River Runs Deep Doctor Who Confidential

This week on Confidential -

Professor Song, in the library, with the Doctor.

River knows his future.

She knows where he's going.

You're squabbling like a married couple!

Whether they are in fact husband and wife is there to be seen.

Still want more spoilers?

Well, join us as we also go exclusively backstage to give you the Doctor Moon on a memory stick.

I'm very good!

Saved her!

As we reach the concluding chapter in the library,

the future is already written

for both the Doctor and his adventurous companion to come.

My character, her name's River Song.

She's a time-travelling archaeologist

and she has had...

a very close relationship

with the Doctor of the future.

What's interesting

is that the Doctor is encountering someone, for the first time,

who has an intimate knowledge of him.

-Hello, sweetie.

-Get out.

How intimate, we're not entirely sure,

but they've obviously got a lot of shared history still to have.

If I just bring you round so you're shining a torch over there.

And then, when turn your back to the Doctor...

The Doctor is full of doubt about who Song is.

I mean, she's kind of come up to him,

she's got a screwdriver like his.

She's got information about him.

River Song is one of the most important characters we've seen in the series.

Professor River Song. Archaeologist.

Lovely. As you're leaving now, you need to set up a quarantine...

It's not your ordinary guest star cropping up saying, "Hello, Doctor."

It's not just an archaeologist he bumps into.

It's someone who's vital to his life.

I always wanted to be Sigourney Weaver in Aliens.

And I guess maybe this is the closest I'll ever get to that,

so I might as well go for it!

Hey, who turned out the lights?

Hey, who turned out the lights?

This way, quickly! Move!

Hey, who turned out the lights?

-Who turned out the lights?

-Run!

Hey, who turned out the lights?

The Doctor is always seen as the authority,

and yet here is a figure who sort of throws in curve balls,

because she's one up on him, she knows things.

Her sonic screwdriver is actually, although it might look tattier than his, it's more advanced.

What's wrong with it?

-A signal coming from somewhere, interfering with it.

-Use the red settings.

It doesn't have a red setting.

-Well, use the dampers.

-It doesn't have dampers.

It will do one day.

And he's completely freaked by this because he's not in control.

She's wearing the trousers.

And also I think he understands that she could be the love of his life.

He understands that even if he doesn't feel it,

and that must be a terrifying thing.

Who are you?

-Professor River Song, University...

-To me? Who are you to me?

Again, spoilers.

What unsettles him is the level of intimacy they seem to have shared.

The level of intimacy with which she treats him is peculiar for anyone

in the Doctor's life, let alone someone he hasn't even met yet.

Pretty-boy, with me, I said.

-Oh,

-I'm

-pretty boy?

-Yes!

Oh, that came out a bit quick.

-Pretty?

-Meh...

I just notice, as women do notice, something's going on.

And she wants to flush that out.

Not romantically, but...

She likes travelling with the Doctor and this is too important for her

to let someone swan in with their old, battered sonic screwdriver

and lay claim to him.

-And action.

-What are you talking about?

You're just talking rubbish.

Do you know him or don't you?

-Donna? Quiet. I'm working.

-Sorry.

-Donna. You're Donna. Donna Noble.

-Yeah?

'She is the keeper of secrets.'

She knows an awful lot about the Doctor that she doesn't let on.

And action.

I do know the Doctor, but in the future.

His personal future.

So why don't you know me?

Where am I in the future?

I think it's a big shiver, that moment,

and a sort of a point towards what's to come

in the rest of this series.

The Doctor.

In the TARDIS.

-Next stop, everywhere.

-Spoilers.

'That's a tempting thing, isn't it?

'There it is, your future -

'what's gonna happen to you - there's who she is.'

There's a handy guide

to how to win against various other monsters, you know?

Of course you'd want to have a little look.

Shall we peek at the end?

'I wouldn't look into the future.'

No, I think you'd be mad.

The future's gonna come, do you know what I mean?

Whether we like it or not, and if you know it's not gonna be good,

what a miserable time waiting for it!

I'd rather just stay in the ignorance that it's all gonna be fine.

Take two.

Nostalgia about the future - only Doctor Who can do that,

and that's great, it's wonderful,

it's one of my favourite things,

but the subliminal message is,

"Oh, you've missed the glory days. Remember when it was good?"

You know when you see a photograph of someone you know,

but it's from years before you knew them?

It's like they're not quite...

finished, they're not done yet.

So, with a stake in the future of Doctor Who,

I thought it would be really good to have a character

who's doing the opposite, coming along saying,

-"Oh, the Doctor

-I

-knew, he was really great."

So instead of saying, "The show WAS fantastic,"

you're saying, "Wait till the next guy."

Back on location, the production team are preparing to film a first for Donna Noble...

As the Doctor languishes in the library,

his companion has her own troubles in time and cyber space.

This episode is perhaps the first time

we've seen Donna go off on a little adventure of her own,

but I think that's really only in story terms,

because she doesn't know she's having one on her own.

She doesn't remember the Doctor.

Thank you, for a take, please, turning over.

And action!

No more dreams, then? The Doctor?

The blue box, time and space...?

How did we get here?

We came down the stairs.

There's this really clever device that Steven Moffatt's written,

where time, in Donna's world, jumps...

Shall we go down to the river?

..exactly the way it jumps on TV.

You said "river", and suddenly we're feeding ducks.

-When a scene cuts...

-Hello, Lee.

-Hello...

-..time has moved on.

How did we leave it? Him and me?

I got the impression he was inviting you fishing.

She finds herself thinking...

So...fishing...

.."I was there a second ago."

What am I gonna do with you?

Steven was very keen on us, to use normal, televisual "grammar", to make that jump.

I play a character called Dr Moon,

who is the keeper of the mainframe, he looks after the computer,

he makes things happen, he heals...

It's a very existential role, he sort of fills in the gaps.

-Hello, Donna...

-Who are you?

I'm Dr Moon. I've been treating you since you came here two years ago.

Oh, God!

Dr Moon, I'm so sorry.

He's a very enigmatic character.

I didn't know you for a moment.

And then you remembered.

He plays a certain tone of voice.

You've done so much in seven years, Donna.

Sometimes it feels more like 70.

Mind you, sometimes it feels like no time at all.

Obviously, in Dr Who, in the first five minutes of any given story,

loads of sinister people turn up and smirk unconvincingly at the camera.

That's how Dr Who operates, everyone does that in Dr Who.

So obviously, Dr Moon seems mysterious and sinister.

-Donna!

-Oops, sorry.

Mrs Angelo's rhubarb surprise. Will I never learn?

The Doctor...

I saw the Doctor!

Yes, you did, Donna, and then...you forgot.

He looks after people, makes sure they don't realise where they are,

because that would be painful,

makes sure they don't escape, cos that would be dangerous.

So he's actually entirely for the good.

I would like to think Dr Moon is a, you know, is trying to protect CAL,

rather than being a malevolent presence.

Partly because Colin Salmon was so nice!

The doctor's swansong successfully saves River,

but filming the finale was one hard drive for the cast.

-This is the mansion where they're going to live happily ever after.

-161, take one.

It's OK.

You're safe.

You'll always be safe here.

The Doctor fixed the data core.

And pause. Astronauts in, please.

We definitely wanted to suggest that this is a kind of heaven,

maybe not in that specifically Christian way or any other faith way,

but a kind of, as a metaphor for heaven

where River Song and the rest of the astronauts and the little girl end up

is this beautiful calm, serene, green place

where they can live happily ever after.

Given the straight choice between oblivion

and the run of all human history and all human literature,

I'll take the run of all human history and all human literature.

I think that's quite a good retirement plan.

Pretty much as close to heaven as you're going to get.

That's what the Doctor gives River at the end -

an eternal retirement - which is nice of him.

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