Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe/2020s

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 2020s.

Television

• In Staged (2020), David Tennant plays a fictionalised version of himself; he has a small TARDIS in his garden.
• In the episode "Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men" (2020) of season 2 of The Boys, the character Frenchie wears a t-shirt featuring a cat version of the Thirteenth Doctor.
• The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) was created by Doctor Who fan Mike Flanagan. Owen Sharma (Rahul Kohli) wore a bowtie and tweed jacket as an homage to the Eleventh Doctor. The final episode has the line "It's not a ghost story. It's a love story," which is a quote from Hide.
• In the episode "Down and Out" (2020) of The Expanse, "Who, Dr." is listed as one of Chrisjen Avasarala's contacts.
• Episode 4 of It's a Sin (2021) by Russell T Davies features the filming of Regression of the Daleks, a fiction 1988 serial of Doctor Who. The character Ritchie Tozer played Trooper Linden in the story. This is a tribute to Dursley McLinden, who played Mike Smith in Remembrance of the Daleks, raised money for AIDS-related charities, and died of the disease in 1995.
• In a 2020 episode of Holby City, John Barrowman and Jo Martin shared a scene as their characters Drew Nicholson-Heath and Max McGerry. In the scene, Nicholson-Heath briefly salutes McGerry and sarcastically remarks, "Doctor," referencing Martin's performance as an incarnation of the Doctor and in turn Barrowman's role as Jack Harkness (the both of them appeared in TV: Fugitive of the Judoon but did not share a scene). The scene was confirmed as an intentional reference in a behind-the-scenes video.

Prose

• In the novel Piranesi (2020) by Susanna Clarke, a research paper is mentioned: ‘Timey-Wimey: Steven Moffat, Blink and J. W. Dunne’s theories of Time’, Journal of Space, Time and Everything, Volume 64: 42–68, University of Minnesota Press.
• In the novel Later (2021) by Stephen King, Jamie Conklin doesn't think Torchwood is cool but watches it because he gets to stay up an hour past his bedtime.

Video games

• In a 2020 update to Marvel Contest of Champions, Cosmic Ghost Rider mentioned a TV show with an orange wormhole with catchy electronic music. He also paraphrases a line from Blink: "You see, people think time is a linear progression of cause to effect, when in reality it's more like a big ball of time--".
• Watch Dogs: Legion (2020) is set in a near-future London. A police box covered in graffiti is seen in an underground safehouse.

Web series

• The RealLifeLore video "If You Get Stranded in the Past, How to Tell What Year You’re In" induded the TARDIS as a time machine.
• Tom Scott's video "Why The Web Is Such A Mess" included a Vote Saxon poster. This video was posted on 23 November 2020, the 57th anniversary of Doctor Who.

News media

• A 2020 New York Times article titled "What to Expect From Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Election Day" included a graphic by Shira Inbar of three K9s representing Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.