Father Time: "Set Visit" (short story)

This text was published on the BBC website at the time of Father Time's publication, the link to the text still exists at BBC.co.uk Father Time feature however the link is no longer active, the text below has been retrieved from an archive and reproduced here.

Father Time: "Set Visit" by Lance Parkin
Paul McGann looks up from the plastic cup of coffee. 'Only at the BBC would you film a scene set in the middle of winter in July. Still, at least it's warm.'

We're up a hill on a winding road, two or three miles outside the Derbyshire town of Buxton, which is doubling as the fictional town of Greyfrith, one of the principal locations of the new Doctor Who story, Doctor Who - Father Time, the opening story of the 2001 season. McGann, starting his fifth year as the Doctor, looks relaxed. 'Not much for me to do tonight,' he explains, 'just save the world and dodge the missiles that are being fired at me.'

Around us, three or four dozen special effects guys are laying down salt and foam to simulate the thick snow that the script requires. Thanks to the magic of TV, they only need to do this for a small section of the road - Computer graphics, or CG, will be used to transform the green fields of the Pennine hill farms into a winter scene.

Today, they are filming a sequence that involves McGann and his co-star Minnie Driver (Debbie) in a car chase. The thing is, there's no sign of whatever's chasing them. I ask one of the production assistants, and she tells me that will be another job for the computer graphics department.

I'm left none the wiser, but the presence of so many pyrotechnics experts suggests that whatever else happens in Father Time, there will be a lot of explosions. For a start, it looks like a Ford Cortina doesn't make it - I watch (from a safe distance, of course) as the car is packed full of explosives and the special effects boys carefully lay out track leading right through the crash barrier at the edge of the road.

McGann and Driver go off to run through their lines, so I take the opportunity to talk to the scriptwriter, Lance Parkin. So ... what's going on? 'This takes place towards the end of part one. The Doctor and Debbie are trying to escape the baddy in Debbie's Ford Cortina.'

What's the baddy called, and why is he chasing them? 'He's angry because he blames the Doctor for the destruction of his civilisation. He's called Mr Gibson.' Will that change in post-production? 'Er ... no. He's called Mr Gibson because he wants to blend in on Earth.'

William Goldman said that one's first visit to a film set is one of the most exciting experiences of your life, but the second is one of the most boring.

This is my first visit to a location shoot, and so I'm struck by just how many people it takes to bring the Doctor to the screen. 'Oh yes,' Parkin agrees. 'Look around, there are a hundred people here, easily, and that's just tonight. It's great as a writer - I just put "the car careers around the corner, explosions going off around it", but it's not my job to bring all that to life. Just as well! What can look quite flat and routine on the page will explode off the screen. You can't do a car chase in words, it's the combination of the camerawork and the editing and the music that makes it. I just don't think Doctor Who could work in any other medium.'

It's hard to believe that there used to be Doctor Who stories without car chases, now, isn't it? Parkin agrees. 'Back when Paul's first episode was broadcast, there was an outcry. But then again, the same fans objected to just an innocent kiss and in this story, the Doctor - ' before he can finish the sentence, the director calls him away to discuss a dialogue change.

The costumes require a particular mention. 'The Doctor himself has a New Romantic look,' the costume designer explains. 'No eyeshadow or warpaint, of course, but he looks very Vivienne Westwood. Earlier on in the story he has a gorgeous frock coat. Debbie is far more dowdy by comparison: we've chosen rather unflattering jumpers and corduroy trousers.' And Mr Gibson? The costume designer smiles. 'You'll have to wait and see,' she says enigmatically.

As you may be able to tell from the description of the costumes, Father Time is set in the nineteen-eighties. Since last year's 'Doctor Who and the Burning', the Doctor has lived for eighty years on Earth, forming a new life and new relationships.

So far, the stories have emphasised the Doctor's isolation, as he's gradually come to realise that he's not like the people around him. But in this story, we may be seeing the Doctor in a new role - as the title suggests, that of a father.

While there is little evidence from the scenes filmed tonight that the Doctor has settled down to become a family man, no doubt there will be some surprises in store when the first episode of Father Time is broadcast on BBC1 on the fifteenth of January. The novelisation of the story, also written by Lance Parkin, will be released on the same day, priced £5.99.

With many thanks to Lance Parkin.

CULT NOTE: We'd just like to point out that this article is an affectionate "What if..." visit to what would be the set if the new adventures were being filmed. Which they're not. So the article above isn't real. It's completely fictitious. Like not real.