Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Doctor Who star Matt Smith on sonic screwdrivers, Steven Moffat and following David Tennant

324PM GMT eleven March 2010

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Previous of Images Next The new Doctor Who, Matt Smith The new Doctor Who, Matt Smith Photo Jane Hilton Karen Gillan (left), who plays Amy Pond, and Matt Smith, the new Doctor Who Karen Gillan (left), who plays Amy Pond, and Matt Smith, the new Doctor Who Photo PA

Mercure Holland House Hotel, CardiffSeptember 23, 2009

Steven Moffat, the new lead bard and comparison manager writer of Doctor Who, calls the expel and organisation fabricated in the Caernarfon Suite to order. "This, he says, with a portentousness thats usually half-

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sardonic, "will be the majority scrutinised hour of the radio lives. No fewer than 58 members of expel and organisation are collected for the book read-through of the initial part of the 2010 run a new series, but additionally a new prolongation team, a new messenger and a new Doctor in the form of Matt Smith.

"I think thats Stevens form of encouragement, Smith says drily. As the Doctor, Smith will be scrutinised not usually by 10 million viewers, but additionally by a little unequivocally shaken BBC management group and a dedicated a little would contend somewhat unhinged online fan community. "You dont unequivocally think about it on a day-to-day level, Smith says. "Because if you did, youd never get anything done.

Today Smith is wearing jeans and a sweater rather than the Time Lords orderly new crawl tie and tweed coupler but theres still no mistaking the thick, glossy quiff that will positively parent a million childish imitations this spring. (The crawl tie, with tweed coupler and braces, was Smiths idea, and a last-minute deputy for a "more piratey see that the producers had developed.) Though Smith, 27, perceived great notices for his new thing TV role, in the little-watched BBC2 domestic fool around Party Animals, he was a warn preference to fool around the Doctor. His appetite and projection overpower the room as the read-through gets underneath way, but they are roughly suited by Moffat, who reads the theatre directions so fast that people have difficulty branch their pages fast sufficient to keep up.

"Its fundamentally Trumpton, Moffat says of Leadworth, the illusory English encampment in that the Doctor his Tardis out of lift out crash-lands at the commencement of the episode. At 60 minutes, this part will be a third longer than most, nonetheless it still has copiousness to get through. Smith hasnt utterly accomplished regenerating a routine that varies in length from Doctor to Doctor, but for Smith will lift on via part one of the new run. Theres his new messenger to deliver Amy Pond, played by 22-year-old Karen Gillan who was the last chairman to try-out for the role, and who Moffat says was "a bit kookier than the others. And then, of course, theres the requisite hazard of tellurian obliteration in the form of the Atraxi, an orbiting throng of thuggish galactic policemen to dispatch.

Even at the read-through, Smith creates a constrained Doctor droll but not comical, courteous but not academic. As the chattering throng of publicists and BBC commissioning editors disperses, Smith says that he doesnt dwell as well majority on how his Doctor will be opposite from Tennants. "If you break down in to parts it in that way, it ceases to be extemporaneous and momentary, he says. "Ask me in 9 months time, when the on TV.

The Cathedral Green, Llandaff, CardiffOctober 7

Despite the small have a difference of being located in Wales, Llandaffs encampment immature with the church spire, fight commemorative and Tudor timbers simply passes for Leadworth. Moffats book has compulsory a integrate of facilities to be combined for the place glow a steep pond, so that the Doctor and Amy can brawl about the deficiency of ducks, and a red write box, ready to be exploded. Theyve incited one residence in to a pub, repainted the finish extraneous of others, and brought a glow engine. But theres one thing even a Time Lord cant lift out the British weather.

"Weve had difficulty with the rain, Smith says, huddling underneath an "E-Z Up steel cover that shelters make-up bags, filming monitors and a stand list of present coffee. A splendid blue directors chair has the word matt stencilled on the back, with a prohibited H2O bottle lying ready for have have use of of in in between takes. "Its meant to be an idyllic, balmy village, Smith says. "But, as you can see, the pouring down.

With evil hearten Smith seems never to be irritable, even at the finish of a prolonged days place sharpened he says that Moffat has come up with a power reason for the rainfall. "Theyre meditative of putting a line in the book saying, "Oh, the the Atraxi, theyre removing ready to bring to boil the planet." Something similar to that. Theres regularly a approach turn the go on in Doctor Who, he says.

Over her mini-skirted costume, Gillan is wearing a floor-length coat, wrapped in a sweeping and sporting a sleet hat. "Which can usually be described as an old-woman, Last-of-the-Summer-Wine hat, she giggles. The competition to save the universe thats maturation on the encampment immature will, Gillan says, assistance to show viewers what holds the Doctor and Amy together. "Theyre dual of a kind. Theyre both a bit lost, she says. "Because Amy has no parents, shes this Scottish lady in an English village. So theyre both lost souls that have found each other. And they both have a clarity of tour about them, and I think thats what the Doctor loves about Amy. She has that suggestion in her, and that fire. She keeps him on his toes.

The span step behind out in to the sleet for an additional take. The Doctor is perplexing to capture the courtesy of the Atraxi spaceship by decorated have have use of of of record that the aliens wouldnt design their sensors to collect up on an English encampment immature namely, of course, his sonic screwdriver. For now, the still Tennants screwdriver (at this point in the episode, in fact, the "raggedy Doctor is still wearing Tennants smashed fit and trainers). For the purposes of both the part (to perplex the Doctor and means a great bang) and the array (so Smith can have his own, spanking new sonic screwdriver), the screwdriver has to explode.

"Weve secluded a hint outcome in the sonic screwdriver, says Danny Hargreaves, who is in assign of special goods for Doctor Who. "Its a reduction of an part called "black powder" together with titanium granules. When you put an electrical assign by it, it browns the black powder, that afterwards browns the titanium, that gives you lots of sparks. When the stage is shot, Hargreaves takes the purpose of Wile E Coyote, station off to one side with a wireless remote control. A receiver in Smiths slot is afterwards continuous to the screwdriver itself by a handle that runs down his sleeve.

Bang goes the screwdriver, and Smith flinches so vigourously that he snaps it in two. After the take, station in the center of the encampment immature in the rain, Smith points theatrically at the ash on his hand. "Look what they do to me! he squeals.

St Davids Hotel, CardiffOctober 7

All that rain, it turns out at the finish of the day on the Cathedral Green, might not be such a complaint in the last version of the episode. "Its a droll thing, sleet on radio infrequently you can see it, infrequently you cant, Moffat says. "I mean, how do you write a stage where people conflict to the actuality that the raining? When theyre in England? People dont go turn saying, "Oh my God, the raining, it contingency be an caller invasion!"

Moffat is settling in to the highway house club a acquire breakwater from the shout outward with Piers Wenger, the head of fool around for BBC Wales, and Beth Willis, the shows third comparison manager producer. For this new run, that starts on BBC One on Easter weekend, these 3 have taken over from the roughly mythological group of Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner. Davies and Gardner transplanted Doctor Who to BBC Wales for the new incarnation after a 16-year deficiency from the shade and, by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, combined a success that was grievous in some-more ways than one. In those shining footsteps, Moffat says he has one thought on top of all others for this new series.

"For it not to be shit, he says succinctly. "One rootless wall, one pony-looking effect, one little thing goes wrong, and the behind to the 1970s. Though there will be viewable differences a new Doctor, for one Moffat says that the group are not focused on becoming opposite the show from whats left before. "The audience, either theyre eight years old or 48, theyre not watchful to see since the opposite or weird or new, theyre usually wanting it to be unequivocally good. Its essentially an incredibly easy plea to have something different. Its incredibly tough to have something good.

But, Willis says, Smith brings new and startling qualities to the Doctor. "You will be sitting there examination the rushes and Matt will do something and youll think, "Ooh, I havent seen the Doctor do that before" and that is unequivocally exciting. It would be awful if he was going on and perplexing to do an sense of David.

When Tennant was completing his regeneration, he took to his bed. But Moffat hasnt since Smith such an easy ride. "I thought it would be fun if, whilst he was still regenerating, he had to run around and save the world, Moffat says. "Hes hardly out of the box when he realises I havent altered my shirt nonetheless and Ive got twenty mins to save the world. Its similar to perplexing to save the universe with flu. And he does it with dual mins to spare.

Both Wenger, who constructed the critically acclaimed dramas Housewife, 49 and Ballet Shoes, and Willis, who worked on Ashes to Ashes, are new to Doctor Who this series. But, during the Davies-Gardner era, Moffat determined himself as one of Doctor Whos majority reputable part writers. Many critics hold Blink, that he wrote, to be the most appropriate part of the complicated epoch so far. The Doctor, afterwards played by Tennant, hardly appeared in Blink. It not usually featured a immature Carey Mulligan, but additionally had unequivocally scary aliens, the Weeping Angels, who could usually move if unobserved. Hence "Dont blink. Blink and you"re dead.

Moffat, who is 48, additionally combined and wrote the sitcom Coupling, and has co-written the screenplay for the arriving Steven Spielberg movie The Adventures of Tintin The Secret of the Unicorn.

While Moffat doesnt replicate Daviess larger-than-life windstorm of camp, he does speak roughly unsought and with great speed and unrestrained about Doctor Who. It fast becomes pure that Moffat has been a very, unequivocally nerdy fan for a very, unequivocally prolonged time. He forcefully bats afar criticisms of the complicated array that, for example, it is majority some-more earthbound than the 1970s version. "Over half of Doctor Who takes place on Earth, regularly did, he says. "Theres a very, unequivocally great reason thats where the made. Also, there was something that was open to old Doctor Who thats not open to complicated Doctor Who going to a timberland in Epping and observant the an caller planet. And one of the reasons kids have such a outrageous attribute with it is that the not over the range of their recognizable world. You cannot shift the actuality that the Daleks have a penetrate plunger adhering out of them. Thats brilliant, since you can get a penetrate plunger and you can be a Dalek.

Both Moffat and Wenger appear fervent to residence one report that steadfastly dogs the stream Doctor Who prolongation bill cuts. "Were theme to the same prolongation efficiencies that all dramas are, Wenger says diplomatically. The thought of "efficiencies in between unequivocally comparison BBC management group is to get programmes some-more low but the cuts being seen on shade and, Wenger says, "Were operative unequivocally tough to have that happen, and will go on to do so, since thats not easy.

Moffat has a spikier retort. "This is going to receptive to advice pious, he says, "but the strange Tardis was a bill cut. It was. They couldnt means to have a spaceship. They couldnt means even to do a sorcery door. They couldnt means to do a sphere. So someone came up with, Why dont we do a military box? And the bigger on the inside. Thats the singular most appropriate idea, I think though I am a bit biased in all of fiction.

Upper Boat, nearby CardiffFebruary 9, 2010

The security ensure at the Doctor Who studios is on his rounds. Gaynor, who is staffing reception, says bombard phone him usually he has the key to the sealed studio. Meanwhile, Gaynor passes a form opposite the accepting desk, to be sealed by each caller and in that they guarantee finish confidentiality. Demand for report and report about Doctor Who is intense, the form says, and even confidences common with friends can finish up being published. It is a weird summary to embrace in the shabby accepting area of a light industrial section usually off the highway to Merthyr Tydfil.

But when the ensure gets behind with the key, it becomes clearer since things are so disguise and dagger. Inside the sealed college of music is the one big new Doctor Who underline of that no print has nonetheless reached the outward universe the interior of Matt Smiths Tardis. The set sits, rather sweetly, in the same college of music as the old, Tennant-era Tardis, faraway in a rather low-tech approach by a little unstable fencing and curtains.

This new Tardis not an requisite appendage for each new Doctor, but compulsory by the repairs accomplished to it in Tennants last part is big. It contingency be 3 times the distance of Tennants, on mixed levels with staircases in between. Less filthy than the predecessor, with a pure cosmetic building on the main level, the walls are glowing with discriminating copper and the executive mainstay facilities a blown potion emblem that could be true from Tales of the Unexpected. There are old car seats and downstairs downstairs! a swing. With a curtsy to Paul McGanns Tardis, the executive mainstay facilities an old TV shade on an extendable trellis. It additionally has a 1980s-style computer keyboard, and a His-Masters-Voice character wail speaker.

Viewers wouldnt see this Tardis until the finish of part one, when the Doctor and Amy travel in for their initial tour together. That initial part is right away usually about finished, exclusive a integrate of CGI monsters that are a bit severe turn the edges, and the occasional blemish in the dialogue. The aliens hold off from essentially hot the planet, but that bursting screwdriver still looks a bit of a shock. Most importantly, from the impulse he stumbles out of his crashed Tardis, Smith is positively his own Doctor. Less irritated than Eccleston and but the slapstick of Tennant, he brings an air of perplexed power thats a bit suggestive of, say, Tom Baker (though but the stripy scarf).

Today, Smith is filming in the college of music subsequent door. Production has reached part 12, with the storyline that will physical condition opposite the array about to raze in to the hide-behind-the-sofa conclusion. "The Doctor you encounter in the initial part is a opposite Doctor from the Doctor were filming now, Smith says. "Because in part one, of course, hes a man removing used to his body, going "How do I fit in to this world…"

Smith trails off, assumingly brewing serve thoughts about his initial episode. But then, with a conspiratorial grin, he asks, "Have you seen the new sonic screwdriver yet? and pulls it from his pocket. Its a unequivocally glossy steel fondle with a immature light and, when Smith flicks his hand, steel nails that cocktail out at one end. Smith is apparently as chuffed with it as all the eight-year-old boys who are since replicas of it for Yuletide will be. The titanium sparks on the Cathedral Green in Llandaff are right away a faraway memory.

Having common his secret, Smith thinks again. "I think part one has a poetic fairytale peculiarity to it, that is a credit to Steven. I think the utterly filmic, actually, and has a great story, he says. And then, roughly in a whisper, he adds, "Its a great begin for us.

"Doctor Who earnings to BBC One on Apr 3

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