Trivia / Doctor Who S14 E1 "The Masque of Mandragora"

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Elisabeth Sladen originally planned to leave the series during Season 13. She extended her contract to an additional seven months because she really wanted to make this serial.
• Blooper: When the Doctor and Sarah try to recite the alphabet backwards as a concentration technique, Elizabeth Sladen accidentally swaps U and V around. Because nothing else in the franchise popped up to contradict this, this led to the TARDIS Data Core, the Whoniverse wiki, shrugging and running with the idea that the alphabet is just like that in the show.
• California Doubling: Filmed in Portmeirion, Wales (like many other TV period dramas of the time), which makes this story rather distracting for fans of The Prisoner (1967).
• Corpsing: During filming, Tom Baker apparently made himself a nuisance by messing around off-camera in order to make Tim Piggot-Smith (as Marco) crack up during his torture scene.
• Inspiration for the Work: Philip Hinchcliffe was inspired by The Masque of the Red Death.
• Prop Recycling: Many of the costumes used in the story had previously appeared in a 1954 film version of Romeo and Juliet starring Laurence Harvey. Both stories are set in Italy in the 15th century.
• Working Title: The Catacombs of Death, Doom of Destiny, Secret of the Labyrinth and The Curse of Mandragora.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Tim Pigott-Smith previously played Captain Harker in "The Claws of Axos".
  • Norman Jones previously played Khrisong in "The Abominable Snowmen" and Major Baker in "Doctor Who and the Silurians".
  • Robert James was Lesterson in "The Power of the Daleks".

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