THOWBACK THURSDAY: David Tennant On The Set Of Doctor Who's Doomsday


Today's Throwback Thursday post is a collection of photos from the filming of the 2006 Doctor Who episode Doomsday.

It's the end of an epic journey as two mighty armies wage war across the Earth. As an unstoppable terror emerges, the Doctor faces an even greater dilemma - does saving the world mean the death of Rose Tyler?



Doomsday is the final episode of David Tennant's debut series as the Doctor and sees his companion Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper, bow out..
Doomsday was filmed in the same production block as Rise Of The Cybermen, The Age Of Steel and Army Ghosts, to ensure that the actors who would be appearing in all episodes, such as Shaun Dingwall and Noel Clarke would be available to film their scenes.
Russell T Davies previously toyed with the idea of calling Army Of Ghosts and Doomsday, Torchwood Rises and Torchwood Falls. 


The scene in which Rose is rescued from the void by Pete Tyler caused debate amongst production staff and cast members. Writer Russell T Davies and executive producer Julie Gardner felt that she should be saved by Pete, as this would emphasise his acceptance of Rose as his daughter. However, some thought was given to giving the role of rescuer to Rose's on /off boyfriend Mickey Smith,  with  producer Phil Collinson and Mickey actor Noel Clarke both keen for him to act as Rose's saviour.


The idea that the Genesis Ark needed to be activated by a time traveller was thought up to give an excuse for the Daleks to keep Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith alive for so long.
When writing the episode Davies also thought that this would provide the motivation for why the Daleks would have invaded 21st century London. He reasoned that the Daleks would find it the most likely place to track down the Doctor and one of his companions.  However he decided not to make this an obvious fact of the story as he felt it would place too much responsibility upon the Doctor and implicate him in the many deaths.


To safeguard the final conversation between the Doctor and Rose, only David Tennant and Billie Piper and essential members of crew were given the final pages of the script. 


Only essential crew made the journey to Southerndown Beach, in Ogmore Vale near Bridgend, on January 16th 2006 where Billie was to film Rose's final scenes at Darlig Ulv Stranden or as we know it Bad Wolf Bay.


Although at the time of recording Rose's final scene Billie still had five episodes left to film, it was still a highly emotional shoot for the actress who ended up in floods of tears.
It was also the last day of recording for both Noel Clarke and Shaun Dingwall.


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