Majorca

Majorca was a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea frequented by tourists. The Eleventh Doctor tried unsuccessfully to get Amy Pond and Rory Williams to Majorca on a few occasions (COMIC: Hypothetical Gentleman) before finally landing them there. Their experience of the island was less than ideal, fraught with bad emulations of English food and tourist brochures that vastly exaggerated the island's charms. Though Rory tried to accentuate the positive of the place, Amy was unshakeably unimpressed. While waiting in the airport for a flight back to England, the couple encountered Lady Christina de Souza and were subsequently rescued from their long stay in the airport lounge by the Doctor. Hearing of how disappointing Majorca had proved to be, the Doctor offered a replacement holiday for the couple on the luxury starliner, Excelsis. (COMIC: The Eye of Ashaya) The Eleventh Doctor speculated that the prison ship recreating a 1980s hotel was a mock up made to look like Earth by colonists "recreating a bit of home". The Doctor compared it to how English expats opened English pubs in Majorca. (TV: The God Complex) A lift passenger killed by Saric Warder spent a fortnight in Majorca. (PROSE: Trapped!) In 1989, Bob Lines' wife had booked for them a week in Majorca. (PROSE: Business Unusual) George Smithers took a short holiday in Majorca after retiring. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People)

Behind the scenes

Majorca indirectly had a huge impact upon season 1. Rex Tucker, who had long been scheduled to direct 100,000 BC, had booked a holiday to Majorca which he did not think would conflict with Doctor Who's production dates, originally set to begin in August 1963. However, BBC1 Controller Donald Baverstock pushed the dates back eight weeks — precisely when Tucker was due in Majorca. Though initially offered the director's chair on what would become The Daleks in compensation, this, too, fell out of Tucker's grasp because of shifting schedule. Ultimately, the Majorcan sojourn meant that Tucker's most obvious impact on the first season of Doctor Who was the hiring of Tristram Cary for the incidental music on The Daleks. He wouldn't direct until season 3's The Gunfighters. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)