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Agatha Christie meets Donna and the Doctor
It’s very important to Doctor Who that the TARDIS can travel back in time to a recognizable point in human history. After all, we don’t know what last week on Skaro or Mondas can have been like, or 20 years from now, for that matter, so to prove to your audience that all of history is there for the exploring, you need to intact with history as we understand it now. And that involves mixing with some very recognizable faces.
Let’s start with some writers. How about this fella, who was born exactly 200 years ago, next Tuesday:
Charles Dickens – The Unquiet Dead (Ninth Doctor, 2005)
And who could forget…
Agatha Christie – The Unicorn and the Wasp (Tenth Doctor, 2008)
And maybe the greatest of them all:
William Shakespeare – The Shakespeare Code (Tenth Doctor, 2007)
Followed by the biggest, most recognizable face of the 20th Century.
Adolf Hitler – Let’s Kill Hitler (Eleventh Doctor, 2011)
And his opponent…
Winston Churchill – The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, The Pandorica Opens, The Wedding of River Song (Eleventh Doctor, 2010/2011)
Meanwhile, back at the very beginnings of recorded history:
Lucius Caecilius Iucundus – The Fires of Pompeii (Tenth Doctor, 2008)
And from an external fire to an internal one:
Vincent Van Gogh – Vincent and the Doctor, The Pandorica Opens (Eleventh Doctor, 2010/2011)
And from a righteous leader…
Richard the Lionheart – The Crusade (First Doctor, 1965)
…to a rotten one…
King John I – The King’s Demons (Fifth Doctor, 1983)
…to an iconic one (two meetings and the whiff of romance, no less)…
Elizabeth The First – The Chase/The Shakespeare Code (First Doctor/Tenth Doctor, 1965/2007)
…to a furious Merry Monarch…
Charles II – The Impossible Astronaut (Eleventh Doctor, 2011)
And while we’re doing the queens…
Queen Victoria – Tooth and Claw (Tenth Doctor, 2006)
and other members of the royal court:
Madame De Pompadour – The Girl In The Fireplace (Tenth Doctor, 2006)
And a robotic version of a lady who just acts like a sovereign:
Anne Robinson – Bad Wolf (Ninth Doctor, 2005)
Oh and here’s an American leader:
Richard Nixon – The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (Eleventh Doctor, 2010)
And here’s a real rogue in a landscape of fictional characters:
Blackbeard – The Mind Robber (Second Doctor, 1968)
And another real pirate:
Henry Avery – Curse of the Black Spot (Eleventh Doctor, 2011)
Speaking of rogues, here’s the entire gunfight at the OK Corrall:
Wyatt Earp et al – The Gunfighters (First Doctor, 1965)
And one of the most famous travelers and traders in history:
Marco Polo – Marco Polo (First Doctor, 1964)
And the inventor of the steam locomotive:
George Stephenson – Mark of the Rani (Sixth Doctor, 1985)
And that’s before we factor in all of the famous people in history that the Doctor has name-dropped. But that’s another story for another day….
33 Comments
Brain: your answer lies within the pages of the Cambridge Latin Course
Lucius is a real person, Lucius Caecilius Iucundus. He was an inhabitant of Pompeii at the time of the eruption, and he did have a son called Quintus. Evidence of his existence was found in the buried ruins of Pompeii.
Hitler doesn’t count! He was in that episode for like 3 minutes. So dissapointing for a topic that they really could have gone into and done a good job with.
Also, PLEASE do an episode explaining Amelia Earhart! That would be so cool!
Wasn’t H.G. Wells in one of the Peter Davidson episodes?
What about the first Doctor meeting Nero?
I have watched since 1964. I seem to recall Ghengis Khan in an episode.
As well as William Shakespeare appearing in ‘The Chase’ with Elizabeth I, also Abraham Lincoln reading the Gettysburg Address, and Saladin in ‘The Crusade’, Kublai Kahn in ‘Marco Polo’, Elizabeth II with brief appearances in ‘Silver Nemesis’ and ‘Voyage of the Damned’ and on the TV in ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’, and Nero and Poppea in ‘The Romans’, and H G Wells in ‘Timelash’.
A Jesus episode would so awesome. Herold would be an alien or maybe the Romans! And of course the Doctor would try to warn him and Jesus would be all like “I know”. And the disciples would be so confused they all swear never to write about it. And Jesus and the Doctor would get along splendidly becuase they would both missing home. And Jesus would tell him not to feel guilty about killing all the Time Lords he would tell him he is forgiven. it would be sooooooo coool!!!! IT COULD BE AN EASTER SPECIAL! I am so excited now!!! I really hope someone with power reads this!
@Crystal
I agree with you! It would be so cool! Even if it wasn’t that exact plotline, as long as he did something in biblical history it would be my favourite episode ever! As long as they didn’t massacre it…
Doctor Who should do an episode about Anne Frank. I can see that happening
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