Doctor Who 2x4

Directed by Euros Lyn

Angel Coulby as Katherine • Sophia Myles as Reinette • Ben Turner as King Louis • Jessica Atkins as Young Reinette • Gareth Griffiths as Manservant

On a seemingly abandoned spaceship in the 51st century, the Tenth Doctor, Rose and Mickey find time windows leading to 18th century France and a group of clockwork androids using them to stalk a young woman throughout her life.

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1. There's only one Doctor, but there's an entire Doctor Who team.

2. From writers to directors, set builders to costume designers,

3. every word on every page, and every shot in every scene,

4. is planned meticulously from start to finish.

5. The doors whoosh open...

6. The Girl in the Fireplace is no different.

7. With countless meetings and discussions being held before anyone steps foot on set.

8. You've all seen how episode 4 ends, but where did it all begin?

9. Okay, scene 1, so we, erm...

10. We've got a starscape and then we've got Versailles,

11. which we briefly touched on earlier on that we'd...

12. We'd look into the possibility of actually going to Versailles.

13. My favorite part of the script-to-screen journey,

14. I mean, there are lots of bits, actually,

15. but my favorite part is when you get that first script and it's good.

16. It's like getting the latest installment

17. of this adventure that's kind of a big part of my life,

18. so it's really exciting getting it

19. and kind of flicking through the pages as quick as I can.

20. GARDNER". Your second read is, of course,

21. always about, "Oh, God, how to achieve this?"

22. And you start to break it down and that's exciting because it's the job.

23. And that's when you get to really admire the crew and their expertise.

24. And how they come together to make something possible.

25. When you see a fireplace on a spaceship

26. you have to think this isn't just some novel feature,

27. this isn't like, "Ooh, original features, very nice." It's not meant to be there.

28. The tone meeting has become

29. "How are we going to make this episode" meeting, really.

30. That's the only time everybody sits round the table at the same time.

31. Every stage in the development of the episode,

32. and talk about what we're all trying to do.

33. It's just to get everyone singing from the same song sheet, really,

34. and then, that's how we... I think it works, those tone meetings

35. 'cause that's how we get such a coordinated end result.

36. - Hello, hello, you like that'? - Fantastic. Thank you very much.

37. But before filming begins, the team hold a read-through

38. to make sure everything goes according to plan.

39. The read-through, for me, is terrifying because it's the moment

40. where you get a sense of what is really coming.

41. And you know in that moment, largely, if something is going to work or not.

42. Hello, everyone.

43. You just feel the pressure to kind of nail it, there and then.

44. Of course, that pressure doesn't exist because ultimately all that matters

45. is what is finally in the can.

46. But because it's the first time you're all kind of doing it together in a room

47. you wanna kind of get it right, you want to impress everyone, want everyone to like you.

48. Doctor.

49. Doctor who'?

50. It's more than just a secret, isn't it'?

51. For me, it's always terrifying

52. because it's the first time you've ever read in front of anyone,

53. and also because I didn't audition for this job.

54. I was offered it straight out and I suddenly thought,

55. "What if I turn up to the read-through and read and they think,

56. '"Mmm, actually she's... “

57. What did you see'?

58. That there comes a time, Time Lord...

59. when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance.

60. For us, it's the final dotting the I's and crossing the T's.

61. That's where you do final rewrites, often you can come out of a read-through

62. change lines or realize you haven't said something,

63. or have a word with the director about the emphasis of a certain scene.

64. It's your final chance before it's all put through in the edit,

65. just to make sure everything's working.

66. Okay, so episode 4, scene 1.

67. Exterior, Versailles, night, a perfect dazzling starscape.

68. Pan down to an extraordinary, magnificent palace,

69. and then a scream, and more screaming.

70. We are under attack. There are creatures.

71. I don't even think they're human. We can't stop them.

72. The moment that a scene that I've read on the page

73. suddenly comes to life and moves me, emotionally.

74. When actors breathe life into words in that way, that's really exciting.

75. Listen to me. There is a man coming to Versailles.

76. He has watched over me my whole life and he will not desert me tonight.

77. The first pages were quite straightforward. It was classic attack,

78. okay, set in the 18th century,

79. but you've got monsters running down a corridor chasing people.

80. Doctor! Doctor!

81. I turned to page two, which is immediately after titles,

82. and we'd gone from Versailles, 18th century,

83. to a 51 st century spaceship.

84. It's a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go.

85. At that point, I thought, "Okay, it's not going to be straightforward in the way I thought."

86. We will build the corridors of Versailles alongside the corridors of the spaceship

87. so we get the interaction between the two of them.

88. And the link between the two worlds is an 18th century fireplace,

89. brought to life with some 21st century mechanics.

90. The main thing we were trying to do with these two sets is, obviously,

91. make them as contrasting as possible.

92. Obviously, the spaceship is a utility ship. It's very rundown, it's very dirty,

93. there's lots of cables and it's basically being plundered by the droids.

94. And that's set against the plushness of Versailles

95. and the clean lines of Versailles and the colors.

96. We've found it, right under our noses.

97. My favorite visual in The Girl in the Fireplace

98. is when Reinette dashes from a corridor in Versailles in one shot

99. straight into the corridor in the spaceship.

100. It looks magical and impossible. Now, it's not, of course.

101. It's two sets next to each other and she walks through a door.

102. But it seems so extraordinary.

103. And when she stands there wearing her beautiful period costume

104. on a set from Alien, it is... It's arresting.

105. It's at that point, I think, when she realizes that she's never going to be with him.

106. That it is a fantasy because his world is so alien to her.

107. - You okay'? - No.

108. I'm very afraid.

109. It strikes me that one thing you try to do all the time in popular television

110. is give reasons for people not to turn off.

111. Right, you imagine the audience sitting down and thinking,

112. "Och, I'll watch two minutes, then I'll go,"

113. and you think, "Well, if I can just keep eking out the reason to keep watching,

114. "I may be getting 45 minutes through the show."

115. So you're playing that game.

116. So at that moment in the show when we think we've got the hang of what's going on,

117. we're starting to become a bit clearer, he walks in and he's face-to-face with a horse.

118. The Doctor on horseback bursting through a mirror into a ballroom.

119. You said it was easy, Dave.

120. This is the kind of climactic scenes in episode 4

121. where I come through a mirror on a horse, as you do,

122. trot around a bit and save the day again, you know.

123. So that's what we're doing today.

124. It's all fairly extraordinary

125. 'cause it's such a big deal with all this extra crowd and the mirror breaking.

126. Of course, the horse isn't actually here 'cause the horse isn't allowed in this hall.

127. So the horse has to be done on a different day,

128. and it's all one of those "everything has to be put together piece by piece."

129. it's terribly complicated because we had to shoot elements at Ragley Hall itself

130. with extras reacting to the Doctor and the horse.

131. And crash!

132. We had to do a separate shoot of the mirror exploding with blue glass.

133. And then we had to shoot on a third day

134. with David and a horse and a stuntman

135. in a paddock that we had to deck out completely in green

136. and turn into a green screen studio.

137. As you can probably imagine, that was terrifically expensive.

138. All of that said, I do think you're not going to see a horse jump through a minor

139. into a period ballroom every Saturday night.

140. This morning I know we're filming absolutely crucial stuff,

141. dangerous and incendiary stuff, 'cause we're filming the snog

142. between the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour.

143. My initial, initial reaction when I read the script was,

144. "Oh, my God! I can't believe I get to kiss Doctor Who."

145. This is a woman who's a match for him, she's ridiculously well-educated,

146. ridiculously civilized.

147. So if the Doctor was going to settle down, it would be a girl like this.

148. Oh. Hello!

149. - Who is she'? - Jean-Antoinette Poisson.

150. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived.

151. Are you all right'?

152. So here you are.

153. My lonely angel.

154. Stuck on the slow path with me.

155. Yep. The slow path.

156. Here's to the slow path.

157. She is the one person

158. who actually knows what it feels like to be the Doctor.

159. Such a lonely little boy.

160. Lonely then and lonelier now.

161. - How can you bear it'? - How did you do that'?

162. She's been inside his head, she's seen his past,

163. and she knows how he feels.

164. - Wish me luck. - No.

165. They had this kind of extraordinary relationship

166. and yet it's all over before it can begin, which is the Doctor's eternal dilemma.

167. An eternal tragedy.

168. He's enchanted by Madame de Pompadour

169. and he goes through very, very human emotions of love and loss.

170. And I think it's very intimate and I think it's good to see the Doctor

171. suffer in that way occasionally.

172. GARDNER". "A gust of wind and noise

173. "and the Doctor looks to see the fireplace with the fire going out.

174. "The Doctor's face solemn, and he turns towards the Tardis,

175. "at the Tardis noise, as it dematerializes.

176. "And we're left with the smiling face of Reinette.

177. "A portrait of her stands just behind where the Tardis landed."

178. A favorite part of the script-to-screen journey is the end.

179. GARDNER". "We're panning across the exterior of the ship,

180. "as all its lights go slowly out,

181. "and we're left with the name of the ship, SS Madame de Pompadour

182. That's why you did it.

183. That's why you went through all those months of writing,

184. all those rewrites, all those meetings, all those design meetings,

185. all that filming, is to get it finished, and I love that.

186. I absolutely love it.