This story is connected to a number of others by virtue of its narrative and its production elements. Many of the story's actors also have other connections to the programme, although most of these connections take the form of various actors
almost getting a role in the main production.
Narrative • The planet Tersurus was first mentioned in
The Deadly Assassin, where a severely deteriorated Master, at the end of his last regeneration, was found. The spin-off novel
Legacy of the Daleks by
John Peel relates the events leading up to the Master's arrival there.
Future references to this sketch • The Doctor later married River Song in "
The Wedding of River Song", also written by Moffat. • The Dalek bumps worn by the Master are presumably a reference to the Time Lords' questioned ability at the time to regenerate across genders. Steven Moffat later created Missy, a female incarnation of the Master and the first Time Lord to regenerate from male to female, in "
Dark Water". The same happened to the Doctor in "
Twice Upon a Time", in which
Jodie Whittaker became the first female Doctor, as foreshadowed here by Moffat casting
Joanna Lumley. Coincidentally, both played the Thirteenth Doctor. • "Never cruel or cowardly", as the Doctor is described here by Emma, was later revealed by Moffat in "
The Day of the Doctor" to be the "promise" that is made by the taking of the name "The Doctor". It was used in a novel by
Paul Cornell published shortly before this sketch aired, but originates from (and implicitly quotes) "The Making of Doctor Who" by
Terrance Dicks in the 1970s. This was referenced again by the twelfth doctor, just before regeneration in "
Twice Upon a Time".
Production • The title sequence is the same as used during most of the
Tom Baker era of
Doctor Who, albeit edited to remove Tom Baker's face. • The opening image of the TARDIS flying through space as the Master watches was taken from the beginning of the
Doctor Who TV movie. •
Steven Moffat, best known at the time for the children's drama series
Press Gang (which starred Julia Sawalha), was well known as a fan of
Doctor Who and included many small continuity references in his script. He subsequently wrote several episodes for the series proper since its revival in 2005, starting with the two-part serial "
The Empty Child"/"
The Doctor Dances", and was the programme's head writer and executive producer between 2010 and 2017. • The title
Curse of Fatal Death is a
tautology (it being impossible to have a death that is not fatal), which parodies the sometimes melodramatic and tautological titles of the original series (an example being the 1976 serial
The Deadly Assassin). • This is the lone example of a BBC-only production prior to 2005 in which the TARDIS interior appears to be lit when viewed from the exterior. This continues a tradition begun in the 1996 television movie, and is common practice in the 2005 series. The visual effect was first seen in the film
Dr. Who and the Daleks. • The exterior
TARDIS prop was the same Mark II fibreglass version used in the 1980s and in the 30th-anniversary story
Dimensions in Time;
Curse was the last time the prop was used. • Other specially made episodes of
Doctor Who include
Dimensions in Time (1993), the officially untitled
2005 special mini-episode, and "
Time Crash" (2007) — all produced for
Children in Need —
"Space" and "Time":, a two-part mini-story produced for Comic Relief in 2011 and "
The Night of the Doctor" (2013). "Time Crash", "The Night of the Doctor" and "Space" and "Time" were written by Moffat. • The main canon of the TV series would go on to feature
the Doctor as a female in her thirteenth official incarnation, this time portrayed by
Jodie Whittaker.
Music The production was deliberately based on the
Fourth Doctor's era and a conscious effort was made to use cues taken directly from episodes of that era. However, the practical unavailability of these soundtracks forced the show's musical director,
Mark Ayres, to use material mostly from the
Fifth Doctor's era. Except for the reuse of the theme music, the majority of musical cues come from episodes between
Meglos and
The Caves of Androzani, with a brief excerpt also taken from the
Third Doctor serial
The Sea Devils as well as an excerpt from the
Seventh Doctor serial
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (written by Ayres himself). The music during the episode's final scene, for example, is the same as that which played at the conclusion of the
Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the
Fifth in
Logopolis. After each regeneration portrayed in the episode, music from
Meglos is employed.
Actors •
Richard E. Grant was later cast as the Doctor in the animated 40th-anniversary adventure
Scream of the Shalka in 2003, though his
status was relegated to unofficial following the announcement of a new series in September 2003. He later played the villainous
Great Intelligence (in its Walter Simeon persona) in 2012's "
The Snowmen", and 2013's "
The Bells of Saint John" and "
The Name of the Doctor". In the 2024 episode "
Rogue", Richard E. Grant's likeness was seen in a sequence of the Doctor's past regenerations. •
Jim Broadbent had previously played the Doctor in a sketch on
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, mocking the series' perceived sexism, cheapness, and use of
technobabble. •
Roy Skelton had voiced Daleks since 1967. •
Julia Sawalha was being considered for the role of a
new companion, a "
cat burglar" who would have been introduced in the twenty-seventh season. Building on this, a "what if" article in
Doctor Who Magazine #255 featured her in this role along with a hypothetical Eighth Doctor, played by
Richard Griffiths, who was at one time considered for the role of the Fifth Doctor. •
Hugh Grant was offered the role of the Doctor again ahead of
Christopher Eccleston, and later said publicly that he regretted dismissing it without much thought when he saw how good the series was – and that he was hoping to play a villain in the ongoing programme instead.
Russell T Davies later described
Hugh Grant's performance as "fleetingly" one of the best performances in the part of the Doctor. •
Joanna Lumley is the first woman to play an incarnation of the Doctor. The second was
Arabella Weir in the
Doctor Who Unbound Big Finish episode
Exile. On 16 July 2017,
Jodie Whittaker was revealed as the official
Thirteenth Doctor, becoming the first woman to be cast in the role of the Doctor within the "main" series. ==Broadcast and releases==