Amy distracts Rory while he's helping the Doctor repair the TARDIS, causing the time machine to materialise inside itself. Time and space start to behave in unpredictable ways, and the three travellers realise that they may be trapped within the ship for all eternity.

The Comic Relief charity appeal was created in 1985 by writer Richard Curtis -- later to script Vincent And The Doctor for Season Thirty-One -- and comedian Lenny Henry as a way to combat famine in Africa. Its remit was subsequently expanded to assist various disadvantaged communities. Beginning in 1988, the highlight of Comic Relief was the BBC's broadcast of the Red Nose Day telethon, which ran biennially from 1989. Over the years, Doctor Who had occasionally played a prominent role in Red Nose Day, even during the period when the programme was no longer in production. This was the case in 1999, when future executive producer Steven Moffat wrote a four-part Doctor Who comedy serial entitled The Curse Of Fatal Death for that year's Red Nose Day. The affectionate spoof introduced incarnations of the Doctor played by luminaries Rowan Atkinson, Richard E Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley.

Given the phenomenal popularity which Doctor Who enjoyed after its return to the airwaves in 2005, its association with Red Nose Day took on a renewed importance. As such, the 2007 edition reunited the stars of The Runaway Bride, the previous year's Doctor Who Christmas special. It saw Catherine Tate reprise her Lauren Cooper schoolgirl character from The Catherine Tate Show, opposite David Tennant as a substitute teacher who bore more than a just a physical resemblance to the Tenth Doctor. Next, the 2009 Red Nose Day included From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love..., a special mini-episode of spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The narrative took place in the immediate aftermath of The Impossible Astronaut / Day Of The Moon

In 2010, Doctor Who was invited to be part of the following year's edition of Red Nose Day. At the time, it was planned that several short scenes would be made by director Richard Senior to appear as special features on the DVD release for Season Thirty-Two. Their general thrust would be to depict what happened in the TARDIS in-between adventures. As part of this work, it was agreed that a brief two-part story would be filmed for Red Nose Day. Moffat would write the script himself, for Senior to direct. Moffat conceived the narrative as taking place in the immediate aftermath of The Impossible Astronaut / Day Of The Moon, the opening story of Season Thirty-Two, despite the fact that Red Nose Day would be broadcast more than a month before the new season premiered.

Space / Time was filmed on August 10th, 2010 on the standing TARDIS set at Doctor Who's usual studio facilities in Upper Boat. It was recorded immediately after work had concluded on the 2010 Christmas special, A Christmas Carol; afterwards, there would be a six-week hiatus before production began on Season Thirty-Two. The broadcast of Space / Time during Red Nose Day on March 18th, 2011 helped raise more than seventy-four million pounds.

• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #29, 14th December 2011, “Comic Relief 2011: Space & Time” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.