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.