Friends and Foe Doctor Who Confidential

He's menacing.

He's mad.

He's the Doctor's most dangerous enemy.

He's been 20 years in the time void.

And now he's back.

On set in Cardiff, the most evil being in the universe is getting ready to make an entrance.

-I've never seen Davros's face in this.

-Right.

I didn't want to show him too quickly.

I didn't want to show Davros's features so you see him too early.

-And action.

-I warned you, Supreme One,

just as Dalek Caan foretold, the children of time are moving against us.

But everything is falling into place.

It was quite hard to show a little bit at a time,

because you've got the skirt, you've got a gloved hand and you've got some dials at the top.

The rest of it's a leather jacket, then the face.

Just move your hand through that speech, move your hands slowly across on the speech.

So you go with it, and it's that one.

Action.

I could almost mistake that tone for one of victory.

Beware your pride.

The Doctor cannot stop us.

And yet Dalek Caan is uneasy.

Thank you.

That was my huge responsibility to start. From there onwards...

Back to your positions...

..to make sure the prosthetics and the body and figure looked authentic and terrific.

It's just getting the right kind of shots to show him off.

Action!

Supreme One, this wave network, I would address it, give me access.

We've lost them!

No, there's another signal coming through, there's someone else out there. Hello? Can you hear me?

Rose?

Your voice is different and yet...

its arrogance is unchanged.

No.

But he's dead!

Welcome to my new empire, Doctor.

Cut!

But it's not Davros's first appearance in the studios.

Complex creations need a trial run.

Wow. This is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

That chair looks so mean.

With most of the big designs of the monsters

we have a "show and tell",

so a couple of days before the first day of filming,

we'll get the actor in, we'll get the prosthetics on them, if that's what they need, or the costume on them.

We'll get them in the chair or the device, or whatever.

Can I have a lift?

And we'll put the whole thing together and see how it works.

How malleable are you?

-It's fairly flexible.

-It's absolutely brilliant!

Eyebrows go and everything...

Here's the Doctor!

-It's brilliant.

-Cool!

-How's it feel?

-All right, thanks.

It's very comfortable.

Very comfortable!

David and I spent the entire morning in a state of complete frenzy

because we knew we doing the Davros show and tell that afternoon.

We just kept laughing at each other. We were so excited.

One of my earliest memories of Doctor Who is Davros.

It was 1975.

I was a very small child, absolutely captivated by this extraordinary creature.

Do the wires come out?

'It doesn't disappoint when these things from your own cultural memory

'are suddenly now part of the job you're doing for real.'

You never quite get over those slightly surreal moments.

In a nearby rehearsal room, another cultural memory is being awakened.

What we're doing today is a bit of trouble-shooting.

It's 18 months, nearly two years, since we last did a Dalek episode.

-Is that right?

-Yeah.

I have been summoned!

We're making sure everything works.

Having a trundle round, making sure things fit and the electrics work.

We need more bodies immediately!

Yes, Master.

It's all about the legs. If you've got long legs, you're in trouble.

Luckily it's all right.

It's a simple seat which is a bit padded at the bottom.

It's trying not to bang your knees.

Daleks have no concept of worry.

We've got quite used to it over the years,

visibility is always a bit restricted.

It's usually off to one side as well.

The bit you can see out of is like that.

If you need to look there, fine but if you have to look there...

Come with me!

Just using the force, really.

-We're wearing these the whole time.

-Oh, yes, have to do that.

Then there's smoke and

steam from the mini-bar and the Jacuzzi.

The in-Dalek entertainment system. It's all in there!

Now...

join with me!

The hardest part is keeping out of the way of the mutant,

isn't it, mutant?

Yeah, the mutant doesn't like it if you sit on him.

You sort of get in sideways, or have him on your lap.

# I've got you under my skin

# I've got you deep in the heart of the me

# You're so deep in my heart That you're really a part of me

# And I've got you under my skin... #

Once we are inside and the lids have been put on and everything.

People do kind of forget that we're in there.

Because it looks real and it moves and it twitches and we glide around.

It's a testament to what an amazing piece of design it is.

It comes to life and people think it's just a Dalek.

It's not a bloke and some plywood and some fibre glass and some metal.

It's a Dalek. Fantastic.

-Hello, boys.

-DALEK OPERATORS: Hello!

-Look, can you show me your twitching?

-Check us all out.

The far one, are you switched on?

I'm switched on, yes.

-Can you move for us as well?

-Yeah, sure, shall I just...?

Yup, yeah, yeah. That's going to be good.

Once you know who they are, you remember their names.

But once they start moving, I haven't a clue!

-Stage 42, take two.

-Action!

Dalek fleet in battle formation.

All systems locked and primed.

Crucible at 90% efficiency.

The human harvest will commence.

-Right, cut.

-Yes, please.

# I've got you

# Under my skin

# And I love you under my skin. #

-Rehearsing!

-Quiet!

And, action!

Negative! No reports of Time Lords.

A big part of the Dalek is his voice. The voice.

We are beyond the Doctor's reach.

The person who realises that is Nick Briggs. He's a genius.

He sits at the side of the set

and delivers a completely chilling performance.

The Doctor cannot stop us.

Nick's involvement begins months before shooting

when the cast gathers for a first read of the script.

Nick comes to the read-through with his ring modulator.

-Jacqueline Breen.

-Gary Milner.

Nick Briggs.

And he sets up a little speaker. He sits there and he patiently waits

for the first Dalek line to come around,

Knowing that when it does and when he first booms across

that read-through room he's going to get a shiver of delight

from everyone in the room.

I'm receiving a communication. They have a message for the human race.

Put it through, let's hear it.

Exterminate! Exterminate!

Exterminate! Ex-ter-min-ate!

CHEERING, LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

It's lovely for an actor's ego.

I got a huge round of applause on my first line

and then any little different nuance I did,

another round of applause.

Daleks are the masters of the Earth.

IN DIFFERENT PITCH: Daleks are masters of Earth.

And we're a massive multiplication shot of the Daleks on the floor, everywhere. All chanting.

Everyone together now...

LAUGHTER

It's late at night on a street in south Wales.

There's an invasion in progress.

It's the first time ever in the new series of the Daleks I'v have gone on location.

So we've got rain and we've got cold and weather and it's brilliant. I love it.

We're doing the scene where Rose and the Doctor are reunited

after so many years.

Just before they embrace,

a Dalek comes out of the shadows and kills the Doctor.

Barnaby, on action, you're trundling from the back up to the front,

-turning and firing.

-Yup.

With an exterminate.

Exterminate, then gun?

Exterminate, then gun, yeah. Pow.

After 45 years it feels good to be the Dalek who got him.

HE SNIGGERS

Exterminate!

Long time no see.

Been busy, you know. Don't die.

It's...a moment of high emotion for all involved.

-Don't die.

-Argh.

-Oh, God, don't die.

We can't have happy endings. Especially not when there's a cliffhanger to be worked up towards.

1/10, take one... And action.

What do we do? There must be some medicine or something!

Rose is faced with the fact that she might lose another Doctor.

Just step back.

Rose! Do as I say and get back.

Just as she's managed to come, goodness knows how many zillion light years to be reunited with him.

He's dying, and you know what happens next.

What do you mean?

She's very fond of this version of the Doctor.

She hasn't seen him for a long time.

She's completely in love with him and he's about to change form again.

I've come all this way.

What do you mean?

She knows what it means and it frightens her.

It's starting.

So yeah, the Doctor is...is mortally wounded and needs to regenerate.

There's not really any going back from that.

But you can't.

I'm sorry. It's too late.

I'm regenerating.

So, at the end of this episode, the Doctor is dying...

He starts to glow, he starts to boil...

He's changing into a new man. I've got no idea what happens next.

I'm going to be sitting down next week watching as rapt, as excited, and as in the dark as everyone else.

Honestly.

HE LAUGHS

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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