 This story is the second of the three 2023 specials that was shown as part of the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary celebrations.
This story marked Donna Noble's first full adventure as a travelling companion following her memories of The Doctor being returned to her. This story continues immediately on from the end of the previous story "The Star Beast" and focuses on The Doctor and Donna being stranded on a spaceship at the edge of the universe after the TARDIS abandons them.
This is David Tennant and Catherine Tate second story together following their return to the show in the previous story, "The Star Beast". Additionally, Nathaniel Curtis stars as Isaac Newton and Susan Twist as Mrs Merridew. Daniel Tuite, Ophir Raray, Tommaso Di Vincenzo and Helen Cripps also appeared as stand-ins and acting doubles for David Tenant and Catherine Tate.
This story was written by Russell T Davies and directed by Tom Kingsley. This is Tom Kingsley’s first Doctor Who story.
This story allowed both David Tennant and Catherine Tate to play doubles, with them not only playing their main characters but also the main antagonists of the story, the Not-Things, making David Tennant the seventh actor playing the part of The Doctor to have played both The Doctor and one of the main antagonists in a story. This followed William Hartnell ("The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve"), Patrick Troughton ("The Enemy of the World"), Tom Baker ("Meglos"), Peter Davison / Colin Baker ("Arc of Infinity") and Matt Smith ("The Eleventh Hour" and "Nightmare in Silver").
Donna is heard saying that The Doctor knows 27 million languages, which The Doctor corrects her as it is over 57 billion. The Ninth Doctor previously remarked he knew 5 billion languages without the need for the TARDIS’ translation circuits in "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways". Furthermore, The Doctor remarks that he does not know the language used at the edge of the universe, recalling how his tenth incarnation did not know the language depicted by The Beast in "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit". The need for the TARDIS to help translate alien languages has been established several times, notably more recently in "The End of the World", "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Fires of Pompeii".
The Doctor once more loses both his sonic-screwdriver and the TARDIS, forcing him to rely entirely on his intellect, as did the Ninth Doctor, in "Father's Day", and the Twelfth Doctor in "Oxygen".
Donna is heard jokingly saying ‘Allons-y’, mocking how the Tenth Doctor used to say this when traveling with her - as in "The Runaway Bride", "Partners in Crime" and "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead". She also calls him an idiot, a remark she also used to occasionally call him like in "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky".
While being DoctorDonna gave Donna concurrent access to the everything The Doctor knows; making her aware of the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor, Twelfth Doctor, and Thirteenth Doctor. As Donna herself noted though, she cannot see these memories clearly and likened it to ‘looking into a furnace’.
Upon seeing one another, Donna and her Not-Thing counterpart remark that they like the other’s appearance. Amy Pond had a similar interaction when meeting her future self in "Time".
Upon The Doctor realising which Donna is the real one, he calls her ‘earth girl’, a nickname he called her sometimes like in "The Fires of Pompeii" and "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
It is revealed that Donna was born in Southampton.
The Doctor names the robot ‘Jimbo’. This name was first used when the robot featured in promotional materials for this story. The Ninth Doctor also previously gave this name to a metal spider in the 2005 story "The End of the World".
When questioning how the Not-Things grow if they were to have a set amount of mass, Donna remembers how Shaun would complain about this issue in the Venom films.
The TARDIS regenerates itself from severe damage as it did in "The Eleventh Hour", "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" and "The Ghost Monument". Unlike on previous occasions, in this story The Doctor triggered this rebuild rather than it automatically happening and it did not result in the TARDIS' appearance changing.
The Cloister Bell can again be heard tolling within the TARDIS.
The Doctor and Donna are stranded due to the TARDIS’ Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS) activating as it had done before in "Cold War" and "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar".
The Doctor reveals that he once spent three years in orbit because the HADS prevented him from landing anywhere.
Donna is heard ordering The Doctor to summon the TARDIS back. While he does not do so in this story, he has previously been able to call the TARDIS to his location in "The Time of The Doctor". Donna also comments on how he could snap his fingers as a way to communicate with the TARDIS, something he has done numerous times, such as in "Forest of the Dead" and "Day of the Moon".
This story features The Doctor and Donna travelling to the edge of the universe and unintentionally freeing an enemy who will go on to oppress humanity, and who The Doctor must face in the next story. The Tenth Doctor previously travelled to the end of time and unintentionally freed The Master in "Utopia", who then went on to oppress humanity and face The Doctor in the following story, "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords".
According to a draft version of the script released by Russell T Davies, The Doctor and Donna have travelled past the Condensate Reefs and beyond the Realm of the Boltzmann Brains - beyond matter, light and life.
The Doctor is able to calculate how far they are from Earth by simply looking out to space. He previously did this with Rose Tyler in "The Impossible Planet".
This is the first story following previous showrunner Chris Chibnall's departure to reference the Flux and the fact that The Doctor wasn't born on Gallifrey and the events experienced by the Thirteenth Doctor continue to weigh on him, with his current relationship to Gallifrey being described as ‘complicated’. This occurred when one of the Not-Things, posing as Donna, mentions events that occurred in the 2020 story "Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children".
As well as expanding on the impact that both the Flux, and what The Doctor, in his previous incarnation had learnt about their past lives as the Timeless Child, this story reveals the guilt he has over the destruction caused by the Flux, with this story confirming what the lasting damage to the universe was; with half of the universe being destroyed, meaning only 37.5% of what the universe was in 1981 still exists, as The Master previously accidentally destroyed 25% (which included the Traken Union) with Entropy by closing off the Charged Vacuum Emboitements to E-Space in "Logopolis".
In the introductory scene Isaac Newton mishears Donna making a joke about gravity, instead naming it ‘Mavity’.
On learning that they have arrived in 1666, The Doctor advices Isaac Newton to avoid London. This is due to the Great Fire of London which the Fifth Doctor inadvertently caused in the 1982 story "The Visitation".
After finding a vehicle, The Doctor mimics the Thunderbirds character Parker, saying ‘Your car, milady’, with Donna responding ‘Thank you, Parker! ’ as Lady Penelope.
In issue 597 of the Doctor Who Magazine Russell T Davies teased five words that would play a part in this story: ‘Southampton’, ‘vegetable’, ‘bean’, ‘starlight’ and ‘Flux’. He also revealed that the history of both the Flux and the Timeless Child would be ‘dealt with very slightly in this episode’.
The Doctor is seen licking a substance to determine its properties, a trait that was present in the Tenth Doctor’s incarnation as seen in "The Christmas Invasion", "The Idiot's Lantern" and "Planet of the Dead". This carried onwards for the Eleventh Doctor in "The Eleventh Hour", and "Day of the Moon" as well as for the Thirteenth Doctor in "It Takes You Away".
Having been referenced in the previous story, and with Donna's whole reason for going with The Doctor being to visit Wilfred Mott, this story saw the return of Bernard Cribbins marking his first appearance in the show since "The End of Time" 13 years previously. However, this appearance would be posthumous, as the actor passed away in 2022 after filming his scenes for this story and over a year before this story was aired, making this story the final acting credit for his final performance in his long and distinguished acting career. The end credits also include a dedication to him which states: ‘In Loving Memory of Bernard Cribbins 1928-2022’.
After this story aired Russell T Davies revealed that there were more scenes written for Bernard Cribbins to be in, suggesting Wilfred Mott was supposed to have had a bigger role, following his appearance in this story, in the third and final special "The Giggle". However, the decision was made to reduce Wilfred Mott's role after it became clear that Bernard Cribbins' health would prevent him from being on-set for extended periods. Wilfred Mott though still appears briefly in "The Giggle" by way of a stand-in and an archival recording of his voice.
The title of this story was named after the song Wild Blue Yonder. This song is both referenced and played in this story.
David Tennant called this story ‘unlike any Doctor Who episode ever’, and referring to the specials as a whole as ‘Russell off the leash’.
This story's debut was mentioned alongside the other 2023 specials in the non-fiction feature Back in Business published in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 on the 7th September 2023.
The marketing of this story was kept incredibly vague and revealed very little about this story’s cast and plot - unlike the other two 60th anniversary specials, "The Star Beast" and "The Giggle". The BBC wanted to maintain the surprises of this story and Russell T Davies wanted one of the specials to be a complete mystery. According to director Tom Kingsley, the secrecy had nothing to do with any surprise returning actors or villains, but because ‘we thought you might find it fun to watch it without knowing what's going to happen next’.
A preview of this story, released in issue 597 of the Doctor Who Magazine, revealed a teaser of the plot and a snippet of dialogue between The Doctor and Donna. It also revealed a cast list consisting of David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and three other names that had all been replaced with the words ‘REDACTED’. These were later revealed to be Nathaniel Curtis, Susan Twist, and the late Bernard Cribbins.
Only limited details and cast list accompanied the programme listing in the Radio Times, which had the synopsis ‘In the second of Doctor Who's 60th anniversary special episodes, the TARDIS takes the Time Lord and Donna to the furthest edge of adventure. To escape, they must face the most desperate fight of their lives. Starring David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Susan Twist’.
This story contains an error when the TARDIS returns to the spaceship, The Doctor’s sonic-screwdriver, that he had left in the lock at the beginning of this story, is visibly missing from the keyhole for one scene, but is present in the next shot when The Doctor is seen retrieving it.
A novelisation of this story, written by Mark Morris, is due to be published in paperback in January 2024, and then on audio in February 2024, as part of the BBC Target Collection.
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The Firsts:
Bernard Cribbins' first appearance as Wilfred Mott since "The End of Time".
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