The Doctor's Companion Blog

With my new persona as a Dr Who Blogger, what I really need to do, I decided, is a bit of research.  So I have had a very pleasant time over the past few days, re-reading one of my very favourite Doctor Who books, Doctor Who – The Inside Story: The Official Guide to Series 1 and 2 by Gary Russell.

This nice thing about the whole Doctor Who experience, is that so much information is available about the making of the program and all the different people who make it what it is – one the of the best programs on British television.  This book also takes us behind the scenes and introduces us to all sorts of people.

It starts with an introduction from David Tennant himself, a general introduction about the series, and then looks at the process of bringing back Doctor Who, from periodic pitches made by Russell T Davies in the 1990′s, through to Lorraine Heggessey and Jane Trantor making the decision to bring it back and then how the various key people were put in place.

First to be installed were the triumvirate of executive producers –  Russell T Davies as showrunner, Julie Gardner in charge of sorting everything, and Phil Collinson, in charge of making it all run smoothly and to budget.

Then we look at the casting of the major characters, then the various key people involved in the production of the series.  The two costumer designers, Lucinda Wright (series one) and Louise Page (series two), and the various makeup artists (including Sheelagh Wells (formerly of the classic series).  The Mill in charge of CGI, Neil Gorton of Millennium FX in charge of prosthetic costumes, Mike Tucker (another of the few from the classic series) determined to do as much of the modelling as he can, and the wonderful art department headed by Edward Thomas.

Then there are the writers, and the scriptwriters (including a very interesting interview with Helen Raynor, now  a regular writer who hopefully will also be writing for series 5), all very important.  The wonderful music from Murray Gold, Paul McFadden doing the sound, and Tim Ricketts mixing it all up at the end. The book also touches on the various directors, although they are discussed more in the episode descriptions.

I would like to have heard a bit from the photography and lighting people (particuarly Ernie Vincze), and also from the other special effects people (i.e. those in charge of explosions), but all in all it is a fascinating insight into the making of a TV series.

The second part of the book is an episode by episode description of all the episodes in series one and two, plus a peek into the (then) future by looking at the Catherine Tate Christmas episode and the start of series three.  Gary Russell tends to concentrate on the more technical aspects, but that is great as we would not be able to find that information out otherwise.

I really enjoyed reading this book again, and would like to see something similar for series three and four.  And of course for series five, under the new administration …