Elite Facts Presents
Top 10 Doctor Who Easter Eggs
10.
Now with Doctor Who having ran for over 50 years, there’s bound to have been a lot
of hidden easter eggs in the show’s history, so here we have the top ten!
First off is the fact that a line in 2013’s Christmas Special “Time of the Doctor”,
which most people think was just a humorous one liner was actually based on something
else entirely!
Clara claimed that she accidentally invented a boyfriend to which the Doctor replies saying
that he once did that too and they aren’t easy to get rid of.
This was a reference to the 2003 animated web series for Doctor Who, “Scream of the
Shalka”.
This story is now known as an alternate timeline where Richard E Grant is the Doctor after
Paul McGann written by Paul Cornell.
There is quite a lot of homoerotic subtext between the Doctor and the Master that it’s
very clearly been added intentionally implying something was going on between the two.
At one point in this story, the Master’s brain was transferred to an android body upon
the TARDIS implying this is what he meant by “inventing a boyfriend”.
Not many people know of this easter egg as it hasn’t been confirmed and the Master
wasn’t technically the Doctor’s boyfriend.
Many people still wonder to this day what the Doctor meant when talking to Clara in
“Time of the Doctor”.
9.
Next up is Ellie’s death.
Now for those who aren’t aware, Ellie is Clara Oswald’s mother who died when Clara
was very young.
The cause of death was never properly revealed but many have speculated that her death was
due to the Autons.
The reason for this is because in the episode, “The Rings of Akhaten”, we see a flashback
of Clara standing over her mother’s grave, upon which the death date is March 5th 2005.
For the casual viewer this may mean nothing, but to those bigger fans, people have linked
that this is just a few weeks before episode one was released of Doctor Who when it was
brought back in 2005.
In this episode, “Rose”, the enemy is the Autons and killed many people.
It is never specifically stated when it takes place other than 2005 so it is entirely possible
that Ellie was alive then until she met her untimely death from the Autons.
Granted it is a slight bit of guess work but it would be a very interesting link if that
was the case.
8.
Now we go into the 50th anniversary episode of the show, “Day of the Doctor”.
At the very start of the episode, a policeman walks past Coal Hill School, which already
is a cool moment for long time fans as Coal Hill was the school in the very first episode
of the show but the easter egg is more difficult to spot.
On the board outside the school in the opening scene, written there is “Chairman of the
Governors: I. Chesterton”.
Most viewers would not have noticed this small detail and even if they did they wouldn’t
have connected it with anything, but in actual fact, I. Chesterton is referring to Ian Chesterton.
Ian was one of the Doctor’s very first companions and used to work as a teacher in Coal Hill
School back in 1963 until he was whisked away in the TARDIS through no choice of his own.
To see that he still works in the school 50 years later is a huge thing for the major
fan.
7.
For number seven we delve into the episode, “Blink” written by Steven Moffat.
This is a bit of a funny easter egg as it’s sort of like easter egg-ception.
First of all, there’s an easter egg in the plot of the story that acts as a sort of clue
for the main character of the episode, Sally Sparrow.
This easter egg is a five minute long video of the Doctor talking to the camera seemingly
saying random words and phrases.
It turns out towards the end of the episode that it actually acts as half of a conversation
throughout time between the Doctor in 1969 and Sally Sparrow in 2007.
Now the fun part is the actual easter egg for us, well believe it or not, on the series
3 DVD, if you go to the scene selection on Blink and go to a certain scene without clicking
it, and press the up button, you can select the title.
What happens if you do this?
Well, the full video can be played of the easter egg in the episode.
It’s an Easter egg within an easter egg!
What did I tell you?
Easter egg-ception!
6.
At the halfway point we delve into the mystery behind Queen Elizabeth in the show.
Now in a show about time travel, things don’t always happen in the correct order and this
is a prime example of that.
In 2007, in the episode, “The Shakespeare Code”, at the very end of the episode we
see the Doctor meet Queen Elizabeth for the first time, from his point of view anyway,
but from Queen Elizabeth’s point of view, she has clearly already met him, in fact,
she wants his head!
So clearly the Doctor did something to upset her.
There was no other mention of her for another two years and even then it was extremely brief.
In 2009’s “The End of Time”, at the beginning the Doctor mentioned that on his
travels he had married Queen Elizabeth, but this was the last story for this version of
the Doctor so we, the viewers, assumed we were never going to find out about what happened
at this point.
However, four whole years after this, in the 50th anniversary story, “Day of the Doctor”,
David Tennant’s Doctor returned, and so did Queen Elizabeth, a much younger version
of her than we saw in “The Shakespeare Code”.
During this episode, the Doctor did indeed marry her, but before leaving in the TARDIS
he claimed, “I will be right back.”
Obviously, putting two and two together, he never returned and thus left her on her own
for many years until she sees him again in “The Shakespeare Code” but that much younger
version of the Doctor won’t have met her yet and had no idea of this marriage.
So there’s another mystery solved and a very ingenious easter egg that ran over the
course of six years from 2007 to 2013.
5.
At number five we have an easter egg that most people might have missed.
In the episode, “Human Nature” the Doctor chooses to become human with no memory of
his alien life to avoid aliens trying to track him down.
And with his new human life he of course has to have new human memories.
When discussing his childhood with his lover Joan, he mentions that his mother and father
were named Sydney and Verity.
This was a reference to Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert.
Sydney Newman was a Canadian film and television producer and when he moved to Britain he worked
with the Associated British Corporation (ABC) and then in 1962 moved to the BBC.
Whilst working for the BBC he came up with the idea for Doctor Who and had a huge part
in it’s production.
Meanwhile, Verity Lambert was the very first full time producer for the show and one of
the first female producers to ever have responsibility on their own for television.
Without these two people Doctor Who wouldn’t have gotten off the ground, in a way, they
are the parents of Doctor Who, just like in the episode they are parents to Doctor Who.
4.
Next up at number three is a little reference to the TV show, Star Trek.
In the two parter story “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood”, the Doctor and
Clara end up on an underwater base.
In the cafeteria on this base, there is some murals on the wall, one of which looks like
a ship with three Star Trek characters there, in the gold shirt, the blue shirt, and the
red shirt, of course the red shirt would probably die in the flood.
No one knows why this little easter egg was put into the show but it was most likely just
a little nod to the fans of both shows, especially with the 50th anniversary of Star Trek coming
up the year after.
3.
Down to the top three!
In third position we have A113!
What do I mean by this?
Well first we have to look into the Pixar films.
Firstly, this code has been carefully placed into all, if not most of Pixar’s films,
sometimes written as A1-13 or A-113 but nearly always there in some form or another.
The question is why?
Well, this code represents the classroom that was used by Graphic Design and Character Animation
students at California Institute of Arts.
This is understandable for the students who became leaders of Pixar to use in their films,
but why is it used in other forms of media?
In Doctor Who, in the episode, “Flatline”, it is the name of a train.
But it doesn’t just stop there, it’s been in American Dad, Family Guy, the Simpsons,
Lilo and Stitch, the Powerpuff Girls, Firefly, the Avengers, Terminator: Salvation, Back
to the Future: The Game, Fallout 4 and many more.
Why does it appear?
It’s best not to question it, but next time you’re watching something or playing a game,
look out for it.
A113 might be there.
2.
In the runner up spot we have 2311631716.
This is the base code that Clara used to activate the vortex manipulator in the 50th anniversary
episode, “Day of the Doctor” which was carved into the wall by the Doctor when he
was trapped in the past.
What’s so special about it?
You may be asking.
Well if we divide the numbers up into the UK format for date and time we get 23rd November
63 at 17:16.
If we go back to that date and time, we see that it’s when the first ever episode of
Doctor Who, “An Unearthly Child” was broadcast, fifty years previously.
To include this little secret in the 50th anniversary episode, I personally think was
a terrific idea!
1.
And at the number one spot for the best Doctor Who easter egg is a tricky one that has to
be deciphered correctly!
Nearing the end of series 9, in the episode, “Face the Raven”, there is a secret code.
Hidden in the background is a word in a different language, that language is Aurebesh.
Now Aurebesh is a language that not everyone will have heard of, and that’s because it’s
a fictitious language in the Star Wars universe.
That’s right, Star Wars.
Aurebesh was a writing language used to transcribe Galactic Basic which happens to be the most
used language in the galaxy, so commonly used that it apparently appears in Doctor Who too.
Who would’ve guessed?
The question next is, what does the sign translate to?
When using the Aurebesh language to translate, the sign reads, “Delorean”.
This is where Back to the Future fans take over this mystery.
In the film trilogy of back to the future the Delorean is the car that is used to transport
Marty McFly and Emmett Brown through time.
So when you mix the Space of Star Wars and the Time of Back to the Future you get all
of space and time with Doctor Who!
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