During the latest series of Doctor Who Blogtor Who will look at all the nods and references to adventures which have gone before. So even if you are not already a Mastermind expert on all things in the Whoniverse you can appreciate the little detail as well. Perhaps you are a very knowledgeable Whovian already but did you spot them all?
Doctor Who
The title of the television show was a deliberate suggestion of the mysteriousness of the lead character. Usually the Time Lord tells people to call him The Doctor only to be met with the query, “Doctor Who?” This has been a regular joke in the post 2005 show in particular. However on only one occasion he was actually referred to onscreen as Doctor Who. Throughout ‘The War Machines’ (1966) WOTAN refers to the Doctor as ‘Doctor Who’. The credits of the show up to and including those of Season 18 also refer to him as Doctor Who. Perhaps Who is indeed his surname?
Venusian Aikido
The Third Doctor was quite the action hero. In his adventures he would occasionally utilise a form of unarmed combat called Venusian Aikido. In addition to throws and kicks The Doctor could also immobilise individuals by exposing pressure points.
The Academy on Gallifrey
The Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey has been mentioned several times in the show. Sadly it has never been visited during televised adventures. What we have learnt so far is that The Doctor and The Master were at the Academy at the same time (The Five Doctors, 1983 and others). It can be equated to an educational institution such as a school or university. According to the Tenth Doctor, Time Lord children were taken from their families at the age of eight to join the Academy. Part of the initiation involved looking into the Untempered Schism, an opening in the space time continuum (The Sound of Drums, 2007).
Mondas
Earth’s twin planet. The concept was of a parallel Earth within the same universe. Both planets shared a geography but Mondas drifted away in a journey to the edge of space. Some accounts suggested that the arrival of a satellite, which became the Moon, caused the gravitational changes that propelled Mondas away from Earth. In the Earth year 1986 Mondas returned to it’s twin. Augmented human creatures from Mondas, attempted to drain Earth of it’s energy to supplement Mondas’ depleted reserves. However the energy absorption was uncontrolled and caused the planet and it’s Cybermen to disintegrate. Future Cybermen would also unsuccessfully attempt to prevent the destruction of Mondas (Attack of the Cybermen, 1985).
Mondasian Cybermen
The inhabitants of Mondas were dying. In their desperate attempt to survive they used technology to keep themselves alive. Replacing organs with plastic and metal to survive they sacrificed their humanity in the process. Weaknesses such as emotion were also eradicated. The Cybermen were intended to be an allegory of the dangers of artificial surgical implants taken too far. Never more has it been more graphic than with the Cybermen from Mondas. The human instinct to survive is commendable. But what if they stop being human?
The Master of disguise
This weeks episode of Doctor Who saw the dramatic return of John Simm as The Master. Simm became The Master during ‘Utopia’ (2007) when Derek Jacobi’s Professor Yana regenerated. During the Series 3 finale The Master had taken on the alias of Harold Saxon who became Prime Minister of Great Britain. Over the years he has taken on a number of aliases, particularly when encountering the Third Doctor. For example, he posed as an Adjudicator on Uxarieus (Colony in Space). The John Simm incarnation of The Master was last seen during the conclusion of ‘The End of Time’, mysteriously disappearing as Rassilon and Gallifrey were sent back into the last days of the Time War. The renegade Time Lord has often utilised disguises, such as The Portreeve in ‘Castrovalva’ and Kalid in ‘Time Flight’.
Bill’s cyber eye teardrop, an homage to the classic teardrop or an actual explanation as to how it was integrated into the design of future Cybermen? Either way I loved it.