50 Fun Facts About The Thirteenth Doctor

Which civil rights figure does the Thirteenth Doctor protect from a time-travelling criminal in 1955 Alabama?

Rosa Parks is the target of Krasko, a racist criminal from the future who cannot kill, so he tries to nudge history off course by keeping her bus from filling up.

Which former Doctor's face does Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor take on when she regenerates on a clifftop?

David Tennant returned as the Fourteenth Doctor, who is alarmed to find that his new face matches the one he wore in his tenth incarnation.

In which English city does the newly regenerated Thirteenth Doctor crash to Earth and meet her first three companions?

Sheffield also supplies her new sonic screwdriver, which she builds from scrap metal and proudly says is forged from the city's steel.

Which British quiz show host played retired bus driver Graham O'Brien, who travels with the Thirteenth Doctor?

Bradley Walsh, the host of The Chase, was once a professional footballer on the books at Brentford before he turned to comedy and acting.

In a cliffhanger set in a 1967 English village, the Thirteenth Doctor is herself turned into which classic monster?

A Weeping Angel form overtakes the Doctor as she is recalled to Division, the secretive organisation she served before her memories of it were erased.

The Thirteenth Doctor gatecrashes a stormy 1816 gathering at Villa Diodati that inspired which famous Gothic novel?

Frankenstein was conceived there by Mary Shelley, though the Doctor's party arrives to find her future husband Percy missing and the guests more interested in dancing.

In Jodie Whittaker's last full episode, the Master takes the place of which historical figure in 1916 Russia?

Grigori Rasputin's face starts replacing those in famous paintings, the first clue to the Master's plan to steal the Doctor's body through a forced regeneration.

Jodie Whittaker's casting as the Thirteenth Doctor was revealed on television straight after which 2017 sporting event?

The Wimbledon men's final reveal showed her in a grey overcoat and black hoodie, months before her real costume was unveiled.

What infests a new luxury hotel owned by American tycoon Jack Robertson in an early Thirteenth Doctor adventure?

Giant spiders emerge from abandoned mine tunnels beneath the hotel, which one of Robertson's companies had used as a dump for industrial waste.

What traps the Thirteenth Doctor in a Manchester storage facility with Daleks shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve?

A time loop keeps resetting the evening, and each reset is one minute shorter, so the Doctor has only until midnight to find a way out.

Which Broadchurch creator was Doctor Who's showrunner for the whole of the Thirteenth Doctor's era?

Chris Chibnall made a pact with his star at the outset to do three series and then leave together, and the pair handed back the TARDIS keys in 2022.

Which actor plays the Master opposite the Thirteenth Doctor, first posing as an MI6 agent known as O?

Sacha Dhawan's Master shrank the real O to a tiny corpse and stole his identity, a deception that holds right up to the cliffhanger of Spyfall.

Which stand-up comedian played Liverpool food bank volunteer Dan Lewis in the Thirteenth Doctor's last series?

John Bishop was born in Liverpool himself and was a semi-professional footballer before he took up comedy.

Which former Hollyoaks actor played probationary police officer Yasmin Khan throughout the Thirteenth Doctor's travels?

Mandip Gill's Yaz stayed to the very end, and her feelings for the Doctor became the first same-sex romance between the Doctor and a companion.

Which condition makes riding a bike a struggle for the Thirteenth Doctor's young companion Ryan Sinclair?

Dyspraxia affects Ryan's coordination, and viewers first meet him failing to stay on his practice bike, moments before he stumbles on an alien pod.

Which rhino-headed police force arrests the Thirteenth Doctor and locks her in an asteroid prison for decades?

The Judoon seize her just as she is about to take off, and she spends decades in the cell before an old friend breaks her out.

Which clone warrior race replaces Russia as Britain's enemy when the Thirteenth Doctor visits the Crimean War?

The Sontarans are driven back when the Doctor poisons their supply system, only for a vengeful British general to bomb their retreating ships.

Which pioneering nurse does the Thirteenth Doctor meet at Sevastopol during a Crimean War rewritten by aliens?

Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse and businesswoman, had gone to the Crimea to set up her British Hotel for sick and convalescent officers.

Which historical upheaval is unfolding when the Thirteenth Doctor takes Yaz to meet her young grandmother Umbreen?

The Partition of India looms over Umbreen's wedding to Prem, a Hindu man she intends to marry even though her own family is Muslim.

Which actor's Twelfth Doctor regenerated into Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor in a 2017 Christmas special?

Peter Capaldi bowed out in Twice Upon a Time, whose last scene leaves the brand-new Doctor falling out of her own TARDIS.

Which Scottish actor plays witch-hunting King James I when the Thirteenth Doctor visits 1612 Lancashire?

Alan Cumming's King James takes Graham for the one in charge and assumes the Doctor is merely his assistant.

Which immortal former companion steals a spaceship to send the Thirteenth Doctor a warning about a lone Cyberman?

Jack Harkness teleports Graham aboard his stolen ship by mistake, taking him for the Doctor, in a return the show had kept as a surprise.

Which computing pioneer does the Thirteenth Doctor pull into an 1834 invention exhibition while escaping the Kasaavin?

Ada Lovelace then grabs the Doctor's hand and lands with her in wartime Paris, where the pair are rescued by British spy Noor Inayat Khan.

Which rival inventor stirs up protesters against Nikola Tesla in the Thirteenth Doctor's 1903 New York adventure?

Thomas Edison is the Doctor's first suspect when Tesla is ambushed, but the real threat is the Skithra, aliens whose ship is cobbled together from stolen parts.

Which small creature that eats non-organic material threatens a hospital ship carrying the injured Thirteenth Doctor?

A Pting really craves energy, so the Doctor feeds it the ship's own bomb and then jettisons the well-fed creature into space.

In a mirror world reached from a Norwegian cabin, the sentient Solitract speaks to the Thirteenth Doctor as what?

A talking frog with the voice of Graham's late wife Grace is the form it chooses, and the Doctor has to explain that the two of them cannot co-exist.

Which everyday packaging material becomes a murder weapon at the galactic retailer Kerblam in a Thirteenth Doctor story?

Bubble wrap is weaponised by maintenance worker Charlie, who wants the deaths of Kerblam's customers blamed on automation so that human jobs are saved.

Which warlike race sends Tzim-Sha to hunt a human in the Thirteenth Doctor's first full adventure?

The Stenza hunt is a ritual to earn leadership, and the Doctor, who insists on calling the hunter Tim Shaw, turns his own DNA bombs back on him.

Which Australian flight attendant, a companion of the Fifth Doctor, returns for the Thirteenth Doctor's last adventure?

Tegan Jovanka, played again by Janet Fielding, destroys a Cyberman converter inside UNIT headquarters while fellow returnee Ace takes on the Daleks.

Which earlier showrunner returned to run Doctor Who once the Thirteenth Doctor's era ended in 2022?

Russell T Davies had revived the series in 2005, and he wrote the closing moments of the Thirteenth Doctor's regeneration episode himself.

What one-word title was given to the Thirteenth Doctor's last full series, a single story told across six episodes?

Flux is also the name of the universe-ending anomaly at the heart of the story, which began on Halloween night in 2021.

Which planet does the Master reveal he has laid waste to at the end of the Thirteenth Doctor's Spyfall adventure?

Gallifrey was razed by the Master in revenge after he learned that the Time Lords had lied about the origins of their own species.

What design runs across the chest of the navy blue T-shirt in the Thirteenth Doctor's costume?

A rainbow stripe tops an outfit of blue culottes and yellow braces that Jodie Whittaker based on a photograph from a 1988 magazine.

Which Absolutely Fabulous star played a comic female Thirteenth Doctor in a 1999 Comic Relief sketch?

Joanna Lumley had been put forward for the real part back in 1986 by series creator Sydney Newman, but the broadcaster dismissed the idea.

Which actor plays the Fugitive Doctor, a forgotten earlier incarnation hiding on Earth as Ruth Clayton?

Jo Martin became the first black actor to play the Doctor in the main show, as a more ruthless incarnation on the run from the Time Lords.

Which returning classic monsters does the Thirteenth Doctor battle alongside the pirate Madam Ching in 1807 China?

The Sea Devils' chief Marsissus has been trapped inside a stone statue until Madam Ching unwittingly frees him with a gem while raiding a village.

At which landmark on Dorset's Jurassic Coast does the Thirteenth Doctor stand alone to regenerate?

Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch, and the Doctor goes there alone after spending a little last time with Yaz.

On which day of the week did the Thirteenth Doctor's first series air, a first in Doctor Who's history?

Sunday evenings replaced the Saturday slot that every regular episode of the revived series had occupied until then.

Jodie Whittaker's final episode as the Thirteenth Doctor was commissioned to celebrate which broadcasting milestone?

The BBC's centenary was marked with a regeneration story that brought back a string of earlier Doctors and companions for cameos.

Which composer scored the Thirteenth Doctor's whole era after Murray Gold stepped down as music director?

Segun Akinola had been named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2017, the year before his first episode aired.

Violet inside the sleeves of the Thirteenth Doctor's coat nods to the colours of which political movement?

The Suffragettes' colours were the cue for costume designer Ray Holman, who had earlier dressed Jodie Whittaker on Broadchurch.

Which space explorer adopted the regenerating orphan who grew up to become the Doctor, then founded the Time Lords?

Tecteun grafted the orphan's gift into her own people, the Shobogans, and they chose to cap every Time Lord at twelve regenerations.

In which English cathedral city is the Fugitive Doctor living under a false identity when alien police come hunting?

Gloucester is sealed inside a forcefield during the search, and the chase ends in a stand-off inside its cathedral.

Which ancient enemy escapes a millennia-long Division imprisonment at the start of the Thirteenth Doctor's last series?

Swarm promptly revives his sister Azure, and together the pair set out to see the universe destroyed over and over again.

Which Game of Thrones actor plays Vinder, a recurring ally in the Thirteenth Doctor's six-part last series?

Jacob Anderson, Grey Worm in Game of Thrones, also releases R&B music under the stage name Raleigh Ritchie.

Karvanista, who abducts Dan Lewis to protect him, is one of the Lupari, aliens that resemble which animals?

Dogs are the model for the Lupari, whose approaching fleet looks like an invasion but has in fact come to defend the Earth.

Which Irish comedian plays Sarah, owner of the Manchester storage unit where the Thirteenth Doctor meets Daleks?

Aisling Bea's Sarah spends the night being chased alongside Nick, a visitor to the unit who has a crush on her.

Which 2011 film about aliens invading a London council estate gave Jodie Whittaker an early sci-fi role?

Attack the Block was also the film debut of John Boyega, who leads a teenage gang against the invaders on Guy Fawkes Night.

Which broadcaster and comedian plays C, the head of MI6, in the Thirteenth Doctor's two-part story Spyfall?

Stephen Fry appears alongside Lenny Henry, who plays Daniel Barton, the search engine boss working with the alien Kasaavin.

Which actor played Ryan Sinclair, the Thirteenth Doctor's companion who is training to be an electrical engineer?

Tosin Cole's Ryan works part-time in a warehouse and travels with his step-grandfather Graham until the pair choose to stay behind on Earth.