In planning the next series of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat decided to revisit the two-parter format. He had been generally dissatisfied with these, feeling that the only way to do them was to have the second half going off in a new direction - sometimes having little bearing on what went before. He had recently cut back on these, ending Series 6 and 7 with single episode finales.
For this series he thought that they might try some big two-parters which could act as a selling point, as they allowed him to tell bigger stories that might not fit a 45 minute timeframe. How these worked might be different, however, and he was keen to see them used as more than simply two halves of a single storyline.
Rather than end the series on a blockbuster, Moffat also decided to kick the series off with one.
He hadn't written a substantial Dalek story by himself since Asylum of the Daleks, and saw this as the ideal opportunity to have another go. He was keen to experiment further with the notion of Daleks assembling from different eras of the series' history. This led to the setting of Skaro.
Looking back, his favourite Dalek story had been Genesis of the Daleks. Indeed, he thought it one of the best Doctor Who stories ever.
This led him to include Davros in his new story - not seen since Series 4's Journey's End - and he considered a certain sequence in the 1975 story as a powerful inspiration. This is the scene where the Doctor anguishes over destroying the Dalek nursery, and asks his companions if they could kill a child, even knowing it would grow up to be an evil dictator.
This led to the Doctor having the opportunity to kill Davros as a child. Moffat looked back at all the Davros stories and saw how the big confrontations between him and the Doctor worked really well - with the narrative gradually building towards them. He envisaged scenes of the pair debating their respective moral values.
Missy's inclusion did not feature in the initial plans for the story, but Moffat wanted to develop the character further. The Master had worked with the Daleks in the past - in Frontier in Space - so had their own history with them.
The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar had two prologues. The one showing the Doctor living with Medieval characters, constructing a well, was the intended one. The other - in which the Doctor is seen hiding on Karn as Colony Sarff comes looking for him, was actually supposed to be part of the first episode, but was shifted to form a stand-alone prequel.
Sarff is Welsh for "serpent", hinting at his true nature.
Karn was first seen in The Brain of Morbius - a bleak planet in the same region of the universe as Gallifrey and home to the mystical Sisterhood, who had historic links with the Time Lords. The planet had been revisited briefly in another prequel - Night of the Doctor. Leader of the Sisterhood, Ohila, had also been seen in this.
UNIT use temporal paradoxes to help look for the missing Doctor across Earth's history. They identify a trio of these surrounding Atlantis. This is reference to the three different versions of the fall of the city state, as seen in The Underwater Menace and The Time Monster, and mentioned by Azal in The Daemons. Other locations mentioned include 15th Century San Martino (The Masque of Mandragora) and Troy (The Myth Makers).
Peter Capaldi sent Moffat an email following Series 8, suggesting certain things he'd like to see the Doctor do in the next season. One of these was him playing an electric guitar, and he was surprised Moffat agreed to it.
The Dalek slaves like Bors (a name first used in The Daleks' Master Plan) were introduced in Asylum of the Daleks.
The action moves from Medieval England to Skaro, and we see a city whose design was inspired by the one which featured in The Daleks. The first sight of a Dalek here has the general silver / blue livery of the ones seen in that story, as we know from colour photographs of its production.
Inside are a number of Daleks with different colour schemes, including black domed ones seen in The Evil of the Daleks and gunmetal grey ones first introduced in Day of the Daleks.
In charge is the red / gold Supreme first introduced in The Stolen Earth.
Also present is the Special Weapons Dalek, introduced in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Skaro was said to have been destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks, but was present in the 1996 TV Movie. The city was last seen, in ruins, in Asylum of the Daleks. It is claimed that the Daleks simply rebuild what they lose, to get round these inconsistencies.
Friends of the Doctor hiding in Dalek casings have been seen in The Daleks and The Planet of the Daleks, and the Doctor himself hid in one in The Space Museum.
The episode titles are a reference to The Sorcerer's Apprentice - the 1897 classical composition by Paul Dukas. This is best known for its inclusion in Disney's Fantasia (1940) - originally intended as a stand-alone piece for Mickey Mouse.
Sarff's search for the Doctor takes in a number of locations seen in the series before - the Maldovarium (The Pandorica Opens) and the Shadow Proclamation (The Stolen Earth). The latter sees the same actress - Kelly Hunter - playing the Shadow Architect, and Judoon are present as before.
In a Star Wars cantina-style bar we see a Sycorax, an Ood, a Hath, a Khaler, a Skullion (from the last of The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Man Who Wasn't There) and a Blowfish (first seen in Torchwood's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang).
A cultural reference which younger people, and those from outside the UK, would have missed was Missy's declaration that she would speak to UNIT "through the square window". This comes from the classic pre-school children's series Play School (1964 - 1988). Each week viewers were asked to guess through which window - square, round or arched - the next filmed item would appear.
Musical references include Missy's "Oh Missy you so fine..." paraphrased from Toni Basil's 1982 hit Mickey and Mott the Hoople's All The Young Dudes (1972).
Next time: Timey-wimey ghostly goings-on, at the bottom of a lake...
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