Inspirations - Tooth and Claw

Unlike last year, we aren't expected to try and second guess what this season's story arc might mean - "Torchwood" is pretty much explained in this, only its second episode.

It is a house in Scotland where the action for this episode takes place. Following these events, an organisation will be set up to combat the Doctor, should he or any other alien ever threaten the British Empire, and this house gives it its name.

Tooth and Claw is this year's Celebrity-Historical story. Queen Victoria is both the celebrity and the person who gives her name to the historical period. Russell T Davies had decided that there would be one Celebrity-Historical in each season.

As the 2005 series had featured ghosts and zombie-like beings, and the classic series had featured many different sorts of vampire (from a robot Dracula to the Hsemovores), he elected to include a werewolf. This is mainly because VFX house The Mill said they they would love to attempt one. The prosthetics outfit, Millennium Effects, really wanted to have a go, but RTD went for a CGI version.

Werewolves had only featured once before in the series - the character of Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Oddly, she hailed from the planet Vulpana - from the word 'vulpine' meaning fox-like, rather than something lupine. (The Primords in Inferno looked like wolfmen, but this was the director's decision, ignoring that they should have been ape-like if they were a genetic throwback).

The story had to be very much written around the availability of CGI shots of the wolf - they could only afford so many - which is why we often see scenes from its point of view, or simply hear it off screen.

The pre-credits sequence featured some martial arts monks, clad in scarlet costumes. This was inspired by the 2000 film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

The inclusion of the Koh-i-Noor diamond as a plot device came from producer Phil Collinson.

The diamond, after which so many Indian restaurants have been named, was discovered hundreds of years ago - the date lost in the mists of time. The name comes from the Persian for "Mountain of Light". There is a mention of it in 1526, when it was already quite old. In its time it has been part of a bracelet as well as a throne, before ending up in a crown as part of the Crown Jewels. When shown at the Great Exhibition the public were very disappointed with it, which is why Albert embarked on a recutting programme.

Prince Albert had it cut in London, and the Aberdonian jewellers mentioned in this story are fictitious.

Before RTD decided to write the story himself story, it started life as a commission to someone else (identity not recorded). They came up with a story involving Jack the Ripper-style murders in the environs of Buckingham Palace. The killer would prove to be Queen Victoria herself, who was a kind of vampire - the result of infection by an alien insect. This version had no diamond or werewolf.

The change of writer meant that this story was pushed back to the second recording block of the series, and for some time it was going to be the opening story, with Girl in the Fireplace second. These two stories plus School Reunion got swapped around a few times before setting down as the second, third and fourth stories.

The title of this story derives from "Nature red in tooth and claw", a line from the 1850 poem In Memoriam, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This was a favourite piece of Queen Victoria, which she claimed gave her great comfort after Albert had died.

RTD toyed with calling it "Empire of the Wolf". 

At one stage the Queen was going to be killed by the werewolf, thus creating the parallel universe in which "Pete's World" was to be found, tying in with the forthcoming Cyberman stories.

Rose is made a Dame. This is an anachronism, as Dames weren't created until 1917. Also, the monarch would not have used the words she uses when knighting them - they're just what the viewers would have expected to hear. This is the first time that the Doctor has been knighted by a real monarch - the last time it was the robot Kamelion masquerading as King John in The King's Demons.

In The Curse of Peladon, the Doctor couldn't recall if he had been to Victoria's coronation, or if it had been Queen Elizabeth's. He fails to confirm this here when confronted by her.

The Doctor uses the name of one of his former companions here, rather than his usual John Smith. He claims to be Dr. James McCrimmon. Jamie McCrimmon, played by Frazer Hines, was companion to the Second Doctor. He also claims to hail from the town of Balamory. This is the name of a BBC TV programme for younger children which ran between 2002 and 2005. It was filmed in Tobermory, on the island of Mull.

The Doctor mentions studying medicine under Dr Bell at Edinburgh. Surgeon Joseph Bell (1837 - 1911) taught Arthur Conan-Doyle, and from him he got the notion of an analytical detective... The Doctor had earlier recalled studying under Lister at Glasgow in The Moonbase, though we know that Lister wasn't there in 1888 when the Doctor thought this happened.

Throughout the Hartnell period, and in some later stories such as The Ark in Space, he always insisted that he was not a doctor of medicine.

Next time: Friends Reunited...