Bring on the Daleks!

Steven Moffat's episodes guides
Season 5 (2010) • Season 6 (2011) part 1 | part 2 • Season 7 (2012) • Season 8 (2014) • Season 9 (2015) • Season 10 (2017)

coverage of series 7, 2012-2013

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1. Bring on the Daleks! (1 September)
2. Doctor on 'Tops (8 September)
3. The Magnificent Three | letters (15 September)
4. (no article) (22 September)
5. Life after Amy (29 September) | letters (29 September) | Why I killed the Ponds (6 October) | letters (13 October) | letters (20 October)
6. My presents ... past & future (22 December)
7. Who's coming home (23 March) | Who's a clever boy, then? (30 March)
8. (no article) (6 April)
9. Why I wanted to bring back the Ice Warriors | letters (13 April)
10. (no article) (20 April)
11. Trashing the Tardis (27 April)
12. The Avenger Fights Back (4 May)
13. They're Back! (11 May)
14. Who is the Real Clara? (18 May)
15. He's my Doctor (21 December)

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coverage of other series
S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | Specials | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | S10

• http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/5/52/2012-09-01_Radio_Times.pdf
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• Publication: Radio Times
• Date: 2012-09-01
• Author: David Brown
• Page: 10
• Language: English

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill prepare to face their greatest fear...

MATT Some people say a Dalek is just a pepper pot moving around, but from my character's perspective, it's an alien psychopath trapped in a tank. Do you know what I mean? That's what's so scary - they're nuts and they're in a tank of armour with guns and lasers and suckers.

ARTHUR This script does make them really scary, but I got a lot of amusement from the times on set when they didn't have "the voice". The operators have to hang around the studio for hours, so they do chat to each other. It's as if when the Doctor's not there, they can talk normally, but then when he returns, it's like, "Oh God, he's here now, we'd better do the voice."

KAREN I did try to have a go inside one Dalek, but I almost broke it, so I had to leave it alone. It was really special and old.

MATT The one from 1963 is so cool. I did use the voice changer, which is brilliant. One of the Daleks that we used - a black one - actually belongs to Russell T Davies [Doctor Who's showrunner, 2005-2010].

The Ponds' days are numbered — feeling nervous?

ARTHUR The script read-through for episode five was emotional. I had my hand on Kazza's back, trying to help her get through it. But I didn't want the actors who'd come in for just one episode to think we were really self-indulgent because we were all crying. It must have been really weird for them.

KAREN To be honest, though, you'd have to be dead inside not to cry at it. Steven Moffat knows exactly what he's doing when he's tugging on the old heartstrings. I will miss filming the show, even the early starts and eating poached egg and grilled tomato at 6.30 in the morning. It helps to be in a good sleep pattern and routine but, you know, running away from aliens is something that's easy to get up for.

ARTHUR For the die-hard fans, there's a lot of exciting stuff in these episodes where I'm just thinking, "They're going to go nuts about this."

MATT For me, it's sad to see them go as I've developed such wonderful relationships with them both. But one has to embrace change on Doctor Who or it leaves you behind. Forward is the only way to look, really. KAREN After filming, though, I did take some binoculars from the Tardis set, so they're now mine. Nobody would have known if I hadn't jumped around straight afterwards and gone, "I've got the binoculars." My cover was blown in all the excitement.

ARTHUR I thought about stealing things just to make it a nightmare for continuity. Like the Tardis floor... D

KAREN And Arthur and I actually got the same leaving present, which was two massive pictures of ourselves. It's awkward because I don't know what to do with it. It kind of dominates a room.

Has your life really changed?

MATT Your life changes categorically when you join Doctor Who. I've tried to tell this to the new companion Jenna-Louise Coleman, but it's quite a hard thing to explain. Alex Kingston [who plays River Song] tried to explain it to me and Karen. We were in a restaurant in Cardiff a week before we started, and Alex said, "You have no idea, you two. You won't be able to sit in this restaurant in the same way, for a start."

KAREN She was sitting there shaking her head and we said, "What are you talking about?" Then it happened and now we definitely understand.

MATT It's just one of those things. Some bits are great and some bits are not so great. But that's how it goes. I enjoy playing the part and it's a product of being in the show. That's the deal.

KAREN I feel like I've grown up and that I can now handle situations a bit better because I'm a more assertive person. I'm starting to feel more like the person that I want to be.

And how is the new companion getting on?

MATT The show is so much about dealing with Steven's writing, having an instinct for the tone and pace. And Jenna nailed that tone of fear and adventure. We did the auditions down in the bowels of the BBC and it was meant to be top secret, which is ridiculous because we'd been going for four hours when we heard a cough behind a partition. And there was this security guard with his feet up and we said to him, "Man, do you know what this is?" And he was like, "What?" So it wasn't that secret. But I did phone the Daleks in and said, "I need a favour, boys..."

KAREN I've met Jenna and we get on really well. And I've been texting her bits and bobs about Matt, but what I wrote is a secret. That's the code of the companion. I didn't offer her any advice though because I want her to have the experience for herself. I didn't want to plant any preconceptions in her head.

So, what about the Doctor's 50th anniversary next year?

MATT We want to make it as big and bold and as brilliant as we can because, we hope, it can be one of the monumental bits of TV history But I doubt there'll be a regeneration...

KAREN I decided there'd be no cameo returns after I leave. I want the impact of the end of the Pond era to remain strong. I don't want to spoil it by coming back a few episodes later to say hello. ARTHUR Yeah, I like the idea of going out with a big bang and being able to say, 'Well, that was that." And then I can watch it in future without knowing what's going to happen.

MATT Steven will tease you all right to the end. Because that's what he does to me.

MATT Well, I thought my audition for Watson was very good. But clearly not good enough! Basically they looked at it and went, "He's not Watson. It'd be like having two Sherlocks in the room." But Martin Freeman was born to play that part. And rightly so, thank the stars. I wasn't destined for Watson - but I met Steven Moffat, who said: "He'd be quite a good Doctor Who..."

For Doctor Who stories, interviews, pictures and more, go to radiotimes.com/doctorwho

STEVEN MOFFAT'S GUIDE TO THE EPIC NEW EPISODES

1 ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS

Written by Steven Moffat

Exec producers Steven Moffat, Caroline Skinner

Directed by Nick Hurran

Guest stars: Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices), Anamaria Marinca (Darla), Naomi Ryan (Cassandra)

"Does It surprise you to know that the Daleks have a concept of beauty?" The Daleks are mad. That's what makes them unique among the Doctor's enemies. The others can be sinister or manipulative or plain evil a Dalek is a robot with anger problems, a tank that hates you, a killing machine driven by a ranting slug. What could be worse than that? Well, since you ask...

There Is a legend the Doctor has always dismissed as fantasy - there are stories from the darkest corners round the camp fire of a place called the Dalek Asylum: a planetoid that's been cracked open and filled with the battle-scarred, psychotic Daleks even the Daleks have come to fear.

A summons from the mysterious Darla Von Karlsen, and a plea to rescue her daughter, leads the Doctor, Amy and Rory into the deadliest adventure yet. Because the Dalek Asylum suddenly is much more than a myth or a story — it's their destination...

In all the time I've been working on Doctor Who, as writer and now executive producer, I've never got to write a Dalek story. Finally, I couldn't resist.

2 DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP

Written by Chris Chibnall

Directed by Saul Metzstein

Guest stars: Rupert Graves (Riddell), Mark Williams (Brian Williams) and David Bradley (Solomon)

"Enjoy your bounty."

There's a giant spacecraft plunging to Earth and all humanity is imperilled. But this is no ordinary space craft — for a start it's ancient. How ancient? The clue is in the cargo. After 65 and a half million years of extinction, the dinosaurs are coming back. All at once. In a spaceship!

In the race against time to save not just the human race but the last of the dinosaurs, the Doctor and the Ponds are forced to recruit a crack team: Queen Nefertiti, big-game hunter John Riddell — and Rory's dad!

I pitched this story to Chris Chibnall just as a title, and sat back, hoping he'd be impressed. He looked out the window for a bit and asked, "Could the Doctor ride a triceratops?"

Some people are never satisfied...

3 A TOWN CALLED MERCY

Written by Toby Whithouse

Directed by Saul Metzstein

Guest stars: Andrew Brooke (the Gunslinger), Ben Browder (Isaac) and Adrian Scarborough (Kahler Jex)

"Could everyone who's not an American drop their weapon!"

A tale of war, betrayal and vengeance, converging on one small town in the Old West — a town under siege. Just crossing the boundary line summons a not-quite-human killer from the desert heat haze. The Doctor finds himself not just in the crossfire of an ancient conflict (a cyborg killer and an alien fugitive) but faced with a moral dilemma. Which side should he take? Who really is the victim here? This time, though, the Doctor doesn't seem to care. Has the Time Lord been alone too long? Have the long days of travelling between his adventures with the Ponds taken their toll? Because for one of the few times in his long life, the Doctor takes a gun...

Like all the best westerns, this is a tale of one man standing against impossible odds and his own personal demons. And like all the best westerns, it was shot in Spain. And like all the best drama, it was written by Toby Whithouse.

4 THE POWER OF THREE

Written by Chris Chibnall

Directed by Douglas Mackinnon

Guest stars: Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Mark Williams (Brian Williams), Steven Berkoff (Shakri), Selva Rasalingam (Ranjit) and Alice O'Connell (Laura)

"The day the Earth got cubed. The year of the slow invasion. The time the Doctor came to stay." There have been many ways to invade the Earth, and the Doctor has seen them all. Or so he always thought — and then the human race wakes up one morning and discovers the world has been overrun by... small black cubes. Which then proceed to... do nothing much at all. A plan is afoot, humanity is endangered — but by what and how and, above all, when? For the first time in his world-saving career the Doctor has to call upon the least of his virtues: patience. And the Ponds face something possibly more terrifying than any world-ending apocalypse — the Doctor is moving in!

Not just a tale of alien intervention, this is also the story of a nice young couple who happen to have a bow-tied lunatic from space staying in their spare room. It's halfway between an alien invasion movie and The Man Who Came to Dinner.

5 THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Nick Hurran

Guest stars: Alex Kingston (River Song), Mike McShane (Grayle) and Rob David (Sam Garner)

"Never let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings." The Doctor has been dropping in on the Ponds

for some years now, and he's barely even noticed that his little Amelia Pond is now wearing reading glasses.

Surely nothing has to change now? Surely this can go on for ever? Has the wandering Time Lord at last found a family and the nearest thing to a home he could imagine? But out there in New York the Weeping Angels are waiting for them all, and a very different destiny is falling into place. Not even River Song can save them from the terrible events to come. Heartbreak is always a terrible thing. But imagine if you had two of them...

Captions:

BEHIND YOU! Amy (Karen Gillan), the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) face the Dalek Parliament

NEW COMPANION Jenna-Louise Coleman appears in the Christmas special and eight new episodes next spring

WAY-OUT WEST A cyborg Gunslinger (Andrew Brooke) brings havoc to A Town Called Mercy

Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org

• APA 6th ed.: Brown, David (2012-09-01). Bring on the Daleks!. Radio Times p. 10.
• MLA 7th ed.: Brown, David. "Bring on the Daleks!." Radio Times [add city] 2012-09-01, 10. Print.
• Chicago 15th ed.: Brown, David. "Bring on the Daleks!." Radio Times, edition, sec., 2012-09-01
• Turabian: Brown, David. "Bring on the Daleks!." Radio Times, 2012-09-01, section, 10 edition.
• Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Bring on the Daleks! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Bring_on_the_Daleks! | work=Radio Times | pages=10 | date=2012-09-01 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=30 April 2025 }}</ref>
• Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Bring on the Daleks! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Bring_on_the_Daleks! | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=30 April 2025}}</ref>