Doctor Who - Documentary s10e09 Episode Script

MICHAEL HAWKINS: The very first day, I knew four people.
And the regulars, naturally, build up a little, club is the wrong word.
But they get on very well, they know each other.
They have breakfast together before they hit the rehearsal room floor.
Uh, but there was none of the, uh, "You sit over there and don't join us until we invite you.
" It was open-armed reception, which made the whole thing a joy to do.
Jo, I presume that the TARDIS is still here? -Yes, I know where it is.
-Well, don't worry about us.
-Our spaceship is here.
-That's all very well, Doctor, but we still happen to be locked in.
Frontier in Space, now that had one of my My rather favourite creatures, the Ogrons.
(LAUGHING) I thought they were absolutely fabulous.
They were very tall guys that played those parts.
And I remember we were outside, I think it was the Festival Hall, that we were filming or something, and there's a few gentlemen who like a drink or two, who sleep there overnight.
And we were there about, you know, it was like 5:30, 6:00 in the morning, and two of the Ogron blokes went over, right, and sort of tapped these two old, lovely, old drunks, and you could see these eye balls came up, you know, and they looked and they ran off saying, (IN AN IRISH ACCENT) "I'll never touch another drop again.
" I mean, they were absolutely hysterical.
(HIGH-PITCHED BLEEPING) JO: Ogrons! Everybody wanted to appear in Doctor Who.
It was "the thing" to put on the CV.
And I just leapt at it, even before I'd read the script.
When I found it was being directed by an old chum of mine, Paul, I said, "Yes, definitely.
" VERA FUSEK: Oh, wonderful man, wonderful man.
You could see he was an artist, um, and I've got two paintings that I could show you that he gave me.
And we were personal friends because, I was a friend with his wife as well.
And his wife was dying of a terrible disease.
So, he was a man whose compassion was, sort of, really in a sense, honed by this terrible tragedy in his life.
And he was extra sensitive to people's problems.
And he was extra sensitive in his direction, he was extra sensitive in everything.
I think he was a very, very nice man.
I said to the director, "You don't give us any notes or any direction.
Why?" He said, "My work, as a director, is to cast properly.
"And I know if I cast that person I will get the performance I want, "when put next to the other person I have cast.
"So I don't need to tell them anything.
"They are doing what I knew they would do when I put them together.
" He cast very carefully.
And he said very little.
The only comments that Paul would make was, sort of, "Can you move over there?" or, "Can you turn because we can't get you in shot?" And the technical side of it, he was very good at.
He was able simply to move the camera to a slightly different position and give the audience the impression that it was a totally different set, which is absolutely essential when you're on a very tight budget.
And he was able to do that in the quarry.
Because the bits that I filmed in the quarry, gave a totally different impression to the bits in other sequences.
They had used exactly the same quarry but a different way around.
MAT IRVINE: No Doctor Who can do without going to the BBC quarry.
In this particular case, I think it was down in Surrey.
Not used for very long actually, but it's supposed to be, I think, it was the Ogron planet.
Uh, we didn't see any ships landing.
Um, there was rather an interesting creature, the Ogrons were supposed to have worshipped this creature.
And, apparently, the director didn't like this creature, whatsoever.
(LAUGHING) This had nothing to do with Effects, I have to say.
Um, and it was sort of written out at a fairly late stage.
So, some of the plot became slightly unhinged, I think, at that particular point.
Frontier in Space, actually was quite heavy for effects, in general, and the main effects designer was Bernard Wilkie, who, of course, is one of the creators of the department, with Jack Kine, way back in 1954.
Rhys Jones, and, sadly, both he and Bernard are dead now, but, Rhys was one of the, shall we say, senior assistants, and he'd taken on a lot of the role for, basically, a lot of the effects.
Now, there were two other of us also on it.
Now, one was Ian Scoones, who was still an assistant at the time, um, and of course his forte was miniatures, so, he'd sort of, with Bernard Bernard was there.
And he'd really looked after the miniature side of things, 'cause there was quite a lot of filming for it.
And me, myself, was just a junior, a new boy arriving in.
Looking through it, you can see, it actually did cross complete boundaries of effects work or effects work that the department was doing at that time.
Because it was, in Jack Kine's immortal words, a Jack of all trades.
And because you had got miniatures, you'd got special props, I built a couple of them myself.
You'd got the floor effects happening, you'd got location work.
And, of course, you'd got special costumes.
Draconians, particularly, as well as some of the other creatures in it, because there was a lot of creatures in it, actually.
Is it possible, Your Highness, that for once the Earthmen spoke the truth? Some plan of the Emperor of which Your Highness has not been informed? IRVINE: The Draconian masks which I think the Draconians actually have always, in my view, as being one of the best.
I don't wanna say they were creatures cause they were equal to the humans, they were aliens.
One of the best designs ever done.
I mean, John Friedlander, who did a lot of Well, in fact, he almost exclusively did masks and things for the effects department, I think, really excelled himself with those.
JOHN FRIEDLANDER: Dragon-like I suppose, what they wanted in the way of a Draconian.
Dragon like, I don't think I've got more than that.
Sometimes the director or producer, if he'd be Barry Letts or not, (CHUCKLING) would come and see with how they were doing before I'd cast them.
Barry was always interested to see what was going on.
The bubbles, kind of scalish-looking thing, you know.
Add just a bit of design, you know, and texture.
But the actors like them because the latex didn't stick to their skin.
They had air between their skin and the mask.
And, in fact, they'd go to the canteen with the masks still on.
(LAUGHING) Which was quite good for the make-up because they didn't have to do so much re-sticking and fiddling around.
IRVINE: I hadn't been in the department very long, when I suddenly discovered we had a store of ex-Gerry Anderson models.
Apparently, when Century 21 packed up, the items were sold off.
Now, I have to say, nothing of this was specific.
I mean, there were no, sort of, Thunderbird Twos or Eagle Transporters there.
These were all background craft and tea chests, literally, full of Airfix girder bridges.
Head of the department, who was still Jack, at that time, Jack Kine, had sent a memo out, saying Obviously, Doctor Who had realised, they'd known we've got this.
The grapevine even then was working.
"Hey, Visual Effects have got all these ex-Gerry Anderson models.
" Saying, "No, they cannot be used as they were", because obviously they'd already appeared on the screen.
But, obviously, they could be cannibalised, and, which is, in fact what happened.
And a number of the craft, I think with the exception of the police ship, the one the Master used, uh, were actually completely cannibalised.
And some of them perhaps not (CHUCKLING) quite as cannibalised as Jack may have liked.
The Ogron ship, I'm pretty sure, was left over from UFO, and there may have been some small changes.
But it's pretty near damn as it was for UFO.
So, you have to interpret, you know, there will be cannibalisation, with a little pinch of salt here, I think.
Right, you'd better hold on in there, you two.
We're about to lift off.
IRVINE: One thing actually did happen halfway through filming with the police ship, not on the Moon, but it was wanted at one point to dock, I think it was the Ogron ship, and we realised the Ogron ship, and the police ship were I mean the police ship was only about half the size.
It had to be, it was meant to be tiny.
I was dispatched upstairs to the workshop, because that time we still were at Television Centre, to build a small model.
I think I'd had about half hour in all to build it and I came up with this.
Ping pong ball, lengths of tube, balsa wood wings and bits of plastic to make the undercarriage.
Now, it's not as detailed as the one that Ian built obviously, but we got away with it, with the Well, with the very tight sequences and the very long-shot sequences.
But that's what Effects is all about.
The treaty between our two empires established a frontier in space.
We have never violated that frontier.
HAWKINS: Barbara Kidd was one of those genius designers at the BBC at the time.
On a very, very tiny budget, I think she produced the most amazing collection of costumes.
Those dresses that Paul had them make for me, they made me just feel, I don't know, so glamorous.
That turquoise one, yes.
I kept it.
I actually asked if I can keep it.
And I put it away in a house that I have in Washington D.
C.
And, unfortunately, a flood It flooded the basement where it was stored and it's ruined.
I said to her on one occasion, "It's a great shame the General wears exactly the same clothes throughout.
" (LAUGHING) And she said, "I can't afford to give you another.
" But she did an absolute remarkable job with it.
Well, I'm never going in that thing again.
Oh, come on, Jo, be reasonable.
Only you could manage to have a traffic accident in space.
MANNING: When we did Frontier in Space, we sort of, had the cut off jeans, which was Actually that was ground breaking.
I don't think There wasn't a cut-off jean then, we did that.
And then I had to get changed into my most favourite outfit.
I loved my karate, my black karate.
You know the wrap-over doofer doofer.
But you know the best bit? And that was my built-up, platform, baseball boots, which was the one and only thing I regret not keeping.
In all honesty, I loved those.
And I mean, I've got high-heel sneakers myself now.
Cause I didn't As I said, I can't walk in flat shoes.
(LAUGHING) And now too many years of wearing platforms and stilettos and things.
Anyway, those were actually specially made for me.
I thought that was a great outfit and I though Jo worked very well in it.
(ROCKET ENGINES FIRING) IRVINE: I was fortunate also to be part of the space walking scenes, that were filmed at the Ealing Studios, which the BBC still owned at that particular time.
And these were done, by the usual method of, again they're generically called Kirby wires.
But it's basically, you know, it's how they fly on stages, and that you have two thin, but very, very strong steel wires, attached to a harness around the person, and then literally hung up into the Gods.
Um, and if you're very clever and you want movement, you can put it on track and then the track can move so they can be seen to fly.
There is a problem, of course, is you have got the wires and I have to say they are noticeable in a couple of shots.
I think, generally, it's pretty good.
They're blacked out, and of course, space is black, so, hopefully, they disappear, but, the You do to pick them up every now and again.
We know this man is a Draconian agent.
He must be lying.
Perhaps he's already been brainwashed, sir.
Then we must break through his conditioning.
HAWKINS: It was only when I read the script, I realised how difficult the part was going to be.
The character I played, lacked, if I dare say it, a beginning.
We didn't see why he was so disagreeable.
So, one had to invent, a sort of back story and, to me, it was a failed army officer with delusions of grandeur.
And, bit by bit, every attempt he'd made to progress in his career, he was thwarted, until eventually he ends up as number two.
Not number one.
So, he was likely to hang on to anything that he thought could expand his career.
On the contrary, your request is denied.
My authority WILLIAMS: In a purely military matter of this kind, madam, your authority is limited.
I can overrule you.
Only with the backing of the full Earth senate.
And do you think they will give it? His reaction to anything, any challenge, any question of him, he would immediately attack.
In a sense, he provoked the kind of thing that Paul wanted.
He wanted tremendous dignity and commanding presence from me.
And he got it from him, and so I, in a sense, responded.
Even when he has to admit that he made a basic error, in attacking an unarmed ship But why a battle cruiser? The agreement was that both ships were to be unarmed.
Naturally we sent a cruiser.
How else should a nobleman of Draconia travel? But its missile banks were empty, the ship was unarmed.
There is just a fleeting moment of apology.
And it is only fleeting.
And then he immediately reverts to his normal attitude.
Can I take it, sir, that you will now authorise the expedition? I intend to lead it.
FUSEK: Oh, it was good.
I do remember those.
The uniform he had with those big shoulders.
And he has a big voice, you know, you had to command him with your voice too, so, it was fun.
I enjoyed the part immensely because it had allowed me to be rather nasty to everybody.
I've brought some old friends along to meet you.
(MASTER LAUGHING) One of the great things about Doctor Who was Dalek.
As soon as you mention "Dalek, exterminate" and all that, people knew immediately you were talking about Doctor Who.
And it was a very clever touch actually, after all the Ogrons and all the other weirdos that appeared in the episodes that I did, to actually have at the end, the most scary ones of all.
Fire! No! No, don't.
It's no good.
The Daleks appear in, probably, their shortest-ever appearance in a Doctor Who.
But we did have to take, I think, a couple along to the quarry.
And they were the usual problem of, of course They're bad enough on a pavement, or on a, you know, on a flat studio floor.
We're in a quarry.
We have to take boards, duckboards, they're big lengths of six by four block board with little rails on the side of them.
And you know, Muggins, as being one of the juniors has to lift all these things, put them down, you know, tack them together and then, so that the Daleks can be then manoeuvred, carefully shooting, so you don't see the bottom of the Dalek, where the wheels are.
I have very fond memories.
Because it was also my farewell song to the business.
Because of the fact that my children got ill, and I thought, "I can't do this.
"My children need me more.
" So, I gave up acting and I went into psychology and never looked back.