Trivia / Doctor Who S19 E4 "The Visitation"

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• Acting in the Dark: The opening sequence in the TARDIS follows on directly from "Kinda". Since this story was filmed first, the cast had to act out their characters' responses to the events of that story based solely on the script, hence things like Tegan's mispronunciation of "Mara".
• Creator Backlash: Eric Saward disliked Michael Robbins for changing his lines as Mace. Robbins also apparently hated being on the show.
• Creator's Favourite Episode: Peter Davison named this a favourite. Matthew Waterhouse recalled Davison entering the rehearsal room shaking the script with excitement.
• Inspiration for the Work: The story’s setting of the Great Fire of London was from Eric Saward's then-girlfriend, Paula Woolsey. She had been researching the architecture in the aftermath of the fire, and pointed out how the rats which helped spread the bubonic plague were all but gone after the event. Saward liked this as a hook to discuss circumstances in medieval England.
• Prop Recycling: The Terileptil's laboratory has a Hymetusite crystal from "The Horns of Nimon".
• Recycled Script: For his first script, Eric Saward recycles the basic premise and plot beats of Robert Holmes' "The Time Warrior".
• Self-Adaptation: Eric Saward wrote the serial's novelization.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Terileptils, and the pioneering animatronic masks used to bring them to life, were intended to return so as to Shoot the Money. They never showed up again, with the exception of a modified mask used in the ''Trial of a Time Lord" arc.
  • BRIAN BLESSED, Donald Houston and Donald Pleasence were considered for Richard Mace.
  • Eric Saward had suggested the story back when it was called Invasion of the Plague Men the season prior. John Nathan-Turner disliked it though, as he felt it was too much of a retread for his new direction.
  • Saward originally intended for the serial to end with the Doctor claiming a new sonic screwdriver out of a cabinet full of the devices: we could've seen far more of the sonic in the classic series, but Nathan-Turner decided that it made things too easy for the Doctor and was a writer's crutch. Also slightly coupled with Executive Meddling.
• Working Title: The Invasion of the Plague Men and Plague Rats.

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