Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe/2010s

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 2010s.

Television

• The YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History had a battle come out in 2012 with the title Doc Brown vs. Doctor Who in which the scientist Doctor Emmett Brown (played by MC Mr. Napkins) battles against the Doctor in both his 10th incarnation (played by Nice Peter) and his 4th incarnation (played by George Watsky) with cameos from Marty McFly (played by EpicLLOYD) and a Dalek (played by Matt Sherin (physical) and Dante Cimadamore (voice)). A number of references are made:
  • The Doctors rap inside their respective TARDISes (which change interior as they change appearance).
  • The Dalek exterminates the 10th Doctor who regenerate into the 4th Doctor.
  • Doc Brown disses the Whovian fandom and the classic special effects.
  • The Doctor mentions effects of time travelling, the fact that he's saving the world and uses the term dilly-dally.
  • As the 10th Doctor regenerates into the 4th Doctor, he hears voices calling out "Doctor".
  • The Doctor protests being called "Doctor Who", preferring "the Doctor".
  • Doc Brown mentions the Doctor's numerous companions.
  • The Doctor mentions his infinite number of me[s].
  • As the battle ends, it travels back in time to the beginning of the battle, and as the battle begins, the Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver to tune out.
    • In the 2013 battle Hitler vs. Vader 3, the 4th Doctor appears on an airborne speeder on the planet Tattoine from Star Wars alongside other battle-characters Leonidas and Macho Man Randy Savage. In the 2013 battle Bob Ross vs. Pablo Picasso, the 4th Doctor appears on a channel of an old television in the middle of his end-verse. In the 2015 battle Lewis and Clark vs Bill and Ted, Lewis says "Now go back in time and give Doctor Who his phone booth back!" while a TARDIS appears.
• In the last episode of season two of The Librarians, the Librarian talks about time travel and a cloth is lifted away by Cassandra Cillian to show the TARDIS as a broken down artefact in a room full of time travelling artefact such as the Delorean from Back to the Future.
• In an episode of the Disney Channel series, I Didn't Do It, a guest actor appears dressed as Matt Smith at a kids' party in order to best the super hero costume wearing regular...with a sonic screwdriver in his hand.
• In House, Season 7 Episode 11, Dr. Taub mentions that he is awake at night watching TV at 3am because that's when Classic Doctor Who is playing on the BBC.
• In one episode of Liv & Maddie, Liv tries to get into the Brain Olympics by showing people that she's smart and references time travel. "He doesn't believe in time travel and he's like Doctor who?"
• In House of Anubis (which featured Mina Anwar, Paul Antony-Barber and Rodger Barclay), the character Alfie Lewis had a 12" remote control Dalek and 2 12" figures in his bedroom; one was of a new series Cyberman and the other was of Dalek Sec as a Human-Dalek after he had merged with Diagoras.
• The iCarly episode iPear Store introduces the character Trey as a romantic interest for the titular character, and then has the two go into a brief rendition of the "Who's on First?" sketch after Trey reveals that he's going to watch a Doctor Who marathon on television.
• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has made a number of references to Doctor Who. In the episode The Hub, a model TARDIS can be seen on top of a desk. In The Only Light in the Darkness, when the agents are asked the first thing they would like to see if stranded on an island, Jemma Simmons responds "the TARDIS." In other episodes, a holographic Dalek head can be seen on the Holo-table, and an image of a Dalek is displayed on Leo Fitz's monitor. In the season 5 episode 'Together or Not at All', Jemma Simmons says 'Allons-y' (The Tenth Doctor's catchphrase) in response to Leo Fitz saying 'Once more unto the breach' (William Shakespeare originally said this, but it is also something the Tenth Doctor says in The Shakespeare Code).
• In one episode of Orphan Black, a picture of the TARDIS is seen in the background.
• In Insecurity, a March 2012 episode of Young Justice, a police box, clearly looking like the Doctor's TARDIS, is seen as one of the ends of a Zeta-Beam conduit. A character enters the box and teleports to the Cave, the main setting for the heroes of the series. The design of the police box is comparatively detailed. It looks like the TARDIS as seen in The War Machines, because it bears an "out of order" sign. It's unclear how Warner Bros. would have been able to use the police box design legally. The appearance was not clearly parodic nor was it even historically accurate. The scene was set in America and the DC universe had never previously established the existence of British police boxes in the United States.
• In the English dub for the 2011 anime Steins;Gate, Makise Kurisu, while in a conference discussing the possibility of time travel, mentions that while the idea of travelling through time in a little blue box may be charming, it (time travel) is completely impossible.
• In 2016 animated Disney show Milo Murphy's Law the main character is a fan of a show called Dr. Zone's Files which depicts an oddly dressed time-travelling alien and is said to be running for 50 years, going through various incarnations. In the 2017 feature-length special "Missing Milo", part of the plot concerns the recovery of Dr. Zone's missing black-and-white pilot episode from 1965.
• In Cartoon Network's Regular Show, the 2015 Halloween Special, "Terror Tales of the Park V", has the character Pops dressed up as the Fourth Doctor. In the 2016 short "Robot Rap Battle", bronze robots resembling eyeless, legged Daleks are among the audience members attending the titular event.
• The 2017 DuckTales reboot, having cast David Tennant as the voice of Scrooge McDuck, dropped many allusions to time-travel, the intentionality of which was confirmed by showrunner (and noted Whovian) Francisco Angones on Twitter. Among them is Scrooge's ownership of a time machine disguised as a grandfather clock (like the Master's TARDIS) and his ironic distaste for time-travelers in the 2018 Christmas special Last Christmas, whose title is, of course, shared with an earlier Doctor Who Christmas special. The series also cast Catherine Tate (who played a one of the companions of Tennant's Doctor) as the villainous Magica De Spell, a decision which the filmmakers later confirmed was partially spurred by the knowledge that Tennant and Tate verifiably had "great chemistry" together.
• In The Venture Bros., the TARDIS appears in season 5, owned by St Cloud.
• The favourite television series of Hugo the Duck from 2017 Netflix show Julie's Greenroom is Doctor Who. In addition, Hugo only speaks Duck, which another character can understand because he learned it at a performing arts school.
• In Detentionaire, the cloning room Lee and Biffy found is similar to the genius room.
• The 2017 episode of The Thundermans entitled Save the Past Dance features a time machine known as the Time Share, which possesses a button that allows it to blend into whatever time period it visits in a manner reminiscent to the TARDIS chameleon circuit.
• Several references to Doctor Who were made in the 2019 miniseries Good Omens, which starred David Tennant alongside Michael Sheen (with Derek Jacobi also putting in a cameo):
  • the name of Gallifrey is briefly glimpsed among the planets where Crowley (Tennant) considers taking refuge to escape the end of the world;
  • a brief exchange sees Adam Young and his friends chatting about how odd it is that aliens in so-called "real" U.F.O. encounters only ever talk about cosmic harmony, which leads into Brian remarking that aliens would be more likely to say “Exterminate” (a word the child pronounces in a clear impression of a Dalek voice);
  • in his first scene, the character of Newton Pulsifer is wearing a necktie patterned after the Fourth Doctor's notorious scarf, which, according to costume designer Claire Anderson, is meant to be a hint that the character is himself a Doctor Who fan;
  • Adam's father's car's license plate can briefly be seen to read "SID RAT" — a backwards-spelling of TARDIS, also notoriously used in The War Games as the name of the War Lords' own time machines.
• In the Cobra Kai episode "Pulpo", Demitri talks to Eli about the new series of Doctor Who, how Steven Moffat isn't the showrunner anymore and that the new Doctor is "badass".
• Near the conclusion of the 2017 finale of The Flash, Cisco Ramone makes a request over a walkie-talkie to "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".
• In the Lucifer episode "The One with the Baby Carrot", Lucifer (played by Tom Ellis) is called "Doctor Who" by a comedian due to his British accent.
• In the Rick & Morty episode "The Rickchurian Mortycide", when a character says that Rick isn't a god, he responds "you don't know what I am, or what I can do! I'm Doctor Who in this motherf*cker!"
• In the Bob's Burgers episode Tweentrepreneurs, Mr. Frond mentions that he once had a thriving Etsy store that sold hand-knitted Doctor Who scarves, until he received a cease and desist letter.
• In an episode of Supergirl, Winn is required to quickly hack a computer and compares the situation to Doctor Who. In the second episode of the series, Alex Danvers uses the codenames "Greyhound" and "Trap" in reference to the code names used by UNIT in Day of the Daleks.
• The Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race episode "Hello and Dubai" features a robot heavily resembling a Dalek, called the "Tennis Menace". It shoots tennis balls at players and shouts "PARTICIPATE!".
• In the 2019 continuation of the 1996 TV show The Demon Headmaster (which both featured Terrence Hardiman), the Prime Minister said "Exterminate" when he saw the robot Tyler had created.
• In Criminal Minds season 8 episode 23, Penelope Garcia, the BAU teams technical analyst, tells the team that she "found something stranger than a time-travelling police box". One episode shows Garcia and Dr. Reid dressed as the Eleventh and Fourth Doctors. In another, Reid defends Doctor Who after comparisons with Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure calling it "Bill & Ted's Excellent Ripoff"
• In an episode of ABC Family's The Fosters, Callie and Mariana are at a party. At one point, Mariana is talking to a girl in a room that has black light. Graffiti is seen glowing on the wall behind the girls and right between their heads are the words "Bad Wolf" printed above a non-detailed drawing of what appears to be the TARDIS.
• In the television cartoon, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there is a recurring background earth pony named Dr. Hooves (formerly "Time Turner" and "Doctor Whooves") who bears a resemblance to the Tenth Doctor. His cutie mark is an hourglass. In the episode "The Super Speedy Cider Sqeezy 6000", Dr. Hooves can be seen wearing a tie similar to the Tenth Doctor's and operating an elaborate hourglass. Another reference is seen on one of the covers of the official comic, in which Dr. Hooves can be seen wearing the Fourth Doctor's scarf, holding the fob watch, and standing in front of a statue that resembles a Weeping Angel, and a street light that bears a resemblance to the TARDIS. On top of all his official trading card says "Time Turner keeps Ponyville's clocks in sync, sets the hourglass for cider competitions, and takes care of all things timey-wimey." In the season 2 episode, "Sweet and Elite", pony versions of the Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Doctors are seen attending a party with Dr. Hooves. In the episode "One Bad Apple", Dr. Hooves wears a pear costume and a polka-dotted bowtie. It's also worth noting that various forms of the Doctor and possibly the Master have been seen in pony form. In the episode "It's Not Easy Being Breezies", he can be seen walking with a pony bearing a rose cutie mark while wearing 3D glasses. Dr. Hooves is among several background characters to take centre stage in the series' 100th episode, "Slice of Life", where his scientific background is explored. In "A Royal Problem", he has a bad dream about a statue. Official merchandise of Dr. Hooves such as t-shirts and collectable figures have been licensed by Hasbro.

Films

• In the Pixar film Cars 2, while a British spy trapped in the Big Ben was attempting to "turn back time" (as in the clock), she said, "If I can just reverse the polarity..." This was the Third Doctor's catchphrase.
• In Theory of Everything there are two Doctor Who references.
  • After Stephen is toasted for becoming an "esteemed and formidable Doctor...," someone says "Who?"
  • Stephen rolls around on his wheelchair with a paper bag on his head, typing/saying EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE. In real-life, Stephen Hawking is a major Whovian.

One of Pat's replacements acts rather like a Dalek. (Postman Pat: The Movie)

• In the 2014 film The Postman Pat Movie (which features David Tennant), one of Pat's replacements resembled and acted like a Dalek, though it was never technically identified as such.
• In the internet safety short film Caught on the Web (which also featured David Tennant), a Dalek poster could be seen inside the main character's bedroom.
• Hiro, the main character of the 2014 Walt Disney animated film Big Hero 6, can at one point be observed to have an action figure of a Dalek on his shelf.
• In the film A Street Cat Called Bob (which featured Anthony Head, Nina Wadia, Sasha Dickens, Cleopatra Dickens, Rob Jarvis, Jill Winternitz, Daniel Fearn and Frances Ashman), when one of the characters created a scarf for the titular character, she referred to him being "Doctor Who's twin".
• In the 2018 film Bumblebee, one of the posters on Memo's room's wall is of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor (a still/set photo from The Stones of Blood).
• In A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon:
  • The Fourth Doctor's sonic screwdriver appeared in Lu-La's storage locker.
  • One of the Sheep with Shaun is dressed as a Dalek.
  • A man appeared dressed as the Fourth Doctor.

Audio

Bleak Expectations

• In Bleak Expectations, series 4 episode 6, Harry Biscuit's childhood asthma comes back when they travel back in time, sounding just like the TARDIS. This is one of a number of references to fictional time travel in this episode, such as "88 camomiles per hour".

Prose

• In The Serpent's Shadow, the British character Sadie tried to create a Shabti out of a Thermos, which resulted in it flying around, yelling "Exterminate". In another part of this series, a challenge posed to Sadie is completed by stalling a huntress with tales of "fearsome" jelly babies, similar to the Fourth Doctor.

Comics

Out-of-universe references

• An episode of The Big Bang Theory had a copy of Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The 2017 Yearbook on Sheldon's table.
• The 13 May 2010 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is titled "Doctor Who."
• In the 20 August 2010 episode of Eureka on SyFy ("Stoned") Zane, while searching through government files mentions TARDIS blueprints as something he might be searching for.
• The 2017 sitcom One Day At A Time references Doctor Who in its second series. In the episode Locked Down, teenage daughter Elena and her friend Syd are preparing to attend Comic Con, dressed as the Fourth Doctor and the TARDIS respectively. The episodes includes jokes about Doctor Who, and the TARDIS costume is later used as a hiding place by another character.
• In New Dimensions, a 2017 episode of The Orville, Captain Ed Mercer uses "Doctor Who's phone booth" as an analog to a "quantum bubble" which will theoretically preserve a shuttle's interior dimensions while its exterior dimensions are compressed.

Disney Comics

• Scrooge McDuck writer and artist Don Rosa created Ducktor Who and Tardis for Sale in 2012 and 2015, where his version of Scrooge comes into possession of the TARDIS and uses it to travel to his past, before selling it away at a "used TARDIS lot".
• In one 2018 Italian-produced comic story, a flashback panel to Flintheart Glomgold's scientists' numerous attempts to develop a working time machine feature the Fourth Doctor and the TARDIS among the crowd (as well as Back to the Future’s Doc Brown and his DeLorean).

DC Comics/Wildstorm

• In Blue Beetle Vol 10 9, Teri Magnus is led by Doctor Fate to the Tower of Fate. Upon arriving, Teri notices the tower is bigger on the inside. Then, she recalls the concept is named dimensional transcendentalism, "just like on Doctor Who", to which Doctor Fate responds "Doctor who?".

Marvel

• In All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol 1 6 released in 2016, Miles Morales mentions Doctor Who to Thor as an example in explaining how leaving the second Mjolnir will be found by future-Captain America and future-Thor and uses the phrase "timey-wimey stuff".

IDW Publishing

• In issue 19 of IDW Publishing's Sonic the Hedgehog series, E-123 Omega, a robot character, exclaims "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" while fighting off zombots.

Video games

Borderlands 2

• A random citizen will sometimes say "I'm missing the new episode of Constable What!", a parody of Doctor Who.
• After blowing up the dam in a mission, Jack will list four names of workers killed in the flooding, all of which are the names of the first four actors playing the Doctor in Doctor Who. These are William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, and Tom Baker.
• At the beginning of the game Claptrap is injured and states that he must find a Doctor, then turns away to say "Allons-y!", a catchphrase by the 10th Doctor.
• The NPCs constantly knocking on walls in Sanctuary seem to be doing so in a similar beat and fashion to the subliminally-controlled humans in the Doctor Who episode "The Sound of Drums." The Master also refers to Captain Jack Harkness as "Handsome Jack" in that episode.
• ECHOs found in Lynchwood bandits named 'John' and 'Barrowman' reference Doctor Who and Torchwood actor John Barrowman, who plays Jack Harkness.
• There is a skin for Maya called Rose Tailor, a play on Rose Tyler.
• In the Bloodshot Ramparts, there is a small platform aside a crane that has a teddy bear with a bow tie and 3-D glasses, referring to both the 10th and the 11th Doctor.
• Hyperion robots can often be heard uttering "Deleted!" which is a popular phrase of the Cybermen.
• In the character selection screen, CL4P-TP sometimes says, "I need to pee," which will trigger him to go into the outhouse. Said outhouse will then vanish, and pop back up, much in the same manner of the Doctor's TARDIS.
• The character Maya was given to the Order of the Impending Storm, a play off of the nickname Oncoming Storm, given to the Doctor by the Daleks.
• During the final mission in which you kill Handsome Jack. He has a pocket watch which reveals his true identity, similar to the Fob Watch owned by Time Lords.
• During the Quest “Fake Geek Guy” in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina asks Mr. Torgue a question which is a clear reference to Doctor Who. The question she asks is: “In the 23rd episode of the 15th season of Blue Box Adventures. What is the name of the ship that abducts the Blue Box?”

Fallout New Vegas

• In the Z-43 Innovative Toxins Plant in one building, a man in a suit with a skeleton rather than a head says, "Hey, who turned out the lights?" referring to the episode Silence in the Library.
• An NCR Emergency Radio Broadcast references The Doctor, and the BBC. ("Bravo Bravo Charlie, the Doctor is coming")

High School Story

• In the Quest It's a Winterful Life part 5, Nishan, when asking if anything unusual happened to your main character lately, asks if you have "met a handsome doctor in a blue booth?"

House Party

• One bit of ambient dialogue by the character Lety references the TARDIS when she says "Soooo .... anyone check out my bag? It's very colorful, and kinda has a whole Doctor Who thing going on where it's bigger on the inside! Very video-gamey, the more I think about it ..."

Terraria

• There is a clothing set available to buy from the clothier on the day after a full moon called "The Doctor's set" which consists of a bow-tie and tweed jacket top along with dark blue pants, a reference to the Eleventh Doctor's outfit.
• A fez can be purchased from the Travelling Merchant for 3 gold and 50 silver. Its item description says, "Fezzes are cool", a reference to the Eleventh Doctor's affinity for fezzes.

Westerado

Stone angels are scattered around Westerado.

• There is a building called the "Buffalo Express" which resembles the TARDIS, (Tiny on the outside, bigger on the inside)
• The player also says "Wibbly Wobbly...", which is then finished off by the postman who says " Timey Wimey, yes."
• Stone angels are scattered around the map, all of them look as if they're weeping.
• The player can also go up to a stone angel, which will show a text box saying, " Is it... weeping?" However, this will only work on certain stone angels.

Out-of-universe references

A Doctor Who poster is seen in Toby's room. (Tracy Beaker Returns)

• In the TV series Tracy Beaker Returns (which featured John Bell, Richard Wisker, Tracy Ann Oberman, Holli Dempsey, Michael Jayston, Callum Gallaghan and Wayne Cater) Toby (one of the main characters) had a Doctor Who poster in his room.
  • It also gained a spin-off called The Dumping Ground (which has featured David Avery, Simon Ludders, Victoria Alcock, Ian Reddington, Michelle Collins, Pik-Sen Lim, Sheila Hancock, Carmen Munroe, Darren Morfitt, Simon Rouse, Chris Finch, Kemi-Bo Jacobs, Warwick Davis, Geff Francis, Nigel Planer and Louise Jameson). In the beginning of one episode, some of the kids were playing a game of Who Am I? and one of them (Ryan) was Doctor Who. Part of another episode was centred around answering questions based on a homemade scene based on Doctor Who.
• An episode of The Big Bang Theory had a copy of Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The 2017 Yearbook on Sheldon's table.
• The 13 May 2010 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is titled "Doctor Who."
• In the American comedy See Dad Run, Joe (one of the main characters) was going to a sci-fi convention to meet his hero the Time Lord, an inter-galactic dimension jumper who travels in a cosmic elevator and wears a bowtie.
• In the 20 August 2010 episode of Eureka on SyFy ("Stoned") Zane, while searching through government files mentions TARDIS blueprints as something he might be searching for.
• The 2017 sitcom One Day At A Time references Doctor Who in its second series. In the episode Locked Down, teenage daughter Elena and her friend Syd are preparing to attend Comic Con, dressed as the Fourth Doctor and the TARDIS respectively. The episodes includes jokes about Doctor Who, and the TARDIS costume is later used as a hiding place by another character.
• During Where Do You Belong?, a song from the Mean Girls musical, Damian says the mathletes are all "college applications and Doctor Who quotations".