Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)

Wild Blue Yonder

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Wild Blue Yonder
Novelised as:	Wild Blue Yonder
Doctor:	Fourteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Donna
Featuring:	Wilfred Mott
Main enemy:	Not-Things
Main setting:	Spaceship, edge of the universe
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	Tom Kingsley
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Story number:	302
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	2 December 2023
Premiere networks:	BBC One, Disney+
Format:	1x54 minute episode
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Doctor Who television stories
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Next →	The Giggle

Wild Blue Yonder was the second of the three 2023 specials of Doctor Who, broadcast on 2 December 2023 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations.

Synopsis

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Donna on a journey to a faraway, mysterious place and abandons them in the middle of Hostile Action.

Plot

The Doctor and Donna pilot the TARDIS to land on a tree in 1666. Isaac Newton was sitting beneath it and he sees them. They confess their regards about the gravity of the situation and depart.

The TARDIS then lands in a spaceship, somewhere unknown. They take a look around when the TARDIS dematerialises as a result of the HADS. Thus, the pair walk down a very long corridor where they find a robot they call Jimbo. The Doctor realises they are in a spaceship that is on the edge of the universe, 100 trillion lightyears from everything else - not even starlight has yet promulgated a distance great enough to reach them.

As the Doctor and Donna chat, they each complain in separate rooms to the other that their arms are too long. It transpires that some unknown creature has taken both of their forms separately, misjudging the arm length. The Doctor and Donna run away from these creatures, taking use of a motor flying vehicle. The creatures grow ginormous and grab the vehicle, but they stumble over one another and end up in a cluttered heap, blocking off much of the corridor. The Doctor and Donna attempt to reason with the creature heap briefly, before realising it is beginning to untangle itself.

They hurry to a vent but are separated on a detachable climbing wall. Thus the Doctor and his companion walk around, finding the other who they each work out to be the creature in an impersonation. They meet and run behind a large glass door, the creatures trapped on the other side. They find the captain of the ship, who killed herself previously in order to feel a maximum sense of adrenaline. The Doctor realises (at the same time as the creatures) that the ship is slowly counting down to an explosion. Now they know, all four run after the robot Jimbo - the Doctor and Donna to let it explode the ship; the creatures to stop the explosion from occurring.

The robot presses a red button and explodes the ship. The TARDIS materialises as a result of the Hostile Action having been entirely displaced and the Doctor runs aboard. Kicking on the ground to gain momentum, he rushes towards the two Donnas, who each claim to be the real one. He ascertains which is real and takes her aboard, leaving the other to die, who complains of her fate.

The Doctor then rematerialises the TARDIS near this real Donna, throwing the fake one out, just in time to save her and leave as the ship explodes.

After a chat in the console room, the Doctor and Donna emerge from the TARDIS, back near the alley from which they took off at the end of the previous episode. Wilfred Mott is there to greet them, sitting in a wheelchair. It turns out that there is some unknown offensive action occurring in the scene, with people fighting and bashing away - what caused this and how can the Doctor and Donna put it right?

Cast

• The Doctor / Not-thing - David Tennant
• Donna Noble / Not-thing - Catherine Tate
• Isaac Newton - Nathaniel Curtis
• Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
• Mrs Merridew - Susan Twist

Uncredited cast

to be added

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson

Written by Russell T Davies	Produced by Vicki Delow	Directed by Tom Kingsley	Director of Photography Nick Dance BSC	Production Designer Phil Sims	Visual Effects Realtime Visualisation
Make-up Designer Claire Williams	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Pam Downe	Edited by Tim Hodges BFE	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  Title sequence by Painting Practice & Realtime Visualisation  Music orchestrated & conducted by Alastair King  •  Music mixed by Jake Jackson  •  Music performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales   •  In memory of Bernard Cribbins

General production staff Head of Production - Alex Protherough Executive Producer for the BBC - Rebecca Ferguson Production Executive - Steffan Morris Co-producer - Ellen Marsh Line Producer - Mark Devlin Production Manager - Delmi Thomas Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Manager - Daniel Wellstead Assistant Location Manager - Alex Moore Location Assistant - Shuaib Said Unit Manager - Kyle Yates Assistant Unit Manager - Tom Chalkley Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfeld Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Liam Hobbs Production Assistant - David Slocombe Production Secretaries - Florence Trott, Chris Harkus Production Office Runners - Danilo Van-Der Nguyen, Lisa Elena Williams Unit Drivers - Paul Watkins, Jolyon Davey, Steve Darwent, Richard Hunt 1st Assistant Accountant - Greg Robinson Covid Coordinator - Leah Corcoran Covid Assistant - Ilona Tigere Script department Script Editor - Scott Handcock Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Gareth Tandy 2nd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate 3rd Assistant Director - Jennifer Day Floor Runners - Jac Lewis, George Cheetham, Helen Langford Script Supervisor - Ruth Vickers Camera Trainees - Elesha Pederson, Kudzai Dzokamushure Focus Pullers - Martin Payne, Jonathan Vidgen Key Grip - Bobby Williams Grip - Ken Hodgson Clapper Loaders - Sophie Hardcastle, Sarah Macleod Lighting Gaffer - Paul Jarvis Rigging Gaffer - Pete Chester Best Boy - Chris Kiley Steadicam Operator - Martin Stephens Electricians - Scott Smallwood, Andrew Truckle, Andy Green, Sion Davies	Art department Supervising Art Director - Robyn Paiba Art Directors - Jon Horsham, Kartik Kundan Nagar Assistant Art Director - Hakan Yoruk Art Department Assistant - Sam Hanson Art Department Co-ordinator - Jason Davies-Redgrave Production Buyer - Helen O'Leary Assistant Buyer - Taymar Lee Petty Cash Buyer - Billie Blue Williams Set Decorator - Adrian Anscombe Action Props Buyer - Tara Lily Johnston Concept Artist - Nandor Moldovan Graphic Designer - Stephen Fielding Standby Props - Phill Bull, Jonathan Barclay Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Prop Hands - Declan Petryna, Atiff Tahir, Calvin Evans, Ingo Hans, John Thomas, Joseph Craig, Ieuan Parker Standby Art Director - Ifan Lewis Rigging - Shadow Scaffolding Standby Riggers - Alex Herbert, Michael Boulton Standby Painter - Jessie Thomas Storeman - Charlie Malik Prop Master - Nick Thomas Props Chargehand - Stuart Rankmore Construction Manager - Brian Jones Practical Electrician - Phillip Jones Graphics Assistant - Aled Llyr Griffiths Draughtsperson - Matt Sanders Costume department Costume Supervisor - Laura Baker Assistant Costume Designer - Ros Marshall Costume Trainee - Lizzie Doody	Make-up and prosthetics Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Derek Lea Stunt Performers - Donna Williams, Kim McGarrity, Renato Gjini Casting Casting Associate - Ri McDaid-Wren Casting Assistant - Ray Böhm General post-production staff Post-production Producer - Ceres Doyle Post-production Supervisor - Liv Duffin On-line Editors - Christine Kelly, Geraint Pari Huws Special and visual effects VFX Producer - Will Cohen VFX Editor - Matt Nathan VFX Co-ordinators - Siân Reynish, Livvy Edwards VFX Assistant - Sarah-Hoor Aboubakar SFX Supervisor - Danny Hargreaves Colourist - Gareth Spensley Compositors - Dean Adjeikum, Will Heath, Nathan Stobbs, Illi Gardner, Aoife Greenham Sound Sound Recordist - Alex Thompson Dubbing Mixer - Paul McFadden Sound Designer - Rob Ireland Foley Editor - Helen Faulkner Foley Artist - Gareth Rhys Jones Audio Post-production - Bang Post Production

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
Note: Standby art director Ifan Lewis was erroneously credited as "Ifan Lewis Lewis"

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor once spent three years in orbit because the HADS prevented him from landing anywhere.
• Isaac Newton misheard Donna make a joke about gravity, instead naming it "Mavity".
• Donna was born in Southampton.

Notes

• Unlike the other two 2023 specials, The Star Beast and The Giggle, the marketing of Wild Blue Yonder was kept incredibly vague and told very little about the plot. The BBC wished to maintain the surprises of the story and Russell T Davies wanted one of the specials to be a complete mystery. According to director Tom Kingsley, the secrecy had naught to do with "any surprise returning actors or villains", but because "we thought you might find it fun to watch it without knowing what's going to happen next".
• This story's upcoming debut was mentioned alongside the other 2023 specials in the non-fiction feature Back in Business published in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 on 7 September 2023.
• The preview of this episode released in DWM 597 revealed a teaser of the plot and a snippet of dialogue between the Doctor and Donna.
  • It also revealed a cast list consisting of Tennant, Tate, and three other names that had all been replaced with a "[REDACTED]". These were later revealed to be Nathaniel Curtis, Susan Twist, and Bernard Cribbins.
• The title of the episode was named after the song "Wild Blue Yonder".
• David Tennant called this special "unlike any Doctor Who episode ever", referring to the specials as a whole as "Russell [T Davies] off the leash".
• This will be the second story to stream exclusively on Disney+ outside of the United Kingdom.
• According to an advertisement on the BBC, the robot featured in promotional materials is named "Jimbo".
• In Doctor Who Magazine Issue 597, Davies teased five words that would play a part in the special: Southampton, vegetable, bean, starlight, and Flux. He also revealed that the history of both the Flux and the Timeless Child would be "dealt with very slightly in this episode".
• This episode was dedicated to the memory of Bernard Cribbins, who passed away over a year before transmission.

Myths

• Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker will return as the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors, or as their Guardians of the Edge forms.
  • Alternatively, Matt Smith will return to play a new incarnation of the Master, potentially disguising himself as the Eleventh Doctor to fool the Fourteenth in some fashion.
• John Simm will return as the Saxon Master.
• Karen Gillan will return as Amy Pond
• The Wirrn will return.
• David Tennant will play the Tenth Doctor again.
• Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor will make an early debut in this episode.
  • More specifically, he will appear alongside Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday, marking the first Multi-Doctor story told from the perspective of a former incarnation.
• Carole Ann Ford will return as Susan Foreman.
  • The name of actor Susan Twist was used on the BBC website as a subtle teaser for Susan's return.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Influences

to be added

Continuity

This section needs a cleanup.

As per Forum:Non-valid Continuity sections, categories, and prefixes#Continuity sections, thid section needs to be written from an out-of-universe perspective.

• The Doctor and Donna are stranded due to the HADS activating. (TV: Cold War, The Magician's Apprentice, The Witch's Familiar)
• The Doctor licks a substance to determine its properties. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, The Idiot's Lantern, Planet of the Dead, The Eleventh Hour, Day of the Moon, It Takes You Away)
• On learning that he and Donna have arrived in 1666, the Doctor advices Isaac Newton to avoid London. (TV: The Visitation)
• When posing as Donna, one of the not-things mentions that the Doctor was not born on Gallifrey. (TV: The Timeless Children) In the same conversation, the Doctor states that the Flux "destroyed half of the universe because of me". (TV: The Vanquishers)

Home media releases

DVD and Blu-ray releases

This episode, along with The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"] and The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"], was released on Region 2 DVD, and Region B Blu-ray and steelbook on 18 December 2023.

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  UK 2 DVD cover

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  UK Blu-ray cover

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  UK steelbook cover

Gallery

Main article: /Gallery