Doctor Who interview: Executive producers Piers Wegner and Beth Willis

The BBC provided Nerdage with this interview with new “Doctor Who” executive producers Piers Wenger and Beth Willis.  Read on for their take on the new era.

——————————————————–

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS INTERVIEW

Piers Wenger and Beth Willis have taken on Executive Producer duties, alongside Steven Moffat, from the outgoing Doctor Who team of Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner. Here they reveal the challenges they have faced with taking on such a hugely successful series and why it’s so important for Doctor Who to evolve.

“It has definitely been a big challenge taking on this show because we love it so much and why tinker with something that has been as popular, successful and brilliant as it has been?” says executive producer Beth Willis.  “But at the same time we are terribly aware we have to look forward and work out how the show is going to survive in the future.  In 2005 the team looked at what was fresh and new then and we have to do a bit of that ourselves.  Looking at the episodes we’ve filmed so far we’re starting to see the impact of those changes; what the team has managed to achieve is pretty thrilling.”

Fellow Executive Producer and Head of Drama for BBC Wales, Piers Wenger, agrees and adds; “The thing which is most important to us is telling a good story at the end of the day; that’s always the thing the audience is going to be most demanding about. Beyond that, any changes we have made have been motivated by giving the show the best production values money can buy.  It’s the nation’s favorite, and that means it deserves the best.”

The marks of the new era

The advances in technology over the past five years have inevitably enabled the program makers to use more sophisticated techniques and create awe-inspiring visual effects. However, a new lead writer and Doctor are undoubtedly what viewers will feel mark the dawn of a new era for the hit series. “The fact we have Steven Moffat writing it and Matt Smith starring in it gives the show an inevitable element of change,” explains Beth.  “However, the one thing that hasn’t made us scared about this change was reading Steven’s scripts. I felt deeply honored and excited to be in a position to be working with such great scripts.  It doesn’t really matter what color you use, where the camera is or how you position a light; Steven and Matt are brilliant which has made mine and Piers’ job much easier.”