During the course of this summer, a
competition was run by the
BBC Learning Department and
Doctor Who Confidential to promote creativity in schools by writing a short
Doctor Who script featuring the Doctor, a monster and an adversary.
The
BBC Press Office have now
reported that the winning entry,
Death Is The Only Answer, was written by pupils of
Oakley Junior School in Basingstoke, and chosen by
Doctor Who's head writer
Steven Moffat, executive producers
Beth Willis and
Piers Wenger, and the Controller of BBC Learning,
Saul Nassé.
Steven Moffat said:
I loved the shortlisted scripts, there was so much skill and enthusiasm on display that it was actually genuinely, very, very difficult to judge. There was some really, really skilled writing, it was very exciting how they caught the voice of the Doctor and how they used the always stringent limitations of Doctor Who to their advantage.
I come from a family of teachers, I was a teacher, my father's a teacher, my sister's a teacher. We go back teacher generations so it's hard wired for me to want the approval of teachers, so I'm very, very thrilled that its gone down so well with the schools that took part.
Saul Nassé said:
We've been delighted by the response from schools to the competition. We really wanted to motivate children to learn new writing skills and create the next generation of storytellers. Schools have really engaged in the competition and the standard of the writing has shown us that there is a wealth of talent out there which we have been able to tap into and hopefully encourage in the future. It's a great example of a really popular BBC show inspiring people do something truly educational.
The winning script has been made into a "mini-episode" to feature on
BBC3 on
1st October, the same day as
Doctor Who's series finale,
The Wedding of River Song, is scheduled to be broadcast.
Doctor Who Confidential followed the whole production process of making the episode from script through to filming, which will form part of this weekend's edition straight after
Let's Kill Hitler at 8:00pm over on BBC3.
The Doctor himself,
Matt Smith, added when recording the episode:
It was so clever, we were all just bowled over, it was a brilliant script.
Kevin Downing, a Year Six teacher at the school, said the pupils involved in the project were over the moon at winning:
Getting the call to say the pupils were on the shortlist of ten was an unbelievable moment – the thought that Steven Moffat himself would be reading their script! As for winning, it was the experience of a lifetime and one we'll never forget.
Details of the monster/adversary that the Doctor will face in the three minute special are to be revealed on broadcast.
(news Link: BBC News)Related Articles: BBC launch Schools Competition (29 Mar 2011);
Script to Screen (14 May 2011)
The BBC are offering readers the chance answer questions alongside Matt Smith via their official Facebook page.
The BBC has issued a 
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