The Eleventh Hour photoshoot

The new series of Doctor Who started this week, and I thought I’d bring you some more pictures from my massive Cardiff photoshoot earlier this year.

After finishing in Cardiff Bay where we visited Eddie’s Diner as seen in The Impossible Astronaut; and The Millennium Centre as featured extensively in The Girl Who Waited as well as New Earth, we packed up and headed towards Southerndown Beach.

Literally on the way to the beach is the village of Llandaff, which has popped up several times in the new series.

In 2006 it was used in Human Nature and Family Of Blood where it was the setting for the Farringham School for boys; in the same story the cathedral was where John and Joan get married; the cathedral was used again in 2010 as the church in Vincent And The Doctor.

But its most recognisable appearance was in The Eleventh Hour, when it was used as the principle location for Amy Pond’s home town of Leadworth.

So we thought we’d have a bit of fun.

We already had our superb Eleveth Doctor look-a-like, Matt Elliott; plus our Amy Pond, Lisa Baxter - so the obvious thing to do was to recreate the scene where The Doctor tries to placate an irate Amy Pond!

Lisa has her own Amy Pond kissogram outfit, so that was easy; I was able to quickly pull together the Doctor costume by providing the tie and a pair of genuine GAP trousers. Matt supplied a cheap shirt from Primark, which Lisa appropriately distressed.

Shooting with a sports setting on my camera, we did half a dozen takes of the pair walking up the hill away from the cathedral.

We attracted a small audience, wondering if it was the real thing!
They soon realised it wasn’t, but a couple of school girls asked if they could have their photo taken with our look-a-likes, which was fun.



Our plans for some further shots had to be curtailed, as we realised the Olympic Flame - as referenced in Fear Her - was due to come right through the village on one of its early stages. (The following day Matt Smith carried it a few hundred yards in Cardiff city centre).

The Girl Who STILL Waited - episode 2

Today is the second part of The Girl Who STILL Waited, from my massive Cardiff photoshoot.

While the two Amys have been searching for The Doctor, and older Amy has discovered the Eleventh Doctor behind a door . . .

INT: TWO STREAMS FACILITY - UPPER LEVEL
Discovered by Amy, The Doctor has some explaining to do, after all she has been waiting a long time.

No matter what he says, the feisty Amy counters his every move. She’s having none of it.

Meanwhile . . .

INT: TWO STREAMS FACILITY - LOBBY
While the Eleventh Doctor is fending off an angry Amy Pond, the familiar buzz of a hand-held sonic device echoes through the empty lobby.

It is the Tenth Doctor, who has traced his other self and the parallel Amys through a time displacement in the vortex.

He knows he must close the displacement to prevent a potentially universal catastrophe.

Tracing the signal he finds his way to the upper levels, where he surprises both his other self and the aggrieved Amy Pond.

Strangely the Tenth Doctor has a calming effect on Amy, and he soon has her under control, to the irritation of the Eleventh Doctor.

INT: TWO STREMS FACILITY - LOBBY
Back in the lobby the Tenth Doctor and Amy are getting on like a house on fire. She is entranced by his tales of adventures on distant planets, meeting exotic aliens and saving the universe. All the Eleventh Doctor can do is sit and listen, feeling increasingly left out.

But it’s Amy’s choice - who will she choose to travel with? The charismatic Tenth or the ever-faithful Eleventh Doctor?

There isn’t really a choice to make - the Eleventh Doctor is AMY’s Doctor!

I’d like to thank Matt Elliott, Kevin Coppa and Lisa Baxter for modelling for the photoshoot and an extra special thanks to the management of the Cardiff Millennium Centre who granted us special access to the upper galleries.

The Girl Who STILL Waited - episode 1

Today I’ve got some more pictures from my Cardiff photoshoot.

As well as visiting Eddie’s Diner, we also gained very special access to the Cardiff Millennium Centre. Not only was it the venue for the recent Official Doctor Who Convention, it was also the location used in the David Tennant story New Earth and the Matt Smith adventure The Girl Who Waited.

I had originally met our Amy Pond for the day, Lisa Baxter, at last years Entertainment Media Show, where she debuted her armour barely two weeks after The Girl Who Waited was broadcast.
So when I was planning our Cardiff shoot, I knew SHE was the one Amy I wanted along!

I made a particular point of approaching the Cardiff Millennium Centre so we could visit the upper galleries and see the doors where Amy wrote her lipstick message to The Doctor.

Here is the first part of our mini episode - The Girl Who STILL Waited.

INT: TWO STREAMS FACILITY - LOBBY
Amy has found herself trapped in a parallel timeline, isolated from The Doctor and Rory.

In the lobby she hears a voice from above....

INT: TWO STREAM FACILITY - GALLERY
Later Amy, now many years older, meets her younger self.
The two Amys devise a plan to find The Doctor, and they set out to search the facility until they find him.

Amy finds herself drawn to a door where she had earlier left a message for The Doctor.

Touching the door she feels a connection to her Time Lord custodian.

Suddenly the door flies open to reveal THE DOCTOR . . . 

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Eleventh Hour - the two Matts

This past weekend was The Eleventh Hour convention in Birmingham.

It marks Matt Smith’s first ever appearance at an independent convention – as opposed to the Official Convention in Cardiff back in March.

Lots of people went and many had their photo taken with the man himself – but there was only ONE photo I wanted to see . . . .

A Meeting Of Doctors - episode 4

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, having met up at a diner on an abandoned highway in the Utah desert, spent their time syncing diaries.

In the final part of A Meeting of Doctors from my massive Cardiff photoshoot, the Doctors compare the size of their equipment . . .

INT: DINER ON ABANDONED HIGHWAY

Having mysteriously met at a diner on an abandoned highway, the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors are now locked in a sonic battle of wits, each matching the other’s moves.

How can the deadlock be broken?

It takes companion Amy Pond to come up with the solution: a round of milkshakes!

The Doctors share the milkshake with Eleven’s own straws that make it taste fizzy.

At last the Time Lords are united over a common liking for strawberry milkshakes!



“Let’s shake on it!” says Ten.

THE END

I’d like to thank everyone involved in making this photo shoot happen. To Matt, Kevin and Lisa for being patient models and Daniel Pawlik for making the diaries

A Meeting Of Doctors - episode 3

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, having met up at a diner on an abandoned highway in the Utah desert, spent their time syncing diaries.

In the third part of A Meeting Of Doctors from my massive Cardiff photoshoot, the Doctors compare the size of their equipment . . .

INT: DINER ON ABANDONED HIGHWAY
The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors have finally synced their diaries – to the relief of Amy Pond!

But attention quickly turns to The Doctor’s trusty sonic screwdriver, and it soon becomes apparent Eleven’s has many more settings than Ten’s.

Before long Ten is suffering from sonic envy.

Amy tries to reassure Ten that size isn’t everything – it’s how you use it.

But with their sonics locked in a temporal battle, Amy is looking exasperated! Can she bring make peace between her boys?

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Meeting of Doctors - episode 2

Last time on A Meeting Of Doctors, the Tenth Doctor found himself invited to a lone diner on an abandoned highway in the Utah desert.

In the second part of A Meeting Of Doctors from my massive Cardiff photoshoot, the Doctors get things up to date . . .

INT: DINER ON ABANDONED HIGHWAY
The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, along with Amy Pond, have found themselves invited to a diner on an abandoned Utah highway.
Unable to resolve who sent the invitation, the Doctors set about syncing their diaries.

After half an hour of timelines and paradoxes, Amy is thoroughly fed up, wishing she had stayed in the TARDIS with Rory, who stayed behind to check his emails.

Using River Song’s diary, which he has sneakily borrowed, The Tenth Doctor starts reading about his future exploits... and seems to be finding more than he bargained for.

Meanwhile, the Eleventh Doctor is also reading of future events.

A visit to the American wild west; bumping into further past selves; a fatal encounter with weeping angels; and a space ship filled with dinosaurs particularly pique his interest.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Meeting Of Doctors - episode 1

The fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who is coming into view on the horizon, and talk is turning to the notion of the ever popular multi-Doctor episode.

As part of my massive Cardiff photoshoot last month we imagined what it could be like if two of the Doctors met face to face for the first time . . .

So today I am bringing you the first part of A Meeting Of Doctors from the main photoshoot, where I brought together Kevin Coppa, one of the best 10th Doctor cosplayers; and Matt Elliott, the most awesome 11th Doctor look-a-like.

EXT: UTAH DESERT
The Doctor’s TARDIS lands in the inhospitable landscape.

The Tenth Doctor steps out. Putting his glasses on he looks around, then heads for a lone diner on a nearby abandoned highway.

Once The Doctor is out of sight, the whirring noise of the TARDIS is heard again, but it is not his TARDIS leaving - it is a second TARDIS landing...

INT: DINER ON ABANDONED HIGHWAY
The Tenth Doctor finds a table at the diner, orders a milkshake and takes out a mysterious blue envelope. Inside is an invitation. He does not know who it is from or why he has been invited. All he knows is this is the right place - and time.

He doesn’t have to wait long before a tall, mop-headed, younger looking model of his later self boldly walks into the diner.

He too is carrying a blue enveloped invite - as is his companion Amy Pond!

They join the Tenth Doctor at the table.It isn’t long before confusion ensues: Who invited Who?

TO BE CONTINUED...