Modern Series Episode 113:
Listen

Plot

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...

Production

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.

Sources
  • 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.

Original Transmission
Date 13th Sep 2014
Time 7.31pm
Duration 47'50"
Viewers (more) 7.0m (7th)
· BBC1/HD 7.0m
· iPlayer 480k
Appreciation 82%


Cast
The Doctor
Peter Capaldi (bio)
Clara
Jenna Coleman (bio)
Danny Pink
Samuel Anderson (bio)
(more)
Rupert Pink
Remi Gooding
Reg
Robert Goodman
Figure
Kiran Shah


Crew
Written by
Steven Moffat (bio)
Directed by
Douglas Mackinnon (bio)
(more)

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

Updated 8th December 2022