- 12 minutes ago
Doctor Who's just a great big wibbly-wobbly web, isn't it?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00At the risk of stating the obvious here, Doctor Who is a very timey-wimey show.
00:04It's like a big ball of string at this point, with so many threads from across the decades overlapping and
00:10criss-crossing.
00:11But what about the episodes with subtler links between them?
00:14Small background details, throwaway lines that mean way more than you think?
00:18Well, we're glad you asked, and with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture,
00:22here with 10 Doctor Who episodes you didn't know were connected.
00:2810. Silver Nemesis and the Big Bang
00:31The 11th Doctor's unorthodox dress sense inspired a generation of teenagers to think that they were cool because they owned
00:37a tweed jacket.
00:38Not only did bow-tie sales shoot up when Matt Smith started wearing one,
00:42but his version of the Time Lord also inspired a fascination with a certain red hat.
00:4711 first appeared in affairs in the Series 5 finale, The Big Bang.
00:51The headpiece would turn up throughout the rest of his time on the show,
00:54becoming a trademark of Smith's quirky portrayal of the character.
00:58But this was not the first time the Doctor had been seen in one.
01:01In Doctor Who's 25th anniversary special, Silver Nemesis,
01:05the 7th Doctor and his companion Ace turn up at Windsor Castle and have a rummage around.
01:10And at one point, the Doctor pops up holding a mop and wearing, you guessed it, a fez.
01:15Considering that 11 was also holding a mop when he was first seen with a fez,
01:19we can deduce that this moment is where he got the inspiration to wear one on the regular.
01:24Not a massive detail, but definitely a fun one.
01:27Number 9, 42 and the power of the Doctor
01:31For a moment, put Russell to one side.
01:34Sorry, Russell.
01:34And imagine that you are in charge of Doctor Who.
01:38It'd be pretty hard to resist the temptation to constantly reference your own episodes, wouldn't it?
01:42Surprisingly, it's a temptation that Doctor Who's showrunners generally resist.
01:46Either that or their script editors are ruthless.
01:49But inevitably, some of these self-referential nods do appear from time to time.
01:54Just take a look at Chris Chibnall's final episode, The Power of the Doctor,
01:57which includes an extremely subtle connection to the first Doctor Who episode he wrote, Series 3's 42.
02:04The space train that's under attack at the beginning of the episode is, as mentioned in the very first line,
02:08part of the Taraji transport network.
02:11The Taraji star system is where 42 took place,
02:14with the 10th Doctor and Martha attempting to fend off the vindictive, annoyingly sentient son, Taraji.
02:20It's a nice little full-circle moment for Chibnall's time in the Hooniverse,
02:24even if it does remind us that 42 exists.
02:27Number 8, Army of Ghosts and End of Days
02:31Series 2 finale, Army of Ghosts, saw the long-teased introduction of the Torchwood Institute,
02:36with head honcho Yvonne Hartman showing off her organisation's cool sci-fi tech to the 10th Doctor.
02:42One piece of tech in particular catches the Doctor's eye, a Jathar Sun Glider,
02:47which Yvonne tells him was shot down over the Shetland Islands a decade prior.
02:51Torchwood means business, and the Doctor is rightfully concerned.
02:55That mention of a Jathar Sun Glider might just seem like random technobabble invented purely for this moment,
03:01and it probably was, but this wasn't the last time they appeared in the Hooniverse.
03:05Early on in the Torchwood episode End of Days, a trio of Sun Gliders are seen hovering over the Taj
03:11Mahal
03:12in the wake of the Cardiff Rift opening and unleashing space-time chaos.
03:16Clearly, this was just a case of Torchwood reusing readily available assets,
03:19but it can also be viewed as a neat bit of world-building that connects the two shows together.
03:25Number 7, A Good Man Goes to War and Thin Ice
03:28One of the more intriguing relationships in Modern Who is the one between the Doctor and his wife-slash-friend's
03:35kid-slash-would-be-assassin,
03:37River Song.
03:38The pair are star-crossed in the most literal sense, constantly bumping into each other at different points.
03:44They go on many adventures together, one of which is mentioned right at the start of the epic mid-series
03:49finale,
03:50A Good Man Goes to War.
03:51River tells Rory, who's dressed as a Roman because, well, reasons,
03:55that she's just come back from a birthday trip with her Time Lord squeeze.
03:59She says the Doctor took her ice skating at the last Great London Frost Fair,
04:03which sounds like a lovely day out.
04:05Clearly, the Doctor thought so, because he took Bill Potts to the exact same spot in Series 10's Thin Ice.
04:11He even admits that he's been there before.
04:13In fact, there is a deleted scene from that episode where he talks about bringing his wife to that very
04:18moment.
04:18It's a nice little connection between these two different eras of the show,
04:22although taking two dates to the exact same place?
04:25Rookie mistake, Doctor.
04:27Number 6.
04:28The Five Doctors and the Time of the Doctor
04:30Is this the longest payoff in Doctor Who history?
04:33Well, it might just be.
04:35In 1983's 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors,
04:39the Master presents the Third Doctor with the seal of the High Council of Gallifrey,
04:43only for the Doctor naturally to assume that his longtime foe has forged it.
04:47Turns out it's the real deal, though,
04:50and so the Doctor vows to return the artifact at the first opportunity.
04:54But he never does.
04:55In fact, he's still in possession of the seal in 2013's Christmas special The Time of the Doctor,
05:02where he uses it, with an assist from Handles,
05:04to decode the message the Time Lords are sending through the crack in time.
05:08Now, the Doctor does pick up all sorts of junk on their travels,
05:11so we can only assume that the seal is now languishing at the bottom of a TARDIS cupboard somewhere.
05:15Or maybe the Doctor will actually return it one day.
05:18The long way round.
05:20Number 5.
05:20The Mysterious Planet and the Name of the Doctor
05:23Despite only appearing in a single season from 1986,
05:27Whovians still lose their collective minds any time the Valiard comes up in conversation.
05:33Said to be a mysterious future incarnation of the Doctor,
05:35the Valiard serves as the prosecution during the Sixth Doctor's trial on Gallifrey.
05:40He almost gets him sentenced to death before the Doctor seemingly puts him down.
05:44Or does he?
05:45Because at the end of the episode, the Valiard is shown to have survived.
05:49But just because we haven't seen old Vali since the 80s,
05:52that doesn't mean we've seen the last of him.
05:54Richard E. Grant basically confirmed as much.
05:57In the episode, The Name of the Doctor grants the Great Intelligence
06:00runs down a list of other monikers the Doctor will be known by in the future,
06:04and one of those is the Valiard.
06:07It's a quick mention that's easy to miss,
06:08but it implies that the Doctor's alter ego will return in the future,
06:12and will do something to gain himself notoriety.
06:16Number 4. The Magician's Apprentice and the Timeless Children
06:20Former showrunner Chris Chibnall definitely left his mark on Doctor Who,
06:23for better or for worse.
06:24His decision to reveal that the Doctor is the mythical Timeless Child
06:28that formed the base genetic code for all future Time Lords was extremely controversial.
06:33It was the Master who revealed this secret to his long-standing rival.
06:37But it turns out that he knew this story long before he let on.
06:40Well, probably not, but he certainly knew more about the Doctor's past than we did.
06:44In the episode, The Magician's Apprentice,
06:46Missy tells Clara that she's known the Doctor since he was a little girl.
06:50Coincidentally, this is the form that the Timeless Child takes when we first meet them.
06:54A brilliant piece of foreshadowing?
06:56Well, at the time, obviously not,
06:58but in hindsight, you can certainly look at it that way.
07:01And it's interesting going back to watch this moment
07:03with the knowledge of the Timeless Child in hand.
07:06Number 3. Image of the Fendal and Army of Ghosts
07:10Who'd have thought that a throwaway line in a 1977 serial
07:14would suddenly become relevant almost 30 years later?
07:17In the first episode of the fourth Doctor story, Image of the Fendal,
07:21Dr. Fendelman instructs his colleague to tell Hartman
07:24I want a security team here within two hours,
07:27after a corpse is discovered in the woods.
07:28Again, totally throwaway.
07:30We never actually meet Hartman, and he's never mentioned again.
07:33So why is this significant?
07:35Well, jumping once again to Army of Ghosts,
07:37and this is the episode that introduces us to Torchwood boss Yvonne Hartman.
07:42Might she be a relative?
07:43Perhaps the daughter of the faceless Hartman mentioned in Image of the Fendal?
07:47While the connection here is tenuous,
07:49Hartman is a fairly common surname, after all,
07:51many fans believe that these two are indeed related,
07:55with Yvonne's father being identified as John Hartman
07:57in the big Finnish audio drama The Rockery.
08:00Number two, The Web of Fear and The Snowmen.
08:03Back to the great intelligence now,
08:05and his second ever appearance in the show in 1968's The Web of Fear.
08:10The intelligence had already encountered the second Doctor
08:13when it lured him and his companions into the London Underground,
08:16where it planned to steal the Time Lord's knowledge.
08:18Fast forward to the 2012 Christmas special The Snowmen,
08:22and the Doctor runs into the intelligence once again,
08:24only this time before the villain has met him.
08:27In order to preserve the timeline,
08:29the Doctor decides to influence future events,
08:31or past events from his point of view,
08:33in a way only he could,
08:35by using a biscuit tin.
08:37He presents his foe with a tin bearing the London Underground map on it.
08:41The great intelligence remarks that it's never seen these symbols before,
08:44at which point, the Doctor sows the seed for The Web of Fear
08:47by saying that it's a key strategic weakness in metropolitan living.
08:51With the timeline now assured,
08:53the Doctor runs off to celebrate,
08:54presumably with a biscuit.
08:56Number one, Daleks in Manhattan and the End of Time.
09:01Daleks in Manhattan features the Daleks in Manhattan.
09:04A period piece set during the Great Depression in 1930's New York City,
09:08the episode does a fantastic job of recreating that time period.
09:12It doesn't feel like a cheap set,
09:14it feels like a living, breathing place.
09:17A bouncy musical number partway through the episode helps with that immersion,
09:20as singing, dancing, all-star Tallulah
09:23attempts to get over the fact that her boyfriend has been turned into a pig
09:26by doing what she does best, putting on a show.
09:29You would assume that the song here,
09:30My Angel Put the Devil in Me,
09:32which composer Murraygold undoubtedly had immense fun putting together,
09:35would only be used in this episode,
09:37but it actually pops up later in the Tenant run,
09:41and in the most unexpected of places too.
09:44Flash forward to the closing moments of The End of Time Part 2,
09:47and the song can be heard again,
09:49playing at the bar where the Doctor bids farewell to Captain Jack Harkness.
09:53Mind you, this version is a cover,
09:55not the original Tallulah version,
09:57but if only she knew how far into the future her music would last.
10:01And that concludes our list.
10:03If you think we missed something,
10:04then do let us know in the comments below,
10:06and while you're there,
10:07don't forget to like and subscribe,
10:09and tap that notification bell,
10:11so you never miss a Who Culture video again.
10:13Also head over to Twitter and follow us there,
10:15and Instagram as well,
10:17and I can be found across various social medias,
10:19just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:21Don't forget to also look out for Sean Berwick,
10:23and Dan the Meeks too.
10:24I've been Ellie with Who Culture,
10:26and in the words of Riversong herself,
10:28goodbye, sweeties.
Comments