Here Come the Girls Doctor Who Confidential

'The Doctor's time has run out, and now the ladies in his life need to turn back the clock.'

-It's a Doctor-less world for her.

-Donna displays great courage.

-Activate!

'So join Confidential backstage in a world bereft of the Doctor,

'but blessed with a Noble and a Rose.'

Filming the Shan Shen market was awful for weather.

The rain, it was chucking it down.

We brought all sorts of hocus-pocus-y sort of stuff,

and brilliant banners, brilliant stalls, exotic fruits.

We managed to find all Chinese extras from the west of England, so that was great.

Everybody was very high-spirited, and thank God they were, because it could have been a thoroughly miserable day.

And...action!

HUBBUB OF VOICES

'My entire contribution'

to episode 11 was done in one day, which was a fairly manic day.

We had Shan Shen Alley first thing.

It was an extraordinary day, with this huge setup and all these supporting artists,

all this set dressing, all this stuff, all these banners hanging from everything.

Shan Shen Alley was a chance for the props department

to use all the weird props they've never been able to use elsewhere.

You could sell them on market stalls, in an alien marketplace. Perfect.

So when you knew that you were bringing Billie back, Rose back, did you know that Bad Wolf would be...?

I'd sort of thought... It's part and parcel of Rose, really, as a warning,

as a message, a sign that goes with her.

Rose was trapped in a parallel universe. The walls are closed.

-Opening those walls was going to mean the deaths of all universes, everything collapses.

-Yeah.

If messages are bleeding through, if she's crossing universes, everything's in danger.

-Not just this universe - everything.

-But she's using Bad Wolf to let the Doctor know ahead of time.

-Yes.

-It's the bat signal, isn't it?

-It is! That's a much better way of putting it.

Take two.

And, action!

One of the things we address in the episode is, what the world would be like without the Doctor.

What she doesn't know is that, in another life, another world, she was with the Doctor

when he did defeat the Racnoss.

Donna is connected to the Doctor.

By her not meeting the Doctor in The Runaway Bride,

the Doctor is killed. But the events of The Runaway Bride continue anyway.

Some other secretary at HC Clements must have been dosed with Huon particles.

The plan almost succeeded, the Doctor stopped them,

but Donna wasn't there to stop him.

Doctor!

You can stop now.

Loads of energy.

What happened? What did they find?

Did they find someone?

I dunno. A bloke called the Doctor or something.

< Cut there!

Rose knows how important Donna is. Even though she sees herself as nothing, as she says.

I'm nothing special! I'm a temp.

Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation.

Rose... Torchwood in Rose's universe is monitoring the timelines.

'So, Rose has an overview, an objectivity of all that's going on.

'Because their universe is slightly ahead of ours, she can see where'

she needs to go in our universe to stop everything unravelling.

Take two!

-Wh... Where is he?

-They took him away. He's dead.

Sorry... Did you know him?

Billie's return in Episode 11...

We had to keep that under wraps. That had to be kept really quiet.

'We never knew whether it would be two or three episodes.'

I would've done with one scene in the end.

'Planning for this goes back 18 months or so.'

'When I found out I was returning to Doctor Who,'

I was fine up until about three weeks before shooting.

Then I had a minor breakdown.

I thought I could never play that character again.

'So, I went out, frantically buying boxsets'

and watching my own performances!

Such a sad confession!

Episode 11's an extraordinary episode for Donna.

Action.

-This is where we leave you.

-I don't want to see that thing on my back.

'The moment in the circle of mirrors,

'both times she's in the circle of mirrors. First of all, she's terrified.'

And then she's so beautifully hopeful, travelling back in time.

Those are some of the finest performances I've ever been associated with.

At least I'm not gonna die!

Cos I understand now.

You said I was gonna die, but you mean this whole world.

It's gonna blink out of existence. But that's not dying.

Cos a better world takes its place. The Doctor's world.

And I'm still alive.

'And of course,'

Rose knows differently.

I'm sorry.

I'm not gonna get there.

She told me...to warn you.

She said two words.

What were they? What did she say?

Bad wolf.

Doctor, what is it? What's bad wolf?

It's the end of the universe.

We're heading to the series climax. All sorts of things are stewing.

In every episode, there's elements being carried forward that will pay off in the finale.

There's been the return of Rose.

We've seen her now with Donna.

We've seen Martha, before becoming part of the Doctor's world back on Earth.

Those seeds and elements are all...

It's like a rolling stone gathering moss.

Something from every episode is about to pay off

as we hit the biggest finale on Planet Earth!

It's fantastic.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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