A Case for the Blue Box (episode)

A Case for the Blue Box was the fourth story of Season 35 of Doctor Who. It was written by Joe Menosky, directed by Les Landau and featured Michael French as the Doctor and Laurie Holden as Sammy Thompson.

This episode was an official crossover with Star Trek: Voyager and was the idea of Steven Moffat after the 'Paramount Deal' was finalised in early 1998. The episode takes place after the Voyager episode Counterpoint.

Synopsis
Reaching the end of Devore space, the USS Voyager comes across a mysterious small Blue Box hanging in space. Captain Kathryn Janeway, hails the box, but to no avail before it vanishes into thin air.

Soon after, two mysterious strangers arrive on Voyager, and with them, the very same Blue Box. But that's the least of their worries, as Voyager's medical supplies begin to evolve and mutate, transforming into a deadly creature, hungry for Time Lord blood.

Plot
To be added.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Michael French
 * Sammy Thompson - Laurie Holden
 * Captain Kathryn Janeway - Kate Mulgrew
 * Commander Chakotay - Robert Beltran
 * Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres - Roxann Dawson
 * Ensign Tom Paris - Robert Duncan McNeill
 * Neelix - Ethan Phillips
 * The EMH - Robert Picardo
 * Lieutenant Commander Tuvok - Tim Russ
 * Seven of Nine - Jeri Ryan
 * Ensign Harry Kim - Garrett Wang

Crew

 * Created by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and C.E. Webber
 * Executive Producers - David Renwick, Rick Berman
 * Writer - Joe Menosky
 * Story by Joe Menosky and Steven Moffat
 * Producer s - Susan Belbin, Kenneth Biller
 * Script Editor - Steven Moffat
 * Director - Les Landau
 * Director of Photography - Geoff Harrison, Marvin V. Rush
 * Production Designers - John Asbridge, Richard D. James
 * Visual Effects - Orange Tree VFX
 * Make-Up Designer - Vanessa White
 * Key Make-Up Artist - Suzanne Diaz
 * Casting Director - Andy Pryor
 * Music - Julian Stewart Lindsay
 * Costume Designer - James Baylan
 * Edited by - Mark Lawrence
 * Original Theme Music - Ron Grainer
 * Title Music - Julian Stewart Lindsay
 * Title Sequence by Mike Tucker
 * Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
 * Star Trek: Voyager created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor

Memorable Quotes
To be added.

Production History

 * In 1997, BBC Worldwide negotiated a co-production deal with Paramount Television for the next 5 seasons of Doctor Who, with BBC Wales. The idea of this being pushed at the BBC by Mal Young, the new Head of Drama
 * During negotiations, Kerry McCluggage, who was Mal Young’s opposite number at Paramount suggested that Star Trek: Voyager could do a crossover episode with Doctor Who.

Development

 * Development began, just after the Paramount Deal was signed, with Joe Menosky, a Voyager writer who was personally interested in working on the Doctor Who project, coming up with a storyline for the Voyager episode.
 * Mal Young intervened, suggesting that perhaps Doctor Who could do the episode instead of Voyager, as he wanted a big “second launch” for the programme, halfway through the upcoming season, and he thought it would be a great way to tell the British audience that “Doctor Who is a big deal now”.
 * One person who was rather indifferent about the whole thing was, showrunner, David Renwick, who went along with it, but didn’t really care either way.
 * Renwick assigned Steven Moffat, the Script Editor, to work on the storyline further with Menosky, but while he appreciated the fact that it would be a great publicity pull for the series, he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it, especially as he had already been encouraged to increase the outer space “futuristic” episodes, which he’d conceded nearly half of the run to.

Production

 * No other characters apart from the main cast of both shows actually appear and on top of that only the USS Voyager sets, and the TARDIS sets appear in the episodes too.
 * Kate Mulgrew flew to the UK to film the TARDIS scenes for the episode, as such the next episode of Voyager produced, was a ‘Janeway-lite’ episode.
 * For the most part, however, filming took place in Hollywood with the production crew of Star Trek: Voyager producing it.
 * The episode was directed by Les Landau and only credited to him, but the TARDIS scenes were actually directed by Susan Belbin, who went uncredited, although her Producer credit, as a senior position, covered this, technically.

Post-Production

 * To be added.

Reaction

 * This episode received a 7-Day Viewing Figure from BARB of 10.46m viewers. It ranked at 19th over the week.

Story Notes

 * To be added.

Continuity

 * To be added.

Home Video Releases
To be added.