Untitled (Tonight's the Night TV story): Difference between revisions

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|story name      = Tonight's the Night Special 2009

|series          =  

The mini-episode itself carries no on-screen title, however Russell T. Davies referred to it by the title ''Tonight's the Night'' in his June 2009 column in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' #410.

[[Jack Harkness]] enters [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] and discovers a blue-headed alien who claims to be a regenerated [[the Doctor|Doctor]]. The alien gives the game away when Jack notices that he's armed, something the real Doctor would never be. The alien identifies himself as [[Sao Til]], a literal arms dealer who trades in limbs. Jack draws his gun and the two enter into a Mexican standoff before ... [[David Tennant]] comes in through the TARDIS doors and asks John what he's doing. John introduces Tim Ingham of Stoke-on-Trent, who is pretending to be Sao Til. David then exits the set via the 'fourth wall', pausing briefly before he leaves to chide John for being in "my TARDIS". After a moment of giddiness at having seen David Tennant, John and Tim then carry on from where they left off, resuming their characters and pretending to shoot at each other as they run around the TARDIS set.

Uncredited, however [[Alice Troughton]] can be clearly seen directing the episode in the behind-the-scenes featurette that accompanied it.

* Jack mentions having been to a party on [[Alpha Centauri (planet)|Alpha Centauri]] that had something to do with "organ donation" (given the nature of the skit, it's doubtful this has any bearing on canon).

* The skit has no opening or closing credits.

* Running just over 3 minutes in length, this is the shortest televised ''Doctor Who''-related production of all time. (The shortest canonical television story remains as [[SJA]]:''[[From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love]]'', while the 2009 webisode ''[[A Ghost Story for Christmas]]'', running 3.5 minutes, stands as the shortest ''Doctor Who''-related storyline that could fall within canon.)

* There was no ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'' for the episode but there was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the skit followed its broadcast (on ''Tonight's The Night'').

* Although it was broadcast after ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'' (the first High Definition ''Doctor Who ''episode), the skit was the first time that the [[TARDIS]] interior was shown in High Definition. The [[TARDIS]] interior didn't feature in ''Planet of the Dead''.

* The complete script for the skit is reproduced in [[REF]]: ''[[Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale|Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter]]''.

''to be added''

* When first announced it was thought the skit would be a potentially canonical mini-episode along the lines of ''[[Music of the Spheres]]'' and ''[[Time Crash]]'', but this turned out not to be the case. According to Davies in his column ''Doctor Who Magazine'' #410, he did initially intend to write such a mini-episode, but on realising this would be the last ''Doctor Who'' story he'd likely ever write, he couldn't bring himself to create something canonical in this context.

* Barrowman and Ingham break character and Tennant appears as himself, and we see the equipment surrounding the TARDIS set at Upper Boat Studios. This renders the story completely non-canonical and thus it doesn't fit into any timeframe of the series. Davies also explicitly indicates in DWM #410 that the story is not canonical. This is actually only the second BBC-made ''Doctor Who'' production, after the ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'' webcast, to be officially disqualified from canon (the ''[[Dimensions in Time]]'' mini-serial of 1993 has been "decanonised" by fan opinion, but the BBC has never itself given an opinion).

* No DVD release of this skit has to date occurred. Although reference to the skit is made in David Tennant's Video Diaries, a special feature in the 2009 Specials DVD/Blu-Ray box set, the skit itself is omitted. There has likewise been no announcement of a home video release of the ''Tonight's the Night'' series. Unless this happens, the skit will join the interactive mini-episode ''[[Attack of the Graske]]'' as the only Tennant-era productions to not see home video release.