Trivia / Doctor Who 2022 CEN "The Power of the Doctor"

• Acting for Two:
  • After the Master force-regenerates the Doctor into a doppelganger of himself and takes over her body, Sacha Dhawan briefly plays what is technically an incarnation of the Doctor as well.
  • Jodie Whittaker also plays both her Doctor and the hologram version, as do Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy as the Fifth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor respectively, and the holograms when it changes form to them for Tegan and Ace.
  • Behind the scenes example, but Sophie Aldred returns as Ace and also stood in as the Thirteenth Doctor against whoever was on-screen during the Guardians of the Edge scene.
• Ascended Fanon: Graham's group for ex-companions canonises the common Fanon idea that there is a covert social network between most of the Doctor's companions on contemporary Earth.
• Content Leak: The end twist of David Tennant playing the Fourteenth Doctor was leaked by British tabloids several months in advance of the episode's airing.
• Fandom Nod: "The Master's Dalek Plan" gag (as in "The Daleks' Master Plan") had previously been common in fandom reactions to "The Magician's Apprentice"/"The Witch's Familiar". It's also the name of a Big Finish Doctor Who audio story.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • This episode tied in with the BBC's 100th anniversary, hence the cavalcade of character cameos from the classic series.
  • It was also officially touted as the 300th Doctor Who story (counting the 14-part "The Trial of a Time Lord" and 6-part "Flux" as one story each, but counting "Let's Kill Hitler", "The Woman Who Lived", "Hell Bent" and the last two parts of the Monks Trilogy as separate to their first parts, along with discounting the unfinished "Shada").
• Refitted for Sequel: The Doctor's regeneration back into a previous incarnation (in this case, David Tennant) was an idea originally proposed by Sydney Newman, the show's own creator, in 1986, when BBC One controller Michael Grade asked him if he had any ideas to reformat the series after Colin Baker's firing. Newman envisioned Patrick Troughton returning to the role for one season before regenerating into a female incarnation; the idea fell through at the time due to Creative Differences between Newman and the BBC's Head of Drama, Jonathan Powell, not to mention Troughton's own death in 1987.
• Role Reprise: Many former cast members return to the main television series, some decades after their departure:
  • Paul McGann returns as the Eighth Doctor nine years after his last appearance in "The Night of the Doctor".
  • Katy Manning returns as Jo Jones 12 years after her last appearance in "Death of the Doctor", an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. (unless you count the mini-episodes they do for the Blu Ray Boxed Sets of course.)
  • Peter Davison returns as the Fifth Doctor for the first time since "Time Crash" 15 years prior.
  • Sylvester McCoy returns as the Seventh Doctor for the first time since the TV movie 26 years prior.
  • Sophie Aldred returns as Ace 33 years after her last on-screen appearance in "Survival", the Grand Finale of the Classic Series.
  • Bonnie Langford returns as Mel Bush for the first time since "Dragonfire" 35 years prior.
  • Colin Baker returns as the Sixth Doctor for the first time since "The Ultimate Foe" 36 years prior.
  • Janet Fielding returns as Tegan Jovanka 38 years after her last appearance(s) in Season 21 (her last mainline appearance was in "Resurrection of the Daleks", but she still made a newly-recorded cameo during the Fifth Doctor's regeneration in "The Caves of Androzani" two serials later).
  • Special mention must go to William Russell, who returns as Ian Chesterton 57 years after his last appearance, all the while being in his late nineties; the gap was long enough to earn Russell a Guinness World Record.
• Swan Song:
  • For Chris Chibnall's 5-year and 3-season tenure as showrunner and Jodie Whittaker's tenure as the first female Doctor in the show's history. It also marks the end of long-time producer Nikki Wilson, composer Segun Akinola and costume designer Ray Holman being associated with the show.
  • This episode ended up being the last new episode of Doctor Who to air on BBC America, and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia after Disney+ signed a deal with the BBC for exclusive broadcasting rights for the Fourteenth Doctor onward worldwide except in the UK and Ireland. Both broadcasters even managed to Bookend their time with the show: BBC America started airing it in 2008 for David Tennant's final episodes as the Tenth Doctor and finished by broadcasting his first appearance as the Fourteenth Doctor, while the ABC began with the First Doctor all the way back in 1965 and ended with an episode featuring a cameo by his original companion, Ian Chesterton.
• Throw It In!:
  • When the BBC uploaded the script for the episode it revealed that a few well loved moments were either improvised or added to the script at the last minute, such as Kate's joke about just signing the lease on the new UNIT HQ.
  • The "What? What? What?" ending was scripted, but David Tennant added Fourteen's first line being, "I know these teeth", as a Call-Back to one of his first lines as Ten being, "New teeth, that's weird".
  • The Meaningful Look between the Dalek and the Cyberman was improved by the suit actors, but was found too funny to drop.
  • The Master dancing was also not intended. Sacha Dhawan misinterpreted something in the script that caused him to think he was supposed to, and the crew rolled with it when he started.
• Trolling Creator: It was originally announced that Ncuti Gatwa was going to be "the next Doctor". While various news sites that shared this were quick to call him "the Fourteenth Doctor", the official announcement never called him by a number, which fans picked up on and speculated that there might be more to it. Turns out that was entirely intentional to hide the twist that David Tennant will be playing Fourteen and Gatwa will be playing Fifteen.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The official BBC release of the script for the episode revealed numerous scenes or lines that were either cut or changed in the final release. Some notable examples include the Master turning out to be the actual historical Rasputin ^note Which would mean that the Boney M. song he dances to is actually about him, Yaz demanding the Doctor "Give me that respect", and the regeneration scene was supposed to have the Doctor end her speech with, "I bet it's going to be brilliant", as a Bookend, regenerate while sitting down on the cliff, and the episode was to end before we see who the new Doctor is, presumably because it wasn't yet known who would be taking over the show.
  • Tom Baker was approached about appearing along with the other classic Doctors, though he turned out to be unavailable.
  • Anneke Wills was reportedly approached to appear as Polly with the other old companions in the meet-up scene, but was unavailable for the filming date.
• You Look Familiar: Sanchia McCormack (Train Marshal Halaz) previously played a housing officer in "Turn Left".

---