BBC One and BBC America have released a series of featurettes about the mid-season finale.
You can read my thoughts on the episode and Doctor Who‘s future over here, but if you want to know what the show runners themselves think, we’ve got this video of a chat session the producers gave after the episode pre-premiered to a room full of critics and fans last week. A warning though: since this was shot in a room full of people who have already seen the episode, there is no care taken for spoilers:
They give a nice recap of the clues about where next season will be going near the end there, but Moffatt outright refuses to answer the question from the audience about Jenna-Louise Coleman’s role in the season premiere, The Asylum of the Daleks. We already know that Coleman will be playing the part of the Doctor’s new companion, yet seemed to witness her death in that episode.
If you recall, when the Doctor first met River Song, it was on the last day of her life as well, but we knew what was going on there because River recognized the Doctor, and told him outright that they would meet, out of order, in his future. Coleman’s Character, Oswin, had no such comment, and didn’t act as though she recognized the doctor at all. Perhaps her transformation at the hands of the Daleks destroyed part of her mind. Perhaps she inadvertantly erased the doctor from her past-self’s memory when she saved him from the Dalek assembly. Perhaps the Doctor finds a way to go back and TARDIS her out of the asylum in the moments before the explosion – though that might be tough, her not having a body and all.
However this all comes about will likely be answered in the holiday special, in which her character becomes the new companion, but in the meantime, it does seem quite the time-travel puzzle.
The BBC has also revealed this behind-the-scenes featurette with footage from the filming of the last few seasons mixed with the reactions of the three stars and more from Stephen Moffatt:
Looks like not all the emotion in final scenes of the episode were acting. These actors have clearly developed quite a bond over the years. We can only hope that Smith and Coleman will be able to have this kind of friendly chemistry.
BBC America had this additional featurette, in which the stars are jokingly asked what prop they would take off the set, given the chance.
Finally, the actors discuss what advice they would have for Coleman upon her induction to the show:
The second half of the season begins in the new year, but in between we’ll have that holiday episode. An exact airing date has not yet been announced, but in the past the Doctor Who holiday episodes have shown very near Christmas Day, if not on it.
