Nothing is too dark for Doctor Who, writers insist

Speaking to RadioTimes.com to celebrate the publication of their Target novelisations, various Doctor Who writers considered where the line is - and ultimately decided that, if tackled correctly, there's nothing too dark for Doctor Who.

Phil Ford, who wrote the terrifying David Tennant episode The Waters of Mars, recalled: "I remember, I grew up with Jon Pertwee predominantly and, looking back, I remember stories like The Green Death being really quite scary for me as a kid.

"I'm not so sure that it's moved away from that so much, I have no doubt that there will be another Doctor Who story coming down the road that will be every bit as scary, if not more than The Waters of Mars.

"I think scaring kids is what I've always enjoyed doing! Whether it's in Doctor Who or Sarah Jane [Adventures]... I think Russell put it to me a long time ago that it's OK to scare kids, what you don't want to do is terrify them and scar them!"

He added: "I've met at conventions an awful lot of kids that admitted they were scared by The Waters of Mars, but not so much to traumatise them! They loved it because it's scary."

Ford went on to say: "The Waters of Mars, from my point of view, was always going to be scary because that's what I like to do. I think the team around Doctor Who then and now is just so good at what it does, I think we all have confidence in each other in knowing just how far we can go.

"And certainly, whenever I went too far, I knew Russell was going to pull me up on something... my memory of Russell is not so much hauling me back on The Waters of Mars, but on other episodes, him pushing me harder to make things even scarier and even bleaker in some cases! Which is just wonderful, because he has this amazing opinion – and talent to back it up – that really there is no story you can't tell for kids. It's just a question of how you tell that story."

Peter Harness, writer of The Zygon Invasion/Inversion two-parter in season 9, added: "It depends on what kind of darkness it is... I think you can skate around nearly everything.

"You don't have to do it on the nose but I think you can more or less, as far as I'm concerned, cover most things because it's always been a show which has darkness in it and horror and nightmarish fairytale elements.

"I think it gets quite close when that poor Zygon decides to electrocute himself but maybe we got away with that! That wasn't something that people really bumped against, I think they found it moving and horrifying but I don't recall anyone saying, 'Christ, that's a bit too dark.'

"I don't think Doctor Who should be dark all the time, maybe I feel that my episodes in general were a little bit grave! I would have liked to have tried more light-hearted ones. But I don't think there's anywhere you can't go in Doctor Who."

Meanwhile, Keith Temple, who wrote the David Tennant story Planet of the Ood, said: "Thank goodness we're past the days of Mary Whitehouse! There are other sorts of censorship restrictions we have to take into account but I don't think there are any topics that Doctor Who can't handle, as long as it's done well. Really, Doctor Who, if you look at every story, there's so much death and mayhem in it!

"People maybe don't realise how much there is in the way of death. Doctor Who is a family show, there are a lot of young people who watch it, and children - you have to be careful as a writer and a programme maker that you address all those ages within the episode and that makes it quite a difficult show but as long as you don't patronise children, you can do anything, I think. There are no barriers to what you can do."

Target novelisations of The Waters of Mars, The Zygon Invasion and Planet of the Ood are available to buy now.

Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer with episodes of the classic series also available on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here.

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