At Darren's World of Entertainment - a movie, DVD and game review blog.
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At the Lords of Time convention in Auckland on Saturday, Paul McGann was given a brand new sonic screwdriver.
It came after his original sonic screwdriver from the series was stolen by thieves while he was on a train.
Big Finish executive producer Nicholas Briggs collected the Sonic from WETA in Wellington and presented it to Paul on stage at the Lords of Time. Nick also revealed he'd had to fight to get it through customs in his hand luggage and had been stopped at the airport because of it.
It's fair to say Nicholas Briggs has had a life long association with Doctor Who. A fan who wrote and performed in his own stories, he went on to be heavily involved as the executive producer of Big Finish,who produce (rather excellent) monthly Doctor Who audios. He's also the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen in the new series post 2005. And this weekend, he makes his TV debut as an Ice Warrior....
It's a very iconic role you have in Doctor Who - how did you get involved in it all?
The whole thing....?
You're a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the show....
That's the first part of the answer, yes. When I left drama school, my career didn't immediately take off - and if you don't get that immediate boost, you're in trouble really. So, that's what happened with me. I got involved with some Doctor Who fans doing Dr Who audio plays for fun, for nothing and I got cast as the Doctor. Then I started writing, got interested in sound design and stuff like that and that love stayed with me even after all that. It was Gary Russell, who ended up being producer of the Audio Visuals range, said to me "Wouldn't it be brilliant if we could do this and have a licence from the BBC?" To cut an extremely long story short, that actually happened. It's because of my work as the Daleks in the Big Finish plays that I got to be in the TV series. Because Russell used to listen to the plays - he may even have been a subscriber I think (Subscribers do get more at BigFinish.com.....)
You are living the ultimate fan boy dream, really, aren't you working in something you always loved?
I was saying to the guys in the car earlier to Colin and Sylv, I feel a little bit like Guy from Galaxy Quest who's really just a fan of the series and who's just an extra and then he starts hanging out with the real people - that's what I feel like sitting in a panel in front of the press with three Doctor Whos, you know? Then there's just me, a fan giving his opinions and I think: "Should I be here?"
Do you have trouble reigning the fanboy in at times?
I suppose I get moments of it; but the thing is, because my role as executive producer is as well as trying to make it as creative as possible, there's a good deal of organisational stuff involved in it. I'm thinking of schedules, worrying about contracts etc etc - all that kind of grown up dull stuff, that dampens your fan gene getting too excited. But there are all sorts of moments where I go "Oooooh, this is good." I just have an instinct for what is good Doctor Who and I'm a great believer in following your instincts if you possibly can. If people like what you produce, then you're doing the right job. Rather than doing market research. Just follow your gut instincts - and if not, go and get another job!
The Daleks and Cybermen are evolving in the TV series - have you found that a challenge to try different things with them?
Russell T Davies encouraged me the night before the TV series filming to push the envelope as far as I could with them. He said that they knew I could do the classic Dalek voice, but give us something more. So they've been more expressive from the start. I was then involved in the formulation of the Cyberman voice and we've done a new one for the new series but I don't know how that's going to come out. The one piece of direction we received on one bit of paper was "The new Cyberman voice must be scary", which the sound director read out to me over the phone. So we went ok and into the studio we went and did six or seven versions of each of the lines. They don't speak much but I can't tell you how they will sound. That's been fun, though.
Are you still enjoying being involved in the convention circuit?
I'm no kind of martyr and all my life I've only pursued things I wanted to do and that has meant that I've been extremely poor for most of my life! Luckily I stuck with Doctor Who because it was the thing I loved and it's borne some fruits. If I didn't like it, I would have been gone. I wouldn't drag myself into work to direct a Dr Who play if I hated it. I wouldn't come to a convention if I hated the idea of it. As it goes on, I enjoy it more and more and I become more comfortable being in the fan public eye. It's wonderful actually, many actors dream of fame and want to be known by everyone and being in the position I am with Doctor Who I don't experience that much fame because people don't know my face. When I'm at a convention, people know my face but when I walk out, I get that anonymity. It's a wonderful escape. What would it be like if everyone knew me...it would be intolerable.
Do you not have the desire to stand on the street and shout "Exterminate"?
No! It's nice not to be recognised but the recognition within the contained area of the convention is wonderful because it's great to chat to people there. Because Doctor Who fans are only rotten to you on the internet!
Is it like going on tour with these guys? They have great camaraderie...
This is the first time I've done this - I know Colin and Sylv have great camaraderie - and Paul and Sylv know each other, but Colin's not worked with Paul before but they're all getting on beautifully. I've never done before a series of conventions all within a couple of weeks and we're all getting on fine, I think. They're a real laugh to be with.
How do you get into the mindset of the Daleks and Cybermen?
As I've said before, acting is acting is acting and even if you're playing a nasty little blob inside a pepperpot, you have to think about its motivation, what it feels, what it wants to do - you get into the zone and find the rage and anger. That's what makes dictators and fascists - so, you pretend you are that and suspend your disbelief. There's obviously some facility that puts a lock on that or otherwise, as you say I'd just start rampaging around the set or in the street! That's how I do it, with acting!
The show hits 50 years this year - as a young fan, did you ever imagine it would get to that?
No, I remember buying the making of Doctor Who in 1971 or 1972 - a book with Jon Pertwee and a Sea Devil on the front. I remember them going on about how Dr Who was 8 years old and that just seemed like a massive amount of time! Then it was 10 years, 20 years.....I suppose it's inevitable if Doctor Who goes away in a couple of years (and I see no reason why it should) it's going to be one of those things like James Bond and Sherlock Holmes which always comes back and gets reinvented. The concept has got legs... It's an Odyssey story, an Odyssey with a man with insatiable curiosity whose Achilles Heel is to intervene in other people's affairs, with that set up, that could just go on forever.
Big Finish covers so many stories, with so many ranges, how do you keep the surprises coming?
It's quite difficult to find people who can write really well. There's no shortage of people who want to do it, there's a huge shortage of people who can do it well. It's difficult - and do it the way I want, David wants or Alan Barnes. I'm humbled by some of the amazing abilities of our writers like Matt Fitton, John Dorney, Eddie Robson - you know, people who can do great stuff.
Can you tell us if you have any involvement in the 50th on the TV side?
Well, I'm not aware of any involvement for me...yeah, you're looking at me as if to say "You're spinning me a yarn there" - Look into my eyes - that is the truth. I only know what you know from the internet and papers. The only thing I know about the 50th is Light at the End, the Big Finish release that I wrote and directed.
Just talking of Light At the End, can you give us some teases?
It involves the first eight Doctors and the Master. I resisted doing it for a long time because I thought to do a multi Doctor thing was just the obvious thing, but I think I've found a way of doing it which is not the obvious way. I can't spoil it - stuff happens. I try to do lots of different styles of Doctor Who story in it; you've got out and out adventure; you've got mystery and kind of sinister stuff, you've got space stuff and you've got Time Lord stuff. There are lots of different styles of Doctor Who in it - I put into it my love of Doctor Who and every aspect I love. The obvious thing to do is a multi Doctor story and for the TV, maybe that wasn't what they wanted to do. We ended up doing this because we didn't think it would be possible because we didn't think that Tom Baker would do that - and then Tom Baker asked if we were going to do it. "Can I do something with the other guys" he said and we thought, let's see if they want to do it, and they were all up for it when we asked them. David Richardson and John Dorney came up with a really loose outline of the kind of thing it could be and I suddenly said "Ah yes, I can do something with that."
Colin Baker is in town for the Lords of Time convention in Auckland and was kind enough to spend some of his time having a chat with me about the show.
Colin, you've had a long association with the show and it's clearly something which you hold very dear. Do you think it's fair to say it's the fans who've kept you going?
Yes, it's true actually. The fans have kept the show going, certainly in the times that it was off our screens in the 90s until its return in 2005. Big Finish as well as we were doing it on audio and the fans really bought into that as well and I think that was part of what convinced the BBC that it was a programme which was worth bringing back. Any programme that's off the air for over 14 years and is still popular, must have something potent going on.
What was it that tempted you back - you were after all, treated pretty appallingly at the time by the BBC and now you're in the bosom of the show; you're president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, you're active with the Big Finish audios, you're here at conventions. I've never seen you turn down any time with fans - but you didn't have to do all that though, did you?
No, but if I didn't do it I'd be punishing people who had nothing to do my being treated, as you so generously say badly, that was two or three people at the BBC at the time who didn't like the programme or who perhaps didn't like me. It would be unkind of me to attach the fans to that because they've always been very supportive. And I love the programme. It's not the programme's fault.
You're doing a lot of conventions for the show's 50th year - are you still enjoying it?
Yeah, it's a way of paying back people, I suppose. We are uniquely privileged as actors - the job we do is appreciated long beyond our completion of it. If a guy makes you a chair, you say thanks and pay him. 10 years later, you're not inviting him around to dinner and thanking him for his wonderful chair, are you? We as actors in a programme like Doctor Who, we're being thanked for our chair over and over again. It would be churlish for us not to respond to those thanks.
You have a great camaraderie with Sylvester and the other Doctors?
All actors are like that. Our common language is taking the mickey out of each other - like any workplace; you get any group of guys who work together for any amount of time, they will find their own way of communicating to each other. Which is usually, taking the mickey, which is what we do. Obviously we never worked together obviously but we meet at these events and we've all been uniquely privileged to have played this part and it gives us a common bond. And humour is always present, isn't it?
You say you've never worked together, but we will hear you all together later this year in the Big Finish release Light At The End. How was that?
Whether Nick (Briggs) precluded me from saying anything or not, I've forgotten! I recorded my contribution separately - we weren't all together when we did it so we did it in bits and pieces because getting all of us in at the same time...the joy of audio is that you can edit it. Doing those stories is great fun. I look just the same audio; a bit slimmer in fact and my hair is still blonde and curly. And the monsters are still scary and the girls are still beautiful.
What is the appeal of continuing to do Big Finish?
Precisely that - the monsters are still scary and the girls are still gorgeous, you don't have to learn the script. And the scripts are very, very good. If you're writing for audio, it's much easier to write huge and far fetched stories as no-one has to imagine them visually.
You knew the longevity of this show when you got involved in it as well?
Yeah, and I'm very proud. Things happening for it - today, here we are in New Zealand and we're going to the Mint where they're going to show us coins with our likenesses on. In England, our likenesses are on postage stamps! The only living people who've had that are the Queen, the Beatles and Gold Medal Athletes from the last Olympics. How could one not be proud to be associated with this show?
The inevitable question on everyone's lips at the moment is your involvement in the 50th....
We're in New Zealand now as we speak and they're filming now. So you can draw your own conclusions...
Could filming have been done before you came here?
Could have done, but didn't......
Colin Baker is a guest at the Lords of Time convention in Auckland on Saturday April 13th. For more details, visit the Lords of Time site quickly....!
Lords of Time Doctor Who convention press conference
As we gear up for the Lords of Time Doctor Who convention in Auckland tomorrow, the press was given some time with the stars of the show who are over in the city of Sails for the event.
Doctors Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and voice of the Daleks and Cybermen (as well as Big Finish executive producer) Nicholas Briggs all sat down for a press conference earlier today.
Below are a heap of pictures from the press conference - and there will be a fair few more coming over the weekend from the event itself. Plus over the next few days, there will be interviews with Sixth Doctor Colin Baker and Big Finish's Nicholas Briggs.
"Four stars of long-running BBC TV series Doctor Who have arrived in Auckland ahead of tomorrow's special convention, celebrating the show's 50th anniversary.
Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, Seventh Doctor and Hobbit star Sylvester McCoy, Eighth Doctor Paul McGann and voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, Nicholas Briggs are all in town for the Lords of Time convention at Auckland Girls Grammar School tomorrow.
Fifth Doctor Peter Davison is due to be at the convention this weekend as the show marks its 50th anniversary.
At a press conference in Auckland today, the four actors were on jovial form as they readied themselves for the masses of fans which will swamp to the one day event, run by the organisers of the Armageddon Expo series.
The actors admitted they'd learned this morning that New Zealand was the first country in the world to begin showing the BBC Doctor Who series after it premiered in the UK in 1963. Transmission started here in September 1964, beating Canada and Australia by several months and there has been an enthusiastic Kiwi fan base ever since.
All four of the actors talked of their love for the series, which has seen them involved in conventions worldwide and a continuing series of radio dramas. Executive producer of the Big Finish audio range of Dr Who stories, Nicholas Briggs said the series remained so phenomenally popular "because it's an Odyssey type story" with one man "whose Achilles' heel is that he always interferes." Sixth Doctor Colin Baker believed the show would live in forever because of the way it garnered new fans. He says people now watch and claim the show as their own. "That's my Doctor - and once that ball is rolling, it's hard to stop" said Baker.
The actors were this afternoon immortalised in coin form at the New Zealand Mint - something which seventh Doctor and Hobbit star Sylvester McCoy claimed was "amazing". His character from the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has already been immortalised in a stand in New Zealand.
The show celebrates its 50th anniversary in the UK on November 23rd."
