Steven Moffat has spoken to the BBC about bringing back the eighth Doctor, Paul McGann for today’s amazing mini-episode.
Question: How did The Night of the Doctor come about?
Steven Moffat: Well, we had our new ‘hidden mystery’ Doctor
and I was thinking, what else can we do for our anniversary year… I
thought… Why don’t we get Paul McGann in and regenerate him into John
Hurt? I’d like to see that! I’d love to see that! And we had
this possibility that we could do it as a surprise, so we got in touch
with Paul who was dead keen and I’m delighted to say he was so happy to
join in with the idea of keeping it secret. He was childishly excited
about it!
Paul came along and shot it – it was the last two days of the shoot
for the fiftieth, actually. He did a wonderful job. It was great! We
designed a new costume for him based on his old one. Howard Burden did a
fantastic job with that.
Q: It was a well-kept
secret! How important was that for you, and what measures did you go to,
to ensure this regeneration was kept under wraps?
SM: We were phenomenally secret with the making of it! And
I’m sure some people are a bit cross that we were so secretive but the
fact is, there is only one way to ensure you keep a secret, and that’s
to keep it! So, we kept it very tight and we hope it all came as great
surprise to everyone.
Q: For those that don’t know him, could you describe the Eighth Doctor?
SM: The Eighth Doctor is perhaps the first of the sexy,
romantic Doctors. I don’t mean he’s the first sexy Doctor – he’s not.
But he’s the first one who kisses a lady, for example. He’s obviously
dashing, terribly handsome and quite romantic. I always found it hard to
imagine him fighting in the Time War. I’d always imagined the ‘Time War
Doctor’ would be more grizzled, somehow, you know?
Paul only played the Doctor onscreen once before, in the TV Movie. He
gives a wonderful performance in it. It’s a terrifically exuberant
performance and it anticipates the later performances, particularly of
Matt and David. He’s a dashing, romantic, very funny and very affecting
Doctor! Of course, Paul is not only known for the telemovie but for all
his wonderful audio adventures. I’m always telling the Doctors and
companions, as they come through the show, that they’ll never be quite
done with it – Big Finish is expecting them.
Q: It’s
an interesting spin on the Time War – the Time Lords becoming this hated
race, as bad as the Daleks in some people’s eyes. Will we see that play
out with John Hurt’s Doctor and so on?
SM: We will see some of that play out. We’ve already seen
some of it play out on the show, in The End of Time, where the Doctor
reveals the Time Lords got as bad as the Daleks towards the end, and he
was as worried by them as anything else. And we know the Doctor wiped
out his own people. He wouldn’t do so unless things had got pretty bad. Genocide is a big decision for anyone!
Q: People seemed delighted when they heard the Sisterhood of Karn was returning. Did that surprise you?
SM: A
little bit! I was terribly excited about having the Sisterhood of Karn
coming back which is why I did it! But I should probably learn to have a
little more faith in the fact that what gets me excited as a sad, old
fan will get other people excited as well! And okay, the Sisterhood are
unknown to the kids, but I was a kid when I first saw the Sisterhood and
I thought they were great! So I’m hoping other people will like them!
Q: And the character the Doctor encounters in the mini episode… Is that supposed to be Ohica, from The Brain of Morbius?
SM: No! If you look at the credits you’ll see I called her
Ohila so it suggests she’s in some way connected to Ohica. Instead of
having that confusion in having it the same person, I thought we’d just
imply they were connected.
Q: Finally, running a show
like Doctor Who is always going to be hard work… But how much fun was
it? Bringing back the Eighth Doctor?
SM: Oh, it was a complete treat! It was always frustrating
that we never got to see more of him! The completist in me… the ‘box set
man’ in me wants
every box ticked and I wanted
every regeneration
scene! And we get to see the Paul McGann Doctor regenerate into the
John Hurt Doctor! I love regeneration episodes – there’s nothing more
exciting! And in the anniversary year we get to see two regenerations…
That’s pretty cool!
Source
This evening at 7pm on BBC One's magazine programme The One Show, celebrated 50 years of Doctor Who with an hour long
special with guests Jenna Coleman (Clara), John Hurt (The War Doctor), with Giles Brandwith interviewing
current showrunner Steven Moffat about the fiftieth episode The Day of the Doctor. 
The unveiling took place during the week of the 50th anniversary of the BBC sci-fi series.
Jenna: "I knew it was going to be sad, but it was really traumatic. It was very emotiomal and overwhelming. It's a stranger thing but, it's the nature of the show. Matt leaves and Peter arrives in his costume, and the scen carries on. You just keep going - that's the show"
