- 9 months ago
It's the Trickster's world, the Doctor is just living in it. Here’s our breakdown of Doctor Who Season 1's second episode - The Devil's Chord!
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00:00Hello everybody, Ellie here for WhoCulture and I am coming to you with the easter eggs from The Devil's Court.
00:07Now we've already put a video out with all the easter eggs that we found in Space Babies
00:11and now I do finally have the easter eggs for you for The Devil's Court, so let's get straight into them.
00:17Number 23. So, the very opening of this episode takes place in 1925.
00:24Now that is the same year that The Giggle opened
00:26and that is also the year that we first met Neil Patrick Harris' Toymaker.
00:31So clearly 1925 is kind of some sort of nexus point for all of these god-like beings
00:36and Russell T. Davis himself in some of the behind-the-scenes material suggested that 1925 is when the gods were kind of set loose into this universe.
00:46So I wouldn't be surprised if we revisit 1925 again in some future episodes.
00:52Now it does make sense though, doesn't it, that The Toymaker started in 1925 and therefore so did Maestro.
00:58I wonder how many other gods we're going to meet and if they're all going to begin in 1925.
01:03Number 22. So in that cold open, we meet Timothy Drake, who is the piano teacher for Harbinger or Henry Harbinger.
01:12This character is played by Jerry Lim.
01:14Now he's an accomplished musician in his own right, but he's actually connected to Doctor Who.
01:19So beyond being a self-proclaimed lifelong fan of Doctor Who, his dad, Roger Lim, was actually a composer who worked on Doctor Who back in the 1980s.
01:30And he was actually responsible for some of the music that was heard in Four to Doomsday, Black Orchid and The Caves of Androzani, amongst other stories as well.
01:38So it's really nice to see that kind of familial connection still continuing in the legacy of Doctor Who, even if he didn't last very long.
01:45Number 21. So we're on the topic of Timothy Drake.
01:48When he plays the Devil's Chord, the piano slams shut.
01:52Whether this was intentional or not from Russell T. Davis, I don't know, but there were four knocks from within the piano.
02:02There were other moments where there were more than four knocks, but there was a distinct moment where there were four knocks.
02:08David Tennant, wherever you are in the world, I think you should run.
02:11So in case you don't know, he will knock four times was kind of like this prophecy that was told to the Tenth Doctor that suggested that his life was coming to an end.
02:21And when he knocks four times, he would then die.
02:24Those four knocks here definitely made my mind go, uh-oh.
02:28Now obviously given the significance of those four knocks for Russell T. Davis' era as showrunner the first time round, surely this was intentional.
02:36I mean maybe it wasn't, maybe there was no direction, but it also isn't impossible to imagine that the script actually said Maestro knocks four times.
02:44I guess we'll never know.
02:45Or maybe we will when we eventually get to see the script pages.
02:47Number 20.
02:49So Henry passes Mr Timothy Drake his book that has the list of students he is going to be teaching that day.
02:56And obviously we see Henry Arbinger change to Harbinger, but there's some other names in that book.
03:02Now at least two of those names belong to actual crew members on the set of Doctor Who.
03:07So Charlie Shelley is credited as petty cash buyer, and Stephen Fielding is credited as graphic designer.
03:14Now the other two names, Robert Owens and David Hangley, we couldn't find those in the credits, but that doesn't mean that they weren't also members of the crew.
03:23They may have just been uncredited members of the crew, or people that crew members knew, friends or family members, that they thought it'd be fun to just add their names in.
03:32Number 19.
03:32So a little bit later in the episode, we have the Doctor and Ruby get all dressed up in their 60s gear, and they step out of the TARDIS, and they walk across the famous Abbey Road crossing.
03:43Now most people will recognise this crossing from the Beatles album cover for Abbey Road from 1969, but it's actually not the first time that it has appeared within the Hooniverse as well.
03:55So while they were promoting Series 9 back in 2015, yeah that's right folks, Series 9 was almost a decade ago.
04:01When they were doing the promotional things for that series, Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman did their own little version of the Abbey Road cover.
04:09And they also had some Daleks with them as well, in place of the other two Beatles.
04:13Also, there's a big Finnish audio called 1963 Fanfare for the Common Men, and the cover for that is also an homage to the Abbey Road cover.
04:23And this time it features the Fifth Doctor.
04:26Number 18.
04:27So we go inside Abbey Road Studios, and behind the Doctor on the wall there are some posters.
04:33And one of those is for John Smith and the Common Men.
04:37Now John Smith and the Common Men was a band referenced all the way back in the very first episode of Doctor Who ever aired in 1963, An Unearthly Child.
04:45And was mentioned by the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan.
04:49It's John Smith and the Common Men, they've gone from 19 to 2.
04:52Now, we have quite a few Susan connections.
04:55We've mentioned one in Space Babies, I've got a few more to come later on.
04:59Definitely something going on with Susan here, I would say.
05:01Number 17.
05:02Speaking of Susan, a different Susan here, or is it?
05:05We have another Susan Twist cameo, this time as a Tea Lady.
05:09Now, obviously, we've had multiple cameos or multiple appearances from Susan Twist at this point.
05:15We've had Mrs. Meridue, we've had the woman in the pub, and we had Gina Scalzi in Space Babies as well.
05:21And then here we have the Tea Lady.
05:22But what's interesting about this particular appearance is one of the lines that she says.
05:27When the Doctor says that the price of the cup of tea is daylight robbery, she says,
05:31Margaret Lockwood in The Wicked Lady, that's me, or something to that effect.
05:36Now, The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film that starred Margaret Lockwood.
05:41She played a character called Barbara Worth.
05:43And in that film, she impersonates a highway robber.
05:47And then later on, comes face to face with the person she's impersonating,
05:52and they kind of form this very untrusting relationship.
05:54But there's lots of themes of impersonation within this film.
05:58So it does make us wonder if there is relevance to that with regards to Susan Twist's character.
06:05Now, obviously, she's playing all these different characters,
06:08so there's maybe an element of impersonation there.
06:11But is this perhaps a suggestion this character is hiding who they truly are?
06:16Or are they pretending to be someone,
06:18and then are they going to come face to face with the person they're pretending to be?
06:21It was just a very interesting choice of reference to make here.
06:25I mean, it could literally have just been a time-appropriate reference to make for the 60s setting,
06:31and it literally was just a comment on the price of the cup of tea.
06:34But it also might not be.
06:36Number 16.
06:37So the Doctor and Ruby later on, they head on up to the roof,
06:40and the Doctor tells Ruby that he lives nearby in Shoreditch in a junkyard on Totter's Lane.
06:46Or rather, he currently lives there.
06:49Basically, it's a bit confusing because he's currently stood here, but he's also over there.
06:52Timelines wibbly-wobbly.
06:54So as the 15th Doctor explains,
06:56William Hartnell's first Doctor landed the TARDIS in a junkyard on Totter's Lane in 1963,
07:02and that was in the very first episode of Doctor Who and Unearthly Child, as I previously mentioned.
07:06So obviously, this is where Doctor Who began.
07:08It's where the first Doctor met his first companions,
07:12and they left to go on these wild adventures.
07:14It wasn't a very subtle reference.
07:15Obviously, he blatantly said it out loud, but it was a reference nonetheless.
07:19I live over there.
07:21You do what?
07:22I live over there.
07:23Number 15.
07:24So within this little conversation, we also have the mention of Susan.
07:29So another Susan connection here.
07:31And he says that he doesn't know what happened to her.
07:33And then he also goes on to say that all the Time Lords were murdered.
07:36But it's actually a little bit unclear as to which event where Time Lords were suffering he's referring to.
07:41So he does say there was a genocide across time and space.
07:44So potentially, that's a reference to the Time War, which obviously was waged across the entire universe.
07:50Now, obviously, Gallifrey was saved by the Doctor later on, and that all became a complicated situation.
07:56But who knows?
07:58She might have been killed in battle.
07:59The timelines of things do get a little bit confusing.
08:02He could also be referring to Flux, which did destroy a good portion of the universe.
08:07Or it could be a reference to the Master's destruction of Gallifrey in Series 12,
08:13and then the use of the death particle, which wiped out all organic life on Gallifrey.
08:18So there's a few options there as to which moment the Doctor's referring to in terms of the genocide of the Time Lords.
08:24But either way, the Doctor seems to think that Susan might be dead.
08:27Which is a very good...
08:29It's not very good.
08:30Let me rephrase that.
08:32It's perfectly primed, then, for us to get a surprise return of Susan later on.
08:36Especially if the Doctor thinks she's dead, it will be really wonderful to see that reunion between them
08:41if he has no idea that it is even possible.
08:45Number 14.
08:46So while they're on the roof, the Doctor asks Ruby to play a song on the piano to bring music back into the world.
08:52To bring the joy of music back into the world.
08:54And the music that Ruby starts to play, she says, is a song she wrote for her friend Trudy after a girl broke her heart.
09:00Now, we have met Trudy in the church on Ruby Road.
09:04She was the singer in Ruby's band who were playing in the pub on the 22nd of December 2023.
09:09Now, there has been a little bit of speculation that the girl who broke Trudy's heart might actually have been Ruby.
09:16Especially when you consider the emotion that's in this piece of music.
09:20It definitely feels like something that's come from the heart.
09:23Also, just a bonus little tidbit here.
09:25The music that Ruby is actually playing is actually Ruby's theme.
09:29It's called The Life of Ruby Sunday.
09:31It's composed by Murray Gold.
09:33And non-diegetically, that is Ruby's theme tune.
09:35So it gets very meta.
09:37Number 13.
09:38We have a cameo from a classic Doctor Who crew member.
09:42So the old woman who hears Ruby playing on the piano and then is subsequently killed by maestro after she starts playing music on her own piano.
09:50That is June Hudson.
09:51And June Hudson was a costume designer who worked during the Tom Baker era during the 1970s and the early 1980s.
10:00And this isn't actually the first time that June Hudson has been involved in New Who.
10:04So she actually auditioned for the role of Mrs. Pitt in Mummy on the Orient Express.
10:09But scheduling conflicts meant that she actually couldn't play that part.
10:12But she did have a minor role in the very short-lived spin-off class.
10:17But this is her first on-screen appearance in Doctor Who.
10:21Number 12.
10:21So when maestro emerges from within that piano, we hear a very familiar laugh.
10:27And that is the giggle.
10:28So the giggle was the sound that was secretly embedded in all screens around the world by the Toymaker.
10:38And it turned humanity mad when it was unleashed in the modern day.
10:41And it was the laugh of the Toymaker.
10:44And as a child of the Toymaker, it's not necessarily that surprising that maestro has this in common with their dad.
10:51Number 11.
10:52So the Doctor then mentions a bit later on that maestro must be part of the Pantheon.
10:57The Pantheon of Discord was a group of sinister god-like beings that were mentioned in the Sarah Jane Adventures.
11:04Now the Trickster, who was a villain that was very prominent in the Sarah Jane Adventures, who was manipulating lots of timelines, he is a member of the Pantheon.
11:12Now assuming that maestro and the Toymaker are also members of the Pantheon, it does make you wonder if maybe we're going to see the Trickster in Doctor Who.
11:22This is something that a lot of Sarah Jane Adventure fans have been hoping for, because the Trickster is a really great villain.
11:29And to see him appear in the main show would really be something special.
11:33Number 10.
11:34So Ruby thinks that the Earth can't be destroyed in 1963, because A, she's still alive, and B, she knows that music still exists in her time.
11:43So to prove that time can be rewritten, the Doctor takes her to the present, to June 2024, and shows her that the world has been completely destroyed.
11:51This is a reference to a very similar moment in the fourth Doctor serial, Pyramids of Mars, where Sarah Jane Smith asks the Doctor to leave the year 1911 and return to 1980.
12:04But the Doctor says that he can't, because the powerful villain Sutek could destroy the world.
12:09And then Sarah Jane replies that Sutek didn't destroy the world in 1911, because, well, she's from the future and all is well in the future.
12:16And in response, the Doctor takes her to 1980, and the Earth is a wasteland.
12:21Now, Russell T. Davis did say that they've been trying to do a sequence like this in New Who since 2005, and only now were they able to actually pull it off.
12:30I mean, it did look pretty cool.
12:32Number 9.
12:33So after we've had the Earth destroyed in the future part, we have Maestro appear, and in this conversation, Maestro calls the Doctor timey-wimey.
12:42Now, obviously, we are all familiar that timey-wimey is a phrase that was said quite often by the Tenth Doctor.
12:47It was first said in the episode Blink, when he said things were wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.
12:53More like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
12:59But it's quite meta here, because this is, again, something that Maestro seems to know, and you don't understand quite how Maestro knows, and it's all very confusing.
13:10Number 8.
13:11And then right after we hear timey-wimey, Maestro plays a few notes of the Doctor Who theme tune on the piano, and that is then followed by something that you might not have realised was actually a distorted version of the theme tune.
13:25Oh, honey, I don't think so.
13:27So, again, it gets very, very meta. This sends the TARDIS into a little frenzy. The TARDIS goes crazy, and all bad things happen.
13:36But, again, that's twice in this episode that Maestro has played the Doctor Who theme tune.
13:41You know, you're very confused as to what's going on. Are you in the reality of Doctor Who? Are we in our reality? What is going on?
13:48There's so many fourth-wall breaks, and moments like this are like, what?
13:52Number 7. So, when we go back to 1963, the Doctor and Ruby step out of the TARDIS, and the Doctor says,
13:58Haryama, which is Turkish for, come on.
14:02And this is very reminiscent of the Tenth Doctor saying, Allons-y, which is French for, let's go.
14:07And it's just nice to pick up this theme of the Doctor having this phrase in a different language that kind of just,
14:12let's do it, come on, let's go. And I thought that was very, very nice to see.
14:16Number 6. So, as we mentioned, Maestro is the child of the Toymaker.
14:23Now, many of you probably noticed this, but Maestro's final outfit, the third outfit Maestro wears in this episode,
14:29bears a very striking resemblance to the outfit worn by the Toymaker in The Giggle,
14:34or one of the outfits worn by the Toymaker in The Giggle.
14:36And this was intentionally designed that way.
14:39It also looks quite similar to one of the outfits worn by one of the Toymaker's playthings
14:44in the original first Doctor serial, The Celestial Toymaker.
14:48So, again, there was a nice little nod to the Toymaker of now and the Toymaker of the 60s in the design of this costume.
14:55Number 5. So, after defeating Maestro, the Doctor and Ruby, they go back onto the roof
15:00so that they can hear all the music returned to the world.
15:03And the camera pans around, and we see a billboard for Chris Waits and the carolers.
15:08So, you remember earlier when we mentioned John Smith and the common men?
15:12Well, as explained by companion Ian Chesterton back in that very first episode in 1963,
15:17John Smith is actually the stage name of a musician called Aubrey Waits,
15:22who started his career in the group Chris Waits and the carolers.
15:26Could mean nothing but Chris Waits and the carolers.
15:30So, the one who waits, and what song is deep inside Ruby's soul?
15:37Carol of the Bells.
15:39Is there a connection to Ruby here somehow?
15:40Is there a connection to Ruby that's been formed from something all the way back in the very first episode of Doctor Who ever?
15:46I wouldn't be surprised.
15:48Number 4. So, during the final dance number, we can see a few dancers doing a very specific twist move.
15:55So, if this rings a bell, it might be because it was famously performed by Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's iconic movie Pulp Fiction,
16:04during the scene where she and John Travolta take part in the dance contest.
16:08Now, according to Tarantino, he got the idea for Thurman to do a twist like this from the Disney animation classic The Aristocats,
16:15specifically from some of the moves that are pulled by Duchess during the number Everybody Wants to Be a Cat.
16:21And in the behind-the-scenes material for this episode, the choreographer for this dance number actually mentions all sorts of reference points for his choreography.
16:31And one of those is the Blues Brothers, and the other is John Travolta.
16:34So, I don't doubt for a second that Pulp Fiction was in the back of his mind when he was creating this dance sequence.
16:41Number 3. We have more cameos in this episode.
16:44And this time, it is Doctor Who composer Murray Gold, and he can be briefly spotted sat at the piano during this last musical number.
16:52Now, obviously, Murray Gold is the current composer for Doctor Who, but he was also the composer between 2005 and 2017.
16:59And it's really great to see him back, and it's also really great to see him actually on screen for a change.
17:04Number 2. We have even more cameos, because there are two people that Ruby and the Doctor stopped to have a little dance break with,
17:11and that is Shirley Ballas and Johannes Rodebe, and they are famous dancers who can be seen on Strictly Come Dancing.
17:19Now, obviously, if you're going to have a dance number in Doctor Who, it makes perfect sense for Russell to be like,
17:23you know who I'm going to call? I'm going to call those folks over on Strictly Come Dancing.
17:27And we know that Strictly and Doctor Who have often shared the kind of evening slots on the BBC on Saturday evenings,
17:34so that was quite nice to just see that little crossover there.
17:37And number 1. At the very end of the episode, we have Ruby and the Doctor dancing on the Abbey Road zebra crossing like it's a piano.
17:45And this was almost definitely inspired by a very similar scene in the Tom Hanks film Big,
17:51where Tom Hanks' character dances on this huge piano in a toy shop,
17:56and in both cases, the keys actually light up as they jump on them.
17:59So it's a very, very good scene in Big. It's a very underrated film, actually.
18:04So if you haven't seen Big, I would definitely suggest you go and watch it.
18:08And that's all the Easter eggs that we managed to spot in this episode.
18:11If you spotted one that we've missed, then do let us know in the comments down below.
18:15And stick around to make sure that you've tapped the notification bell,
18:17because we'll have content just like this coming out for every new episode of Season 1.
18:22In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.