Time Crash - Production

Production

The episode was first conceived by executive producers Julie Gardner and Russell T Davies, who decided to air an interstitial scene for Children in Need 2007. Gardner asked Steven Moffat to write the special, with the stipulations the scene could be shot in one day and one set, and require no CGI effects. Peter Davison was approached to reprise his role as the Fifth Doctor in July 2007, and accepted the role to impress his children. The episode was officially announced by the BBC on 21 October.

Moffat's script started by repeating Martha's departure. The script indicated that "this time, we stay with the Doctor. As before ... the Doctor takes a moment, then slam the controls," and described the Fifth Doctor as having a "frock coat, cricket jersey, and a stick of celery on his lapel". Moffat included several references to Fifth Doctor stories in his script: the Tenth Doctor commented about the Fifth Doctor's attire and his disuse of the sonic screwdriver, saying: "Ooh, I'm the Doctor, I can save the universe with a kettle and a piece of string and ooh, look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable." And near the end of the episode, he refers to Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa, the Cybermen stories Earthshock and The Five Doctors, the Mara serials Kinda and Snakedance, the Time Lords' "funny hats" from Arc of Infinity, and the various Ainley Master stories during Davison's tenure.

"Time Crash" was filmed at Upper Boat Studios in Upper Boat, Cardiff, as part of the fourth recording block of the fourth series (which included "Partners in Crime") on 7 October 2007. Graeme Harper, director of Davison's final serial The Caves of Androzani, directed the episode. To replicate the Fifth Doctor's attire, the production team borrowed items from the Doctor Who exhibition in Blackpool and knitted a new cricket jumper to reflect the style worn from Castrovalva to Warriors of the Deep. The accompanying Doctor Who Confidential episode reveals that the trousers Davison wore in "Time Crash" were the same pair that Colin Baker wore in his early scenes in The Twin Dilemma. The incidental music includes several pieces of synthesised music, reminiscent of much of the incidental from Peter Davison's era of Doctor Who.