Whithouse Explains Dangerous Doctor
Whithouse told SFX: “That was the sequence that took the longest time to get right. The sequence where the Doctor is kind of forced to use a gun, giving the right sort of emotional journey to that took a lot of finessing, and that was the scene that, from draft to draft, would change the most regularly because the Doctor is a confirmed pacifist and so putting him in that situation is a wonderful opportunity in that it forces you to confront it, and provides you with enormous tension and drama which, as a writer, is what you want.”
Whithouse also spoke about exploring a more dangerous side to the Doctor: “That was enormous fun because to write him as a slightly more kind of volatile and unpredictable character was really refreshing and exciting – to make him a little more dangerous in that sense. And, you know, it was interesting to mark the other characters’ opinions of that. I really enjoyed it and I think it added a nice kind of frisson to the character.”
