Recorded on: 8-9 and 11 July 2024
Recorded at: White Noise
Producer David Richardson said: "Kate Orman is one of my favourite authors of Doctor Who fiction, and after the success of The Dead Star, I was keen to sign her up for another as soon as possible.
"In The Mirror Matter, she has written a truly authentic Season 7 story - it's the exiled Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier investigating an alien incursion with a difference, told over (naturally) seven episodes! Once again, Kate has blended two of her passions - Doctor Who and real science - into a truly compelling yarn."
Kate Orman added: "Season 7 is a terrific season to play in. The stories are about what would have been contemporary scientific issues, like nuclear power and early space travel. There's some playfulness around the scientific ideas, but the science helps to give it a very concrete, realistic feeling. So, this inspired me to get a genuine piece of science to base my own story on.
"One of the other reasons it's such a brilliant season is those huge seven-episode stories. Writing a seven-episode story is great. You have six cliffhangers for a start. But you also have depth; you have time and space to expand on the scientific ideas, on the characters and their relationships, which I particularly enjoyed doing when it came to Liz Shaw."
Script editor Roland Moore said: "We wanted to do a seven-part story set in the Season Seven era, alongside stories like Silurians, Ambassadors of Death, and Inferno. And it fits seamlessly in. Kate's got the era spot on, with characters like Liz Shaw - she's got her voice totally - and that early iteration of the Third Doctor and the Brigadier.
"What Kate's done amazingly well - and it's a benefit of using real science - is that she's thought up a monster truly unlike anything the Doctor has encountered before or since. It's not a man in a suit, it's a really alien thing that the Doctor finds hard to communicate with."
Reader Jon Culshaw added: "This story is full of that ominous mystery and rising menace that those Season Seven Doctor Who stories had. The threats don’t just take place on distant, alien worlds, they happen in the pub, and in a lady's kitchen, or down a high street – it makes it feel very real, and reminds me of when the Autons came to life in Spearhead from Space."
