Trivia / Doctor Who S21 E5 "Planet of Fire"

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• Contractual Immortality: The Master was originally supposed to be Killed Off for Real, as Anthony Ainley's contract had expired.
• Creator Backlash: Peter Grimwade was furious at the casting of Dallas Adams as Prof. Foster. He had written the part for an elderly man and this casting caused Grimwade to cut his links with the series.
• Executive Meddling: Peter Grimwade was given an astonishing shopping list of instructions for this story — introduce Peri, write out Turlough and Kamelion, feature the Master in a story which could potentially depict his actual death if Anthony Ainley couldn't be persuaded to reduce his salary demands in contract renewal negotiations, and use Lanzarote as a location.
• Fake American: In addition to Nicola Bryant, Dallas Adams as Howard.
• First Appearance: Of Peri.
• No Export for You: The documentary "The Flames of Sarn" is not included in the US ports due to rights issues.
• Prop Recycling: According to director Fiona Cumming in the DVD Commentary, Peri's passport was made for another production with theatre actor Dallas Adams. If you look closely, any details seen from freeze-framing the close-ups were actually from another character.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: The serial was basically a crew holiday in Lanzarote.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Graeme Harper was attached to direct at one time. He ended up directing the following story instead.
  • The script originally contained commentary on issues of religious zealotry, something that was toned down by Eric Saward.
  • Originally, Peri bonded with the Doctor as he reminds her of her late father, who died at the same age as the Doctor now appears.
  • The Elder leader Timanov was written originally by Grimwade as a parody of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini but this element was greatly reduced in rewrites by script Editor Eric Saward.
  • Mark Strickson stated that he may have stayed on for another year had he known that the following season would consist of a 45-minute episode format. His biggest reason for leaving the role of Turlough was his dissatisfaction with the constancy of cliffhangers in each serial, believing that they diminished character development.
• Working Title: Planet of Fear.

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