Production
Following the success of the opening episode of the first series, the BBC announced that Doctor Who had been recommissioned for both a second series and a Christmas special on 30 March 2005. Recording for the Christmas special began in July 2005, with production on the series itself beginning on 1 August 2005 and concluding on 31 March 2006.
New writers for the show included Toby Whithouse, creator of the Channel 4 drama No Angels, Tom MacRae, creator of Sky One's Mile High, Matt Jones, also a prolific script editor and producer, and Matthew Graham, co-creator of the BBC science fiction series Life on Mars. Previous writers Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies all contributed to the series, with Davies continuing to act as head writer and executive producer. Phil Collinson produced all episodes, with Julie Gardner as executive producer. The series was directed by James Hawes, Euros Lyn, James Strong, Dan Zeff and Graeme Harper, who had directed episodes of the programme's original run.
The second series encompassed a loose story arc based around the word "Torchwood", which first appeared in the 2005 episode "Bad Wolf". The mythology of Torchwood is built across the series; in "The Christmas Invasion" it is revealed to be a secret organisation which possesses alien technology, and its establishment is shown in "Tooth and Claw". Contemporary Torchwood is finally visited by the Doctor and Rose in "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday", at which point it is situated within London's Canary Wharf and accidentally allows the invasion of the Cybermen and, subsequently, the Daleks. The Doctor and Rose are forcibly separated by these events, which lead to Rose's entrapment within a parallel universe.
The Doctor and Rose are indirectly responsible for their separation; their enjoyment of the events of "Tooth and Claw" horrifies Queen Victoria and leads to the establishment of Torchwood. Over a century later, the institute's foolish actions are resolved at the expense of the Doctor and Rose's companionship. "It's deliberate when that happens ", said head writer Russell T Davies, "and they do pay the price. In "Tooth and Claw", they set up the very thing — Torchwood — that separates them in the end. It's sort of their own fault."
Production blocks were arranged as follows:
| Block | Episodes | Director | Writers | Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Christmas Invasion" "School Reunion" "New Earth" |
James Hawes | Russell T Davies Toby Whithouse Russell T Davies |
2.X 2.3 2.1 |
| 2 | "Tooth and Claw" "The Girl in the Fireplace" |
Euros Lyn | Russell T Davies Steven Moffat |
2.2 2.4 |
| 3 | "Rise of the Cybermen" "The Age of Steel" "Army of Ghosts" "Doomsday" |
Graeme Harper | Tom MacRae Russell T Davies |
2.5 2.6 2.12 2.13 |
| "Doctor Who: Children in Need" "Attack of the Graske" |
Euros Lyn Ashley Way |
Russell T Davies Gareth Roberts |
CIN - |
|
| 4 | "The Idiot's Lantern" "Fear Her" |
Euros Lyn | Mark Gatiss Matthew Graham |
2.7 2.11 |
| 5 | "Love & Monsters" | Dan Zeff | Russell T Davies | 2.10 |
| 6 | "The Impossible Planet" "The Satan Pit" |
James Strong | Matt Jones | 2.8 2.9 |
A Children in Need special and an interactive episode, entitled "Attack of the Graske", were both produced alongside the series.
A series of 13 TARDISODEs were also produced. These mini-episodes (approximately 60 seconds in length) served as prequels to each forthcoming episode, and were available for download to mobile phones and viewable at the official Doctor Who website. The TARDISODEs were recorded intermittently from 31 January to 8 April 2006.
Read more about this topic: Doctor Who (series 2)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)