The Doctor Who team have been in Gloucester filming the Christmas Special. And eep! It's going to be so good. Obviously under the spoiler cut because, well, knowing that David Tennant is in town for it - is a bit of a spoiler for the end of series.

Anyway - Gloucester looks stunning - they're working around the Cathedral (which was already used for Harry Potter). I think it's one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere and about 7/8 years ago I would go there every week to draw - I might go back this Summer and see if I've improved.

They filmed all around there and the nearby side streets, covering them with snow and decorating them to look Victorian. I'm overly excited that we're getting a historical Christmas episode (at least partly) - because I must admit so far I've been a bit 'meh' about the Christmas episodes, they've seemed a little formulaic - but this should be quite different.

I didn't see much of the filming (they did half a days filming that the public could watch but I was still in Liverpool) - but I saw lots of the extras and actors dressed up, also very cool. I think the episode might have a steam-punk Victorian edge - there are some strange, slightly out of place odds and ends on costumes for starters plus we saw posters for the Crystal Palace exhibit and SPOILERS the bad guys are supposed to be cybermen - we did see a really cool "cyber-wraith" who was sort of black and shaggy looking with a old fashioned looking bronze cyber style head SPOILERS (highlight to read).

We also got to see David Morrissey who is the guest star by the look of things. But no sign of any recognisable companions (although maybe they just weren't needed for these scenes) and mostly David seemed to be alone.

I didn't get any good pictures over the week - but you can see lots here

So onto how I met David Tennant.

As I missed the main filming, me and my mum decided to head down to the Cathedral that night to see if anything was going on - they were going to be working on a closed set, but we could see the Tardis under-wraps and we talked to some of the Security people, who were all lovely. We were about to leave, when we got talking to some other fans and then suddenly at about midnight everything exploded into action, when the extras and crew all began to arrive (as well as a horse and carriage).

Seeing everything being set up was very cool and the new Producer Susie Liggat came over and had a chat and signed some autographs. She seemed lovely and had the biggest, warmest-looking hat in the world.

But after a while they told us that they needed to move us out of the way. A few minutes later one of the crew came over and told us that as we couldn't see anything now, he'd take us through to somewhere better we could stand. Nicest. Man. Ever.

Where we were moved to, we couldn't see the set (which was behind an archway) but we could see the Tardis (beautifully lit up), the fake snow and the monitors. OK - so like they say filming is long and slow and hard, but seriously even then it was so exciting, plus every now and then we would catch sight of David Tennant or David Morrisey. Plus we got to see the Cathedral Cat being thoroughly freaked out by the Tardis.

We also got to see a poor child actor being woken up at 3am to go do his scene. Awww...

Anyway at about half three in the morning David Tennant suddenly came bounding over to where we were standing (there were about ten of us left). He was absolutely lovely and spent about ten minutes chatting and signing autographs (although I missed getting one) and having photos taken (got one of those though :D - not posting it because I look horrible but still :D).

From what I remember he called us the die hards, discussed how cold it was (told us his trademark shoes let in water), and reassured us that we could use a flash because they weren't filming at the moment. He also apologised because he didn't think they'd get to do the scene in the archway that was scheduled for tonight, because we'd have been able to see that, which I thought was insanely lovely. Then he had to dash back on set.

I was gobsmacked. And so, so happy.

They did at the very last minute try to get everything set up for those last archway shots but then decided to leave it until the next night.

We thought about heading back the next night, but decided not to as we were all nackered. I'm glad, because apparently they had lots of trouble with filming - with the crowd who had gathered making too much noise and screaming through takes. It makes me annoyed, I was also surprised at the number of people I heard complaining over the weekend, mainly that David Tennant had come and signed everyone's autographs at the main day shoot. I don't think they realised how lovely and patient the vast majority of the cast and crew were and also how surprisingly open they were for most of the filming.

Then again I also heard people complaining that the Tardis was just made out of wood and that this had ruined their perceptions. o_O What did they think it was made of?

Personally I think we were massively lucky.

Squee!