- 1 day ago
A single 60 minute episode inadvertently paved the way for Doctor Who's bright future.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00We can all probably name 10 or 15 massively important Doctor Who episodes off the top of our
00:05head, right? I mean, my mind goes straight to Silence in the Library for obvious reasons and
00:10stuff like An Unearthly Child and Rose. But there are plenty of more unassuming episodes that are
00:16very important too. For instance, The Deadly Assassin is considered by many to be the first
00:21cultural work to use the word Matrix to refer to a virtual reality years before it was popularised
00:27by William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. It's possible to give many episodes of Doctor Who
00:33a new level of importance by framing them in the context of the time in which they were broadcast,
00:39or in the case of One Story, how a repeat viewing changed the course of the show's future.
00:44I'm Ellie for Who Culture and here are 10 Doctor Who episodes more important than you realised.
00:49Number 10. The Next Doctor. Building on the response to David Tennant's announcement that he was leaving
00:55Doctor Who, The Next Doctor was a tremendous bit of misdirection from Russell T. Davis. David
01:01Morrissey was not David Tennant's replacement, but was instead Jackson Lake, a man who believed he was
01:07the Doctor after an accident with an info stamp. Which brings us to the importance of The Next Doctor
01:12in the history of Doctor Who. Because while we'd seen sketches of previous incarnations in John Smith's
01:18Journal of Impossible Things in Human Nature, we'd never seen any actual footage. And so it was that
01:24upon activating the info stamp, footage of the first eight classic Doctors, plus Eccleston and Tennant,
01:30appeared on TV on Christmas Day 2008. While we'd had it confirmed time and time again that New Who
01:37was a continuation, it was thrilling to have the lineage displayed for all to see. The Next Doctor
01:42was the last episode of Doctor Who to be filmed in standard definition. From the planet of the dead
01:47onwards, it was shot in HD and now, years later, UHD. To fit alongside the other 2009 specials,
01:53The Next Doctor was the first Doctor Who episode to be upscaled to high definition. Another feather
01:59in its cap of importance. Number 9. The Rescue. Vicky is technically the third Doctor Who companion,
02:06but there's a case to be made that she's the one who defines the role in The Rescue. Susan was
02:11the
02:11Doctor's granddaughter, so she doesn't really count, while Ian and Barbara were kidnapped. They became a
02:16close family unit over the course of their travels, but there were a few teething problems. No such
02:21problems with Vicky, though, who is the first person to actually be invited to travel in the TARDIS by
02:26the Doctor. Missing his granddaughter, who departed in the previous serial, the Doctor meets and rescues
02:32the young orphan, who will become his next companion. The Rescue establishes Doctor Who's core ideas of
02:38the title character as a lonely god, seeking someone to share the universe with. It's far more subtle here,
02:43but all the elements are in place over 40 years before Russell T. Davis would make it the show's
02:48core ethos. This means that The Rescue, a diverting enough two-parter, involving a murder mystery on a
02:54crashed spaceship, is much more important to the history of Doctor Who than it initially seems.
02:59Number 8. Dimensions in Time.
03:02Sure, there are doubts over whether 1993's charity sketch Dimensions in Time is canon,
03:08but what else was the seventh Doctor referring to when he mentioned the Rani in Tales of the TARDIS?
03:14But aside from now being canonically the beginning of Ace's final regular adventure,
03:18Dimensions in Time represents a notable technological first for Doctor Who. That's because it was the first
03:24Doctor Who story to be shot in 3D. It's worth pointing out that this was part of a wider gimmick
03:29deployed by Children in Need in 1993, but Doctor Who was the show that best fit the format.
03:34On the original broadcast, a little icon would pop up in the corner of the screen,
03:39instructing viewers to put on the 3D glasses they got from the front of the Radio Times,
03:43so that they could be dazzled by the nightmarish floating heads of William Hartnell and Patrick
03:48Troughton. It's obviously far more primitive than the technology used to realise the day of the
03:53Doctor's eye-popping 3D sequences, but that doesn't stop it being the first Doctor Who story to use it.
03:59So that's 3D for the 30th anniversary and the 50th anniversary.
04:03Uh, 4DX screening for the 70th anniversary, anyone?
04:07Number 7. Fear Her.
04:09It's easy to miss, but the moment in Fear Her, when the 10th Doctor says,
04:14I was a dad once, is the first time modern Doctor Who confirms that the Doctor was a parent.
04:20You could say that it's the first time this fact has been confirmed in the entire history of Doctor Who.
04:25Despite the Doctor being a confirmed grandfather in Doctor Who's very first episode,
04:29some fans, and 80s producer John Nathan Turner, were uncomfortable about the idea of the Doctor,
04:34um, procreating, shall we say.
04:37To that end, then-script editor Eric Sayward wrote Birth of a Renegade for the Radio Times' 20th anniversary
04:43special in 1983. The non-canon story revealed that Susan was actually a descendant of Rassilon,
04:50given shelter in the TARDIS by the Doctor during a bloody uprising on Gallifrey.
04:55Hang on, so, wait, Grandfather was just a nickname?
04:58What's wrong with offhandedly mentioning that the Doctor was once a parent,
05:01and then quickly moving on before you have to consider William Hartnell a sexual being?
05:05Uh-huh. You've all got it in your head now too, haven't you?
05:08But point being, it worked for Fear Her.
05:10The 10th Doctor would once again state that he used to be a father in the Doctor's daughter,
05:14confirming his offhand comment in Fear Her, and putting any doubt to bed.
05:19Number 6. The Crotons.
05:20The Crotons is seen as something of an idea for the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who,
05:26but there are two reasons why it's an important serial in the overall history of the show.
05:30In November 1981, The Crotons were selected to represent the second Doctor in The Five Faces of
05:36Doctor Who on BBC Two. This series of repeat stories was a way to keep fans occupied while
05:42they waited for the proper debut of Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in January 1982.
05:47The reason that The Crotons was chosen was because it was the only complete four-part
05:52Patrick Troughton serial in the archives at the time. Thankfully, much more of his era has
05:56resurfaced in the years that followed. The other big reason that The Crotons is so important to
06:01the history of Doctor Who is that it was the debut serial from Robert Holmes, who would go on to
06:05bigger and better things. Holmes' tenure as script editor marks an undisputed golden age of Doctor Who
06:11between 1975 and 1977. Holmes is also responsible for much of the Gallifreyan and Time Lord mythology
06:18that still defines the show in 2024, and it's all thanks to his inauspicious start scripting The Crotons.
06:25Number 5. The Power of the Doctor
06:27The Power of the Doctor regenerated Jodie Whittaker back into David Tennant, celebrated 100 years of the BBC,
06:35and brought back almost all of the surviving classic Doctors, along with multiple companions,
06:40most notably Tegan and Ace. So it's already a pretty important Doctor Who story. However,
06:45it was also the very first Doctor Who story to air after the death of Queen Elizabeth II,
06:51marking a whole new era for the UK. She had reigned for every single bit of Doctor Who up to
06:57that
06:57point, which speaks to both her and the show's incredibly long tenures. Rumoured to be a Doctor
07:02Who fan herself, the Queen is said to have received pre-released DVD copies of episodes,
07:07leading to the wild rumour that Prince William is hoarding missing episodes. In just her first
07:12decade on the throne after her coronation in June 1953, the Queen reigned over one of the UK's most
07:18culturally important periods in recent memory. As well as Doctor Who, the 1960s saw the birth of Bond
07:24and the Beatles, cultural powerhouses that still define the United Kingdom's national identity to this
07:30day. Number 4. Underworld. As you work your way through the Doctor Who season 15 box set,
07:37it may be tempting to skip Underworld. It's long been derided as one of the low points in the Tom
07:43Baker era, due to its dreary story and over-reliance on green screen. However, the fact that Underworld
07:49is the first Doctor Who story to use virtual sets is just one of two reasons that it's more important
07:54than fans give it credit for. Sure, the colour separation overlay in Underworld is a perfect
07:59example of why innovations like The Volume are needed, but it stumbled so that Doctor Who in
08:042024 could fly. Underworld is also a fairly big Time Lord mythology episode, exploring why they
08:10established the non-intervention policy that the Doctor so regularly flouts. In the time after their
08:15war with the Great Vampires, the Time Lords involved themselves in the affairs of the wider galaxy.
08:20Opting to help the Minyans, they shared advanced technology that accidentally caused a nuclear war.
08:26Horrified at the consequences of their actions, the Time Lords vowed to merely observe the universe,
08:32never involving themselves in the affairs of other species. Until the Doctor came along, that is.
08:37Number 3. The War Machines. In the War Machines, the first Doctor finally returns to 1960s London,
08:43only to find strange things going on at the post office tower. It's the blueprint for the unit era,
08:49and RTD's own take on Doctor Who. But that's not the most important thing about the War Machines.
08:54As with a lot of 1960s Doctor Who, the War Machines were sent out to Commonwealth nations,
08:59including New Zealand, Australia, and Nigeria. Many of these prints became the only existing copies
09:05when the BBC began junking their film cans. Over the years, many Doctor Who stories have been recovered
09:10from old broadcast stations in Commonwealth nations by people like Philip Morris. Before all of that,
09:15however, an Australian collector had acquired a print of the War Machines Episode 2 at some point
09:21in the late 1960s to the early 1970s. This was years before the complete serial was discovered
09:26in Nigeria in 1984. That Australian print was returned to the BBC archives in the late 1970s,
09:33making the War Machines Episode 2 the first of Doctor Who's many missing episodes to be returned
09:38from overseas. Number 2. The Runaway Bride
09:42On Christmas Day 2006, The Runaway Bride proved that Doctor Who could survive without Billy Piper's
09:48Rose by introducing Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, an important moment in the history of the modern era.
09:54The Runaway Bride took on added significance in 2020 when it was the subject of one of Emily Cook's
10:00lockdown tweet-alongs. Rewatching her debut story had a real impact on Catherine Tate, who mentioned to
10:06Russell T. Davis how marvellous it would be to do more episodes as Donna. Tate then spoke to David
10:11Tennant, who predictably voiced a similar desire to return to Doctor Who. Russell T. Davis dutifully
10:16reported this news to the BBC, who were struggling to find a way to keep the show going. In fact,
10:21Chris Chibnall was so sure that the BBC would rest Doctor Who for a bit that he left the ending
10:26of
10:26The Power of the Doctor open-ended. To be clear, the Chibnall era did not kill Doctor Who. It was
10:31more
10:31that the BBC were out of options for a viable replacement showrunner. That was until a giant
10:36Welshman kicked open the doors of the BBC, offering them the way forward. If it hadn't been for a 15
10:42-year-old
10:43bit of television, then we may not have a brand new season of Doctor Who to come in 2024.
10:48Number 1. The Chase
10:50With the Beatles appearing in Doctor Who in Season 1, it's a good time to remind ourselves of their
10:56earliest connection with the show. In an incredible bit of irony, a clip of the Beatles performing Ticket
11:01to Ride on Top of the Pops only exists because it's preserved in a bit of 1960s Doctor Who,
11:07one of the biggest victims of the BBC's notorious junking policy. The opening scenes of 1965's The
11:13Chase see the first Doctor introduce his companions to the time-space visualiser, which allows them to
11:19view moments from history like they were a TV programme, basically Rick and Morty's interdimensional
11:24cable before it was a thing. One of the sequences was some classical music, the Beatles performing live.
11:30The sequence was lifted from an episode of the BBC's Top of the Pops, which no longer exists in the
11:35archive, meaning that this little snippet is all that remains of the performance. However, if writer
11:40Terry Nation had his way, the clip wouldn't have been included at all. The original script for The
11:45Chase would have shown the Beatles in old man makeup performing at a 50th anniversary concert in
11:50the 21st century. Keen for the Beatles' young fans not to be put off by middle-aged versions of their
11:55idols, manager Brian Epstein turned down the offer, and the top of the Pops clip was used instead.
12:01And there you have it. But while we're on the topic of importance, why not check out 10 Doctor
12:06Who characters more important than you realised? In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture,
12:11and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
Comments