it’s possible for you to read our full conversation below.
“We had some half-finished pyramids and some quite good pyramid jokes.”
COLLIDER: I’m so excited to chat with you guys.
Image by Zanda Rice
This is such a cute little holiday episode, and there’s a lot going on.
You have a whole dinosaur, for goodness sake.
STEVEN MOFFAT: Oh, well done.
Image via Disney+
Yes, we cut Ancient Egypt.
We had some half-finished pyramids and some quite good pyramid jokes.
I forget what they were, but I remember I’d be quite proud of them.
Image via James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios/Disney
We had a submarine scene, as well.
There are just really cool places to go and see.
It’s just exciting to see the Orient Express!
The show follows the adventures of a Time Lord, “The Doctor,” who is able to regenerate, and the Doctor’s human friends. The Doctor and his companions journey through time and space in the TARDIS – a time-traveling ship shaped like a police box – saving the universe with a combination of wit, bravery, and kindness.
I’ve been on the Orient Express, and it is that exciting.
I nearly solved the crime, but sadly, there wasn’t one.
RUSSELL T. DAVIES: You killed someone?
MOFFAT: I did.
I could have been the murderer.
No, I just thought it through.
DAVIES: She might have been the victim!
She might have been the victim.
MOFFAT: Thanks, mate.
[Laughs] You know she isn’t sitting over there.
DAVIES: Like shed let you murder her.
MOFFAT: Like Id stand a bloody chance.
So, just exciting places to go.
Theres a gas mask boy down there somewhere.
DAVIES: It was very simple.
Thats our wonderful casting director, Andy Pryor.
And you’re right, it’s a very perfect fit.
She knows people that we know, she’s friends with Lydia West.
That’s a great plus to give him fun on set and to give him a good time.
But it’s Nicola Coughlan she’s a star!
She’s gorgeous, she’s brilliant, and we were just lucky to offer a part like that.
Sometimes the star is shining down on you, and it works, and she says yes.
At the same time, you’re prepared to accept her as an ordinary, unhappy person.
There are very few ordinary people like her, but she’s codified for that somehow.
That’s a very apt description of her.
I really love the scene where the Doctor gets into an argument with himself.
He doesn’t ever do it.
There are two reasons: no one’s ever coming around his TARDIS, and he never sits anyway.
He’s always leaping about it.
So he thinks, Ive got no problem.
I’ve got no option.
Im just going to sit down.
As to the question of the TARDIS and chairs, I hand you over to the showrunner.
If there were chairs on that thing, theyd all have to be on wires.
All your conversations would be about chairs.
We couldn’t get away with it.
She knows because he doesn’t sit down.
He’s flying through time and space.
That machine is actually probably the most dangerous thing you could ever be in.
“I’m a terrible cook, Im a terrible lover.
I’m terrible at everything, but I’m not bad at writing.”
We need to get him like an anti-gravity beanbag or something!
What makes those characters so interesting for you as writers?
Everything they do has to be part of the story or of the story of them.
Every line, every moment counts.
DAVIES: Also, we’re writers.
Thats what we do.
It’s why we’re here.
I’m a terrible cook, Im a terrible lover.
I’m terrible at everything, but I’m not bad at writing.
Its literally what we do and why we love doing what we do and make a living doing it.
Also, we’d be doing it even if we weren’t being paid for it.
Its just the way our heads are wired.
She also uses the hotel room as a metaphor for what she and the Doctor think they deserve.
DAVIES: I cant believe Steve has been creeping metaphors into this.
MOFFAT: It was a mistake, man.
I didn’t know it was a metaphor.
I thought it was a simile!
Theres no specific answer to that question because that’s always changing and always staying the same.
We jump, hop, and skip to different people coming into the TARDIS for different reasons.
Shes alone and shes sad.
Very odd to meet a regular companion like that.
Very odd to feel that the Doctor was healing and fixing her somehow.
There is no proper answer to that simply because the nature ofDoctor Whokeeps changing.
It’s also a sounding board.
Shell find fault with him, she’ll take joy in what he does.
It’s a program that covers a whole range of human emotions.
MOFFAT: I always have the same answer to this question.
I’m really very happy where I am.
I’ll just stay right here, thank you.
Why the fuck would I go anywhere else?
I mean, this is as good as it gets.
DAVIES: Well, I’ve told you this before, Ive got a great answer to this.
I wish to God I’d been there.
We still sit in fear and laughter, remembering that.
The people who were there speak of it as legend.
Id just be over the kitchen window like this… Oh mygod, I wish Id been there!
MOFFAT: Did she have a go at you in your absence?
DAVIES: They never said!
And also, she’s comingthisChristmas.
MOFFAT: Well, [bring] her up and see what happens!
[Laughs]
DAVIES: I’m going to be pouring those drinks like crazy.
“Joy to the World” is now available to watch on Disney+ and BBC iPlayer.
you’re able to watch previous episodes ofDoctor Whoon Disney+ now.
