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tfl«i»J? Rad^mefg^wnes WIN SRStf DOCTOR WHO: THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
Steven Moffat recalls writing
G HEanwe Doctor Who's 50th birthday DAVIDTEHHWTIS special, and how Peter Capaldi s Sam THE DOCTO Fiftv years of the show that changed TV boyish charms won him over \ B«10 ItNWNI H»U SHIlh JOHN HURT STtVtH MOfWT Jtk Hk I DON'T THINK I've ever worked on Of course the Doctor is always capable of • anything that was as difficult, darkness - he makes terrible decisions through «ip fi terrifying and as much of a respon- out the show - but this war involved the deadli M sibility as writing the 50th anni- est of decisions because the stakes were so much ^^feZ ^k versary episode of Doctor Who. higher. The Doctor is a good man, always doing ^^tW Am I wanted everybody to love it. I things for a good cause, but at this point he is no knew that was impossible, but I wanted people longer the happy-go-lucky wanderer; he's a dark - from those who had never seen it, to the warrior. The Doctor has always been able to absolute diehard fans who hate every episode solve problems. Here he admits defeat, saying, I've written - to love it. So it was monstrously "I'm going to have to descend to the level of my stressful and very hard: the uncastable cast, the enemies in order to fix this." impossible brief, the unwritable script... VJl ten you I can remember sitting with my wife saying, "I NCE WE'D DECIDED on getting more can't tell if it's good any more, it could be rubbish than one Doctor involved we wanted choose a Doctor, - I'll have to leave the country. I'll have to fake David back. David's Doctor was my own death." And then going for a meeting struggling to move on from the Time with the producers the week I was meant to OWar, Matt Smith's Doctor had sort of got over you wan I hand the script in, and we were still trying to the Time War so, add a mysterious Doctor who's somebody who assemble the cast. We all just sat there, thinking, about to commit the crime _ "This is impossible, this can't ever work!" to which his two future is attractive in a All of these problems, of course, had been 50 selves have slightly , ,': "'- years in the making. There was, I reasoned, only different attitudes, very odd way5 one story to tell if the Doctor was to meet himself and you have a very D> - this had to be the day when he saved himself. STEVEN MOFFAT, And in the whole history of Doctor Who, there DOUBLE ACT SHOWRUNNER The new Doctor (Peter was only one day he needed saving^/rora. Capaldi) with companion There was a tremendous crime committed Clara (Jenna Coleman) during the Time War that the Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith Doctors have all referred to, but we've never A seen it played out or seen the conse quences of it. When we got John Hurt, with that extraordinary voice, I knew we could make his Doctor face that day - VOTE AGAIN the most terrible day of his life. We would finally witness that moment. * Breaking Bad Broadchurch * Doctor Who: By the time we discover him, the The Day of the Doctor«Educating Yorkshire John Hurt Doctor has been fighting the • Gogglebox • The Great British Bake Off Time War for centuries. He doesn't call himself the Doctor, and doesn't behave It's up to you to decide the Radio Times like him, either - this is our hero Audience Award from the six TV shows as a dark and battle-hardened shortlisted above. Voting closes: 12 noon, general. I think it's nice for a hero 15 May. The Arqiva British Academy to have a dark chapter, although Television Awards are held on 18 May. it's a chapter we will probably Vote online at never see again because that radiotimes.com/bafta somehow isn't Doctor Who.
HHH X* but is terribly boyish to being a bit more Time Lordy. Enter Peter Capaldi. There is something about and young at times5 Peter's demeanour, his eyes, his attitude - he's tremendously bright and that comes out on NEWWHO... screen. When you choose a Doctor, you want made you so ashamed of being a grown-up?" somebody who is utterly compelling, attractive They both look at him... it's him! They don't • For the first time since 2010, we can expect in a very odd way. None of the Doctors are want to be like him, and have rejected every a full run of episodes - probably 12. Moffat has conventionally attractive, but they're all arrest single thing he's like. At which point a lot of promised there'll be none of this split-season ing. Handsome men don't quite suit. Matt things become clear. You suddenly see David and nonsense. They'll be shown in the autumn. Smith's a young, good-looking bloke from one Matt as men trying to repress the memory of angle but is actually the strangest looking man the brutal old warrior they once were, • Former Death in Paradise star and from another. You need that oddity; you need and puppying around the place in * Who fan Ben Miller will appear as a somebody who is carved out of solid star, really. order to prove that they're charming "storming villain" in an episode Doctor Who is a whopping great star vehicle, and lovely and more human than ever, written by Mark Gatiss. despite the fact it changes star every so often. almost as a denial that they'd ever • Keeley Hawes (left), fresh from her And so it really is built around the abilities, the done anything so dark. Line of Duty triumph, is another villain: charm, the magnetism of a succession of differ mysterious banker Ms Delphox (left). ent actors. I've cast Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi UT NOW ALL that is over. In and John Hurt, but the truth is, they all cast Matt Smith's final episode • The companion gets a themselves - the easiest thing to spot in the he spent a thousand companion when Jenna world is sheer brilliance. Coleman's fellow Emmerdale years on a planet graduate Samuel Anderson I always thought Matt, while a very young watchinBg everybody else age joins as Danny Pink. He's man, had something of the demeanour of a to death, while he ages a teacher working with much older man, whereas Peter is a man in his very slowly. The Doctor is Clara at Coal Hill 50s but is terribly boyish and young at times. I being taught a lesson. He's School, which like the Doctors to have mixed messages about not a human being, featured in the very what age they are - you can't really pin them however much he larks around first episode in 1963. down. The Doctors are all the same Doctor pretending he is. He is different really, at the end of the day, but you can slide the and it's time to stop play-acting. • Expect to see the faders up and down. And to emphasise the He goes back to being the trickier ^ Paternoster Gang again senior consultant over the medical student for version of the Doctor, the fiercer - Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint once reminds people that he's actually a terrify alien wanderer. He's not apolo and Strax all make an appearance. ing old beast. Typically, Matt's method would do gising, he's not flirting with you that, too: occasionally just turn cold and you'd - that's over. That's what the • So what is the new Doctor like? Regular Who writer Mark Gatiss think, "You're not really a puppy are you?" Just Doctor was like after the Time reveals that Capaldi's incarnation like Peter Capaldi's Doctor will sometimes War but he's not like that any is "a more dangerous, more urgent remind me he's a big kid at heart. more. He's gone back and he's Doctor. It has a side of crazy." I changed it. Now he can go back AS TOLD TO STEPHEN ARMSTRONG RadioTimes 17-23 May 2014 TURN TO CENTRE PAGES FOR OUR 16-PAGE BAFTA SPECIAL •