Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)

Wild Blue Yonder was the second of the three 2023 specials of Doctor Who, broadcast on 2 December 2023 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations.

Synopsis
The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Donna on a journey to a faraway, mysterious place and abandons them in the middle of Hostile Action.

Plot
The Doctor and Donna pilot the TARDIS to land on a tree in 1666. Isaac Newton was sitting beneath it and he sees them. They confess their regards about the gravity of the situation and depart.

The TARDIS then lands in a spaceship, somewhere unknown. They take a look around when the TARDIS dematerialises as a result of the HADS. Thus, the pair walk down a very long corridor where they find a robot they call Jimbo. The Doctor realises they are in a spaceship that is on the edge of the universe, 100 trillion lightyears from everything else - not even starlight has yet promulgated a distance great enough to reach them.

As the Doctor and Donna chat, they each complain in separate rooms to the other that their arms are too long. It transpires that some unknown creature has taken both of their forms separately, misjudging the arm length. The Doctor and Donna run away from these creatures, taking use of a motor flying vehicle. The creatures grow ginormous and grab the vehicle, but they stumble over one another and end up in a cluttered heap, blocking off much of the corridor. The Doctor and Donna attempt to reason with the creature heap briefly, before realising it is beginning to untangle itself.

They hurry to a vent but are separated on a detachable climbing wall. Thus the Doctor and his companion walk around, finding the other who they each work out to be the creature in an impersonation. They meet and run behind a large glass door, the creatures trapped on the other side. They find the captain of the ship, who killed herself previously in order to feel a maximum sense of adrenaline. The Doctor realises (at the same time as the creatures) that the ship is slowly counting down to an explosion. Now they know, all four run after the robot Jimbo - the Doctor and Donna to let it explode the ship; the creatures to stop the explosion from occurring.

The robot presses a red button and explodes the ship. The TARDIS materialises as a result of the Hostile Action having been entirely displaced and the Doctor runs aboard. Kicking on the ground to gain momentum, he rushes towards the two Donnas, who each claim to be the real one. He ascertains which is real and takes her aboard, leaving the other to die, who complains of her fate.

The Doctor then rematerialises the TARDIS near this real Donna, throwing the fake one out, just in time to save her and leave as the ship explodes.

After a chat in the console room, the Doctor and Donna emerge from the TARDIS, back near the alley from which they took off at the end of the previous episode. Wilfred Mott is there to greet them, sitting in a wheelchair. It turns out that there is some unknown offensive action occurring in the scene, with people fighting and bashing away - what caused this and how can the Doctor and Donna put it right?

Cast

 * The Doctor / Not-thing - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble / Not-thing - Catherine Tate
 * Isaac Newton - Nathaniel Curtis
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * Mrs Merridew - Susan Twist

Uncredited cast
to be added

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor once spent three years in orbit because the HADS prevented him from landing anywhere.
 * Isaac Newton misheard Donna make a joke about gravity, instead naming it "Mavity".
 * Donna was born in Southampton.

Myths

 * Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker will return as the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors, or as their Guardians of the Edge forms.
 * Alternatively, Matt Smith will return to play a new incarnation of the Master, potentially disguising himself as the Eleventh Doctor to fool the Fourteenth in some fashion.
 * John Simm will return as the Saxon Master.
 * Karen Gillan will return as Amy Pond
 * The Wirrn will return.
 * David Tennant will play the Tenth Doctor again.
 * Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor will make an early debut in this episode.
 * More specifically, he will appear alongside Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday, marking the first Multi-Doctor story told from the perspective of a former incarnation.
 * Carole Ann Ford will return as Susan Foreman.
 * The name of actor Susan Twist was used on the BBC website as a subtle teaser for Susan's return.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Influences
to be added

Continuity

 * The Doctor and Donna are stranded due to the HADS activating. (TV: Cold War, The Magician's Apprentice, The Witch's Familiar)
 * The Doctor licks a substance to determine its properties. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, The Idiot's Lantern, Planet of the Dead, The Eleventh Hour, Day of the Moon, It Takes You Away)
 * On learning that he and Donna have arrived in 1666, the Doctor advices Isaac Newton to avoid London. (TV: The Visitation)
 * When posing as Donna, one of the not-things mentions that the Doctor was not born on Gallifrey. (TV: The Timeless Children) In the same conversation, the Doctor states that the Flux "destroyed half of the universe because of me". (TV: The Vanquishers)

DVD and Blu-ray releases
This episode, along with and, was released on Region 2 DVD, and Region B Blu-ray and steelbook on 18 December 2023.