Doctor Who series 8
The eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who began on 23 August 2014 with "Deep Breath" and ended with "Death in Heaven" on 8 November 2014. The series was officially ordered in May 2013, and led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, alongside executive producer Brian Minchin. Nikki Wilson, Peter Bennett and Paul Frift served as producers. The series is the eighth to air following the programme's revival in 2005, the thirty-fourth season overall, and the first series since series five not to be split into two parts.
The series is the first to star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. It also stars Jenna Coleman as his companion, Clara Oswald. Also playing a major recurring role in the series is Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink, Clara's boyfriend. The main story arc revolves around a mysterious woman called Missy, who is often seen welcoming people who have died throughout the series to the "Promised Land", a place that serves as an apparent afterlife to deceased characters.
Steven Moffat was directly involved with the writing of seven episodes; he received sole credit for four episodes, and was credited as a co-writer for the remaining three. Other writers who worked on this series included Phil Ford, Mark Gatiss, Stephen Thompson, Gareth Roberts, Peter Harness, Jamie Mathieson, and novelist Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Directors of the series included ones who had previously worked with Moffat on the show, and brand new ones. Filming began on 6 January 2014 and lasted exactly seven months, ending on 6 August.
The series premiere was watched by 9.17 million viewers, the highest ratings for a premiere since Matt Smith's first episode as the Doctor back in 2010. Ratings remained consistent throughout the course of the series, seeing a low of 6.71 million viewers with the episode "Flatline", and ended with 7.60 million people watching the finale. The eighth series became the highest-rated series ever in the US with an average audience of 2.04 million viewers. Critical reaction to the series was highly positive, with praise going to the writing, directing, and acting, with a number of individual episodes receiving critical acclaim.
Episodes
The first episode of the series, "Deep Breath", has a running time of 76 minutes, making it – at the time – the second-longest episode of the revived Doctor Who era beginning in 2005, the longest being "The Day of the Doctor" with a running time of 77 minutes. As with the previous series, Series 8 consists mainly of standalone episodes; the series finale was the first two-part story after "The Rebel Flesh" / "The Almost People" from the midpoint of Series 6 in 2011.Casting
The show's star from 2010, Matt Smith announced in June 2013 that he would be leaving Doctor Who following the 2013 Christmas episode "The Time of the Doctor". His replacement was announced, after several weeks of speculation, on a special live broadcast called Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor on 4 August as Peter Capaldi, who up to that point was best known for portraying spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy series The Thick of It. Capaldi had previously appeared on the show as Caecilius in "The Fires of Pompeii", as well as John Frobisher in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood: Children of Earth.In October 2013, actress Neve McIntosh stated in an interview that recurring characters Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax were due to return in the series premiere "Deep Breath". On 24 February 2014, it was announced that Gavin & Stacey actor Samuel Anderson would join the cast as the recurring character Danny Pink, a teacher and Clara's colleague at Coal Hill School.
Beyond the return of the Paternoster Gang, and the casting of Samuel Anderson, the first major guest star of the series was announced in March 2014 when it was revealed that Keeley Hawes had been cast in episode five as a character named Ms. Delphox. Subsequently, Tom Riley, Ben Miller, Hermione Norris, Frank Skinner, Foxes, Christopher Fairbank, Sanjeev Bhaskar, and Chris Addison were cast in guest roles. Other notable guest stars included Tony Jay, Peter Ferdinando, Zawe Ashton, Michael Smiley, Jonathan Bailey, Pippa Bennett-Warner, John Sessions, David Bamber, Christopher Villiers, and Joivan Wade.
Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver reprised their roles of Kate Stewart and Osgood, respectively, last seen in the fiftieth anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", in the two-part series final "Dark Water" / "Death in Heaven". Michelle Gomez was later cast as a character named Missy, described as "The Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere" and was originally announced to be featured in the series finale; however Gomez also appeared in the series' first, second, sixth, ninth and tenth episodes as part of a recurring story arc. In "Dark Water", it was revealed that Missy is in fact The Master.
Production
Development
The series was officially ordered on 20 May 2013, and led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who returned as showrunner from the previous series, alongside executive producer Brian Minchin. At Comic-Con 2013, Moffat said that, although much of the focus at that point remained on the 50th anniversary and Christmas specials, development for series 8 was under way, stating that the scripts were arriving for the series, knowing the plot and conclusion of the series' episodes.In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Moffat likened his initial plans for the Twelfth Doctor to Tom Baker's first season, with the Doctor being tricky to deal with at the beginning, but with the benefit of familiar characters to ease through the transition; Moffat also commented on the situation of Clara having to deal with the Doctor changing. Moffat also stated that, unlike the situation with Colin Baker, reference would be made to Peter Capaldi's previous appearances in the Whoniverse, specifically "The Fires of Pompeii" and Torchwood. Moffat stated that he remembered Russell T Davies creating a plan to explain Capaldi's repeat appearances in Doctor Who-related media, and how he contacted Davies to confirm that the plan still worked with Capaldi portraying the Twelfth Doctor.
Writing
, who had written five previous episodes of Doctor Who, and a few for Torchwood, indicated in April 2013 that he had been approached by Moffat to contribute to Series 8. The subsequent success of his drama series, Broadchurch, led Chibnall to state that his schedule would not allow him to contribute to this particular series, although he was willing to write for Doctor Who in the future.Neil Cross, who wrote two episodes in Series 7, also stated a desire to write for Series 8. Cross confirmed that he would be writing at least one episode for Series 8 in August 2013, while Neil Gaiman, who contributed one episode to Series 6 and another episode to Series 7, and Frank Cottrell-Boyce also stated that they were developing scripts. However, neither were able to confirm initially whether these would be for Series 8 or a subsequent series. On 4 July 2014, it was confirmed Boyce would also write an episode. In a 2022 newsletter, Grant Morrison revealed they had pitched ideas for episodes, including for a new monster, but none were commissioned.
Gareth Roberts, who had written five previous episodes of Doctor Who, returned for Series 8.
On 7 January 2014, it was announced that former producers Peter Bennett and Nikki Wilson would produce the series. Will Oswald edited Episodes 1, 2, 5 and 6.
On 26 March 2014, it was announced that Mark Gatiss would write either one or two episodes for the series. In a Q&A in Brazil he said that he believed that Jane Austen should feature in an episode, just like other famous authors who have appeared on the show, such as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Agatha Christie.
In April 2014, it was announced Peter Harness and Jamie Mathieson would be writing for the series.
Design changes
The introduction of a new lead actor brought about another change to the title sequence. The sequence for Series 8 was inspired by a fan-made sequence produced by Billy Hanshaw, an illustrator and 3D animator from Leeds, who posted it on YouTube. This eventually came to the attention of Steven Moffat, who subsequently based the official sequence on Hanshaw's work.As director of the first block, Ben Wheatley was able to make lasting modifications to the TARDIS set. Wheatley had the cinematographer change the central column from green to golden, and had the art department create a replica of Tommy Westphall's snowglobe from St. Elsewhere, which Wheatley placed in the TARDIS set as a reference to the theory that all television exists in a shared dream reality.
Music
composed the soundtrack to this series, with orchestration by Ben Foster.Filming
In August 2013, actress Jenna Coleman initially announced that filming was scheduled to begin in January 2014, after the broadcast of Peter Capaldi's initial appearance in the Christmas special that would contain the Doctor's regeneration.In late 2013, announcements were made for various directing appointments for the new series, with a total of six episodes allocated initially; in October, the first two episodes of the series were allocated to Ben Wheatley, with production due to start in December 2013. In November and December two further episodes were each allocated to Paul Murphy and Douglas Mackinnon. The first read through took place on 17 December 2013.
Filming began on 6 January 2014 in Cardiff, with Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman shooting their first scenes for Series 8 on 7 January 2014. On 22 February 2014 it was announced that Paul Wilmshurst would also direct an episode. On 11 May 2014, it was announced that an episode directed by Wilmshurst and written by Harness would be filming in Lanzarote, the second time Doctor Who has filmed there after the 1984 serial Planet of Fire. Filming took place in Volcán del Cuervo, also known as the Raven's Volcano. On 14 May 2014 it was announced that American director Rachel Talalay would be directing two episodes of the eighth series. On 2 July 2014 filming for the finale took place at the Box Cemetery in Llanelli, previously the location for the final scenes of the seventh series mid-season finale "The Angels Take Manhattan". On 4 July 2014 it was announced that Sheree Folkson would direct an episode. On 19 July 2014 filming with the Cybermen took place outside St Paul's Cathedral in London, which had previously been the setting of 1968's The Invasion. Filming on the series was completed on 6 August 2014.
Production blocks were arranged as follows:
| Block | Episode | Director | Writer | Producer |
| 1 | Episode 1: "Deep Breath" | Ben Wheatley | Steven Moffat | Nikki Wilson |
| 1 | Episode 2: "Into the Dalek" | Ben Wheatley | Phil Ford & Steven Moffat | Nikki Wilson |
| 2 | Episode 4: "Listen" | Douglas Mackinnon | Steven Moffat | Peter Bennett |
| 2 | Episode 5: "Time Heist" | Douglas Mackinnon | Stephen Thompson & Steven Moffat | Peter Bennett |
| 3 | Episode 3: "Robot of Sherwood" | Paul Murphy | Mark Gatiss | Nikki Wilson |
| 3 | Episode 6: "The Caretaker" | Paul Murphy | Gareth Roberts & Steven Moffat | Nikki Wilson |
| 4 | Episode 7: "Kill the Moon" | Paul Wilmshurst | Peter Harness | Peter Bennett |
| 4 | Episode 8: "Mummy on the Orient Express" | Paul Wilmshurst | Jamie Mathieson | Peter Bennett |
| 5 | Episode 9: "Flatline" | Douglas Mackinnon | Jamie Mathieson | Nikki Wilson |
| 6 | Episode 11: "Dark Water" | Rachel Talalay | Steven Moffat | Peter Bennett |
| 6 | Episode 12: "Death in Heaven" | Rachel Talalay | Steven Moffat | Peter Bennett |
| 7 | Episode 10: "In the Forest of the Night" | Sheree Folkson | Frank Cottrell-Boyce | Paul Frift |