Doctor Who: Unleashed 1x7

1. And who are you?

2. Morris Gibbons, UNIT's scientific adviser.

3. In this episode, we've got Lenny Rush.

4. He's a genius.

5. So the complete opposite of me.

6. Did you spot it or miss it?

7. We've got the full reveal on Susan Triad.

8. It's tapping into, like, a very old part of Doctor Who,

9. which is the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan.

10. We've got the heated return of UNIT.

11. Darling, it's very hot and sweaty in here. It's too much.

12. That is the Vlinx.

13. We've got an interview with the Vlinx.

14. There's a real man in there.

15. And spoiler alert - we've got an exclusive clip

16. from the season-ending finale.

17. Welcome to Doctor Unleashed.

18. Give me the loving!

19. So, we are back on the set of UNIT

20. for quite a big day here in the Whoniverse

21. because this is the opening scene of episode seven,

22. but because we're filming seven and eight at the same time,

23. this is basically the start of the end of the series.

24. So there's a real fun atmosphere on set.

25. This is it.

26. This is it. This is it, yeah.

27. And you're very close now to a long time

28. on a beach somewhere. I am.

29. It's also really hot.

30. Cos it's June, it's sweaty.

31. You can probably hear that fan in the background.

32. People are stripping layers off.

33. Darling, it's very hot and sweaty in here. It's too much.

34. So it's the start of the end, then, I guess, in a weird way.

35. How do you feel about that?

36. It's exciting. It's exciting to get to the finale

37. because it wraps up the whole season.

38. Obviously, it's like the most heightened action,

39. but, like, you gain all the answers that you've been

40. asking questions for throughout the whole season.

41. What? What is it? What?

42. Right on cue.

43. Susan Triad, IT genius.

44. And today she's releasing her software

45. free of charge worldwide, a gift from S Triad Technology.

46. It's exciting to get into this moment where, like...

47. The climax. It's the climax.

48. Don't you see?

49. It is an anagram.

50. S Triad spells...

51. .. TARDIS.

52. Quite, like, an ensemble cast for this one, isn't it?

53. Is that fun? Yeah. No, it's very fun.

54. It's very fun having everyone in, because obviously

55. it's normally just me and Millie. And so, like...

56. Just the two of you. Yeah. It's just the two of us.

57. When we get a gang in, it's very lively.

58. I hope every time we come here,

59. there'll be revolving staff and new people and new faces

60. and old familiar faces.

61. In about ten years' time, the whole place will be packed

62. with recurring actors piling up on all the desks.

63. Bonnie Langford, "What about me?"

64. "All right, Bonnie, come in, come in, come in."

65. So that's the plan.

66. The ensemble is a mix of new characters

67. and familiar faces.

68. We last saw Rose Noble, played by Yasmin Finney,

69. in the 60th anniversary specials.

70. I want to go home.

71. Yeah.

72. I know that feeling.

73. The last time we were here on this set,

74. it was a different Doctor. Yes.

75. This time, of course, it is Ncuti,

76. and you know each other anyway. What's it been like

77. to work together? It's been really fab.

78. Yeah. Because it's my first time

79. seeing him as the Doctor, and I'm shocked, I love it.

80. I think it's fab. And...

81. Is it weird seeing him as the Doctor?

82. Because you're used to him as Ncuti

83. and now he's the Doctor. I always knew

84. he was, like... Even in... You know,

85. when I met him for the first time,

86. I knew he'd be, like, something big. Like, it's just obvious.

87. He's so talented and he's so vibrant.

88. And, yeah, I'm just really blessed

89. to be a part of his world.

90. The last time we saw Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

91. was in 73 Yards. Go, go, go.

92. Do not talk to her.

93. Do not look her in the eyes. Do not engage with her

94. in any way. Just bring her in.

95. Jemma's back today!

96. Jemma was here on my first day of filming,

97. and she's back now, and it's fantastic to have her.

98. Positions.

99. Helipad doors to open.

100. Jemma, I'm actually quite jealous of your fan.

101. That's very good, isn't it?

102. It's always good to have one fan.

103. Yeah!

104. I suppose your episodes do tend to have

105. those ensemble moments in it with lots of different characters.

106. You can bounce off the other actors or things.

107. Do you enjoy that? I do. It's lovely.

108. I'm part of a team. And, I mean,

109. acting is a team sport anyway.

110. Hello. Sorry, I didn't get your name.

111. Harriet. Harriet.

112. New to Who is Genesis Lynea.

113. This is an episode that's a big sort of ensemble cast.

114. Yeah. There's loads of you.

115. Do you like those sorts of, you know, episodes and stuff...

116. Yeah. .. rather than sometimes it was just you on your own

117. or you with one other person?

118. Yeah, it does get quite lonely. And also, you know,

119. actors, we like to tell stories with other people, you know?

120. Yeah. More like a relay race thing.

121. Very technical, isn't it, a show like this?

122. It's all... Oh, my God, yeah.

123. I'm not saying being on the Who set's boring.

124. No, we're not saying that. We're not saying that.

125. Never. But if I were to

126. rephrase that and sort of say, "There's some downtime,

127. "isn't there?" There's a lot of downtime.

128. I've got my book. Yeah.

129. Got my Duolingo app on the go.

130. Oh, have you? What are you learning? I'm learning French. Are you?

131. Yes, don't ask me anything. I was gonna ask you!

132. That's exactly what I was gonna ask you.

133. Look at that!

134. So Doctor Who's fantastic for, you know, your career,

135. but also for your French? Yeah.

136. That's good. I can say,

137. "Je m'appelle Steffan." Very good.

138. "Dans... habite la maison."

139. You live in a house? I live in a house.

140. Fantastic. Yeah. That's good. Uh, that's...

141. That's all I've got.

142. And there's another new face on the UNIT set.

143. A new, but somehow familiar face.

144. As Unleashed revealed earlier in the series,

145. award-winning actor Lenny Rush

146. was due to voice Baby Eric in Space Babies.

147. Boys, I've got to tell everybody.

148. Mummy and Daddy are here!

149. And so he came along to our read-through.

150. He'd been so good as a space baby voice

151. that at that read-through,

152. we kind of sat there and went, "It's a shame.

153. "It's a shame it's just a voice

154. "and we're not going to actually see Lenny."

155. So this chance came along to cast a new scientific adviser

156. and I was like, "Oh, my God, let's get Lenny!"

157. And who are you?

158. Morris Gibbons. UNIT's scientific adviser,

159. thank you very much.

160. Now, Lenny, last time we met

161. on a set of Doctor Who... Yeah.

162. .. there was green, slimy sludge everywhere.

163. Snot bogies. Yes.

164. This time you're a bit more well turned out.

165. Yes. Less bogies. Complete opposite.

166. Complete opposite. How are you feeling about that?

167. Yeah, I mean, I'm happy because it was only

168. going to be a voice part, and now I'm properly in the show.

169. I'm very excited.

170. That, Lenny, is why you are the king of taking notes.

171. Well, thank you. Nice one. Well done.

172. Thank you.

173. So, you know, when they said,

174. "Listen, we want you to come back..."

175. Yeah. "But for you to come back,

176. "it means that you can't... You're not going to be

177. "voicing that stuff you've already done..."

178. What was that emotion like? Was it... What did you feel?

179. I think being in the show is a better experience.

180. Yeah. But Mum...

181. Mum told me in the worst possible way.

182. She come in and she said,

183. "Lenny, they've cut your role from Doctor Who."

184. I'm like, "What? What?"

185. And then she went, "They got you a bigger part!"

186. I was like, "Oh!" But, yeah, I'm very happy.

187. Morris Gibbons?

188. Yes, Doc?

189. So, tell me about your new character, then,

190. your latest Doctor Who character. Yeah.

191. He's Morris Gibbons and he's a genius.

192. Yeah. A 13-year-old genius.

193. So the complete opposite of me, basically.

194. Oh, hey, come on, you've done that one before, Lenny.

195. That's a good line. Yeah. I have said that one before.

196. Yes, come on. Yeah.

197. So you're a child genius who loves the old...

198. I tell you what, you've inspired me

199. to go and get a set. Oh!

200. Oh, actually, don't do that too much. You'll hurt yourself.

201. But, yeah, they're very nice. Yeah. Very hot, though, in this weather.

202. Yeah, I know. It's sweaty, isn't it?

203. Yeah.

204. Do your mates like Doctor Who?

205. You know, when you... Because obviously at the moment

206. we're filming this and you can't tell anybody...

207. No. ..you're actually in it.

208. Which is annoying. Yeah.

209. I think it's getting released that I'm in it tomorrow.

210. Oh, is it? So then I can actually

211. let everyone know. Yeah.

212. Finally. Yeah, I've got some...

213. I've got friends that are, like... Big fans. .. massive fans.

214. Yeah. So that will be cool.

215. Oh, that'll be amazing. Yeah.

216. This thing is running way beyond maximum.

217. Should we stop? No way.

218. Lenny Rush.

219. Hm! What was it like working with Lenny?

220. Uh, it's amazing working with Lenny.

221. It's... He really puts you to shame...

222. Doesn't he just? .. with how good he is.

223. He's so good.

224. Ruby, this is Morris Gibbons.

225. Good to meet you.

226. 13. Come on.

227. Such a talented actor.

228. Name - anagram, TARDIS.

229. Probability of a trap - 95%, and rising.

230. I just think it's funny

231. having this child, like, super genius

232. advising one of the biggest governmental bodies in...

233. ..in the world.

234. I thought it was just so cool.

235. Tell us about the Segway that helps you get around set.

236. So I had...

237. I had my own Segway that I use.

238. Yeah. And now I've got one for the show.

239. They put all fancy lights on it,

240. they put laser guns.

241. Is there? So, like a little...

242. It's a little box.

243. You take it out... Yeah.

244. .. and you can magnet the guns to them.

245. It looks very cool.

246. Lenny, absolute pleasure to see you again.

247. Try not to be too much of a child genius

248. in your real life, you know,

249. because it can rub people up the wrong way, can't it?

250. Trust me, it won't happen. You'll be fine.

251. Yes!

252. Long-time Whovians will know that Russell T Davies

253. is the master of the teaser subplot -

254. a storyline that he will seed surreptitiously

255. over many episodes, with most of us not even noticing.

256. And then it will reach a climactic finale

257. and viewers will turn around and be like,

258. "How did I not notice that?"

259. When Russell rebooted Doctor Who in 2005,

260. the long-game tease was Bad Wolf...

261. The Big Bad Wolf.

262. ..a phrase that companion Rose Tyler

263. saw appearing throughout the series.

264. I keep hearing those words everywhere we go.

265. Bad Wolf.

266. It even appeared in Welsh.

267. Blaidd Drwg. Bad Wolf.

268. In the series finale, The Parting Of The Ways,

269. it turns out that Bad Wolf is Rose herself,

270. and that she's been sending herself

271. warning messages through time and space.

272. I am the Bad Wolf.

273. I create myself.

274. I take the words.

275. I scatter them in time and space.

276. A message to lead myself here.

277. And throughout this series, Russell's been at it again.

278. Back in 2023, in The Giggle, Donna Noble asks Mel Bush...

279. Mel, is this static or dynamic?

280. Dynamic. We're using Triad.

281. "We're using Triad" -

282. the first hint of the Triad plotline unfolding now.

283. Then, in The Church On Ruby Road,

284. look at the advert on the bus

285. that Ruby gets off with her Christmas shopping.

286. He's a sneaky, cheeky one, is RTD.

287. But the biggest clue to the mystery beginning to unfold

288. in The Legend Of Ruby Sunday is this person -

289. Susan Triad,

290. played by the fabulously named Susan Twist.

291. So, come on, then, cross your heart -

292. or should that be hearts - and hope to die,

293. how many of you noticed that Susan Twist had appeared

294. in every single episode of this series?

295. Well, the Doctor's cottoned on.

296. I need your help.

297. Everywhere I land, a woman appears. Look.

298. But when exactly has Susan Twist snuck onto our screens?

299. Well, she first appeared in Wild Blue Yonder

300. as Isaac Newton's housekeeper.

301. Well, don't come back

302. until you've had a very good idea, sir.

303. Cropped up as a Christmas heckler...

304. Can you do Gaudete?

305. In episode one of this series, she was a comms officer.

306. In episode two, a tea lady.

307. Two cups of tea, my darlings.

308. Episode three, an ambulance.

309. Episode four, a hiker.

310. In episode five, she's Lindy's mum.

311. Episode six, she was a portrait.

312. With the final twist

313. about Susan Twist still to be revealed,

314. I sat down with Russell and Susan to get the lowdown

315. on the highlights so far.

316. Russell, I suppose the obvious first question is to you,

317. which is, where did the idea come from?

318. Was this a happy coincidence or was it a master plan?

319. It is not true that I cast Susan Twist for her name.

320. I think it is.

321. But the name helped. Truth is, I've known Susan

322. for a long time. I've known of Susan.

323. Did I actually phone you up and explain this?

324. Yes. That was...

325. ..a bit mad, wasn't it? I...

326. Calling me and saying,

327. "There's all these different people," and I...

328. I was just listening and then I said,

329. "And are they aware of each other?"

330. Yeah. And you said, "No, they're not."

331. No. "They're all independent

332. "and separate." Yeah.

333. Did that evolve over time? In terms of, like, what

334. the roles that Susan was doing and...

335. It was. When I first spoke to her,

336. we hadn't written all of them,

337. so I didn't know what you were going to do in every episode... Right.

338. .. and I didn't exactly know what the ending was.

339. I said... We kept on saying, "You'll have a big part in...

340. "..at the end." Seven and eight, yeah.

341. "You'll appear properly in seven and eight."

342. Of all the characters we've had in...

343. ..you've played in this series,

344. if I was to push you, Susan - I don't like

345. to push you, but... Oh, don't ask. Which one?

346. ..it's part of my job - which one?

347. Which one? Which one?

348. I love the hiker.

349. Hello, there!

350. I'm being the hiker today.

351. We're on the beautiful cliffs just off Tenby.

352. Last time I was Mrs Merridew and I...

353. I don't know, I'm sworn to secrecy.

354. I loved Susan Triad, of course.

355. Let's face it, she's got the most lines.

356. She's the most... Well...

357. Also... That's the one you like best.

358. And the nicest frocks.

359. Hi! Hello.

360. If I may say, I think one of your favourite performances

361. is the ambulance, actually. Oh!

362. Cos that's actually one of those moments where

363. you really get the genre. Combat detected.

364. Patient acquired.

365. Which then makes the rest of the season very interesting

366. cos the Doctor and Ruby very clearly see the ambulance.

367. Yeah. Yeah. So, from that, which is great

368. for me, because then from that point onwards

369. they're going, "Hold on, have I seen you before?

370. Right. And yet you can't be

371. an ambulance on a far-flung planet. Right. "What?"

372. Well, the fans are definitely picking up on it already,

373. which is interesting. Yes.

374. They're starting to. There's also a lot of people not noticing.

375. Yeah. They're all excited by Anita Dobson,

376. because at the same time there's a sleight-of-hand

377. with Anita Dobson being overtly mysterious. Yes.

378. Never seen a TARDIS before?

379. It's very much kind of internet-age storytelling where...

380. Was that deliberate? Yes.

381. You just hope it will generate content.

382. It's actually... It's kind of proved to be very popular.

383. People are really taking off with it.

384. And, I mean, behind the scenes in our offices,

385. people are very interested in this Susan.

386. Oh, I love that storyline. I mean,

387. I love the part of it where she plays

388. a different character every episode.

389. I just think that's such a clever thing to do,

390. because it's the character that you kind of go,

391. "What did she just say? Anyway..."

392. Who is that?

393. The Duke's late mother.

394. You spend the whole season being like,

395. "Who is this woman that keeps popping up?

396. "She's definitely... OK, she's definitely your mum, Ruby.

397. "Or she's definitely..."

398. Like, you just get so many conspiracies.

399. And here's Russell to add to the mix.

400. It's also tapping into, like, a very old part of Doctor Who,

401. which is the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan.

402. Grandfather!

403. He once had a granddaughter on Earth

404. who went, left him, played by Carole Ann Ford.

405. I mean, that's a huge story

406. that has barely been mentioned since.

407. She cropped up in the 20th anniversary story.

408. And it's now 41 years later,

409. and she still hasn't been seen or mentioned.

410. So I wanted to do a story

411. that tapped right back into 1963.

412. If you've got a granddaughter, that means you've got kids.

413. Well, not quite.

414. Do you think Susan Triad is her?

415. Mm?

416. Do you want it to be?

417. But at the end of the episode,

418. Bad Triad appears to nix that theory.

419. Did you think I was family, Doctor?

420. Or does she? Who is Susan Triad really?

421. It's all to play for in the upcoming season finale.

422. Still to come on Doctor Unleashed,

423. I unmask the secrets of the death masks...

424. Hey. That looks good.

425. Voila. That looks really nice.

426. I discover how one of these turned this...

427. .. into this.

428. And spoilers -

429. we've got an exclusive clip from the season finale.

430. But first...

431. In the 60th anniversary special The Giggle,

432. we were introduced to the Vlinx...

433. Hello, the Vlinx.

434. .. the robot that heads up UNIT's comms.

435. Fast-forward to this episode, and we're back

436. at a familiar-looking UNIT, but with one main difference.

437. That is the Vlinx.

438. The Vlinx has had a glow-up.

439. Nice upgrade.

440. Hot metal, Doctor.

441. There's a real man in there

442. that's really speaking and talking and moving.

443. He was like a robot octopus. Yeah.

444. I just wondered how he was able to do that for so long.

445. Well, let's go and ask him.

446. Inside this AI tin can is actor Aidan Cook,

447. who's quite literally cooking.

448. Aidan, it is possibly one of the hottest days

449. of the year so far. Yeah.

450. It's the middle of June and you are in all black,

451. looking a bit like a ninja, if you don't mind me saying.

452. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And then being... ensconced?

453. What's the word? I don't know.

454. Yeah. Stuck in there.

455. Yeah. How are you feeling?

456. Entombed. Entombed! Entombed is a good word.

457. Into the Vlinx. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

458. Aidan spends up to 12 hours a day

459. in his rubber and metal tomb.

460. The basic unit underneath all of that pipework

461. is a 5mm wet suit.

462. So I don't know if you've ever got into a wet suit

463. on a hot day... Yeah.

464. .. but the first thing you want to do when you get into

465. a wet suit is run into a cold sea.

466. Yes. Unfortunately,

467. I don't have a cold sea to run into,

468. so I just sit there sweating.

469. He can't hear, he can't see, he can't speak.

470. He can't... It's such a difficult job to do

471. and he does it all day. I don't know how he does it.

472. I can move my head, my upper body a little bit

473. and my arms, and the rest of it

474. is completely immobilised.

475. Aidan is no stranger to

476. contorting his body for Doctor Who.

477. He's played the Crooked Man...

478. Well!

479. Hello again, you old Romeo, you.

480. ..a Cyberman...

481. ..a mummy...

482. .. and a Zygon.

483. We want the world.

484. He's the most fabulous actor

485. and the most patient man I have ever met

486. in my entire life.

487. And he never complains

488. and then comes in with his line perfectly.

489. Analysis confirms life form.

490. Although how he manages this is miraculous.

491. From the Abzorbaloff to the Zygons,

492. the A to Z of Doctor Who villains and monsters

493. is fast hurtling towards the 500 mark.

494. Whatever far-flung part of the Whoniverse

495. they've evolved from, a large percentage of them

496. share one common DNA trait - prosthetics.

497. Susan Triad and Harriet Arbinger's

498. bony-faced baddies are the latest

499. to join this legion.

500. So, for this episode's work experience,

501. I've come to Millennium FX

502. to discover just how they make those ghastly death masks.

503. Beth, thank you very much... That's OK.

504. .. for allowing me into... Is this your lair? Is that fair?

505. Kind of. Like a little...

506. Or space? A little silicone space,

507. doing everything, yeah.

508. Uh, these are all very cool.

509. But what are they and what are we doing?

510. So, essentially, we're going to be making a prosthetic

511. for Susan Twist.

512. Yeah. So how did you end up in a place

513. where you're making skull prosthetic masks for a living?

514. How does that happen?

515. I just really liked film and TV.

516. Yeah. I found it really interesting

517. and kind of liked the behind-the-scenes aspect

518. of it... Yeah.

519. .. and how you're able to make these types of monsters

520. and creatures on TV. I just found it fascinating

521. and really wanted to get into it.

522. So, do you...? Is there a course,

523. how to make monster faces?

524. There is a few!

525. There's surprisingly a few. Is that what you did, yeah?

526. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did a degree, which was really handy.

527. So you could kind of learn everything about...

528. Ah, OK. .. this type of industry.

529. Yeah.

530. Um, and then managed to kind of get stuck into work,

531. which was really exciting.

532. Yeah. Yeah.

533. So, this is our mould of Susan. Yeah.

534. You can see that this is a face

535. and this is basically a scan of her.

536. Then this has been sculpted on top of and it's created

537. this kind of negative.

538. So that will end up flipping over and slotting into here.

539. Oh, right.

540. What happens next? So, the first thing

541. before we even start throwing silicone into it...

542. Yeah. .. we've got to make sure

543. the mould is released

544. and make sure it's got cap plastic on it.

545. Is that cat or cap plastic?

546. Cap. Cap.

547. Is it like something you put on your head? Yeah. OK.

548. And you have this nice cap-plastic edge

549. so then it looks like it's part of her.

550. Right. So, the cap plastic

551. is kind of the first step.

552. I'll show you how to do it first.

553. Right, I'll put on the extraction just so there's...

554. ..health and safety.

555. And then now you probably can't hear anything.

556. Sorry, what was that?

557. Yeah.

558. So you just kind of want to do that

559. and just spray it over in, like, a methodical way.

560. OK. You want to give it a go?

561. Nice, and then you can turn it around.

562. Do you need to do the bottom bit, as well?

563. Yeah, the whole thing.

564. Yeah, perfect.

565. What's next?

566. So, the next step is silicone.

567. That should be all good.

568. We're going to pick this up and we're going to give it

569. a little bit of a rotation. So you want that silicone

570. to come round to the edges.

571. I'm just going to pick this up and pop it in.

572. Yeah. Because it's quite heavy.

573. So I have bolts in the back

574. just because it makes it a little bit easier

575. to try and pick it up.

576. So her face slots onto... And then that goes right in there.

577. .. the mask, which is drawn on the inside,

578. and her face is sitting on top of the drawing of the mask.

579. Yes. With the silicone

580. and the cap in the middle. Yep.

581. The cast is left for 40 minutes to set,

582. then has a lick of powder to loosen it.

583. So, I'm just whanging this everywhere? Mm-hm.

584. OK. Yeah.

585. Oh, yeah, getting there. She is.

586. It's coming to life.

587. OK. Hey!

588. That looks good. Voila.

589. That looks really nice.

590. And then all of this excess flashing will end up

591. being trimmed off to,

592. like, a really nice kind of like half a centimetre,

593. and then it's ready to be used on set.

594. But before it gets to set, more masks are produced

595. and skilfully painted to add deathly detail.

596. Then Millennium FX's Rebecca Butterworth

597. adds some grisly flourishes.

598. And finally, it's time for Susan Triad to scare

599. the living bejesus out of us all.

600. I bring Sutekh's gift

601. of death.

602. Now, I know I keep banging on about the sets on this show,

603. but they are amazing.

604. Every time I sashay down this walkway,

605. I'm always seeing something new and immense.

606. Oh, look, the space babies' spaceship.

607. Abbey Road Studios.

608. A Kastarion crater.

609. An army encampment.

610. This place is paradise for Whovians.

611. And for this episode, the Who crew

612. have built another mind-bending set,

613. but this time added in-camera VFX.

614. And to find out how,

615. welcome to the time window chamber.

616. The time window chamber is

617. a great device that UNIT has had secretly hidden away.

618. We've never seen UNIT travelling in time. It's funny,

619. they've never invested in it,

620. and we realise through a bit of dialogue

621. that the Doctor's always forbidden them.

622. Kate, do you have a time window?

623. You expressly told us in the 1970s

624. UNIT was absolutely forbidden

625. to experiment with any form of time technology.

626. Do you have a time window? Ten floors down.

627. It's a means of looking into the past

628. without travelling there by TARDIS.

629. For the Doctor, it's kind of crude.

630. This is... This is rough.

631. Wow. You have lashed this together.

632. The Doctor might think this was lashed together, but actually

633. the time window chamber

634. is one of the most complicated sets in the series.

635. The urge to pull one of those levers down...

636. ..is really, really strong.

637. I presumed that the time window

638. would just be lots and lots of green screen

639. and a snow machine - as though that's easy -

640. but it's such a good design team on this show

641. that they kind of wanted to make it special.

642. So everyone thought they'd be standing against green screen,

643. and actually they're standing there amongst projections

644. of Ruby Road with the church that's visible, and the snow,

645. and the lamppost appears.

646. And so I think it's a phenomenal piece of design.

647. The time window chamber comes in two parts -

648. a physical set built on stage six

649. and a surrounding three-sided projection backdrop,

650. both dreamt up by production designer Phil Sims

651. and his team.

652. Russell had written it was this huge space

653. with huge technical bits of equipment

654. that were projecting

655. an illusion of the time.

656. The reason the images look the way they do

657. is because they're being generated from a VHS tape.

658. A V-H what?

659. Video cassette recorders - machines capable of

660. recording television sound and pictures

661. in the domestic and the industrial environment.

662. Back in the 1980s, when Kate Bush

663. was first running up that hill, you could record telly

664. off one of the three available channels

665. onto tapes the size of house bricks.

666. On many of the machines, you'll be able to program

667. the recorder to switch itself on and off

668. to tape your favourite programmes

669. over the two weeks you're on holiday.

670. It was the future.

671. Once.

672. When I saw a VHS tape in the script,

673. I had a rough idea, um, because of, like, the older films,

674. but I've never used one

675. and I don't know how to use them, to be honest.

676. That's the church. That's the church.

677. This is the house. And that's the house.

678. And there's a couple of trees there.

679. The key to it was that the VHS nature of the image quality,

680. it meant we didn't need really high-res LED screens.

681. We didn't need to have pixel-perfect background.

682. We could create a fairly low-res-looking background

683. that was beautiful but could be ghostly.

684. Although you do need big, powerful projectors

685. which need to be overlapped and merged together

686. to create one continuous image.

687. It's a bit like putting four monitors together on your desktop

688. and have one big image across the four of them.

689. We did it! We brought it back!

690. And having gone this far with the set,

691. what's the most Doctor Who thing you can do next?

692. Blow it up.

693. OK. We're rolling.

694. We're filming the big explosion scene today.

695. So this is the big pinnacle

696. when everything charges up and all the screens

697. are going to explode over the Doctor.

698. So that's what we're just setting up for at the moment.

699. There's a little bit with Morris, who's played by Lenny.

700. We're going to have some little pyro sparks,

701. and I've let him design it on his desk wherever he wants.

702. But everything else is all going to be VFX.

703. There's one explosion up above.

704. There's one actually on my control panel,

705. and then there's a load at the bottom.

706. It'll be one, two on the console.

707. Cool. Number three will be

708. on the floor, and then four, five with the top one.

709. Fire in three, two, one.

710. Scared the life out of me at first.

711. Um, but I'm very, very excited.

712. And it looks very, very good.

713. Come on, then, time window chamber.

714. Let's be having you.

715. And action!

716. Three, two, one, boom!

717. Get down!

718. Next time...

719. Open fire! All weapons.