(M)ethanol is the third episode of The Valeyard. The episode existed entirely out of a flashback showing a part of the Doctor's and Riley's journey to The Valley.
Previous Episode: Arabah
Next Episode: The Green Cross
Production[]
- The majority of the episode was recorded with shaders to set the mood of the Arabah desert.
- The scenes with the Sycorax at the beginning and the end of the episode were added just before recording started to make the episode more exciting. Originally, Riley would've died of dehydration just before they reached The Valley.
- A large part of the story was inspired by the story 'Nate the Snake', also known as 'The Longest Joke in the World', which takes about an hour to read out loud. In this story, a man is stranded in the desert, theorizing whether it's safe to drink his windshield wiper fluid.
- The story was written so it would not need to feature any of the existing sets. Matt's computer died a while before recording, and it was unsure whether the map could be recovered. As can be seen in later episodes: Matt did manage to get the map off the harddrive.
- The Doctor and Riley drove a normal car in the script. However, as most Minecraft cars are too small to sit next to each other, it was changed to an RV. This RV is the same make and model as used in AMC's Breaking Bad.
- This is the first time we see The Doctor without his jacket on.
- At the end of the episode, the Doctor got a large wound in his back caused by the Sycorax's sword. The scar of this wound can be seen in The Valley of Peace when the Doctor is naked.
- The music which plays in the final scene where Riley dies, is taken from the Twilight movie Eclipse, where the human version of a character called Riley dies. The music is also called 'Riley'. I know it, I'm sorry. I watched twilight willingly.