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Chris Chibnall and Michelle Collins on 42 - Radio Times, May 2007 |
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"We were running around
in vests and combats,"
says Michelle Collins,
"covered in baby oil
and sprayed with water. It was very
uncomfortable, because baby oil makes
you feel really yucky, and I had to have
it on my hair and hands, and my hands
had to be filthy." Collins is recalling
her Doctor Who debut, playing cargo
spaceship captain McDonnell.
Not a typical
role for the ex-EastEnder then -
light years from
Walford, in fact,
as Collins's ship
is heading for a
distant sun. So
the atmosphere
is necessarily hot,
hence the spray to give the actors that
dripping-with-sweat look. "You got
used to it," says Collins. "It was quite
liberating not wearing even a bit of
mascara, because if I had done it
would have been all over my face in
two minutes. I was a bit worried about
that no-make-up look to start with,
then I just thought, 'Oh, go for it!'"
The writer of the episode - entitled
42 - is also Torchwood's lead writer,
Chris Chibnall. He sees the parallels
with last season's two-parter, The
Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit: "I'd
say it's set in the same visual universe.
The similarity, really, is that there's a
group of people working hard for
a living and there's trouble in their
midst. It's about a crew of people
coping with dangerous events."
The Doctor and Martha land in
the middle of
that peril, to
aid Collins and
her small crew.
Mention
spaceships,
grime and vests
and the name
Ripley is rarely
far behind. The tough heroine of the Alien
films, played by Sigourney Weaver,
was probably somewhere in her
subconscious while she played the
part, says Collins: "It was a very
physical role, quite tomboyish, quite
masculine. McDonnell's living in a
man's world, really, and as captain
she has to be strong and confident,
but she's also very passionate
about her crew, so she's a bit
Ripley-esque in that sense."
How, then, to realise a huge
spaceship somewhere in
Wales? Last season, the
designers built an interior
and corridors on Doctor Who's Cardiff
set. This year, they used a vast, disused
paper mill just outside the city. And
here's the catch: the actors, who are
meant to be working in a stifling heat,
filmed the story last January.
"The set looked fantastic," says
Collins, "but it was freezing, running
around dressed as we were - and I'd
just come back from [a holiday in]
Bali! After we finished filming, I was
really ill." Chibnall, who visited the
set to watch his story unfold, agrees:
"Between takes, they had heaters on
full blast and everybody had a coat on.
I was only there for half a day because
I felt guilty! But the location is
superb; there's a real sense of scale."
In his RT episode guide, Who
supremo Russell T Davies mentioned
a phrase that will crop up, "Burn
with me". Chibnall explains: "There
seems to be a great tradition of evil
phrase-making in Doctor Who - 'Are
you my mummy?' and 'Delete!' spring
to mind. We wanted a phrase that was
unnerving and hopefully memorable.
It always crops up just before 'bad
things happen'."
**
Now take a look at our full Doctor Who guide.
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