10 Doctor Who Episodes You Didn’t Know Were Connected
Doctor Who's just a great big wibbly-wobbly web, isn't it?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 At the risk of stating the obvious here, Doctor Who is a very timey-wimey show.
00:04 It's like a big ball of string at this point, with so many threads from across the decades
00:09 overlapping and criss-crossing.
00:11 But what about the episodes with subtler links between them?
00:14 Small background details throw away lines that mean way more than you think?
00:18 Well, we're glad you asked, and with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here
00:23 with 10 Doctor Who episodes you didn't know were connected.
00:28 10. Silver Nemesis and The Big Bang
00:31 The Eleventh Doctor's unorthodox dress sense inspired a generation of teenagers to think
00:36 that they were cool because they owned a tweed jacket.
00:39 Not only did bow tie sales shoot up when Matt Smith started wearing one, but his version
00:43 of the Time Lord also inspired a fascination with a certain red hat.
00:48 Number Eleven first appeared in affairs in the Series 5 finale, The Big Bang.
00:51 The headpiece would turn up throughout the rest of his time on the show, becoming a trademark
00:55 of Smith's quirky portrayal of the character.
00:58 But this was not the first time the Doctor had been seen in one.
01:02 In Doctor Who's 25th anniversary special Silver Nemesis, the Seventh Doctor and his
01:06 companion Ace turn up at Windsor Castle and have a rummage around, and at one point the
01:11 Doctor pops up holding a mop and wearing, you guessed it, a fez.
01:15 Considering that Eleven was also holding a mop when he was first seen with a fez, we
01:19 can deduce that this moment is where he got the inspiration to wear one on the regular.
01:24 Not a massive detail, but definitely a fun one.
01:27 Number Nine, Forty Two and The Power of the Doctor
01:30 For a moment, put Russell to one side, sorry Russell, and imagine that you are in charge
01:37 of Doctor Who.
01:38 It'd be pretty hard to resist the temptation to constantly reference your own episodes,
01:42 wouldn't it?
01:43 Surprisingly, it's a temptation that Doctor Who's showrunners generally resist.
01:46 Either that, or their script editors are ruthless.
01:49 But inevitably, some of these self-referential nods do appear from time to time.
01:54 Just take a look at Chris Chibnall's final episode, The Power of the Doctor, which includes
01:58 an extremely subtle connection to the first Doctor Who episode he wrote, Series 3's
02:03 Forty Two.
02:04 The space train that's under attack at the beginning of the episode is, as mentioned
02:07 in the very first line, part of the Taraji Transport Network.
02:11 The Taraji star system is where Forty Two took place, with the Tenth Doctor and Martha
02:16 attempting to fend off the vindictive, annoyingly sentient son, Taraji.
02:20 It's a nice little full circle moment for Chibnall's time in the Whoniverse, even
02:24 if it does remind us that Forty Two exists.
02:27 Number 8.
02:28 Army of Ghosts and End of Days
02:31 Series 2 finale Army of Ghosts saw the long-teased introduction of the Torchwood Institute, with
02:36 head honcho Yvonne Hartman showing off her organisation's cool sci-fi tech to the Tenth
02:42 Doctor.
02:43 One piece of tech in particular catches the Doctor's eye, a Jathar Sunglider, which
02:47 Yvonne tells him was shot down over the Shetland Islands a decade prior.
02:52 Torchwood means business, and the Doctor is rightfully concerned.
02:55 That mention of a Jathar Sunglider might just seem like random technobabble invented purely
03:00 for this moment, and it probably was, but this wasn't the last time they appeared
03:05 in the Whoniverse.
03:06 Early on in the Torchwood episode End of Days, a trio of Sungliders are seen hovering over
03:11 the Taj Mahal in the wake of the Cardiff Rift opening and unleashing space-time chaos.
03:16 Clearly this was just a case of Torchwood reusing readily available assets, but it can
03:20 also be viewed as a neat bit of world-building that connects the two shows together.
03:24 Number 7.
03:25 A Good Man Goes to War and Thin Ice
03:29 One of the more intriguing relationships in Modern Who is the one between the Doctor and
03:34 his wife/friend's kid/would-be assassin, River Song.
03:38 The pair are star-crossed in the most literal sense, constantly bumping into each other
03:42 at different points.
03:43 They go on many adventures together, one of which is mentioned right at the start of the
03:48 epic mid-series finale A Good Man Goes to War.
03:51 River tells Rory, who's dressed as a Roman because, well, reasons, that she's just
03:56 come back from a birthday trip with her Time Lord Squeeze.
03:59 She says the Doctor took her ice skating at the last Great London Frost Fair, which sounds
04:03 like a lovely day out.
04:05 Clearly the Doctor thought so, because he took Bill Potts to the exact same spot in
04:09 Series 10's Thin Ice.
04:11 He even admits that he's been there before.
04:12 In fact, there is a deleted scene from that episode where he talks about bringing his
04:17 wife to that very moment.
04:18 It's a nice little connection between these two different eras of the show, although taking
04:23 two dates to the exact same place?
04:25 Rookie mistake, Doctor.
04:27 Number 6.
04:28 The Five Doctors and the Time of the Doctor
04:31 Is this the longest payoff in Doctor Who history?
04:33 Well, it might just be.
04:35 In 1983's 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors, the Master presents the Third Doctor
04:41 with the Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey, only for the Doctor, naturally, to assume
04:45 that his long-time foe has forged it.
04:48 Turns out it's the real deal, though, and so the Doctor vows to return the artefact
04:52 at the first opportunity.
04:54 But he never does.
04:56 In fact, he's still in possession of the seal in 2013's Christmas special The Time
05:01 of the Doctor, where he uses it, with an assist from Handles, to decode the message the Time
05:06 Lords are sending through the Kraken Time.
05:08 Now, the Doctor does pick up all sorts of junk on their travels, so we can only assume
05:12 that the seal is now languishing at the bottom of a TARDIS cupboard somewhere.
05:15 Or maybe the Doctor will actually return it one day.
05:18 The long way round.
05:20 Number 5.
05:21 The Mysterious Planet and the Name of the Doctor
05:24 Despite only appearing in a single season from 1986, Whovians still lose their collective
05:29 minds any time the Valiard comes up in conversation.
05:33 Said to be a mysterious future incarnation of the Doctor, the Valiard serves as the prosecution
05:37 during the Sixth Doctor's trial on Gallifrey.
05:40 He almost gets him sentenced to death before the Doctor seemingly puts him down.
05:45 Or does he?
05:46 Because at the end of the episode, the Valiard is shown to have survived.
05:49 But just because we haven't seen Old Valley since the 80s, that doesn't mean we've
05:53 seen the last of him.
05:54 Richard E. Grant basically confirmed as much.
05:57 In the episode "The Name of the Doctor", Grant's The Great Intelligence runs down
06:01 a list of other monikers the Doctor will be known by in the future, and one of those is
06:06 the Valiard.
06:07 It's a quick mention that's easy to miss, but it implies that the Doctor's alter
06:10 ego will return in the future, and will do something to gain himself notoriety.
06:16 Number 4.
06:17 The Magician's Apprentice and the Timeless Children
06:20 Former showrunner Chris Chibnall definitely left his mark on Doctor Who, for better or
06:24 for worse.
06:25 His decision to reveal that the Doctor is the mythical Timeless Child that formed the
06:29 base genetic code for all future Time Lords was extremely controversial.
06:33 It was the Master who revealed this secret to his long-standing rival.
06:37 But it turns out that he knew this story long before he let on.
06:41 Well, probably not, but he certainly knew more about the Doctor's past than we did.
06:44 In the episode "The Magician's Apprentice", Missy tells Clara that she's known the Doctor
06:48 since he was a little girl.
06:50 Coincidentally, this is the form that the Timeless Child takes when we first meet them.
06:55 A brilliant piece of foreshadowing?
06:56 Well, at the time, obviously not, but in hindsight, you can certainly look at it that way, and
07:01 it's interesting going back to watch this moment with the knowledge of the Timeless
07:04 Child in hand.
07:06 3.
07:07 Image of the Fendahl and Army of Ghosts
07:09 Who'd have thought that a throwaway line in a 1977 serial would suddenly become relevant
07:15 almost 30 years later?
07:17 In the first episode of the fourth Doctor story, "Image of the Fendahl", Doctor Fendelman
07:22 instructs his colleague to "tell Hartman I want a security team here within two hours",
07:27 after a corpse is discovered in the woods.
07:29 Again, totally throwaway.
07:30 We never actually meet Hartman, and he's never mentioned again.
07:33 So why is this significant?
07:35 Well, jumping once again to Army of Ghosts, and this is the episode that introduces us
07:39 to Torchwood boss Yvonne Hartman.
07:42 Might she be a relative?
07:43 Perhaps the daughter of the faceless Hartman mentioned in Image of the Fendahl?
07:47 While the connection here is tenuous - Hartman is a fairly common surname, after all - many
07:52 fans believe that these two are indeed related, with Yvonne's father being identified as
07:57 John Hartman in the big Finnish audio drama The Rockery.
08:00 Number 2 - The Web of Fear and The Snowmen
08:04 Back to The Great Intelligence now, and his second ever appearance in the show in 1968's
08:09 The Web of Fear.
08:10 The Intelligence had already encountered the second Doctor when it lured him and his companions
08:15 into the London Underground, where it planned to steal the Time Lord's knowledge.
08:18 Fast forward to the 2012 Christmas special The Snowmen, and the Doctor runs into the
08:23 Intelligence once again, only this time, before the villain has met him.
08:28 In order to preserve the timeline, the Doctor decides to influence future events, or past
08:32 events from his point of view, in a way only he could - by using a biscuit tin.
08:37 He presents his foe with a tin bearing the London Underground map on it.
08:41 The Great Intelligence remarks that it's never seen these symbols before, at which
08:44 point the Doctor sows the seed for the Web of Fear by saying that it's a key strategic
08:49 weakness in metropolitan living.
08:51 With the timeline now assured, the Doctor runs off to celebrate, presumably with a biscuit.
08:57 Number 1 - Daleks in Manhattan and the End of Time
09:01 Daleks in Manhattan features the Daleks in Manhattan.
09:04 A period piece set during the Great Depression in 1930's New York City, the episode does
09:09 a fantastic job of recreating that time period.
09:13 It doesn't feel like a cheap set, it feels like a living, breathing place.
09:17 A bouncy musical number partway through the episode helps with that immersion, as singing,
09:21 dancing, all-star Tallulah attempts to get over the fact that her boyfriend has been
09:25 turned into a pig by doing what she does best - putting on a show.
09:29 You would assume that the song here, My Angel Put the Devil in Me, which composer Murray
09:33 Gold undoubtedly had immense fun putting together, would only be used in this episode.
09:38 But it actually pops up later in the Tenant Run, and in the most unexpected of places
09:43 too.
09:44 Flash forward to the closing moments of The End of Time Part 2, and the song can be heard
09:48 again, playing at the bar where the Doctor bids farewell to Captain Jack Harkness.
09:53 Mind you, this version is a cover, not the original Tallulah version, but if only she
09:58 knew how far into the future her music would last.
10:02 And that concludes our list.
10:03 If you think we missed something, then do let us know in the comments below, and while
10:07 you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell so
10:11 you never miss a WhoCulture video again.
10:13 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and Instagram as well, and I can be found
10:18 across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:21 Don't forget to also look out for Sean Berrick and Dan The Meeks too.
10:24 I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye sweeties.
10:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]