This story idea of the Tenth Doctor's involvement in the 2012 Olympics sparked a petition from thousands of fans all over the world wishing David Tennant to carry the Olympic Torch. However, it was not Tennant, but his successor Matt Smith who would carry the 2012 Olympic torch in Wales on 26 May 2012. Neither did the Tenth Doctor appear at the official opening ceremony, even though Tennant himself claimed to be up for it, having heard about the petition.
This episode takes place in summer but was actually filmed in January. Concerns over the fact that the actors' breath was sometimes visible (most notably in the scene where the neighbors are yelling at each other in the middle of the street) prompted the inclusion of the Doctor's line at the beginning referencing the cold and wondering if someone was sucking the heat out.
While they haven't dismissed the episode as being outright bad, David Tennant, Russell T. Davies and Euros Lyn have all gone on record as admitting that the episode could have been a lot better, and was hurt by a lack of budget and rushed writing and filming schedules.
This episode replaced a submission called "The 1920s" by Stephen Fry. It was abandoned when Fry was unavailable for rewrites and due to budgetary concerns.
When Matthew Graham was asked about the poor response to this episode during an interview that tied in with his later return to the series several years later, Graham flatly replied that he honestly couldn't have cared less whether or not the show's hardcore fans liked the episode, and that he wrote it for children first and foremost. "It was only later that I realised that the older fans had reacted badly to it, so I went, 'Well, it's a shame that they have, but it wasn't meant for them".