\u201cOne more?\u201d 31-year-old Ncuti Gatwa asks the director, a few seconds after flinging himself around a purpose-built set with the kind of speed and energy you\u2019d usually see from an Olympic gymnast. It\u2019s not the first take he has filmed; in fact, he has been barrelling around, fleeing monsters and bouncing off walls all day and must be exhausted. But such are the breaks of being the Doctor \u2013 especially when time is running out.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s July 2023 in Bad Wolf Studios, Cardiff, and as Radio Times<\/strong> looks on, there\u2019s a certain tension in the air. After eight months of filming the series, cast and crew are tired. The days are long and there are limited shooting days left to get everything in the bag before filming wraps up for this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this final block there is no more time,\u201d says director Jamie Donoughue during a brief break. \u201cThe directors of previous episodes, if they had little bits to pick up, they could have jumped on with one of our shoots. But once we finish shooting, we finish shooting. We really are up against it. There\u2019s huge pressure, but that\u2019s what I love.\u201d<\/p>\n The two-part conclusion, penned by showrunner Russell T Davies \u2013 starting with The Legend of Ruby Sunday and concluding next week with Empire of Death \u2013 isn\u2019t just the end of Gatwa\u2019s first season. It also puts a cap on the first year of Doctor Who\u2019s big new gamble, teaming up with streaming partners Disney Plus<\/a> to turn the show into the kind of big-budget, international crossover hit it has always felt a hair\u2019s breadth away from being.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to end on a bang like we\u2019ve never seen,\u201d says Donoughue. \u201cThis finale is like a huge feature film. I think a lot of people are going to be shocked \u2013 if I can pull it off. Hopefully, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, we\u2019re about to find out. This week, after six episodes of wild adventures through time and space, Gatwa\u2019s Doctor and best pal Ruby (Millie Gibson) land the TARDIS on present-day Earth, determined to solve the mystery of the strange woman who keeps appearing in the background of their adventures.<\/p>\n Played by actress Susan Twist<\/a>, she has appeared in every episode thus far in a small (and different) role \u2013 but now she\u2019s centre stage, this time as a shady tech billionaire called Susan Triad. But is she friend or foe? And what does any of this have to do with Ruby\u2019s long-lost mother<\/a>, who abandoned her 18 years ago?<\/p>\n \u201cI know all of Ruby\u2019s secrets!\u201d 19-year-old Gibson, tells RT<\/strong> a year later. \u201cRuby goes through a tricky arc. She breaks your heart a little bit. I obviously know how it ends in this season \u2013 but I don\u2019t know how it ends next season.\u201d<\/p> The rest of the cast and crew also remain tight-lipped \u2013 after all, in a series built on surprises and cliffhangers, secrecy is paramount. \u201cThere was an action scene where prop guns were used and fake bullets,\u201d offers 15-year-old guest star Lenny Rush<\/a>, who plays Morris, a new scientist among the Doctor\u2019s old friends at UNIT (the Unified Intelligence Taskforce). \u201cThat was such a cool experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you nothing!\u201d laughs returning 1980s companion Bonnie Langford<\/a>, now teaming up with Gatwa and Gibson for this latest adventure \u2013 the \u2018Three Amigos in Space\u2019, as she describes them. \u201cI get to ride a Vespa through London. That\u2019s about it.\u201d<\/p>\n On set, only specially approved members of the crew with colour-coded lanyards are allowed to take photos. Everyone working on the show has also been warned of fans (some of whom have stood watching public filming for 12 hours at a time) developing clever tricks to talk information out of them. Codenames have been used to protect the identity of the episode\u2019s villains.<\/p>\n While watching filming, we\u2019re also sworn to secrecy \u2013 one jaw-dropping set we explore is completely off-limits for discussion. Another set we visit \u2013 dubbed \u2018The Time Window\u2019 \u2013 plays a key role in the final episodes and speaks to the new scale of the show and its expanded budget. It\u2019s a huge facility full of buttons, levers and screens (many of which actually work), all looking out over\u2026 well, we can\u2019t tell you that. But it\u2019s impressive, and still probably the most humdrum bit of design in a finale full of huge builds.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in the TARDIS,\u201d laughs Langford recalling her first stint on the show back in 1986, \u201cwe had paper plates on the wall and a hat stand! Yes, it\u2019s on a grand scale. Yes, we\u2019ve moved on. Yes, the world has changed \u2013 but Doctor Who hasn\u2019t lost the essence of what it was. I think it\u2019s just moved with the times.\u201d<\/p>\n And this finale is just the beginning. Gatwa is back in the TARDIS at Christmas (with guest star Nicola Coughlan<\/a>) and then accompanied by Gibson and new co-star Varada Sethu<\/a> for a second season of adventures next year, which have already been filmed.<\/p>\n On another set visit some months later, we glimpse whole new worlds, spaceships and buildings being constructed from plywood at vast scale. By now, those sets will have already been completed, painted, filmed on and dismantled. The march of Doctor Who\u2019s expensive new era continues.<\/p>\n But for now, cast and crew wait with bated breath to see how viewers react when all their top-secret filming is finally aired to the world. \u201cOh my God, the fans who love to pick out every single detail are going to have a field day,\u201d says Gibson. \u201cThey\u2019re going to rewatch and rewatch and find something new. Even I do that. When we were filming, we were like: \u2018Oh, that\u2019s what that was for!’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s jam-packed,\u201d Gatwa adds. \u201cRussell is so great at creating a world.\u201d We\u2019ll all just have to wait and see whether his Doctor had enough time \u2013 and takes \u2013 to save it.<\/p>\n![\"Bonnie](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/480156-78b4a0c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"480156,Doctor")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Jemma](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/480141-a094cfe.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"480141,Doctor")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>