DOCTOR WHO IS BACK – AND THIS TIME IT’S TAKING OVER THE PLANET

WORDS: DARREN SCOTT

THE GLOBAL LAUNCH OF DOCTOR Who has been rumbling along for quite some time. Today it’s mid-March and SFX is in yet another fancy London hotel (no biscuits, tell the Mouse) to catch up with showrunner Russell T Davies and lead cast Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. It’s a busy week of international press for the team – something that’s only going to get bigger in the build up to 11 May and simultaneous broadcast in nearly 250 countries at the same time. No pressure. An exciting new era awaits…

First of all, can we please put the tabloid rumours about Millie to bed?

RTD: Not leaving. Not at all. We were ordered for two years of a series off Disney, and we’re delivering two years, and the Ruby Sunday story literally spans those two years. We are planning [to] shoot the [season two] finale in which Ruby has the most magnificent scenes, and Millie, it’s some of your most challenging material yet, isn’t it? It will all make sense once you see it play out. It’s very unfortunate that these things make the papers. We’re in a very difficult position, because you can’t answer rumour, you can’t speak to rumour, we can’t try and pin it down because the internet will just run away and will either misinterpret or will decide that the Princess of Wales has been replaced by four cats in a wig.

Filming on Whoproper gets off to a good start.

So it’s that you cannot begin to answer this sort of stuff. But you will see the love that we have for Millie and the extraordinary stories that Ruby’s about to go on over the next two years. I guarantee you that.

That is a problem with shooting the second series while you’re still doing the first series. All sorts of problems can happen that way that we saw coming, but what do we do? Stop shooting? No. We’re making such a good show. I’m burning for people to see the story of Ruby Sunday. It’s amazing and has so much mileage in it. And it’s still burning. It’s wonderful. I can’t wait for you to see it.

Millie and Ncuti – you said you didn’t think being Ruby and the Doctor would sink in until the Christmas episode went out. Did that happen?

MG: Yeah, definitely.

NG: Yeah! It feels good that it’s out there. People have gotten a chance to get to know us a little bit. It definitely was like it calmed both of our nerves though. Like, “it works” and it looks amazing. But of course, obviously we had Russell’s writing. So that was always going to be the case, but yeah, it calmed us down. It is slightly amping up again now with the series about to drop.

MG: That’s how I feel. That’s why it’s weird to answer this question, because I already feel the same as when you last asked me!

RTD: Is the feeling coming back?

MG: Just the anticipation. We want to get to that level of the same love that the Christmas episode had. This series will get a lot of love, but yeah, it’s almost pressure to fill the shoes of the Christmas one now!

RTD: You can never relax, can you? That was so successful. The fear is, how do we keep being successful for eight episodes in a row? It is a worry, but the worry makes it good. I really believe that. That’s why everyone, every designer, every runner on that set, every costumer, every wig maker works hard because they’re worried about it being good.