Doctor Who Unlocked: Last Christmas

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

Last Christmas is the 10th Christmas Special in a row for Doctor Who. It is Peter Capaldi's first, Jenna Coleman's third, and Steven Moffat's fifth.

It is the 11th episode to air on Christmas day- the first was The Feast of Steven, part of The Daleks' Master Plan, which aired on 25th December 1965.

It is also the third christmas special in a row to feature actor Dan Starkey- he plays Ian the Elf. He also played his usual character Strax in The Snowmen (2012) and played several Sontaran warriors in The Time of the Doctor (2013).

Michael Troughton plays Professor Albert. He's the son of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton and his brother David Troughton has appeared in Doctor Who several times. The last time he was also a professor, Professor Hobbes in Midnight (2007).

Santa Claus is played by Nick Frost. His friend and regular collaborator Simon Pegg has also appeared in Doctor Who, as the Editor in The Long Game (2005).

The Doctor helps 'old Clara' pull a cracker which is a reference to The Time of the Doctor (2013) when Clara had to help the aged Eleventh Doctor pull one.

Clara is told not to salute. The Doctor has not liked being saluted for a while (see the likes of The Sontaran Strategm [2009]) and mostly recently protested against it in Death in Heaven (2014).

The episode plays homage to the film Alien (1979) and mentions it several times (in the dream scenes and on Shona's list). The film famously starred John Hurt, who played the War Doctor, who suffered a nasty end thanks to the titular alien.

Time Trips: The Anti Hero by Stella Duffy

This latest Time Trips short story features Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor and his companions Jamie & Zoe. The TARDIS takes them to the Museaum at Alexandria but as usual something weird is going on.

The story revolves around the Muses from Greek myth and it's the typical Doctor Who thing of explaining myths through science-fiction. 

The three leads are portrayed reasonably well and Zoe feels more like an equal than she often did on the screen.

The big problem here is the length. The Time Trips series are short stories and Duffy almost has enough material for a whole Doctor Who novel here. The plot is whizzed through and it would have been nice to see the characters explore more of the interesting setting.

It's far from the worst of the series and it's great to see the Second Doctor team again but I would have liked to have read the story in a longer format.

A Message From the Doctor

Peter Capaldi made this message for a 9 year old autistic boy whose grandmother had just died. What a man!

Review: Silhouette by Justin Richards

One of the first Twelfth Doctor novels, this book sees Peter Capaldi's Doctor and companion Clara head to Victorian London to investigate a mysterious power spike. Inevitably they meet up with the Paternoster Row gang, Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax as they investigate a series of murders. 

I always think a sci-fi story set in the Victorian era works rather well and this is another example. The story is mostly set around a Frost Fair and Carnival of Curiosities, a magical setting which is so perfect for Doctor Who. The villain is rather good, a properly despicable Victorian villain that you really dislike. Although there's no monsters as such there are some interesting characters with special abilities, all of which are fantastic creations, yet somehow not outrageous. 

I felt at times that the character of the Twelfth Doctor wasn't particularly accurate, but I suspect the author had little to do on and managed a decent if not entirely successful attempt. Clara is good here which is nice to see although I did feel the Paternoster Row trio weren't needed here. In the TV show there's always been a strong reason for them being in the episode, that they affect the story in some way, but here it feels like the plot would have been pretty much identical without their presence. They are well characterised though and as usual Strax has some really funny moments. 

The first set of novels for a new Doctor also suffer from the author only knowing the basics to what the new character is like and how the series will feel but actually Richards gives us a really enjoyable Victorian Doctor Who story.

Review: Lights Out by Holly Black

An e-short was published last year, one for each Doctor so now that we have a Twelfth Doctor played by the wonderful Peter Capaldi there's an e-short for him too. This one is written by Spiderwick Chronicles author Holly Black. 

The story is set between the first two episodes of Series 8, Deep Breath and Into the Dalek and sees the recently re-generated Twelfth Doctor go to an intergalactic coffee house to get some coffee for Clara. When bodies start appearing he grabs the story's narrator "Fifty-One" to help him investigate. 

In my mind this is just as good as the best of the other e-shorts. It's very dark and manages to contain a real surprise in it. The tone fits in with that of Series 8 really well and Black manages to capture the Twelfth Doctor's character well too, which is impressive given how little of the incarnation she must have seen when she wrote the story. 

As ever there are some continuity nods, mostly in the form of cameos and mentions from various Doctor Who races. I'm pretty sure Black must have set a record for number of Doctor Who alien species mentioned in a short story. 

A short but fantastic story which fans of the new Doctor will love.

Foxes performs "Don't Stop Me Now"

This is the full performance from Foxes of the Queen song "Don't Stop Me Now" from Mummy on the Orient Express. It also contains scenes from the rest of Series 8.

Doctor Who Unlocked: Mummy on the Orient Express

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

The Doctor tells Clara that there have been many attempts to entice him to the train and says “He even phoned the TARDIS once”. This happened at the very end of The Big Bang (2010) when the TARDIS phone rang and the Eleventh Doctor can be heard saying “An Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express, in space? We’re on our way!”.

The Doctor inevitably says to the Foretold “Are you my Mummy?”. He is of course referenced what the reanimated Jamie says in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (2005). The Tenth Doctor also says the phrase when wearing a gasmask in The Poison Sky (2008).

Comedian Frank Skinner plays Perkins in the episode. Skinner is a huge Doctor Who fan and made a cameo appearance in The Five Doctors (Reboot). You can see visible joy on his face when Peter Capaldi introduces himself as the Doctor.

Professor Moorhouse is played by Christopher Villers and has been in Doctor Who before, as Hugh Fitzwilliam in Fifth Doctor story The King’s Demons (1984). Janet Henfrey, who plays Mrs Pitt, is also a returning actor having played Miss Hardraker in The Curse of Fenric (1989).

The singer is played by grammy-award winning singer Foxes (aka Louisa Rose Allen). The full version of the song, complete with accompanying clips from Series 8, can be seen here.

The fact that she sings Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” continues something of a running joke where people in the future completely mess up when selecting songs from the past. Don’t Stop Me Now was released much later than the original Orient Express was around in the same way that few would consider Britney Spears “Toxic” a classic like it is described in The End of the World (2005).

It is not the first time a mummy has appeared in Doctor Who. In The Pyramids of Mars (1975) the Fourth Doctor faced robots disguised as mummies and the Eleventh Doctor more recently faced a mummy-like creature in The Rings of Akhaten (2013).

The Doctor offers Moorhouse a jelly baby, something he has done regularly since 1967’s The Dominators. The Fourth Doctor offered jelly babies many times but most of the Doctor’s incarnations have offered the sweet at some point. 

Doctor Who Unlocked: Kill the Moon

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

The Doctor says that Courtney will marry a feller called Blinovitch. The Blinovitch Limitation Effect refers to at least one principle of time travel and was introduced in Day of the Daleks (1972) and mentioned again in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) and Mawdryn Undead (1983).

This is not the first time the Doctor has used a yo-yo to test local gravity- he did the very same thing in his fourth incarnation in The Ark in Space (1975). The Fourth Doctor then regularly used for fun.

The Doctor says that “the Earth isn’t my home”. He used those exact words in The Pyramids of Mars (1975).

Tony Osoba plays Duke and has previously appeared in Doctor Who as Lan in Destiny of the Daleks (1979) and as Kracauer in Dragonfire (1987).

Filming for the episode took place on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. It is the second time Doctor Who has filmed there- the first was in 1984 when it doubled for the planet Sarn in Planet of Fire. 

Vortex manipulators are mentioned in the episode. These are wrist-straps from the future of Earth which allow the user to travel through time. Both Captain Jack Harkness and River Song have used them but the Doctor disproved of them, called them space hoppers compared to his sports car.

The Doctor mentions how humans will still be around at the end of the universe, something we saw evidence of in Utopia (2007).

Doctor Who Unlocked: The Caretaker

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

The episode is almost entirely set in Coal Hill School, a location that has appeared numerous times in Doctor Who. In the very first episode of Doctor Who in 1963, An Unearthly Child, the Doctor’s Granddaughter Susan went to school there and teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright became the first companions. 

The Doctor also visited the school in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988)when the then headmaster assumed he was applying for the vacant position of caretaker! Since The Day of the Doctor (2013) Clara has been an English teacher at the school.

The Doctor says that “artron emissions” may have brought the Blitzer to the area. Artron emissions are an output of time travel and with the Doctor visiting the area so often it is no surprise there are high emissions in the area. 

The term “artron emissions” was first used back in Fourth Doctor story The Deadly Assassin (1976) and has been used numerous times since, like when Kate Stewart used artron emissions to rack the Doctor in The Power of Three (2012). 

Jimmy Vee plays the Blitzer, making his fourth appearance in Doctor Who. He previously played the Moxx of Balhoon in The End of the World (2005), the Space Pig in Aliens of London (also 2005) and Bannakaffalatta in Voyage of the Damned (2007).

The Twelfth Doctor mentions River Song for the first time in this episode. He also suggests taking Clara to the London Frost Fairs, a location he once took River (and Stevie Wonder). 

There’s a great play on the troupe of the Doctor having met famous people when he mentions he knows the date Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice by reading the book, rather than having been there as Clara expects.

Danny Pink is the second maths teacher who was once a soldier the Doctor has met. His old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart became a maths teacher at Brendon Public School after leaving UNIT. 

The Doctor once again uses the pseudonym John Smith here. He first used the name in 1968’s The Wheel in Space and has used it countless times since- like when he last went undercover in a school as a physics teacher in School Reunion (2006). 

We see another area of Heaven at the end of the episode and an “employee” of Heaven called Seb played by Chris Addison. Seb says Heaven can be called “the Nethersphere”. When first announced, Michelle Gomez’s character, referred to as Missy in the show, was called “the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere”.

Doctor Who Unlocked: Time Heist

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

When Psi shows the Teller images of intergalactic criminals we are treated to a host of aliens and characters from the Doctor Who Universe. Here’s a detailed list, in order of appearance in the episode

• A Sensorite (From 1963’s The Sensorites)

• Androvax (From several Sarah Jane Adventures stories)

• The Gunslinger (From 2012’s A Town Called Mercy)
• A Terileptil (From 1982’s The Visitation)

• Captain John Hart (From Torchwood Series 2, played by James Marsters)

• Absolom Daak (From the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip)

• An Ice Warrior (New Series version, from 2013’s Cold War)
• A Slitheen (First appearing in 2005’s Aliens in London/World War Three)

• The Trickster (Sarah Jane’s nemesis in The Sarah Jane Adventures)

The Doctor says “Or we could go to Brighton…”. He has long been a fan of the seaside town and tried to visit in The Horror of Fang Rock (1977) but ended up miles away. Later he got the time wrong when trying to see the opening of the Brighton Pavilion and instead spent some time on the beach in The Leisure Hive (1980). K9 was blown up when hit by sea water.

Memory worms are an important plot point in the episode. The species first appeared in The Snowmen (2012) when Strax had trouble with one.

Ross Mullan plays the Teller and has previously appeared in Doctor Who as a Silent in The Time of the Doctor (2013). 

Doctor Who Unlocked: Listen

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

The child Doctor is the youngest we’ve ever seen the character on screen. Before that there’s the First Doctor stealing a TARDIS in The Name of the Doctor (2013) and then his first ever appearance in An Unearthly Child (1963).

The line “fear makes companions of us all” was first said by the First Doctor in An Unearthly Child (1963). We now know that in that story he is repeating what Clara said to him as a child.

The Doctor shouts “The Sontarans! Perverting the course of human history”. This refers to Third Doctor story The Time Warrior (1974) when a Sontaran called Styre gave medieval villains advanced weaponry. 

Reg, the man the Doctor talks to at the children’s home is played by Robert Goodman. He has previously appeared as a crew member in The Trial of a Time Lord (1986) and as a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden (1979).

The ominous chiming of the TARDIS’ Cloister Bell is heard when Clara is about to operate it. The sound was first heard in Logopolis (1981) and has been heard numerous times since, most recently at the start of Deep Breath. It signals that the TARDIS is in danger.

It is extremely unusual for a story not to feature an alien other than the Doctor. If you include the Master and other Time Lords, the last one was Black Orchid (1982). 

We also see the Doctor using the psychic paper for the first time in a while. The psychic paper was created by writer Russell T Davies as a way for the Doctor to infiltrate places. It was first used by the Ninth Doctor in The End of the World (2005).

Clara initially thinks that Orson Pink in his spacesuit is the Doctor. This is of course because it is very similar to the suit the Eleventh Doctor wore briefly in Hide (2013). The suit originally came from Krop Tor, the eponymous planet of The Impossible Planet (2006). 

Listen is the furthest forward the Doctor has ever traveled in time. The closest he has been was in Utopia (2007).

Listen is unusual in that it is a one word title. It is only the 24th story out of 245 to have a one word title and only the third that is a verb (after Blink (2007) and Hide (2013). 

John Hurt’s War Doctor is seen in the episode and it is revealed that the barn where he sets up the Moment in The Day of the Doctor (2013) was slept in by the Doctor as a young child.