166 Fun Facts About Doctor Who

Doctor Who's first episode aired in 1963, the day after which news event?

John F. Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963 so overshadowed the launch that the BBC repeated the first episode a week later, just before episode two.

Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, went on to lead which spin-off series?

Torchwood is an anagram of 'Doctor Who': the word was first written on tapes of the 2005 series to hide them from pirates, then reused as the spin-off's title.

Which of these companions was, like the Doctor, a Time Lady able to regenerate?

Romana (Romanadvoratrelundar) was sent by the White Guardian to help the Doctor find the Key to Time, and had two on-screen incarnations played by Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward.

Which First Doctor companion, a space pilot from Earth's future, initially stowed away on the TARDIS?

Steven Taylor had crash-landed on Mechanus two years earlier; fleeing the burning Mechonoid city, he staggered into the TARDIS unseen and was only discovered in the next story.

Which Doctor Who companion died trying to stop a Cyberman-controlled freighter hitting prehistoric Earth?

Adric died when the freighter struck Earth, the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs; the episode ended with uniquely silent credits in his memory.

Who co-wrote the 1979 Doctor Who serial 'City of Death' under the pseudonym David Agnew?

Douglas Adams, then the show's script editor, rewrote another writer's story over a single weekend with his producer's help, so a BBC house pseudonym took the credit.

Which Doctor Who companion, played by Matt Lucas, debuted in the 2015 Christmas special?

Nardole was beheaded in his first episode and his head fitted to a robot body; the Doctor later rebuilt him, and he stayed on to help guard a mysterious vault.

Which Fourth Doctor companion was a warrior from the 'savage' Sevateem tribe?

Leela's tribe, the Sevateem, descended from a stranded Earth 'survey team' whose name had worn down over the generations; she settled arguments with a knife or poisonous Janis thorns.

Which 25th-century orphan companion of the First Doctor fell in love during the siege of Troy?

Vicki, a 25th-century orphan, stayed behind in Troy in 'The Myth Makers' (1965) after falling for the warrior Troilus; King Priam renamed her Cressida.

Which companion of the Second Doctor, a young astrophysicist with a photographic memory, had her memories wiped by the Time Lords?

Zoe Heriot travelled with the Second Doctor; after 'The War Games' the Time Lords returned her and Jamie to their own times and erased their memories, except of first meeting the Doctor.

Which accessory does the Eleventh Doctor repeatedly insist is 'cool'?

Bow ties were the actor's own idea: he asked to try one at a costume fitting, the production team groaned, and then they saw it on him and were won over.

What does the acronym TARDIS stand for?

Time and Relative Dimension in Space is the wording of the first episode; in 1965 an actor said 'Dimensions' in place of the scripted singular, and both versions have been heard since.

A Dalek's manipulator arm famously resembles which household object?

A sink plunger: a real one served as the arm on the original props, and although later Daleks have tried claws and even a blowtorch, the plunger keeps coming back.

Which actor played the Doctor for seven seasons, from 1974 to 1981, longer than anyone else in the role?

Tom Baker was hauling bricks on a building site when he won the part, because acting work had dried up.

Who became the first woman to play the Doctor, making her debut at Christmas 2017?

Jodie Whittaker kept her casting secret by using a code name at home and with her agent: the role was only ever called 'the Clooney'.

Which incarnation did Rose Tyler first travel with when Doctor Who returned in 2005?

Ninth: the revival kept the classic count, following the Eighth Doctor of the 1996 TV film; a later story squeezed a hidden 'War Doctor' between them without renumbering anyone.

In which episode did the terrifying Weeping Angels first appear?

'Blink' was that year's 'Doctor-lite' episode, made while the leads filmed another story, so guest star Carey Mulligan carries it as Sally Sparrow.

Which multifunctional tool of the Doctor's is famously useless on wood?

The Sonic Screwdriver was destroyed on screen in 1982 because its producer felt it got the Doctor out of trouble too easily; it stayed away until the 1996 TV film.

What is the home planet of the Doctor's species, the Time Lords?

Gallifrey, a technologically advanced planet, is the ancestral home of the Time Lords, known for their ability to travel through time and space.

Which writer revived Doctor Who in 2005 as its executive producer and head writer?

Russell T Davies ran the revival until 2010, handed it on, and came back to take charge again for the 2023 anniversary specials.

What process lets a dying Time Lord change physical appearance and personality?

Regeneration is a unique biological process for Time Lords, allowing them to renew their body and mind, which has allowed the Doctor Who series to recast its lead actor multiple times.

Kaled scientist Davros built his people into armoured travel machines on which planet?

Skaro is where, in 'Genesis of the Daleks', Davros's creatures refuse to take orders from anyone who is not one of them and turn their guns on their own creator.

The robot dog K-9 made its debut in which 1977 serial?

'The Invisible Enemy' introduced K-9 as the pet of Professor Marius, who had built the robot to replace the real dog he had to leave behind on Earth, and who gives him to the Doctor at the end.

Which time-travelling archaeologist, played by Alex Kingston, becomes the Eleventh Doctor's wife?

River Song first appeared opposite the Tenth Doctor in 'Silence in the Library' (2008); because the pair meet out of order, his first adventure with her is the one that ends in her death.

Which metal is deadly to the classic Cybermen because it clogs their breathing apparatus?

Gold, being non-corrodible, chokes their respiratory systems; in 'Revenge of the Cybermen' (1975) they set out to destroy Voga, a planetoid made almost entirely of it.

With which two classic-era incarnations did Sarah Jane Smith primarily travel as a companion?

Third and Fourth: a journalist who had bluffed her way into a secret research centre, she sneaked aboard the TARDIS in 1973 and stayed until the Doctor was summoned home in 1976.

Which living-plastic servants of the Nestene Consciousness invaded Earth disguised as shop mannequins?

The Autons burst out of shop windows in their 1970 debut and fired on passers-by with guns built into their hands; the scene was restaged for the 2005 revival's first episode.

What conflict between the Gallifreyans and their oldest enemies apparently destroyed their home world?

The Last Great Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks ended when the Doctor seemingly destroyed both sides; a 2013 special later revealed that Gallifrey had been hidden instead.

Who was the first actor to portray the Doctor's archenemy, the Master, in the classic series?

Roger Delgado died on location in Turkey in 1973 while shooting a mini-series, so 'The Final Game', the story planned to end the Master's arc, was scrapped.

Which catchphrase belongs to the Tenth Doctor?

'Allons-y!' is French for 'let's go'; he longed to say it to someone called Alonso, and finally got his wish with a midshipman aboard the starship Titanic.

In which 1981 serial did the Fourth Doctor regenerate into the Fifth, played by Peter Davison?

'Logopolis' ends with the Fourth Doctor falling from a radio telescope after foiling the Master; a ghostly figure called the Watcher, who has trailed him all story, merges with him to bring on the change.

What question does the gas-masked child keep asking in the 2005 two-parter 'The Empty Child'?

'Are you my mummy?': the boy, Jamie, died in the Blitz wearing his gas mask, and alien medical nanogenes that had never seen a human rebuilt him, mask and all; his mother's embrace finally puts it right.

What microscopic, shadow-dwelling organisms can strip the flesh from bones in an instant?

The Vashta Nerada infesting the Library came with its books, printed on paper from their home forests; that is why they claim the whole building as their own.

Which Sontaran nurse ends up as butler to Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint in Victorian London?

Strax was serving as a battlefield nurse as a penance that went against every warrior instinct; seemingly killed in battle, he was revived by Vastra and Jenny and became their butler.

In the 2012 Christmas special "The Snowmen", the Victorian Clara Oswald works as a barmaid and what else?

Governess: the Victorian Clara led a double life as barmaid and governess to Captain Latimer's children; reading her full name at her funeral, the Doctor realises he has met her before.

Which Tudor queen does the Tenth Doctor marry in the 50th-anniversary special?

Elizabeth I: sure she is a shape-shifting Zygon impostor, he proposes in order to expose her, only to find she is the real queen and has said yes.

As head of UNIT, the Doctor's ally Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was best known by which rank?

Brigadier: he first appeared in 1968 as a colonel fighting Yeti in the London Underground, and had been promoted by the time he returned later that year at the head of UNIT.

Which shape-shifting giant-wasp species menaced Agatha Christie in a 2008 Tenth Doctor episode?

The Vespiforms' lone giant wasp is the episode's answer to a real mystery: it is offered as the cause of Agatha Christie's unexplained disappearance in 1926.

In 'Partners in Crime', what were the little white aliens budding off Londoners made of?

The Adipose were body fat: Adipose Industries' diet pill made Londoners' fat bud off overnight as marshmallow-like creatures, animated with the MASSIVE crowd software built for The Lord of the Rings.

Which gentle, telepathic species naturally carries a second brain in its hands?

The Ood were docile servants only because the company selling them cut away that hindbrain and fitted a translator ball in its place, crippling their minds.

Which rhinoceros-headed alien police force is known for its strict adherence to galactic law?

The Judoon are police for hire: in their 2007 debut they lift an entire London hospital to the Moon to trap an alien fugitive hiding among its patients.

The Sontarans are a warrior race known for what reproductive characteristic?

Cloning makes every Sontaran near-identical, bred for war from birth, and each shares one weak spot: the probic vent on the back of the neck through which it feeds.

What ominous recurring phrase in the revived Doctor Who's first series was linked to Rose Tyler?

'Bad Wolf': the words crop up, spoken or written, in almost every episode of the series; in the finale Rose learns she scattered them through time herself, as a message leading her back to the Doctor.

Who travelled with the First Doctor in the 1963 debut, 'An Unearthly Child'?

Susan Foreman is implied to have borrowed her surname from the sign on the junkyard where the TARDIS stood; in 1964 the Doctor locked her out of the ship so she would stay with the man she loved.

The Valeyard, a dark future Doctor, prosecuted the 1986 trial of which incarnation?

Sixth: the Valeyard had struck a deal with corrupt Time Lords, who promised him the Doctor's remaining lives in return for securing a conviction.

Which incarnation endured 4.5 billion years alone inside a confession dial in the 2015 episode 'Heaven Sent'?

The Twelfth Doctor spent those years punching through a wall harder than diamond, dying each time and burning his own body to power the teleporter that made a fresh copy of him.

In 'The Timeless Children', which Gallifreyan explorer adopted the future Doctor?

Tecteun, a space explorer, found a foundling who could regenerate, adopted the child, and grafted that power into her own people, turning them into the Time Lords.

Which 1972 serial first brought back earlier incarnations of the Doctor to team up against Omega?

'The Three Doctors' opened the tenth-anniversary season; William Hartnell was too ill to join the others in studio, so his Doctor is stuck in a 'time eddy' and advises them from a screen.

Who portrayed the 'Fugitive Doctor', introduced during the Thirteenth Doctor's era?

Jo Martin first appears as Ruth Clayton, a Gloucester tour guide with no idea who she really is, until she breaks the glass of an alarm box and her memories come flooding back.

Which sentient weapon, appearing as Rose Tyler, did the War Doctor nearly use against the Daleks and his own people?

The Moment was a weapon so advanced that it had grown a conscience; instead of firing, it showed the War Doctor the men he would become, to make him think again.

Which BBC drama chief created Doctor Who alongside C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson?

Sydney Newman wanted no 'bug-eyed monsters' in his new serial and clashed with his producer over the Daleks; he came round once they had made the show a hit.

In Doctor Who's very first serial, the TARDIS carries two schoolteachers back to which era?

The Stone Age: after one episode in a London junkyard, Anthony Coburn's scripts strand the travellers with a tribe that has lost the secret of fire and will kill to get it back.

Which actor took over as the Doctor in 1966 when the original star's health declined?

Patrick Troughton's arrival was the first change of lead: instead of ending, the series had the Doctor's body 'renew' itself, the device that later let it recast the part again and again.

Whose arrival as the Doctor in 1970 coincided with Doctor Who's switch to colour?

Jon Pertwee was known as a radio comedian from 'The Navy Lark', but chose to play the Doctor straight, as a dashing man of action.

Which BBC One controller shelved Doctor Who for 18 months in 1985?

Michael Grade postponed the next season in February 1985, saying its budget was better spent on other drama and criticising the series as too violent; it returned in September 1986.

Which actor was dismissed from the role of the Doctor in 1986 on the instructions of BBC executives?

Colin Baker declined to return for a handover story, so in the changeover scene his successor Sylvester McCoy wore a curly wig to play the outgoing Doctor too.

The 1996 Doctor Who television film aired on which US network?

Fox showed the TV movie on 14 May 1996 in the hope of launching a new American-made series, but only 5.6 million viewers tuned in and no series followed.

Who starred as the Doctor in the 1996 television film?

Paul McGann played the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 TV movie; he returned in the 2013 mini-episode 'The Night of the Doctor', which showed his regeneration into the War Doctor.

Production of the revived series moved in 2005 to which city?

Cardiff became part of the story too: the writers placed a rift in space and time beneath the city, and the TARDIS parks on it to refuel.

What is the first word the Doctor says to Rose Tyler in the 2005 comeback episode?

'Run!': he pulls her away from the shop-window dummies closing in on her in a department-store basement, then sets off a bomb on the roof.

Who played the Doctor for a single series in 2005?

Christopher Eccleston won an apology from the BBC over the way it announced his exit: it had broken an agreement not to reveal that he planned to stay for only one series.

Who took over as Doctor Who's showrunner in 2010?

Steven Moffat gave up writing Steven Spielberg's Tintin films to take the job.

Who took over as showrunner in 2018 for the Thirteenth Doctor's era?

Chris Chibnall had been on BBC television in 1986 as a member of the show's fan club, criticising that year's Doctor Who on the viewers' programme 'Open Air'; three decades later he was running it.

Which actor was the youngest ever cast as the Doctor, at just 26?

Matt Smith was 26, three years younger than Peter Davison had been, even though the incoming showrunner had set out to cast an older Doctor.

Which streaming service began distributing Doctor Who outside the UK and Ireland in 2023?

Disney+ carried Doctor Who worldwide from the 60th-anniversary specials in November 2023 while the BBC kept the UK and Ireland, then left the partnership in 2025 after two seasons.

At the end of 'The Reality War', the Fifteenth Doctor regenerated into a form played by whom?

Billie Piper appeared as the Fifteenth Doctor's regenerated form at the end of 'The Reality War' (2025); the credits read only 'Introducing Billie Piper', without naming her as the Sixteenth Doctor.

Who became the first actor to play two numbered incarnations of the Doctor?

David Tennant played the Tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010 and returned as the Fourteenth for the three 60th-anniversary specials broadcast in November and December 2023.

Which veteran actor played the War Doctor in 2013?

John Hurt played the War Doctor, first glimpsed at the end of 'The Name of the Doctor': a secret incarnation written into the 2013 anniversary and slotted between the Eighth and Ninth.

Who stood in as the First Doctor in 1983's 'The Five Doctors'?

Richard Hurndall stood in because the original First Doctor actor had died in 1975; the real one still opens the special, in a clip of his 1964 farewell to his granddaughter.

Which actor played a human scientist called 'Dr. Who' in two 1960s feature films?

Peter Cushing played a human inventor named Dr. Who in 'Dr. Who and the Daleks' (1965) and 'Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' (1966), building his time machine rather than stealing it.

Which is the only classic-era story in which the Doctor travels without a companion?

'The Deadly Assassin' (1976) sends the Fourth Doctor home alone, between companions, where he is promptly framed for shooting the Time Lord president.

Which Christmas special gave the Doctor a new cycle of regenerations?

The Time of the Doctor (2013): out of regenerations and grown old defending one town, the Eleventh Doctor is saved when Clara begs the Time Lords through a crack in time and they send a new cycle.

Amy Pond travelled with the Eleventh Doctor alongside which husband?

Rory Williams, played by Arthur Darvill, came back as a Roman centurion and stood guard over the sealed Amy for almost 2,000 years, earning the name the Last Centurion, before marrying her.

Who played Amy Pond?

Karen Gillan played Amy Pond from 'The Eleventh Hour' (2010) to 'The Angels Take Manhattan' (2012); she had earlier appeared as a soothsayer in 'The Fires of Pompeii' (2008).

Who was the Doctor's first openly gay companion, introduced in series 10?

Bill Potts, played by Pearl Mackie, worked in a university canteen and sat in on the Doctor's lectures until her curiosity impressed him and he took her on as his student.

Game-show host Bradley Walsh played which companion of the Thirteenth Doctor?

Graham O'Brien, a retired bus driver in remission from cancer, joined the TARDIS with his step-grandson Ryan after his wife Grace fell to her death helping the Doctor stop an alien.

Who played Ruby Sunday, the Fifteenth Doctor's first companion?

Millie Gibson, previously of Coronation Street, played Ruby Sunday, a foundling named after the church on Ruby Road where she was left on the doorstep as a baby.

Which companion did Catherine Tate play?

Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, first appeared in a wedding dress, furious to find herself aboard the TARDIS; in 2008 the Doctor wiped her memory of him to save her life.

Who played Sarah Jane Smith, later star of her own CBBC spin-off?

Elisabeth Sladen played Sarah Jane Smith from 1973 and headlined 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' on CBBC from 2007; her death in April 2011 left its fifth series incomplete.

The Master was devised in 1971 as the Doctor's answer to which literary arch-villain?

Professor Moriarty: the producers saw the Third Doctor as a Sherlock Holmes who lacked an equal, so they invented one, and he appeared in every story of season 8.

Which American actor played the Master in the 1996 television film?

Eric Roberts, the brother of Julia Roberts, played the Master in the 1996 TV movie, possessing the body of a San Francisco paramedic named Bruce.

Which actor played Professor Yana, the elderly scientist unmasked as the Master in 'Utopia' (2007)?

Derek Jacobi played Professor Yana, an amnesiac who had hidden his Time Lord self inside a fob watch; once it opened he was the Master again, and he regenerated within minutes.

Who played Missy, the female incarnation of the Master?

Michelle Gomez played Missy from 'Deep Breath' (2014), her identity as the Master revealed in 'Dark Water'; she bowed out in 'The Doctor Falls' (2017), shot by her own previous incarnation.

Who played the Master opposite the Thirteenth Doctor from 2020?

Sacha Dhawan's Master was unmasked as MI6 agent 'O' at the end of 'Spyfall' part one (New Year's Day 2020), and returned through 'The Power of the Doctor' (2022).

Who composed the original Doctor Who theme tune in 1963?

Ron Grainer, an Australian composer, wrote the melody; on hearing the eerie electronic version the Radiophonic Workshop had built from it, he is said to have asked whether he had really written it.

Which BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer built the original Doctor Who theme by splicing analogue tape?

Delia Derbyshire built the 1963 theme note by note from spliced tape of a plucked string, white noise and test-tone oscillators, yet got no on-screen credit until the 50th-anniversary special in 2013.

'Doctorin' the Tardis' hit UK No. 1 in 1988 for The Timelords, better known as which act?

The KLF, alias Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, mashed the Doctor Who theme with Gary Glitter and the Sweet, then wrote The Manual, a guide to having a number one the easy way.

Who took over from Murray Gold to score Doctor Who's series 11 to 13?

Segun Akinola scored series 11 to 13 and rearranged the theme; for 'Demons of the Punjab' he rebuilt the closing music in a Punjabi style, performed by South Asian musicians.

Which orchestra began performing Murray Gold's Doctor Who scores with the 2005 Christmas special?

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales first recorded Murray Gold's music for 'The Christmas Invasion' (2005); the first revived series had relied largely on orchestral samples.

Who wrote more episodes of Doctor Who's original 1963–89 series than any other writer?

Robert Holmes died in 1986 partway through scripting that year's season finale, leaving other writers to finish it.

Doctor Who's series 13 told one serialised story under which subtitle?

Flux: Covid-19 cut the 2021 run to six episodes, which told a single story about a universe-ending anomaly called the Flux.

Nine missing Doctor Who episodes turned up in 2013 at a television relay station in which country?

Nigeria: in 2013 Philip Morris found nine missing 1960s episodes on film at a television relay station in Jos; the prints had been shipped there for overseas broadcast.

Which Time Lord villain, first played by Kate O'Mara, turned out in 2025 to be nosy neighbour Mrs Flood?

The Rani spent two seasons disguised as Mrs Flood, a neighbour played by Anita Dobson, before unmasking herself in 2025 alongside a second Rani played by Archie Panjabi.

John Cura's off-screen photographs, now a key record of lost Doctor Who episodes, go by what name?

Tele-snaps were photographs John Cura took of his television screen and sold as a business until 1968; fans now marry them to off-air audio to reconstruct missing episodes.

The First Doctor's regeneration survives only because it was shown on which children's programme?

Blue Peter showed the regeneration in a 1973 feature and kept the clip in its own archive, so the scene outlived the BBC's wiping of the episode it came from, 'The Tenth Planet' part four.

Which campaigner repeatedly attacked 1970s Doctor Who as too violent and frightening for children?

Mary Whitehouse complained so fiercely about a cliffhanger in which the Doctor is held underwater that the BBC's director-general apologised and the shot was cut from the master tape.

British viewers proverbially watch Doctor Who's scariest scenes from behind which piece of furniture?

The sofa: 'hiding behind the sofa' is Britain's stock phrase for Doctor Who's scares, a cliché for children too frightened to look at the monsters yet too fascinated to leave the room.

Doctor Who's audience peaked at 16 million in 1979 thanks to what?

An ITV network strike took the rival channel off air from August to October 1979, and with no competition 'City of Death' part four drew 16.1 million viewers.

Which country beat Australia to become the first outside the UK to screen Doctor Who, in 1964?

New Zealand began screening Doctor Who in September 1964; Australia had bought it first, but its censors rated the opening serials adults-only, delaying the debut until January 1965.

Which voice actor has provided K9's voice in most of the robot dog's appearances?

John Leeson voiced K9 from the robot dog's 1977 debut and got down on his hands and knees to play him in rehearsals; David Brierley filled in for season 17.

Terry Nation intended his most famous creations as an allegory of which group?

The Nazis: Terry Nation's first outline drew on the Nazi threat of racial extermination, and he returned to the parallel when he wrote his creatures' origin story in 1975.

The Weeping Angels can only move when unobserved because they are what?

Quantum-locked Angels turn to stone whenever anything sees them; a touch hurls the victim back in time, and the Angel feeds on the energy that displacement releases.

The Doctor's sonic tool made its first appearance in which 1968 serial?

'Fury from the Deep' (1968), written by Victor Pemberton, introduced the sonic screwdriver — used by the Second Doctor simply to unscrew a gas-pipeline inspection hatch.

After the demise of Mondas, the cyborg foes from Earth's twin planet took which world as home?

Telos: after Mondas was destroyed, the survivors lay entombed beneath Telos, where an expedition unwisely sets out to revive them in a 1967 serial.

Which comedian starred as the Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief spoof The Curse of Fatal Death?

Rowan Atkinson played the Doctor first, then regenerated in quick succession into Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley.

The 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time crossed over with which soap opera?

EastEnders' Albert Square hosted 'Dimensions in Time' (1993), a 3D skit for Children in Need; cast and crew worked unpaid on condition that it never be repeated or sold.

Which of these episodes won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation?

'The Waters of Mars' (2009) won the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, one of six such Hugos the revived series collected between 2006 and 2012.

'The Five Doctors' premiered two days before its BBC airing on which US broadcaster?

PBS stations aired 'The Five Doctors' on 23 November 1983, the show's 20th birthday, because the BBC held its own broadcast back two days to anchor its Children in Need night.

Which actor was unveiled on the 2013 live show Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor?

Peter Capaldi was revealed as the Twelfth Doctor on 'Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor', broadcast on BBC One on 4 August 2013 and watched by an average of 6.27 million UK viewers.

Big Finish Productions is best known for producing what kind of Doctor Who stories?

Audio plays: Big Finish began releasing licensed full-cast Doctor Who audio dramas in 1999 with 'The Sirens of Time', reuniting Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy.

Who played the Doctor's granddaughter in the 1963 debut serial?

Carole Ann Ford played the Doctor's granddaughter for just over a year; she left in 1964 when the Doctor locked her character out of the TARDIS so she could stay with the man she loved.

Which villain did the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors defeat together in 'The Giggle'?

The Toymaker, played by Neil Patrick Harris, returned in 'The Giggle' (2023) after first appearing as the Celestial Toymaker opposite the First Doctor in 1966; the two Doctors beat him at a game of catch.

What term describes the Fifteenth Doctor splitting off from the Fourteenth in 'The Giggle'?

Bi-generation: instead of being replaced, the wounded Fourteenth Doctor split in two, and the Fifteenth went on travelling while his predecessor stayed on Earth with Donna's family.

The Doctor's military allies were renamed in 2008 after which real organisation asked to be left out?

The United Nations: UNIT was the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce until the real UN asked to be dissociated from it, so the writers kept the initials and made it the Unified Intelligence Taskforce.

Peter Davison wrote, directed and starred in which 50th-anniversary parody?

'The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot' (2013) was Peter Davison's 30-minute comedy about Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy scheming to get into the 50th-anniversary special; Paul McGann also appeared.

The sitcom Community parodied Doctor Who as which fictional series?

'Inspector Spacetime' was introduced in the 2011 episode 'Biology 101' as Abed's new favourite show; the joke outgrew the sitcom when the actor who played the Inspector crowdfunded a web series of his own.

Who played schoolteacher Ian Chesterton in the original TARDIS crew?

William Russell played Ian Chesterton, the science teacher, from 1963 to 1965 and returned for a cameo in 'The Power of the Doctor' (2022), 57 years after leaving in 'The Chase' (1965).

Who produced Doctor Who throughout the 1980s?

John Nathan-Turner produced every season from 1980 to the 1989 cancellation and left his mark on the Doctor himself, introducing the question marks that adorned each costume.

Which Australian pop star played waitress Astrid Peth in the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special?

Kylie Minogue's Astrid Peth, a part written specially for her, dies saving the Doctor by driving a forklift into the villain and over a ledge aboard the starship Titanic.

Which reptilian Doctor Who foes return in the 2025 spin-off starring Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw?

The Sea Devils, renamed Homo Aqua, rise from the oceans in 'The War Between the Land and the Sea', leaving UNIT to head off a global war.

Who was Doctor Who's first producer in 1963?

Verity Lambert, 27 and the BBC's only female drama producer, put the Daleks on screen in defiance of her boss's rule against 'bug-eyed monsters'; their success won him round.

Who designed the Daleks' famous inhuman look, realising Terry Nation's scripts for the 1963 serial?

Raymond Cusick, a BBC staff designer, gave the Daleks their pepper-pot shape for 'The Daleks' (1963–64) and received only a small bonus; Ridley Scott had been assigned first but was reallocated.

The TARDIS is stuck as a police box because which piece of its technology malfunctioned?

The chameleon circuit should disguise the TARDIS wherever it lands, but it jammed after a stop in 1963 London; a repair attempt two decades later worked only briefly, and the police box has stuck.

In which London borough does Sarah Jane Smith live in The Sarah Jane Adventures?

Ealing: at the end of the opening story Sarah Jane adopts Luke, a boy the alien Bane had created, and raises him there as her son.

The 2016 spin-off Class, written by Patrick Ness, is set at which recurring Doctor Who location?

Coal Hill Academy, the school seen in Doctor Who's very first episode, was the setting for Class, which BBC Three cancelled after a single series of eight episodes.

What was the title of the single 1981 episode of the spin-off K-9 and Company?

'A Girl's Best Friend', the sole K-9 and Company episode, aired on 28 December 1981 and had Sarah Jane and K9 — who had never shared the screen before — investigating witchcraft in Moreton Harwood.

Doctor Who's wheezing TARDIS take-off sound was made by scraping a house key along the strings of which instrument?

Piano wires did the job: BBC Radiophonic Workshop technician Brian Hodgson taped his mother's house key scraping up and down the strings of an old one.

Which sweets did the Fourth Doctor famously offer to strangers and enemies to defuse tense moments in Doctor Who?

Jelly babies first turned up in the Second Doctor's era, but the Fourth made them a trademark with his disarming line, "Would you like a jelly baby?"

Which part of the Fourth Doctor's Doctor Who costume grew absurdly long because its knitter used up all the wool?

The scarf was an accident: costume designer James Acheson knew little about knitting, bought wool in bulk, and his friend Begonia Pope simply knitted every ball of it.

Which organisation lost a 2002 trademark fight with the BBC over the image of Doctor Who's blue TARDIS box?

Metropolitan Police lawyers argued the force owned the police box image, but the Patent Office found no force had ever registered it as a trademark.

Which organ does the Doctor have two of in Doctor Who, an anatomical quirk shared with other Time Lords?

Heart number two belongs to what the series calls a binary vascular system, and a respiratory bypass system also lets the Doctor go without air.

Which vegetable did the Fifth Doctor, dressed as an Edwardian cricketer, wear pinned to his lapel in Doctor Who?

Celery, he claimed in his final story, would turn purple near gases he was allergic to, at which point he would eat it because it was good for his teeth.

Doctor Who's 50th-anniversary special set a Guinness World Record in 2013 for the largest ever what of a TV drama?

Simulcast in 94 countries at once, the episode was sent out that way to stop plot leaks; an episode of CSI took the record in 2015.

Which alias, first read off a piece of medical equipment in 1968, does Doctor Who's Doctor use when posing as human?

John Smith came from a maker's label, "John Smith & Associates", which a companion spotted on a medical device and read out when asked for the Doctor's name.

Which accessory did the Eleventh Doctor keep calling "cool" in Doctor Who, worn with his tweed blazer and braces?

The bow tie in particular was borrowed from the Second Doctor's look, after Matt Smith fell in love with one of that era's serials while shaping the costume.

Which veteran actor played Wilfred Mott in Doctor Who, four decades after starring in a 1966 cinema spin-off?

Bernard Cribbins was hired for a single Christmas special, then written in as a companion's grandfather when the actor playing her father fell ill.

In Doctor Who's first episode, two teachers visit a pupil's address and find the TARDIS in what kind of London yard?

The junkyard discovery fills only the opening episode; the other three strand the travellers among Stone Age tribes who have lost the secret of making fire.

Which medical student joined the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who after her hospital was teleported to the Moon?

Martha Jones was first conceived as a traveller from 1914, before the writers settled on a trainee medic from the present day.

Which former Emmerdale actress played Clara Oswald, the Eleventh Doctor's "Impossible Girl", in Doctor Who from 2012?

Jenna Coleman's character earned the nickname because the Doctor kept meeting versions of her living separate lives, a mystery he took her aboard to solve.

Ian Chesterton taught science, but which subject did his fellow original Doctor Who companion Barbara Wright teach?

History suited a series first planned as educational, using time travel to explore famous moments of the past alongside scientific ideas.

Which actor played the Seventh Doctor, the last of Doctor Who's original run, carrying a question-mark umbrella?

Sylvester McCoy first found fame as a physical comedian, yet his Doctor grew darker than any before him, manipulating people like chess pieces.

Which teenage companion of Doctor Who's Seventh Doctor carried home-made Nitro-9 explosives and called him "Professor"?

Ace never chose to leave Earth: a time-storm swept her out of her room in mid chemistry experiment and dropped her on far-future Iceworld.

Which 18th-century companion of the Second Doctor in Doctor Who appeared in more episodes than any other companion?

Jamie McCrimmon missed only the Second Doctor's first story, though Tegan Jovanka holds the record for the longest unbroken stretch in years.

Which member of a famous British acting dynasty joined Doctor Who in 2012 as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, head of UNIT?

Jemma Redgrave inherited a character born outside television: Kate was created for the 1995 direct-to-video spin-off Downtime, where Beverley Cressman played her.

Doctor Who Magazine began in 1979 as a weekly comic published by the British arm of which American company?

Marvel Comics' UK arm launched it as Doctor Who Weekly, and in 2010 Guinness World Records named it the longest-running magazine based on a television series.

Which regular Doctor Who writer scripted An Adventure in Space and Time, the 2013 BBC drama about the series' creation?

Mark Gatiss first pitched the film a decade earlier for the 40th anniversary, only to be told there was no available slot or budget.

Which painter does the Eleventh Doctor take to a modern Paris gallery to hear his own work praised in Doctor Who?

Vincent van Gogh is overwhelmed when he overhears a curator, played by an uncredited Bill Nighy, call him "the greatest painter of them all".

Which future US talk-show host played the Eleventh Doctor's flatmate Craig Owens in the Doctor Who episode 'The Lodger'?

James Corden came back as Craig in the next series for a sequel by the same writer, who had first told the lodger story as a magazine comic strip.

After rejecting a string of foods, what does the newly arrived Eleventh Doctor happily eat with custard in Doctor Who?

Fish fingers on set were really a breaded coconut-flavoured snack, and Matt Smith reckoned he ate about 14 of them across the scene's 12 takes.

Beneath which prehistoric English monument is the fabled prison found in Doctor Who's 'The Pandorica Opens'?

Stonehenge scenes were shot partly at the real monument and partly at a replica, for a story set in Roman Britain in 102 AD.

Which fantasy novelist wrote 'The Doctor's Wife', the Doctor Who episode that puts the TARDIS's mind inside a woman?

Neil Gaiman has the TARDIS, speaking through a woman called Idris, insist that she stole the Doctor rather than the other way round.

Which novelist, played by Simon Callow, helps fight gaseous ghosts in the Doctor Who episode 'The Unquiet Dead'?

Charles Dickens was a part Simon Callow knew inside out: he had researched the author, played him before and recreated his public readings.

Which monarch do warrior monks plan to infect with a werewolf's bite in the Doctor Who episode 'Tooth and Claw'?

Queen Victoria rewards the Doctor with a knighthood the next day, then promptly banishes him from the British Empire.

Which Monty Python star makes a cameo as an art gallery visitor in the Doctor Who serial 'City of Death'?

John Cleese agreed on condition there was no advance publicity, and asked to be credited as "Kim Bread", a request the BBC turned down.

Which US president is troubled by a child's mysterious phone calls in the Doctor Who episode 'The Impossible Astronaut'?

Richard Nixon was played, under prosthetic cheeks, nose and ears, by Stuart Milligan, an American actor who had already portrayed other presidents.

In Doctor Who's 'The Christmas Invasion', what does the Tenth Doctor lose in a sword duel and immediately grow back?

A hand is sliced off by the Sycorax leader, who is later sent plunging from the ship when the Doctor hits a button with a satsuma.

In Doctor Who's 'Human Nature', the Tenth Doctor turns human and stores his Time Lord memories inside which object?

A fob watch sits on the mantelpiece of his 1913 schoolteacher self, who thinks it is perfectly ordinary, while his companion poses as a maid to guard it.

In Doctor Who's 'Midnight', an unseen entity possesses a shuttle passenger and starts doing what with others' words?

Repeating them was the writer's idea of true unease: he felt constant mimicry "drives you mad", and the entity ends up speaking before the Doctor does.

In which English city does Doctor Who's Thirteenth Doctor fall through a train roof in 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth'?

Sheffield got the red-carpet premiere too: the series opener was first screened at a cinema in the city in September 2018.

In the Doctor Who episode 'Kill the Moon', Clara must decide the Moon's fate after it is revealed to be what?

An egg, and it hatches: a giant winged creature breaks out of the shell and flies away, leaving a freshly laid replacement moon behind.

Which Harry Potter actor took on the role of the First Doctor for the 2017 Doctor Who special 'Twice Upon a Time'?

David Bradley won the part after playing the role's original actor in a 2013 docudrama about the birth of the series.

Which mistress of Louis XV does Doctor Who's Tenth Doctor visit through time windows in 'The Girl in the Fireplace'?

Madame de Pompadour is stalked by clockwork androids from a 51st-century ship, who want her brain as a spare part once she reaches the age of 37.

Which play do witch-like aliens bewitch Shakespeare into rewriting in the Doctor Who episode 'The Shakespeare Code'?

Love's Labour's Won is a genuine puzzle: historical documents mention the play, but it may be no more than an alternative title for one that survives.

Which ten-part 1969 serial ended the Second Doctor's Doctor Who era and first named his own people, the Time Lords?

The War Games ends with the Doctor tried for stealing a TARDIS and meddling in other worlds; his sentence is exile on 20th-century Earth with a new face.

Which Doctor Who serial was abandoned half-recorded in 1979 and only completed, with animation, in 2017?

Shada lost its studio slots to higher-priority seasonal programming; decades later the original cast recorded the missing dialogue on the same audio equipment.

Which serial, featuring the Master and the Cheetah People, was the last Doctor Who story of the original 26-year run?

Survival was shot mostly around the London suburb of Perivale, and the production office that had run without a break since 1963 closed the following August.