Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe/2000s

Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe by decade

Occasionally, elements of the Doctor Who universe are referenced in the broader popular culture. This page exists to throw a spotlight on some of these casual references made in television, comics, films and other media which happened during the 2000s.

In-universe references

These references functionally act as minor, unlicensed crossovers between the series and the DWU: some element of the Doctor Who universe makes a cameo, or is referenced, in such a way as to imply that it is real in the world of the story, or indeed that the story itself "unofficially" takes place in the Doctor Who universe.

Television

A Dalek appears in Better Off Ted.

• In the fifth episode of the second season of the ABC television series Better Off Ted, the scientists Phil and Lem name the small robot designed to clean up spills in their laboratory Chumbley. This is the name that Vicki Pallister gives the robots that she, Steven Taylor and the First Doctor encounter in Galaxy 4. Later in the same episode, Phil and Lem enter a room full of used robot parts. A Dalek can be seen clearly in the corner nearest the door.
• In one episode of American Dad!, set on a spacecraft, a Dalek and several sonic screwdrivers can be seen in the background.
• Several episodes of the 2008 series The Middleman include references to elements of the Doctor Who universe or lines from the TV series. In one episode a character is identified as "Lethbridge-Stewart". Only twelve episodes were produced, with the decision made not to produce a thirteenth. That episode, The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalpyse, also contained several references to Doctor Who, most notably having the Middleman recite the First Doctor's farewell speech to Susan Foreman in The Dalek Invasion of Earth ("There must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties..."). The script for this unmade episode was performed by the cast in a "read through" at the 2009 San Diego ComicCon, and adapted into a graphic novel by Viper Comics, both with the Doctor's speech intact. Given the series' acknowledged debt to Doctor Who, the fact that the lead character is never referred to by name, only as "the Middleman", is probably a reference to the fact that the Doctor's real name is never revealed. (The final episode, however, does reveal the Middleman's real name.)

Dr. Lazer Rage. (The Sarah Silverman Program)

• • In the 2009 Christmas special of My Family, as a meta reference, a future version of Susan Harper (played by Zoë Wanamaker) makes several references to "moisturising", winking to the viewer as she does, a nod to Wanamaker's Doctor Who character.
• In the episode "The Suite Smell of Excess" (2006) of the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, the title characters travelled to a parallel universe via a phone box called the the P.U. (Parallel Universaliser).
• The Heartbeat episode "State of Mind" contains a subplot in which David Stockwell deals with a police box that he claims keeps mysteriously disappearing.
• One short skit in Season 2 of the satirical stop-motion animated series Robot Chicken, entitled "Do You Get It?" (2006), featured the Fourth Doctor standing on first base in the middle of a baseball field. The skit ends with the Doctor asking the audience "do you get it?". The skit is a visual pun referencing the classic Abbott & Costello routine "Who's on first?": the joke being that (Doctor) Who's on first (base).
• In the American animated sitcom Family Guy, the Star Wars Episode IV spoof "Blue Harvest" (2007), incorporated footage from the Tom Baker-era opening credits in the scene in which the Millennium Falcon enters hyperspace.
• In the first episode of the seventh season of South Park, the scientist Jeff makes a discovery about the alien television production crew by "reversing the polarity".
• In the sixth and final episode of the second series of The Inbetweeners, titled Exam Time, saw the character Will McKenzie drink numerous energy drinks to keep him awake overnight to study for an impending politics exam. After noisily soiling himself during the exam, his friends joked about his new nickname becoming related to the incident, with Neil Sutherland calling him "Doctor Poo".

Audio

• In episode 2 of Big Finish's The Tomorrow People, The Deadliest Species, Stephen says to Tim, "You've redecorated. I like it." This is a reversal of the famous line from The Three Doctors, which would later recur multiple times in revived Doctor Who.

Prose

• In Christopher Paolini's novel, Brisingr (2008), a reference is made to a 'lonely god' 'adrift on the seas of time.' Paolini later admitted in the acknowledgements that he is a massive Doctor Who fan and that he believes the Doctor might have visited his world of Alagaësia at some point. In the sequel to this novel, Inheritance, the herbalist Angela begins to tell another character what she has inscribed on her blue hat- "Raxacori- Oh, never mind. It wouldn't mean anything to you anyway." Also, someone mentions having seen rooms that are bigger on the inside.

Comics

• The 2000 Donald Duck comic serial Lost in the Jungle saw Donald and his cousin Fethry meet a time traveller from the 27th century, whose time machine was bigger on the inside and travelled through a Time Vortex.
• Alan Moore's crossover series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen links the Silurians to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Additionally, the TARDIS appears in the background in The Black Dossier.
• The 2000AD strip Caballistics, Inc. features Doctor Who references so often that they are practically part of the series' format. However, it also depicted a character clearly intended to be Tom Baker being murdered by Scottish nationalist demons. (Although this would appear to undermine the frequent suggestion by Caballistics, Inc fans that the series is unofficially set in the Doctor Who universe, one should remember that more than one version of Tom Baker has been featured as an in-universe character in Who-related media.)

Jenny Everywhere

• The 2004 Jenny Everywhere one-page comic The Late Shift featured Jenny alluding to the Doctor as someone who got into even more trouble than her. This was jokingly proven by a panel where the Doctor's TARDIS was seen to materialise in front of a firing squad seconds from shooting, moments after Jenny had escaped from that same predicament.
• The 2004 Jenny Everywhere comic book When Casting Calls featured a back-cover illustration where Jenny was seen reading a book called the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Multiverse. This was of course primarily a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but the back cover and spine of Jenny's Guide had writing in what appeared to be in Circular Gallifreyan.

DC Comics/Wildstorm

• In JLA Classified Vol 1 1 (2005), Batman keeps a Dalek casing in his "Sci-Fi" closet, suggesting he faced and defeated a Dalek in the past.
• The Wildstorm title Albion (2005-06), scripted by Leah Moore and plotted by her father Alan Moore, featured a Cyberman and an Ice Warrior. It is unclear whether the Cyberman was meant to be "real" or a costume, as the scene was set in an SF-themed bar (although the "real" Robot Archie is also on display). Like The Establishment, which featured a Doctor Who pastiche character, Albion was deeply rooted in English popular culture.

Marvel

• In Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Vol 1 8 (2006), a story concerning paradoxes, alternate realities and time travel, the words "BAD WOLF" are graffitied on an alley wall.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Doctor and Rose — or at least lookalikes — appear in No Future For You.

• The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler can be seen in Part 1 of the Season 8 comic No Future for You (2007).

Video games

• In Team Fortress 2, a cosmetic item in the game called "Dr. Whoa" closely resembles the Eleventh Doctor's signature bow tie, with the meaning of the reference made clear by the name. Another cosmetic item called "the Chronoscarf" resembles the Fourth Doctor's scarf.
• In Wizard101, a quest called "The Five B.O.X.E.S. Event" featured a character called "The Professor" from outside the normal flow of time and his assistant "Rose Piper" as well as five "B.O.X.E.S.", that resemble a TARDIS in shape but is red in colour, and bigger on the inside and resembling the Ninth/Tenth Doctor's interior. "The Professor" dresses like multiple versions of the Doctor.
• In Roblox, the head accessory Goldbot Goldbot, released on 6 November 2009, has a close resemblance to the Cybusmen.

Out-of-universe references

These references are to Doctor Who (or one of its spin-offs) as works of fiction. They merely establish that fiction about the Doctor or the Daleks exists in the fictional universe of the story, as it does in the real world.

Television

• In the UK version of Queer as Folk (created by Russell T Davies), the character of Vince makes various references to Doctor Who in season 1. In episode 2 of season 2 (2000), Vince says, "I want to dematerialise, and step out on a different planet."

A door made to resemble the Doctor's TARDIS. (Spaced)

• The comedy Spaced (starring and written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes) features a comic book store. In "Change" (2001), the door to its backroom is painted to look like the TARDIS doors and is seemingly bigger on the inside.
• In Craig Charles' commentary in the British version of Takeshi's Castle, the watercannon-mounted dodgems the contestants take control of in the final Show Down challenge are commonly referred to as "dinky dodgem Daleks" or variations thereof.
• One episode of American Dad! features a cameo of a Doctor Who fan club. Most of its members wear scarves resembling that of the Fourth Doctor, while another member wears the Eighth Doctor's costume. A K9 prop also makes a cameo.
• In Still Standing, the son proves he's a better geek by mentioning every actor who played the Doctor.
• The pilot for the 2000 series The Invisible Man contains at least four references: A doctor named Troughton, a business card reading I.M. Foreman and a magazine cover with the headlines "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space!" and "Playing the game of Rassilon!".
• In "Nightshifter", an episode of the series Supernatural, a character is convinced that a "mandroid" is responsible for several crimes and holds up a magazine with a Cyberman on its cover to illustrate his point. In "The Girl Next Door", an episode of the series Supernatural, Sam confronts a Kitsune using the alias "Amy Pond".
• In one episode of The Sarah Silverman Program, one character (Brian Spukowski, played by Brian Posehn) buys a DVD boxset of a science-fiction show called Dr. Lazer Rage. He later feels regret at buying the expensive boxset. Ninth Doctor actor Christopher Eccleston makes a cameo as "Dr. Lazer Rage" coming to life on the cover of the box. In the same episode, one character calls another from a blue telephone box. Interestingly, this is the only example of Eccleston participating in a guest appearance that directly references and parodies his involvement in Doctor Who.

• In the final episode of The Vicar of Dibley, in which the titular character gets married, her bridesmaids were dressed as the Tenth Doctor and two Daleks.
• In an episode of the British TV series The Story of Tracy Beaker (which featured Ciaran Joyce, Sonny Muslim, Clive Rowe, Nisha Nayar, Morgan Hopkins, Roderick Smith, Richard Elfyn, Julian Lewis Jones, Madeleine Rakic-Platt, Simon Ludders, Phylip Harries, Gareth Wyn Griffiths, Amy Starling, Victoria Pugh, Brendan Charleson and Claire Cage), Elaine (who was played by Nayar and was one of the main characters) had tried driving the kids at the care home away from the TV by using a puppet theatre. After showing it to the kids and asking them what they thought it was, Rio (one of the kids) asked "Is it a TARDIS?".
• Doctor Who is referenced several times in episodes of The Big Bang Theory. In "The Dumpling Paradox" (2007), Sheldon tells Leonard that every Saturday, he awakens at 6:15am and watches Doctor Who. Later in the episode, he says that he will watch the last twenty-four minutes of Doctor Who, though at that point "it is more like 'Doctor Why Bother?'".
• The Heartbeat episode "The Long Weekend" has a moment in which PC Mike Bradley says "We've missed Doctor Who, but..." when trying to plan an evening at home for his troublemaking niece and her friend.
• In the episode "I Do Again" (2008) of Eureka, Zoe refers to her Aunt Lexi's boyfriend as her 'gorgeous Doctor WHO', meaning he's a doctor with the World Health Organisation, however, Vincent mistakes it as a reference to Doctor Who, exclaiming that he "loves the TV show".
• A 2009 episode of NCIS, "Power Down", includes the character of McGee comparing the unexpectedly spacious interior of a cargo container to the TARDIS. McGee briefly explains the meaning to his co-worker, DiNozzo, who replies with "Doctor Who - who watches that?"
• In the Lead Balloon episode "Karma," Rick Spleen believes he could put himself up for the part of the Doctor.
• In the comedy show Coupling (showrun by Steven Moffat), the character of Oliver runs a science fiction bookstore with a replica Dalek. In one scene he has a package that shouts 'Exterminate'.
• In the British comedy Genie in the House, Max (one of the main characters) ended up getting a portable reading lamp Philip (another of the main characters) had invented clamped to his head. He then remarked about why else he'd walk around looking like a Dalek, and that if he didn't find Philip soon he might as well exterminate him.
• Several episodes of Leverage reference Doctor Who. In "The Mile High Job" (2008) Nathan Ford is asked what ID's he has on him so that he can board an aeroplane. He replies, "I've got a Peter Davidson, Sylvester McCoy and a Tom Baker." Sophie adds, "I've got a Sarah Jane Baker." Hardison pronounces them man and wife. "The Bank Shot Job" (2009) had Hardison mentioning that he had been torrenting the latest episode of Doctor Who.
• In "Episode Five" (2009) of Misfits series 1, a UK sci-fi series, Simon Bellamy has a Dalek toy on his desk.
• In the Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance (2009-2011), two characters are trapped in a phone box and the title character asks why they built another time machine.
• In My Hero, the character of Tyler is a delusional man known for claiming that numerous fictional elements, including those from Doctor Who, are real:
  • In the 2002 episode "Baby Talk", he claims to baby Ollie Sunday that "Skaro, home of the Daleks" is one of the "seven planets" in Earth's solar system. He later claims to Ollie's father, George Sunday, that the Daleks "really exist, you know."
  • In the 2005 episode "Brain Drain", Tyler claims to an NHS inspector that he studied medicine "on the planet Gallifrey".
  • In the 2005 episode "Fear and Clothing", Tyler presents the so-called "lucky teaspoon of Gandor", which he claims "Dr. Who" once used "to jam up the wheels of a Dalek."
• Several episodes of The Simpsons referenced Doctor Who as in-universe fiction:
  • "Co-Dependent's Day" (2004): Two Daleks can be seen in the Galactic Senate in shots from the in-universe science-fiction film Cosmic Wars: The Gathering Shadow (a reference to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace).
  • "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" (2004): a man dressed as the Fourth Doctor can be seen at the Comic-Con.
  • "Springfield Up" (2007): Homer refers Declan Desmond as "Dr Who", stating "Check with me in 8 years, Doctor Who, I'll be kicking your ass with a golden boot!".
  • "Husbands and Knives" (2007): Comic Book Guy says: "Nice work, Doctor Boo-hoo" to Milhouse after his tears smear a Wolverine comic.
• The Season 2 Robot Chicken sketch entitled "Ogre Returns" (2006) shows a boy during show and tell showing his toy TARDIS and Fourth Doctor doll to his class explaining what "TARDIS" stands for, only to be interrupted by Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds who promptly shouts, "NERD!"
• The British comedy Outnumbered (2007-2014, 16) (which starred Claire Skinner, Samantha Bond, David Troughton and Mark Benton) has made several references to Doctor Who.
  • The first was when Ben (one of the main characters, played by Daniel Roche) ended up stating that he was scared of going to sleep. While listing all the stuff he could be scared of to his father, Pete, he asked, "What about those Krillitane bat-things from Doctor Who?"
  • In another episode, Pete and Jake (Ben's brother, and Pete's oldest son) were flipping through TV shows that Jake liked but Pete didn't approve of and ended up with Doctor Who Confidential, which Pete didn't like because he compared TV shows to pork pies; they're something people like but don't want to know what went through the making of it.
  • Ben later referenced it in a third episode when he walked into the kitchen, half-dressed as a Dalek, saying, "Doctor, there is no escape! Exterminate!".
• In the American animated sitcom Family Guy, the Season 7 episode "420" (2009) sees Brian state that ever since cannabis was legalised "crime is down, productivity is up and the ratings for Doctor Who is through the roof".

Prose

• The Bunny Suicides book Return of the Bunny Suicides (2004) involves a Doctor Who-themed suicide.
• In The Boy in the Dress (written by David Walliams), when the main character Dennis is asked to try on a dress for the first time, he feels like a Doctor Who companion about to step into the TARDIS for the first time. Later, he reminds his brother John about when they used to run around their garden pretending to be Daleks and Spiderman.

Video games

• In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney during the "Turnabout Serenade" case, if you examine the top hat in the Wright Anything Agency on the 2nd day, Trucy Wright states that her hat is "like a little universe! Bigger on the inside than on the outside!" At this, Apollo muses that this reminds him of a sci-fi show he used to watch.
• In Another Code: R, protagonist Ashley Mizuki Robbins has a device called the "TAS" that she uses to unlock locks, by aiming it at the lock and pressing the right sequence of buttons. Matthew, a young boy she befriends, frequently compares her to favourably to "the protagonist" on a science fiction TV show he watches who uses a similar item that can unlock any lock.