The Sound of Drums - Production and Publicity

Production and Publicity

This episode, along with "Utopia" and "Last of the Time Lords", are treated in several sources as a three-part story, the first such story in the revived series of Doctor Who. However, Russell T Davies has said that he regards "Utopia" as a separate story, but notes that the determination is arbitrary.

Some of the car action sequences in this episode were filmed by Freema Agyeman herself rather than a stunt double, and took place at Harbour View Road, Penarth. David Tennant's makeup in which he is aged 100 years was inspired by the First Doctor, William Hartnell.

The episode was advertised on BBC television with a spoof party political broadcast, featuring testimonials from British celebrities Sharon Osbourne, McFly and Ann Widdecombe showing their support for Mr Saxon, a version of which is seen in the episode itself. Also during the broadcast, drums can be heard. There is also a different trailer that showed still shots of the Doctor, Martha Jones and Captain Jack over the top of which Mr Saxon's speech, in which he says "... what this country really needs, right now, is a doctor", can be heard and at the end there is a small clip of him showing his trademark smile. The celebrity appearances in the episode itself differ from those in the trailer, most noticeably that of Ann Widdecombe, who appears alone in the trailer but alongside Mr Saxon in the episode. The BBC had created two fictional websites in connection with these episodes, Vote Saxon and http://www.haroldsaxon.co.uk. The latter site, at one time, did replicate the video and web pages seen by the characters in The Sound of Drums.