Trivia / Doctor Who S33 E4 "The Power of Three"

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• California Doubling: The scene at the Tower of London couldn’t be filmed because of the then-current London Olympics, so it was shot on a set in Cardiff and composited with other footage to make it seem like they were there.
• The Cast Showoff: Matt Smith plays football again.
• Completely Different Title: The French title is "L’Invasion des cubes" (Invasion of the Cubes).
• Deleted Scene:
  • Rory was supposed to have an action scene with two hospital assistants, which would’ve led into the Shakri’s death.
  • A scene with bomb disposal experts Conroy and Sullivan was deleted in post.
• Development Gag: In one throwaway gag, the Doctor is seen randomly holding a cabbage. Tom Baker once famously joked that he wanted a sentient cabbage as the next companion.
• Executive Veto: Amy and Rory were supposed to stab Shakri to death with syringes. BBC Compliance effectively vetoed that plan.
• Fandom Nod: With a helping of Trolling Creator. Since about a year before this episode aired, there were theories floating around the internet that Rory is secretly the Master. This episode shows a fob watch on Rory's bedside table.
• First Appearance: Of Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart.
• Inspiration for the Work: Chris Chibnall was inspired by the story of the MSC Napoli, a 2007 shipwreck along the Devon coast near his home, where people would come far and wide to claim the merchandise washed ashore.
• The Other Darrin: If you consider the UNIT video Downtime, in which Kate was played by Beverly Cressman, to be canonical.
• Promoted Fanboy: Lord Sugar. Seriously.
• Reality Subtext:
  • The Doctor's disgusted remark about Twitter was in part from Matt Smith’s decision to stay off the social media site.
  • Kate Stewart's look of incredulous joy when the Doctor mentions her father — and in fact Kate's undying love and admiration for her father in general — is heavily influenced by actress Jemma Redgrave's own love and admiration for her late father, Corin, who had passed away only a couple of years prior to filming.
• Troubled Production: To say Steven Berkoff was difficult to work with was putting it mildly. He repeatedly went against the wishes of the director, in some cases just plain refusing to do what he was told, deliberately ruined takes (sometimes by reading his lines as badly as possible), and had several temper tantrums. Virtually all the footage they shot featuring Berkoff was unusable, and the ending as broadcast is all they could cobble together from the few scraps they were able to salvage, plus some pick-ups filmed later on with just Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill (as well as some shots of Berkoff which were allegedly taken from when the camera was left running between takes, because even the filmed footage of Berkoff walking across the floor could not be used) — it was not originally the intention for Berkoff's character to be a hologram, or for the plot to effectively be resolved entirely by the sonic screwdriver, but that was all they were able to do with what they had. In an interview given to promote the episode, director Douglas Mackinnon barely attempted to conceal how difficult he found working with Berkoff:
  "The experience of working with him on Doctor Who was something that'll never be repeated; you could ask anyone on the cast or crew and they'll agree that his participation was extraordinary."
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Shakri was supposed to be an in-person character and not a hologram. Much of this was removed because of Steven Berkoff's performance (see Troubled Production above).
  • The episode was largely restructured to introduce the invasion storyline earlier. The episode originally began with scenes such as the adventure with Henry VIII and Amy at the engagement party.
  • The in-universe Prime Minister, Stephen Carter, was supposed to have banned the Doctor from the United Kingdom, causing his absence from most of the story.
  • Before being taken by android orderlies himself, Arnold Underwood was to make reference to a neighbour named Elizabeth Cracknell who had not returned home from the hospital.
  • The episode originally ended with Amy and Rory deciding on "one more" trip with the TARDIS despite Rory’s father Brian being nervous. Steven Moffat decided to have Brian more enthusiastic for the pair, as more subtle foreshadowing for their last story.
• Working Title: Was originally known to the public as "Cubed". And incidentally, this was also Title Dropped in the same sentence by Amy.

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