 This
story marks the full return of former companion Rose
Tyler, played by Billie Piper, following brief
non-speaking appearances in "Partners
in Crime", "The
Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" and "Midnight".
It also features the return of UNIT, last seen in "The
Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky".
Clive
Standen reprises the role of Private Harris (credited
in this episode as "UNIT Soldier") from "The
Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky". Here he
is shown to have been in attendance during the Webstar
crisis.
Ben Righton reprises the role of Oliver Morgenstern
from "Smith
and Jones", in this story the
only survivor when the hospital is returned to Earth,
Martha Jones having given him the last oxygen pack.
Lachele
Carl returns as American newsreader Trinity Wells,
who previously appeared in the Doctor Who stories "Aliens
of London/World War Three", "The
Christmas Invasion", "The
Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords" and "The
Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky", in addition to The Sarah Jane
Adventures story "Revenge of the Slitheen".
Chipo
Chung, who plays the fortune-teller, previously appeared
as Professor Yana's faithful assistant, Chantho in
the story "Utopia".
Joseph
Long, who plays Mr Colasanto, also appears as Luigi
in BBC drama
series Ashes to Ashes.
Within
this story we get to see, from Donna's perspective
in the alternative world, events of most of the present-day
stories since Donna first met The Doctor, including "The
Runaway Bride", "Smith and Jones", "Voyage
of the Damned", "Partners in Crime" and "The
Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky". All these
alternative events end in tragedy because The Doctor
wasn't there to stop them, which includes the deaths
of Martha Jones, Sarah
Jane Smith and, from the spin-off
series Torchwood, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones,
as well as the transportation of Jack Harkness to the Sontarans home
world, Sontar. Clips from "The Runaway Bride" are
also reused during this story.
Torchwood
characters Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are mentioned
by name for the first time in Doctor Who, while a short
segment of music from the soundtrack of Torchwood plays
in the background. Sarah Jane Smith is mentioned for
the first time since "The
Girl in the Fireplace",
along with the first mentions of The Sarah Jane
Adventures characters Luke Smith, Clyde Langer, and Maria Jackson.
Sarah
Jane Smith is said to write for Metropolitan magazine
as previously mentioned in "The Time Warrior".
Rose mentions a ‘causal nexus’, a phrase
previously heard in "Logopolis". The events
of "The Runaway Bride", "Voyage of the
Damned", "Partners in Crime" and "Silence
in the Library/Forest of the Dead" are referred to when The Doctor is
pondering the coincidences linking him and Donna.
Sylvia
Noble mentions that the bees are disappearing, which
has been mentioned by Donna in "Partners in Crime", "Planet
of the Ood" and "The
Unicorn and the Wasp".
Donna's
father, who appeared in "The Runaway Bride",
is mentioned for the first time since "Partners
in Crime". It is implied that he was ill during
the timescale of "Smith and Jones", and that
he died by the time of "Voyage of the Damned".
His character was intended to be used in place of Wilfred
Mott, but had to be retired after actor Howard Attfield
died before all his scenes for this season were finished.
The
'Time Beetle' on Donna's back is mentioned by The Doctor
to be part of "the Trickster's brigade".
The Trickster was a time-altering villain in The
Sarah Jane Adventures story "Whatever Happened to Sarah
Jane?". The beetle on her back was also referenced
by Lucius Dextrous in "The
Fires of Pompeii",
with the line 'Daughter of London, there is something
on your back! '. The appearance of the Giant Spider
of Metebelis 3 that clung to Sarah Jane Smith's back
in "Planet of the Spiders" influenced the
design and concept of the 'Time Beetle' that clings
to Donna's back in this story.
As this
story was filmed at the same time as "Midnight",
we do not see much of The Doctor, while in "Midnight" Donna
had very little screen-time.
The
Doctor has 'died' once before - in the 1996 TV Movie.
Normally, regeneration is instantaneous, but there
was a gap of several hours between the Seventh Doctor's
demise on the operating table and his rebirth in the
morgue.
A circle
of mirrors was used to expose another parasitic menace
in 1982's "Kinda" - in that story, the manifestation
of the Mara as a giant snake.
The
recurring 'Bad Wolf' motif, primarily from Season 27,
returns at the conclusion of this story to warn The
Doctor of the events that are causing Rose to return.
The TARDIS's Cloister Bell, last used in "Time
Crash", can also be heard.
The
end of this story
contains a trailer for the next
story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
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