Doctor Who - Documentary s07e05 Episode Script

BARRY NEWBERY: The caves were the things which excited me most.
I remember going to Wookey Hole with Joan Williams, who was one of our staff photographers, and I remember taking I remember her taking lots of photographs.
I said, ''Would you do this, and would you do that?'' Because I needed references.
TIMOTHY COMBE: Money was the reason why we couldn't shoot in Wookey Hole, so we just, uh, in the end, decided we would do it all in the studio.
In fact, it was much better we did it in the studio, although we had awful problems.
Barry Newbery, the designer, came to me as the new producer and said, ''Look, I think we might be in trouble.
''We're having the caves built, all the rocks and that sort of stuff, ''by an outside firm.
'' The walls are all covered with Were to be covered with fibreglass, and all painted as various green rocks.
I did the drawings for these.
They were all costed, they were sent out.
It was an outside contractor because it was fibreglass.
One of the things I wanted done was fibreglass sprayed onto, thick, like, cellophane and string, so it all sparkled, all the crystals.
And, uh, after the first few days, I went out to see how they were getting on.
''I've been down there,'' he said, ''and I think they're in trouble.
''They're not getting on with it.
''I don't think it'll be ready for the studio.
'' So I, being a very innocent new producer, I thought, ''Well, this isn't really my business, ''it's the business of scenic services.
'' So I went to them, found the man who was in charge of all this stuff, and told him the story, and he said, ''Oh, dear.
Oh, dear.
Not to worry, I'll sort it out,'' you see.
And that was it.
The day it came When it went into the studio, and I got there at 7:00 in the morning, knowing what to find, and all this fibreglass rock was laying flat on the floor.
There was no way of hanging it, and you can imagine how I felt.
I phoned Barry Letts and told him that he should cancel the day's shooting because there was nothing going to happen.
He said, ''You haven't got a studio to shoot in.
'' ''Oh,'' I thought, ''Oh, my God.
'' You see, I didn't know So I started ringing round, ringing round.
And I must say the The BBC came up trumps.
They pulled out all the stops.
They took people off other shows, they got people in from outside and so on.
And they all descended on the studio.
And he managed to do some shooting throughout the day.
It was horrific.
Doctor! The dinosaur was about 8' tall, very heavy, with a very heavy head, with an actor inside it, you see.
And it was so heavy that it had to be attached with a ring on its head with a line going up into the flies, as we call it in the theatre, just to hold it up, otherwise it would have fallen over.
Now, that was ludicrous, because if it was being put on CSO, colour separation overlay, you could have done it with a puppet perfectly well.
It didn't have to be a It could have been 3' tall.
(CREATURE GROWLING) That's the creature that attacked me in the caves.
Hey, you there! Halt or I fire! (GUN FIRING) It was a deliberate policy to hold the Silurian back from being seen by viewers.
A film which made a huge impression on me many, many years ago was Great Expectations, which David Lean directed.
And there's a scene in the churchyard.
Even now if I watch it, I jump every time, 'cause there's this movement at the bottom of the camera shot, and I wanted to try and create that I'm not David Lean, so I couldn't do it, but, I mean, I But I did try to sort of keep it secret for a little bit longer.
It was written to be seen earlier, but I kept it up, suspense going as long as possible.
I talked to the cameraman, Fred Hamilton, and I said I wanted something different.
I said, ''The Silurian's got three eyes.
'' I said, ''Could you get me three lenses to go on the front of your camera? ''And what we'll do is we'll paint the middle one red, ''and I'll have you, as the Silurian, ''coming in towards Caroline John at the end of the episode.
'' (SCREAMING) I don't think it had been done before, and my children were absolutely scared stiff when they saw it.
They really were.
They thought, ''Oh, my gosh, the creature really is there.
'' You know, they believed.
''Daddy, oh!'' You know.
Why did you give him the bacteria? Do you want this species to destroy us? The costumes They're the most terrible costumes to wear.
Jim Ward, who was the visual-effects designer, and he worked with the costume designer, and I remember saying that making them of rubber was all terribly awful, hot for the actors.
They needed They needed to be near the actors in case there was any disaster.
I think Health and Safety wouldn't permit it now 'cause there was no breathing apparatus inside.
We were quite often having to stop recordings because where the neck joined the lower part of the body, you'd see where the join was.
But that was a common factor with Doctor Who, because we were always short of money and costumes The costume of the Silurian could have been better, shall we say.
I am the leader.
I have decided.
There was one particular time when one of the Silurians was killed by another Silurian and fell on the floor.
Well, I mean, you know, all the costume would fall off, (LAUGHING) it was absolutely chaotic.
And So one had to do it all in close-ups, you know, sort of a misty shot of the creature falling down on the ground, dead.
There wasn't enough time for the people who were dressed up in them, extras, probably, to master a walk, something Maybe I'm being too fussy, but it would have been good, I think, if a little more time had been spent on the movement.
We filmed the caves not in Derbyshire, where they were supposed to be filmed, where all the caves are, or a lot of caves are in Derbyshire, but, in fact, on a moor, what looked like a moor but was a common near Milford, near Godalming, down in Surrey.
It was a Ministry of Defence one, and it hadn't got any big, steep hills or anything, but there was one slight gradient, and that's where I made the entrance to the cave, shot in long shot and all sorts of angles to make it look like it was in the side of a hill.
This was just in the side of an incline, shall we say.
A slope.
MAN ON RADIO: To Area 2, over.
I said to my PA, ''Can we afford a helicopter?'' And he said, ''Tim, it's such a wonderful idea, I'll make sure you can afford it.
'' So we used a helicopter, and I got some fantastic shots.
Fulton Mackay I'd once met up in BBC Glasgow when he was doing a play there.
He's a Scot.
And of course, he went on to do Porridge, where he played Mackay.
He also lived in the Richmond area, and I lived in the Richmond area, so we'd see each other and we sort of got Knew each other a little bit.
And that's how he got cast.
Fulton was a very interesting character, who was very, very strong.
And I remember Jon was a little, sort of, nervous of being upstaged.
Fulton Mackay was so naughty.
''Now, Jon, I think it would be best if ''Caroline, would you like to stand this side of me? ''And Jon, you that side.
'' And you knew Fulton wanted to be in the middle.
(LAUGHING) And you said, ''Okay.
'' But I'd never know how I mean, luckily, Jon was much taller, but, um He's quite a canny old fox.
I liked him very much.
And a wonderful actor.
Everything's in perfect order.
Except for the fact that these power losses still keep on recurring.
We are trying everything possible.
Yes, I know.
I'm sorry.
COMBE: Peter Miles I'd worked with before.
I usually cast him in the slightly cynical, clipped style of acting.
He just He did it so well, questioning, and I just, you know, liked his style.
Do I now take it you have arrested my security officer? Major Baker isn't himself.
You must have conflict of mind or conflict of body, or both, either one-to-one or a whole army against an army.
That's what makes good entertainment.
I've had enough of you.
I really must insist, sir.
You're endangering all of us.
And you can't have Nick Courtney being brilliant, which I think he is Let me say categorically, I think Nick Courtney's wonderful.
You can't have him being brilliant unless there's another guy with an equally good part causing conflict.
Peter Miles has been an eternal villain in Doctor Who, and he's an excellent villain.
I mean, this was a very good performance.
He's played so many Well, you know, the villains he's played in Doctor Who.
He's very good at it, Peter.
This establishment should be closed down completely.
Out of the question.
It would mean a tremendous setback to our research programme.
And to your career? To me, it's a job.
It's like a mechanic saying, ''I'm just going to mend your car,'' and I say, ''But that's a terribly difficult job,'' and he says, ''Well, I'm a trained mechanic.
''I will go and mend your car.
Leave me with two hours ''and I'll bring it back to you.
It will be all working.
'' And I say to the director, ''I am an actor, ''and why evil can come out of me, or big-headedness, ''or whatever attribute which is unpleasant ''I do not know, actually know.
'' Why does a guy who is age 1 4 play the piano so well? It's partly a gift, not just the tutor who taught him how to play the piano.
It is partly a gift inside you, and that gift is partly fantastic imagination, absolutely fantastic imagination.
Now, listen, before you people came, I was director of an important research establishment.
Now the place is shut down, my career's in ruins, and you are to blame! -Oh, you're talking absolute nonsense.
-Don't argue with him.
I'll go and get one of the medical orderlies.
You think I don't know what's going on, don't you? I now love that scene where I go berserk on camera.
And I'll tell you why.
One of the reasons was the make-up lady had to put all the plague onto my face, which took ages.
It doesn't hurt, but it took ages.
And the studio were complaining that Peter Miles was holding up the show, because we got so many minutes to record that evening.
You can clear out of here, all of you.
And take that crazy Doctor with you.
And all of your military rubbish! And then this poor voice would say, ''He's still being made up.
You have to be patient.
'' ''We might over-run.
'' ''Well, he has to be made up.
We can't'' So when I burst in that door, I should have been I was really worked up, I tell you, because they were telling me, ''You get on there quick.
We want you.
We want you.
We want you.
'' And I was very tense, but I now appreciate what I did in my ''going mad'' scene because when I came in, I was going to go mad any second, but I held it right in till I got nearer the table to try and get onto the table to strangle Nick Courtney, the Brigadier.
I'm in charge of this place! Well, are you going, or do I have to throw you out myself! During that scene, I did go mad.
Yes, I love all that.
I think we all need a bit of melodrama, as long as you can handle it.
(GASPING) Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer was with one of my favourite agents, Larry Darzel.
I remember when I cast him, I asked Larry Darzel where did Geoffrey live.
And he lived out at that time somewhere near Gerrards Cross.
Gerrards Cross came in to Marylebone Station.
So I said, ''Ah, right, well'' I spoke to Geoffrey, I said, ''I'm gonna film you ''coming off the train from Gerrards Cross.
'' That was my meeting My first meeting of Geoffrey Palmer, as he walked off the train at Marylebone Station.
I was trying to do shots around Marylebone Station, but we ran into problems, crowds, being a bit bolshie, shall we say, making comments and all this sort of thing.
And in the end, I pulled the unit out, and we shot those sequences in Shepherd's Bush.
It's very difficult making Shepherd's Bush look like the city.
There just aren't those sort of buildings.
So, I remember I decided that the best way of doing it was to go down The camera to go very low.
Shoot upwards.
And so I had some apartment blocks which could do, out of focus, as office blocks.
But 'Cause there weren't any office blocks in those days in Shepherd's Bush.
'The Silurians' was, you know, the first victim, almost, of this ghastly seven-part thing, you see, I mean And the problem is keeping it going.
It's quite Four parts are fine.
I mean, we'd opened with a good You know, with a good four-parter, you see, with the arrival of the Pertwee Doctor, which is, you know, fine That's a great show.
But then you've got seven, and even in a six-parter, you tend to get a sag in the middle, you know, it's difficult.
And you have to find a way round it.
In 'The Silurians', the whole sequence towards the end of the plague is a way of giving the story, you know, a bit of a kick-start and another dimension, you see.
It's not It's a bit of a diversion, really, you know.
It's a way of spinning it out, you know, till you get to the end of that seven.
COMBE: Marylebone Station, that was where the plague hit, and everyone was dying.
Well, there were two or three classifications of extras.
There was the extra that just moved around and stood there and did nothing else.
There was the one that pretended to act, and the one that had a few words.
So you And One always, again, with money, you went for the first category.
And they had to collapse and fall on the station floor.
I didn't realise at the time, 'cause the PA defended me, but he had a lot of bolshie extras saying, ''This is acting.
''I'm pretending to be dead.
''And I'm lying on the floor, ''I'm going to claim for clothing allowance.
'' You can imagine.
It was quite It got You know, even a letter came into the to Barry, I expect, or somebody at the BBC, about what had happened, from Equity, and Anyway, it was all hushed up, it was all right in the end, but it was I see the humour of it now, but DOCTOR: # slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe # WOMAN: Doctor? Come on, Bessie, be more cooperative.
One thing I always felt strongly about, was that Who shouldn't be self-referential.
It shouldn't be saying, ''Look at us,