Time Fracture: ‘It’s a Love Letter to All of Doctor Who, From William Hartnell to Jodie Whittaker’
There are books, graphic novels, stage shows, annuals, computer games, board games and full-cast audio adventures. The only thing a Who fan can’t do is physically inhabit the Who-niverse and feel what it is to be the Doctor or one of their companions.
Doctor Who: Time Fracture has opened in London’s Bond Street. The immersive theatre experience pits its participants against a smorgasbord of baddies. But what exactly is it; how does it work? And how did it come to be? We spoke to the show’s writer Daniel Dingsdale to find out.
A Different Show For Every Visitor
There’s a UNIT sign on one of the exit doors, the first of many Easter eggs in the Time Fracture tool-kit. It’s probably the Cybermen running interference, so Daniel swiftly whisks my avatar out into the world.
It will be a show you can walk in off the street having never watched an episode of Doctor Who and still have yourself a really cool, fun romp through space and time.
Audience members will roam through a vast studio landscape populated with 42 different characters, spread across 17 fully-realised worlds, moving through a story that’s both rigorously planned and gloriously open-ended. This is what differentiates the show from regular theatre – with its rows of seats or proscenium arch – and makes it truly immersive.
“The narrative has a defined beginning, middle and end, and an over-arching plot that will always happen,” he explains.
An Adventure in Space and Time
They will explore a cluster of worlds and their mysterious inhabitants for 45 minutes at a time, before heading on to the next piece of the puzzle. Over a total performance-time of two hours and 15 minutes, they will have explored 30 different worlds.
“It’s a really big job, but they’re doing amazing work in the show,” he says.
The Doctor and his co-writer Tom Mallen have worked together on a number of projects, including an immersive production of The Great Gatsby in which Daniel was acting rather than writing this time. How did he approach the challenge of tackling such a complex story?
Brief History of Time Fracture
Matt LeBlanc explains how the team came up with an over-arching, big, broad narrative for the entire thing.
In a behind-the-scenes meeting with the show’s producers, Daniel outlined his vision for the show from start to finish – and was met with enthusiastic approval. The show will be filmed on the set of the TARDIS in Cardiff, with Radcliffe playing Doctor Who himself.
A Long Line of Doctors
He grew up in the ‘Wilderness Years’ of Doctor Who, but only started paying attention when David Tennant was regenerated into Matt Smith.
I love the cosmic hobo nature of it. I love the smartest person in the room who is – what’s the point of being an adult if you can’t be a little childish sometimes, he says.
Daniel leans towards a spikier breed of Doctor, and his favourite episode is ‘Heaven Sent’, which features a soliloquy from the star himself.
Doctor Who producer Daniel Sackhoff has revealed that every Doctor will be represented in Time Fracture, in some form or another. Some of the Doctors everyone will see. Some of them you would have to be part of a certain story, talk to a certain person, to discover these things.
“There are obviously people within the show who don’t look like their characters anymore, so they’re realised, perhaps vocally, or with something else,” he says.
“People are making an amazing effort; they’ve put on all of this stuff, got on the Tube dressed as a Doctor, travelled across London – probably getting some side eyes on the train”.
You might even be lucky enough to share your evening with one of the stars of the show.
Losing John Barrowman
John Barrowman was removed from Doctor Who spin-off series Time Fracture after allegations of sexual harassment were made against former co-star Noel Clarke. The Captain Jack actor had previously publicly apologised for his backstage behaviour on the set of Doctor Who. How did Daniel feel about this?
“I’m here as a writer of the script, telling those stories, and, you know, it’s not a decision that I make nor am I involved with,” he tells Newsround. “When that decision was made there were changes made within the story to fill that, and there’s something very exciting that’s happening – that is indeed at this moment happening”. He adds: “We’ve got some more filming to do, which I think people will be very excited about.”
The Future, and a Legacy
At present, the booking period for Time Fracture stretches into 2022, and London is its one and only hub. But this potentially once-in-a-lifetime chance to enter the Doctor’s world seems a shoo-in for anyone.
To be a hero, you need to be a good person. You don’t run around with a gun; you don’t fight your way out of something, Radcliffe says.
