Timeslip Episode 6 – The Curse of Bodmin House - has had one of the longest and most difficult histories of any online comic I think it fair to say! The inspiration came for it about two weeks before the classic figures hit the shops, way back in the summer of 2008, when the master customiser Babyjelly held a competition to win a Wilfred Mott figure.

Instantly I saw the opportunities that I could achieve with a figure of Wilf, especially in Timeslip, and I wanted to win the competition desperately. With the help of all who voted, some friends and some who I have never spoken to, my picture won the competition. I would show the entry here, but it is on my broken harddrive and cannot be accessed at the moment!

This set the wheels in motion and I decided upon a story involving Wilf, Donna and the Weeping Angels as I recorded in my personal notes:

One day they’re a family, the next Wilfred Mott’s Granddaughter goes missing. After weeks and Months of searching he’s close to giving up until he meets the Doctor, who can help. Together they face the Weeping Angels, who it turns out have zapped her away in time.

From the start, therefore, I wanted a darker side to the story – probably inspired by the slightly ‘depressed’ expression on the Wilf figure’s face.

I shot all motorbike scenes like this in my special 'green screen' setup. I use large white pieces of paper to bounce the light around.

I later recorded this note:

I think the thing I'm missing from Timeslip at this point is something that makes you think 'now that's clever!' Perhaps the Angels send people away, but to an even greater horror... Obviously I then need to come up with the clever idea - but I'm thinking along the lines of something without a name at least, because that always adds a certain element of evil. I also thought, to get to Donna, Peter and Wilf decide to be zapped back together by each Angel in turn, then Peter can ring the Doctor on his super-mobile and let them know where they are, ready to search for Donna. What happens then if Wilf and Peter accidentally get zapped by two different Angels and in the time it takes to get back to Wilf he's also faced this monster-with-no-name? Something perhaps horrific... I'll think...

So I wasn’t completely happy with the storyline. I started to feel that the Angels, unless I created a new mythology for them which I wasn’t keen to do, couldn’t fit in a story like this. a64 had brilliantly used them in a Sarah Jane Adventures comic, but I couldn’t get a good storyline to fit unless it was just a basic replica of Blink. Then, on Monday 27th October, something happened, as I recorded in a further personal note:

I had an inspired moment earlier this week– I was passing a Model shop (Hornby, Airfix, etc.) and in the window they had a Hornby house. I had one of those brilliant flashes of inspiration and thought “I could use them in Timeslip for buildings!” Now obviously they’re out of scale, but when it comes to most normal buildings etc. I think it’s in keeping to use model things rather than real or CGI. If I could buy, say, a church and get some good close ups and things around it I could edit the figures in to make it look in scale and work with them. Could be effective. They do cost about £15-£20 each though.

Having decided that the cost was worth it I investigated further what pieces the shop had for sale. The second I saw ‘Bodmin House’ I was hooked. It was perfect, spooky yet realistic. I therefore named it ‘Bodmin House’ after the documentary that was on after Torchwood one time – ‘The Man Who Ate Badgers’ – investigating the people who live on Bodmin Moor. The house was the missing piece of the puzzle, and then the story wrote itself, as the following plotline, written on 2nd February 2009 (after Episodes 4/5 and a site relaunch had been put online), shows:

The precredits sequence will show Donna/Wilf in their home mourning the mysterious passing of Sylvia. Donna goes for a walk in the countryside (that’s where their house is now… all will be explained) but sees something ahead of her. She screams and we cut away.

The next day The Doctor and Peter are riding around the countryside on a motorbike/s (don’t know if it will be one or two.) They’re just enjoying the countryside and everything and come across a nice little house on its own in the country. Either they have to stop, they need a drink or something, or they decide to.

They meet Wilf and learn all about Sylvia and everything, and they learn how the family mysteriously won the lottery 6 Months ago and decided to start again to get over Geoff passing away, basically to try a new style of life together. Wilf is worried as Donna never returned after her walk the night before. He invites The Doctor and Peter to sleep in the house and help search for her and, unable to really say no, they accept. Anything to help.

It kind of gets a bit fuzzy from there, but Donna returns acting very strange, then the scarecrows appear around the house and attack Wilf, Peter and The Doctor. It’s a lone member of the Family of Blood out to find the Doctor and devour his regenerations and everything, it’s now taken the form of Donna. Eventually there’s an exciting chase sequence through country lanes at night with Scarecrows all around them and everything.

I could jump right back at the very end of the comic (to the beginning of the story, if you will), and show The Doctor putting the winning lottery ticket through their door or something… Something Wilf says would tell him he had to do that once their adventure was over.

Looking back now it’s remarkable how the plot so suddenly slotted together. This was the right storyline, I had no doubt about it.

On the 4th February I felt a sudden need to write the episode! I sat down in the morning and spent an hour typing the entire script. The only big changes were that both K9 and Wilf died, and there was no scene of The Doctor and Peter walking in the field. I had the inspiration for the ‘field scene’ one evening at gym a few weeks later, and still have the scrap of paper where I hastily wrote it down. I was put off killing Wilf after reading ‘Beautiful Chaos’, I began to feel quite guilty about hurting such a loved character (I finally made the decision to save him while filming).

On the 18th February I got hold of the Series 2 Primeval Nick Cutter (Peter) figure. I was very ill at the time and was confined to my bed for over a Month. I spent much of that time thinking about Timeslip and planning its future, though as the script to Episode 6 was finished I didn’t do much thinking about that.

On the 2nd April I bought the motorbike from eBay for £8. At 1:12 scale it was just about right for the figures I hoped, and when it arrived I was thrilled – Peter and The Doctor fitted perfectly, there was even a little hook to tie K9 to! If anything the inspiration to use a motorbike came from seeing other similar models, and also from a deleted motorbike article on Wikipedia that really illustrated to me why people love them so much. The fun, adventure and excitement of a motorbike ride fit the Timeslip story really well I think. Shortly after my Birthday on April 3rd I took a practice shot of the motorbike with Peter and The Doctor to send to Matt as a thank you for putting together a list of Birthday messages and a signed photo from Julian ‘Davros’ Bleech.

My first test of what the motorbike would look like when edited. Note that, in the end, I cut down on the blur around the edges.

I made these notes on the story after writing draft 2, the only difference from the final version being that Wilf died.

• I have no idea who will play the local yokel… But I so want to keep him…
• Now – the death of Wilf. I’m still for it for two reasons. For one it’s very sad so gets good emotions and, for another, is it not crueler to leave him alive without his daughter or Granddaughter?
• The house explodes – it has to! Lovely big climax just as a slow story has speeded up. To compare it to Wallace and Gromit (and I certainly don’t mean in quality!) it’s quite ‘Wrong Trousers’ – bit of a mystery, quite slow, some sadness then a huge change in tone as everything speeds up incredibly at the end!
• Overall I’m pretty happy with the script, I think it will convert well and the special effects will hopefully be easier than they look to be!

The model house was so perfect because the outside (with the door and window positions) precisely fitted with the interior of my childhood dollshouse – now owned by my Mum. I had permission to take over her Dining Room for one weekend, I stripped all furniture from the bottom of the dollshouse and decorated it as the Nobles would have decorated their country house. It was a very difficult shoot, lighting the house was very hard indeed, and I ended up using great big outdoor lamps which were so hot on my back! As an ‘interesting’ side note I spent most of the time taking these photos listening to Edward Heath’s autobiography on tape!

I shot most 'house' pictures like this then cropped them down. This meant more figures were in focus and the lighting wasn't blocked off by the camera.

I went out all along the lane by my house and took photos for the motorbike ride, then in the field near our house for the ‘field scene’.

But with big workloads from elsewhere looming for me, Timeslip took a break until July. I planned to give DWFO a kickstart then work on Timeslip when I finally got more time, and I did film some ‘green screen’ shots of the Motorbike and everything alongside Episode 7 scenes, but sadly for Timeslip other things took priority.

I had the idea of ‘The Aardmag’ for my Wallace and Gromit site, and set an ambitious deadline to reach by the Robert Harrop Wallace and Gromit weekend, so Timeslip and DWFO (apart from the forum) left my top priorities. Things might have been different, but I suffered from one technical disaster after another in October/November time and had no time to even think of Timeslip.

Then December came and I realised that, if I really worked hard on it, Episode 6 could be finished in time for Christmas Eve! With Donna and Wilf appearing in the ‘real’ Doctor Who the timing was perfect. Then, within one day of editing, my hard drive crashed and I lost everything I had worked on up to that point. I had the script, I had the shots of my lane and of the field, but the crucial scenes in the Noble household and all my greenscreen parts were lost. There was no way I could refilm in time and Episode 6 was, once again, hit by the Curse of Bodmin House!

Then, in early January, I suddenly found a folder of old photos in the recycling bin of my computer! The lost Noble house scenes were recovered! I worked with renewed purpose, though there was still a lot else to film. For about three weeks I thought of nothing but Episode 6, if I wasn’t editing scenes together I was filming more in my studio. It felt faster than anything I’ve done before, I couldn’t stop to look at it because I didn’t have the time! It was therefore with huge relief that I hit my deadline and managed to have the comic complete.

I used tools and effects I had never thought of using before for this comic, for example I actually set up candles around the figures to film the scenes outside the exploding house. For lighting ‘night’ green screen shots I used my iPhone torch application, allowing a steady glow of light without the glare of a normal torch.

I shot the 'explosion' scenes using real candles for a fire lighting effect. I just cut the candles out in the final edit

I was more nervous about ‘audience reaction’ to the comic than I had ever been before. I felt it was so different, a different style, and would it be a Phantom Menace – a long wait then disappointing return?! I need not have worried however, as the reception was so good – I can’t thank everyone who commented enough. Every bit of feedback made it worthwhile, though I think the biggest thrill was Paul Cornell (Paul Cornell!) describing it as ‘awesome’!!

I hope, therefore, that this has given you a good insight into the entire history of ‘The Curse of Bodmin House’ – the Curse was certainly present a lot of the time, but it came together in the end and I am proud of the result.

And what of Timeslip’s future? Well there’s so, so much to come. I think it fair to say that, like the Long Game (is that a good thing...?), Episode 7 quietly starts a chain of events off that will lead to the finale. There’s a double parter coming as well (bom bom bom bom bom bom...), a brush with the past (possibly several brushes of the past...), but if you think Episode 6 was big... Just wait and see... As always – expect the unexpected!