It opened with Andrew Cartmel explaining that, as the twenty-fifth year or silver anniversary, the central theme should be silver. This was followed by Sylvester McCoy commenting that you can't have silver without the Cybermen. He called them "wonderful". As she had been filming The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Aldred had not been at the read-through and the assistant floor manager Lynn Grant had read her part. This led to some confusion among the guest cast as to who she was. Clarke noted that the whole thing was wrapped up as it began, with Ace questioning who the Doctor was.