The Long Game

The Long Game is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on May 7, 2005.

Notes

• This is the time period of the "Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire". The first Earth Empire was featured in several Third Doctor stories in the 1970s. It lasted from around the mid-26th century (Frontier in Space) to the early 31st century (The Mutants).
• Satellite 5 is shown to be rotating around its vertical axis, but this cannot be to provide artificial gravity, as the floors are laid out from top to bottom.
• The Doctor tells Adam that time travel is about jumping into unfamiliar situations and making mistakes, including "kissing complete strangers... or is that just me?" — a reference to the controversial kiss between the Eighth Doctor and Grace Holloway in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie.
• The junk food vendor on board Satellite 5 is selling "kronkburgers". Kronkburgers were consumed by the guards of an alternate Roman Empire that had conquered the galaxy in the Doctor Who comic strip story, Doctor Who and the Iron Legion, that ran in Doctor Who Weekly #1-#8.
• Following the "bad wolf" theme begun in earlier episodes of the season, one of the broadcast channels featuring the Face of Boe (from The End of the World) is named "BAD WOLFTV". See Bad Wolf references in Doctor Who.
• Rose's "superphone", which the Doctor modified to allow her to call back to her own time (c. 2005) in The End of the World appears to be intelligent enough to realise who is using it, as it allows Adam to call back to his own time period of 2012.
• In finance, "playing a long game" refers to implementing a long-term strategy rather than focusing on short-term gains. This refers to the subtle scheme to enslave the human race without its knowledge over a period of decades, or even centuries, implemented by the Jagrafess (or its masters). The Doctor realises that "someone's been playing a long game" during the events of Bad Wolf; a reference to this episode and realising that the Jagrafess was just another pawn in this overall plan.
• According to Russell T. Davies in his Production Notes column in Doctor Who Magazine #350 and later in the official preview for the story in #356, The Long Game was originally written in the early 1980s and submitted to the Doctor Who production office. Whether it was ever read by the production team of the time is unclear, as Davies received a rejection from the BBC Script Unit, who advised him to write more realistic television about "a man and his mortgage" instead. Davies reworked the story for the new series.
• When Adam first calls back to the 21st century, the establishing shot for his parents' home uses the same house that Mickey was in front of when he was captured by the Nestene-animated dustbin in Rose.
• Adam's mother, though not given a name on screen or in the credits, is named Sandra.
• This week's edition of Mickey's "Who is Doctor Who?" website has an essay from a 14-year-old Adam Mitchell.
• In the two-part finale of the 2005 series (Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways) the "people" behind the Jagrafess showed themselves. The finale is set on Satellite 5, now named the Game Station, a century after The Long Game.
• Features guest appearances by Bruno Langley, Simon Pegg and Tamsin Greig. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.