Q. and A.: Caroline Skinner, Executive Producer of \'Doctor Who\'

By STEVE SMITH

On Saturday night, fans of the long-running British science-fiction series “Doctor Who” will celebrate the start of a new season that may be among its most ambitious and turbulent. In a paradox that a dimension-spanning Time Lord from Gallifrey would surely appreciate, the new season, the seventh since “Doctor Who” was revived in 2005, leads up to celebrations next year for the 50th anniversary of the show's birth in 1963.

In an interview at the BBC America offices in Manhattan, just before a preview screening of the season-premiere episode, “Asylum of the Daleks,” at the Ziegfeld Theater, Caroline Skinner, an executive producer for the series, talked about the rising American profile of the show and its star, Matt Smith; the imminent departure of Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, who portray the Doctor's companions; the arrival of a new companion, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, in this year's Christmas special; an d the plans Steven Moffat, the chief writer and an executive producer, is hatching for the present season and beyond. Below are edited excerpts of the conversation.

In years past, “Doctor Who” attracted a devoted cult following in the United States, but now the show seems to be breaking into mainstream consciousness. What does success in America mean to the health and profile of the franchise back at home?

Well, it's a thrill, for a start: Last year we were top of the U.S. iTunes, which Steven and I were so delighted by. “Doctor Who” is one of the most quintessentially British ideas; for anyone in the U.K., you're kind of born with “Doctor Who” in your DNA, to a certain extent. Obviously we work very hard to reach out to the U.K. mainstream audience, but the fact that it's cutting through in the U.S., where there isn't that context, is just phenomenal. One of the things that was so exciting about shooting over here was that you very much felt from the reaction that we were getting â€" and from the viewing figures and the download figures â€" that it's not “‘Doctor Who,' that quintessentially British show that we import”; it's just “Doctor Who,” and everybody knows what it is as a show in its own right.

Did filming last year's season-opening episodes in America have a discernible impact on how the show is consumed here? Is that what brought you back here to shoot Amy and Rory's farewell in New York?

Since Steven and Matt took over the show, there's been a marked increase in audience appreciation and ratings over here. The stories that Steven's been telling in the last couple of series, and Matt's performance with such dexterity and wit, seem to really speak to that kind of fresh American audience. The demographic over here is slightly different to the one in the U.K., because it's really appealing to a slightly cultier, twentysomething audience. And I think that that is a combination of Matt's crazy brilliance and the absolute gymnastics and massive imagination of Steven's writing.

We've been pushing the production values on every episode, which is one of the reasons why we've been shooting abroad more often. The U.S. is always one of those places where as soon as you start to talk about big genre ideas â€" it's just the place to come to. This year, we set out to make five big movies every week. Steven, when he briefed the writers, was very clear that he wanted each of those pieces to be a big genre piece, which is then sideswiped because it's got a crazy “Doctor Who” spin on it. As a result, we've done three foreign shoots in the space of five episodes, which is pretty amazing going, really.

You've filmed new episodes in the U.S., Spain and …

The U.S. and two in Spain. For “Asylum of the Daleks” we went up into the Spanish mountains to shoot some of those enormous shots of the cast landing in the snow. Then Stev en briefed Toby Whithouse, who's the “Being Human” show runner, to do the biggest “Doctor Who” western episode ever â€" of course, we took it to Spain, which, joking aside, is where they shot the majority of the spaghetti westerns. We went down to two fort towns by Almería, in the south of Spain. The production values you can get there, and the sheer authenticity, feel absolutely amazing.

Then obviously we decided to set Karen and Arthur's last adventure in New York. From the moment that Steven decided he wanted their final story to be a Weeping Angels story, it just always felt that New York was right. He'd been over here on a family holiday and started pacing the city, visualizing the existing statues turning into monsters. In terms of atmosphere and tone, and also in terms of the scale of the landscape, it feels as if it was absolutely the right decision to make. It's such a city of dreams, and it needed to be somewhere that was huge and magical, that had t hat backdrop in every shot. It's a script that's going to break your heart, and there's just nowhere better to set it.

Is it liberating to know that replacing your principal actors and characters is part of the show's architecture?

Change is the essence of “Doctor Who,” and I think it's one of the reasons, or maybe the main reason, why the show has lasted so long in the U.K. Its core values are to keep refreshing itself and keep surprising you, and I think that's something that audiences always respond to.

Are you at all apprehensive about losing Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill?

It's a proper double-edged sword, because they're just so fantastic. Actually, I think that them leaving in the middle of this series was probably the perfect decision, sad as it was to see them go. They've been the longest-serving companions on the modern show. We're getting to a point where you're vaguely familiar and quite comfortable with who those three characters are and how they operate together. Steven and the writers have really been pushing them into quite interesting and funny and very dark places, and really challenging what that relationship means over the course of these episodes.

And then when they finally go, I think it will break everybody's hearts, because you've kind of grown up with them over those series. And it's meaningful; it feels like it's a proper loss. But that said, Jenna stepped onto the Tardis with Matt and completely changed everything about the show, but also about who the Doctor is in the context of that relationship. Those episodes, going forward from Christmas onward, are a real thrill. That's the joy and the heartbreak of “Doctor Who,” really, that you can feel both those things at the same time.