Doctor Who - Documentary s06e13 Episode Script
Monster Masterclass
One of the great advantages of working on Doctor Who is that there is an expectancy about the monsters that are going to occur in it, it's what the programme is about, in many ways.
So, a lot of the work is actually done for you already.
And there's always usually a lot of pre-publicity about it, ''What's the next monster going to look like?'' And there'll be little trailers and there might be photographs in the press and so on.
So, there's a kind of build-up to the monster appearing and that, in a way, is down to the script and how it's signalled and anticipated.
And how the characters behave is very important, I think.
And if one can genuinely believe that they are actually worried about this or frightened for their own lives or for the planet's survival, whatever it happens to be, if one genuinely believes in that, then the expectancy is built up more and more.
It becomes stronger and stronger.
The monsters themselves, the appearance, obviously, is very important.
They have got to look monstrous in some kind of way, to look intimidating, frightening, capable of whatever it is that they've come to do.
Their presence and their strength on the programmes made the programme what it is.
And they all had to have their particular weapon, whatever it happened to be.
In the case of the Ice Warriors, it's a little torch strapped to their wrist.
The voice was very, very important and the voices were very often treated to make them sound very, very strange and to give them either that kind of very recorded quality.
(ECHOING SLOWLY) Doctor Who is required! Then that slightly strange, disembodied voice was thought to be quite frightening.
The sound effects, the sound which was given to the guns.
(HIGH-PITCHED BUZZING) And then, the actual action that they do.
What do they actually do? Do they come up and bomp you on the head, or do they send rays out or do they inhabit somebody else's body? All of these things are frightening in themselves.
And I suppose the monsters prey a little bit on our deepest fears.
''What would happen if the door suddenly opened and a strange being came in ''and I hadn't got any way that I could overcome it?'' There was a truism in that the less you show the more frightening it is.
It is absolutely true, because once you see something, you're seeing something very literal rather than something which is being suggested.
Directors try to keep the angle that they take on a monster as low as possible.
Look up to them, because that gives them more power and the people that they are frightening or intimidating, to look down on them a little bit or to look at them from behind, where they're really very vulnerable.
The music element.
That kind of beating heart music or sustained cellos.
You think, ''I wish this would stop, I wish something would happen, ''because this is really getting me quite upset.
'' (SINISTER MUSIC PLAYING) One of the really interesting things about the monsters, I realised, is that every department making a show got involved in it somehow, starting with the script and the director's view of it, the designer, the make-up and wardrobe.
The actors got very involved, both those who were playing the monsters and those who were being threatened by the monsters.
And the special effects, bangs and crashes and all of that and so forth.
All of these things contributed, and it meant that the whole team involved in the programme all contributed to the making of a monster and that was great.
So, a lot of the work is actually done for you already.
And there's always usually a lot of pre-publicity about it, ''What's the next monster going to look like?'' And there'll be little trailers and there might be photographs in the press and so on.
So, there's a kind of build-up to the monster appearing and that, in a way, is down to the script and how it's signalled and anticipated.
And how the characters behave is very important, I think.
And if one can genuinely believe that they are actually worried about this or frightened for their own lives or for the planet's survival, whatever it happens to be, if one genuinely believes in that, then the expectancy is built up more and more.
It becomes stronger and stronger.
The monsters themselves, the appearance, obviously, is very important.
They have got to look monstrous in some kind of way, to look intimidating, frightening, capable of whatever it is that they've come to do.
Their presence and their strength on the programmes made the programme what it is.
And they all had to have their particular weapon, whatever it happened to be.
In the case of the Ice Warriors, it's a little torch strapped to their wrist.
The voice was very, very important and the voices were very often treated to make them sound very, very strange and to give them either that kind of very recorded quality.
(ECHOING SLOWLY) Doctor Who is required! Then that slightly strange, disembodied voice was thought to be quite frightening.
The sound effects, the sound which was given to the guns.
(HIGH-PITCHED BUZZING) And then, the actual action that they do.
What do they actually do? Do they come up and bomp you on the head, or do they send rays out or do they inhabit somebody else's body? All of these things are frightening in themselves.
And I suppose the monsters prey a little bit on our deepest fears.
''What would happen if the door suddenly opened and a strange being came in ''and I hadn't got any way that I could overcome it?'' There was a truism in that the less you show the more frightening it is.
It is absolutely true, because once you see something, you're seeing something very literal rather than something which is being suggested.
Directors try to keep the angle that they take on a monster as low as possible.
Look up to them, because that gives them more power and the people that they are frightening or intimidating, to look down on them a little bit or to look at them from behind, where they're really very vulnerable.
The music element.
That kind of beating heart music or sustained cellos.
You think, ''I wish this would stop, I wish something would happen, ''because this is really getting me quite upset.
'' (SINISTER MUSIC PLAYING) One of the really interesting things about the monsters, I realised, is that every department making a show got involved in it somehow, starting with the script and the director's view of it, the designer, the make-up and wardrobe.
The actors got very involved, both those who were playing the monsters and those who were being threatened by the monsters.
And the special effects, bangs and crashes and all of that and so forth.
All of these things contributed, and it meant that the whole team involved in the programme all contributed to the making of a monster and that was great.