Vol-au-vent

A vol-au-vent was something to which the Fifth Doctor once compared his TARDIS. When on Frontios, he told a deeply suspicious and paranoid Plantagenet, "As an invasion weapon, [the TARDIS] is about as offensive as a chicken vol-au-vent." (TV: Frontios)

River Song once facetiously suggested to Bertie Potts that he put his sentiment in response to a murder, "death is a fact of life", on cards inside vol-au-vents. (AUDIO: I Went to a Marvellous Party)

Vol-au-vents were eaten at the annual Space-Time Police Officers' Ball between the crew of the Teselecta, the Atraxi and the Shadow Proclamation. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary)

Behind the scenes

Though unremarked in Frontios a vol-au-vent is a kind of puff pastry with a savoury filling — in a sense, a continental and more elegant version of a Cornish pasty.