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

{{Speedy rename|new = Tonight's the Night special (TV story)|links = No|user = DENCH-and-PALMER}}{{Invalid}}

{{Infobox Story

| image = Tonight's the night.jpg

| name = Tonight's the Night Special 2009

| main character = [[John Barrowman (Tonight's the Night)|John Barrowman]]/[[Jack Harkness (Tonight's the Night)|Jack Harkness]]

| enemy = [[Tim Ingham]]/[[Sao Til]]

| featuring = [[David Tennant (Tonight's the Night)|David Tennant]]

| setting = [[The Doctor's TARDIS (Tonight's the Night)|The TARDIS]] set in 2009

| writer = [[Russell T Davies]]

| broadcast date = [[23 May (releases)|23 May]] [[2009 (releases)|2009]]

| format = 1x3-minute episode

| nav = 0

}}

'''''[[Tonight's the Night]]''''' was a [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] talent series hosted by [[John Barrowman]] which aired in the spring of 2009. In a promotion connected with the series, a contest winner was given a chance to play a villain in a specially written ''Doctor Who'' scene featuring [[Jack Harkness (Tonight's the Night)|Jack Harkness]] and a surprise guest which was broadcast during the 23rd May 2009 episode of ''Tonight's the Night''.

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 (Tonight's the Night)|Jack Harkness]] enters [[The Doctor (Tonight's the Night)|the Doctor]]'s [[The Doctor's TARDIS (Tonight's the Night)|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 standoff before...

[[David Tennant (Tonight's the Night)|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.

* [[John Barrowman]] - [[John Barrowman (Tonight's the Night)|Himself]]/[[Jack Harkness (Tonight's the Night)|Jack Harkness]]

* [[Tim Ingham]] - Himself/[[Sao Til]]

* [[David Tennant]] - [[David Tennant (Tonight's the Night)|Himself]]

No crew are credited on-screen. However, [[Alice Troughton]] can be clearly seen directing the episode in the behind-the-scenes featurette that accompanied it.

* The skit has no opening or closing credits.

* Running just over 3 minutes in length, this was, for a time, the shortest televised ''Doctor Who''-related production ever. Since its broadcast, though, several shorter minisodes have been produced for online and DVD/Blu-ray distribution. The shortest [[DWU]] story broadcast on [[television]] remains the television story ''[[From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love]]''.

* As Tennant does not appear as the Doctor in this skit, it is the first ''Doctor Who'' story since ''[[Mission to the Unknown]]'' in which the character does not appear. It is also the first time a televised story has featured the TARDIS, but no Doctor. Given the acknowledged [[NOTVALID|non-DWU]] nature of this skit, ''Mission to the Unknown'' remains as the only television story to not feature the Doctor (when viewed as a stand-alone story independent of ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan]]''.)

* At the time this was written, Davies believed it would be the final ''Doctor Who'' story he would ever write (as he relates in [[DWM 410]] and ''[[Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale]] - The Final Chapter''); ultimately, this ended up not being the case as it was announced in April 2010 that he would be writing an episode of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' featuring an appearance by the [[Eleventh Doctor]]; that episode was ''[[Death of the Doctor]]''.

* This sketch marks the second time that a fan of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has been given the honour of being on the show as an in-character figure. The first was as a [[Jim'll Fix It]] segment called [[A Fix with Sontarans]], starring [[Colin Baker]] in-character as the [[Sixth Doctor]].

* Davies also said in DWM that he was originally going to have this story as "[[canon]]" with the Doctor in it, but changed his mind.

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

* 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.

* 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 (video game)|Attack of the Graske]]'' and the [[Tardisode|TARDISodes]] as Tennant-era productions to not see home video release.