DOCTOR WHO
1.13 — The Parting of the Ways

DOCTOR WHO (2005-)
3.11 | Utopia

DOCTOR WHO
2.02 | Tooth and Claw

“Oh come on, don’t start.”

Stargate Atlantis “McKay and Mrs. Miller” and Doctor Who “Utopia”

Doctor Who (2005-)
3.13 | Last of the Time Lords

Time Crash - Behind the Scenes - Part Seven

Excerpts from Benjamin Cook’s interview with Peter Davison and David Tennant in DWM #389:

DWM:  Graeme Harper directed your final Doctor Who serial, Peter - and you, David, have worked with him on each of your three series. From the cast’s point of view, how much difference does an amazing director make?

Peter Davison: If you’ve got a bad director, you can put in as good a performance, but it won’t look as good. Graeme came along after a series of competent but very much old-school directors, and he was like a breath of fresh air, a burst of almost irrepressible enthusiasm, which kind of took us all along with it. I remember him doing things that… well, I was used to doing things in a particular way. I was thinking, it won’t work if you shoot it like that. And Graeme would go, “Nah, guv, it’ll look fantastic,” and of course it did

David Tennant: that’s the extraordinary thing about Graeme: his enthusiasm and his energy.  I mean, he was a younger man 25 years ago, but I can’t imagine that he could have been any more enthusiastic! It would be just about impossible to keep him in the room if he were bouncing about any more. That’s why he’s so brilliant to work with. He’s indefatigable

Peter Davison: He does risk serious injury to himself in the course of directing, which is unusual, really. He risks getting run down by a camera! He’s one of Doctor Who’s best directors.

DWM: When you’re playing the Doctor, are you conscious of your legacy

David Tennant:  Maybe I’m more aware of it because I’ve grown up with it, and I’ve grown up with it being a show that’s part of popular culture. I don’t know if it felt like that - if it felt like a national icon - 25 years ago in the way that it seems to be regarded now…?

Peter Davison:  The series itself seemed like a national icon, but what’s hard to imagine now is that television was once two showings maybe, and that was it. You were lucky if you got a repeat, and then it was never seen again. There was no expectation of anyone ever owning a shelf of DVDs, because even videotape recorders weren’t widely around. Part of the appeal of doing a film was that you knew it’d still be repeated on BBC Two in 25 years’ time, but there was no longevity for television, I though.

Link to [ part one ] of the Time Crash Behind-the-scenes posts, or click the #whoBtsCrash tag, or the full episode list [ here ]