 This story is the seventh story of Season Thirty Four (New Series 8) and touches on what would happen to planet Earth if it was suddenly without the Moon with Steven Moffat stating that 'The Doctor is returning to the scene of an old adventure - but there have been sinister changes since his last visit'.
It has The Doctor taking Clara Oswald and Coal Hill School student Courtney Woods on a trip to the Moon following her discovery of the TARDIS and The Doctor's true identity in the previous story. It also revisited the Earth's environmentally disastrous mid-21st century as well as the concept of time in flux, with The Doctor choosing to take a step back and leaving the future in the hands of his human company, a choice that would lead to a divide between The Doctor and Clara.
This story guest stars Hermione Norris, Ellis George, Tony Osoba and Phil Nice.
Hermione Norris, who plays Lundvik, is best known for her work in popular dramas including Cold Feet, the BAFTA award-winning drama Spooks and the BBC's acclaimed First World War drama The Crimson Field. 'It's a testament to the quality of Peter Harness' intense and emotional script, that we've been able to attract an actress of the brilliance of Hermione Norris', Steven Moffat revealed when her casting was announced. While the actress herself added 'It's exciting to be part of such an iconic show, and one that my kids can watch! '.
Tony Osoba, who plays Duke, first appeared in Doctor Who as Lan in the 1979 Fourth Doctor story "Destiny of the Daleks". He also played the part of Kracauer in the 1987 Seventh Doctor story "Dragonfire". He is though best known for his role as Jim 'Jock' McClaren in the classic sitcom Porridge.
Phil Nice, who plays Henry, played the part of Ben in Hebburn and Keith in Citizen Khan, while Christopher Dane, who plays McKean, played Arathorn in the 2009 fantasy movie Born of Hope.
This story is written by Peter Harness, produced by Peter Bennett and directed by Paul Wilmshurst.
Peter Harness has previously written episodes of City of Vice, the television movie Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me, and three episodes of Wallander. He has also adapted Susanna Clarke's best-selling novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell as a seven-part television series for the BBC, which was directed by Doctor Who director Toby Haynes.
Director Paul Wilmshurst's extensive credits include Silent Witness, Law and Order: Da Vinci's Demons and several episodes of the action drama Strikeback.
The concept behind this story came to writer Peter Harness in 2011, so initially it was written as an Eleven Doctor story. Peter Harness however expressed a belief that the script better suited Peter Capaldi with The Doctor-Clara dynamic playing out better.
It had an early working title "Return to Sarn", however, this was intended to be misleading and to cause fans to theorise that this story would feature the return of The Master who was last seen in the 2009/2010 Tenth Doctor story "The End of Time".
While briefing Peter Harness on how to write the script, Executive Producer Steven Moffat told him to make it frightening. Steven Moffat called the script 'Intense and emotional'. Peter Harness has said that the story will see a large change for the show. 'I still don’t know how people will take it. I’m in this kind of limbo now waiting for people to see it, and I’ve no idea, really I do not know how it is going to go down'.
The read through for this story took place on the 1st May 2014. Filming began on the 5th May 2014 and finished on the 5th June 2014.
Location filming for this story took place in Lanzarote, near the Volcán del Cuervo (Raven's Volcano) in the Timanfaya National Park. Filming took place on 12th and 13th May 2014 while the park was closed to visitors. Filming also took place at the Cardiff Bay Business Centre in Splott and St Illtyd's College in Cardiff on the 20th May 2014 and at Aberavon Beach in Port Talbot on the 21st May 2014.
The last story to be filmed in Lanzarote was the 1984 Fifth Doctor story "Planet of Fire" which in that story doubled for the planet Sarn.
We first saw The Doctor visit the Moon in the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Moonbase" which was set in 2070, 21 years after the events depicted in this story. He was back on the Moon in the 1969 Second Doctor story "The Seeds of Death", the 1973 Third Doctor story "Frontier in Space" and in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Smith and Jones". The Doctor also mentioned having taken ‘a quick hop to the Moon’ before collecting Amy Pond in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Eleventh Hour".
After The Doctor explains the Moon/egg dilemma, Clara insists that they can all just leave as the Moon was not destroyed because she has been to the future and saw that it still existed. This recalls an exchange between the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith in the 1975 story "Pyramids of Mars". When Sarah Jane Smith insists on leaving, since they know Earth wasn't destroyed by Sutekh in 1911, The Doctor takes the TARDIS to 1980 - Sarah's time - and shows her 'alternative time' and the devastation Sutekh would cause if they did not stop him. This makes Sarah realise that they have to go back and defeat Sutekh.
The Doctor is seen using a yo-yo to test the Moon's gravity inside the shuttle. The Doctor previously used a yo-yo to test the gravity on the Nerva space station in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "The Ark in Space". The Fourth Doctor also played with one, apparently just for fun in several further stories including "The Brain of Morbius". The Seventh Doctor was also seen carrying a yo-yo when he regenerated and when the Third Doctor moaned that the Time Lords had control of his TARDIS he referred to himself as ‘some kind of a galactic yo-yo!’.
Vortex manipulators are mentioned in this story. These resemble leather bracelets or watches and enable the wearer to travel in time. Captain Jack Harkness used one which River Song apparently got her hands on, but the Tenth Doctor was dismissive of the devices.
The orange spacesuits worn by the Twelfth Doctor, Clara and Courtney are nearly identical to the Sanctuary Base Six spacesuits that were seen in "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" - one of which was shown to be taken by the Tenth Doctor and worn on several later occasions (see "42" and "The Waters of Mars") and by the Eleventh Doctor in "Hide". This time, however, the insignia of Sanctuary Base Six is removed, unlike Orson Pink's spacesuit in "Listen", which was inexplicably identical to the Sanctuary Base Six spacesuits.
One of the atom bombs has a Cyrillic inscription: 'ДОЖДЬ'. There was a Twitter rumour in July 2010, that a new Russian bomb would be called by this name. But this turned out to be a joke; 'ДОЖДЬ' (pronounced 'dozhd') means 'rain' and many Russians just had tweeted about rain in Moscow after a long period of drought.
Clara is heard to mention the previous time the TARDIS made an emergency dematerialisation that occurred in the 2013 Eleventh Doctor story "Cold War".
Referring to his new cycle of regenerations granted, in "The Time of The Doctor", The Doctor mentions that he does not know if he will keep regenerating forever.
Like the Second Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor is heard to say 'When I say 'run', run'.
The Doctor is heard to quote to Courtney some rules of travelling with him in the TARDIS 'no vomiting, no hankie-pankie' - the first refers to the previous story where Courtney threw up in the TARDIS, which he was not too pleased about. The second one is likely due to Amy Pond and Rory Williams accidentally conceiving River Song aboard the TARDIS, which lead to The Silence trying to use her to kill him. 'No hankie-pankie in the TARDIS' is also a saying used by Doctor Who fans in reference to The Doctor's platonic relationship with his travelling companions.
The Doctor is concerned the Courtney has posted pictures of him on Tumblr (see also "Asylum of the Daleks"). Tumblr. is a micro-blogging site allowing users to post multimedia updates which can be re-blogged by other users.
The Doctor is heard telling Courtney to use a DVD in order to bring the TARDIS to him. He also says that she should hold on to the console so she won't be left behind (see the 2007 Tenth story "Blink").
The publication date of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield is seen written on the whiteboard as 1850. Clara previously argued with The Doctor over the date of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice' in "The Caretaker"). In the real world David Copperfield was published in serial form, which concluded in 1850.
While on the Moon The Doctor finds amniotic fluid - which life comes from (see the 1979 Fourth Doctor story "City of Death").
The Doctor is heard to say that he would not kill Hitler as an example of not interfering with the course of history - 'I've never killed Hitler'. This refers to events in the 2011 Eleventh Doctor story "Let's Kill Hitler".
In "The Fires of Pompeii" the Tenth Doctor explains to Donna Noble that as a Time Lord, he can see fixed and mutable points in time - 'I can see what is, what was, what could be, what must not'. The Twelfth Doctor in this story is heard to say that he can see the same thing, but that there are some 'grey areas' - referring to some points in time where he cannot see the outcome.
The Doctor chooses to take a step back in the face of an potentially apocalyptic event leaving humanity to choose the future. The Ninth Doctor initially took a similar approach upon witnessing what appeared to be humanity's first contact with alien life in the 2005 story "Aliens of London/World War Three").
Before he leaves Clara on the lunar base The Doctor is heard to state ‘The Earth isn’t my home’. He used these exact words in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Pyramids of Mars" when he told Sarah Jane Smith ‘The Earth isn’t my home, Sarah. I’m a Time Lord… I walk in eternity’.
This is not the first time The Doctor faces a terrible choice about millions of innocent humans or an innocent alien life-form (see the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Beast Below"). This time he decides not to be involved. As happened previously his companion solves the dilemma.
Lundvik likens the chunks of falling rock from the Moon to 'whatever killed the dinosaurs'. As Doctor Who fans know in the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock" it was revealed that what killed the dinosaurs was in fact a space freighter from the 26th century, which had warped back in time by 65 million years before crashing into the Earth.
The Doctor spied a prototype version of the Bennett Oscillator, using it to deduce that the year was 2049. He has previously indicated that a modified version of the Bennett Oscillator was from the late 29th to early 30th century (see "The Ark in Space").
This story reveals that every story set on the Moon after the year 2049 actually takes place on the replacement Moon 'laid' after the creature hatches.
In telling Clara about what will happen to Courtney as a result of this story The Doctor mentions that 'she meet this bloke called Blinovitch'. The Blinovitch Limitation Effect was introduced in the 1972 Third Doctor story "Day of the Daleks" and refers to at least one principle of time travel. It was later alluded to in later stories including the 1974 Third Doctor story "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" and the 1983 Fifth Doctor story "Mawdryn Undead".
This story marks the fourth story of Season Thirty Four (New Series 8) not to feature Missy - after "Robot of Sherwood", "Listen" and "Time Heist".
Since this story has no antagonist this makes Season Thirty Four (New Series 8) the first season to have more than one story not to feature a antagonist.
This story looks at mankind’s efforts and ambitions to travel into space. Coincidentally this story was first broadcast on the 4th October 2014, the 57th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik - the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, fired into space by the USSR on that date in 1957.
This story's original broadcast was followed by a teaser for the second series of fellow BBC Saturday night drama, Atlantis, confirming that it would premiere on the 15th November 2014, the week following the finale of this season of Doctor Who.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Peter Harness.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Paul Wilmshurst.
The first story to be filmed in Lanzarote since the 1984 Fifth Doctor story "Planet of Fire".
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(Position = 11 out of 12)
