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This story was written by Steven Moffat who wanted this season to start with a two-part story in an attempt to start the season better than the previous season premieres.
Steven Moffat has stated that this was one of the darker stories of the season, but it still maintained the same level of humour.
This story features The Silence, the force responsible for causing the TARDIS to explode in the 2010 story "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang" and they have been described as being ‘the scariest monsters yet’. The creation of the Silence was partly inspired by the figure from the Edvard Munch painting The Scream.
Before the broadcast of this story a short exclusive scene serving as a ‘prequel’ for the first episode was released on the show’s official website (with a slightly shorter version shown on BBC1 the evening before). This brief scene was written by head writer Steven Moffat and was produced by the regular Doctor Who production team. It was intended to set the scene for this story in a scary and mysterious style.
The short scene depicts Richard Nixon, played by Stuart Milligan, receiving a recorded phone call of a girl’s voice while sitting in the Oval Office. The girl, whose voice the president appears to recognise from a previous call, begs him to ‘look behind you’, warning him that there is something there. The president angrily refuses and the line goes dead. The camera then pans around him to show an out-of-focus, inhuman figure standing to the president’s right.
The prequel for this story is the first that are planned to premier on the website over the course of this season, each features a specially-recorded material, similar to the Tardisodes which accompanied Season Twenty Eight (New Series 2) in 2006.
This is the first time, in the revived series, that a two-part story has opened a season. This is in fact the first two-part story to open a season since the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Attack of the Cybermen" that opened Season Twenty Two.
This story opens with a still-caption tribute to actress Elisabeth Sladen. The caption says ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Sladen 1948 - 2011’ and was in recognition of this popular actress who passed away four days before this story was broadcast. Elisabeth Sladen had previously appeared in the show as companion Sarah Jane Smith, and as the same character in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.
American actor Stuart Milligan was cast as President Nixon. Stuart Milligan has played other presidents in the past including Dwight D. Eisenhower. Prosthetic pieces were applied on his cheeks, nose and ears to resemble President Nixon as much as possible. He also practiced how President Nixon would speak, but initially found it difficult since he had to wear false teeth.
Stuart Milligan appeared in Jonathan Creek and provided the voice of General Stark in the 2009 Doctor Who animated story Dreamland and the voice of the Tannoy in The Sarah Jane Adventures story the "Warriors of Kudlak". He also starred in the 2006 Big Finish Productions Sixth Doctor audio story "The Reaping".
Mark Sheppard, who played Canton Delaware, appeared in Battlestar Galatica, Supernatural, Dollhouse and 24.
For the scene depicting the older Canton Delaware, it was planned for actor Mark Sheppard to appear older using makeup effects. He successfully suggested instead that his father, William Morgan Sheppard, play the role.
Ricky Fearon, who played the tramp, previously played the part of Foreman in the Torchwood episode "To the Last Man".
This story marks the first time that Doctor Who has featured extensive location footage within the United States. The American-produced 1996 Eighth Doctor film "Doctor Who: The Movie" was filmed in Canada. Some second-unit establishing shots of New York and the Statue of Liberty were filmed on Liberty Island for the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks", but none of the cast of this earlier story were involved in the location shooting.
Filming took place in the state of Utah. For the opening shot for the location, director Toby Haynes wanted it to be epic so that the audience could recognise where the story was set.
The scenes involving the picnic and the future-Doctor dying took place on the shore of Lake Powell. The sequence where Delaware chases Amy was shot in the Valley of the Gods in Utah. The sequence where Delaware chases Rory was shot at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. The Dam sequence was the final scene to be shot in the States. The sequence where Delaware chases River Song in New York was in fact shot in central Cardiff. A set was later constructed in a studio for the jump sequence, and Alex Kingston was replaced by a stunt woman to perform the jump. The scenes set in Area 51 were filmed in a large disused hanger in South Wales. The Florida orphanage was filmed at the abandoned Troy House in Monmouthshire.
The Oval Office set was constructed at Upper Boat Studios in South Wales. Because the production crew had access to several pictures and plans of the real office, they were able to replicate it in almost every detail. The main problem for building the set was the plastering; the crew normally plaster one wall at a time for normal rooms, but because the Oval Office was round, they had to do the entire set at once.
Steven Moffat wanted to add as many American icons as he could into this story. These included a Stetson hat, a 1950’s Edsel Villager and a yellow school bus.
The American-style diner scene, where the companions are reunited with The Doctor, is actually located in Cardiff Bay.
River Song notes that the Easter Island statues were created in The Doctor's honour.
The envelopes that Amy, Rory and River Song receive each contain the date '22 April 2011' (the day prior to the first broadcast of the first episode of this story), the time '16:30 MDT' and the coordinates: 37° 0' 38"N 110° 14' 34"W
Steven Moffat, having enjoyed writing episodes featuring River Song, wanted to give her an impressive entrance. Director Toby Haynes had Alex Kingston block the Sun light from the camera angle and blowing smoke from her revolver.
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are seen watching a Laurel and Hardy film on television. In this film The Doctor is shown dancing and wearing a fez. This was achieved by Matt Smith dancing in front of greenscreen. The old movie used was the 1939 Laurel and Hardy film "The Flying Deuces" directed by A. Edward Sutherland. It stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and The Doctor’s intervention comes as the comic duo are dancing to "Shine on Harvest Moon".
The Eleventh Doctor was seen drinking a glass of wine in the 2010 story "The Lodger" - but in this story he clearly dislikes it. The Doctor has tried wine in his previous incarnations. The Third Doctor found a particular wine to his taste in the 1972 story "Day of the Daleks", extolling its virtues and declaring it was ‘a touch sardonic perhaps, but not cynical’ and the Fourth Doctor unwittingly sipped poisoned wine in the 1976 story "The Brain of Morbius".
The space suit worn by the future-Doctor’s killer was a fabricated replica of an Apollo space suit. It was waterproofed so that the killer could come out of the water as in real life space suits were not designed to be used in water.
The inclusion of The Doctor getting killed felt like a season ender for some of the producers, but was actually there to ‘kick it off’. In writing the death scene of the future version of the Eleventh Doctor, Steven Moffat wanted to acknowledge to the audience that Time Lords are not invincible, and could still die permanently if killed before The Doctor has a chance to regenerate.
The Doctor looks at the front and then back of his hands before he is about to regenerate as he did in the 2005 story "The Parting of the Ways" and the 2009/2010 story "The End of Time". As he begins to regenerate The Doctor is killed before the process completes.
It has been reported that in filming the death scene the filming crew noticed that Karen Gillan was genuinely upset and ‘was acting her heart out’.
In filming the ‘Viking funeral’ scene, Director Toby Haynes wanted to film this scene during the sunset. However, as the sun set over the desert, rather than the lake, he filmed this scene during sunrise, when the sun rose over the water.
Alex Kingston had to genuinely slap Matt Smith several times in a scene because it was difficult to fake. Alex Kingston recalled that after a few takes, Matt Smith got red cheeked and grew frustrated at having to do the sequence over and over again.
The ‘older’ Eleventh Doctor is 1,103 years old while the ‘younger’ Doctor states his current age as being 909 years old.
The Doctor states that the year 1482 is full of glitches, but also says 1969 is ‘easy’. This may suggest that some years are harder to travel to than others.
President Nixon is not the first President we have seen in the show. Abraham Lincoln appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story "The Chase" and at the beginning of the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "Remembrance of the Daleks" we catch a tiny fragment of one of President John F Kennedy’s speeches. Later, in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Rose" Clive, who had made it his life’s work to seek out The Doctor, showed Rose Tyler a photo of John F Kennedy where The Doctor was clearly visible in the background.
The Doctor makes the TARDIS invisible when he materializes in the Oval Office. The notion of an invisible TARDIS is not entirely new... Back in the early 1960’s when the concept of Doctor Who was being fleshed out by the BBC, two of the programme’s initial creative forces, Cecil Edwin Webber and Sydney Newman, wrote a four-page outline for the show. Their intention for The Doctor’s craft was clear: ‘...we do not see the machine at all; or rather it is visible only as an absence of visibility... (The Doctor) has achieved this 'disappearance' by covering the outside with light resistant paint...’ The document went on to say, ‘characters can bump into it’. It would be almost half a century before The Doctor does just that, when he collides with his cloaked TARDIS in the Oval office. Previously the Second Doctor did have trouble finding the TARDIS in the 1968 story "The Invasion".
In the 1977 Fourth Doctor story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", one of The Doctor’s friends mistakenly declares that the Time Lord must help out Scotland Yard, but here it is The Doctor himself who implies he works for the world-famous organisation.
The Doctor requests Jammie Dodgers and a Fez as he did in the 2010 stories "Victory of the Daleks" and "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang".
In the White House restroom scene Joy believes the alien to be a person wearing a Star Trek mask. Also wen Amy is talking to the agent outside of the restroom, a boom mike can be seen over his shoulder.
When Canton is still reeling after learning some of the secrets of the TARDIS, The Doctor is heard to say to him, ‘Brave heart, Canton!’. The Fifth Doctor used to encourage and reassure Tegan Jovanka with the words ‘brave heart’ and moments before he regenerated, the Fifth Doctor had a vision of his former companion quoting the phrase back to him.
Amy Pond swears on fish fingers and custard - a reference to the meal that The Doctor devoured when they first met in the 2010 story "The Eleventh Hour".
The Doctor’s teasing reference to Mrs Robinson alludes to the character played by Anne Bancroft in the 1967 film "The Graduate", directed by Mike Nichols. She is a character who is attracted to a much younger man - hence River Song’s reaction!
The Doctor once again asks River Song who she murdered (see "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone").
River Song is seen mocking The Doctor for brandishing his sonic screwdriver in a gunfight and tells him to go ‘build a cabinet, similar to a comment Captain Jack Harkness had with the Ninth Doctor in the 2005 story "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances".
The Doctor is seen opening the TARDIS with a snap of his fingers (see also the 2008 story "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead").
Rory reveals that he remembers the two thousand years he spent as an Auton guarding the Pandorica with Amy inside, but that he doesn’t always have those memories (see "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang").
River Song tells Rory that she and The Doctor are travelling through time ‘in opposite directions’. She comments that a day is coming when ‘he'll look into my eyes, and not have the faintest idea who I am. And I think it's going to kill me’. In the 2008 story "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", the Tenth Doctor meets River Song for the first time (from his perspective) and at the conclusion of that story, River Song is killed saving the people trapped inside the Library’s core.
The control panel River Song and Rory find in the underground tunnels is the same control panel that was found in the upstairs flat in the 2010 story "The Lodger". When The Doctor discovers the control room, in the second episode, he is heard to declare: ‘Very Aickman Road!’ - another reference to the alien technology The Doctor encountered when he shared a house with Craig Owens in "The Lodger". The original set was adapted to give it a darker, evil feel.
The second episode of this two-part story introduces the ‘Eye Patch Lady’, a mysterious figure, which briefly appears to Amy in the orphanage. It has been revealed that we will see this character again. The ‘Eye Patch Lady’ is played by Frances Barber whose previous credits include Boudica (aka the Warrior Queen) which starred Alex Kingston as the eponymous historical leader.
When the Silent reveals his species’ name to The Doctor, The Doctor has flash-backs to two stories from Season Thirty One (New Series 5) - "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Vampires of Venice" – so reminding us that references to the Silence can be found as far back as the Eleventh Doctor’s first story.
At one point President Nixon reminds Gardner, ‘Son, I am your Commander in Chief’. This title is conferred on all US Presidents according to Article II of the American Constitution. It refers directly to the President’s overall leadership of his nation’s military forces.
As they part company, The Doctor cheekily asks President Nixon to deliver a message! He asks ‘Tricky Dicky to say ‘hi’ to David Frost for him - a reference to the famous interviews between Frost and the (by then) former President Nixon, conducted in 1977.
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The Firsts:
The first story of Season Thirty Two (New Series 6).
President Nixon is the first US President to be involved in a Doctor Who story.
The first time, in the revived series, that a two-part story has opened a season.
The first appearance of The Silence.
The first time that Doctor Who has featured extensive location footage within the USA.
Caroline Henry's first involvement in the show as Script Editor.
The first Doctor Who story to be produced by Marcus Wilson.
Denise Paul's first involvement in the show as Associate Producer.
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