Miriam Margolyes and Neil Patrick Harris guest starred as the voice of the Meep and the Toymaker, respectively, alongside returning cast members Jacqueline King, Karl Collins, Bernard Cribbins (in his final role), Jemma Redgrave, and Bonnie Langford, as well as newcomers Ruth Madeley, Yasmin Finney, and Ncuti Gatwa, the latter of whom making his debut as the Fifteenth Doctor, who would star in the fourteenth series.

[8] "The Star Beast" saw Jacqueline King and Karl Collins reprise their roles as Donna's mother Sylvia Noble and husband Shaun Temple, respectively, having last appeared in the final story of Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor, "The End of Time".

[21] Davies was joined by the Bad Wolf production company, which was founded by fellow former Doctor Who executive producer Julie Gardner and former BBC head of drama Jane Tranter.

In December 2021, around two years ahead of broadcast, Davies confirmed that he had "already written some of the episodes", and told the Radio Times in February 2022 that he was finding "brand new ways of telling stories that have never been done before".

[45] The first special is based on the 1980 comic strip Doctor Who and the Star Beast, written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, with art by Dave Gibbons.

[47] Davies chose to adapt from the comic due to it being "an enormously fun adventure, with an edge and a serious threat", and believed it was time "to take one of the best Doctor Who stories from another medium... and show that to millions of people".

Davies admitted in The Official Doctor Who Podcast that this approach could have "had an unfortunate effect", and that the audience might have been "expecting Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi and the ghost of William Hartnell riding on the back of the Garm on board this spaceship".

[53][54] Davies also wanted this story to utilise the bigger budget, and "make the production team break out into a cold sweat"; this was applied with the use of body horror by the Not-Things and the virtual spaceship corridor.

[51][55][56] The story features references to the Flux and the Timeless Child, plot threads from the Thirteenth Doctor's era, as Davies was keen on acknowledging "the brilliant work Chris [Chibnall, former showrunner] did and to say that's absolutely part of our history as well".

Davies described the Toymaker as "an unashamedly supernatural character", and the fantasy elements of this villain create "a whole new world for Doctor Who... a very big step the whole programme is about to take".

[66] Tennant described his new costume as "a kiss to the past, and a nod to the future",[66] and thought it was important that he wore something that "still had the same flavour", but also gave the impression that "this isn't quite the same story that we were telling [before]".

[67] Downe was tasked with designing four different costumes for the Toymaker in "The Giggle", consisting of the shopkeeper in the 1920s toy shop, the French showman on the modern-day streets, the American bandleader in the "Spice Up Your Life" sequence, and the World War I pilot on the UNIT helipad.

[72] Davies revealed in a video commentary for "The Giggle" that the production team had filmed a shot of the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble "hanging out of the TARDIS" as it travelled through the time vortex.

[74] A new TARDIS interior set also debuted in the first special, designed by Phil Sims, who had previously worked on films such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The script described the new interior as a "huge hemisphere ... the shape of the Tenth Doctor's Tardis - ramps & gantries leading to a central six-sided console... but white".

[78] Sims described the original concept art as "hard, metal, almost concrete" and "sinister", which Davies thought "looked like a bunker, or a baddie's lair".

[89] Due to its unique technical challenges, Kingsley initially believed the script would be "an absolute nightmare" to direct, and was planning to turn down the offer.

[106] Tennant and Tate were scanned by a 360° full body capture rig consisting of 204 cameras to create the hyper-realistic giant hands and limbs that would be used as prosthetics by the actors during filming.

[109][110] Due to failing health, Cribbins's role as Wilfred Mott was reduced, however, he was able to film one last appearance for the ending of "Wild Blue Yonder", his final performance before his death on 27 July 2022.

[94] Ultimately, the team settled on a blend of prosthetics and CGI; a practical, animatronic costume was created by Millennium FX for the shoot, with digital effects added in post-production.

[114] Painting Practice, a design studio that had worked previously on His Dark Materials and Black Mirror, completed world-building and visual development on all three specials, starting with "The Star Beast"; which required "VFX asset creation, set extensions and previsualisation" of the Meep's flight deck and its escape pod, as well as the "fiery 'London Cracking' phenomenon" when the city is being destroyed.

This meant that using the virtual software Mo-Sys, a "physical green screen shoot" could be conducted with in-camera CGI footage, used for "on set camera tracking" and creating "instant post vis and a guide for the actor".

[123] In post-production, Realtime were tasked with creating "a corresponding high detail version" of the original asset used in the shoot for the "final background renders", removing static lighting, adjusting the textures, and animating the walls and buttresses.

In post-production, Automatik VFX were tasked with completing various effects sequences, including realising the puppets of Stooky Bill's family and Charles Banerjee, the collapsing corridor in the toy shop, and the bi-generation.

[128][129] The specials feature a new version of the theme tune, which was performed live by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as part of Doctor Who @ 60: A Musical Celebration, and released officially on 12 October 2023.

[136] On 7 March 2023, it was announced that Tennant, who was the main presenter of Comic Relief 2023, would appear during a sketch in the telethon in the Fourteenth Doctor's costume to promote the specials.

[158][159][160] To mark the day of the 60th anniversary on 23 November 2023, a water-based projection was launched during after-dark hours on Cardiff Bay, which displayed several iconic villains and characters from across the show's 60-year history.

[167] The second special, "Wild Blue Yonder", ended with a dedication to Bernard Cribbins, who died in July 2022 and made his final television appearance as Wilfred Mott.

[190][191] Spanning the anniversary period, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a series of My Life in a Mixtape episodes with several former and current Doctor Who cast members, including Peter Davison, Nicholas Briggs, Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Janet Fielding, Sophie Aldred and Ruth Madeley, as well as former composer Segun Akinola.

Ryan Woodrow from Men's Journal described the specials as having revitalised the show, including fan-favourite elements from its later 2000s era while also pushing its narrative forward.