Tom Macrae Interview: Episode Ten, the Crash of the Elysium and the Scariness of Doctor Who

Hello. Tom Macrae, the writer of Episode Ten, was recently interviewed by the Telegraph. In it, he talks about the episode he's writing for Series Six and the upcoming stage show, the Crash of the Elysium. You can read the whole interview here and thanks to The Whoniverse Blog for the heads up. Here it is:

When asked about how he got into writing Doctor Who:

I’ve been associated with the show since Christopher Eccleston started doing it. I got that because Russell T Davies had mentored me when I was first starting out in an unofficial way. He was hugely influential on me, and used to script-edit my stuff. I’m not trained at all - I have no qualifications in writing.

When Doctor Who came back I was thrilled but I never thought he’d ask me to do it. When he did, I was completely blown away. I went from writing characters of roughly the same age as me to doing the Cybermen. It was incredible and the biggest learning curve you could ever imagine.

When asked about writing an episode for Series Six:

I’ve written episode 10 which I think is my most accomplished piece of plotting ever. There’s a break in the series, so it will be coming out later. What’s interesting is that the requirements of the script meant that for various reasons nothing has gone out about it at all. We didn’t do much location filming, and the way the guest characters work is unusual, so no one knows anything about my episode.

There’s speculation about it which is wrong - some bright spark has put the title of the episode on IMDB as The Green Anchor - it has never been called that! I’m amazed we’ve kept it this secret because there’s a really big surprise in it. All I will say is that it’s an unusual episode and it’s really great.

When asked about the series being too scary:

I don’t think it’s scarier than it’s ever been. I think it has always been scary. It’s in HD now. Maybe that makes a difference. Maybe you’re able to show things you couldn’t before. But the scariest things were always shadows, taps on the window - the show has always done that.

I know when I was a kid - and Sylvester McCoy was my Doctor - it scared me. I look back on it now and it’s laughable - it’s hard if you ask an adult what they think, they’ll always have a view that isn’t the kids’ view. Matt Smith is incredibly funny as the Doctor - there are lots of daffy things going on. I don’t think it changes as much as people think it does.

When asked about the Crash of the Elysium:

In the tradition of the best Doctor Who the premise of what needs to happen is clearly outlined in the first couple of scenes, where it’s established what’s going on and what the kids have to do. They then go on a mission that requires them to head into this labyrinth of wonder we’ve created.

It’s not like The Crystal Maze - if they want to interrogate the adults they meet we have, over months of careful planning, created a watertight story about what’s going on. But the instruction to the actors is - here’s the information, if the kids ask you questions you’ve got everything you need. If all they want to do is press the buttons let them do that!

Finally, when asked about the age limit for the show:

I’ve read huge outrage online about people not being able to see it because they’re too old. What I like about this is that where there’s an age limit usually it’s about excluding younger kids. What we’ve done is said: if you’re too old to believe in Father Christmas, you’re too old for this show - not because it’s simplistic but because you’ll spoil it for the kids.

If we say that we’ve sent you back in time, and there’s a dinosaur round the corner, when you’re 14, you can play along with that - but you know it isn’t really happening. If you’re six, as far as you’re concerned that dinosaur is real. There could be a version for teenagers - but if we did that, we’d have to make it scarier and teens are very quick to be too cool for stuff.

With thanks to the Whoniverse Blog and the Telegraph for notifying me and for the interview.