Script Doctors | Series 1 | Mark Gatiss
The writer of The Unquiet Dead, interviewed in late 2004 as the first season of Doctor Who was well into production.
So let's see - since DWM last spoke to you in late 2003, you've appeared in Nighty Night, written a novel, co-written and starred in the forthcoming movie of The League of Gentlemen, written an episode of Doctor Who, and now you're making the Radio 4 comedy series Nebulous... you're clearly someone who doesn't believe in being bone idle...
I never sleep! Well, it's slightly misleading, because a lot of things come out around the same time. The film and the book were kind of written in conjunction over the last eighteen months, and my Doctor Who I started at the beginning of 2004. Although I never had one as a child, I've now developed a work ethic, which my dad is very proud of. I used to be bone idle, but now I just don't think there's any time to waste. I am trying very hard not to do too much, because you can spread yourself too thin, but it's remarkable what you can get done... it's about time management, I suppose. Having said that, I'd quite like to do less next year...
You were, of course, interviewed in DWM about 18 months back...
There's nothing left to say!
...but almost to the day that the final part of that interview appeared, it was announced Doctor Who was coming back.
I know. Extraordinary, wasn't it?
Given that you had previously been trying to pitch your own version of Doctor Who to the BBC, has it been difficult to have to cope with someone else's take on it?
The wonderful thing about it was that there wasn't any sense of "Oh God, I wouldn't have done it like..." - and, to be honest, I'm hugely relieved not to have the responsibility! And I'm absolutely delighted that Russell and I are in complete synch in so many ways. What Russell's done, really, is take Doctor Who by the scruff of the neck. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a few old fans won't go along with it, but that's a very good thing, because to be a vibrant 21st century Saturday night programme, you cannot be in hock to your legacy. You don't want to cut your nose off to spite your face, but the ideal viewer for this show is a 10 year old kid who's never heard of Doctor Who, who says "I don't know what this is - but I love it!"
To take a sidestep - how did it come about that you wrote and presented one of the short extra features on the Green Death DVD?
I insisted! Paul Vanezis [one of the DVD content producers] introduced me to [former Doctor Who producer] Philip Hinchcliffe, and we all had lunch - I'm hoping to work with Philip on something soon - and literally at the end of it, Paul said to me "If you ever want to do any extras for a DVD, just let me know". So I asked what they were doing next, and he went through a list and came to The Green Death, and I said "That One!". By the time I got home, I'd come up with the idea of doing a spoof eco-programme, and then I though we could do a flashback to 1973, and it all just seemed to fall into place, so we did it. I'm delighted by how well it's gone down, everyone seems to recognise it as a complete labour of love - for which I've never been paid! They promised to pay me with a [giant] maggot, but I've never seen it...
Someone else, I forget who now, mentioned to me that they had got a maggot out of it...
Well, I haven't got my maggot. But I would do it again for nothing anyway, I loved doing it. The people making the DVD completely went along with me on my idea, God bless them, of making it a semi-sequel, and finding all the old guest stars like Tony Adams, Roy Evans and particularly Jerome Willis and Stewart Bevan, it was fantasic. The only thing I regret about it was that because of the necessity of the joke, I had to split up Cliff and Jo...
Katy Manning always insists Jo would have long since left Cliff anyway...
There was a version of the script where they were still together, and we nearly had Katy, which would have worked out. It was such a delight to do, particularly the Man Alive sequence - they really went out on a limb to make it look and sound just right.
Any plans for any more?
Yes - I'd like to do one, but I'm not sure what. My heart belongs to Pertwee obviously, but I don't want to just do more of the same. I've got an idea for something, but obviously it depends on when a given story is scheduled for release...
Steven Moffat, the writer of episodes 9 and 10, was adamant that despite the new spin on the core idea, he was never in any doubt that he was writing for the same show.
Oh God, yes! One thing that I think we've all experienced doing it is that we were coming to it as too much of a New Adventuresy thing, because the books had kept the Doctor Who flame alight for all those years. At second draft stage the story of my episode changed a lot, and the reason was that the first draft was far too grim. I can still hear myself saying to Russell "This story's about grief"! (Laughs) Of course it can be about grief or whatever, somewhere in there, but fundamentally it's got to be a good, scary, story. The episode has emerged as more of a romp than I thought it would, but it's more much serious than my other Doctor Whos.
Certainly both of your audio scripts for Big Finish, Phantasmagoria and Invaders From Mars, have been fun runarounds, almost just about basking in the fun of actually doing it...
And my Doctor Who episode is an ideal combination, for me, of that and of the approach I took with my first novel Nightshade - it's the most serious thing I've done since then. Nightshade, though, was very much of the New Adventures - one thing that Russell is absolutely brilliant on is the idea of attracting a passing crowd and making sure they stick with you, and in the best traditions of Doctor Who, any serious intent or big themes you want to bring, you have to smuggle in amongst the monsters and the characters and the dialogue. That is your guiding light - as Steve said, you're definitely still writing the same programme. In fact, it's much more like Doctor Who than Doctor Who itself was when it stopped in 1989.
So why do you think Russell got you involved in his new vision of the show?
All the writers on the show have had something to do with not letting Doctor Who die in the last fifteen years, but it's not just a question of rewarding patience or loyalty - we're all television professionals, although Rob is kind of newer in that field but nevertheless an award-winning playwright. It's not just about rewarding some fans who've managed to stay the course - I suppose he recognised in our other work elements he wanted to bring to the series. And, fundamentally, he just couldn't write a thirteen-part series on his own!
But an impartial observer might be forgiven for thinking he was making life difficult for himself by involving other 'professional fans', if I may use that phrase - they might very much have their own preconceptions to overcome.
But as Doctor Who always did, there's a house style - although from the beginning we, the writers, have been encouraged to do our own thing within that. It's been tough - I'm used to a massive amount of autonomy, and this is still a writing gig for someone else's show. It's a show we'd give our lives for, obviously, but it's still someone else's. The thing is to make sure that the stories that aren't by Russell don't stick out in a weird way, and aren't suddenly a different show. And, as you'll know, sometimes on the original show they'd go out on a limb and get in a writer who used to work on The Prisoner, and it would be full of wonderful ideas but be totally unworkable and Robert Holmes would have to rewrite it. So to some extent a large part of the job is about making sure it all works as a thirteen part season.
Having written Doctor Who stories in several media before, this must, nevertheless, have been a step up in terms of how the fan part of you responded to the call to work...?
Oh yes - I mean, I wouldn't not have done those books and audio stories. You might think that you'd wish you could have had the foresight to think "I'll not muddy the waters, I'll come to the TV show fresh" - but actually I wouldn't change those experiences, because I learnt a lot doing all of them, and had a great time. But I can't get away from the fact that the gig to write for the TV series - it was last Christmas - was the best present I've ever had! And it was incredibly daunting, and I know we all ran around like headless chickens for a while, and then realised we had to actually do it. And that was the most difficult part, the realisation that it wasn't a fantasy any more, and that it was "Go and do it!" - and it might be your only chance..
If there is a Season Two or even Three, would you do more, if asked?
Of course I would! Are you mad!? I don't want to be William Emms! But I must stress that after a while the thrill and joy has to be subsumed into the idea that you are doing to have to produce nine drafts of this and work very hard - but only to make it right, to make sure that when it goes out, you're proud that your Doctor Who story is the one you wanted it to be. My enthusiasm never diminished, I have to say - in fact, it increased, if anything, because I was determined that I'd fight for the things I believed in, and that it was going to be good and right.
How has it been a different job to, say, the recent remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), which you co-wrote an episode of with The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson?
Randall and Hopkirk was the only other time I've done something like this, and it wasn't a great experience. We did it because we wanted to write for 'Genre TV', but it was difficult. Essentially, it was difficult not to be in charge - you see something in your head that's not shared by the rest of the production, and ultimately it's not your call and you have to take a back seat, and I found that very frustrating, I have to say.
Did that help as a learning experience for Doctor Who, or were the two environments too different?
I would say - and I'm not just saying this - that I would never do it again, for anything other than Doctor Who, because I'm very lucky in that I don't have to. But Doctor Who is a special case and I happily bought into the expectation that it wasn't going to be an easy ride - but I wouldn't do it for anything else. I would have once loved to have written Coronation Street or what have you - but just talk to Rob Shearman, he'll tell you the pain of writing that sort of series TV! And if you're lucky enough - as I am at present - to be able to not have to do that, then don't do it. But Doctor Who is a unique thing, and we've all put 110% into it because we adore it, and we're so proud to be part of the first new season...
Each of the other writers seems to have been allocated a particular episode to write, in terms of the series framework Russell had devised - what information were you given up front, and to what extent did the episode as it will be transmitted originate from you?
There was a single paragraph description for most of the episodes in the series - except episode 9 or 11 or something, which was one line! - and episode 3 was the one with the brief description in the series 'bible' that most appealed to me. I read the 'bible', waiting for Russell's call, thinking "Please make me do episode 3!" - and I wasn't disappointed. And Russell said "Do whatever you want with it". I was so excited by that, it immediately got me fired up - and I took some aspects of the original description, but the rest is me!
When the casting of the new Doctor was announced, I can't imagine I was the only person whose first mental image was of Christopher Eccleston's brief appearance in the last series in The League of Gentlemen...
I just wish there had been a camera running at the time when I first saw Chris in costume, that day on the League, and said "Ooh - you look like Doctor Who!" - it would have looked like the most brilliant piece of prescience. I guess I always knew that he wasn't going to do it in any kind of fancy dress - he's the only actor I know who doesn't like dressing up, it's funny. But I was sure the Doctor was going to be older, so I was as surprised as anybody else. To me the thing that made it so wonderful, apart from having just recently worked with him, was that he's said he was so pleased to be asked to do the League because everyone thinks he's a miserable twat! Clearly he's done this part because he wants to do something totally different - but I thought it was wonderful that such a respected, high-calibre heavyweight actor would devote himself to this programme, hopefully banishing forever those sort of News of the World stories about Paul Daniels or Grace Jones being the new Doctor Who. It's wrestling it right back to the idea that it needs a real actor, and that sort of heavyweight casting sends exactly the right message about the new direction of the show.
Talking to you now, we're at the other end of the process from when I spoke to Rob Shearman, since he had just started writing his episode at the time. But yours is presumably in the can...
It's done! I'm about to go and see it as a Christmas treat!
...but even before you see the finished edit, you must have some idea of how it was realised - was your episode everything you thought it would be, going into the process?
I was only there on the set for two days, which was kind of galling but probably the right thing to do, because I would have wanted to be consulted and interfere all the time. You have to be able to say 'Goodbye' to it, to an extent, so that was just the right time to spend there. And watching one of the scenes being shot, I cried and cried and cried! I was really overwhelmed that suddenly it was all true and it was all happening, it was an unbelievable feeling. Also, a casting suggestion of mine, Alan David was taken up, so I was so pleased that it worked out in every way.
So even though you weren't in control, you were still being listened to...
Absolutely - it's about everyone being happy, I guess. It's a totally different beast to writing and producing and acting in your own thing, which is what I generally do. Obviously I haven't seen the finished episode yet, but I'm terribly excited. And Euros [Lyn, director] was a gent, just one of the nicest people I've ever met in 'this crazy business' - everyone responded to his kind of gentle authority, he was just the right person to be in charge of my story.
Given that you're at least as well known as an actor as a writer, some people might think it surprising that you're not appearing in the episode as well. Was that a decision of yours?
No, not my call. And to be honest, I wouldn't have wanted to be in my own story anyway, that's a bit presumptuous. But I am completely available when they want me!
But haven't you just done an interview where you say you have a Gordon Brown-style pact with-
-With Chris!
...that you're going to take over when he steps down?
(Laughs) I'm going to stop talking about this now or, like Gordon Brown and Michael Heseltine, I'll talk about it so much that it'll never happen. So no - I don't want to be Doctor Who! Like Richard III, I refuse the crown! It's out of my hands. At the moment, anyway...
