Bad Wolf

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Lore & Background

The Bad Wolf phenomenon manifests as a set of words following the Doctor and Rose through time and space. In this episode, they find themselves on Satellite Five, now called "The Game Station," controlled by the Bad Wolf Corporation. The station hosts brutal game shows: on "The Weakest Link" and "Big Brother," elimination results in instant disintegration; on "What Not to Wear," participants face brutal cosmetic surgery. The Doctor escapes "Big Brother" with a housemate named Lynda, while Jack escapes "What Not to Wear." They discover that contestants are not actually killed but transmitted off-station via a transmat. The Controller reveals she hid the trio in the games because her masters do not watch them, using a solar flare as cover to speak freely. However, before she can name her masters, she is transmitted away and killed by them. Jack locates the TARDIS and learns the truth about the contestants' fate. Meanwhile, Rose wakes on a spaceship surrounded by Daleks.

In Their Own Story

The Doctor, Jack, and Lynda reach Floor 500 to meet the cybernetic Controller. She uses a solar flare to communicate that her masters cannot hear her, explaining she used a transmat to hide them in the games. When the flare ends, she is taken by her masters and killed. Jack discovers the TARDIS in a restricted area and deduces the contestants are being transmitted off-station rather than disintegrated. The group tracks a signal hiding something at the edge of the solar system. Once they cancel it, a massive fleet of Dalek spaceships is revealed. The Daleks open a channel, threatening to kill Rose if the Doctor interferes. Refusing to back down, the Doctor vows to rescue her and wipe out the entire Dalek force. Meanwhile, Rose finds herself on the floor of a spaceship, directly approached by a Dalek. The episode ends with this cliffhanger as the Doctor prepares for war.

Reader's Guide

The episode was originally titled "Gameshow World" and was the last title revealed for the 2005 series. Russell T Davies pitched the Anne Droid and futuristic "Weakest Link" concept during his second BBC meeting in 2000 or 2001, inspired by seeing a Times Square billboard for the American version of the show featuring a giant Anne Robinson. The production team planned to show Jack's naked buttocks but were vetoed by the BBC's editorial policy department—the only such over-rule during the 2005 series. During the reveal of the Dalek fleet, the music features a Hebrew chorus singing "Mah Kor'ei" (What is happening?). An answer in "The Weakest Link" mentions the Great Cobalt Pyramid built on the ruins of the Old Earth Torchwood Institute; "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who," foreshadowing the 2006 spin-off series. Nisha Nayar, who played the Female Programmer, previously appeared as an uncredited extra in the 1987 story "Paradise Towers," making her the second actor to appear in both classic and new series.

Did You Know?

• The BBC's editorial policy department overruled the production team to prevent showing Jack Harkness's naked buttocks, the only time this happened during the 2005 series.
• Anne Robinson accepted the offer to voice the Anne Droid after a celebrity impersonator had already been hired and recorded lines under the assumption she would decline.
• The music played when the Dalek fleet is revealed includes a chorus singing "Mah Kor'ei" (What is happening?) in Hebrew.
• Nisha Nayar, who played the Female Programmer, was the second actor to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who, having previously been an uncredited extra in 1987's "Paradise Towers."
• The phrase "Torchwood" appears as a clue in the episode, being an anagram of "Doctor Who," foreshadowing the spin-off series that launched in 2006.