place!

Just reminded me of how it works.

And this garden is in the studio.

Yeah, this is the house and the garden. It was amazing.

Because we had to blow the whole thing up,

we weren't going to do that to a real house.

So, we built the house in a studio and the garden's actually

in the studio, which I've never, I've never done that before,

um, you know, filmed outside, indoors.

But they've done a lot of that here at Bad Wolf Studios.

And then obviously we replaced the sky with a real sky

and the houses beyond these, Old Compton.

And it looks amazing. It does. You'd never know.

I was really impressed. Jacqueline King.

Catherine and I spent a lot of time being very aware that we were 15

years older than when we'd last done this.

Jacqueline King looks exactly, exactly, the same.

I mean, like, she looks the same as she does walking up that aisle

in the Runaway Bride. Yes.

Which is, which is more than 15 years ago.

I mean, she's got a portrait in the attic, if anybody has.

Preposterous. It really is. Yeah. Yeah. I love her.

Oh, she's great.

Did it still smell of curry, that curry, that tuna madras?

It absolutely stank the place out.

Tuna madras, there was... There was a bit of a debate about this.

Tuna madras. There was.

Didn't quite believe this was a dish in Russell...

Oh, it's a big thing in Russell's family. Yeah.

Russell's like, "What do you mean, you've never had tuna madras?"

"What could be more natural than a tuna madras?" he said.

I'd never heard of it before.

I think he's... I think he made it up.

I think it's, like, a very much a Mumbles-invented dish!

Mumbles Madras. Mumbles Madras. Yeah. Yeah.

Russell's from Mumbles, in Swansea.

Yes, which is a place.

It's the unlikely name of a place.

Yeah, it's definitely a place a writer should come from, isn't it,

Mumbles. Yeah.

I really love this scene because it's that kind of...

It gives me chills, the first time I saw it, that kind of idea

that Donna is just haunted by what's missing.

Yeah. And, you know, it's all the little bits he puts in, like,

oh, you know, "it's when I had that breakdown," Yeah. Yeah.

And, sort of, the idea that he just...just doesn't forget

how significant that moment was for her. I love it.

So this alleyway is also inside?

Yes, indeed. With sky replaced.

Oh, is it?

Ah! I wasn't here for this bit.

No. No, this was right at the very end, I think.

Right at the very end.

And... I think we were on episode two by this point.

We were. We were shooting episode two. Yeah.

Oh, my God!

It's empty, Rose.

That means it got out! There's an alien on the loose.

This is amazing.

I'm going to get my phone.

Who's that?

Meep-meep!

Oh, my God.

So here's the first appearance of the Meep. Hooray.

Now, this is... The Meep was absolutely there and was a costume

with somebody inside it and...and an animatronic face.

But you've added the face...

The face is digitally enhanced as well as? Yes.

Or did you just get rid of the animatronic?

No. No. So we've got... There are...there are two

versions of the Meep. Yeah.

So obviously there was...there was...there was a practical

Meep made by Neil Gorton, Millennium FX.

Um, and that, that has a performer inside, it, you know, runs around.

There was a gentleman doing the voice and everything

and then we've added blinks and changed the mouth.

Well, Miriam Margolyes came in afterwards and voiced,

revoiced the Meep. Yeah.

And then we filmed Miriam revoicing the Meep and so that...that part of

her performance has been tracked on to the Meep... Oh, I see! Oh, right.

..in...in visual effects by the team at Untold.

And they then, erm...

Er, yes.

And then...and then there's for reasons

that will become apparent soon... Yeah.

There was a... There's another Meep head that was a real practical

change of head when the Meep changes mood and personality. Mm-hm.

And, erm, at that point... There's a third version as well.

At that point, we have completely changed the head of the Meep. Yeah.

And we've got one that is entirely digital for some of the things

we couldn't do with the performer. Oh, yeah, we can play that.

Some of the proper running upstairs and things like that. Yeah.

This is... We should...we should note this new gag

that the Sonic's got.

Well, and a new Sonic. Yeah. A new Sonic

that can now create screens in mid-air,

which seems... Yeah, yeah. ..seems perfectly...

I can't believe it's not always done that.

I can't believe that either. Yeah.

I'm very thankful. Oh, she's 56.

The camera was just never pointing at him when he did it.

Shirley's 56.

She's just said she's 56. She's 56.

I'm really glad I listened out for that because it would

have annoyed me all day if I hadn't.

We're on the same side.

I don't know how many other unit scientific advisers have we seen?

Osgood was one. Osgood was definitely one.

Yeah. Presumably 55.

Unless there's been a bit of a gap.

Maybe there's been a bit of a gap, yeah.

Erm... But yes, obviously I was just pressing my fingers in space...

You were. ..on that screen and the visual effect

people are very loyally giving me buttons to press. Yes. Retrospective.

In the right places as well. In the right places, yeah.

And this is obviously, this is an example

of how we how we save visual effects money, because the whole

of this scene originally, as originally written, was played

looking at that screen.

And so every single shot was a visual effects shot then.

And then we kind of said to Russell, Look, it's too many

visual effects shots.

And he said, Well, she'll have an iPad, so we could use that.

Right. Or other similar hand-held device.

Yes.

And, um, you could just grab that and look at that

and carry on the scene.

I do feel like we had a conversation on the day where I was...

Where we were really impressed by the opening thing,

I feel like, you and me. The folding tablet thing that she's got.

The opening tablet thing that she's got. Yeah. I love that.

I wanted to steal that.

Is it... It's a real thing, it's a real device?

It's a real thing. Yeah, it's real.

So we've not asked you then, how does it feel?

How did it feel stepping back?

Did you feel like you'd never been away?

I did. It felt peculiarly comfortable.

Good, good.

It felt like that on set. It felt like that watching you.

I mean, you always make it look effortless, but it really did feel

like you just went, click.

It didn't feel like a long time.

I mean, I suppose ten years ago I was back briefly

for the 50th. Yes, indeed.

Yeah, still a long time. But that's...that's quite a long time.

But it's, yeah, it's 15 years since I was doing it full-time. Yeah.

We're moving out to secure the site.

Good work, soldier. Go get it.

Er, yeah, yeah. Not you, mate.

I've got this. Off you pop.

Bye-bye.

Waited your whole life?

You wish.

But do you... I mean, what are you doing that's different?

Why did it feel different?

I don't know but I... Are you instilling him with

more wisdom and magic?

Not very consciously. I just sort of figured, well, I'm...I'm older.

Yeah. So it will come through a slightly different filter.

Yeah. But Russell writes it with the same kind

of brio, I think. Yeah.

But then Russell's older, so he will be writing a slightly

different version of the character as well. Yes.

I think that was the thinking that we'll just...we'll...we'll come

at it as the different humans that we are. Yes.

As a writer and as an actor and as everyone else.

And that...and that that will make it as different or as similar as it...

Because it... It... I suppose you could argue I could come

and I could do it, I could be dressed completely differently,

I could have a...a new hat and a funny voice.

You know, he could have been... Completely different.

..a completely different version, but that seems to defeat

the purpose of coming back, really.

Yes, I agree. Completely agree. Yeah.

This is a... This scene is shot in studio.

Yeah, it was half half, wasn't it, in the end?

With all... No, all of this is studio, isn't it?

This is studio.

And I think we already shot plates.

Oh, that bit of roof is not studio. No. You're right. Yes, that's right.

That's in... We did a bit of both because we were worried

about how high up everybody was.

Whoa.

Possession. God, that looks really good, that possession now.

It does, doesn't it?

Yeah. Sort of evil snake-like tendrils.

Very Doctor Who. Yeah.

Whoa. Whoa.

Teeing you up for what has got to be the biggest shoot-out

scene Doctor Who has ever had... Look at the things...

..thus far, isn't it?

Did you see the things on the stairs?

The art department were very proud of those because every house

has things on the stairs.

Yeah, that's a big... It's really important. ..a Russell thing.

Yeah. Right. Stairs must always have things on them, ready,

like shampoo bottles and toilet rolls... Clothes, shoes.

..ready to be taken upstairs. Yeah, yeah. The ironing that's been done.

Oh, no, they're just toys.

These toys are brilliant. Oh, they're brilliant.

Obviously a huge plot device later on but...

And I love this shed.

I sat in this shed when I first saw it and I just wanted

it in my back garden.

And as a child, I was like, Oh, can you imagine

if you'd had this shed?

But no voice. Look, it's just my little home-made business.

I'm trying to make a bit of money for Mum and Dad, that's all.

These are toys.

Humans have toys.

They've got stuffing inside.

Ah! You pulled its tummy out!

No, no, keep it down. Don't be so loud.

I want to go home, where Meep is all alone.

Yeah.

I know that feeling.

Sometimes I think I'm from a different planet.

That's what other people say. You sound lonely.

So this was a huge challenge, thinking about how we were going

to bring the Meep to life. Yeah.

You know, just the size of the Meep how, you know,

because it's sort of, you know, we really went, you know, the idea

that it would be an entirely CGI creation just didn't feel right.

It just felt like you'd really need something that would exist

in the room alongside you.

I love this shot.

Rachel Talalay.

Director extraordinary. Yes. Yeah.

This is brilliant. Yeah, it makes me...

That woman from Abu Dhabi who buys your stuff, she'd love that one.

And obviously, Catherine, she's giving it everything. Yeah.

You could charge her double. Really cold.

Yeah, it's a great shot.

When it suddenly blinks.

It is definitely finding that, um, you know, Russell, finding that, um,

uh, you know, mix of sort of drama and spookiness and absolute fun.

Yeah. Is so brilliant.

I couldn't believe when the first script arrived for these specials

and...and it was, and it had the Star Beast adapted from

the Star Beast from Doctor Who Weekly.

I could not believe that that's... this story from my...

Oh, I don't know, I must have been, I don't know, ten or something,

was being...was being put on the telly.

Yeah. In... Yeah. In 2023. In 2024. Yeah.

Yeah, I know, right.

2023. Yeah. It's mad. And yet, it feels utterly perfect.

Feels completely perfect. Exactly.

The sort of, it's got that mix of the domestic and the fantastical.

Yeah. That...that has always worked for Doctor Who

and that has specifically Russell has it's...it's a...it's a, sort of,

seam that Russell has mined, hasn't he?

Definitely. From looking back, by bringing the family

into the story and...

Well, it just fits around this story so beautifully, doesn't it?

Yeah. You know, and how he weaves kind of Donna into that,

and her family, it's so clever.

Yeah, so clever.

Here we go again.

Yeah. The recurring theme of the Doctor being belted by the mothers.

And she's trying to hide it. It's brilliant.

You can't see him. You can't see him. It's brilliant.

None of this is real!

None of this is real. And then in comes...

Oh, that's funny. I love this moment.

Tuna madras.

Something smells nice.

Tuna madras.

Where are we here, Vicki?

So we're in a park just down the road from Axminster Road.

And there were a whole bunch of fans that stayed out all night... Yeah.

..to watch us do this. Oh, you need to get used to that.

It was incredible. I was so impressed that they had the will

to just hang out. Stay up.

How quickly did, when we were filming, did...did the outside world

twig that this was an adaptation of a comic strip that some people

would recognise? The night...

I mean, obviously, as soon as we stepped onto the exteriors

of the street because the Meep was out there and the Wrarth Warriors

were out there, and as soon as the fans were getting pictures

of those two things, they clocked that was...

"Oh, these look like Wrarth Warriors."

I mean, absolutely they're, you know, Doctor Who fans are...

They know. ..are proper Sherlock Holmes, you know. Yeah.

They really...they really mean...

And obviously, the Meep is just so distinctive.

Yes.

And the Wrarth are so tall in the road.

So tall. Yeah.

They were like nine-feet-tall on stilts.

Yeah. We...we couldn't hide, we tried to hide them.

We just couldn't. Yeah, there was no hiding.

Yeah, there was no hiding that!

Because they couldn't fit in the houses.

So it's not like we could, like, store them in a house

until we were ready to use them.

Yeah.

This is where the Doctor thinks Wilf has gone.

Yeah. Oh, Bernard.

Yeah.

Bernard was still with us when we filmed this.

He was.

Was yet to come back on to our set as he did.

Although it was only a few days after we shot this that we did

shoot with Bernard in Camden.

It was the following week.

And we managed to get

what turned out to be Bernard's final scene.

Bernard's final scene. Yeah.

Which makes all this... So poignant.

All this all the more poignant. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm so chuffed that we got him, even briefly.

Me too. It means a lot. I think he really enjoyed it as well.

It felt like he really came alive in that.

Yeah, all the phone calls we had with him and all of that,

I think it was lovely.

And a little moment for applause for Miriam Margolyes.

Yes! Who just walked in to a sound studio in Soho

and just immediately embodied the Meep.

It was unbelievable.

She's a kind of vocal genius. She can sort of do any voice.

And so much of this is, so much of this is just her instinct,

you know, literally just her instinct about how, um,

how it should sound and the innocence of this,

of these early scenes being, you know, juxtaposed against

what she does later.

Oh, she's just so clever.

I met her for the first time quite recently.

Yes. I've always been a huge fan,

and then I read her book. Have you read her book?

Yes, I have. It's very entertaining.

It's hilarious. And then I met her for the first time

and she does not disappoint at all.

She's exactly what you would hope and expect. She is indeed.

Attack transformation. Surrender the Meep!

Yeah, so here we are,

and we start blowing this road to bits now.

Yes. We've done the downstairs explosion and then we're going to do

something else in a minute.

It was really exciting to watch.

So this is another little thing. Another new device.

Another new thing Another new app

that the Sonic's got. The Sonic can do, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So clever. I think it's always been able to do this. Yes.

You've just not seen it.

I like the look that Catherine gave the Sonic there.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

That was my note, actually. Was it? Yeah. Yeah.

I remember the rushes that you'd done that and it wasn't in

the original cut and I said, oh, can we have that little moment in

with the Sonic just for viewers who, you know,

are really clocking her journey through.

Yeah. Yeah.

I really love it.

So this is the first example of the CGI Meep now

as it runs across.

We also had, we also had a Meep didn't we,

where there was somebody in an entirely green suit

with a Meep sort of puppet on their legs.

Yes, that was for the walking,

the running around stuff,

so when it runs up the stairs and later on.

Yeah, I think a lot of that's gone, though.

I don't think a lot of that kind of worked so well, really.

'Course we had a third one, flying Wrarth.

We talked about this for months!

What do you mean?

Trying to figure out how the Wrarth would fly,

what it would look like when it was flying.

Because at one point we were going to put them on wires,

but then we realised that we couldn't get wires

in through the back of the costume.

So actually he's on a sort of see-saw rig, isn't he?

He's kind of pinned to a rig and someone jumps on the other end

of it and he literally pops up into frame like that. Right.

Against the green screen.

So that's not a CGI rendering.

That's somebody on a see-saw?

That's one of these costumes on a see-saw.

The wings are CGI.

That's the biggest change in the last 15 years.

When we used to get - this is going to sound, I'm going to sound

very old and from another century now -

but when we first had scripts for this show, there'd be,

a CGI shot would be in big capital letters.

Yes, it would. There was seven an episode, five an episode?

No, there'd be more than that. But they were sort of spelled out.

But Russell would spell out when it was a CGI shot,

very, very specifically. Really? Yeah, yeah.

Well, that's how we used to cost it up.

I mean, I mean, when we first started this,

we would spend on CGI and visual effects in a whole

13, 14-part series, what we're spending on an episode now.

Oh, wow.

So, you know, it was very, very tightly controlled.

I mean, the truth is, it's still very, very tightly controlled.

We still go through every single shot.

You know, I mean, in this story,

I mean, virtually every shot's a CGI shot, you know.

Certainly in all of this, all these bolts of lasers.

You get more for your money now, though, don't you?

I suppose so. Or has the budget just had to expand...

To some extent, to some extent,

but then the sort of the ambition of it is much bigger.

So there was just much more, many more... Look at this!

Look at it all. It's all going on.

And here comes another flying Wrarth. Whey!

And then another two. Three of them! Loads of them.

This is such a great... And this, this is obviously -

there's lots of different shots being stuck together here.

Yeah, lots of bits. This was all a studio set now,

painted into drone plates of the real roof, on location.

Yeah. And then... There we go. Never seen that in Doctor Who before.

We definitely did that at 4:00 in the morning. Yes.

Yeah. And that was really exciting.

I loved this moment. Me too.

Murray Gold's brilliant score stops for a second.

I love it when the Meep goes past.

I love it.

I love it.

Again, a little moment for the direction here,

because it's so brilliantly directed.

I love how all the soldiers get stunned

and, I mean, all of that stuff, you know, in the hands of another

director, would just be a bit sort of hammy

and maybe wouldn't quite work.

But somehow it all just... It's so beautifully directed.

How were they to act against?

Well, they were a bit wobbly at times, weren't they?

Yeah, it was hard on those stilts.

It was tough, and the guys inside did an amazing job.

But you were always slightly feeling for them, you know.

We had to do special seats for them. Yes.

Like saddles that they could sit on.

Yeah, they were on sort of blades, weren't they? Yeah. Yeah.

Which meant that they had to keep shifting their weight around.

Ah, the underground car park.

The underground car park.

So this used to be set on a recreation ground outdoors.

And it, it...

We just, we just could not...

It was like a whole night shoot of its own.

There wasn't enough night. On top of a lot of night shoots.

And obviously we were shooting this right in May, June time.

So we were only getting sort of five or six hours of night...

..of night a night.

So we actually shot this during the day in an underground car park.

That's my car on the right.

Was this during the day?

No, no, it wasn't.

It was, it was through the night,

but we were using it to bring us back.

We only shot till midnight, though, didn't we?

Yeah, because we were using it to bring us back.

We started in the day. It was like a split of days.

We started at like six and went till midnight or something.

Yeah, yeah.

Because the second day it was only, it was a day and a half,

do you remember, in the car park? We were thinking,

"Where are we going to put this? It's a day and a half

"in a car park." Well, also, the madness of it is it's a car park

in London. Yeah. I mean, when would we ever do that?

But obviously it meant that we could,

it was right at the end of our Camden shoot.

For people who are interested in the logistics of filming.

Yeah. I think if you've watched this far, you probably are.

Yes, I agree. Yes, yes, yes.

And so, what's the significance of the judge's cap here?

Do you know? The sort of, sorry, the lawyer's wig.

The barrister's wig?

Tom Baker did it, didn't he,

in an episode where Tom Baker does exactly the same thing,

in an episode where he plays, plays a similar kind of role.

And I think it's in the comic strip, actually, I think it was the same

in the comic strip possibly. Oh, does he? I think he might do.

Maybe I've made that up, but he certainly does it in a story

called The Stones of Blood.

Yes, right.

Yeah. I mean, it plays havoc with my hairdo.

You'll see.

You see the moment it goes on,

we had to, we had to get that right,

because it was a big reset every time it came back off again.

Oh, my word. And you'll see as the wig, as the barrister's wig

comes off, it's a very quick cut because you don't want to be looking

at the mess that that's left.

Oh, right. Flat, flat bed hair.

Stevie Smith, who does my hair and make-up in this

would be off camera tutting furiously at the idea of having...

Huffing. Yeah.

Hauling his big bag of make-up on. Yeah.

Harrumphing. Yes.

Meep. Meep.

Now, let's be fair.

I just... It works, though,

in the underground car park. It does.

You wouldn't hold a courtroom scene on a busy recreation ground.

Yeah. So this is a complete replacement of the Meep's face now

by Untold, our VFX people.

And obviously it's instilled with the spirit of Miriam Margolyes...

Right, yes. ..who was filmed.

But we did have a different... We did. There was another Meep head.

It was like a reference head. Like a reference head,

so you had something to play to, but also the odd glimpse

in the back of shot. You still survive.

Yes, because the mouth... The mouth moved and it had sharp teeth

and the eyes changed and the ears were different.

So it's very different.

I mean, we would, yeah, we could play scenes with,

because as you said, we had a voice artist on set

who was also controlling the animatronics, wasn't he? Yes.

So you could play the scene. Yeah.

I mean, it was quite noisy, all the servo motors

all chugging away.

It's a great piece of work, though, I think now.

In the end, the combination of everybody's

brilliant work is just amazing.

Never quite been a, certainly in the time I was making Doctor Who,

nothing quite as brilliant as that.

Yeah.

Just real, and the fur and the fur work

that the Untold people have done.

It's really difficult, complicated work.

Oh, yeah. We just missed you take the cap off.

Great. This is...

Not moving, isn't it, the back of this trailer?

Just great acting, all of you acting like you're moving,

being rocked around.

I think we were being rocked slightly by people outside,

weren't we? Yeah. Yeah.

Electricians? Yeah, the grips.

Anyone passing by. Anyone who was passing.

Wanted to wiggle the set for a bit.

So, obviously, now in the plot she's starting, you know,

you're starting to wonder if she's remembering...

Is she beginning to remember, yeah.

And definitely Sylvia is starting to worry about that.

..Far away from here. Monte Carlo.

Switzerland.

She gave all the money away!

And you'd be safe, Rose.

It's all my fault. I gave away that Lottery money.

A big shout out to Yasmin as well.

Why?

It's quite... You know, one of her first jobs after Heartstopper

and she's just lovely.

A lovely story to tell.

..And fear.

And I could help.

It just felt like the sort of thing he would do.

I love how he tells that,

how he weaves that sort of story

of Donna having a transgender child,

who... And how Russell weaves that

story into Donna's story and Donna's story with the Doctor's.

So clever.

I think it's also quite, I think it's lovely the way Sylvia

is in that story as well, sort of trying, trying to sort

of cope with something she's finding a little bit difficult,

but I think, I think

that's a very relatable story.

Yeah, completely. And then, and Shaun's just been fantastic. Yeah.

The different reactions the family are having as they all

sort of try and support this girl.

I think it's, I think it's beautifully written.

It is. It really is.

This was a much-discussed moment as well.

How were we going to carry the Meep in, in the costume, on the top

of that thing? And obviously, we don't do that at all.

We just, we just... CGI.

Oh! Oh, right! Yes!

We did also film the Meep once it was put down,

but I remember Russell had a really specific way he wanted them to say,

"All hail to the Meep, hail to the most high."

So I stood in the middle of Usk power station

at 3:00 in the morning,

telling the SAs how to... Performing it.

Really? I don't think... I wouldn't have done it in front of you.

No, I would've been too embarrassed because I'm not an actor.

It was... I was really embarrassed.

Activate the initialiser. Initialisers activated.

It's such an evil little thing.

Yeah, it's brilliant.

I love this shot, looking up at the spaceship.

In this little Miriam twist,

"Gravity stanchions!" Gravity stanchions!

Does anybody know what a stanchion is? Stanchion? I don't.

Stanchions. Gravity stanchions.

I like that they're brandished.

Yes, yes. Me too.

Whatever they are, they're brandished!

And I like that the Meep hails itself!

It's brilliant!

This is very clever because... Nothing moved. ..nothing moved

at all. Nothing moved at all in a decommissioned power station.

And we don't even move... No. ...from one place to another.

And then, open the gate and off we go.

You see, they were doing things like that in 1963

and we're STILL doing them. Still the same.

And this is a completely different part of the power station.

Yes, it is.

You've got weapons in your wheelchair?!

We were so thrilled to have a weaponised wheelchair. I think...

I just love that line, "We all do."

"We all do." That's just brilliant!

Imagine... Just brilliant. ..you know,

wheelchair users all over the globe

being thrilled to bits by this idea.

She wanted to keep them.

She wanted to keep all of this. We said no. Yeah.

Well, it's just so, so action movie now.

I love it so much.

Off you go. Running down some corridors.

Always a good runner down the corridors, David Tennant.

Nothing's ever changed. You are so fast. Yeah.

I don't think we were prepared for how fast you are. I thought,

"If I'm coming back 15 years later, I'm not going to be any slower."

"I'm not slowing down." Yeah.

And you didn't. We couldn't keep up with you!

I don't want anyone accusing me of my joints seizing up.

I love you, Shaun.

And she's remembered. She remembers. Oh, this bit.

It's, it's, it's Sylvia's line. Sylvia's line, yeah.

She called him Doctor.

Oh! "She called him Doctor." Brilliant, isn't it?

Yeah. And she knows how to deliver it too. Yeah. Yeah.

So this is a set in the studio.

Quite a small little set. Tiny little set!

Well, obviously, the rocket's built for a Meep...

It's got to be. ..or a few Meeps, right?

So everything was sort of built at Meep height.

No, no, no, no! Don't do the door! Just don't...

No, it's fine.

Yeah, you see all those little panels are sort of... They're there

to be controlled by, like, three or four Meeps, aren't they? Yeah.

Intergalactic Meeps.

Hail to the most high!

Maximise....

That's a great shot! Yeah!

That's a James Bond shot.

It's all CGI that. Awesome.

Yeah. Well, the Meep spinning round in a chair,

we filmed that little element, but everything else

is completely CGI.

So you had, like, two or three nights in this ship, didn't you?

We did. It was quite a long time, yeah. Yeah.

You liked the buttons, though.

Well, yes. It was good to have so many buttons,

but also, you're just thinking... There was a lot of button pressing

and so you're trying to find different ways of using

the different levels. And there was a bit...

I don't think it's made the final cut.

There was a bit where I was actually sitting up on one those. Yes.

You were. We're a bit like, "Oh, he's up there. OK. Is that...

"Am I OK with that? Yeah, I think I am."

It's quite good, actually, isn't it? But it never made it.

It's on the cutting room floor somewhere. It's a shame. It is.

No! You can't get involved.

Oh, she's really...

That's... This make me really sad.

..a real piece of glass that really came down in between you.

I mean, a big shout out to Phil Sims, our production

designer as well, who's new to this episode.

Just all, every set, every piece of design,

absolutely beautiful, I think.

And the way he knits the sort of Uskmouth and the spaceship...

And the studio, yeah. ..and all that together.

So this is all pretty epic stuff now.

Just thinking about what was cut, it was longer to get to this.

There were more scenes cutting back and forth, I think,

before, before the glass wall came down.

Erm...

Do you know what? I can't remember that really now.

I can't think what they were. I mean, maybe there was a bigger...

Oh, I know. There was much more in, there was much

more with Fudge and Donna... Yeah. ..I think, definitely.

I think we felt that the, the flames were spreading so quickly

that the whole world would have exploded.

The timing just didn't quite work, so that's why we speeded it up.

Yeah.

And then it all comes down to just the two of you,

two of the finest actors in the world,

giving it everything. Oh, honestly!

I love this stuff.

But it will kill you.

I love this stuff.

I think we all cried when we watched you do this. Yeah, we did.

Because it's really sad... It's beautiful.

..that he's got to do this, he's got to make her...

She's got to remember. Yeah,

which is sort of the opposite of what he did the last time

he was with her. So epic.

What we waited 15 years for.

Yeah. Yeah!

Yeah. Just Katherine as well.

I just love how heartfelt

and committed her performance is, you know?

Yeah.

Brilliant.

Doesn't disappoint, any of this stuff. No.

Westerly.

Pelican.

I wonder how - it's hard to be objective about this -

I wonder how quickly, as a new viewer, you realise quite

what this sequence of weird words means.

Yes. Yes.

Cliff tops.

Andante. Get on with it!

I think once she says... "What's he going on about?"

As soon as she starts repeating it, you're like, "Oh, OK."

Yeah, once she joins in...

And obviously the music's helping.

Yes. Brilliant. Very bold.

Dance.

Mexico.

Binary.

He's got her spellbound. Binary, binary, binary.

Absolutely back in 2009. Yeah.

Yeah, it was very much,

"You must go back, faithful viewer, and have a look at those episodes.

"The last two episodes of season four." Yeah.

And then maybe watch this one again.

I mean, all that's great. Epic stuff. Look at that.

I love that. God, that road collapsing is amazing.

The what? The road collapsing.

Isn't it good? It's amazing! Yeah, it's great, right?

I don't think I've seen it in its final version. It's amazing.

Yeah. Brilliant VFX team.

Oh, I love this.

This is so funny.

I gave away my money.

The first thing she says!

I gave away all my money!

And do you know why, Doctor?

Triple rollover.

That's my favourite bit! It's a triple rollover.

It was 162 million, wasn't it? Yes.

Yes. Yes.

I had a subconscious infocutaneous retrofold memory...

I don't know how she said that line.

I don't know how she says that either, I really don't.

She got it right every time. She did.

Even at the read through, she got it right.

Well, you're reading it at the read through,

that's the easy one! I know,

but it's still, it's still... No, pronouncing that word!

Say that to me, I'd still stumble over it.

I wouldn't be able to pronounce that. Yeah!

Definitely.

..The hyper...

The Doctor Donna is back. Yes.

Channel up the booster drive!

Was this fun? Yeah. "Shutterfy the positrons."

How long have I got to live?

55 seconds.

Just so heroic as well.

That's what I love about these two.

Best 55 seconds of my life...

So heroic.

..because I get to do this. Five, four, three, two...

Donna Noble is descending.

Is descending.

Ignition reversed. Ignition reversed. No!

The Meep's not happy about that. No.

The road knits itself back up again, which is handy.

Yeah, it is really. It is really for people in that street.

Yeah. They actually made us promise that we'd do that.

Yes. Quite right, too.

Oh, but this is heart-breaking now because she's dying!

Kill him! Eradicate him!

We did it.

She's fine. She's safe.

You saved her.

Always wonder with Russell...

He's very good at making things feel like they were planted.

You know, like all these bits of plot that are all now

going to dovetail together so perfectly,

it feels like he's known them since 2005. For 15 years, yeah.

I know, right?

I mean, he probably had.

Well... You know, he probably had.

We'll never get a straight answer out of him. No, you won't.

He's had a long time walking around, working out

how he would tell this story, I bet, I'm sure. Yeah.

Yeah. How would you bring her back and what would you do?

Do what you want.

This ship isn't going anywhere.

Oh, you saved the world but lost your friend.

Now feel the wrath of the Meep!

Destroy him!

Yeah, the ears have been replaced as well.

You see, the ears are sort of moving a lot more and there's a lot

more sort of life in them, yeah.

What?!

I love that. "What?!"

What?

But...how?

Closing down all psychedelic light wave emanators.

Oh, it's just brilliant. ..and we reveal that she's got the power...

And it's all about Rose! Yeah. Mum!

Can you hear me?

Mum? Doctor?

I think it's safe for you to come down now.

It's a lovely bit where they figure it all out. Yeah.

Too much power for one person, but you had a child

and the metacrisis passed down...

'Course! ..a shared inheritance.

Of course...! Binary...

Nonbinary.

Binary.

Whoa...

I love all that regeneration... Yeah. So dramatic.

I love the eyes.

It was always there, shining out of her!

A bit used to all of that now, David.

You've...had a few of those! Oh, I...

I'm lousy with regeneration energy!

The toys. The toys!

I love this, the garden shed. And the toys!

On the first cut, we had clips of the monsters, as well, in here...

Oh, yeah? ..but it...just slowed it all down, so we just...

..added the sound and it works beautifully. Yeah, it works fine.

What, to sort of show people what...? What they were... Right.

Remind people what the tie was, in the end.

Actually, I think the truth is, the toys are so brilliant. Yeah!

You just get what they are, you know? It's so brilliant.

Obviously available in all good stores close to you.

I'm going to have them all. All of them. I want them all as well.

I wonder where they are, the originals... Great badges and...

I think they're just great.

Ah-ha!

Aw...

There's a word for you, Doctor,

and that word is "jammy"! Yeah...

Jam on toast.

Calling the Meep!

You forget I still... What a team.

..and if I have to explode the engines...

And, of course, it's all been isolated down to one final switch.

Yeah. Yeah...

Yeah, yeah... Oh, I love this.

This is brilliant.

It's so Hanna-Barbera, isn't it?

Argh....!

Trying to explain to Miriam what,

"Snashin', rashin', catch 'em..." means.

Very much like... In the script, Russell wrote that, you know,

the Meep's cursing like Muttley from Dastardly and Muttley.

That was the first time we saw UNIT Tower, I think.

Yes. Oh, was it? Yes, it is. So faithful.

It won't be the last. It will not be the last.

Keep your eye out for what's in the skyline there.

Yeah, the UNIT Tower. Ah...

Oh, hi... And now another cryptic line here.

Do you now know what this...means? Yes. I do. Oh, I don't!

Because there's one more thing... Still cryptic to me.

You'll get to find out, with all the viewers. I know!

This is amazing because it looks like it wasn't...

Like we put this in, and it wasn't. That was all really there.

Who's the boss, David? Who's the boss?

Who's the boss? Cryptic...

I hate that.

But...

We've still got to fix you two.

Because the metacrisis might have slowed down, but that thing...

Oh, I love all this. ..wrapped around your cortex...

Such fun!

We know everything. Thanks. And you know nothing.

It's a shame you're not a woman any more...

Those soldiers were all good, as well. They had to be drilled,

didn't they? Yeah. We had them all out in the car park, drilling them,

working out how to hold weapons and hold themselves.

A whole episode could have been ruined by one slumping soldier.

Mapped with this interactive lighting. All brilliant... Yes.

Like I said, mate...

Yes, that's right - they had some real actual lamps on the set,

which would help mirror... Mimic...

..mimic the regeneration energy, which then helps the CGI later...

Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

And obviously, as you can see,

all of that bottom of the spaceship in the background

is all there for real, the legs...

Mm-hm. So you see those two extras there? Yeah?

That's my mum and my sister. Aw! It is, yes! Ye-e-s!

It's was my mum's birthday, so I brought her along.

She had a lovely day. Yeah... She did, actually.

She did. She came and said hello...

I had a nice chat with your mum that day... Don't you dare...

Do you know...

And just at the back there, on the right-hand side,

was a massive cordon

that we had to put up... Like, hundreds and hundreds of fans

all turning out with their cameras.

It was really busy. I was so worried.

I was so worried because there were so many people,

but they were brilliant. They just wanted to watch. Yeah!

They didn't want to disrupt it.

Just to catch a little glimpse... They just wanted to watch.

..of the magic. Yeah. It was nice!

It felt like we were doing it for them live, in a way.

Well, you were, I wasn't. But you know what I mean.

Well, you were making it happen.

Imagine his face, Mum!

Oh, he would be so happy.

It was quite early on in this shoot

and I sort of felt... There was one of those times when I thought,

"Oh, my goodness, we're back..." "We're back doing this madness..."

It was really exciting, all the stuff in London.

It really was. Mm-hm. Yeah.

Like a little road show. ..one trip, that's all. Just one!

A little glimpse... Teeny little trip!

..of the TARDIS. A glimpse of the new TARDIS.

It's like the old days.

And this... That is... That's just a translate, isn't it?

No, we've actually... Put that in...

That's a green screen that we've popped in.

We did! It's not quite finished, I don't think, that shot...

We did have a chance, like. We did. But it didn't...

The translate is just when you literally have a picture

and you light it from the back and you stick it on the back wall.

Yeah, so you get a glimpse of it.

So, tell us what you think of this.

I mean, it's just the greatest set.

Look at this! Look at the scale of it.

Yeah, isn't it brilliant?

And you'd... And you run around it! It's brilliant.

It was Rachel.

I thought you just did this...

Rachel sort of proposed it.

And then I thought, "I've had to find a route",

Yeah, because there's so many!

This is... I love it! This is just...such joyous...

And I don't really think you're acting there!

I'm not acting at all! I'm having the time of my life.

I mean, it's a long way, though.

It is! I had a bit of a recovery between takes. I was going to say.

It's massive. And the lights!

That's all... That all happens. That all really happens. Yeah.

None of that's CGI. Yeah. The bottom's not CGI.

The dome at the top... Nope. It's all... It really is the set.

And it really is as big as it looks.

All the lights work independently. They can spell-out words...

Yeah, so every single one of the round lights is...an

individually controlled LED light.

So it's just...

Viewers, you are going to see this set do amazing things

through the series. Yeah.

It really is... Just... It's just so cinematic, isn't it?

I snuck on set - today.

You saw it when it was not finished, you saw it early on. I did!

I saw it being constructed, but then I went on set today

where Ncuti and Millie were filming and there was a beautiful shot

as a crane sort of passes across it. Yeah...

It's just... It's just a...

It's such good value, isn't it?

It's one of those, you see directors...

You see directors just walk on there and they just love it.

Yeah. They just love it. We have to pull them off, actually.

We do. We have to keep... Vicki keeps, you know, tapping her...

My watch! ..watch... Oh, because they keep wanting to do...?

Oh, they just want to go on forever... "Oh, we can do this..."

Yeah, yeah. You can't...

It's like a roller-coaster. It looks like a roller-coaster, I think.

Lots for you to press, David. Oh, yeah.

It was a great honour to get to be the first person

to fiddle with it. And it is...

It's a significantly bigger console as well. Oh, yeah!

That kind of running around it, it takes you a bit longer now as well.

With my family...

We could do outrageous things!

Yeah, I like how it's all sort of...

Dinner! And a laugh...

..cracked...

That Japanese cracked porcelain kind of look to it all. Yeah.

It's so beautiful. I like that it makes tea.

Brilliant. Phil... Coffee. Coffee! Not tea.

Tea is not a problem to a TARDIS.

Tea is not a problem, but coffee... Coffee would terrify...

And I just could not believe, you know, we'd spend so much money

and we'd get this brilliant, gleaming, beautiful TARDIS.

And then in the first scene we spend in it, Russell blows it up!

Yeah.

I was absolutely furious with him.

You know, I phoned him up and I said,

"You have got to be joking!"

Here we go! You know, and he said,

"And I don't just want it to be like a little thing..."

No, it's got to be massive.

..the biggest explosion there's ever been on a TARDIS. Yeah!

So look at it. Oh, my word.

Mum. Mum! Donna!

I said so!

It's all going on...

And we're off. And you're off.

Back off into adventure again. Yep!

Who would have thought it, eh?

Who would have thought it?

All these years later,

we're still at it.

We're still adding fire to those shots. Yeah.

We're still making it bigger and bigger. Right.

I think we'll still be adding fire to those shots

the night before it goes... I think so too.

Oh, I really enjoyed that! Really enjoyed that!

Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! Again!

What a fantastic episode.

Thank you for coming back, David. Oh, my...! Thanks for having me.

What a treat.

Thank you so much for listening.

See you next time! Thank you!