Attack of the Graske

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Attack of the Graske
Doctor	David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Writer	Gareth Roberts
Director	Ashley Way
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Producer	Jo Pearce Sophie Fante Andrew Whitehouse
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Length	14 minutes
Transmission date	25 December 2005

Attack of the Graske is a "mini-episode" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A special interactive episode for the BBC's digital television service, it was available until midnight following the transmission of the Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion, on 25 December 2005. The episode can now be played as a game on the BBC Doctor Who website, and was only available to UK Broadband Users until late 2006.

The episode is broadcast on two different video channels, with a digital teletext interface handling switching between them. The viewer uses the interface to make their decisions, and this switches between the channels. Except for the last decision, if the viewer fails, the Doctor steps in to move the story forward, and the two sequences then resynchronise.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Cast
- 3.1 Cast notes
4 Continuity
5 Production
- 5.1 Music
6 Outside references
7 Broadcast
8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The human race is in danger of being replaced by alien changelings. Only the Doctor can stop them with the help of his latest companion — the viewer.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Graske claims another victim.

The Tenth Doctor welcomes the viewer into the TARDIS. He tells them that he has been watching the viewer for some time, as they have been watching him, and that he has been impressed enough to want to take the viewer to help him on his next adventure. (His current companion, Rose, has been dropped off at Wembley in 1979 for an ABBA concert.) He then imbues the viewer's television remote control with the power of his sonic screwdriver, allowing the viewer to take part in the proceedings.

To start, the Doctor shows his new assistant a family of six celebrating Christmas in a living room, by means of the TARDIS scanner — a family, it seems, like any other, except that one of them is an alien imposter. By alternating between two different viewpoints, namely from within the family's television set and from the handheld digicam the daughter got for Christmas, the viewer has to determine who does not belong.

The mother's eyes briefly glow during the sequence, revealing her as the imposter. She is now alone with the father in the house's kitchen. A small alien transmats onto the kitchen table, where he uses a handheld device to zap the father. The Doctor tells the viewer that the alien is a Graske, a species that invades planets by replacing its population. When he is done, the Graske transmats away, leaving a changeling of the father behind to join that of the mother.

As the Doctor tracks the Graske through time, the viewer takes command of the TARDIS's controls, and activates the vortex loop, dimensional stabiliser and vector tracker as requested. Eventually, the Graske is located about 120 years in the past, somewhere in Victorian Britain. The viewer must use a map on the TARDIS scanner to pinpoint its location, as the screen blips where the Graske's DNA is found. After zooming in to the correct part of London, Christmas 1863, the viewer takes a quick walk around a square and must then uncover the Graske from its hiding place.

Having been found, the Graske kidnaps a young street urchin by zapping him, and as before leaves a changeling in his place. Tracking the Graske, the Doctor takes the viewer to the Graske's base on Griffoth and guides them through the base. Having used number and logic puzzles to pass through the airlocks, the viewer arrives in a room filled with various beings in stasis pods; the Graske keep the originals to sustain the copies. The viewer also learns of the Graske's ultimate intention to replace every living, sentient creature in the universe with one of their doubles.

However, the viewer is spotted, and must duck to avoid a Graske's weapon fire. Fortunately, the blast ricochets around the room and frees a Slitheen from a stasis pod, who then proceeds to vengefully chase the Graske who imprisoned it. The viewer thus has the opportunity to make one last crucial decision — either the teleport settings can be reversed, sending all the kidnapped beings back to their proper places in space and time, or the Graske's own stasis control can be used against them, freezing the Graske and everything else in their base.

Depending on the choice the viewer makes, there are two alternative endings to the episode:

If the viewer decides to freeze the entire Graske base, the Graske are trapped, but so are all of their victims. We see the changeling mother and father talking mechanically with the rest of their family, and the daughter storms off to her room, believing that her parents are trying to ruin Christmas.
If the decision is made to send the victims back, the viewer sees all the stasis pods being emptied, and the mother and father of the family are quickly glimpsed livening up the party at their house whilst "Another Rock And Roll Christmas" by Gary Glitter plays in the background. The universe — and the family's Christmas — is saved.

As the Doctor takes the viewer home, the programme evaluates the viewer's "score". Depending on how well they did, either the Doctor decides that his new companion is not quite ready for the job (but was not far off and should try again), or the Doctor comments on how impressed he is with the viewer, saying that perhaps one day he will call on their help to save the universe again.

In either case, the Doctor then removes the sonic powers from the viewer's remote control and bids them farewell, firing up the TARDIS to go back for Rose.

[edit] Cast

A Graske.

The Doctor — David Tennant
Mum — Lisa Palfrey
Dad — Nicholas Beveney
Girl — Mollie Kabia
Boy — James Harris
Granddad — Robin Meredith
Grandma — Gwenyth Petty
Graske — Jimmy Vee
Older Man — Roger Nott
Urchin — Ben Oliver
Young Woman — Catherine Olding

[edit] Cast notes

David Tennant is not credited in the episode's end credits.

[edit] Continuity

This episode's visit to Griffoth, the Graske homeworld, marks the first on-screen depiction of a planet other than Earth in the new series. The Doctor and Rose have, off-screen, visited Raxacoricofallapatorius, Justicia and Woman Wept as mentioned in Boom Town. They also visited Toop in the New Series Adventures novel Winner Takes All and Mars in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story The Cruel Sea (DWM #359-#362).
The Graske keep the originals to maintain the copies. Other aliens who can create facsimiles but also need to retain the originals include the Nestene Consciousness and the Zygons.
The entire episode is premised on breaking the fourth wall by directly addressing the television audience, the first time this has been explicitly done on Doctor Who since episode seven of The Daleks' Master Plan, where the First Doctor wished viewers at home a Happy Christmas. The Tenth Doctor also wishes the viewer a Merry Christmas in this episode.
Although this was the first fully interactive episode of Doctor Who produced, the 1993 anniversary special Dimensions in Time allowed viewers to call in and choose which of two residents of EastEnders' Albert Square would save the Doctor.
During the end credits, Tennant's voice told the viewer that the programme was on a "time loop" and they could play again. Time loops were previously mentioned in The War Games, The Claws of Axos and Image of the Fendahl.

[edit] Production

According to Doctor Who Magazine #366, this episode had the working title Changeling World.
Executive producer Julie Gardner told Doctor Who Magazine that the mini-episode was treated as a "full-blooded, sophisticated production," with a new alien villain, new sets and new special effects. Whether or not this story is canonical, however, is uncertain, as is its placement in the series' running order.
Unlike all other new series episodes (which are made in 16:9 widescreen format and shown in that ratio on digital television, and as 14:9 aspect ratio on analogue transmissions), this episode is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio.
The countdown to the start of the segment uses a design based on the Gallifreyan script seen in the series, and includes both Arabic numerals and the Gallifreyan numerals used in the New Series Adventures. The countdown shown for the tasks is a simplified version of this which does not include the Gallifreyan numerals.
Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, reported that the Moxx of Balhoon would be appearing in this mini-episode, but this may have stemmed from confusion over the role played by Jimmy Vee (who played the Moxx in The End of the World). In fact, the Moxx does not appear in this episode at all.

[edit] Music

The music played during the countdown is the orchestral arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music which plays over the credits of The Christmas Invasion.
The musical cue used during the later challenge sequences is from The End of the World.

[edit] Outside references

The Doctor mentions he dropped Rose off at Wembley in 1979 for an ABBA concert. ABBA played five concerts at Wembley Arena that year, from November 5 to November 10. The Doctor quotes the Status Quo song "Down Down" after the DNA challenge section.
Billie Piper (who plays Rose Tyler) along with pop artists Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, and B*Witched recorded a medley of ABBA songs called Thank ABBA for the Music. The single peaked at number 4 on the UK chart.
After removing the "powers of the sonic" from their remotes, the Doctor warns viewers that, as a side effect, the galaxy may implode if they switch to ITV that evening, referencing the traditional rivalry between that network and the BBC.
When the player is looking for the Graske, a boy asks for money saying he is saving up for a satsuma. This is a reference to The Christmas Invasion when the doctor found a satsuma in his dressing gown.

[edit] Broadcast

A total of 496,000 viewers played Attack of the Graske using their red buttons, and as of 30 March 2006 the game had an average of 41,000 hits every week on the BBC's Doctor Who website.^{[citation needed]}
The episode was available again following the New Year's Day repeat transmission of The Christmas Invasion on BBC Three.