INSPIRATION
I wanted a Moffatesque season finale. Having built up the Dalek assault on the dream dimension, I wanted to take the story in completely different direction to find an unexpected way of resolving it.
The original draft of the final episode took it even further with the Doctor arriving in a mystical setting, meeting odd characters that represented the various people Angel had met on her travels in the TARDIS. It would also have included flying dragons. Angel's subconscious self was represented by a castle that the Doctor and his new friends would have to storm. Only once inside would the Doctor realise he's inside Angel's mind, not in the dream dimension proper.
Having virtually destroyed the TARDIS interior at the top of the episode, I toyed with the idea of the TARDIS reforming with the RTD era control room. This would basically wipe my previous 8th Doctor AFT stories from history (since they're set later than this in the 8th Doctor's timeline) so I decided against it. Just as well, since this predated The Day Of The Doctor which established the War Doctor and his version of the TARDIS interior!
For a long time, the episode was untitled. One title I considered was Out Of Your Mind but I thought this might give too much away. The idea of a fall angel getting redemption was much more appropriate.
CAST
8th Doctor - 11 Doctors boxset
Angel 0 Hermione Grainger (Deathly Hallows)
Dalek Strategist - From Day of the Daleks
Dalek Drones - From Remembrance of the Daleks
Dalek Scientist - From Death To The Daleks
Dalek Supreme - From Remembrance of the Daleks
Dream Person 1 - Claudia (Primeval)
Dream Person 2 - Connor (Primeval)
Dream Person 3 - Abby (Primeval)
SHOOTING
The Skaro scenes were shot on 5th Dec 2010 at the same time as the other Skaro scenes for stories 1 and 4. The TARDIS scenes were shot backwards, beginning with the Doctor and Angel leaving in the TARDIS and ending with the TARDIS interior being destroyed. They were done on 7th Jan 2011.
The Windsor street scenes were filmed weeks later. A pick-up shot of the Doctor and Angel in Angel's memory gallery was taken on 8th March 2011. At the same time a new ending was written and filmed.
EDITS
The images for this final episode were completed on 8th March 2011 with lettering following soon after.
As with many stories in the season, more dialogue was added during the editing to flesh out the stories and characters' motivations. That included a change to the ending.
The original ending was set in the TARDIS and would see the Doctor and Angel ride off into the time vortex. I changed it partly to give a more emotional ending and party to finish on a clean slate while still allowing Angel to return.
Most of the images in Angel's memory gallery were taken from the opening episode of the series before Angel was a duplicate but some images were specially taken. There's a hidden image of Angel standing next to the 11th Doctor. A red herring? Or a glimpse of something we've yet to see? Honest answer: it was a little easter egg but has no meaning and doesn't refer to any planned stories at all.
CONTINUITY
Although not explicitly states in any of the stories, I place the Dalek parts of this series around 3011 - a thousand years from the time the story was made. The Doctor's reference to the Daleks being a renewed threat in a thousand years' time is a reference to The Dalek Masterplan, set in 4000AD.
TRANSMISSION
It was re-published online on 28th October 2023.
NEXT TIME
I haven't had time to make an all-original anniversary special so we'll have to make do with the one I made for the 50th. Over the next FIVE WEEKS.
