Behind the Scenes of The End of Time (Part 3)
The other End of Time sets in this series are here [1], [2]
Excerpts from Benjamin Cook’s article in DWM #417
David Tennant is knelt on the floor of the Gate Room, surrounded by shattered stunt glass. His face is bruised and bloodied. His suit is torn. And he’s playing snooker on his iPhone. What better way to unwind after plummeting from a spaceship, through a glass roof?
This is the scene in which the Doctor rescues Wilf from the locked booth, sacrificing himself in the process. (DWM gets a text from Russell T Davies: “Make him knock three times. That’ll throw ‘em.”) As a fierce red light fills the booth, the Doctor writhes with agony, wracked with pain. “Sit… roll over… good boy,” says Bernard. Well, it’s only a rehearsal.
[…] “It’s a good scene, isn’t it?” agrees Bernard. ”Someone said, ‘It’s Wilfred who’s the nemesis of the Doctor.’ Well, not exactly, because I’ve gone in the booth to save someone else, and then the Doctor saves me. It’s so understated, in a way. That’s the nice thing about it. It’s not great histrionics and leaping about. The Doctor says, ‘It’s started,’ and Wilf’s line is ‘Oh’ - a very small ‘Oh’. And the little hug.”
For one take, Euros asks Bernard to keep his eyes open. The director watches on a monitor, with DWM sitting at his side. Bernard is crying. In the studio, you could hear a proverbial pin drop.
[after filming the regeneration the day before]
"He’s taller than I expected," considers John Simm.
"Is he? I thought he was shorter," says Russell T Davies. "I just couldn’t get over seeing another actor in David’s suit."
Yes, in the Gate Room, everyone’s talking about it. Well, regenerations don’t come along every day.
Otherwise, it’s business as usual. Outside in the Upper Boat car park, David is hanging over the edge of a crash mat, on a five-foot metal rostrum, with a revolver in his right hand and a wind machine blasting his face. This is the first of many close-ups of him falling from the Hesperus. ”Sorry, I’m drooling,” he says, mid-take.
[…] ”Do you think this is how they do Superman?” replies David. ”Exactly the same, yeah?”
Euros smiles. ”Supergirl, maybe.”
The rest of the behind-the-scenes photosets are available here