DALEK DOMINATION

Director Lee Haven Jones on the new-look Daleks

How explosive can we expect this festive special to be?

It’s going to be very explosive. Literally. It balances all of those elements that Doctor Who does really well. So on one hand, it is explosive – there’s a lot of action going on. It’s full of thrills and spills. Wherever there’s a Dalek, there’s trouble. But also there’s a really strong emotional thread to it, so it really grandstands the characters.

How is the Doctor coping in space jail?

She’s there on her own, isolated. It’s a rather damp, dark, authoritarian environment. She’s told when she needs to exercise. She’s fed terrible food. She is in a cell all on her own and obviously is missing the fam. Yaz, Graham and Ryan are back on Earth and are themselves dealing with the loneliness of not having the Doctor around. Yaz becomes obsessed with trying to locate the Doctor within the universe. Ryan feels a little let down by the Doctor, that she’s sort of abandoned them. She’s been away 10 months when we find them. So everybody’s dealing with a sense of grief and loss, and it’s emotional.

What’s it like directing the Daleks?

Amazing. The greatest challenge for me was dealing with the weight of expectation on my shoulders. I guess what’s tricky about them is, practically, the technology. The Daleks, this time, are remote-controlled. They have the same sorts of problems that you do with any other forms of technology, in that sometimes the technology just breaks down!

It’s also a new Dalek design…

They’re sleeker, leaner, taller and meaner – and you can quote me on that.

What’s the best way to film a Dalek?

They look great when they’re in the dark and when they’re lit from the back. They also look great when they’re dominating the frame. We have a lot of Daleks in darkness, when they’re at their most scary. And big, big shots of them in frame, very dominant, looking down at us.

Was that something that was in the forefront of your mind, to make them scary again?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that was part of the brief. That’s very definitely written into the script. I remember the Daleks myself from when I was a little boy, in I guess the early ’80s, and being terrified. It was trying to sort of grasp that sense of nostalgia and that fear. You know, it’s a cliché, but it’s hiding behind the sofa with hands over your eyes. It’s that quality you want to recapture.