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A single 60 minute episode inadvertently paved the way for Doctor Who's bright future.
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00:00We can all probably name 10 or 15 massively important Doctor Who episodes off the top of our
00:05head, right? I mean, my mind goes straight to Silence in the Library for obvious reasons and
00:10stuff like An Unearthly Child and Rose. But there are plenty of more unassuming episodes that are
00:16very important too. For instance, The Deadly Assassin is considered by many to be the first
00:21cultural work to use the word Matrix to refer to a virtual reality years before it was popularised
00:27by William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. It's possible to give many episodes of Doctor Who a new level of
00:34importance by framing them in the context of the time in which they were broadcast. Or, in the case
00:40of One Story, how a repeat viewing changed the course of the show's future. I'm Ellie for Who Culture and
00:45here are 10 Doctor Who episodes more important than you realised.
00:49Number 10. The Next Doctor. Building on the response to David Tennant's announcement that he was leaving
00:55Doctor Who, The Next Doctor was a tremendous bit of misdirection from Russell T. Davis. David
01:01Morrissey was not David Tennant's replacement, but was instead Jackson Lake, a man who believed he was
01:07the Doctor after an accident with an info stamp. Which brings us to the importance of The Next Doctor
01:12in the history of Doctor Who. Because while we'd seen sketches of previous incarnations in John
01:18Smith's Journal of Impossible Things in Human Nature, we'd never seen any actual footage. And so it was that
01:24upon activating the info stamp, footage of the first eight classic Doctors, plus Eccleston and Tennant,
01:30appeared on TV on Christmas Day 2008. While we'd had it confirmed time and time again that New Who
01:37was a continuation, it was thrilling to have the lineage displayed for all to see. The Next Doctor
01:42was the last episode of Doctor Who to be filmed in standard definition. From the planet of the dead
01:47onwards, it was shot in HD and now, years later, UHD. To fit alongside the other 2009 specials,
01:53The Next Doctor was the first Doctor Who episode to be upscaled to high definition. Another feather
01:59in its cap of importance. Number 9. The Rescue. Vicky is technically the third Doctor Who companion,
02:06but there's a case to be made that she's the one who defines the role in The Rescue. Susan was the
02:11Doctor's granddaughter, so she doesn't really count, while Ian and Barbara were kidnapped. They became a
02:16close family unit over the course of their travels, but there were a few teething problems. No such
02:21problems with Vicky, though, who is the first person to actually be invited to travel in the TARDIS by
02:26the Doctor. Missing his granddaughter, who departed in the previous serial, the Doctor meets and rescues
02:32the young orphan, who will become his next companion. The Rescue establishes Doctor Who's core ideas of
02:38the title character as a lonely god, seeking someone to share the universe with. It's far more subtle here,
02:43but all the elements are in place over 40 years before Russell T. Davis would make it the show's
02:48core ethos. This means that The Rescue, a diverting enough two-parter, involving a murder mystery on a
02:54crashed spaceship, is much more important to the history of Doctor Who than it initially seems.
02:59Number 8. Dimensions in Time. Sure, there are doubts over whether 1993's charity sketch Dimensions
03:07in Time is canon, but what else was the seventh Doctor referring to when he mentioned the Rani in Tales
03:13of the TARDIS. But aside from now being canonically the beginning of Ace's final regular adventure,
03:18Dimensions in Time represents a notable technological first for Doctor Who. That's because it was the
03:24first Doctor Who story to be shot in 3D. It's worth pointing out that this was part of a wider gimmick
03:29deployed by Children in Need in 1993, but Doctor Who was the show that best fit the format. On the
03:35original broadcast, a little icon would pop up in the corner of the screen, instructing viewers to put
03:40on the 3D glasses they got from the front of the Radio Times, so that they could be dazzled by the
03:45nightmarish floating heads of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. It's obviously far more
03:50primitive than the technology used to realise the day of the Doctor's eye-popping 3D sequences,
03:55but that doesn't stop it being the first Doctor Who story to use it. So that's 3D for the 30th
04:01anniversary and the 50th anniversary. Uh, 4DX screening for the 70th anniversary, anyone?
04:07Number 7. Fear Her. It's easy to miss, but the moment in Fear Her, when the 10th Doctor says,
04:14I was a dad once, is the first time modern Doctor Who confirms that the Doctor was a parent. You could
04:20say that it's the first time this fact has been confirmed in the entire history of Doctor Who.
04:25Despite the Doctor being a confirmed grandfather in Doctor Who's very first episode, some fans and
04:3080s producer John Nathan Turner were uncomfortable about the idea of the Doctor, um, procreating,
04:36shall we say. To that end, then-script editor Eric Sayward wrote Birth of a Renegade for the Radio
04:42Times 20th anniversary special in 1983. The non-canon story revealed that Susan was actually
04:48a descendant of Rassilon, given shelter in the TARDIS by the Doctor during a bloody uprising on
04:54Gallifrey. Hang on, so, wait, grandfather was just a nickname? What's wrong with offhandedly
04:59mentioning that the Doctor was once a parent and then quickly moving on before you have to consider
05:03William Hartnell a sexual being? Uh-huh. You've all got it in your head now too, haven't you?
05:08But point being, it worked for Fear Her. The 10th Doctor would once again state that he used to be
05:12a father in The Doctor's Daughter, confirming his offhand comment in Fear Her and putting any doubt
05:18to bed. Number 6. The Crotons. The Crotons is seen as something of a nadia for the Patrick
05:24Troughton era of Doctor Who, but there are two reasons why it's an important serial in the overall
05:29history of the show. In November 1981, The Crotons were selected to represent the second Doctor in
05:35The Five Faces of Doctor Who on BBC2. This series of repeat stories was a way to keep fans occupied
05:41while they waited for the proper debut of Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in January 1982. The reason
05:48that The Crotons was chosen was because it was the only complete four-part Patrick Troughton serial
05:53in the archives at the time. Thankfully, much more of his era has resurfaced in the years that
05:58followed. The other big reason that The Crotons is so important to the history of Doctor Who is
06:02that it was the debut serial from Robert Holmes, who would go on to bigger and better things.
06:07Holmes' tenure as script editor marks an undisputed golden age of Doctor Who between 1975 and 1977.
06:14Holmes is also responsible for much of the Gallifreyan and Time Lord mythology that still
06:19defines the show in 2024, and it's all thanks to his inauspicious start scripting The Crotons.
06:24Number 5. The Power of the Doctor
06:27The Power of the Doctor regenerated Jodie Whittaker back into David Tennant, celebrated 100 years of
06:34the BBC, and brought back almost all of the surviving classic Doctors, along with multiple
06:39companions, most notably Tegan and Ace. So it's already a pretty important Doctor Who story.
06:45However, it was also the very first Doctor Who story to air after the death of Queen Elizabeth II,
06:51marking a whole new era for the UK. She had reigned for every single bit of Doctor Who up to that point,
06:57which speaks to both her and the show's incredibly long tenures.
07:01Rumoured to be a Doctor Who fan herself, the Queen is said to have received pre-released DVD copies of
07:07episodes, leading to the wild rumour that Prince William is hoarding missing episodes.
07:11In just her first decade on the throne after her coronation in June 1953,
07:16the Queen reigned over one of the UK's most culturally important periods in recent memory.
07:21As well as Doctor Who, the 1960s saw the birth of Bond and the Beatles,
07:26cultural powerhouses that still define the United Kingdom's national identity to this day.
07:31Number 4. Underworld
07:33As you work your way through the Doctor Who Season 15 box set, it may be tempting to skip Underworld.
07:39It's long been derided as one of the low points in the Tom Baker era, due to its dreary story and
07:45over-reliance on green screen. However, the fact that Underworld is the first Doctor Who story to
07:50use virtual sets is just one of two reasons that it's more important than fans give it credit for.
07:56Sure, the colour separation overlay in Underworld is a perfect example of why innovations like
08:01The Volume are needed, but it stumbled so that Doctor Who in 2024 could fly.
08:06Underworld is also a fairly big Time Lord mythology episode, exploring why they established the
08:11non-intervention policy that the Doctor so regularly flouts. In the time after their war
08:16with the Great Vampires, the Time Lords involved themselves in the affairs of the wider galaxy.
08:21Opting to help the Minyans, they shared advanced technology that accidentally caused a nuclear war.
08:26Horrified at the consequences of their actions, the Time Lords vowed to merely observe the universe,
08:31never involving themselves in the affairs of other species. Until the Doctor came along.
08:36In the War Machines, the first Doctor finally returns to 1960s London, only to find strange
08:44things going on at the post office tower. It's the blueprint for the Unit era and RTD's own take
08:50on Doctor Who. But that's not the most important thing about the War Machines. As with a lot of
08:551960s Doctor Who, the War Machines were sent out to Commonwealth nations, including New Zealand,
09:00Australia and Nigeria. Many of these prints became the only existing copies when the BBC began junking
09:06their film cans. Over the years, many Doctor Who stories have been recovered from old broadcast
09:11stations in Commonwealth nations by people like Philip Morris. Before all of that, however,
09:16an Australian collector had acquired a print of the War Machines episode 2 at some point in the late
09:211960s to the early 1970s. This was years before the complete serial was discovered in Nigeria in
09:271984. That Australian print was returned to the BBC archives in the late 1970s, making The War Machines
09:34episode 2 the first of Doctor Who's many missing episodes to be returned from overseas.
09:402. The Runaway Bride
09:42On Christmas Day 2006, The Runaway Bride proved that Doctor Who could survive without Billy Piper's
09:48rose by introducing Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, an important moment in the history of the modern
09:54era. The Runaway Bride took on added significance in 2020 when it was the subject of one of Emily
10:00Cook's lockdown tweet-alongs. Rewatching her debut story had a real impact on Catherine Tate, who
10:05mentioned to Russell T. Davis how marvellous it would be to do more episodes as Donna. Tate then spoke to
10:11David Tennant, who predictably voiced a similar desire to return to Doctor Who. Russell T. Davis
10:16dutifully reported this news to the BBC, who were struggling to find a way to keep the show going.
10:21In fact, Chris Chibnall was so sure that the BBC would rest Doctor Who for a bit that he left the
10:26ending of The Power of the Doctor open-ended. To be clear, the Chibnall era did not kill Doctor Who.
10:31It was more that the BBC were out of options for a viable replacement showrunner. That was until a
10:36giant Welshman kicked open the doors of the BBC, offering them the way forward.
10:41If it hadn't been for a 15-year-old bit of television, then we may not have a brand new
10:45season of Doctor Who to come in 2024.
10:48Number 1. The Chase
10:50With the Beatles appearing in Doctor Who in Season 1, it's a good time to remind ourselves of their
10:56earliest connection with the show. In an incredible bit of irony, a clip of the Beatles performing
11:00Ticket to Ride on top of the Pops only exists because it's preserved in a bit of 1960s Doctor Who,
11:07one of the biggest victims of the BBC's notorious junking policy. The opening scenes of 1965's The
11:13Chase see the first Doctor introduce his companions to the time-space visualiser, which allows them to
11:19view moments from history like they were a TV programme. Basically, Rick and Morty's interdimensional
11:24cable before it was a thing. One of the sequences was some classical music, the Beatles performing live.
11:30The sequence was lifted from an episode of the BBC's Top of the Pops, which no longer exists in the
11:35archive, meaning that this little snippet is all that remains of the performance. However, if writer
11:40Terry Nation had his way, the clip wouldn't have been included at all. The original script for The
11:45Chase would have shown the Beatles in old man makeup performing at a 50th anniversary concert in the 21st
11:51century. Keen for the Beatles' young fans not to be put off by middle-aged versions of their idols,
11:56manager Brian Epstein turned down the offer, and the top of the Pops clip was used instead.
12:01And there you have it. But while we're on the topic of importance, why not check out 10 Doctor
12:06Who characters more important than you realised? In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture,
12:11and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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