Alien Abduction Doctor Who Confidential

'This week, the Doctor faces his biggest threat to date,

'in the alliance to match all alliances.'

-This episode has to say "big".

-Listen to me!

We're turning it up to 11, we are really going mad with this one.

'And Confidential gees up for a journey with a difference.'

Ha-ha-ha!

It's hilarious! What a funny little gesture.

He probably worked harder than Alex and I.

Down on set, the Doctor Who cast and crew are preparing for a climactic cliff-hanger.

Just let him pull you a bit, with your arms behind you. Throw you that way.

This is the Doctor being shoved into the Pandorica,

where he's going to be imprisoned.

Effectively, it's the death of the Doctor.

Or the Doctor that we know.

We hold like this, and then if you take your weight, and I'll swing like that.

So we've got all the monsters out here.

This is the first time we've had Cybermen

and Daleks and Sontarans all together in one big thing.

It's like a big classic Doctor Who cliff-hanger.

We've got to go into this thinking it's all over for the Doctor,

and how is it going to get out? It's doom for him.

Off we go then. Rehearsing, and action!

HE SHOUTS

Time for the ultimate alien alliance to get suited and booted ready to take on the Doctor.

We've done pretty well so far. We've got first ADs trained in all the alien languages.

We've got people who speak pure Dalek and Sontaran translators out there.

We're marshalling them quite well I think.

Camera!

It's really exciting to have such legendary characters together,

Daleks and Sontarans in the same frame.

You've got Cybermen and Weevils and all these kind of things.

That's what we've never really seen in Doctor Who before,

these creatures side by side, working together,

like some sort of terrible alliance.

And cut there, brilliant. OK.

I'm really excited. We've just got to get all the shots in.

Action!

-DALEK:

-You have been scanned,

assessed, understood.

The Pandorica is ready!

-Ready for what? DALEK:

-Ready for you.

I think I'm most impressed with the Sontarans.

When you just see them in front of you moving and talking,

he really does seem like a real creature, and he's really quite scary.

He looks quite fierce, and directing him is kinda weird,

he's constantly looking really angry but it's just his make-up.

-The Pandorica is ready.

-Ready for what?

-DALEK:

-Ready for you.

It's great, seeing all the monsters together.

The seven-year-old child inside me kind of goes, "Oh, my goodness!"

-Seal the Pandorica.

-No! Please!

The whole universe will never have existed.

Please listen to me! Get me out of this chair, listen to me!

-Cut!

-The alien coalition has won.

After 907 years, the Doctor's fate looks sealed.

With the crew's saddlebags packed, it's a trek up the Trefil Mountains

to create the epic journey to one of the oldest locations used on Doctor Who, Stonehenge.

To get there, Matt, Karen and Alex have to take a back seat

and let three lookalike stunt riders take up the reins.

I loved filming the horses - it made the whole thing more epic.

We wanted to give it this big adventure feel.

And we intercut it with these horse shots, which were River, the Doctor and Amy riding their horses along

which is technically quite difficult to achieve, mainly because

you can't have the real actors actually riding the horses.

You need to have stunt doubles, and stunt doubles never look like

the actors, they just look like people in wigs.

We shot some wide shots of the horses just riding along,

and tried to make those as dramatic and impressive as possible.

The trick of it really is to make sure that there's enough energy in the shot to take your eye away

from what the trick of it is, that they aren't really Matt and Karen riding those horses.

MUSIC: GALLOPING HOME

To find a stretch of land that a horse could run on,

and a car could drive next to it on a straight bit of road, was quite a difficult thing to do.

This is supposed to be ancient Earth, you know, the time of Stonehenge and the Romans.

Obviously we didn't want any pylons or cottages or any buildings in the background at all.

With the stunt riders making sure the filming didn't fall at the first fence,

it's time for the actors to mount up and face a few hurdles of their own.

We got Matt and Karen and Alex on the back of a truck, and made them do sort of horsy positions.

It kills your thighs!

For camera they want you to sort of go quicker and faster,

but you have to think about the horse, and how the horse rolls.

It doesn't just go like that.

I had to pretend to be riding a horse on this seat on the back of a truck.

And then they drove the truck and I just had pretend that I was on the horse.

Toby kind of demonstrated the bouncing action that he wanted me to do.

A bit faster. As if it's going "Brrm-ba-dum, brrrm-ba-dum."

And then he said,

"Oh, do a serious look, as if you're kind of on a mission."

And then one where I was having the time of my life, and then another one where

I wasn't quite in control because I don't think Amy has ever ridden.

That's possibly one of the strangest things I've ever done.

Matt looked ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous!

He really went for it, though, I'll give him that.

Hilarious, what a funny little gesture.

He probably worked harder than Alex and I.

It's a little bit undignified. I didn't realise how undignified

it looked until he did it, so I'm quite glad I went first.

We just shook the camera around a bit, and cut it all together,

and it looked like they were riding horses.

It's quite hard work. Look, I'm puffed out.

You're sort of having to use your legs,

like this. I feel a bit of a berk doing it.

It's a shame we couldn't ride a proper horse.

Hopefully, it'll look good. The magic of film, you see?

I'm going to go and keel over in the mud or something.

Hya, come on! Hya! Hya! Hya!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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