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Walkabout
Written by Adrian Hudson

Download Part 1 - 13.0mb, MP3 Download Part 2 - 12.0mb, MP3 "Production Notes" One of the main driving forces behind the story was to introduce a new companion for Joe's Doctor. Jenny (we decided that two-syllable names are the best for companions) was always meant to be more traditional companion after the Raman experiment. In the writer's guide I pointed to the Doctor/Tegan dynamic in The King's Demons as a template for their dialogue. But thanks to the skills of Adrian, she emerges in Walkabout as an individual rather than a generic plot device. Amy Ward was my only choice to play Jenny and I'm glad she accepted. After the pyrotechnics of the last story, I also wanted there to be a sense that time has past, that it has taken a while for the Doctor to repair the TARDIS and to recover himself. There is no arc plot to the second season. Instead we have four or five adventures which cross a variety of styles I hope. Production-wise this has been one of the smoothest rides yet. The bulk of the recording was carried out at Joe's house and we experimented with a full read-through, followed by a full performance, with people stepping up to the mics as required and an interval between the episodes. It was a pretty cheerful day and I think we surprised ourselves. The prologue was recorded later at Paul Grigg's home and it was great to be able to work with Paul again, several years after BBV's Conduct Unbecoming. On the sound effect front the biggest challenge was conveying the idea that the camels on this planet are robots. There are references in the script and I recorded some servo sounds that became the machines' legs. Walkabout has been a good way to relaunch the FineLine series in this strange new world which as a TV Doctor in it! "Writers Notes" 'Well Gareth, it's all about sand...' was my sales pitch this time. 'Just imagine how much fun we can have in the desert! It'll be like Doctor Who meets Indiana Jones. There'll be lost treasure, comedy aliens, nice carpets and, well, tons and tons of the yellow stuff.' My working title was actually 'Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With Sand' which I rather liked until I decided to rip-off Nic Roeg instead (what a great name he has!). Gareth, bless him, remained as optimistic as ever and sent me off with the required flexible deadline. This deadline became something of a mythical beast during the writing of Walkabout. I believe Gareth is currently working on a self-help book 'Crafty tricks to cure Deadline Dodgers'. In the final chapter he'll be detailing his ultimate weapon, where he posts a CD of the story which is set to follow yours. Fully completed and edited with a flashy cover and a number 8 on the spine (when yours is number 7). I was most excited at the chance to introduce a new companion and I reasoned that 'Jenny' was the great lost companion name, being absolutely perfect and never used. I tried to stick with the old Doctor Who tradition of making it totally obvious from scene 1 that this is the new companion. The listener can then hopefully sit back, relax and enjoy plenty of GNB (good-natured-banter) secure in the knowledge that all is right with the world. I tried to make Jenny a young woman who had endured a particularly harsh upbringing without giving her a lot of Ace-type angsty baggage. I believe the best companions are bright, fun, heroic and give as good as they get. Of course, with Jenny getting all the attention, I then turned to populating the rest of the story with wafer-thin cyphers who could carry the plot along and then helpfully expire in interesting ways. I gave them lots of funny lines so the listener wouldn't notice but the story is really all about The Doctor and Jenny. After reading Final Frame I got very excited at the opportunity it gave to dovetail into my story. I asked Gareth if we could script in a crash-landing on a planet of sand and thought that was pretty neat. I originally imagined a rather disturbed, depressed Doctor, sitting alone in a cave, refusing to save the galaxy anymore. I soon realised that this was a rubbish idea, people don't want to see a depressed Doctor! He's an alien. He shrugs off these things and gets on with the next adventure. That's why we love him! Many thanks, as always, to Gareth for letting me run with my silly ideas and for getting such a great cast. I really enjoyed working on Walkabout. Well it made me laugh. To order Walkabout on high quality CD, please click here. Contact Us Latest News Links Film Reviews Site Credits Profiles Green Room