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 Filming in the Forest! The remainder of the location recording for The Tamaras Crisis was carried out at Nonsuch Park in Surrey, about 10 minutes drive away. Nonsuch has plenty of fairly secluded woodland which was ideal for our requirements, but unfortunately the woodland was right in the middle of the park rather than near one of the entrances, and the proximity of the car park in relation to our chosen filming spot meant that we had to carry the two sides and roof of the Police Box over about half a mile of parkland in order to reach it.
we walked across the park carrying these strange items, and in fact there’s a scene during the story where a lady can be seen in the distance walking her dog. Fortunately, she happened to be wearing something purple which was similar to the costume that Paula was wearing, and Andrew’s line of dialogue in the scene happened to be, ‘Shh, someone’s coming!’ I’m not sure I could explain the dog, though. The Rani’s own version of K9, perhaps?
Next Episode: Production Problems!
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Although
not physically difficult to pick up and hold on to, the side panels of the
prop were nevertheless quite heavy, and for the poor sod in front who had
to walk with his or her arms stretched out behind them whilst carrying it,
it was especially difficult. To compound the issue, this particular day
was a Saturday or Sunday if I remember correctly, so consequently there
were lots of people around either out playing with their kids or walking
their dogs. They were understandably curious as
The
other reason for our decision to film in isolated spots was the fact that
the costumes that Stephen and I wore in the story consisted of a plastic
Spider Man facemask dressed with paper-maché and painted green to disguise
its commercial origins, and a cotton sheet worn over our head, torso and
upper legs! Apart from being very difficult to ‘act’ in, these costumes
would I’m sure have attracted several unwanted members of the public to
stop and watch us filming, and would therefore have been extremely
embarrassing for us! A particular incident I remember at Nonsuch Park was
during the recording of an early scene which featured myself (not as the
Doctor at this point), my sister and Stephen Clancy. The scene involved us
walking slowly along a path in the forest where we were filming whilst
saying our lines of dialogue, which as I recall was some fairly heavy
‘techno-babble’ and was therefore quite difficult to remember. After
numerous fluffed takes I eventually got the giggles and couldn’t keep a
straight face (even though I was wearing a mask), and this resulted in
several slaps from my sister and a grand total of 27 takes to complete the
scene. It made me realise exactly what actors mean when they speak of
getting very tired and lethargic when takes are constantly repeated, a
situation which eventually results in continual corpsing. There were
various other out-takes during the production, in fact enough to warrant a
compilation on a separate tape for us to watch in isolation.