 This story is written by Simon Nye and is his first contribution to the show. His previous credits include Men Behaving Badly (1992 - 1998) and Hardware, both of which he created.
This is the first Doctor Who story to be directed by Catherine Morshead. Her previous credits include The Railway Children (2000).
This story was recorded in the final production block. The read-through took place on Wednesday 17th February 2010. Along with "The Lodger" these were the final two read-throughs for Season Thirty One (New Series 5).
Being one of the last stories in this season to be produced, Simon Nye was able to attend the read-throughs of earlier stories before finishing his script. It has been revealed that seeing Matt Smith and Karen Gillan working together helped him capture the dynamics between The Doctor and Amy Pond.
Much of the story - the majority of the Upper Leadworth 'dream' scenes - were filmed in Skenfrith, a small village near Llandaff in South East Wales. Llandaff was where the Leadworth scenes were shot for "The Eleventh Hour".
The pre-opening credit sequence is over 5 minutes and 48 seconds long - the longest that there has been to date. The previous pre-opening credit sequence that is over 5 minutes (at 5 minutes and 7 seconds) was the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Turn Left".
Audrey Ardington (who plays Mrs Poggit) played the Abbess in The Sarah Jane Adventures story "The Eye of the Gorgon".
Toby Jones (who plays the Dream Lord) played the part of Dobby in the Harry Potter Films.
One of the stunt performers is Nick Hobbs, who has previously appeared in the show, notably as Aggedor in the Third Doctor stories "The Curse of Peladon", in 1972, and "The Monster of Peladon", in 1974.
This story’s main plot centres around The Doctor, Rory and Amy being trapped, by the Dream Lord, in an alternative world and Amy has to decide what is the real world.
The Doctor initially assumes that the TARDIS has jumped a time track. In the 1965 First Doctor story "The Space Museum" The Doctor speculated that the TARDIS somehow jumped a 'time track' when he arrives at a location where he's able to see a version of his future self.
Technically, the entire story takes place in the TARDIS and as the majority of this is story occurs as a dream it is not clear if the Eknodine (the aliens inside human hosts with only a green eyestalk visible in the human host’s mouth) or the Dream Lord are real or not. There is also no indication of how much time has passed since the previous story "The Vampires of Venice".
The first story to only take place in the TARDIS was the 1963 First Doctor story "The Edge of Destruction".
This isn't the first time The Doctor has come under attack in the TARDIS. The Doctor’s time machine was invaded by Sontarans in the 1978 Fourth Doctor story "The Invasion of Time" and the Cybermen boarded the TARDIS in the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock". The Master attacked the Eighth Doctor in the TARDIS ("Doctor Who: The Movie") and more recently, The Doctor materialised his craft around a none-too-happy Dalek in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways".
At one point Amy is heard referencing Oklahoma! This is a musical written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II that began life as a stage show and was adapted for film in 1955. The movie stars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones as the lead characters, Curly and Laurey. It contains a dream sequence in which Laurey dreams of what marriage to Curly would be like. When Curley is killed in her dream it makes her realise (in reality) that he is the man for her. A very familiar scenario as in "Amy’s Choice".
The Doctor is seen trying to jump start the TARDIS by kicking it. He last did this in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel".
The box under the TARDIS console that The Doctor opens has the words: ‘TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Build Site: Gallifrey Blackhole Shipyard. Type 40. Build date: 1963. Authorised for use by qualified Time Lords only by the Shadow Proclamation. Misuse or theft of any TARDIS will result in extreme penalties and permanent exile’ written on it.
The Doctor is also heard stating that he threw the TARDIS Manual at a Supernova because he ‘disagreed’ with it.
The Dream Lord is seen teleporting himself around much like The Valeyard did in the 1986 Sixth Doctor story "The Ultimate Foe" (the final instalment of The Trial of a Time Lord season).
The Dream Lord isn't the first character to mimic The Doctor's outfit. In the 1979 Fourth Doctor story "Destiny of the Daleks" Romana dressed in clothes identical to the Time Lord's. He called them ‘silly’ and she changed into an outfit similar to The Doctor's - long coat and scarf - but a different colour.
The Dream Lord is heard accusing The Doctor of abandoning his companions in favour of younger friends, echoing remarks by Sarah Jane Smith, in the 2006 story "School Reunion", about the Tenth Doctor and his relationship with Rose Tyler.
The Dream Lord, when alone with Amy in the TARDIS, echoes a conversation, in "Rose", that Jackie Tyler had with the Ninth Doctor about how ‘anything could happen’.
The Dream Lord is heard to refer to The Doctor's relationship with Elizabeth I (previously mentioned in the Tenth Doctor stories "The Shakespeare Code" and "The End of Time" as well as in "The Beast Below"). The Dream Lord also refers to The Doctor as being the ‘last of the Time Lords’ and ‘the oncoming storm’, two nicknames he has been given.
Look out for the sign outside the old peoples’ home which reads ‘SARN Residential Care Home’. Sarn was the setting for the 1984 Fifth Doctor story "Planet of Fire".
Following on immediately after this story, on BBC3, was the seventh chapter of the fifth series of Doctor Who Confidential. Titled "Arthurian Legend" which looked into the making of this story. It was presented by Alex Price.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Simon Nye.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Catherine Morshead.
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(Position = 5 out of 10)
(Position = 105 out of 241)
