The Doctor Dances
Encyclopedia
"The Doctor Dances" is an episode in the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, which was first broadcast on 28 May 2005. It is the second of a two-part story and saw Jack Harkness
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...

, played by John Barrowman
John Barrowman
John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...

, join the Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....

 as a companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...

. The first part, "The Empty Child
The Empty Child
"The Empty Child" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 21 May 2005. It is the first of a two-part story. The concluding episode, "The Doctor Dances", was broadcast on 28 May...

", was broadcast on 21 May. Together with "The Empty Child", the episodes won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Synopsis

Continuing from the cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...

 of "The Empty Child
The Empty Child
"The Empty Child" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 21 May 2005. It is the first of a two-part story. The concluding episode, "The Doctor Dances", was broadcast on 28 May...

", the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....

 treats the beings like children, and faking a parent's anger, orders them to "go to their room" – thus causing them to return to their beds and, unbeknownst to him, saving Nancy from her brother Jamie. The Doctor, Rose
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...

 and Jack
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...

 go to Jamie's room where the Doctor realises that the being that was Jamie is still learning what it can do and soon will be too powerful to stop. The Doctor turns to discover Jamie, sent to his room by the Doctor's earlier orders, waiting in the doorway.

Escaping from Jamie and the other patients, they end up trapped in a room. Jack teleports back to his ship and uses Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...

's "Moonlight Serenade
Moonlight Serenade
Moonlight Serenade is an album by the American singer-songwriter Carly Simon. It is her 22nd studio album , and her fourth album of pop standards....

" to prevent Jamie using the radio to track the Doctor and Rose. Challenged by Rose to dance while they wait, the Doctor accepts but is interrupted when they are transported to Jack's Chula ship. The Doctor uses the ship's nanogenes to heal a wound while Jack explains that he went renegade on the Time Agency when they stole two years of his memories.

Meanwhile, Nancy returns to the railyard to tell the other children they are not safe while they are with her. Telling them of her plan to head to the bomb site, Nancy does so but is captured by soldiers. Despite her pleas, she is left with a guard who has been infected and grows a gas mask on his face.

The Doctor, Rose, and Jack arrive at the bomb site and realise that the contagion is now airborne as the soldiers there begin to transform. Freeing Nancy, who saved herself by singing a lullaby
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....

 to the transformed soldier, the Doctor investigates the 'bomb' which is actually the empty shell of a Chula medical transport. Realising that the ship also contained nanogenes, the Doctor deduces that the transformations are caused by nanogenes who have used Jamie's dead body in a gas mask as a template for all humans. Because the Chula were a warrior race and the transport was a battlefield ambulance, intended to return warriors to combat swiftly, the nanogenes have given the transformed beings enhanced abilities.

As they attempt to open the transport, it transmits a "call to arms" instructing all the altered humans to come to battle. The altered people from the hospital arrive at the railway station but stay at a distance, and the Doctor realises that since Jamie was the template, it is his mind that drives them, hence their collective obsession with finding a mother. A distraught Nancy claims that the situation is all her fault, and the Doctor realises that she is actually Jamie's teenage single mother, rather than his sister.

Jamie heads through the gate and approaches Nancy, still asking if she is his mummy. The Doctor instructs Nancy to tell Jamie the truth, and she tearfully does so, embracing her son. The nanogene cloud gathers around the two, and are able to identify Nancy's DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 as being that of a parent, and they reverse the transformation on Jamie, restoring him to life. The Doctor then scatters the nanogenes over the assembled zombies as he finally pulls off Jamie's gas mask, and they are all restored to perfect health.

As the German bomb falls onto the site, Jack uses his ship to capture it and remove it to the far reaches of space. Then the Doctor sets the medical transport to explode, thus destroying the technology and matching the historical records of an explosion at the site.

Aboard his ship, Jack finds he can neither stop the bomb from exploding nor abandon his ship, but is rescued when the TARDIS materialises at the rear of his ship. Joining the TARDIS crew, Jack watches as the Doctor and Rose dance in celebration.

Continuity

  • Jack mentions Pompeii
    Pompeii
    The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

     as another ideal place for a con, although he jokingly says that one has to set the alarm clock for "Volcano Day". The Seventh Doctor
    Seventh Doctor
    The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....

     and Mel
    Melanie Bush
    Mel, also sometimes referred to as Melanie, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A computer programmer from the 20th Century who is a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, she was a regular in the programme from 1986 to 1987...

     visited the ill-fated city in the Big Finish Productions
    Big Finish Productions
    Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...

     audio drama The Fires of Vulcan
    The Fires of Vulcan
    The Fires of Vulcan is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:The Seventh Doctor and Mel visit ancient Pompeii just before the Vesuvius tragedy is due to occur.-Cast:...

    .
  • The phrase "Volcano Day" is used again by the Tenth Doctor
    Tenth Doctor
    The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...

     in "The Fires of Pompeii
    The Fires of Pompeii
    "The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008....

    ", which takes place at the event.
  • It is established that Jack comes from the 51st century. This is a particularly significant period in the Doctor Who fictional universe
    Fictional universe
    A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....

    , being the time of the Great Breakout, an expansionistic period where mankind headed for the stars (The Invisible Enemy
    The Invisible Enemy
    The Invisible Enemy is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 October to 22 October 1977...

    ) as well as the home era of K-9
    K-9 (Doctor Who)
    K-9, or K9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines in the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977...

    . Other historical events of the 51st century include a new ice age
    Ice age
    An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

    , a near world war
    World war
    A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....

    , early experiments in time travel, the establishment of the Time Agents and the rise and fall of the villainous Magnus Greel (The Talons of Weng-Chiang
    The Talons of Weng-Chiang
    The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 26 February to 2 April 1977.-Synopsis:...

    ). Parts of the Tenth Doctor episode "The Girl in the Fireplace
    The Girl in the Fireplace
    "The Girl in the Fireplace" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 6 May 2006, and is the only episode in the 2006 series written by Steven Moffat...

    " as well as the entirety of "Silence in the Library
    Silence in the Library
    "Silence in the Library" is the eighth episode of the fourth series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on 31 May 2008. It is the first of a two-part story, followed by "Forest of the Dead", and is the second two-parter Steven Moffat contributed to...

    "/"Forest of the Dead
    Forest of the Dead
    "Forest of the Dead" is the ninth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast by BBC One on 7 June 2008...

    ", and "Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone
    Flesh and Stone
    "Flesh and Stone" is the fifth episode of the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, the episode was first broadcast on 1 May 2010 on BBC One...

    ", all written by Steven Moffat, take place in this era as well.
  • The Doctor identifies Jack's sonic blaster as coming from the Weapon Factories of Villengard and implies that he blew them up. He also notes that there is a banana
    Banana
    Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

     grove where the factories were, and that "bananas are good" as a source of potassium
    Potassium
    Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...

    . The Tenth Doctor repeats this sentiment in "The Girl in the Fireplace" and claims that he invented the banana daiquiri
    Daiquiri
    Daiquiri is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, lime juice, and sugar or other sweetener. There are several versions, but those that gained international fame are the ones made in the El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba....

     in 18th century France.
  • As mentioned in Doctor Who Confidential
    Doctor Who Confidential
    Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...

    , in this episode "dancing" is used as a metaphor for sex
    Sexual intercourse
    Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...

    . In this light, lines like "The world doesn't end if the Doctor dances," the Doctor being offended that Rose assumes that he does not dance, and the Doctor saying at the end that he remembers that he can, are references to the long-standing controversy regarding the Doctor's sexuality, and whether or not the series should address it. Moffat also alludes to this metaphor in "The Girl in the Fireplace" with the line "There comes a time, Time Lord, where every lonely boy learns to dance."
  • Continuing the "Bad Wolf" references, the German bomb that Jack sits on has the words "Schlechter Wolf" stencilled on its shell which, literally translated from German, means "Bad Wolf" (although translating "bad" with "schlecht" ("poor quality") is not entirely correct in that context. ).
  • Mickey's website
    Doctor Who tie-in websites
    The 2005 series revival of the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who features several tie-in websites produced by the BBC website team that viewers can access on the Internet...

    , "Who is Doctor Who?" and the UNIT
    United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
    UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...

     website both carry reports about unexploded "Schlechter Wolf" bombs in the present day, implying they may be something more sinister than just a German terror weapon. The bomb as pictured is unusual, with thick fins and a non-aerodynamic nose. Also, the stencilling would be expected not to spiral round the casing.
  • According to a police officer in Torchwood
    Torchwood
    Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...

    episode "Everything Changes
    Everything Changes (Torchwood)
    "Everything Changes" is the first episode of the British science fiction television programme Torchwood, which was first broadcast on 22 October 2006.-Synopsis:Police constable Gwen Cooper comes across the mysterious organisation known as Torchwood...

    ", Captain Jack went missing on 21 January 1941.

Production

  • The working title for this story was "Captain Jax".
  • The climactic scene of the episode at the alien crash site was filmed on Barry Island
    Barry Island (Vale of Glamorgan)
    Barry Island is a district, peninsula and seaside resort, forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc...

    , Wales
    Wales
    Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

    , which was also the primary location for the shooting of the Seventh Doctor
    Seventh Doctor
    The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....

     serial Delta and the Bannermen
    Delta and the Bannermen
    -Preproduction:*This was the first three-part story since Planet of Giants , not counting the 3 x 45 minute episodes of The Two Doctors, which had been broadcast two years previously, and the first intended to be this length....

    (1987). Several scenes of this story were filmed at the Vale of Glamorgan Railway
    Vale of Glamorgan Railway
    The Barry Tourist Railway is a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales...

     sites at Plymouth Road on Barry Island
    Barry Island (Vale of Glamorgan)
    Barry Island is a district, peninsula and seaside resort, forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc...

     in January 2005.
  • In the DVD commentary for this episode, writer Steven Moffatt reveals that up until a very late stage, the nanogenes in this story were called "nanites". However, script editor
    Script editor
    A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...

     Helen Raynor
    Helen Raynor
    Helen Raynor is a British television and theatre writer and script editor. From 2004 until 2007 she was one of the script editors of the revived version of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working on its first three series...

     decided this name sounded too much like similar nanotechnological devices in Star Trek: The Next Generation
    Star Trek: The Next Generation
    Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...

    .
  • The scene where the Child surprises the Doctor, Rose, and Jack in Room 802 was voted television's "Golden Moment of 2005" by viewers, as part of the BBC's 2005 TV Moments programme.

Outside references

  • The Chula ships are named after Chula, an Indian/Bangladesh
    Bangladesh
    Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

    i fusion restaurant
    Fusion cuisine
    Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...

     in Hammersmith
    Hammersmith
    Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

    , London where the writers celebrated and discussed their briefs on the scripts they were to write for the season after being commissioned by Russell T Davies.
  • Moffat had first used the line "Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh" in the second series of his 1990s sitcom Joking Apart
    Joking Apart
    Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky , who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced...

    . He reused it here as he thought it was a good line, but laments that people quote lines from this episode instead of that one.

  • Anachronistically
    Anachronism
    An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...

    , Jamie's voice is recorded on tape. While compact magnetic tape recorders were developed in Germany in the 1930s, the technology did not make its way to the rest of the world until after World War II. Wire recording
    Wire recording
    Wire recording is a type of analog audio storage in which a magnetic recording is made on thin steel or stainless steel wire.The wire is pulled rapidly across a recording head which magnetizes each point along the wire in accordance with the intensity and polarity of the electrical audio signal...

     was used by the BBC during this period, but recording gramophones
    Phonograph
    The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

    , using wax discs as a medium, were more common. Steven Moffatt acknowledges this mistake in the DVD commentary for "The Doctor Dances", but jokingly suggests that an ancestor of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
    Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
    Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...

     stole the machine from Germany to help with the war effort.
  • Both songs heard in the episode are by Glenn Miller
    Glenn Miller
    Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...

    . They are "In the Mood
    In the Mood
    "In the Mood" is a big band era #1 hit recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. Joe Garland and Andy Razaf arranged "In the Mood" in 1937-1939 using a previously existing main theme composed by Glenn Miller before the start of the 1930s...

    " and "Moonlight Serenade
    Moonlight Serenade
    Moonlight Serenade is an album by the American singer-songwriter Carly Simon. It is her 22nd studio album , and her fourth album of pop standards....

    ".
  • In a reference to Dr. Strangelove, Jack Harkness rides the bomb while it's held in stasis.

External links


Reviews

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