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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
00:16them.
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's 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
00:43were 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
01:11Harbinger.
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
01:26worked 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
01:35The 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
01:44if he didn't last very long.
01:45Number 21. So while we're on the topic of Timothy Drake, when he plays the Devil's Chord, the piano slams
01:51shut.
01:52Whether this was intentional or not from Russell T. Davis, I don't know, but there were four knocks from within
01:58the piano.
02:02There were other moments where there were more than four knocks, but there was a distinct moment where there were
02:07four 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
02:17to 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,
02:34surely this was intentional.
02:35I mean, maybe it wasn't, maybe there was no direction, but it also isn't impossible to imagine that the script
02:41actually 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.
02:48Number 20. So Henry passes Mr. Timothy Drake his book that has the list of students he is going to
02:55be 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
03:20mean 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
03:29that they thought it'd be fun to just add their names in.
03:32Number 19. So a little bit later in the episode, we have the Doctor and Ruby get all dressed up
03:36in their 60s gear,
03:38and 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,
03:50but 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,
03:58yeah that's right folks, Series 9 was almost a decade ago,
04:01when they were doing the promotional things for that series,
04:04Peter 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,
04:19and 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. So we go inside Abbey Road Studios,
04:29and 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
04:41of Doctor Who,
04:42ever 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. Speaking 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,
05:17and we had Gina Scalzi in Space Babies as well.
05:21And then here we have the tea lady.
05:23But 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,
05:31she says,
05:31Margaret Lockwood in The Wicked Lady, that's me, or something to that effect.
05:35Now, The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film that starred Margaret Lockwood,
05:40and she 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?
06:13This 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 Totters 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.
06:53So as the 15th Doctor explains, William Hartnell's first Doctor landed the TARDIS in a junkyard on Totters Lane in
07:011963,
07:01and 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.
07:09It's where the first Doctor met his first companions, and 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, she 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, and then the use of
08:14the 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
08:23the Time Lords.
08:24But either way, the Doctor seems to think that Susan might be dead.
08:27Which is a very good...
08:29If not very good, let 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 if he
08:42has 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
08:51back 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
08:59a girl broke her heart.
09:01Now 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
09:15Ruby.
09:16Especially when you consider the emotion that's in this piece of music.
09:19It 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
09:48starts playing music on her own piano.
09:49That is June Hudson.
09:51And June Hudson was a costume designer who worked during the Tom Baker era, during the 1970s and the early
09:581980s.
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.
10:08But 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.
10:31So the giggle was the sound that was secretly embedded in all screens around the world by the toy maker.
10:37And it turned humanity mad when it was unleashed in the modern day.
10:41And it was the laugh of the toy maker.
10:44And as a child of the toy maker, it's not necessarily that surprising that Maestro has this in common with
10:50their 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
11:10of timelines, he is a member of the Pantheon.
11:12Now assuming that Maestro and the toy maker are also members of the Pantheon, it does make you wonder if
11:19maybe 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.
11:26Because the trickster is a really great villain, and to see him appear in the main show would really be
11:32something 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
11:41that 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
11:49her 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
11:59Smith 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
12:15all 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
12:262005, 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
12:40calls 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
12:47Doctor.
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
13:06how 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
13:18the piano, and that is then followed by something that you might not have realised was actually a distorted version
13:24of the theme tune.
13:25Oh, honey, I don't think so.
13:28So again, it gets very, very meta. This sends the TARDIS into a little frenzy. The TARDIS goes crazy, and
13:35all 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
13:45in 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
13:57Doctor 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
14:12kind of just, let's do it, come on, let's go.
14:14And I thought that was very, very nice to see.
14:18Number 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
14:54the 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.
15:09So 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.
15:33And what song is deep inside Ruby's soul?
15:37Carol of the Bells.
15:38Is there a connection to Ruby here somehow?
15:40Is there a connection to Ruby that's been formed from something all the way back
15:44in the very first episode of Doctor Who ever?
15:46I wouldn't be surprised.
15:48Number 4. So during the final dance number,
15:51we can see a few dancers doing a very specific twist move.
15:54So if this rings a bell, it might be because it was famously performed by Uma Thurman
16:00in Quentin Tarantino's iconic movie Pulp Fiction,
16:03during 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
16:12from the Disney animation classic The Aristocats,
16:15specifically from some of the moves that are pulled by Duchess
16:18during the number Everybody Wants to Be a Cat.
16:21And in the behind-the-scenes material for this episode,
16:24the choreographer for this dance number actually mentions all sorts of reference points
16:29for 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
16:38when 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.
16:46And 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,
16:55but he was also the composer between 2005 and 2017.
16:59And it's really great to see him back,
17:00and it's also really great to see him actually on screen for a change.
17:04Number 2. We have even more cameos,
17:06because 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.
17:14And 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,
17:21it makes perfect sense for Russell to be like,
17:23you know who I'm going to call?
17:24I'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
17:30evening 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,
17:39we 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.
18:02It'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,
18:24and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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