Trivia / Doctor Who S27 E1 "Rose"

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• Author's Saving Throw: Due to a technical error, the satellite-aired debut of the episode merged a few seconds with the soundtrack of BBC3's Strictly Dance Fever - as a result, Rose's delve into the shop basement was briefly accompanied by the off-screen amused voice of Graham Norton. In Davies' Target novelisation, Rose supposes the briefly audible voice to come from a nearby, swiftly silenced radio.
• Blooper: When the Doctor pulls the arm off the Auton in the shop's lift, the arm is solid plastic. Later, when Mickey tosses it into the rubbish bin, the arm is hollow. Later, when it tries to strangle the Doctor back Rose's flat, it's solid again.
• Completely Different Title:
  • The Hungarian title of this episode is "A próbababák támadása" (The Attack of the Mannequins).
  • The Japanese title of this episode is similarly titled as "Mannequin Wars".
• Content Leak: Almost a month before it aired on March 4th, the episode was leaked through torrenting. It was identical to the one that aired, saved for not using Murray Gold’s new scoring. The leakage turned out to be from an employee at a company connected to the CBC, who was fired afterwards.
• Creator Backlash: Noel Clarke isn't too fond of this episode:
  It wasn't played straight - some of it was played for laughs. I have no excuses, but I do have reasons: I had no rehearsal time, so I didn't really know the tone of what we were doing. I'd never met Chris before, or Billie or Camille. I didn't realise at the time, but my head wasn't where it should have been.
• First Appearance: Of Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith.
• Self-Adaptation: Russell T Davies later wrote the official novelization of this episode, released in 2018.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hugh Grant was originally approached for the part of the Ninth Doctor before the casting of Christopher Eccleston. However, Grant turned it down due to his belief that the revival would not take off. He later expressed his regret at turning down the offer having seen how successful the series turned out. Grant previously portrayed a non-canonical version of the Doctor in "The Curse of Fatal Death".
    • Bill Nighy, Shane Richie and Alan Cumming were also offered the role of the Ninth Doctor. However, Nighy turned down the offer as he considered the part to be "too much baggage", Richie declined due to filming commitments to Eastenders, and Cumming backed out after finding out it would take eight months in Cardiff to film it. Nighy would eventually go on to play Dr. Black in "Vincent and the Doctor", while Cumming would appear as King James VI/I in "The Witchfinders".
    • Alan Davies, Suzy Eddie Izzard, Martin Clunes, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Head and David Suchet were considered for the part of the Ninth Doctor as well before the casting of Eccleston. Clunes and Grant previously portrayed Lon and a non-canonical version of the Doctor in "Snakedance" and "Scream of the Shalka" respectively. Grant, Head and Suchet would go on to play Dr. Simeon, Mr. Finch and the Landlord in "The Snowmen", "School Reunion" and “Knock Knock” respectively.
  • The BBC suggested having Tom Baker return to the role of the Doctor to capitalize on his legacy as the most famous actor to play the character. Davies pretended to agree to the request before proceeding to ignore it completely.
  • Edgar Wright was asked to direct the episode after doing Shaun of the Dead, but passed on it.
• Word of God: Steven Moffat said later on in 2013 he believed the Ninth Doctor seeing his face in the mirror showed he was a new regeneration. Russell T Davies heavily disagreed:
  No, I don't think he'd just regenerated. […] So it was meant as a nod to the fact he'd once had other faces. But I wrote the Titanic stuff and Krakatoa assuming that the Ninth Doctor had been around for a while. He doesn't act very post-regeneration, does he? He appears in command, waving a bomb. This is a man who knows himself, and has known himself for a while.
• Working Title: Rose Meets the Doctor, which was eventually cut down.

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