Doctor Who - Documentary s11e03 Episode Script
Now and Then
(ROARING) NARRATOR: During the 1970s, the normal production process for Doctor Who would see the location filming being planned and shot as one of the first things in the schedule, with the studio work being handled at a later date.
As such, the scouting of locations and the logistics of taking the programme out of the studios would be carefully worked out in advance to ensure that the filming could proceed as smoothly and as efficiently as possible.
But "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" proved to be something of an exception to this.
The story itself called for numerous different locations to be found all over Central and West London.
But many of these were evidently only chosen at the last minute, and then seemingly abandoned for others on the fly whilst the actual filming was taking place.
The unusual nature of the location work was further compounded by the way the opening sequences were shot, showing the city of London empty and deserted.
Knowing that she was unlikely to achieve the shot she wanted on the main filming days that wouldn't begin until around 7.
30 in the morning, director Paddy Russell elected to film the opening shots unofficially.
Using a BBC camera and film stock, Russell set up her own mini film unit, consisting of herself, cameraman Tony Leggo, and his assistant, Fred Bagwell.
Together, they set off around 4.
00 one Sunday morning several weeks before the main film shoot and raced around a number of London landmarks filming what they could.
So, where did they go? The sequence starts next to Lambeth Pier on the Thames Embankment, at the same location used 32 years later in "Rise of the Cybermen".
Paddy Russell and her team then drove down Lambeth Palace Road to the southern end of Westminister Bridge, before crossing over and shooting in Whitehall, facing the Cenotaph and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
At the end of Whitehall, some shots were taken whilst driving down the western side of Trafalgar Square, before then turning the corner up into Haymarket.
Other locations used in the sequence include Margaret Street,just off Regent Street, outside the old Billingsgate fish market on Lower Thames Street, Smithfield Meat Market on Long Lane, the southeastern corner of Covent Garden and Outer Circle, next to Regents Park.
The end of the sequence featured the shot filmed as part of the main location shoot done at the end of September 1973 on Wilmer Close in Kingston upon Thames.
As originally scripted, the scene would have continued to show a looter attacked by an unseen something.
The main block of location filming began on Sunday, the 23rd of September 1973, once again returning to the exterior of Smithfield Meat Market in Long Lane to shoot scenes from Episode 4, showing the Doctor driving around in his new car trying to pinpoint the power source bringing the dinosaurs back through time.
The Doctor then drives around the corner into Lindsey Street.
This same location was used again during the climax to Episode 5, where the Doctor finds himself trapped between an apatosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
The Lindsey Motel, seen on the opposite side of the road, and in the model footage of the fighting dinosaurs, has since been demolished.
The Doctor pulls up at the locked shutters to Smithfield Market, which have since been replaced with a rather more ornate pair of gates.
(ROARING) The rest of Sunday the 23rd was spent filming around Moorfields and the exterior of Moorgate Underground station, where the secret nuclear bunker is based.
Moorfields is first seen in Episode 1, showing the now demolished row of deserted shops and the small arcade in the middle containing the empty jewellers that is robbed by the opportunist looter.
Coming off Moorfields on the other side of the road is New Union Street, where the looter later crashes his car and is subsequently found dead by the Doctor and Sarah.
The top of New Union Street, next to the white pillars in the centre of the picture, is where the Brigadier's Jeep appears as he and the Doctor drive to the entrance of Moorgate Underground station in Episode 4.
Since the filming of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"in 1973, the opposite side of Moorfields, in common with many areas of London, has being completely demolished and redeveloped with new buildings.
With filming in Central London completed, the cast and crew then travelled over to West Ealing and the former Pickford's Depository on Brownlow Road, now used as the West London Islamic Centre.
This building was used in Episode 1 as the looter's hideout, with the Doctor and Sarah walking past the ground floor windows and going through the entrance doors situated under the lean-to cover.
The junction of nearby Midhurst Road and Chamberlain Road were used for the scene of the captive Doctor and Sarah being driven away by the army, having been caught as suspected looters.
At the other end of Chamberlain Road is the site of the former Northfields Girls School, used for the detention centre.
The school was finally demolished in the late 1970s and new housing built on the site.
Nowadays, the only parts of the school to still exist are a few sections of the original outer perimeter wall.
A short distance away is the electricity substation situated on Elderberry Road in Ealing.
This location was used towards the end of Episode 2 as the doctor tries to capture an apatosaurus so that he can detect where the time travel equipment is situated that is being used to bring the dinosaurs into modern-day London.
(ROARING) Interestingly, the film shot list prepared for this shoot indicates that this sequence was originally intended to be filmed here, at Hearn Street in Central London, which also houses a small electricity substation.
The film crew's move to Southall Gas Works was a last-minute decision.
The sequence in Episode 1, showing the soldiers fighting off an advancing Tyrannosaurus rex, was originally planned to be shot at either Coombe Road in Chiswick or Park Road in Kingston upon Thames.
Likewise, the sequence at the beginning of Episode 2, where the Doctor and Sarah make their escape during another dinosaur battle, was again intended to be shot either at Park Road or Brackley Terrace in Chiswick.
Much of the infrastructure of Southall Gas Works has been dismantled over the years.
But this road, The Straight, was used for the sequence in Episode 5, where the Doctor evades an army patrol.
On screen, the Doctor reverses his Jeep into White Street, a row of specially built houses for the gas workers that have long since been demolished.
The corner of White Street and The Straight even had its own pub, The White Lion, again, long gone, but seen here on the left of the picture.
Other areas of the gas works were also used throughout the story.
The Doctor evades capture in this shell of a large derelict building, a location that was a television favourite in the 1970s, also appearing in the likes of The New Avengers, The Professionals and Return of the Saint.
Other areas of the works appeared in the first episode, as the looter hides from the patrolling army.
Moving south of the Thames, Riverside Drive in Ham was the location chosen for the scene in Episode 6 where the Doctor and the Brigadier find an apatosaurus blocking the road as they make their way back to Moorgate Underground station.
A short distance away is Kingston upon Thames and Canbury Gardens, a 14-and-a-half-acre public recreation area situated next to the river.
And it was here that the Tardis lands in the opening episode.
Running next to Canbury Gardens is Lower Ham Lane, the empty residential street where the Doctor and Sarah are almost run over by the looter.
A short distance away is Parkfields Road, used to show the Doctor driving back to the warehouse where the supposedly unconscious Tyrannosaurus rex is securely tethered in Episode 3.
Directly across the way is Wilmer Close, where the opening milkfloat scene from Episode 1 was shot, as mentioned earlier.
Further into the town centre is the old GPO sorting office, on what is now Ashdown Road.
Now closed up and partially demolished, the sorting office was used as the exterior of the locked police station in Episode 1.
The Jeep spotted by Sarah wasn't in front of them at all but was filmed on Palmer Crescent, a few minutes away.
Close by, South Lane was used for part of the Episode 4 sequence showing the Doctor tracking the power readings that eventually lead him to the base underneath Moorgate Underground station.
Just around the corner from South Lane is the road known as The Bittoms, just off which the Doctor attempts to capture a stegosaurus in Episode 2.
Although the distant buildings remain much as they were in 1973, a modern multi-storey car park has since been built on the edge of this site.
This same location also featured in Episode 1, when the Doctor and Sarah are arrested as looters.
And the wall seen behind the soldiers is one of the few remaining features left on the site.
The last major location used in "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" took the film crew over to Wimbledon Common, where the latter part of the Episode 5 chase sequence between the Doctor and the army takes place.
As such, the scouting of locations and the logistics of taking the programme out of the studios would be carefully worked out in advance to ensure that the filming could proceed as smoothly and as efficiently as possible.
But "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" proved to be something of an exception to this.
The story itself called for numerous different locations to be found all over Central and West London.
But many of these were evidently only chosen at the last minute, and then seemingly abandoned for others on the fly whilst the actual filming was taking place.
The unusual nature of the location work was further compounded by the way the opening sequences were shot, showing the city of London empty and deserted.
Knowing that she was unlikely to achieve the shot she wanted on the main filming days that wouldn't begin until around 7.
30 in the morning, director Paddy Russell elected to film the opening shots unofficially.
Using a BBC camera and film stock, Russell set up her own mini film unit, consisting of herself, cameraman Tony Leggo, and his assistant, Fred Bagwell.
Together, they set off around 4.
00 one Sunday morning several weeks before the main film shoot and raced around a number of London landmarks filming what they could.
So, where did they go? The sequence starts next to Lambeth Pier on the Thames Embankment, at the same location used 32 years later in "Rise of the Cybermen".
Paddy Russell and her team then drove down Lambeth Palace Road to the southern end of Westminister Bridge, before crossing over and shooting in Whitehall, facing the Cenotaph and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
At the end of Whitehall, some shots were taken whilst driving down the western side of Trafalgar Square, before then turning the corner up into Haymarket.
Other locations used in the sequence include Margaret Street,just off Regent Street, outside the old Billingsgate fish market on Lower Thames Street, Smithfield Meat Market on Long Lane, the southeastern corner of Covent Garden and Outer Circle, next to Regents Park.
The end of the sequence featured the shot filmed as part of the main location shoot done at the end of September 1973 on Wilmer Close in Kingston upon Thames.
As originally scripted, the scene would have continued to show a looter attacked by an unseen something.
The main block of location filming began on Sunday, the 23rd of September 1973, once again returning to the exterior of Smithfield Meat Market in Long Lane to shoot scenes from Episode 4, showing the Doctor driving around in his new car trying to pinpoint the power source bringing the dinosaurs back through time.
The Doctor then drives around the corner into Lindsey Street.
This same location was used again during the climax to Episode 5, where the Doctor finds himself trapped between an apatosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
The Lindsey Motel, seen on the opposite side of the road, and in the model footage of the fighting dinosaurs, has since been demolished.
The Doctor pulls up at the locked shutters to Smithfield Market, which have since been replaced with a rather more ornate pair of gates.
(ROARING) The rest of Sunday the 23rd was spent filming around Moorfields and the exterior of Moorgate Underground station, where the secret nuclear bunker is based.
Moorfields is first seen in Episode 1, showing the now demolished row of deserted shops and the small arcade in the middle containing the empty jewellers that is robbed by the opportunist looter.
Coming off Moorfields on the other side of the road is New Union Street, where the looter later crashes his car and is subsequently found dead by the Doctor and Sarah.
The top of New Union Street, next to the white pillars in the centre of the picture, is where the Brigadier's Jeep appears as he and the Doctor drive to the entrance of Moorgate Underground station in Episode 4.
Since the filming of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"in 1973, the opposite side of Moorfields, in common with many areas of London, has being completely demolished and redeveloped with new buildings.
With filming in Central London completed, the cast and crew then travelled over to West Ealing and the former Pickford's Depository on Brownlow Road, now used as the West London Islamic Centre.
This building was used in Episode 1 as the looter's hideout, with the Doctor and Sarah walking past the ground floor windows and going through the entrance doors situated under the lean-to cover.
The junction of nearby Midhurst Road and Chamberlain Road were used for the scene of the captive Doctor and Sarah being driven away by the army, having been caught as suspected looters.
At the other end of Chamberlain Road is the site of the former Northfields Girls School, used for the detention centre.
The school was finally demolished in the late 1970s and new housing built on the site.
Nowadays, the only parts of the school to still exist are a few sections of the original outer perimeter wall.
A short distance away is the electricity substation situated on Elderberry Road in Ealing.
This location was used towards the end of Episode 2 as the doctor tries to capture an apatosaurus so that he can detect where the time travel equipment is situated that is being used to bring the dinosaurs into modern-day London.
(ROARING) Interestingly, the film shot list prepared for this shoot indicates that this sequence was originally intended to be filmed here, at Hearn Street in Central London, which also houses a small electricity substation.
The film crew's move to Southall Gas Works was a last-minute decision.
The sequence in Episode 1, showing the soldiers fighting off an advancing Tyrannosaurus rex, was originally planned to be shot at either Coombe Road in Chiswick or Park Road in Kingston upon Thames.
Likewise, the sequence at the beginning of Episode 2, where the Doctor and Sarah make their escape during another dinosaur battle, was again intended to be shot either at Park Road or Brackley Terrace in Chiswick.
Much of the infrastructure of Southall Gas Works has been dismantled over the years.
But this road, The Straight, was used for the sequence in Episode 5, where the Doctor evades an army patrol.
On screen, the Doctor reverses his Jeep into White Street, a row of specially built houses for the gas workers that have long since been demolished.
The corner of White Street and The Straight even had its own pub, The White Lion, again, long gone, but seen here on the left of the picture.
Other areas of the gas works were also used throughout the story.
The Doctor evades capture in this shell of a large derelict building, a location that was a television favourite in the 1970s, also appearing in the likes of The New Avengers, The Professionals and Return of the Saint.
Other areas of the works appeared in the first episode, as the looter hides from the patrolling army.
Moving south of the Thames, Riverside Drive in Ham was the location chosen for the scene in Episode 6 where the Doctor and the Brigadier find an apatosaurus blocking the road as they make their way back to Moorgate Underground station.
A short distance away is Kingston upon Thames and Canbury Gardens, a 14-and-a-half-acre public recreation area situated next to the river.
And it was here that the Tardis lands in the opening episode.
Running next to Canbury Gardens is Lower Ham Lane, the empty residential street where the Doctor and Sarah are almost run over by the looter.
A short distance away is Parkfields Road, used to show the Doctor driving back to the warehouse where the supposedly unconscious Tyrannosaurus rex is securely tethered in Episode 3.
Directly across the way is Wilmer Close, where the opening milkfloat scene from Episode 1 was shot, as mentioned earlier.
Further into the town centre is the old GPO sorting office, on what is now Ashdown Road.
Now closed up and partially demolished, the sorting office was used as the exterior of the locked police station in Episode 1.
The Jeep spotted by Sarah wasn't in front of them at all but was filmed on Palmer Crescent, a few minutes away.
Close by, South Lane was used for part of the Episode 4 sequence showing the Doctor tracking the power readings that eventually lead him to the base underneath Moorgate Underground station.
Just around the corner from South Lane is the road known as The Bittoms, just off which the Doctor attempts to capture a stegosaurus in Episode 2.
Although the distant buildings remain much as they were in 1973, a modern multi-storey car park has since been built on the edge of this site.
This same location also featured in Episode 1, when the Doctor and Sarah are arrested as looters.
And the wall seen behind the soldiers is one of the few remaining features left on the site.
The last major location used in "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" took the film crew over to Wimbledon Common, where the latter part of the Episode 5 chase sequence between the Doctor and the army takes place.