 In this story The Doctor and Bill Potts travel back in time to Regency-era London - 1814 to be precise - and we see them change out of their regular clothes and adopt more appropriate attire for the period. The Doctor is seen donning a natty top hat and a sombre black suit while his companion wears an elegant green dress.
This story continues on from the end of the previous story, "Smile", where we saw The Doctor and Bill arriving on the frozen River Thames with an elephant crossing their path.
This story has been written by Sarah Dollard - the writer of 2015 story "Face the Raven". Sarah tweeted ‘I don't know how Michael Pickwoad does it. His team are building something VERY BIG for my ep. I just stared and stared and was like... how? ’.
The director is a newcomer to Doctor Who, Bill Anderson, whose previous credits include Mr Selfridge, Taggart and Silent Witness.
The read-through for the second production block of this season took place on the 18th July 2016 with recording beginning on the 1st August 2016. The second production included this story and the next story "Knock Knock".
For the shots involving The Doctor falling below the ice in his diving gear were created by The Model Unit using a miniature 1/3 scale puppet inspired by a similar effect in James Cameron’s film The Abyss.
Sutcliffe greets The Doctor as ‘Doctor Disco, from the Fairford Club’ - a moniker he first used when leaving Clara Oswald a voice message in the 2015 Eleventh Doctor story "The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion".
Nardole reminds The Doctor of his oath and that he would not be going off-world.
The Doctor once more states that he is 2000 years old (see "Deep Breath" and Smile").
Bill is heard asking The Doctor how many people he has seen die (see "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End"). He replies by saying that he has lost count (see "The Day of The Doctor").
The Doctor is seen punching Sutcliffe in the face out of anger and defence of his companion. He did a similar thing in the 2015 story "Hell Bent".
The Doctor asks Bill if she noticed he was ‘down with the kids’ after entertaining the urchins. He previously noted his ability to fit in with children in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "School Reunion".
Bill refers to the melanin in her skin and is heard voicing her fear that she will be mistaken for a slave due to the colour of her skin. Martha Jones voiced the same concern when she visited London of 1599 with the Tenth Doctor in the 2007 story "The Shakespeare Code".
On arriving in 1814 London Bill first thinks they have travelled to a parallel world.
Bill asks about if there are any physical side effects of time travel (see "The End of the World", "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday" and "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords").
The Doctor is heard reminding Bill that he is her tutor (see "The Pilot").
When Sutcliffe first sees Bill it is obvious that he is racist and sexist.
Nardole mentions being reassembled (see "The Husbands of River Song" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio").
Kitty is worried that The Doctor will take her and the other urchins to the Magistrate.
She is heard warning Spider about how they will be transported if they are caught. This is a reference to how convicted criminals during this period could be transported to Australia.
Spider is one of the few child characters to be killed on-screen throughout the history of the show.
In an interview Steven Moffat was heard to joke that the introduction to EastEnders was always about a giant snake, a reference towards the view of the River Thames from above, which makes it look like a serpent.
Bill worries that the serpent will eat people off the Southbank and half of London and that they have doomed Greenland.
The Doctor refers to the sea serpent as ‘Tiny’, ‘the loch-less monster’ and the ‘not-so-little mermaid’.
The sinister looking underwater creature The Doctor discovers is not the first creature to be found lurking in the Thames. In the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Terror of the Zygons" we discovered that Nessie is actually a Skarasen which followed The Doctor to London and eventually made its way into the city’s famous river. Also in the 1964 First Doctor story "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" The Doctor was confronted by a Dalek that emerged from the Thames and in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Aliens of London/World War Three", the Slitheen crashed their spaceship, carrying the so-called ‘Space Pig’ into its waters.
According to the BBC short story "The Frozen" (an exclusive-to-Internet Doctor Who audio story that was published on the Doctor Who website in 2007) in February 1814 the Hyban Masoon froze the Thames on arrival.
The TARDIS lands on Blackfriars Bridge next to New Lime Wharf. The Frost Fair stretched from Blackfriars to London Bridge. The Doctor and Bill are seen heading towards Freezeland Street.
A map of 19th century London is displayed on the TARDIS console.
The Doctor again mentions how you don't steer the TARDIS but you have to reason with the time machine (see "Smile").
The Doctor is heard to give Bill the same set of directions to the TARDIS wardrobe that the Ninth Doctor gave Rose in the 2005 story "The Unquiet Dead".
This story features a visit to the 1814 Frost Fair, the last one to be held at the Old London Bridge, which caused the water flow in the Thames to be slow enough to allow it to freeze. Old London Bridge was replaced in 1831. As shown in this story during this fair a stunt took place when an elephant was led across the frozen Thames.
The Frost Fair contains many activities and performances, notably wrestling, sword swallowing, skittles, cartwheel performers, magicians, ring toss, M. G. Clark Printing Co., souvenir shops, book shops, pubs, The Nelson Arms, The City of Moscow and ‘try your luck’ stalls.
Frost Fairs were hugely popular and held sporadically in London on the River Thames until 1814.
The Doctor mentions having been to the 1814 Frost Fair ‘a few times’ before. (see "A Good Man Goes to War", the BBC New Series Adventures novel "Silhouette" and the Big Finish Productions Companion Chronicles audio story "Frostfire"). In the 2011 Eleventh Doctor story "A Good Man Goes to War" River Song is heard to say to Rory that The Doctor took her to the 1814 Frost Fair for her birthday ‘The Doctor took me ice skating on the River Thames in 1814, the last of the great Frost Fairs. He got Stevie Wonder to sing for me under London Bridge’. The First Doctor with Vicki and Steven Taylor also visited the 1814 Frost Fair in "Frostfire" where they encountered Jane Austen.
The phrase ‘on thin ice’ means to be in a situation close to peril. Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited as originating the idiom in his essay of 1841 entitled Prudence, in which he wrote, ‘In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed’. However, variations of the phrase pre-date that work, with Emanuel Swedenborg writing in 1786, ‘They may therefore be likened unto those, who are carried in a Chariot over a smooth thin Ice, which breaketh under them’.
The Doctor once again notes humanity's habit of overlooking and forgetting the bizarre when he states that ‘Your species hardly notices anything’. This echoes his words to Ace in the 1988 Seventh doctor story "Remembrance of the Daleks" ‘Do you remember the Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness Monster?’ he asked his companion ‘or the Yeti in the Underground? Your species has an amazing capacity for self-deception’. Humanity's habit of overlooking and forgetting events was also mentioned in the 2014 story "In the Forest of the Night". Charlie Smith noted the same after the Shadow Kin came close to invading Earth through Coal Hill School in the spin-off series, Class, story "The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo").
The Doctor reminds Bill of her recent experience with death when they visited, in "Smile", a garden full of dead people. He confirms this was only a few hours before this story.
Bill is heard voicing her concern about the Butterfly Effect. The ‘Butterfly Effect’ in relation to time travel suggests that an apparently trivial act in the past can have massive repercussions in the future. The concept was referenced in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Shakespeare Code" when Martha is heard to say ‘It’s like in the films. You step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race!’ Perhaps coincidentally, Bill Pott’s first tentative step onto the frozen Thames brings to mind Martha’s cautious first step outside the TARDIS in that story.
The Doctor is heard to joke with Bill about an imaginary person called ‘Pete’ who stepped on a butterfly and doing so got erased from history.
Bill is heard to reveal that she was a skittles champion two years in a row.
The ‘pop up’ pub where Bill plays skittles in is called The Nelson Arms. In the 1972 Third Doctor story "The Sea Devils" The Doctor is heard telling Captain Hart that ‘Horatio Nelson was a personal friend of mine’.
The Doctor is heard to comment ‘Of course it’s not wrestling unless it’s in zero gravity’. The Doctor previously mentioned the Anti-Gravity Olympics in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "Tooth and Claw" and later, in the 2013 story "The Bells of Saint John", he even claimed to have taken part in the 2074 games!
The Doctor reads the children a passage from The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, one of the Struwwelpeter tales by Heinrich Hoffmann. The Doctor must have been carrying the book with him as it was first published in 1845. Incidentally, ‘Shockheaded Peter’ (a theatrical production that was first staged in 1998) remains one of the most celebrated interpretations of the Struwwelpeter stories. It was co-created by Julian Bleach (best known to Doctor Who fans for his portrayal as Davros in the 2015 story "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar").
The Doctor says he is getting used to being asked how he finds people (see "Partners in Crime" and "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky".
The Doctor is again seen using his psychic paper.
The Doctor again leaves a historical decision up to his companion (see "Kill the Moon").
The Doctor is asked how many people he has seen die ("The Stolen Earth/Journey's End") and personally killed ("The End of the World", "The Day of The Doctor", "The Time of The Doctor" and "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent"). He remarks on how he has lost count (see "The Day of The Doctor").
When The Doctor and Bill return to The Doctor's study Bill is heard to remark that it looks the exact same as when they left - from the cup of previous sonic screwdrivers, wooden raven and family photographs to the books, the busts and the placing of the chairs (see "The Pilot"). Nardole then enters the room having made tea. He announces that he has added some coffee to give it flavour.
On returning to The Doctor’s study he shows Bill the British Newspaper Archives when trying to find information about the frost fair-incident.
Bill uses search-wise.net to look for the serpent incident. Rose Tyler used the same website to look up about the Ninth Doctor in the 2005 story "Rose".
Nardole is seen at the end of this story checking on the vault. During this scene someone behind the vault doors knocks three times repeatedly. The last row of knocks is 4 times. The Doctor previously said knocks were weirdly in rows of 4 ("Heaven Sent/Hell Bent") The Master was previously plagued with a drumming sound in 4 beats, and later a prophecy developed around the Tenth Doctor's death being preceded by 4 knocks ("Utopia", "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords", "Planet of the Dead", "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time") The Midnight entity also used 2, 3 and 4 knocks when inspecting the Midnight Crusader Tours' shuttle bus in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Midnight".
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Bill Anderson.
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(Position = 8 out of 12)
