SDCC 2012: Doctor Who Panel
In attendance: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are all going to appear along with exec producers Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner.
Chris Hardwick is moderating and has arrived on stage wearing a TARDIS shirt.
Everyone’s on stage now, and the screams as they take their seats are deafening! “I feel like Jon Bon Jovi,” Arthur jokes.
A fan shouts that they want to have children with Matt! “We’re here for an hour – I’m sure we can squeeze something in,” he replies.
The moderator Chris Hardwick asks how Steven keeps the show fresh and keeps the details straight. “I try not to have a life, which as a Doctor Who fan is easy,” he jokes.
Matt says his time on Doctor Who has transformed his life. “Working with these guys, who have become my firm, firm friends…” he says, before praising Caroline, too, who’s joined the show. “I think if the world was a bit more like Comic-Con it would be a better place,” he adds, raising a huge cheer! “Who fans shout the loudest,” he says. That’s just an invitation…
Matt’s still waxing lyrical about Comic-Con. “It’s just 100mph the whole time,” he says, revealing he got to meet Peter Jackson. “You get to meet your heroes.” And he admits to nerding out when he met Bryan Cranston!
Karen says she came down the hotel elevator with a Dalek girl today. Awesome!
Karen’s pleased a lot of people have worn ginger wigs when they’ve dressed up as her. “Power to the gingers!” she grins.
Arthur reveals that he’s spent the whole time at Comic-Con hearing people screaming and jokes that he likes sharing the lift with, say, Batman. “It’s been very cool.”
The audience cheers when the moderator talks about the brilliance of the Doctor-Amy-Rory trio. “We’ve loved the way the dynamic between the three of us has developed,” Arthur agrees.
Chris Hardwick says “I’ve become a Doctor Who therapist” for all the fans sad about the departing Ponds.
Karen adds: “I couldn’t stop crying for two weeks” after filming the final scenes, even tender-stem broccoli set her off! “I didn’t hold it together” she says. Arthur agrees that it’s been a “huge part” of his life but it was exciting to film the final moments. “And film them with the Weeping Angels as well,” Matt says. “It’s a climactic, fitting and I think brilliant end to what I think are my two favorite companions.” But he jokes he’s glad to see the back of them really!
Moderator Chris reveals that in the elevator, Matt turned to Karen and Arthur and joked: “Didn’t you guys use to be in Doctor Who?”
Heartbreaking scene of old Amy Pond saying goodbye (from “The Girl Who Waited”) playing now.
Chris Hardwick says Karen is “still really hot as an old lady.
What’s the season been like for Caroline? “Incredible!” She speaks about Daleks, Weeping Angels, shooting in New York and Spain… but adds: “Saying goodbye to these guys was the big one.”
Steven on on writing Amy/Rory’s final episode: “It was genuinely, properly sad.”
Steven unsurprisingly refuses to reveal any details about how Amy and Rory will exit? The moderator suggests there’s no way to write out Amy and Rory completely in the world of Doctor Who. “You reckon?” Steven says. “Enjoy the episode…”
Chris Hardwick: “We say goodbye to people that we love, but we form new relationships with people too.”
What kind of story lines does Caroline like? “I love them all!” she says, though she likes the historical ones because there’s something “magical” about traveling. As for this season, all the episodes are “so different”. “They’re huge, these episodes, and I love them all for different reasons.”
Matt Smith on Doctor Who : “The show is the star, and will continue without the current cast and crew.” “It is about regeneration and it is about welcoming in Jenna and a new era and a new time and that’s what’s exciting,” he says. He reveals that he likes how Doctor Who can be anything – it’s not “bound by genre”.
Karen says she likes episodes which teach us about something we’re familiar with, like with Idris.
Karen: “I’m gonna miss running down corridors from imaginary monsters.”
She continues: “I’ve made my best friends on this show.”
Arthur says it’s great playing characters you know well, and still getting scripts that surprise you. Matt praises the quality of the writing – “It makes our job infinitely easier.”
Matt Smith: “The heartbeat of the show is in the quality of the writing.”
Chris Hardwick says he wrote a fan fiction about Matt Smith/Billie Piper’s scene in Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
What’s next for Karen and Arthur? Arthur puts on a Scottish accent to imitate Karen and talk about her new projects, Not Another Happy Ending and Oculus. Karen’s got the giggles: “That was weird!” Karen worries she can’t do an impression of Arthur, before doing an adorable: “I’m bumbling, that’s just me.” She reveals Arthur’s going to do a play and a new series called Broadchurch with David Tennant and Olivia Colman, written by Chris Chibnall. Huge cheers!
Steven states: “Maybe British actors are better at being American.’
Fan Q&A:
First up? An adorable young girl wants to know what Matt’s favorite gadget, button or screen in the TARDIS is. “In the TARDIS, each area has a particular job so when you get there, no word of a lie, you get a handbook of what it all does,” he says. “My favorite bit is the gear and the lever that flies it because of the rhythm of it.”
A dalek has come to ask a question! Will there be a multiple Doctor episode? “I’m not going to tell you, not even for the Daleks,” Steven says, as the crowd sighs as one.
Steven says the question of who the Doctor is is “tremendously important”, adding: “And only I know why!” Steven says he’s found out the truth about the Doctor’s name but he can’t pass it on. Matt says this is their life – Steven knowing things, withholding it and smiling at them. “He won’t tell me!” Matt complains.
Arthur says he loves working with so many “great people” in the show, while Matt says Diana Rigg is “totally wonderful” in her upcoming scenes.
Are there going to be any more alliances between the evil guys, like in The Pandorica Opens? Steven says he thinks putting that alliance together must have taken so long… and then they accidentally blew up the universe. So, maybe not?
What are the characters’ favourite costumes… and Matt’s favourite bow tie? Arthur says his favourite is the Roman Centurion (getting so many cheers), and Karen admits her favourite is the Kissogram. Karen asks Matt if his favourite is the tweed and bow tie. “Maybe tweed, bow tie and fez,” Matt replies. He jokes that he asked Steven for a hat… and ended up with a fez!
What have been the cast’s craziest fan encounters? Matt says they were shooting in Wales once, and when they got in the car there was a lady there who told him he was “an exact replica of her pet hedgehog”. Then she kissed him! Karen reveals the same woman grabbed her and asked if she was Matt’s girlfriend! Arthur says the woman has pictures of Matt and hedgehogs on her wall. “Like that’s going to flatter me!” Matt jokes. “A hedgehog!”
Have there been any scenes Caroline and Steven haven’t been able to do? Steven says they mostly get the “really amazing” ones on screen. “If it’s really extraordinary we’ll find a way to do it,” he says. He jokes that the writers – unlike him – know the limits and how to keep it restrained.
The next fan asks what plots the cast would love to have in the show. Matt says it isn’t affordable, but he’s “really intrigued” by Atlantis. Steven says there have been at least three versions of Atlantis already… “But we could do it again. To hell with continuity!”
Have the cast and crew got any weird or interesting habits? Matt reveals that when Karen’s nervous she picks her lips. “It’s my thinking face!” Karen protests. But Matt’s not getting off easy – he brrs his lips like a horse. Matt didn’t even know he did that!
Matt and Karen agree Arthur turns into “dad mode” when he’s grumpy. Arthur also reveals that he likes looking at Karen for ages until she realizes he’s looking. Matt also plays the “uncomfortable touch” with any new actor that comes on set – getting more and more tactile until they freak out!
“More Daleks than you’ve ever seen in one place,” Steven promises for the new season. “It’s ‘wow’. It’s lots and lots and lots of Daleks. It’s what we all see when we close our eyes in our TARDIS-wallpapered bedrooms.” He says there’s “absolutely everything” and stuff he’s just not going to reveal. “I don’t think we’ve had a bigger variety of episodes than the ones we’re about to show you,” he says. “It’s truly exciting.”
Matt has a piece of advice – if you ever see him in an airport, don’t say: “You didn’t bring your TARDIS, then.” He adds: “No I didn’t. Because if I did, why the hell would I be queuing up?”
Tags: Arthur Darvill, BBC, BBC America, Comic-Con, Doctor Who, Kaen Gillan, Matt Smith, sam, San Diego Comic-Con, SDCC
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