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The Beatles were a music group from Liverpool during the 1960s and 1970s, considered one of if not the most influential musical congregations of the second half of the 20th century.
A number of the Doctor's companions wanted to meet the Beatles, though the Doctor lamented that nobody ever wants to meet Ringo Starr. (VG: City of the Daleks)
20th century
During the early 1960s, the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble went to see them. A starstruck Donna had the band sign a CD which had songs on it which they had yet to record. (DWM: The Time of My Life)
The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond traveled to 1963 to meet the Beatles but were diverted into an alternate timeline created by the Daleks. After escaping it, the Doctor took them to see Ringo (Amy had wanted to see John Lennon). (VG: City of the Daleks)
In 1965, the Beatles performed "Ticket to Ride" at Riverside Studios. The First Doctor, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and Vicki observed the performance on the Time-Space Visualiser. (DW: The Chase)
The Tenth Doctor took Donna Noble back in time to see the Beatles perform live. She ended up having them sign an album they hadn't made at the time. (DWM: The Time of My Life)
In 1969, Ace prevented Huitzilin from killing the Beatles on the roof of the Apple building on Abbey Road. (NA: The Left-Handed Hummingbird) The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones attempted, unsuccessfully, to attend the same concert. (IDW: Black Death White Life) At some point during the concert, time distortion from the Rift Manipulator transported the Beatles to the roof of the same building in the 21st century. (TW: End of Days)
In 1970, Paul left the Beatles. They acquired two new members, Billy and Klaus. (PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)
- Although not explicitly identified as such, these were presumably Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann.
Mark David Chapman, manipulated by Huitzilin, shot ex-Beatle John Lennon outside his hotel on 8th December 1980. (NA: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)
21st century and after
By the 25th century, a museum dedicated to them existed in their home town of Liverpool. Vicki knew of them but had not realized that they played what she referred to as classical music. (DW: The Chase)
Almost nothing was known of the Beatles in the 26th century. (BFBS: The Dead Men Diaries)
Further in the future, the DJ on Necros had posters of several of the Beatles in his recording studio. (DW: Revelation of the Daleks)
Song references
- "Paperback Writer" and "Do You Want To Know a Secret?" played in the background of cafés visited by the Doctor, (DW: The Evil of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) as did The Beatles's recording of A Taste of Honey. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- Vicki knew all the words to The Beatles' first LP. Barbara questioned if this was something a young woman should know. (ST: 1963)
- Jo quoted "I Am the Walrus", after the Third Doctor said, "I am he and he is me," she replied, "and we are all together, goo-goo-goo-joob?" She explained it was a song by The Beatles, to which the Second Doctor questioned how it went, with intention to play it on his recorder. (DW: The Three Doctors)
- The Seventh Doctor references a song by the group in saying "It's been a hard day's night", as a dinner party in Gabriel Chase. (DW: Ghost Light)
Alternative timelines
Fitz Kreiner saw the Beatles perform at Live Aid in an alternative 1985 in which they never broke up in 1970. (Fitz collected alternate timeline Beatles records during his travels with the Eighth Doctor.) (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
Behind the scenes
Appearance in The Chase
The Beatles were to have filmed an in-studio cameo for The Chase in which they played elderly versions of themselves, circa 1996, playing at the Festival of Ghana. Their manager, Brian Epstein, however, forbade this. Had this happened, it would have created an anachronism, given the early death of John Lennon.
Ironically, given the loss of many Doctor Who episodes to the BBC's policy of erasing old episodes, the clip of a live performance of the Beatles singing "Ticket to Ride" only survives because of its use in the first episode of The Chase. It originated from a 1965 Top of the Pops episodes which no longer exists in the BBC Archives. Because the production team for the story sourced the clips from this episode, this makes this the only known surviving footage of that performance currently known to exist.
The Beatles continuing after 1970
The reference in PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune suggesting the Beatles continued as a group with new members after 1970 suggests that story might take place in an alternate timeline or reality, or that in the Whoniverse the history of the Beatles progressed differently than in the real world. This is also supported by the reference to an alternate-timeline version of the Beatles in EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles that never broke up and were still performing in 1985.
Use of songs in Doctor Who stories
As mentioned above, The Evil of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks originally had the Beatles songs "Paperback Writer" and "Do You Want to Know A Secret?", retrospectively, as background music. Rights issues, however, caused complications for the BBC. The audio release of the former story edited out the song, while the video release of Remembrance replaced the original with a cover version. Since "Ticket to Ride" appears so prominently in The Chase, the appearance of the song in that story accounts in part for the delay in releasing that story onto DVD.
In March 2010, The Chase was finally released to DVD in Region 2 (Europe) with the "Ticket to Ride" sequence intact. However, it was later announced that despite the clip originating from a BBC programme, that permission could not be obtained for the sequence to be included in non-European releases of the story, which has resulted in the master being used for Region 1 (North America) and Region 4 (Australia and region) being edited to remove the sequence.[1] A less-obvious edit occurred with the DVD release of Remembrance of the Daleks which saw the Beatles recordings heard on its soundtrack replaced by versions by other artists.
Maxwell Edison, a recurring character and occasional companion of various incarnations of the Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, is named after the lead character in "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".
See also
