Doctor Who: Death Is The Only Answer
Wednesday, 24 August 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
During the course of this summer, a competition was run by the BBC Learning Department and Doctor Who Confidential to promote creativity in schools by writing a short Doctor Who script featuring the Doctor, a monster and an adversary.The BBC Press Office have now reported that the winning entry, Death Is The Only Answer, was written by pupils of Oakley Junior School in Basingstoke, and chosen by Doctor Who's head writer Steven Moffat, executive producers Beth Willis and Piers Wenger, and the Controller of BBC Learning, Saul Nassé.
Steven Moffat said:
I loved the shortlisted scripts, there was so much skill and enthusiasm on display that it was actually genuinely, very, very difficult to judge. There was some really, really skilled writing, it was very exciting how they caught the voice of the Doctor and how they used the always stringent limitations of Doctor Who to their advantage.
I come from a family of teachers, I was a teacher, my father's a teacher, my sister's a teacher. We go back teacher generations so it's hard wired for me to want the approval of teachers, so I'm very, very thrilled that its gone down so well with the schools that took part.
I come from a family of teachers, I was a teacher, my father's a teacher, my sister's a teacher. We go back teacher generations so it's hard wired for me to want the approval of teachers, so I'm very, very thrilled that its gone down so well with the schools that took part.
Saul Nassé said:
We've been delighted by the response from schools to the competition. We really wanted to motivate children to learn new writing skills and create the next generation of storytellers. Schools have really engaged in the competition and the standard of the writing has shown us that there is a wealth of talent out there which we have been able to tap into and hopefully encourage in the future. It's a great example of a really popular BBC show inspiring people do something truly educational.
The winning script has been made into a "mini-episode" to feature on BBC3 on 1st October, the same day as Doctor Who's series finale, The Wedding of River Song, is scheduled to be broadcast. Doctor Who Confidential followed the whole production process of making the episode from script through to filming, which will form part of this weekend's edition straight after Let's Kill Hitler at 8:00pm over on BBC3.
The Doctor himself, Matt Smith, added when recording the episode:
It was so clever, we were all just bowled over, it was a brilliant script.
Kevin Downing, a Year Six teacher at the school, said the pupils involved in the project were over the moon at winning:
Getting the call to say the pupils were on the shortlist of ten was an unbelievable moment – the thought that Steven Moffat himself would be reading their script! As for winning, it was the experience of a lifetime and one we'll never forget.
Details of the monster/adversary that the Doctor will face in the three minute special are to be revealed on broadcast.
(news Link: BBC News)
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