This is the first time in New Who that The Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey, is identified by name.
For legal reasons, the production team made obviously fake banknotes for the scene where money comes flying out of a cashpoint. The £10 notes feature the Doctor's face and the phrases "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten satsumas" and "No second chances - I'm that sort of a man". The text is a reference to the Doctor's actions and dialogue near the end of The Christmas Invasion (2005). There were also £20 notes featuring Phil Collinson. These had the phrase "There's no point being grown up if you can't be a little childish sometimes" printed on them, misquoting the line originally spoken by the Fourth Doctor in Robot: Part Four (1975), "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
Catherine Tate was unable to attend the traditional first cast read-through of the episode. David Tennant's then-girlfriend, Sophia Myles read the part of Donna Noble on this occasion.
Though set at Christmas, this story was filmed in late July, with an average temperature of thirty degrees, centigrade (86 degrees Fahrenheit). David Tennant was quoted as saying he was "blinking boiling" during filming.