So at long last, here comes the thread.
#DoctorWho: #ThePowerOfTheDoctor
FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN…
Toraji namedrop calling back to 42 was not in the script. This addition over Scene 1 is likely ADR written by Chris later on.
H: “Be careful.”
A: “It’s alright, they’re dead.”
Seems to be ADR too.
Cut of Halaz and Arnhost dialogue here:
Cut of this dialogue, addition of ADR of Thirteen telling the Marshals to get out of there.
Cuts made to Scene 6 of “and three lifeforms”, as well as the soldier assignment order.
Dialogue trims here (presumably for time!), and “Oy” replaced with “Hey”.
The date line is not actually ADR by the looks of it. Presumably, it is part of the scene dialogue - just overlaid from a different part of the shots.
Doctor’s response is also dropped. (And there you go - that’s how they can hear each other, folks. Built-in comms!)
Loss of Dan’s response to the CyberMasters.
Halaz loses a bit of dialogue top of the scene, and Arnhost loses a line establishing that the CyberMasters would also be taking passengers for conversion.
Door getting smashed in is lost.
And there’s an notable cut. The CyberMasters entered in the wrong carriage… because they thought it was the right carriage - and the Marshal has deliberately had them shuffled to hide the cargo’s location from anyone coming after it…
Big cut here at the start of the scene.
Dan has a different scripted response here:
We lost a much darker bit here about Dan’s smashed helmet…
More trimming and cut dialogue.
“I don’t wanna be a kite!” in John Bishop’s voice would’ve been oddly funny as a combat to that brief dark moment of his face getting sucked through the helmet.
Lacking some dialogue here from the Doctor and a CyberMaster. Possibly be ADR.
Restructuring of Scenes 20 & 21, Doctor’s remarks with Arnhost come after most of Scene 21 in edit.
Passenger reaction added to Scene 21.
Cuts also made to end of Scene 21.
Dialogue trims. Pod stays rather than going with.
We open instead with the Tunguska incident of 1908.
The forest shot is actually from the cut Tunguska scene and has been matched with the separate Siberia interior, with a different setting-card added to account for this.
This explains the lack of forestry outside in Scene 26.
As scripted, Scene 27 is dropping Dan home. But instead of doing that & the Dalek bit… the edit takes us next to what was Script-Scene 32 with Ace.
Slight trim to Sc. 32
More trims here and there. (Evidently, the missing seismologists thing is a bigger known situation than we realise in final edit!)
More trims amongst this. (And oh how “With fond memories.” would have stung once you’d known the twist…)
And now we go from Script-Scene 34 to Script-Scene 27; as scripted, the Doctor actually looks up at Dan by the door hesitant, rather than him looking back.
And the DAN DEPARTURE SPEECH is COMPLETELY different!
We’ve actually lost Thirteen’s last words to Dan Lewis in the edit, it seems…
We also lost Yaz wishing Dan luck with his date with Diane.
There’s a whole interesting back story to ‘Spy Dalek’ that gets lost for time…
A lot of trimming here… where Master-Rasputin actually pushes Alexandra a little bit more on the matter of the ‘second moon’.
Another trim. I suppose most could infer the ‘holy healer’ aspect anyway…
We lose a bit more of the hypnotism too.
Transition here is changed!
Yaz’s questions are ADR.
Dialogue here reworked in ADR a bit.
(And hurrah - confirmation. QURUNX.)
A lot of cuts here to drop Thirteen and Yaz thinking about the Master so soon… to let that “Your Master awaits, Doctor!” line hit harder.
Tiny bit of later ADR here for Kate to establish explicitly that she knows the connection here. (I mean of course she would, Black Archive and all!)
Slight cuts of deduction from our old companions…
Due to time, we seem to have lost an emotional little moment where Ace worriedly asks if the Doctor will be coming back, and Tegan is completely skeptical.
There’s actually a cut bit of dialogue from Ace that cheekily foreshadows her ending up in the TARDIS.
Oh, and Ashad-Doll was going to get earlier teasing…
We lost a little UNIT has a hypersonic jet reference.
Yaz’s line about not doing guns gets swapped in edit for a line from Master that *might* be ADR.
As scripted, we go from this scene to Vinder’s introduction… but in edit; off we go to the TARDIS interior scenes instead
Some cuts here, including the Master going Yaz to shoot him.
Dialogue reworking for Vinder later down the line from script. Also Scene 54 with Vinder as scripted immediately leads into 55 inside the Master’s TARDIS. But instead in the edit we’re off to UNIT HQ…
This bit gets slightly different wording in the recorded scene. “while you go Dalek hunting” seems to be ADR.
There’s further ADR there for Thirteen and Ace too.
In the edit, we go to the Master being locked up, but in script, we’re back into Thirteen and Yaz in the TARDIS.
A restructure for Yaz and the Doctor here, and a cut of “Pay me that respect.”
We also lost this dialogue…
As scripted, continuous.
In edit: we go back to UNIT HQ here.
“Didn’t it want to stay in your bag?” must be ADR to cover for the removal of the earlier bag shot of Ashad-doll; to establish that Tegan has brought it with her.
We also lose Kate being made aware of the Cyberman, Tegan and Ace being informed of the weapons in the room, and Tegan mirroring the Marshal with her remark.
Here is a Ashad line lost in edit… and this is where in script where cut away back to the volcano stuff.
We also lost a few bits of dialogue here. And then we go from the mutant being exterminated - back to do the rest of the Cyberman invasion and the Ashad one-shot breakout…
And THEN we go back to the volcano for the Doctor to be imprisoned.
As scripted, we actually go with the Doctor to 1916 at this point - but in edit, we’re with Yaz here
You’ll notice that more Vinder stuff happens here too… and that all of this is meant to be after the Rasputin dance. Which is itself actually uninterrupted in the script.
As scripted:
CyberMasters seem to be speakers.
Master used an iPod not the TCE.
Chris specifically asks for the Majestic remix version of Boney M’s Rasputin! (Someone get me the clean dialogue track for the scene, and I’ll do an edit!)
The Vinder and Yaz bits get slotted in during Rasputin… and thereafter, we lose the Master gloating “Everyone’s watching!” about the imminent forced regeneration.
More to the Master Doctor’s first moments.
HE COMPLAINS THAT IT DOESN’T DO THE CLOTHES! MAKE OF THAT INTENTION WHAT YOU WILL.
Oh and this is where the volcanoes originally gear up…
As scripted, we go back to UNIT and then come back here… and it’s the Master Doctor who brings Yaz down to 1916.
Using the sonic, no less!
Opening dialogue on this scene is replaced with ADR, so we do kinda jump over Tegan’s explanation.
We also lose the lines referring back to the cut gun-panel remarks.
For those wondering how Tegan managed to get locked in and Ace locked out on the roof; as scripted it’s three minutes not “until you’re clear”.
And there IS a different reason for Master-Rasputin.
He was partially doing it as a self-punishment for messing up the Cyberplanet and taking out Tunguska.
And yeah this means he was Rasputin 1908 to 1916. Work that out, timeline fans…
UNIT scenes continue to get shuffled about.
Three planets rather than two at war. First lines ADRed later.
Dialogue swapped round in the scene too, and we don’t see the devastation closeup at hand.
Skye Boat Song not scripted. May have been later idea from Chris, someone else on prod. team or from the sound department.
As scripted, the Eighth Doctor Guardian is actually seen as a separate figure!
Yep, two figures.
*Arguably*, the trim here explains why Holo-Ninth in The Parting of the Ways turns to look at Rose… and that’s a sweet thought.
Script is vague on which Doctors you’d see in the Hologram during this moment.
Now, in edit, we get to the Ashad & Tegan-Kate scenes scripted as earlier.
And the answer to the fabled question (or one of them): the entombment system has a THREE MINUTE GETOUT CLOCK. So that’s how Tegan and Kate manage to rush out after it’s activated!
The emotional beats get swapped in the edit so you get “I never forget any of you.” before “Adric.”
Sidenote: we were all wrong. It’s a dumbwaiter shaft left over from how the building was used before - not a lift shaft.
Tegan nearly slips in the shaft before the Cybermen attack.
This slip is moved in the edit to be what Ashad hears rather than, as scripted, her general movement.
Tegan does fully let go.
But it’s because she is almost at the bottom and feels she can chance the remaining drop.
One thing now makes sense.
Here is where in edit, the Daleks activate volcanoes and the ones in 1916 teleport back to the present.
But they’re absent from the earlier stuff after forced regen, because as we said earlier, this originally was scripted to happen back then!
Incase you didn’t catch this cleverness, Yaz deliberately touches her shoulder to activate the implant again… (and following that train of thought; we see Fugitive because it’s the only other face Yaz is personally familiar with and can emotionally connect to in the system!)
Sidenote: Fugitive Doctor was so secretive that in the script, she is instead codenamed as DOCTOR F.
A Yaz line trimmed… and the schoolboy error bit is ADR. (Guess Chris really wanted to leave a dangling ambiguity there about their school years…)
As scripted, Vinder sticks another blast in the Master-Doctor’s shoulder.
And actually, as well as some technobabble - Vinder saw the Fugitive Doctor in the timestorm too, so that’s how the image stays focused. They’re both thinking of this Doctor.
Also… you know, it was meant to be outright said about the irony. The irony I highlighted the other week.
Beginning to wonder if I am just an alternative universe Chris Chibnall! 🤣
The Thasmin fans are gonna be sad about this cut I think…
Again, Guardian-Eight seems to be like a separate figure as scripted.
Seems like even with the short fall intended, that Tegan was to have injured her ankle and wrist. This does make sense of the just visible slight limp Tegan has at start of the scene.
Slight trim. So yeah, the feedback is deliberately only harmful to the metal Cybermen and not Tegan or Kate.
The Cyberman arm bursting through the wall seems to have been a later addition.
Also, we see Kate escape…
And in a Destiny of the Daleks-esque manner: ASHAD MIGHT HAVE STILL BEEN ALIVE!
For all those wondering how they didn’t go to a different path… Graham had thought about the route back out! Just the line was cut.
Opening bit of this scene is cut.
BIGGEST CUT OF THE WHOLE DAMN THING I think!
The Rasputin-Master is tossed in the river after his defeat, completing the story of Rasputin…
…but also - who played the cut role of Prince Yusopov?! Who?!
ASHAD LIVED! ASHAD LIVED!
Another cut scene in 166.
So the little kid/QURUNX does help fire the beams off to stop the volcanoes. Someone go tell that child that they saved the Earth; they might not know!
Chris actually thought about an implication that I don’t think any of us fans did. That the underwater volcanoes being steel would be an environmental issue and that UNIT will need to help with that.
We almost snuck a little comment on the environment into the last hurrah!
No wonder the Master is knackered. Degenerated and nearly drowned… (which I suppose ties nicely with Dhawan Master’s ‘Maybe’ response about the decay. He might not be that far gone…)
…or maybe now and then, I’m wrong & he’s dying… but yes he turns up the power the Qurunx is putting out before he tortures it into turning round to the Doctor.
As scripted, Dhawan Master is definitively dead… but also that he’s in the doorway of his TARDIS, not under rubble. Who knows?
(No scripted cheek kiss, I’ll note too!)
A line cut that would explain why Yaz knows the Doctor will be fine in their way.
CHRIS, YOU MAD MAN.
You considered not just the possibility of Ryan on the laptop but also Martha Jones and Jackie Tyler!!!!!
As scripted, not intercut with each other. Ian’s line slightly longer with an introduction of himself.
As said before, lines scripted and recorded in different order. Changed in edit as suggestion by Rebecca and Chris liked it.
We do however completely lose that final line.
Chris specifically chose Durdle Door for regen.
And for Chris Chibnall… it ends: “As a new day dawns.”
BONUS: Fugitive Doctor was scripted to also appear amongst the other faces on the hologram-Doctor with the initial glitch. Which would’ve of course lent further explanation to why Yaz came up with that idea.
As always: many thanks to the Doctor Who production team and the Writers Room staff for indulging myself and so many other fans.
A compelling insight for screenwriting and for Who production.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.