INTERVIEW BY BENJAMIN COOK
It’s been quite a year for Rachel Talalay. Few directors could have taken on three consecutive episodes of Doctor Who, but she did – the first person to tackle such a challenge since Toby Haynes in 2010/11. “When I was very tired in post-production, the editor reminded me that it was like I’d shot three feature films in an eight-month period,” says Rachel, with a laugh. “So I was allowed to be tired.” But it’s meant spending most of 2017 in the UK – where she misses her family, who are back home in Canada. “That’s been tough,” she says. “It’s always tough being away.” ou might have thought that having signed up to direct Series 10’s two-part finale,World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, Rachel would have turned down the 2017 Christmas Special, Twice Upon a Time, so she could take a job closer to home. But she points out that this was showrunner Steven Moffat’s final episode. And executive producer Brian Minchin’s. And Peter Capaldi’s, of course.
“They made it clear to me how much they wanted me to do Christmas,” says Rachel, “to complete the whole story, and Steven and Brian said they’d do anything to make that work. And I had huge support from them.” Still, the production schedule was gruelling. “What was really difficult was trying to finish the finale, because I was shooting Christmas the week those episodes aired, and we were still making last-minute changes. It worried me a bit, because we were so rushed. And I was nervous because, to me, my pinnacle is Heaven Sent [2015]. I can never top that, in my head.”