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Doctor Who: The Shooting Scripts (Doctor Who (BBC Hardcover))

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Dr. Who is Forty (actually he's 900, but like the Doctor, the show had been around in one form or another since 1964). During March and through June the BBC celebrated by bringing the show back to television for its 27th season (or as it is more consistently called: SEASON ONE)in a glossy, fast-paced enough to satisfy contemporary audiences, while still conscious of its roots. This hardback book contains all 13 season one scripts for the 2005 rebirth of the longest running sci-fi series in TV history. Seven of these scripts are by Russell T. Davies, with the remaining 6 by Steven Moffat, Robert Shearman, Paul Cornell and Mark Gatiss. Each provides an insightful intro for their scripts revealing their inspirations and changes they had to make to bringing the stories to screen. These writers clearly have a respect and understanding of the UK icon, which evident in Davies' final remarks:

"There are some people in the TV industry who have asked archly, why I'm now writing genre, instead of drama. Obviously, they've never watch a single episode of Doctor Who. It's the best drama in the world."

Doctor Who has always has a voice defined by the decade each in tune with its era and this holds true to the new Doctor Who. This Doctor is almost child-like in his enthusiasm and wonder. Featuring the Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston, infusing the character with great humanity, while remaining mysterious and alien, along with his companion Rose played by Billie Piper, growing from an awed slacker to a seasoned space adventurer. However, the format of the show has changed to 45 min. parts, some ending with cliffhangers, some without. It contains explanatory notes on the scriptwriting process, giving a unique insight into how the writers visualized their stories and OVER a THOUSAND PHOTOS from the 2005 season. This book has an attractive cover and interior graphics are nice. But MORE importantly the collection gives fans an insider's look at how the show works. But. EVEN more importantly, with the absence of the old Target Books episode by episode TV-tie-ins, this is the one of the few ways for AMERICAN fans see the NEW SERIES before the region 1 DVD release (watch AMAZON.CO.CA in February

The First story: "ROSE" introduces Rose Tyler who is attacked by mannequins (or AUTONS) in the department store where she works. She meets the Doctor and the pair end up fighting to save the world.

DOCTOR: Hello Rose Tyler, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

Next in "THE END of the WORLD" The Doctor offers Rose a chance to go anyplace, anytime, they end up in the 5 Billion years in the future above the Earth just before it ends. But someone has sabotaged observation satellite they're on. . . .Rose finds the aliens on board, so alien, she then asks the Doctor who he is...

DOCTOR: This is who I am, right here, RIGHT NOW! All that
counts is here and now and this is me!


In "THE UNQUIET DEAD" The DOCTOR and ROSE Travel back to see Charles Dickens, a ghostly apparition and an investigation leading to a undertaker's office where the dead keep getting out of their coffins. Once Dickens becomes involved and the Doctor gushes...

DOCTOR: Charles Dickens! You're Brilliant, you are!
Completely 100% brilliant! I've read'em all!....I'M YOUR
NUMBER ONE FAN, that's me!


In the "ALIENS of LONDON" The Doctor takes Rose home (mistakenly) 12 months later. We learn what happens back home when a companion up and leaves with the Doctor. The pair deal with Rose's Mum, who thought she was dead, and the ex-boyfriend who has been the main suspect. But when a spaceship crashes in the Thames, the whole world goes on Red Alert.
In "WORLD WAR III" the "Aliens of London" continues...

DOCTOR: This is why I travel, ... to see history happening, right in front of us.

In "DALEK" Beneath the Salt Plains of Utah, the billionaire collector Henry Van Statten holds the last relic of an alien race and the one living exhibit in the museum is a....you know what.

DOCTOR: An, Old enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old.


In "THE LONG GAME" the Doctor takes another new compainon to the far future...

DOCTOR: Thing is...time travel, it's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you've got to throw yourself into it, eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers, ... stop asking questions and do it!

In episode 8, FATHER'S DAY, The Doctor takes Rose back in time to meet her long-dead Father, but the Tylers finds themselves battling the Reapers.

DOCTOR: Your wish is my command. But be careful what you wish for...


In the 9th episode, THE EMPTY CHILD. Its London, 1941, the Blitz. A mysterious child terroises Homeless children in this 2 part storyline.The Empty Child story continues in The DOCTOR DANCES. The Child's plague is spreading throughout wartime London, and so is its zombie army. Spin-off character Capt. Jack Harkness is introduced...

ROSE: You used to be a Time Agent, now you're some kind
of freelancer.

JACK: That's a little harsh- I prefer to think of myself
as a criminal.

In episode 11, BOOM TOWN a plan to build a nuclear power station in Cardiff City disguises an alien plot to rip the world apart and a returning villain...

MARGARET: What did I ever do to you?

DOCTOR: You tried to kill me and destroy this entire planet.

MARGARET: Apart from that?


In the 12th episode, BAD WOLF, the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack have to fight for their lives on board the Game Station, in the season finale, THE PARTING of the WAYS, Rose Tyler has seen danger and wonders alongside the Doctor, but now their friendship is put to the test and the Doctor says goodbye...sort of...
DOCTOR: ROSE...you were FANTASTIC. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC...and'd you know what? SO WAS I.

This book is a great resource for the first series of new Doctor Who starring Christopher Ecclestone. It includes the shooting scripts for all 13 episodes so some scenes aired are in a different order or are shorter than in the script book but the scripts are essentially what was aired on screen. Each script is accompanied by a short editorial by the scriptwriter and excellent selection of photos from the aired episode. If you want to explore television script format or follow the script while watching your DVDs, this is the book for you. A must for Doctor Who fans!

Shooting scripts, plus nice pictures plus episode commentary.

Very well put together.

Doctor Who is back! Unfortunately, we will have to wait for the video version to be shown on our American television screens (or even released on Region 1 DVDs). But in the meantime we have this WONDERFUL book to see us through. All thirteen adventures of the Ninth Doctor Who are represented here in script form from "ROSE" to "THE PARTING OF THE WAYS" and each script is peppered with a generous serving of excellent photographs from the show to help the reader visualize what is going on.
The book is easy to read and well worth the price. If you are a Doctor Who fan, you can't afford to pass this little gem up.

Lets keep it simple. This book is good for a book of scripts. If you like Doctor Who or would like a book on a TV show scripts this is the book for you.

This book is a wonderful, oversized hardcover, giving the fans a detailed "behind the scenes" look by presenting the scripts to all episodes of the first season/series.

There's a funny Foreword by Russel T. Davies, which I recommed people resist the urge to skip. :)

An intro by script editor Helen Raynor, clarifies just what version of the scripts we're getting:

" Is THIS the 'definitive' script? Yes! But wouldn't it be boring if we published that? So, the scripts published here are the Final Shooting Scripts. Scripts as they were when filming had finished, but before the episodes went into the edit."

A short 'Script Notes' page gives definitiions for various terminology found in the scripts. Not all of us know what "OOV" and "BCU" mean, so that was helpful! :D

All the scripts have a whole page introduction/explanation(by whatever person wrote that script), and each script is illustrated by good quality screencaps and various other images.

All in all, I'd recommend this to those Doctor Who fans who want to know more about their favorite show.

One of the (many) major problems with the new Doctor Who is that there are no Target novelisations of the episodes... The shooting Scripts comes close, although it has very little extra content like the old Target books did.
The Shooting Scripts is well put together for the most part, instead of direct photocopies of the actual script pages, the stories are placed in the book in a more reader friendly format with several color pictures from the series placed on virtually every page. Actor direction is still present in a slightly simplified form, but notes, rewrites, and omitted scenes have been purged. This is the only downfall in what could have been a perfect book.
As expected, there are some notes by the people involved at the beginning of select stories. They are not very detailed and reveal nothing that hasn't already been said about the new series. If you are already a fan then you aren't really going to learn anything new.
The scripts themselves are rather simple. Russel T. Davies writing style is truly that of a First Drafter. Most of the time you get the sense that he typed it up from beginning to end without even considering the idea of giving the work a second look. If he did, it was only with spell checker on his computer. I think we were all too blown away and excited by Doctor Who being back at the time that we didn't notice the plot holes and (honestly) sometimes lame direction that Davies was taking the new show in.
That said, most of the scripts read like classic Dr. Who during the Peter Davison and Sylvester Mc Coy years. Take out the loud thumping music and the video filters put on in post production and it would be just like old Dr. Who... and this is where the book comes in very handy. During the first two "new seasons" of the series, the music and sound effects made it nearly impossible to make out some of the dialouge. With this you can read what you missed every time the show got to be too loud and impressed with itself.
Yes it was big, brash,and bold, which was fine, but it was also very hard to hear what the actors were saying. Especially bad is Billie Piper, who mumbles many of her lines, and seems to be the only person in her family with a thick lazy accent. In the second season she has even more trouble forming words and making them pass over her huge cow fat injected lips, sometimes becoming totally inaudible. Too bad the TARDIS can't translate her for us! Unforunately, this book only covers the first season, so unless there is a volume 2 published, many lines of dialouge will never be known.
Of great importance in this book is the study value. Many fans of the series were indifferent on the doctor-companion relationship, as well as the ending kiss. It isn't a running theme through the first season scripts and is tacked on at the end for what can only be called shock value. I believe that if Russel T. Davies wasn't a first draft script writer, he would have removed or rewritten many scenes and plot points in his scripts, and we would have gotten a much better and evenly paced Doctor Who.
This downfall in his writing ability, brought on I assume by his bloated ego or belief that every word he types is brilliant because nobody in production will say otherwise, has brought about some of the most lame, unbelievable, and downright rediculous plot points ever seen on television. Season two we have a Doctor Who love story with one of the most annoying endings ever. Season three had an ending that was totally embarassing. And in season four he gave Billy Piper her own Doctor Who action figure to play with and the TARDIS becomes a tow truck.
There are several reasons why this is important in a review of the first season shooting scripts. First off, Davies wrongly believed he had to top the first seasons ending by making the next one even bigger and more dramatic. Not a good idea for a first drafter! In reading the scripts it appears that he simply ran out of time or effort to close the first series properly, especially with Christopher Eccleston leaving the title role. The Daleks, who managed to wipe out Gallifrey and every planet in between, are totally defeated in the span of three minutes by this bleach blonde with some absorbed Tardis energy. Wow... Try not to think about this ending too hard, but didn't the timelords have millions of time capsules and billions of people? Couldn't one of them come up with the idea of looking into a "tardis heart" and wipe out the daleks a long frickin time ago? As I said, plot holes and poor writing.
This isn't to say that the other scripts are poor, in fact much of Davies writing is very good, so long as it's not a continuing plot line that carries over into other episodes or a major plot point that builds to the season ending.
The other writers from the first season are much more polised and deliver more complete scripts. Steven Moffat, assuming that he has to work around Davies' dangling plot threads, constantly comes up with fantastic scripts. The exception being the fourth season two parter which was written around a big name guest star and had yet another love intrest for the doctor.
Sadly, after four and a half years the series appears to be on an unreversible downward spiral, locked into love stories featuring companions with lovey-dovey eyes and those bigger than life endings that turn out to be total garbage and a direct insult to the viewers. Now they've hired a much younger man (Matt Smith) to play the lead role and it truly can only get worse. With this book one can see where it went right and where the seeds of the current state of Doctor Who were planted. There's also a brief glimpse into what might have been if there had been some reigns placed on Russel T. Davies.
It's stated in the book that the new series was approved sight unseen. The BBC allocated a budget and gave full approval without a pilot or even a draft script. Without Russel T. Davies the series could have been a total disaster so we do have him to thank for that. On the other hand the BBC should have put people who weren't fans of Davies (or butt-kissers) in the positions of script editor, producer, and executive producer. What we would have gotten was a far more balanced show and a lot less of the crap. It could have been a series that would stand on its own and continue on it's merits rather than relying on it's long and great history and loyal fans who will continue to watch regardless of how stinky it is.

A nicely presented book, but at the end of the day it's essentially just what you've already seen on the tv screen. However if you want to dip in and learn how to structure a script i'm sure it gives good information. It's interesting though to see how everything is put together.