‘There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song…’
The Doctor, Survival
While we may never know exactly why the Doctor left Gallifrey, one thing is certain. He never tires of exploring strange new planets – although he can’t help but be drawn to a small blue planet in Mutter’s Spiral.
‘I have a place in mind that’s on the way, well, more or less, give or take a parsec or two. It’s my home from home. It’s called Earth.’
The Doctor, Logopolis
THE CHANGING FACE OF THE OVAL OFFICE
In The Impossible Astronaut, the TARDIS lands in the Oval Office of President Nixon’s White House. Built in Upper Boat studios near Cardiff, the set was used on a number of occasions in Series Six. Did you spot them all?
The Oval Office (The Impossible Astronaut)
The hospital spaceship (The Curse of the Black Spot)
The Gangers’ Acid Well Crypt (The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People)
The Birthing Suite on Demon’s Run (A Good Man Goes to War)
PAST PRESENT FUTURE
Stories in the past, present and days yet to come
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
What proportion of the Doctor’s adventures take place on Earth or in the stars?
NAMEDROPPER
The Doctor is an incorrigible namedropper. Just look at the people he claims to have met – or even married. But as we know from River, he also lies. Maybe he was telling porkies about a few of these.
Dante Alighieri – The Doctor has the poet’s details in his address book. (The Two Doctors)
Alexander the Great – After his third regeneration, the Fourth Doctor mistook the Brigadier for Alexander. (Robot)
Archimedes – The Doctor has the philosopher’s details in his address book. He also thinks he’s a bit wet. (The Two Doctors)
Hans Christian Andersen – The Doctor provided the Danish fairy-tale writer with the idea for The Emperor’s New Clothes. (The Romans)
Marie Antoinette – The French Queen gave the Doctor a picklock. (Pyramids of Mars)
The Venerable Bede – The Doctor shared a salmon that he caught in the River Fleet with the Anglo-Saxon scholar. (The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
Ludwig van Beethoven – The Doctor picked up how to play the organ by hanging around with Beethoven. (The Lazarus Experiment)
Napoleon Bonaparte – The Doctor told Boney that an army marches on its stomach. (Day of the Daleks)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel – The Doctor has the engineer’s details in his address book. (The Two Doctors)
George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell – The arbiter of men’s fashion once told the First Doctor that he looked better in a cloak. (The Sensorites)
José Raúl Capablanca – The Doctor watched the Cuban chess champion play Alekhine in 1927. (The Androids of Tara)
Charlemagne – The Doctor tried to find Charlemagne in the Ardennes after the French king was kidnapped by an insane computer. (The Unicorn and the Wasp)
Mr Chicken – The Doctor thought the last private occupant of Number 10 Downing Street was a nice man. (World War Three)
Father Christmas – The Doctor has a photo of himself and Father Christmas (real name: Geoff) alongside Albert Einstein and a mystery blonde taken at Frank Sinatra’s hunting lodge in 1952. (A Christmas Carol)
John Churchill – The Doctor was at the battle of Malplaquet with the First Duke of Marlborough. (The Android Invasion)
Cleopatra – The Tenth Doctor mentioned the Egyptian queen to Mickey and Rose, calling her ‘Cleo’. (The Girl in the Fireplace)
Christopher Columbus – The Doctor has the explorer’s details in his address book. (The Two Doctors)
Marie Curie – The Doctor knew Madame Curie intimately. (Doctor Who)
Sir Francis Drake – The Elizabethan adventurer was a friend of the Doctor’s. (Four to Doomsday)
Edward VII – The Doctor knew Elizabeth II’s great grandfather in Paris. (Inferno)
Elizabeth I – The Doctor attended his future wife’s coronation. (The Curse of Peladon)
Albert Einstein – The Doctor did try to explain to the German-born physicist why his special theory of relativity wasn’t right, but the scientist wouldn’t listen. (The Stones of Blood) We later see him meet Einstein in Time and the Rani and Death Is the Only Answer. We also learn that Einstein leant the Doctor his toothbrush – which was eventually exterminated by the Daleks.
Pierre de Fermat – The mathematician got killed in a duel before he had a chance to write down his real Theorem – and all because the Doctor slept in. (The Eleventh Hour)
Benjamin Franklin – The Doctor helped his mate Ben discover electricity. In the process he got rope burns from the kite, soaked and electrocuted. (Smith and Jones)
Sigmund Freud – The Doctor met the psychologist at some point before his seventh regeneration. (Doctor Who)
Gilbert and Sullivan – The light opera writers once gave the Doctor a coat. (The Edge of Destruction)
Hannibal – The Doctor confused the Brigadier with Hannibal after his third regeneration. (Robot)
Henry VIII – The Doctor’s future father-in-law threw a parson’s nose at the First Doctor and the Doctor threw it back, ending up in the Tower of London for his troubles. Of course, it was all a ruse as the TARDIS was locked away in the Tower. (The Sensorites) Years later, Rory Williams would leave his mobile phone charger in Henry VIII’s en-suite. (A Town Called Mercy)
Harry Houdini – The Doctor picked up a few tricks from the famous escapologist. (Planet of the Spiders, Revenge of the Cybermen)
Thomas Huxley – ‘Darwin’s bulldog’ was an old friend of the Doctor’s. (Logopolis)
Thomas Jefferson – The Doctor thought that Jefferson, along with two of his fellow American Founding Fathers, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, were lovely fellows. He also claimed that two of them fancied him. (The Impossible Astronaut)
Janis Joplin – The singer gave the Doctor the coat worn by his tenth incarnation. (Gridlock)
David Lloyd George – The British Prime Minister used to drink the Doctor under the table. (Aliens of London)
Michelangelo – The Doctor claimed the Renaissance painter whinged all the time he was painting the Sistine Chapel. (Vincent and the Doctor)
Mao Tse-Tung – The Chinese communist gave the Doctor leave to use his personal name. (The Mind of Evil)
Horatio Nelson – A close personal friend of the Doctor’s. (The Sea Devils)
Issac Newton – The Doctor tried to help the English scientist discover gravity by climbing up a tree and dropping apples on his head. When Newton told him to clear off the Doctor explained gravity over dinner. (The Pirate Planet)
Madame Nostradamus – The wife of the French seer knitted the Fourth Doctor’s scarf. She was a witty little knitter. (The Ark in Space)
Emily Pankhurst – The suffragette stole the Doctor’s laser spanner. (Smith and Jones)
Fred Perry – The Doctor has a pair of the tennis legend’s shorts. (The Power of Three)