Extra Time Doctor Who Confidential

This week on Doctor Who, Amy finds herself stuck in the TARDIS.

So I join Confidential and hope to take us out of this world at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

Life on other planets...

could quite possibly exist?

-It's quite likely because there are so many planets out there, but it may not be life as we know it.

-Excellent.

# I am a woman on a mission... #

I actually can't believe that's real. That's real.

The King's Arms meet The Rising Sun in the battle of the pub teams, that's coming up later in the show.

And it's Craig Owens passing to the Doctor.

Oh, nice footwork.

Impressive start from the gangling Gallifreyan.

He's still going. Look at this.

Best day's filming ever on Doctor Who today.

Not cos of JC, but cos we're playing football.

Hello, Confidential, it's me.

So, the Doctor was dealing with the time loop, and Amy was stuck in the TARDIS in space,

so I'm at the home of time and space at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,

to find out all about time and space and do time loops even exist?

-I'm meeting Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock...

-Hello!

..who is a space scientist, to find out what the time is.

-Ah.

-So, Maggie, tell us why we're here today.

As you said, Greenwich is the home of time and space.

This is an active astronomical site. We have an active telescope

which is educating the public,

and the Astronomer Royal for the UK used to actually live here.

So space and astronomy play a vital role here.

But time is critical here, as well.

Every new day here on planet Earth starts here at the prime meridian.

And what exactly is this meridian line?

I can actually show you the prime meridian, so step this way.

Ooh!

So, this is the meridian?

-No, no, this is the prime meridian.

-The prime meridian, I'm very sorry.

Meridians are imaginary lines that run from the North Pole to the South Pole, and we use them to gauge time.

The Prime Meridian is this line and this is effectively the zero,

the baseline that we do all other measurements from.

How we're standing at the moment - you're in the western hemisphere and I'm in the eastern hemisphere.

So we're having a conversation over hemispheres?

Yes. This prime meridian line divides east from west.

-So what happens if I do this?

-Now you are in both hemispheres at once.

Look at me, I'm in two hemispheres! I'm like dancing over hemispheres.

Dancing across the hemispheres.

Cool, so, essentially this is the line where time begins.

It is. This is where time begins.

Every new day starts along this line.

It could have been anywhere, it didn't have to be Greenwich.

In the old days, different places had different times -

there could be a five-minute time difference between Bristol and London, which didn't matter,

but as communication and transportation got better,

people had to reset their watches when they went to a different town!

So people across the world came together and said they needed a universal time.

As you go across the world, you have different times, but you need a baseline to measure it from.

After a long, protracted conversation and a vote, they decided to put it here in Greenwich.

'We'll return to the observatory later,

'as I want to find out more about the science behind the episodes of Doctor Who.'

On set, the cast and crew get ready to shoot what could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Action!

-So what's the plan tonight? Pizza, booze, telly?

-Yeah, pizza, booze, telly.

-LOUD BANG

-What is he doing up there?

-Did you put the advert up yet?

-Yeah, in the paper shop window.

"One furnished room available immediately,

"shared kitchen, bathroom with 27-year-old male non-smoker, £400 pcm, suit young professional."

Pretty much any guy who's single who has a really close female friend

who he always says, "We're just friends,"

he's probably in love with her, and that's no different than with Craig.

That's your mission in life, Craig - find me a man.

Yeah, otherwise you'll have to settle for me.

You'll have to settle for me first.

When you're in that situation, it's quite galling.

When you're looking at it from the outside, it's quite funny.

I love you.

Well, that's good, cos I'm your new lodger.

-KAREN:

-With two time-travel machines for Amy to contend with this week,

I want to know if there really is the possibility of life on other planets.

And who better to ask than a space scientist?

Here we are in the Planetarium in the Royal Observatory.

So I'm still with Maggie, who hopefully has all the answers.

You and the Doctor travel through space-time, through science fiction,

but I want to take you on a tour of the real universe.

This is Planet Earth where we live.

Earth is quite amazing, because as we go through our journey,

you'll see Earth is covered in water. Four-fifths of its surface is water.

About four-fifths of our body is water, so we're very much a product of the planet we live on.

We've zoomed into the centre of our solar system, and here's the sun.

We've got a sunspot drifting past.

The sun provides us with virtually all the energy we use on Earth,

so the Sun is the powerhouse, and it keeps all the other planets orbiting.

And here we have the planets of the inner solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Time's sped up here, because it takes Earth a year to go round the Sun and here it's just taking a few seconds.

We're zooming out. We've got the Sun in the centre and now we're seeing all the planets in our solar system.

What we want to do next is we want to go and visit the planet Jupiter.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.

In fact, you could fit 1,000 Earths into Jupiter.

-So it's pretty massive.

-Pretty big.

But then again, you could fit 1,000 Jupiters into the Sun.

So that it means you could fit a million Earths into the Sun.

So the Sun is pretty huge.

-So it is completely massive.

-Yes.

Now we're zooming out to our galaxy, the Milky Way,

and you can see there is a plethora of stars out there.

We live just on one of the spiral arms, rather boringly,

but it's estimated that, in the Milky Way, there are about 150 billion stars.

-It's a mind-boggling number!

-What?!

So life on other planets is quite possible?

We think it's quite likely, because there are so many planets out there.

But it might not be life as we know it.

Travelling through time isn't the only thing the Doctor seems to be good at.

He also has a nifty right foot.

Let's just shoot some goals now.

Let's shoot Matt scoring goals.

The football match was very easy to do

with little choreography, because Matt Smith's brilliant at football.

A bit of volley. Comes in on the chest and I do...

Right.

I finish with my left foot. Header would be great.

You can't escape the fact

that he's really good at football. I think he used to play for Leicester.

To play football as the Doctor, who scores all the goals and is the quickest and the best,

it's like all the dreams coming true at once in a way, I suppose.

Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Football Focus.

The King's Arms broke new ground this week and made history

with their signing of the first football Time Lord.

Yes, it's the Doctor.

Great excitement here at Victoria Park.

The King's Arms unveiling their new stellar signing, it's the Doctor.

Hang on to your boots. This could be out of this world.

Today, the Doctor comes and plays for the King's Arms

with his flatmate, Craig.

And what a pairing the King's Arms boasts now

with Craig Owens in great form.

The Doctor and Owens, numbers 11 and 7, a pairing made in heaven.

It's not only his debut for the King's Arms. It's... Well, his debut.

Let the game begin.

With the Doctor making his debut appearance, it's promised to be

the Pub League match to rival all Pub League matches - the King's Arms against the Rising Sun.

We can join Steve Wilson pitch-side at Victoria Park in Cardiff for highlights of the game.

And this is how they line up.

The King's Arms has chosen Craig Owens in his regular spot.

This is what we've all been waiting for, though.

The Doctor making his debut for the team,

and a lot resting on his performance today.

And the Rising Sun looking strong

with a formation we've seen them use before.

WHISTLE

And it's Craig Owens passing to the Doctor.

Oh, nice footwork.

Impressive start from the gangling Gallifreyan.

He's still going. Look at this.

Oh, what a goal by the Doctor! It's 1-0 to the King's Arms.

And he's off again.

Magnificent footwork. And he's made it two!

He's in magnificent form today.

Oh, what timing by the Doctor!

But what else would you expect?

It's 3-0.

Fantastic play by Owens.

Oh, what a turn for a big man.

Unlucky.

The Doctor with a follow-up to make it four.

Great chester by the Doctor, and that's five.

It's six!

Extraordinary! King's Arms seven.

It's a free kick.

And Craig Owens is ready to dispatch this in the back of the Rising Sun net.

Assessing his angles... Oh, but the Doctor arrives.

And it's eight!

And Owens isn't happy.

The Doctor stole his glory and he's hit eight.

What a performance, and what a game.

Owens doesn't look best pleased. The King's Arms have a new hero.

It's the Doctor.

Now I know a little bit about the science behind the science fiction,

there's one more treat in store for me at the observatory.

-We have something else for you.

-Really?

I'm going to introduce you to the public astronomer here at the observatory, Dr Marek Kukula,

and he has a very nice surprise for you.

-Then let us go.

-Perfect.

Come on.

There's one more treat in store for me at the observatory,

as Marek lets me take a look at the real sky at night

with something truly out of this world.

-So, Maggie promised you a surprise and here it is.

-Wow!

It's the biggest refracting telescope in the United Kingdom.

-How big is it?

-What's important with telescopes is the size of the lens,

and this one has a lens which is 28 inches across,

which is still about as big as you can make them.

So even though this is 120 - almost - years old,

-it really was the Hubble space telescope of its day.

-Wow!

-So the bigger the lens, the more we can see?

-That's right.

The bigger the lens, the more light you can get through, so the further out you can see into space.

That's great for doing astronomy, where you want to explore

as far out into the universe as you can possibly go.

So let's get the dome open and then we can have a look at the sky.

Let's go.

Now we can see the sky, so let's move the telescope down.

'With the telescope in place, I'm about to get the chance to see something totally amazing.

'I have no idea what it is, but I'm very excited.'

-Take a look and see what you think.

-What is it?

Oh, my goodness!

That's real.

I'm actually looking at Saturn right now.

I can see... It's really clear!

I can see it's sort of like a yellow ball with these rings going round it.

SHE GASPS

I can't believe it! I really can't.

It's kind of like a yellowy colour.

And how many moons does Saturn have?

It has at least 60 moons, and it has the rings,

which are made of billions of tiny, tiny icy moons, all orbiting round the planet.

They're made of billions of bits of ice,

up to the size of a car, down to the size of a tiny pebble.

-They're all independently orbiting around Saturn, like billions of tiny moons.

-I can't...

It's a pretty incredible sight.

It really is. I mean, it just... Wow!

OK, so I've got one last thing to show you.

Behind me, you can see the meridian line in the form of a laser.

Now, I've been told on a good night

it can stretch for up to 70 kilometres

and it runs right through London and into Essex.

So that brings me to the end of our visit to the observatory.

I think it's fair to say that my brain is ready to explode.

It's completely mind-blowing.

You know, probability suggests there could be life on other planets,

and potentially, in the future,

time travel could actually be possible.

I find it so fascinating.

I guess I've got an invested interest in it, because I've been working on Doctor Who.

But this visit has given me a tiny glimpse into the life of Amy Pond.

Thanks for joining me.

# Everybody's starry eyed... #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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