Stark (novel) on this novel, which was subsequently made as "Stark", a television miniseries. It was a joint production by the BBC and the ABC (the British and Australian national broadcasters). Ben Elton played the lead role, with Colin Friels as Sly and Jacqueline McKenzie as Rachel. There were some differences between the novel and the miniseries; some characters were renamed, and the ending was different. Elton's subsequent two novels, "Gridlock" and "This Other Eden", also deal with environmental themes and are set in a dystopian future. "Alternative 3", a 1977 British television hoax masquerading as a documentary, shared some themes with
Gridlock (Doctor Who) which featured a similar character named Swifty Frisko. Also in the online commentary, Davies noted that Brannigan's appearance was based on "Ratz", the CGI disembodied cat's head that was a "virtual presenter" of CBBC's "Live & Kicking" in the early 1990s. Ma and Pa at the start of the episode are based on the farming couple in the painting "American Gothic", both having identical hairstyles, glasses and fashions. Alice and May Cassini are the first homosexual married couple featured in "Doctor Who". The episode marks the second appearance of the large crustacean Macra race, who previously appeared in the Second