"Partners in Crime" marked the debut of Donna Noble, as played by Catherine Tate, as a full-time companion to the Tenth Doctor, after she first appeared in the 2006 Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride".

A short Children in Need special titled "Time Crash" was also produced and set before "Voyage of the Damned", as well as a mini-episode entitled "Music of the Spheres", which premiered at the Doctor Who Prom after the fourth series finale in July 2008.

[4] In the Christmas special, Australian actress and singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue starred as one-time companion Astrid Peth, who died during the events of the episode.

[10][11] Recurring guest stars for the series included Bernard Cribbins and Jacqueline King as Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott and mother Sylvia Noble.

[11] Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Tommy Knight also starred in the finale in their respective roles of Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and Luke Smith from spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

[11] This marked their first appearances in Doctor Who itself, although Eve Myles had previously featured in "The Unquiet Dead" as a direct ancestor of Gwen called Gwyneth.

[17] The fourth series featured a large number of high-profile stars such as Kylie Minogue (Astrid Peth in "Voyage of the Damned"),[5] Alex Kingston and Steve Pemberton (River Song and Strackman Lux respectively in "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead"),[18][19] Sarah Lancashire (Miss Foster in "Partners in Crime"),[4] and Phil Davis and Peter Capaldi (Lucius and Caecillus respectively in "The Fires of Pompeii").

[20][21] Other guest stars included Sasha Behar,[21] Tracey Childs, Karen Gillan, Phil Cornwell, Tim McInnerny,[22]Adrian Rawlins, Ayesha Dharker, Christopher Ryan,[7] Georgia Moffett (daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and later wife of David Tennant),[9] Nigel Terry,[9] Felicity Kendal,[23] Fenella Woolgar,[23] Felicity Jones,[23] Tom Goodman-Hill,[23] Christopher Benjamin (who had previously portrayed Henry Gordon Jago in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"), Colin Salmon,[18] Harry Peacock, Talulah Riley, O-T Fagbenle, Lesley Sharp,[13] Colin Morgan,[13] Lindsey Coulson,[13] David Troughton (son of Second Doctor actor Patrick Troughton),[13] Noma Dumezweni, and Chipo Chung (who had previously portrayed Chantho in "Utopia").

"[28] The article also identified the title of episode 9 as "River's Run", as did the press release for the subsequent issue of Doctor Who Magazine, but this was changed a few days afterwards to "Forest of the Dead".

In addition, a mini-episode entitled "Music of the Spheres" was shot on 3 May 2008[30] for series 4 and was premiered at the Doctor Who Prom on 27 July 2008, with the audio being broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 3.

First-time writers for the programme included James Moran, co-writer of the 2006 horror film Severance,[21] and Keith Temple, who had written episodes of Byker Grove and Casualty.

[4] Tom MacRae had written an episode for this series, entitled "Century House",[34] but this was replaced after Russell T Davies decided that it was too close in tone to Gareth Roberts' "The Unicorn and the Wasp".

[45] The tenth production block – consisting of 2008 Christmas special "The Next Doctor" and the BBC Proms "cutaway" scene "Music of the Spheres" — completed recording on 3 May.

[30] Production blocks were arranged as follows:[46] On 1 February 2008, the BBC announced that, in a partnership with Carlton Screen Advertising, a 90-second film trailer of the fourth series would be shown in cinemas across Britain "before the most anticipated new releases".

[80] Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy gave the series four out of five stars, stating that "a winning mixture of elation and poignancy ensured that the season achieved a great tonal balance where neither light nor dark was allowed to fully overwhelm the other".

He further praised the cast and crew as a whole, complimenting "the excellent guest stars, the impressive set designs, the sharp direction and the detailed creature makeup".

[84] Selected pieces of score from this series (from "Voyage of the Damned" to "Journey's End"), as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 17 November 2008 by Silva Screen Records.