Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe

Just as characters from other fictional universes have appeared in the Doctor Who Universe, elements of the Doctor Who Universe, have (for the most part, unofficially), appeared in other continuities.

Partial list

Television

• Get Off My Cloud, the final episode of the third season of the BBC's anthology series Out of the Unknown was partly set in the subconscious mind of a science-fiction writer and featured in-character appearances by the Daleks as fictional creations inside the mind of the writer. (The episode's designer was Raymond Cusick, who was earlier responsible for the original Dalek design.)

• Arrivederci Roma, the first episode of the first season of Channel 4's comedy series Chelmsford 123, showed the TARDIS materializing in the background of one scene, the Doctor briefly stepping outside before going back in and dematerializing.

• The Fourth Doctor has appeared several times in The Simpsons.

• Green Courage, an episode of Fox Kids' children action series Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, featured an on-screen note claiming that a meteoroid field that had just collided with a planet was located at "ten zero eleven zero zero by zero two from galactic zero," in the constellation of Kasterborous. These are the same coordinates as stated in Pyramids of Mars as the location of Gallifrey.

Comics

Marvel UK

• Marvel UK created a number of characters who appeared in various titles owned by the company, including Doctor Who Magazine (which was later re-named Doctor Who Monthly). The characters of the Special Executive (troubleshooters employed by the Time Lords, who had appeared in 4-D War and Black Sun Rising) appeared with Captain Britain in the "Jaspers' Warp" storyline written by the Special Executive's creator, Alan Moore.

• The Doctor Who comics version of Merlin also appeared briefly in Captain Britain in a sequence demonstrating that Merlin had several alternate appearances and personalities that he could adopt as he saw fit. The Doctor has also appeared in cameos in several prose novels based in the Marvel Universe.

• The Seventh Doctor guest-starred in Death's Head's comic book from Marvel UK. Death's Head himself interacted with mainstream superheroes from the Marvel Universe, which provides an indirect link between the mainstream Marvel Universe and the Doctor Who Universe.

DC/Wildstorm

The Wildstorm title Albion, scripted by Leah Moore and plotted by her father, Alan Moore, featured a Cyberman and also an Ice Warrior. It is unclear whether the Cyberman was meant to be 'real' or a costume. (The scene was set in an SF-themed bar, but the 'real' Robot Archie is also on display.) Like The Establishment, which featured a Doctor Who pastiche characer, Albion was deeply rooted in English popular culture.

2000 AD

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 the actor Tom Baker being murdered by Scottish nationalist demons. This would appear to undermine the frequent suggestion by Caballistics, Inc fans that the series is unofficially set in the Doctor Who universe.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Alan Moore's crossover series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen links the Silurians are related to Creature from the Black Lagoon. Additionally, the TARDIS appears in the background of volume three.

Prose

• Barbara Hambly's Star Trek novel Ishmael contains a number of references to Doctor Who and a cameo appearance of the Fourth Doctor and Leela.

• Lady Jennifer Buckingham from The War Games appears in the second volume of Kim Newman's crossover-intensive Anno Dracula universe. Charles Beauregard, the hero of several Anno Dracula stories, is referred to in All-Consuming Fire. One of Newman's books in the Dark Future series makes references to an alternative timeline, ultra-nationalist pro-English version of the Doctor Who television series in which the Doctor makes visits to famous events in English history while fighting off extraterrestrial threats to the Crown. Newman's Life's Lottery, a playful exploration of the concept of alternate universes, references Inferno in some detail (and a character fantasises somewhat colourfully about Jo Grant).

• Michael Moorcock, an admirer of Doctor Who, had "Doctor Who" and a Dalek appear, amongst many other fictional characters, in his The Condition of Muzak.

• Richard Calder's Dead trilogy features numerous dark alternative time lines involved in a sex war between men and woman, at least one featuring a version of Doctor Who. The last scene of the final volume, Dead Things, shows the young protagonist watching a scene of the "Daleks exterminating the slave girls of Skaro" on television.

• The Red Dwarf novels have a number of references. Kryten, for example, owns a Sonic Screwdriver.

See also

• Doctor Who pastiches