On the planet Earth in a church somewhere in London, a nervous bride begins to make her way up the aisle. Under the glare of a room full of people she progresses, but all is not well. Suddenly she begins to illuminate with a golden glow and as an alien whine rings out she screams. Her body reduces to a glowing cloud of gas, flying up through the roof and then out into space, towards a small blue box floating beside a burning star.
She reforms her human shape inside the craft, and the occupant of the ship splutters in shock, as she demands to be told who he is, where she is and into what she has just materialised.
NOTES
In trying to find out anything unique about Donna, the Tenth Doctor asks if her fiancéeee might have a zip on his forehead, a reference to the disguises used by the family Slitheen in Aliens of London/World War Three and Boom Town.
The episode picks up where the previous episode Doomsday left off, continuing The Doctor’s grief at loosing Rose, Jackie and Mickey.
In the chase sequence there is a car bearing the same licence plate as Gwen Cooper’s car in the Torchwood episode They Keep Killing Suzie. Whetheror not this is significant is uncertain, it may well be a reused prop.
The extrapolator, first seen in the first series episode Boom Town and reused in The Parting of the Ways from the same season, makes a reappearance here, apparently having begun to grow as part of the TARDIS judging by the crusted edges.
This is the first time since the series returned in 2005 that The Doctor’s home planet has been actually named, although mentions of ‘Gallifreyan text’ have been made in the tie-in books.
As the tank destroys the Webstar we hear mention of a man called Mr Saxon. ‘Saxon’ is rumoured to be the recurring word for series three, just as the phrase ‘Bad Wolf‘ was for series one and the name ‘Torchwood’ was for series two. A headline about Mr Saxon, outlining him as a political figure (a possible the replacement for Harriet Jones after The Christmas Invasion) was seen on the newspaper being read by Victor Kennedy in the series two episode Love & Monsters. This has however not been confirmed by any official sources.
When The Doctor is taking Donna back to the creation of Earth he says that he is going back further then he has ever gone before. It is odd since both the first and fifth doctors have been around during the time of the creation of the Earth and the universe. He may however be referring simply to his tenth incarnation having never gone so far back in time, despite having done so in previous incarnations.
The Tenth Doctor states his pockets are biggeron the inside, which is something the BBC books touch upon. The Doctor’s pockets are also dimensionally transcendental – like the TARDIS – and there are loads of stuff in them.
