Doctor Who series 5
The fifth series of the British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who was originally broadcast on BBC One in 2010. The series began on 3 April 2010 with "The Eleventh Hour", and ended with "The Big Bang" on 26 June 2010. The series is the first to be led by Steven Moffat, who took over as head writer and executive producer when Russell T Davies ended his involvement in the show after "The End of Time". The series has 13 episodes, six of which were written by Moffat. Piers Wenger and Beth Willis were co-executive producers, and Tracie Simpson and Peter Bennett were producers. Although it is the fifth series since the show's revival in 2005, the series' production code numbers were reset.
It was the first series to feature Matt Smith as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS. Karen Gillan is introduced as the Doctor's new companion, Amy Pond. Her fiancé, Rory Williams, appears in seven episodes, travels with the Doctor and Amy, and is a regular character in the next series. Alex Kingston returns as River Song, a mysterious woman from the Doctor's future who summons him twice in this series. The main story arc, covering several episodes, concerns a pattern of cracks in the universe which are sometimes unnoticed by the characters. It is discovered that the cracks can erase things from existence; this happens to Rory, and Amy forgets him. It is revealed in the series finale that the cracks were caused by the TARDIS exploding, and the Doctor is forced to reboot the universe to its state before the cracks appeared.
In addition to the six episodes written by Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Toby Whithouse, Simon Nye, Richard Curtis, and Gareth Roberts wrote one episode each; Chris Chibnall wrote a two-episode story. The series was meant to be fantastical to stand out from other science-fiction and fantasy shows, and the production team strove for a fairy-tale quality because Moffat believed that media aimed at children were some of the most popular among adults. The episodes were directed by directors who were new to Doctor Who. Filming began in late July 2009, lasting about nine months. The series was filmed primarily in Wales, except for "The Vampires of Venice" and "Vincent and the Doctor". Design changes from the previous series included a new logo, title sequence, variant of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, interior and exterior of the TARDIS, and a change in the theme music.
The series premiere was watched by 10.085 million viewers, and set records on BBC America in the United States and the BBC's online iPlayer. Although overnight ratings declined compared to other series, one writer calculated that viewership had not changed significantly when time-shifted ratings were taken into account. The series received positive reviews, with praise for Moffat's story arc and the performances of Smith, Gillan, and Darvill. However, reviewers noted Amy's lack of character development and the series' diminished emotional appeal. It received a number of awards and nominations; "Vincent and the Doctor" and the two-part finale were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, with the award going to the finale. Smith was the first actor playing the Doctor to be nominated for a BAFTA award. The series was accompanied by a soundtrack and tie-in books and video games; four of the latter were released on the BBC website and advertised as additional episodes of the series.
Episodes
Supplemental scenes
Two scenes were filmed for the Complete Fifth Series box set, revealing what happened between pairs of regular episodes. The first scene is set between "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Beast Below", and the second is set between "Flesh and Stone" and "The Vampires of Venice".Casting
The series introduced the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith. This followed the departure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, who left the show to help ease the transition from Davies to Moffat. Smith's agent called him, suggesting that he audition for the role. Moffat wanted to cast a middle-aged actor, "young enough to run but old enough to look wise". When Smith was the third person to audition, the production team knew " had their man", although he was 26 years old. The producers were cautious about casting Smith because they felt that a 26-year-old actor could not play the Doctor; although BBC Head of Drama and executive producer Piers Wenger agreed, he said that Smith was capable enough to play the part. According to Moffat, Smith did not appear youthful. Smith's casting was announced during an episode of the Doctor Who companion show Doctor Who Confidential, when he described the role as "a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on".Karen Gillan was cast as Amy Pond, the Doctor's companion. Casting director Andy Pryor suggested Gillan to Moffat after her performance in the fourth series episode "The Fires of Pompeii", but Moffat originally considered her "short and dumpy". He later called her "exactly right for the role", although she played the character differently from the way it was originally written. Gillan auditioned for the role in her Scottish accent and an English one, and after she was cast, it was decided that Amy would be Scottish. Gillan felt that the Scottish accent better suited her character. A young version of Amy was played by Gillan's 10-year-old cousin, Caitlin Blackwood, in the first and last episodes. The actresses had not met until the show, but although Blackwood had to audition, Gillan recommended her for the role. Blackwood and Gillan appeared together in "The Big Bang", which Gillan initially found "weird".
Alex Kingston, who played River Song in the series 4 episodes "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead", reprised her role in the two-part stories "The Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone" and "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang". Although Kingston did not expect to return, Moffat always intended for River to return to the series. Arthur Darvill appeared in seven episodes as Rory Williams, Amy's fiancé, and was a companion in six of the episodes. Darvill had worked with Smith on a play, Swimming with Sharks. He received two scenes from the first episode and one from the sixth for his audition, but he was not informed of the character's details. Moffat noted "just how funny" Darvill was during his audition. The actor felt "privileged" to be part of the show, and was pleased with Rory's storyline. Guest stars in the series included Olivia Colman, James Corden, Annette Crosbie, Tony Curran, Iain Glen, Daisy Haggard, Terrence Hardiman, Tom Hopper, Toby Jones, Helen McCrory, Neve McIntosh, Ian McNeice, Patrick Moore, Stephen Moore, Lucian Msamati, Bill Nighy, Sophie Okonedo, Bill Paterson, Alex Price, Robert Pugh, Nia Roberts, Mike Skinner, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia.
Production
Development
Doctor Who was renewed for a fifth series in September 2007. Russell T Davies was succeeded by Steven Moffat as executive producer and head writer and Julie Gardner was replaced as executive producer by Piers Wenger, who had replaced Gardner as BBC Wales head of drama. Beth Willis was an executive producer, and the series was produced by Tracie Simpson and Peter Bennett. Murray Gold remained as composer.The 2005 Doctor Who revival was marketed as series 1, although it had been broadcast on BBC Television for 26 years. When the series was confirmed by the BBC in September 2007, it was called "series 5" and followed 2008's series 4. In August 2009, Doctor Who Magazine reported that the series would be produced and marketed as "Series One". The January 2010 issue contained an interview with Moffat in which he called Series One "exciting", Series Thirty-One "awe-inspiring", and Series Five "boring and a lie". He jokingly referred to the season as "series Fnarg", which became a running joke in later issues of the magazine. The March issue, which called it Series Thirty-One, listed production code numbers from 1.1 to 1.13. However, BBC Programme listings, the BBC iPlayer and DVDs refer to it as "Series 5".
Writing
Despite changes to the show, Moffat wanted to reassure the audience that "nothing has really been lost"; it was the same show, and the Doctor was the same character. The story arc of cracks in the universe was inspired by a crack in the wall of Moffat's son's bedroom. Moffat wanted to ensure that the show appealed to young children; if they could not follow the plot, there would be "big pictures" to entertain them. He believed that although Doctor Who is fundamentally a children's show, it has a universal appeal comparable to Star Wars and Toy Story. Moffat considered a children's story the "most popular form of entertainment". About the series, he said that they "pushed the fairytale side of it"; Doctor Who "now has to be the most fantastical of the fantasy shows" to be more vibrant and "bonkers" than any other fantasy show.In a 2013 interview, Moffat said that he had worked out a rough idea for how his first series as showrunner would work if David Tennant had decided to remain as the Tenth Doctor. Its premise would have been similar to the beginning of "The Eleventh Hour" as broadcast:
Moffat wrote six episodes for the series; the rest were written by others, since he believed that Doctor Who benefited from different voices. According to Moffat, he primarily supplied the other episode concepts and had a "pretty good idea" of what would happen in each episode. He knew the guest writers "to some degree", and called his meetings with them "quite joyous". Matthew Graham, co-creator of Life on Mars and writer of the second series episode "Fear Her", did not write his planned episode because he did not believe he would have enough time. Moffat later contacted him and asked him to write a two-part episode for the next series.
In the first episode, Moffat intended to introduce the Eleventh Doctor and establish his new identity; the second was intended to demonstrate the Doctor's need for a companion and Amy's importance to him. For the third episode, he asked Mark Gatiss to write an episode about "Churchill versus the Daleks". Moffat wanted to incorporate the popular Daleks into the new series, and considered redesigning them. Gatiss, Moffat and the production team worked together to create large, more-colourful Daleks, similar to those in the 1960s films.
For the fourth and fifth episodes, Moffat planned a two-part sequel to his 2007 "Blink" with the Weeping Angels. The episodes, "The Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone", were intended to be more action-oriented than "Blink" and demonstrate that the Angels had a plan other than scavenging. He decided to flesh out the Angels as villains and show more of what they could do. "Flesh and Stone" ends with Amy attempting to seduce the Doctor, which Moffat believed was consistent with her character development.
Toby Whithouse originally planned to write a different episode, but Moffat and Wenger considered it too similar to other episodes in the series. Whithouse wrote "The Vampires of Venice" instead, and his original episode was moved back to the next series. He was asked to write "a big bold romantic episode" which would be a "good jumping off point" for new viewers of Doctor Who. Moffat thought that in the middle of the series, a viewer could "start watching it again" and it should be "something romantic and funny". For the next episode, Moffat asked comedy writer Simon Nye to write a story which challenged the relationship between Amy and the Doctor. The episode, "Amy's Choice", was intended to have the character choose between excitement with the Doctor or life with Rory. The scene in which Rory dies in the false reality was intended to reveal Amy's feelings for him. Nye wanted to stress that Amy really loved Rory, and he was not "just a cypher boyfriend or fiancé".
Moffat contacted Chris Chibnall to write a two-part episode involving the Silurians, villains who had not appeared on the show for over 25 years. Since the Silurians were not as well known as other monsters, he instructed Chibnall to reintroduce them. These Silurians were intended to be a different branch than the original ones; their design was different, with facial prosthetics and no third eye. Richard Curtis, who had worked with Moffat on the 1999 Comic Relief special Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, was contacted by Moffat to return the favour and write an episode. Curtis had an idea for an episode about van Gogh for "a long while", and was intrigued that van Gogh never knew he was famous. Gillan noted that there was a different approach and style to the episode, and it was more character-driven.
Although Neil Gaiman had written "The Doctor's Wife", it was moved to the next series due to budgetary constraints and replaced with "The Lodger". "The Lodger" was adapted from a comic strip of the same name by Gareth Roberts for Doctor Who Magazine, although he said that most of it was begun "from scratch". The story was inspired by the desire to see the Doctor in normal, every-day human circumstances and Roberts' enjoyment of stories set on Earth, rather than in space. Roberts was interested in doing a television version of the story, but had not mentioned it; Moffat enjoyed the comic story, and asked to adapt it into an episode when he became showrunner. In a 2021 interview, Robert Shearman revealed he had been involved in development for Series 5, but later departed. Moffat extended an open invitation to return, but Shearman declined, citing changes in his career and the higher profile of screenwriters attracted to the show. Jack Thorne was also in contention to write an episode, but amicably parted ways.
Aspects of the finale occurred to Moffat as he planned the series' story arc, although he left room to improvise as the story developed. "The Big Bang" ends with Amy and Rory's wedding; Moffat said that he had intended for them to get married "from the off". The finale left questions about River Song's identity and "the Silence", which apparently caused the TARDIS to explode.