Modern Series Episode 113:
Listen
Could a creature evolve that hid itself so perfectly, no one ever knew
it existed? Could it be the reason we speak aloud when we think we're
alone? Is it why sometimes, when we wake in the night in an empty room,
we still feel an eerie presence? Driven to answer these questions, the
Doctor connects Clara to the TARDIS telepathic circuits in order to
travel back to a time when she believed there was a monster under her
bed. But Clara is preoccupied with her disastrous first date with Danny
Pink, and so she instead catapults them from an orphanage in the
mid-Nineties to a capsule stranded at the very end of time...
By the time Steven Moffat reached his fourth season as Doctor
Who's executive producer, he was beginning to chafe at some of the
constraints associated with his job. Amongst them was the fact that,
although he got to write several adventures every year, they were almost
always pivotal episodes with expansive plots and outsized budgets. A
part of Moffat yearned for the days when he had the opportunity to write
small, economical narratives like his acclaimed 2007 story Blink. As such, he became determined to
allocate himself just such a script during Season Thirty-Four. It would
allow him to further explore the character of the recently-introduced
Twelfth Doctor, while progressing the relationship between Clara Oswald
and her new boyfriend, Danny Pink.
One of Moffat's starting points was the question of how the Doctor
occupied his time when he was alone. This was now more pertinent than in
years past, because Moffat had decided that Clara would not take up
residence in the TARDIS, unlike most of the Doctor's previous
companions. Another was a conversation with his fellow executive
producer, Brian Minchin, about what could be done with sound in
Doctor Who. This inspired the notion of a story about a monster
which was never actually seen by the viewer, but was exclusively
presented through the Doctor's perception of it. Moffat also recalled a
dream he once had, in which his leg had been grabbed by some unseen
entity, prompting an exploration of the universality of such a fear.
Production designer Michael Pickwoad observed that the
barn set from The Day Of The Doctor was
still in storage
Moffat began writing his script -- ultimately entitled Listen --
during December 2013. His first draft was completed on January 29th,
2014. At this stage, the Doctor's musings about the nature of the
putative creature did not take place in the TARDIS, but rather in the
Fifty Room, a Victorian library which housed the most dangerous texts in
human history. The setting for the latter stages of the narrative was
not yet defined to be the barn visited by the War Doctor in the
fiftieth-anniversary special, The Day Of The
Doctor. This change was made when production designer Michael
Pickwoad observed that the set had been retained, and was still in
storage. Only added in post-production was Clara's reference to the boy
returning to the barn on a day when he would be very afraid.
Listen was to be the fourth adventure of Season Thirty-Four and
was paired with episode five, Time
Heist, as the year's second production block. The director would
be Douglas Mackinnon, who had last made Cold
War for Season Thirty-Three; keen to achieve an appropriate
atmosphere, he spent considerable time reviewing various ghost stories.
Moffat had always intended that Orson Pink would be portrayed by Samuel
Anderson, the actor playing Danny throughout the season. However,
Anderson himself did not learn of the plan until the day of the
readthrough, forcing him to quickly familiarise himself with Orson's
sequences while travelling on the train to Cardiff.
The first four filming days for Listen -- February 17th to
20th -- were based at The Rest, a former nursing home in Porthcawl which
now lay vacant. It was chiefly used as the West Country Children's Home
where the Doctor and Clara met Rupert. On the first day, however,
Mackinnon recorded the sequences from the start of the story where
sleepers awoke in the night, and shots of various children insisting
that their experience was only a dream. On the second day, plate shots
were taken of the nearby coastline, which would help represent the
surface of the planet on which the time travellers found Orson. The week
wrapped up at Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff, where February 21st saw the
cameras rolling on the standing TARDIS set.
After the weekend, February 24th and 25th took Mackinnon's team to
Mimosa, a restaurant on Cardiff Bay, which was the venue for Clara and
Danny's abortive dinner date. Part of the second day was also spent
recording the extras who were playing the restaurant patrons; it was now
their turn to state that “it's just a dream”. February 26th
to 28th took cast and crew back to Roath Lock, where the set for Orson's
capsule was the principal focus. The shot of the Doctor sitting atop the
TARDIS was part of the first day's itinerary. Much of the last day was
spent back in the console room, while the effects shot of Clara looking
out on the planet's surface was also captured.
Mackinnon then began to turn his attention to Time Heist; over the next week and a half,
only March 4th involved work on Listen. Taking place at Roath
Lock, this included more material in the TARDIS alongside various
inserts and effects shots. Then, on the 14th, sequences in Danny's house
were filmed in the studio. Listen featured more regularly in the
recording schedule for the following week. On March 17th, further TARDIS
scenes were taped at Roath Lock. The 18th saw a blue screen erected at
Cardiff's Bute Park for Orson's return home, the Doctor on the African
veldt, and an insert at the orphanage. March 19th and 20th were both
spent in the studio, with the set for Clara's flat in use on the first
day, and the barn on the second day. Playing the boy in the barn was
Michael Jones, who had been cast because it was felt that he resembled a
photograph of the First Doctor, William Hartnell, at a similar age.
Orson's departure from his own time was then staged at Uskmouth Power
Station in Newport on the 21st.
A few outstanding TARDIS sequences were completed at Roath Lock on March
24th, alongside a number of pick-up shots. Finally, more inserts were
filmed at the studio on May 6th, and at Park Davies on Pontypool's
Mamhilad Park Industrial Estate on July 21st. In post-production, only
minimal edits were necessary following the decision to allocate
Listen a fifty-minute timeslot for its broadcast on September
13th.
- The Doctor Who Companion -- The Twelfth Doctor: Volume One,
June 2019, “Listen” by Andrew Pixley, Panini UK Ltd.
- Doctor Who: The Complete History #77, 2016, “Story 245:
Listen”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
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Original Transmission
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Date |
13th Sep 2014 |
Time |
7.31pm |
Duration |
47'50" |
· BBC1/HD |
7.0m |
Appreciation |
82% |
Cast
The Doctor |
Peter Capaldi (bio) |
Clara |
Jenna Coleman (bio) |
Danny Pink |
Samuel Anderson (bio) |
Rupert Pink |
Remi Gooding |
Reg |
Robert Goodman |
Figure |
Kiran Shah |
Crew
Written by |
Steven Moffat (bio) |
Directed by |
Douglas Mackinnon (bio) |
|
Producer |
Peter Bennett |
Stunt Coordinator |
Crispin Layfield |
Stunt Performer |
Robert Pavey |
1st Assistant Director |
Scott Bates |
2nd Assistant Director |
James DeHaviland |
3rd Assistant Director |
Danielle Richards |
Assistant Directors |
Gareth Jones |
Chris Thomas |
Location Manager |
Paul Davies |
Unit Manager |
Iestyn Hampson-Jones |
Production Manager |
Simon Morris |
Production Coordinator |
Adam Knopf |
Assistant Production Coordinator |
Sandra Cosfeld |
Production Assistants |
Matthew Jones |
Katie Player |
Assistant Accountant |
Bethan Griffiths |
Art Department Accountants |
Simon Wheeler |
Maria Hurley |
Script Supervisor |
Steve Walker |
Camera Operator |
Martin Stephens |
Focus Pullers |
Jonathan Vidgen |
Matthew Waving |
Grip |
John Robinson |
Camera Assistants |
Cai Thompson |
Katy Kardasz |
Gethin Williams |
Assistant Grip |
Sean Cronin |
Sound Maintenance Engineers |
Tam Shoring |
Christopher Goding |
Gaffer |
Mark Hutchings |
Best Boy |
Stephen Slocombe |
Electricians |
Gafin Riley |
Andy Gardiner |
Bob Milton |
Gareth Sheldon |
Supervising Art Director |
Paul Spriggs |
Art Director |
Vicki Stevenson |
Standby Art Director |
Jim McCallum |
Set Decorator |
Adrian Anscombe |
Production Buyer |
Holly Thurman |
Prop Buyers |
Donna Shakesheff |
Helen O'Leary |
Draughtspersons |
Kartik Nagar |
Julia Jones |
Prop Master |
Paul Smith |
Props Chargehand |
Kyle Belmont |
Standby Props |
Liam Collins |
Matt Ireland |
Set Dressers |
Jayne Davies |
Mike Elkins |
Jamie Farrell |
Storeman |
Jamie Southcott |
Assistant Storeman |
Ryan Milton |
Concept Artist |
Chris Lees |
Graphic Artist |
Christina Tom |
Standby Carpenter |
Paul Jones |
Standby Rigger |
Bryan Griffiths |
Practical Electrician |
Christian Davies |
Props Makers |
Alan Hardy |
Jamie Thomas |
Props Driver |
Gareth Fox |
Construction Manager |
Terry Horle |
Construction Chargehand |
Dean Tucker |
Carpenters |
John Sinnott |
Chris Daniels |
Lawrie Ferry |
Matt Ferry |
Julian Tucker |
Mark Painter |
Joe Painter |
Head Scenic Artist |
Clive Clarke |
Scenic Painters |
Steve Nelms |
Matt Weston |
Construction Driver |
Jonathan Tylke |
Costume Supervisor |
Claire Lynch |
Costume Assistants |
Katarina Cappellazzi |
Gemma Evans |
Charlotte Bestwick |
Make-up Supervisor |
Amy Riley |
Make-up Artists |
Ann Marie Williams |
Emma Cowen |
Unit Medic |
Glyn Evans |
Casting Associate |
Alice Purser |
Assistant Editors |
Katrina Aust |
Carmen Sanchez Roberts |
VFX Editor |
Joel Skinner |
Post Production Coordinator |
Samantha Price |
Dubbing Mixer |
Tim Ricketts |
ADR Editor |
Matthew Cox |
Dialogue Editor |
Darran Clement |
Effects Editor |
Harry Barnes |
Foley Editor |
Jamie Talbutt |
Graphics |
BBC Wales Graphics |
Title Concept |
Billy Hanshaw |
Online Editor |
Mark Hardyman |
Colourist |
Gareth Spensley |
With Thanks to |
the BBC National Orchestra of Wales |
Conducted & Orchestrated by |
Ben Foster |
Mixed by |
Jake Jackson |
Recorded by |
Gerry O'Riordan |
Original Theme Music |
Ron Grainer |
Casting Director |
Andy Pryor CDG |
Production Executive |
Julie Scott |
Script Editor |
David P Davis |
Post Production Supervisor |
Nerys Davies |
Production Accountant |
Jeff Dunn |
Sound Recordist |
Deian Llŷr Humphreys |
Costume Designer |
Howard Burden |
Make-up Designer |
Claire Pritchard-Jones |
Music |
Murray Gold |
Visual Effects |
Milk |
BBC Wales VFX |
Special Effects |
Real SFX |
Editor |
Selina MacArthur |
Production Designer |
Michael Pickwoad |
Director of Photography |
Suzie Lavelle |
Line Producer |
Tracie Simpson |
Executive Producers |
Steven Moffat (bio) |
Brian Minchin |
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