Sontar-Ha! Doctor Who Confidential

Those big-headed Sontarans are still waging war.

Change of plan!

And they have an almighty chip on their shoulder.

They look brilliant.

A whole new dynamic of creature.

We will ravage this planet!

Because they have no fear of death, they are sort of unstoppable.

They're truly brutal, nasty, monstrous creatures.

# Tick, tick, tick, tick,

# Tick, tick, tick

# Boom. #

It's battle stations for the Doctor Who production team

as they plan, with military precision, the Sontarans' attack against UNIT forces.

SCREAMING

It's big battle time in this episode, and it's the first time ever

on screen you get to see the Sontarans en masse.

I just want to see hordes of them, armies of them,

marching, guns, battleships, action,

to see these soldiers, these famous soldiers of the Doctor Who universe,

at war, in battle, fighting, and loving it.

All troops. Code Red.

This isn't war!

Get them out of there. SONTARAN LAUGHS

This is sport!

They're running like slime bait from a spiel fox!

Get them out of there!

God save us.

North America, online.

United Kingdom, online.

North Korea, online.

The honour of battle.

The glory!

With the coordination of Tom, our stunt coordinator,

and Ailsa, our choreographer,

we really felt the full force of their warrior techniques.

They're truly brutal, nasty, monstrous creatures, and that's what Sontarans are, they fight.

At the moment we're waiting to go and shoot the big battle

that we're going to be having with the UNIT troops.

Action!

And shooting various members of them.

It's an interesting way to spend a morning, certainly.

-Come on, come on.

-What we're seeing on that is the soldiers running around, half panicking.

Then the Sontarans come in into a set line,

and then we had to work out different scenarios -

running, falling and trying to shoot, but their guns are jammed.

I think we really did get a sense of scale, in that we had

these two big forces facing each other,

and then throwing in our set piece special effects,

in episode five, makes for a very dramatic sequence.

Action!

# You

# Should

# You

# Live

# The sun has gone and you're all alone

# And you know

# You're my dream. #

We want to give them that testosterone.

ALL: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!

ALL: Sontar-ha!

They just needed that release, that joy in battle, beyond just saying, "I'm having fun."

I thought that chant brought out their aggression and their rituals and also their fun,

but also the fact that they're all of one like mind, they are clones.

They do things together. They all join in exactly the same actions and words.

It just seems really Sontaran to do that.

About three or four weeks ago when the guys first came together,

we did a few basic exercises

just running things, just some marching,

to get everybody in the feel of the quality of movement that we were actually looking for.

D camera.

OK, and...

Three, two, one, action!

400 million weapons!

Sontar-ha!

Sontar-ha!

I seem to remember saying that quite a few times.

ALL: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!

ALL: Sontar-ha!

My left palm was very sore

at the end of...after each session of my Sontar-ha-ing.

ALL: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!

ALL: Sontar-ha!

Gimme a break.

It's a good chance... When we come back to Earth, mid-series,

it's a good chance for the companion to develop.

For example, Donna gets her key to the Tardis.

Oh, I've never given you a key!

Keep that. That's yours. Quite a big moment.

She's given a key to the Tardis, yeah,

which, in true Donna fashion she goes, "Never mind. Don't get all sentimental,

"cos I'm choking to death."

Action!

Look after yourself. Get yourself in the building.

What's perhaps different to the Doctor and Donna's relationship

to relationships that we've seen the Doctor have before

is that Donna herself feels no need to prove herself.

SHE COUGHS

-God, this air's disgusting!

-It looks bad. Get in the Tardis.

Oh! I've never given you a key!

She's very much her own woman

and I think the Doctor therefore goes along with that.

'Keep that. That's yours.'

Quite a big moment, really.

-Yeah. Maybe we'll get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death.

-Yeah, good idea.

Donna's not been waiting, going "Oh, you know. Are you going to tell me the alarm code?"

I don't think she's really reading into that in any way.

Donna just forces herself upon him

and inhabits the Doctor's life from the moment she steps on board.

I can't believe I'm doing this!

No, neither can I.

For instance, when the Doctor gives her a Tardis key,

I think he assumed he'd already done it.

She treats it in a much more cavalier way than either Rose or Martha did.

None of that. The world's choking to death.

With Rose and possibly even more with Martha there was a sense that perhaps they felt

they didn't quite deserve to be there.

What's happened? Where are you?

Still on Earth. But don't worry. I've got my secret weapon.

-'What's that?'

-You!

-Somehow that's not making me happy!

Companion alone on an alien spaceship and all she's got is a hammer.

It's like there's something really dreadful about that,

genuinely full of dread, in that the Doctor isn't there, and he isn't there to save her.

It's a scary place to be. It's very alone.

I find that very, very scary. It's one of my favourite sequences, because of the loneliness of it.

-There's a Sontoran... Sont-A-ran.

-Did he see you?

-No. He's got his back to me.

'Listen, on the back of his neck,'

on his collar, there's a plug, a hole, the probic vent. 'One blow to the probic vent

-'knocks him out.'

-But he's going to kill me.

-I'm sorry, I swear, I'm so sorry, but you've got to try.

She does have a wobble. And that's quite unusual.

Because we haven't really seen that from her, because she is quite sure of who she is,

of what she can do and what she can't do.

-But I can't even mend a fuse!

-Donna! Stop talking like that. You can do this. I promise.

When the Doctor really has to push her, it feels...

new and he's sorry for it.

But what if they find me?

I know. I wouldn't ask, but there's nothing else I can do.

The planet's choking, Donna.

The Doctor almost regrets having to push her into situations

where she wouldn't feel entirely comfortable.

But of course he does, because he has to and of course she fulfils it, because she is

perhaps more able than she believes herself to be.

She rises to the occasion. She does.

And I think she sort of finds this strength within her, and I don't know if she knew she had it.

Because she's cocky and she's mouthy and she's ballsy,

but that doesn't necessarily mean she's brave in the face of alien warfare!

But it turns out she is!

There's something very human about that.

She doesn't suddenly become some superhero and step up to the mark

in a way that's just too much.

And action!

Back of the neck!

Here's a bit of trivia for you. It was supposed to be a shoe.

But because I only wear trainers, they didn't want it to be a trainer,

or thought probably a trainer would just bounce off the back of his neck,

so I had to have a mallet.

-I'm through.

-Oh, you are brilliant, you are!

DOOR CLUNKS

Shut up!

Previously he's been more used to being admired and slightly goggled at.

With various parts of the story, Donna becomes more of the companion.

There's some really brilliant stuff to come.

It's part of the new...the different flavour that Donna brings.

Hello.

Doctor!

# I walked out cos I had some plans

# Yeah, I walked out

# Destiny in my own hands

# I thought I'd get by without you

# Thought I'd survive without you... #

Donna Noble, since you didn't ask.

I'll have a salute.

-Ma'am!

-Thank you.

# Cos I can't get along without you

# I can't get along without you

# I can't get along without you

# No, something is wrong

# I can't get along without you... #

Come on.

# So I picked fights with men twice my size... #

-And you're would be?

-The Doctor and Donna Noble.

Representing the Noble Corporation Plc Ltd, intergalactic.

-It's always like this with you, innit?

-Oh yes, and off we go!

# Can't get along without you

# I can't get along without you

# I can't get along without you, girl

# Believe me, baby

-# Can't get along without you

-Can't get along

-# I can't get along without you

-Can't get along

# I can't get along without you

# No, something is wrong

# I can't get along without you

# I really need you, baby. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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