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. 

Time Trips: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller

As with many others in the Time Trips series, this sees a popular author, this time author of Chocolat Joanne Harris, write a Doctor Who story. This one features Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor and in terms of continuity is set right before the end of his last story, Planet of the Spiders. 

The dying Doctor finds himself in the Village where life is idyllically simple. But when the Doctor meets the Queen he begins to realise this strange world masks a dark secret.

The idea for this is a good one, poignantly focusing on the Doctor dying. Whilst I felt Harris characterised the Third Doctor pretty well it didn't have much in common with his era. It felt like a New Who story which only used the Third Doctor as it was the only one that practically worked with the regeneration. 

One of the best of the series and an excellent idea which is well executed. Harris did a decent job of doing a Doctor Who story.

Doctor Who Unlocked: Robot of Sherwood

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 mentions Richard the Lionheart during his battle with Robin Hood. He is referring to The Crusade, a First Doctor story which featured the king played by James Bond and Indiana Jones actor Julian Glover.

Included on the screen when the Doctor shows Robin famous images of Robin Hood is a shot of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton playing the character in the in 50s children’s TV show The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The Doctor suspects he and Clara are in a miniscope. This happened in the Third Doctor story Carnival of Monsters. Miniscopes are very small externally but like the TARDIS much bigger in the inside so that whole landscapes can be captured within them.

Friar Tuck is played by Trevor Cooper who previously appeared in Doctor Who in as Takis in Sixth Doctor adventure Revelation of the Daleks.

Ben Miller plays the Sheriff of Nottingham and is well known as the comedy partner of Alexander Armstrong. Armstrong has also appeared in Doctor Who, playing Reg Arwell in The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe and voicing Sarah-Jane Smith’s supercomputer Mr. Smith.

When deciding on a destination the Doctor says “What about Mars? The Ice Warrior hives”. He is of course referring to the infamous monsters who last appeared in Cold War, which was also written by Robot of Sherwood writer Mark Gatiss.

The Doctor shows himself to be a great swordsman here and this is a trait which has been seen throughout his regenerations. The Third Doctor had a sword fight with the Master in The Sea Devils, the Fourth Doctor battled with a sword in The Androids of Tara and more recently the Tenth Doctor faced the Sycorax leader in The Christmas Invasion.

As with most of the series of the revived Doctor Who the early episodes have had a set pattern. First there’s the first episode, set in the present day and usually a debut to a Doctor or companion or both (Rose, Smith and Jones, Partners in Crime, The Eleventh Hour,The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, Asylum of the Daleks, Deep Breath). Then the next two episodes usually involve a historical setting and a futuristic setting (The End of the World/The Unquiet Dead, New Earth/Tooth and Claw, The Shakespeare Code/Gridlock, The Fires of Pompeii/Planet of the Ood, The Beast Below/Victory of the Daleks, The Curse of the Black Spot/The Doctor’s Wife, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship/A Town Called Mercy and Into the Dalek/Robot of Sherwood).