Trivia / Doctor Who S31 E11 "The Lodger"

---

• The Cast Showoff: Matt Smith gets to show his football skills - had it not been for an unfortunate injury in his teens, acting would have lost a great, and professional football would have gained a talented player.
• Recycled Set: During the scenes at the park, just after the football game, a familiar-looking gazebo is visible in the background.
• Self-Adaptation: Gareth Roberts adapted a comic strip he wrote for Doctor Who Magazine that featured the Tenth Doctor and Mickey. He even pitched it for season two.
• Similarly Named Works: This episode has zero relation to the 1979 album by David Bowie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • An early draft of the episode featured Meglos from the classic series as the villain. The punchline would be that the Doctor had completely forgotten about him in the intervening centuries, and wouldn't remember even when prompted, causing Meglos great offence.
  • A fourth victim of the Avatar, a man named Martin, was cut. He would’ve left behind a holiday magazine to show that the Avatar targeted those who wished to get away.
  • The script originally lifted scenes from the original comic strip, like the Doctor beating Craig in an FPS video game through making peace with the enemy, and the Doctor getting every question in a pub quiz right, much to others’ annoyance.
  • Another unused scene would’ve had the Doctor get on a bus with a Jerkass playing loud music and subsequently humiliate him by changing the song to “Save All Your Kisses for Me”, humiliating the guy into running off in tears.
• Working Title: Mrs Meglos, Something at the Top of the Stairs and Don't Go Up The Stairs.

---