Friend from the Future (TV story): Difference between revisions

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{{ImageLink|Friend from the Future TV story images}}

{{Infobox Story

|writer          = [[Steven Moffat]]

|broadcast date  = [[23 April (releases)|23 April]] [[2016 (releases)|2016]]

|adapted into = The Pilot (TV story)}}

'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was a short promotional mini-episode broadcast during Match of the Day and later released online in [[2016 (releases)|2016]], which introduced the character of [[Bill Potts]] to the world. Originally, this scene was produced as a stand-alone episode to reveal the casting of [[Pearl Mackie]], similar to [[2017 (releases)|2017]]'s ''[[Meet the Thirteenth Doctor (TV story)|Meet the Thirteenth Doctor]]''.

However, when writing [[TV]]: ''[[The Pilot (TV story)|The Pilot]]'', Bill's introduction episode, [[Steven Moffat]]'s intuition was to make ''Friend from the Future'' "fit" into the series. Because of this, ''The Pilot''{{'}}s plot carefully sets up the conditions of the mini-episode, although only copying part of the exchange from the scene due to the rest being cut for pacing. Moffat jokes that ''Doctor Who'' fans knew when the story took place, and that they "could all sleep at night now."

The [[Twelfth Doctor]] and [[Bill Potts]] are running from [[Dalek]]s. They hide behind a wall, and Bill repeatedly questions the Doctor as to what a Dalek is. He hurriedly explains to her. Then he receives a notification via the [[psychic paper]] and insists that they need to go back to [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]], convinced that the future, specifically [[2017]], needs them. As they leave their hideout, a Dalek shoots at them and states that it detected humanoids.

* [[Director]] - [[Lawrence Gough]]<ref name="DWMSE">[[DWMSE 45]]</ref>

* The BBC promoted it as "an exclusive scene from a future episode".<ref name="DWM00">[[DWM 500]]</ref>

* The trailer was originally intended to just be an introduction to [[Bill Potts]], but Moffat tried to make it a part of the final product of the first [[Series 10 (Doctor Who)|series 10]] episode [[TV]]: ''[[The Pilot (TV story)|The Pilot]]''. In a BBC post-interview, Moffat noted that ultimately this did not work because, by the relevant part of the episode, Bill had already been properly introduced and the focus on her character at that point "didn't work". Thus, almost all of the scene was deleted from the final version of the episode. Moffat still noted that he made it clear when the short was meant to take place so that the fans interested in timelines could know "where it fits," and that "[they] could all sleep at night now."<ref>Doctor Who: The Fan Show - The Aftershow Ep 1

</ref>

* The first few seconds are re-used footage from [[TV]]: ''[[Into the Dalek (TV story)|Into the Dalek]]''.

* As becomes clear in [[TV]]: ''[[The Pilot (TV story)|The Pilot]]'', Bill and the Doctor are in a [[Dalek-Movellan War|Dalek-Movellan]] [[War zone (The Pilot)|war zone]], where they have fled to free themselves from some [[sentient oil]], who was pursuing Bill through time and space. The Dalek confronting the Doctor and Bill at the end of the clip is retconned in the episode to be the sentient oil disguised as a Dalek. This required to change the Dalek's "humanoids detected" remark into something compatible with the nature and objectives of the sentient oil.

[[Category:Teasers and trailers]]

[[Category:Non-DWU television stories]]