“She’s given a whole generation of young girls and women a chance to feel that they are the Doctor”

On Monday a feature-length Doctor Who special marks the last adventure for Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, who must fight for her very existence, against her deadliest enemies: the Daleks, the Cybermen and her arch-nemesis, the Master.

Who is attacking a speeding bullet train on the edges of a distant galaxy? Why are seismologists going missing from 21st century Earth? Who is defacing some of history’s most iconic paintings? Why is a Dalek trying to make contact with the Doctor? And just what hold does the mesmeric Rasputin have over Tsar Nicholas in 1916 Russia?

The Doctor faces multiple threats… and a battle to the death.

Outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall has given a Q+A as part of a press kit.

Can you tell us what audiences can expect from this special?

CC: You can expect a massive all action thrill ride from start to finish. There will be laughter, there will be huge jeopardy, and there will be tears at the departure of the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s the biggest threat the Doctor has ever faced – and that any Doctor has ever faced – to their life or lives.

Can you talk a bit about the process in putting this feature length episode together? What did you finally set out to achieve?

CC: It’s a particularly unique brief and a particularly unique episode because it’s a regeneration episode, but it’s also a celebratory episode for the BBC centenary and Doctor Who’s place within the BBC. So I really wanted to ensure that it had sufficient scale, but also that it was connected into the past, present, and future of Doctor Who.

We’re bringing back characters like Tegan and Ace, also there are lots and lots of easter eggs. Some are visual, some are verbal, some are so deeply buried that only few people will recognise them! But there are so many references to the past of Doctor Who in there that it’s got its own crazy movie length identity for the BBC centenary, whilst also saying goodbye to a very beloved Doctor.

We’ve got some exciting returnees such as Sacha Dhawan, Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding. How was it having those conversations?

CC: One of the great joys are always the phone calls to people who’ve been in the show, or who might want to be in the show, and telling them what you think the story is how it’s going to play out and asking them back. So the calls to Janet and Sophie were wonderful and were incredibly emotional. They were amazing and thrilled and throughout the whole process have just been extraordinary.

It’s important to take a moment to praise their sheer bravery and guts – to come back to something you have not done in twenty or thirty years is incredible. To step onto a set where you don’t know anybody but to be going back to a world you thought you left behind is really extraordinary. And they are so amazing in the episode. It’s a delight to see them amidst modern Doctor Who. So that was fantastic.

We talked about where we collectively thought their characters would be now. I really wanted them to feel comfortable with what had happened in the gap between when we’d last seen those characters on screen and where we meet them here. It’s lightly sketched in, but it’s really important for them as performers and for those characters.

What do you think Jodie’s impact has been during her time as the Doctor?

CC: She changed the game. She changed history in terms of Doctor Who. I think what she’s brought is a Doctor who is full of hope, and positivity and generosity and I think that these times really needed that. I think she’s shown off her incredible sort of clowning side, the humour that she can do, which maybe some people didn’t know her for beforehand. I think she’s enriched the character of the Doctor, as all actors who play the Doctor do, but it’s an incredibly bold and brave performance.

And she took responsibility for the Doctor being a woman, she took it on her shoulders and represented and that was not a given, that was her strength and decision and power. I think she has been utterly magnificent, she exceeded all of our expectations. She’s given a whole generation of young girls and women a chance to feel that they are the Doctor also and that was always the purpose from the start of this era, was to really widen that net.

Jodie Whittaker also gave an interview.

Can you tell us about the atmosphere on set during those final scenes?

JW: IEveryone was wonderful. On my last day there were last scenes with Yaz and the Doctor on the TARDIS but I got in a bit before Mandip to start filming. I was wondering where everyone was, but they got me on set and the cast and crew had lined up and were clapped me and I obviously lost it there. Then we did it for Mandip and I was crying more than her!

Jen, who was our third AD, had stepped up to step in as the first (AD) that last few days. She said ‘So this is the final time I’m going to call ‘Rehearsal in the TARDIS’ and I lost it. We shot the last moment and it was one take and once the camera team were happy, I could see everyone nodding and making eye-contact and my bottom lip went and I knew it was the end. It was just (the challenge of) being able to articulate to everyone what you think of them. It’s not just Mandip, not just the cast, it’s all the phenomenal people you get to work with. It’s lifelong friendships that have been forged in four years and we’ve had the time of our lives and survived a pandemic! At the beginning of our work, we had to be all separate and then at the end, we could all come together. It felt particularly emotional because of where we were at.

What will you miss most about being the Doctor?

JW: I’m not a method actor, I don’t stay in character between scenes, but I spent a lot of time before I played the Doctor doing quite emotionally traumatised roles. I’ve played people who lost children, people whose husband had been disabled, things where characters were on the brink a lot of the time. They were major events that I can’t understand, so a lot of the time at work you are always on the moment of devastation. A lot of the time for me filming was amazing and fun to do, but you are always on the brink of upset. (With Doctor Who)

There were four seasons, there was heartbreak, there was fear and there was loss, but my overriding emotion was excitement. I felt like the over-riding thing the Doctor brought was curiosity and excitement. Obviously fear, rage and all those things, but the thing that encapsulated my Doctor the most was that bouncing into things, and that really fed into my evening and my weekend and my year. I was very half-full all day every day, so it bleeds into life. I’m not someone who sits in character all weekend but you do realise how much that emotional trauma leaves you on the edge of upset when you’ve been doing it for 12 hour days. You don’t quite let it go at the end of the day, without realising. So the reason I can gush so much about this job is because it wasn’t just happiness on set, it fed into everything. I feel like it’s knocked 15 years off me because I’ve been so energised because I had to be at work that it fed outwards and I’ll miss the energy of the Doctor.

7:30pm Monday on ABC TV Plus and earlier on iview.