DW 2023 Christmas Special #1: The Church on Ruby Road

  A guide to classic Who references in new Who.

Doctor Who  BBC Anniversary Special #3 in which the Doctor meets Ruby...

May contain spoilers for 

"The Church on Ruby Road"

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

The following are also covered:

[1ST] - Things that first appeared in this episode.

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

[REAL] - Things that first appeared in outside the series itself.

[OTH] - Things that first appeared in outside the series itself.

Previously on Doctor Who...

The TARDIS

• [OLD] The Doctor's time and space travel vehicle.  It stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space.  Like a lot of the Doctor's race's technology, it is "bigger on the inside."  The Doctor stole her second-hand TARDIS when fleeing her Gallifrey. It is an older model ("Type 40") and unreliable, often ending up in the wrong location, and being unable to blend into its environment (a feature TARDISes should have). Other Time Lords have their own TARDISes.

The Doctor

• [OLD]  The main character of Doctor Who, classic series and new. Born on Gallifrey, he is a Time Lord. Due to Time Lords' ability to regenerate this is the "Fifteenth Doctor."

Sonic Screwdriver

• [OLD] The Doctor's favourite tool: the sonic screwdriver. First shown to be used by the Second Doctor in "Fury of the Deep" (Doctor Who (1963) season 5), it has been used almost constantly since. While it has been destroyed a couple of times and replaced it has been implied to be the same device rebuilt ("Day of the Doctor" (Doctor Who (2015) 50th Anniversary Special). Although Doctor has suggested he initially built it ("The Doctor Dances"  (Doctor Who (2015) series 1) & "A Christmas Carol"  (Doctor Who (2015) Christmas Special 2010). It's been said to be self-repairing "A Christmas Carol"  (Doctor Who (2015) Christmas Special 2010) and on at least one occasion the repaired it for him ("The Eleventh Hour"  (Doctor Who (2015) series 5)). The previous Doctor built her version in "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" (Doctor Who (2015) series 11). This appears to be the Tenth Doctor's sonic returned. It has a variety of powers. This is the first time it's created a shield. One of its weaknesses is "deadlock seals."

Intelligent Gloves

• [1ST] First appearance of this pair of devices.

Mavity

• [NEW] The new name for "gravity" after the Doctor and Donna inadvertently changed time in "The Wild Blue Yonder" (Doctor Who (2005) 60th Anniversary Special #2).

Harry Houdini

• [OLD] Harry Houdini - An actual person, who has been named dropped as having taught escape tricks to the Doctor and some of his companion: Ben Jackson (Second Doctor companion) in "The Highlanders" (Doctor Who (1963) season 4), the Third Doctor ("Planet of the Spiders" (Doctor Who (1963) season 11)), the Fourth Doctor "Revenge of the Cybermen" (Doctor Who (1963) season 12),, the Tenth ("Dreamland" (Doctor Who (2005) animation)).and the Thirteenth ("The Witchfinders" (Doctor Who (2005) series 11)),

Adopted

• [NEW] As per the events of "The Timeless Children" (Doctor Who (2005) series 12.)

- DUG.

[Doctor Who (2005) episodes]

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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.