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Is Doctor Who more than just a TV show? There's certainly evidence to suggest as much...
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00:00Go with us for a moment. What if Doctor Who was real? I mean, it isn't, but what if it
00:05was?
00:05What are some of the coincidences and mysteries that could be interpreted as the greatest show
00:10in all of time and space happening out there in the great wide universe? I'm Ellie with
00:15WhoCulture here with 10 Real Things That Prove Doctor Who Exists.
00:19Number 10. A Crack in Time and Space
00:22The fine folks over at NASA are always finding oddities and amazing sights in the great wide
00:28universe, and back in 2006, they discovered this potentially hazardous link to one of
00:33Doctor Who's most famous series arcs. When observing infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope,
00:40astronomers noticed a strange shape. It was long and spindly, winding around like a large black snake.
00:46After much science was done, it was discovered that this is the core of a huge dark cloud that
00:51could, and we quote, swallow dozens of solar systems. This dark snake doesn't look a million
00:56miles away from the crack that Amelia Pond found on her bedroom wall. That particular crack turned
01:01out to be a gateway to an Atraksi prison, and other tears would reappear throughout the series
01:06before the universe was ended and then rebooted in the Pandorica Opens and the Big Bang. Like
01:11NASA's discovery, the cracks in Doctor Who were also capable of swallowing things they came into
01:17contact with, such as Scottish parents or dead nurses. If such a thing also exists in our own
01:23reality, does that mean the end of the universe is nigh? I really hope not.
01:27Number 9. The TARDIS in Utah
01:29Imagine living thousands of years ago and stumbling across a piece of technology that is infinitely more
01:35advanced than anything you can even comprehend. It would completely and utterly blow your mind.
01:40Just ask Goldkike Ilius. That leads us to this curious image, which depicts a cave painting where
01:46people can be seen worshipping something that looks suspiciously like the TARDIS. Horseshoe Canyon is an
01:52area of Utah in the United States known for its ancient pictographs. These pictures show people
01:58standing around a large box-like structure with what appears to be a light on top, congregating around
02:03it as if they're in awe. Clearly, one of the Doctors took a trip back to ancient times and made
02:08quite the
02:08impression on the locals. The people the Doctor leaves behind never forget their encounters. See Lorna Bucket
02:14joining the military just to get the chance to meet him again. And a TARDIS would no doubt be
02:19something these primitive folk would memorialise. We should of course mention that the Doctor does
02:23visit Utah in the Series 6 premiere, along with Amy, Rory and River, the best character. Perhaps some
02:30unexplained force was drawing him back to a location he'd previously visited. I mean, it's probably a
02:35coincidence, but what if it's not?
02:38Number 8. Moving Statues
02:40The Weeping Angels might have doomed the Pond, but they're still one of the most lauded villains in
02:46all of Who. The Angels were the brainchild of former showrunner Stephen Moffat, and the chilling
02:51real-life tale behind their creation is almost as creepy as the monsters themselves. The story goes
02:56that Moffat was out for a stroll one day while holidaying in Dorset, when he came across a graveyard
03:02that was sealed off to the public. He decided to investigate anyway, and found a lone Weeping Angel
03:07standing within. A few years later, Moffat returned to that sane graveyard, only to find that the
03:13Angel had vanished. It's possible that someone moved the statue in the several years between
03:17Moffat's two visits, but here's the spooky bit. He never found any evidence that the Angel even
03:23existed. I think I clearly saw a Weeping Angel, he said, but I can't find it anywhere. I can't find
03:28it
03:29in the records. So, what if the statue was never meant to be there? What if it moved there of
03:34its own
03:35accord and left of its own accord? Certainly does make you wonder, doesn't it?
03:39Number 7. A Familiar Agitator
03:42Eric Ludwig Henningsen was a painter who lived between 1855 and 1930. Over his lifetime, Henningsen
03:49created numerous works in the social realist style, mainly focusing on groups of underprivileged
03:54people. In the 19th century, he wasn't short of subjects. One of his works, 1899's An Agitator,
04:00depicts a scene from a major strike by Danish workers. A group of protesters watch on as a
04:06man gives a rousing speech, while police on horseback keep an eye out for any trouble.
04:10The speaker is wearing a brown suit, is very skinny, and has hair that can best be described
04:16as tousled, along with some impressive sideburns. You can see where this is going. It would be
04:21very in character of the Tenth Doctor to get himself involved in a labour movement in the 1890s,
04:27and inadvertently end up in a famous painting in the process. Not only would Ten love the attention
04:32and the chance to deliver a speech, but the Doctor is always looking out for ordinary people.
04:37As Eleven would later explain, there isn't a person in the universe who isn't important.
04:42Number 6. Doctor Who?
04:44NASA has helped the human race expand its knowledge of the stars. Even in the face of scepticism and
04:50budget cuts, the organisation continues to boldly go where no human has gone before.
04:56Ha ha. We like a lovely cross-reference to Star Trek. Oh, and they may have also discovered that
05:00Time Lords are real. In August 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a rather unusual shape,
05:07some 1,400 light-years from Earth. In a new image of the forming stars, Herbig Harrow 46-47,
05:14just rolls off the tongue, that one, doesn't it? I also might have said it wrong. I apologise if I
05:18did.
05:18I don't really know stars. Anyway, we can see what appears to be a glowing question mark, just sitting there.
05:25But what could it mean? One of the overarching plotlines of Stephen Moffat's first few years in charge
05:30was The Question, a question that must never be asked or answered. It was later revealed that this was
05:36actually a plot by the Time Lords to escape from their pocket universe, and that they were broadcasting
05:41said question throughout all of time and space. Doctor Who. If the question could take any shape,
05:47it would obviously be a question mark. So could the Time Lords be out there somewhere broadcasting
05:51their query for all to hear? And if so, will the Doctor respond?
05:55Number 5, a famous scarf. Before I even start this entry, I'm just going to apologise now for any
06:01really awful French pronunciations here. As you might have noticed, I'm not French,
06:06but I'll give it a go. Ambassadeur is a lithograph poster printed in 1892 by French artist
06:12Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Again, sorry if I just butchered those words. It depicts a man
06:17with wild hair standing triumphantly in the foreground with a long scarf wrapped around
06:22his neck. Sound familiar? This man bears more than a slight resemblance to Tom Baker's Fourth
06:27Doctor, despite the fact that the poster was released 82 years before Baker ever appeared
06:32in the role. Ambassadeur was actually used as an inspiration for the Fourth Doctor's look,
06:37specifically his iconic multicoloured scarf. There's also a Fourth Doctor big Finnish story
06:42called The Demon of Paris that incorporates Ambassadeur into its plot, and the cover is
06:47even a cheeky wink to the original 1892 creation. So what if the Fourth Doctor travelled back to 19th
06:55century France, met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the pair got along so famously that the artist
07:00decided to immortalise him? Like the timey-wimey loop of the ponds naming their daughter after
07:05their daughter? Could Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor have been inspired by the real Fourth Doctor?
07:11Hmm, my head hurts.
07:13Number 4. Sunset at Mont-Major. Again, sorry for my awful French.
07:18Vincent and the Doctor features the TARDIS crew teaming up with Vincent van Gogh to battle
07:23an invincible creature, and to convince the legendary painter that his work was actually worth something.
07:28Vincent would turn up later in the series painting an image of the TARDIS exploding, which predicted
07:33that this very same monumental event was to come. And as it turns out, the famous artist might have
07:38made allusions to the Doctor's faithful transport in his real-life work too. In Sunset at Mont-Major,
07:44a beautiful landscape from 1888, van Gogh depicts a natural scene complete with trees, a glowing sky,
07:51and a strange blue rectangle in the distance. A rectangle that looks oddly TARDIS-shaped at a glance.
07:57This building is actually Mont-Major Abbey. But what if Vincent's adventure with the Doctor somehow,
08:03subconsciously, bled into the way he chose to paint it? There's no denying that it's a similar
08:07shape to the TARDIS, and it's even got the light on top. It's heartwarming to imagine Vincent
08:11actually having an adventure with the Doctor. Maybe he did get to visit that art gallery after all.
08:17Number 3. The Weeping Angel Effect. The Weeping Angel's main party trick is sending
08:22unfortunate victims back in time. But they're also known for their inability to move while being
08:27looked at. Combined with their lightning quickspeeds, this instantly made them one of the scariest
08:32monsters in Doctor Who history. As it turns out, there's something else that cannot move while being
08:37looked at. And to find out what it is, we must journey into the horrifyingly complicated world
08:42of quantum physics. Yikes. In 2015, researchers at Cornell University ran a series of experiments on
08:49atoms to simulate what would happen if somebody was constantly watching them, without even blinking.
08:55Think of it as a reverse Schrodinger's cat, which is all about something not being seen. Their
09:00studies turned out some interesting results. If an atom is constantly being measured, then it never
09:05changes, effectively freezing it in place. This is the Weeping Angel Effect. There's no denying that
09:10the science behind the Weeping Angels is fascinating, and if it's possible for things to freeze in place
09:15through mere observation, then we can speculate that the Angels might actually exist. Just be careful
09:20the next time you're exploring an abandoned house, okay? And remember, don't turn your back, don't look
09:26away, and don't blink. Good luck. Number two, Amy and Rory in 1959. The Weeping Angels were all too real
09:35for Amy and Rory Pond, who was zapped back in time by the stone assassins in The Angels Take Manhattan.
09:41Don't remind me, I don't need to cry again today. The Ponds were sent back to 1938, when they were
09:47in
09:47their early 20s, which would have put them somewhere in their 40s in 1959. Why is that important? Well,
09:54because of this painting. Created by Russian-American artist Raphael Sawyer, Consolation depicts a man
10:00sat on a chair, cradling a standing woman. It's an incredibly intimate piece, one worthy of two
10:06star-crossed lovers, perhaps? The male figure's face is a little distorted, but he looks exactly like
10:12everyone's favourite plastic roman. As for the woman, she's the spitting image of Amy Pond. Red hair,
10:18round face, pale skin, the works. Sawyer was known for painting everyday New Yorkers, and he spent a
10:23lot of time in the city around the same period that Amy and Rory lived there. Even the name
10:29Consolation sounds like the perfect word to sum up the Ponds' journey, star-crossed lovers who've
10:34seen the universe. Perhaps Sawyer was taken by the pair's devotion to one another, or maybe this was
10:39the Ponds' way of winking at the Doctor, planting themselves in the history books just as he did for
10:44them in The Impossible Astronaut. Number 1. Bigger on the Inside
10:48During the summer of 2023, news outlets across the world picked up on the testimonies of US Air
10:54Force whistleblower David Grush, who claimed that the American government was hiding alien
10:59spacecrafts from the public. Sounds like the X-Files to me. But this sparked numerous other
11:05claims that extraterrestrials had visited our world, and there was one particular revelation that
11:10Whovians went wild for. According to the Daily Mail, the lawyer for a separate whistleblower was told
11:15that they had seen a UFO that distorted space and time. Allegedly, the crew recovering this craft
11:22sent a man inside, and what he discovered was totally mind-blowing. Though the ship measured only
11:2730 feet in diameter, the interior of the vessel was supposedly the size of a football stadium. In
11:33other words, it was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Though the Doctor's TARDIS is
11:38definitely not 30 feet wide. Remember that not all Time Lord vehicles have broken chameleon circuits?
11:43This could mean that a real Gallifreyan has visited our world, or that this lawyer fell asleep while
11:48watching old reruns of Doctor Who. If this account is to be believed, it certainly makes you wonder if
11:53the Doctor is out there right now, battling aliens and doing all that running. Maybe they'll need to
11:58come to Earth to retrieve their ship. This wouldn't be the first time they've been separated from it
12:02after all. And that's everything for this list, but Doctor Who has popped up in all sorts of places,
12:07so why not check out 10 more times Doctor Who appeared in other TV shows? In the meantime,
12:12I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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