 The plot for this story is notable for breaking away from the traditional filming style of the show by depicting events through a found-footage style of direction consisting of recordings recovered from the wreckage of the Le Verrier Space Station. All its scenes were featured in a manner that suggests they were being viewed through video recordings with a first person monologue, as told by Professor Rassmussen, rather than in third-person.
This is the only stand-alone single episode story of Season Thirty Five (New Series 9).
This story has been written by Mark Gatiss. It is his first television story to be set in the future rather than the past or present.
This story is directed by Justin Molotnikov who is also the director for the following story "Face the Raven".
The guest star for this story is Reece Shearsmith who is an award-winning actor and writer.
This is his first appearance in Doctor Who although he did play the actor who brought the Second Doctor to life - Patrick Troughton – in the 2013 BBC Two drama An Adventure in Space and Time about the creation of Doctor Who that was also written by Mark Gatiss.
Reece Shearsmith though is best known for his work as part of The League of Gentlemen along with Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson, and BBC Two's dark comedy Inside No. 9.
Reece Shearsmith has revealed ‘I am absolutely thrilled to be filming Doctor Who, as Mark Gatiss has written a fantastic role for me in a very scary episode. It has been so exciting to be part of a very singular episode - which, I can say with authority will be unlike any previous episode of Doctor Who. It's a joy to play a part in the show -certainly a badge of honour’.
This story’s writer Mark Gatiss added ‘I'm delighted to be writing again for Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman's brilliant TARDIS team, and I'm very excited about this particular story. It's been brewing in the dark recesses of my mind for a while now! I'm also chuffed to bits to finally welcome my old friend Reece Shearsmith onto the show. He's been badgering me for 10 years!’
Also staring are: former EastEnders actress Elaine Tan, whose other television work includes Entourage and the Hand of God', Neet Mohan, who appeared recently in BBC Two's Line of Duty and Channel 4 drama No Offence; Bethany Black, who played the part of Helen in Russell T Davies' acclaimed dramas Cucumber and Banana; and Paul Courtenay Hyu, who appeared Dalziel and Pascoe, Happy Valley and Coronation Street.
Tom Wilton, who plays one of the Sandmen, played a Zygon in "The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion".
Though uncredited the voice of the computer is played by Nikki Wilson who also produced this story.
The read through for this story took place on the 23rd July 2015 and filming ran from the 27th July to the 12th August 2015.
This story is the first not to identify the story’s name during the opening titles. Unusually, the credits for the writer, producer and director are also missing from the beginning of this story. However, when Rassmussen's initial video footage ends the screen is filled with text and letters spelling out the words DOCTOR and WHO. All the characters' names as well as the space station's name also appear in the code. During this non-musical title sequence the words DOCTOR and WHO is slightly brighter than other text making it is more easily discernible.
The name of this story and the credits for the writer, producer and director all appear after the story’s action, directly preceding details of the cast. The Big Finish Productions audio story "LIVE 34" previously utilised a similar format of presentation, with no titles or credits whatsoever.
The only other time that a television story did not feature a title during the opening titles was the 2005 Children in Need Special, which did not display any discernible title at all.
At the start of this story it is revealed that the Le Verrier Space Station is in orbit around the planet Neptune. It is therefore plausible, even though it is not explicitly stated, that this space station is named after Urbain Le Verrier (1811 –1877), the French mathematician who deduced the existence and position of Neptune using mathematics alone.
Clara is heard to ask if the Morpheus Machine is actually named after Morpheus, the god of sleep. The Morpheus hologram also uses the term 'in the arms of Morpheus', a phrase meaning to be in a deep sleep. In Greek mythology, Morpheus was the god of dreams who could appear in mortals’ dreams in any form. He is often depicted as a winged deity.
The Morpheus machine theme song, Mr. Sandman, was popularised by the group The Chordettes in 1954. Mr. Sandman is a popular song that exemplifies the sound of the 1950s. Written by Pat Ballard and first recorded in May 1954 by Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra. The Chordettes then released the best known version of this song five months later. Their single reached number one on the Billboard United States charts and number eleven in the UK charts and incidentally, The Chordettes were an all-female quartet, not entirely dissimilar to the holographic group we see singing the number in this story. This song has also been heard before in the 1987 Seventh Doctor story "Delta and the Bannermen".
Nagata is heard to mention ‘Space Pirates’ which to a Doctor Who fan instantly suggests the 1969 story "The Space Pirates". In that story, the pirates were commanded by Maurice Caven and his comrade in crime, Dervish and together they plundered aragonite - one of the most precious minerals in the galaxy.
‘Consider yourself... part of the furniture!’ When The Doctor finishes Nagata’s sentence he is quoting the song, Consider Yourself, from Oliver!, the musical based on the novel Oliver Twist, written by Charles Dickens.
When debating with Clara about naming the creatures, The Doctor mutters ‘It's like the Silurians all over again’, referencing a continuity controversy concerning their name. These Earth-based, reptilian species were discovered in the 1970 Third Doctor story "Doctor Who and the Silurians". The Doctor however, did not call them the Silurians, suggesting it was a human who gave them their accepted name. In actual fact, the species were not from the Silurian era meaning their name was misleading.
During this story the following dialogue (which includes this story’s eerie title), from Act II, Scene ii of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, are quoted by The Doctor:
MACBETH:
Me thought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast, -
LADY MACBETH:
What do you mean?
MACBETH:
Still it cried ‘Sleep no more!’ to all the house:
‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more’.
According to writer Mark Gatiss, The Doctor's mention of ‘the Great Catastrophe’ that befell humankind is referrence to the collision between the Earth and the Sun described in the 1984 Fifth Doctor story "Frontios".
Rassmussen is heard to say that there will be no more ‘Rip Van Winkles’, referring to the syndrome of too long sleep, and there will be a new generation of Wide-Awakes. Those like Chopra, who refuse to compress their sleep via the Morpheus process, are referred to as 'Rips' - a reference to the short story Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving.
Rassmussen is heard to say that he would transmit his video to the whole Solar system. The Doctor said the same thing about the recording Clara made of the defeat of Odin and the Mire in "The Girl Who Died".
It is revealed that Grunts are artificially grown human soldiers.
The Doctor suggests the space station has very powerful anti-gravity shielding. The Doctor encountered such shields before (see "Horror of Fang Rock").
The Doctor suggests the space station is in night time setting. The Drum, that The Doctor and Clara visited, in "Under the Lake/Before the Flood", used day and night time setting.
The Doctor again is seen using his sonic sunglasses.
The Doctor again is seen to use his finger to tell the time (see "Under the Lake/Before the Flood").
The Doctor is heard to say ‘When I say run, run’ which the Second Doctor and Fifth Doctor often said (see "The Power of the Daleks", "The Tomb of the Cybermen", "Castrovalva" and "Warriors of the Deep").
This is not the first time The Doctor's adventure becomes the subject of a recording that, if played, would infect and kill its audience (see the BBC Audio's Tenth Doctor audio story "Dead Air").
The Radio Times programme listing was accompanied by a small colour head-and-shoulders shot of a helmeted Nagata, with the accompanying caption ‘Doctor Who / 8.15 p.m. / Found footage shows what fate befell the rescue mission led by Nagata (Elaine Tan).’
This story received mixed reviews and was watched by 5.61 million viewers making it the lowest of any Doctor Who story, made to-date, since the show was revived in 2005.
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The Firsts:
The first television story written by Mark Gatiss to be set in the future rather than the past or present.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Justin Molotnikov.
The first Doctor Who story not to identify the story’s name during the opening titles.
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(Position = 9 out of 9)
