Trivia

A second season and Christmas special were commissioned on the strength of the first episode's ratings alone.

Rose is seen searching the Internet for information on The Doctor, and finds a conspiracy website run by a man called Clive (Mark Benton). The site - www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk is real. It's maintained by the BBC's Doctor Who (2005) web team and still accessible as of 2024.

This episode was watched by 10.81 million viewers on its original transmission, winning a 44.84% audience share.

In the scene where the Doctor is in Rose's flat, the original script called for The Doctor to stick his entire head in the cat flap. But when they got it, it was far too small.

Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy praised this episode, stating: "It had a great pace, it moved really quickly and was witty. Christopher Eccleston was quite alien as the Doctor - he looked wonderful. He had this manic grin - we were not sure if he was on the edge of insanity or not, which was rather good. He ran into danger with such gusto. He galloped at it joyfully. Billie Piper was quite fantastic. The relationship between the two was quite extraordinary. In a way this Doctor was not the brightest brain in the universe - he's a bit like an Oxford don in that he's full of brains but with not much nous. There was a great scene when he was searching for a giant round object and Rose had to point out he was standing in front of the London Eye. He seemed to need Rose more than any other Doctor needed his companion, because she could really help him."