WHEN WE SIT in executive producer Phil Collinson’s office – adorned with Dalek movie posters – with fellow series producer Vicki Delow, the pair joke about being like presenters Richard and Judy as they decide where to be on the sofa. As they settle down for a conversation about the upcoming Doctor Who specials, we note that watching over them from above, with giant eyes, is an early prototype of the Meep’s head… Ulp.
We should probably talk about the Meep in the room.
Phil Collinson: You can imagine going from that comic strip into the script to, “How are we going to make the Meep?” Simply the amount of time, the amount of pages of dialogue it had, and how much it had to interact. It was just bonkers. The prep for it was mad.
Vicki Delow: It was. I’d never done creatures before, like this, practical creatures. So I didn’t realise there’s a performer, and there’s the stuff that comes with the performance and stuff that comes with the creature. There’s the building of the creature. It blew my mind a little bit.
What was it like when you first saw it finally come to life?
Aww. Neill Gorton, who runs Millennium [FX], came in and did this whole thing where he got the performer to hide behind a bin
