Breaking the Silence Doctor Who Confidential

-Who and what are you?

-Silence, Doctor.

We are The Silence.

The Silence has been heard.

And it's left the Doctor Who crew fleeing...

and frozen.

As the team battle the most mind-bending monster ever imagined.

They edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away.

-The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything.

-What a monster! Look at them!

I think that these are the scariest monsters ever.

Whoa. Argh!

Welcome to the desert.

The Doctor Who crew are in Utah

to film the dramatic opening of episode two.

We've got a race through the desert,

Amy's shot, Rory's shot, River jumps off a building

and the Doctor is trapped in a cube he can't escape from.

The beginning of Episode Two, I think, is the most exciting opening

for an episode that we've had.

It just kind of bursts onto the screen.

Amy's running for her life in the desert.

We'll see if we can get the timing a little tighter.

We're setting up a shot where Karen will run down the hill towards us.

Then we have a car in hot pursuit.

We're going to shoot up against the sun.

We're in the desert and it's going to feel dangerous.

# Cos I've always stayed too long

# Long enough for something to go wrong... #

First shot of the day.

I'm feeling pretty out of breath, as you can see. Yeah, it was basically just running for my life.

It's the altitude which is why I'm out of breath. So, that's why.

It's not me being unfit at all!

# I got my peeps standing with me shouting pull up your socks

# Cos we just broke the law and now we're running from cops

# I got my lip bust fighting Now there's blood on my top

# And I'm still out looking for a party, somewhere to stop

# I got my peeps them telling me they know where it's at

# So I pull out 20 notes and jump straight into a cab

# I'm on my way to where I'm going Thinking I need more Jack

# But that probably ain't the brightest idea I've ever had. #

That was such a fun scene to shoot. It was all like, "Miss Pond, Canton."

-Canton.

-Miss Pond.

-Is that a body bag?

-Yes, it is.

-It's empty.

-How about that?

So he's gone to the dark side but then, as it turns out, he actually hasn't.

But just dramatically I think it was really fun

'that he's bad for that scene.'

To shoot Rory's chase, the Doctor Who crew are working "dam" hard

in another breathtaking location,

the Glen Canyon, to get the final American shots in the can.

When he comes back in, drift in sooner

so you're closer to him, so the move in is only just a small drift in.

I think that the scale and ambition of this series

is just huge, and to be able to go to a location

where it's all there for you and it is just massive...

If you run up to me... You look and we'll look with him.

There's a shot where I look down

and I could see Marcus,

the producer, just going, "Oh, don't, don't."

Because I kept running up to it.

Could you get a message through to Arthur

to give me a good four-beat look ever the edge, if he doesn't mind?

And tell him not to throw himself at the wall.

It doesn't matter at this distance. I'd hate to be filming his death.

-Action!

-Action!

'You don't have use your imagination very much to act

'in a situation like that.

'It's all there for you. You just look over that big sweeping drop.

'It was a nice way to finish our stuff that we did in America.'

-What are you waiting for?

-I'm waiting for you to run.

It'd look better if I shot you while you're running.

Then again...

looks aren't everything.

OK, cut there. That's a wrap, everybody. Well done. Well done.

That's good stuff. It's a wrap in America.

-It is a wrap on Dr Who in America!

-Woo!

-Thank you.

Back on home soil.

A children's orphanage is about to petrify the Pond.

# Words like violence

# Break the silence

# Can't you understand Oh, my little girl?

# All I ever wanted

# All I ever needed

# Is here in my arms

# Words are very

# Unnecessary

# They can only do harm. #

See the craziness in those eyes?

My office is this way.

Today we are filming a scene with Dr Renfrew, me and Canton.

Basically we are discovering this old orphanage

and there's writing all over the walls

and it's horrible cos it looks like blood.

It's the kids, yeah? They do that?

Yes, the children. It must be.

Yes.

We're discovering this is the place we've been looking for. And it's all very creepy.

What a monster! Look at them! Whoa! Cool.

I wanted to suggest we've all got a latent memory of The Silence,

all that we have all seen them many times but we've forgotten them but they've imprinted.

So the painting The Scream is a bit like the Silent,

our notion of what aliens might look like is a bit like the Silent.

That is hideous!

-Can you actually see anything?

-Look at your sinister walk!

Normally I'm taller than the monsters, but now I'm like, "Urgh!"

So they're just more intimidating and just hideous looking.

That's...

I think this is the scariest monster.

The man who played one of The Silence, was really amazing.

He's so tall, he's like 6 foot 7 or something. He was fantastic.

As soon as he got on to set, he was he was reading in the lines.

He won't actually do the voice, but he was so into it.

He was like, "OK, what do you need me to do?" And he was like, "Amelia!"

Your mind is weak. You have been here many days.

He was just great with all the movement, cos he's a dancer.

Do a funky robot, go on.

-They remind me of a 2009 Karen Gillan.

-Oh, my God!

-Before she lost it all.

-2009 Karen Gillan!

My head is nowhere near that bulbous.

-It is quite sort of cone-y.

-All right, it's round, I'll give you that.

Like the moon.

Now, for eagle-eyed viewers, a familiar-looking spaceship

makes a reappearance.

This is the first time we come back onto the Silence base ship

which people should recognise from the episode called The Lodger.

What?!

What?

So we bought the set back but I wanted to adapt it,

make it feel more evil and the bad guy base.

It's alien and feels serious and scary in some way.

We'll strap Amy into this chair here

and have a bright light coming down and that's where The Silence have been keeping her.

Stop, get off me! No!

'My throne, it's great. There are some lights underneath and a hole in it'

so it feels like an elaborate toilet.

And to break The Silence, the Doctor uses one of the most incredible moments in human history.

Now then, a bit of history for you. Aren't you proud? Because you helped!

Do you know how many people are watching right now, live on the telly? Half a billion.

Every single one of them at some point in their lives will look back

at this man taking that very first step

and they will never, ever forget it.

If you're going to send a subliminal message in one piece of footage

you would put it in the middle of that clip.

'One giant leap for mankind...'

And one whacking great kick up the backside for The Silence!

You just raised an army against yourself.

Everybody has seen that footage. Everyone alive.

Very few things you can say that of.

So, The Silence has been silenced.

But there are still a few things to clear up.

At the end of episode two, we are left with a few questions

such as what is going on with Amy? Is she pregnant, is she not?

What is going to happen to the Doctor

-because we've seen him die.

-Who's killed him?

Who's the girl?

Why is she regenerating?

Who is River Song and what part does she play in the Doctor's future?

Will we get to the heart of that relationship?

You're going to learn some very critical information about River.

You know what they say. There's a first time for everything.

And a last time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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