Abbey Road was a London street which housed various famous music studios, including EMI Recording Studios, which was later known as Abbey Road Studios. The Abbey Road crossing, famous for being "just like the album cover", was located at an intersection with East Grove. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:48:12","1":"The Devil's Chord (TV story)"})
On 11 February 1963, when the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday went to see the Beatles recording their first album, the TARDIS landed on the side of Abbey Road. The Doctor and Ruby crossed the road at a nearby zebra crossing, excited about their surroundings. After the defeat of the god Maestro restored music to the world, the Doctor and Ruby crossed the street again while returning to the TARDIS, discovering that the crossing's painted bars lit up and played musical notes when trod upon. They had some fun with the effect before leaving. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])
On 30 January 1969, the Seventh Doctor landed the TARDIS on Abbey Road. Ace prevented Huitzilin from killing the Beatles during their rooftop concert at Savile Row. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird [+]Loading...["The Left-Handed Hummingbird (novel)"]) That same day, Owen Harper opened the Rift, the Beatles were seen performing on the roof of their studio in that street. (TV: End of Days [+]Loading...["End of Days (TV story)"])
When Lenny Kruger replaced the Beatles with them, the Common Men had "a great photo" taken there in either 1966 or '67. (AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men [+]Loading...["1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The cover of 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men has an homage to the Abbey Road album cover. A full version was also released as a promotional image.
On 19 September 2015, the same day the first episode of Series 9 of Doctor Who premiered, Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman performed a spoof of the famous cover of the Abbey Road album, featuring them as the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald, alongside two Daleks. The Doctor is in front, taking the same position as John Lennon, hands in his pockets, with his sonic sunglasses on. Clara can be seen in Paul McCartney's position, barefoot and pointing at her feet. In the background is a Volkswagen Beetle bearing the license plate "DWW 29IF".
The photo shoot also seemed to parody the urban legend surrounding the original album cover that there was symbolism indicating Paul McCartney had died. Clara had bare feet like Paul, and Paul's lack of shoes was taken as a sign he had expired - something that actually happens to Clara in Series 9. Furthermore, the "DWW 29IF" license plate on the Volkswagen was interpreted as "Doctor Who Weeps", and symbolically, Clara would be "29 if" she had lived, similar to the "LMW 28IF" Volkswagen license seen on the Beatles album that was interpreted as "Linda McCartney Weeps" and Paul would be "28 if" he had lived.
A video of the shoot was later posted online to the official Doctor Who YouTube channel, which revealed that the shoot required several takes, and was completed in 1 minute and 18 seconds (likely done quickly to avoid causing too much of a traffic jam). It also showed that Jenna had shown discomfort in stepping on the asphalt in her bare feet, constantly remaining on tiptoe during the shoot, and as soon as the shoot ended, she scampered over to the pavement, where a crew member immediately brought Jenna her shoes to help her put them back them on. In addition, the crew struggled to move the cumbersome Dalek props on and off the Abbey Road crossing several times and out of the way of oncoming cars, with audible groans from one of the props as it got caught on the brick pavement, and Peter briefly tried to assist two crewmen to push one of the Dalek props off the street right after the shoot came to an end.
The Bridgit Connell variant cover of Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #1 comic series featured Team TARDIS in the poses of the band.
The Simon Fraser variant cover of the Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #2.7 featured four versions of the Eleventh Doctor on Abbey Road.