Doctor Who showrunner says a season 1 episode features a 15-years-in-the-making idea that was too expensive at the time

Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has spoken about bringing an idea to life that would have been prohibitively expensive for the sci-fi show 15 years ago.

“Episode 5… I remember talking to Steven Moffat about that in around about 2010. We couldn’t have afforded it. It was just a vague idea, ‘Oh, you can do this and that’ and it just didn’t go any further. We needed the money,” Davies said at a recent Q&A event attended by sister outlet SFX magazine. “Once you see episode 5 you’ll go, ‘I get what you mean.’”