DW 09-07: The Zygon Invasion (Part 1)

A Guide to Classic Who references in new Who.

Doctor Who series 9 episode 7 - The Doctor faces the fall out from the peace treaty from the Fiftieth Anniversay Special ("Day of the Doctor.")

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.

[TW] - Things that first appeared previously in Torchwood.

Ongoing References...

• [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).

• [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] 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.

From the Anniversary Special...

• [NEW]  Three Doctors - "Day of the Doctor" featured the Eleventh Doctor, the Tenth Doctor and the War Doctor (from between the Eighth and Ninth.)

• [NEW] Osgood - A UNIT scientist, who first appeared in "Day of the Doctor."  A participant in the peace treaty, she was the only who knew which version of herself was human and which was Zygon.  She was killed in "Death in Heaven."  She may be a relative of a classic era UNIT scientist Tom Osgood.  In "Day of the Doctor" she wore a scarf resembling the Fourth Doctor's.

• [OLD] The Zygons - A race of shape changers who appeared in "Terror of the Zygons" (Season 13) and "Day of the Doctor.  [See Foes: The Zygons.]

• [NEW] The Zygon Peace Treaty - As noted was negoiated under special conditions created by the Doctors.

• [OLD] The Seventies, Eighties - Kate previously noted difficulty dating UNIT actions in "Day of the Doctor."  With the Third Doctor's exile on Earth, the UNIT stories, including Season 13's "Terror of the Zygons"  (filmed in the 1970s) were set in the 1980s.  This, however, was followed inconsistantly by the production and contradicted by later episodes.

This episode...

• [OLD] The Seventh Doctor's Cardigan - Osgood continues her trademark of wearing items of clothing representing previous doctors.

• [OLD] Question mark collar - More Osgood fan clothing, this time the dress shirt worn by the Fifth & Sixth Doctor.  In the Fourth Doctor's final season he also wore question marks on his collar, but in a different way.''

• [OLD] The First Doctor - A painting of the First Doctor appears in the South London safe house.

• [OLD] Zygon control polyp - Looks less like burnt pizza than it originally did.

• [OLD] Naval Doctor - The Fourth Doctor's companion, Harry Sullivan was a Naval Surgeon working for UNIT who appeared in a number of episodes, including "Terror of the Zygons" (Season 13).  When the Fifth Doctor caught up with the Brig (Kate's dad) in "Mawydryn Undead" (Season 20) he asked about various UNIT members:

DOCTOR: And Harry Sullivan?  

BRIGADIER: Seconded to NATO. Last heard of doing something very hush-hush at Porton Down.

• [NEW] Hybrid - Yet another reference to the word.

~ DUG.

Other new Doctor Who episodes.

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.

One of our team of  classic Who reference researches.