DW 09-03: Under The Lake (Part 1)

A Guide to Classic Who references in new Who.

Doctor Who series 9 episode 2 - Clara and the Doctor visit an underwater base.

References

[OLD] - Things that first appeared in the classic series (or the film.)  Episode List.

For context, the following are also covered:

[1ST] -  The first appearance of things in Doctor Who series.

[NEW] - Things that first appeared previously in the new series.

Ongoing References...

• [OLD] The Doctor - The main character.  Real name: unknown; actual age: unclear.  Status as a Medical Doctor:  Undetermined.  He is a Time Lord from the Planet Gallifrey.

• [OLD]  The TARDIS - The Doctor's time and space travel vechicle.  TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space.  Like a lot of Time Lord technology it is "bigger on the inside."  The Doctor stole his Tardis when fleeing Gallifrey.  It is an older model ("Type 40") and unreliable, often ending up in the wrong location and the chamleon circuit - designed to make the Tardis appear inconspicuous in any surroundings it appears has failed so it always appears as a police telephone box from 1960s England.   It is often implied to have a personality, which was given form in "The Doctor's Wife" and previously disliked Clara (who later entered the Doctor's time scar) and refused to visit Tranzelor (which had the Doctor's time scar and also had a future version of the TARDIS).

• [NEW]  Psychic Paper - Used by the Doctor as fake ID, first appeared in the new Who episode "The End of the World."  It was used as a way to contact the Doctor in "New Earth."  At least one employee at Torchwood One was trained to recognise it as psychic paper in "Army of Ghosts."  The Doctor noted in "The Shakespeare Code" that William Shakespeare's ability to not see anything on the psychic paper proved he was a genius.

• [OLD] UNIT - A paramilitary force, set up after the invasion of the London Underground by robot Yeti controlled by the Great Intelligence.  Called United Nations Intelligence Taskforce in the classic series and initially in the new series of Doctor Who until the real world UN complained.  It is now called the UNified Intelligence Taskforce.

• [NEW] Sonic Sunglasses - A sonic device that replaced the Doctor's famed Sonic Screwdriver in "The Magician's Apprentice."  In seems they do wi-fi.

This episode...

• [1ST] The Drum - The first appearance of this underwater facility, but...

• [OLD] Underwater facility - The Doctor has visited these before, such as "Sea Base 4" (Season 21's "Warriors of the Deep") or even Atlantis  (Season 4's "The Underwater Menace") - both in Earth's oceans rather than a lake.

• [1ST]  2119 - First appearance of this year, but...

• [OLD]  The 22nd Century - has featured a few times.  "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People" (also about a remote energy producing base) was set in this century and "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (Season 2) occured in the second half.

• [1ST] The spacecraft - The first appearance of this unidentified craft, but...

• [OLD] A spacecraft in a lake - The Doctor has visited a spaceship in a lake before, that time being in "Battlefield" (Season 26).  The spaceship in that story was from another dimension and contained King Arthur's body and Excalibur.  To cut a long story short, the Doctor's then companion, Ace, ended up becoming the Lady of the Lake.

• [1ST] Vector Petroleum - The first appearance of this company, but...

• [NIL] Nothing - There have been many fake companies in the show, but I'm not going through them one by one.

• [OLD]  Speaks sign language - The Doctor speaks a number of languages, (5 billion according to "The Parting of the Ways" and "everything" by the time of "A Good Man Goes to War").  In "Spearhead From Space" (Season 7) the Third Doctor claimed to speak Delphon, a language made up entirely of eyebrow movements.

• [NEW] Tivolian - A race with French tendancies, one of which (Gibbis) appeared in "The God Complex."

• [NEW]  Flesh avatars - A technology first produced in this era, according to "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People."  Flesh avatars appeared in many series 6 episodes.

• [OLD]  Autons - A recurring foe of the Doctor [see Foe: The Nestene & the Autons.]  They appeared in the Third Doctor stories "The Spearhead From Space" (Season 7) and "Terror of the Autons" (Season 8), the Ninth Doctor story 'Rose" and the Eleventh Doctor story "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang."

• [OLD] Nethersphere - A name used for a Matrix Data Slice where digital copies of dead people were stored to be implanted in Cybermen in "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven."  The Matrix itself was Gallifreyan VR and appeared in "The Deadly Assassin" (Fourth Doctor - Season 14), "Arc of Infinity" (Fifth Doctor - Season  20) and "The Ultimate Foe" (Sixth Doctor - Season 23).

• [OLD] Aberdeen - In "The Hand of Fear" (Season 14), the Fourth Doctor drops Sarah Jane Smith home, but she soon realises that he didn't drop her in South Croydon.  In "School Reunion" she reveals that he'd dropped her off in Aberdeen.

• [OLD]  Exterminated - The Dalek term for killed.

• [OLD]  Upgraded - Cyber-conversion (turned into a Cyber-man).  The term did not appear until the introduction of the Cybus Cyber-men in new Who.

• [OLD]  The cloister bell - A TARDIS warning which sounds when the TARDIS, the universe or both are in danger.

~ DUG.

Other new Doctor Who episodes.

How it feels after marathoning entire series of Doctor Who.

The Time Crash blog was created to help New Who fans understand Classic Who references - and to know if something isn't a reference but a new idea.  If there's a reference I missed or a subject that you feel needs more explaining, please comment.