John Sullivan – The heavyweight boxing champion gave the Doctor boxing lessons. (Carnival of Monsters)
William Tell – The Swiss folk hero taught the Doctor how to shoot a crossbow. (The Face of Evil)
Theseus – Theseus and Ariadne were helped out of the Minotaur’s maze by the Doctor and a ball of string. (The Creature from the Pit) The Doctor forgot to remind Theseus to paint his ship white. (The Horns of Nimon)
Queen Victoria – The Doctor attended Victoria’s coronation. (The Curse of Peladon)
Leonardo da Vinci – Some time after The Masque of Mandragora, the Doctor met Leonardo and the model for the Mona Lisa, a dreadful woman with no eyebrows who wouldn’t sit still. (City of Death) The Sixth Doctor had Leonardo’s contact details in his address book. (The Two Doctors)
James Watt – The First Doctor was present when the Scottish engineer discovered steam power. (The Space Museum)
Issak Walton – The Doctor fished with the author of The Compleat Angler. (The Androids of Tara)
HISTORICAL CELEBRITIES
‘Charles Dickens? You’re brilliant, you are. Completely, one hundred per cent brilliant.’
The Doctor, The Unquiet Dead
When you get around the history of Earth as much as the Doctor does, sooner or later you’re going to bump into some very famous celebrities. Here are some of the great and the good (and the downright evil) of history that have been portrayed during the Doctor’s travels.
THE NEMESIS COMET
‘Listen, Ace. The Nemesis generates destruction. It affects everything around it.’
The Doctor, Silver Nemesis
In 1638, the Doctor launched the Validium statue known as the Nemesis Comet into space on a rocket-sled. Unfortunately, its orbit then brought it near to Earth every 25 years, causing trouble on the planet with every pass. Known effects influenced by the statue’s proximity to the planet include:
1913: The eve of the First World War
1938: Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria
1963: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy
1988: the attempted rise of the Fourth Reich and a Cyber invasion.
CELEBRITY CULTURE
Everybody from newsreaders to pop stars wants to appear in Doctor Who. Here’s a rundown of the real-life celebrities of planet Earth that have appeared as themselves in the series.
NOT QUITE THEMSELVES
Although many celebrities from the real world have appeared in Doctor Who, there’s a handful of famous figures that have appeared – but perhaps not exactly as themselves:
Anne Robinson – The laser-tongued presenter lent her voice to the Anne-Droid, the literally laser-tongued metallic presenter of a futuristic edition of quiz show The Weakest Link. (Bad Wolf)
Davina McCall – As the voice of Davinadroid, the presenter presided over the Game Station’s version of Big Brother in the year 200,100, where the Doctor was forced to be a housemate. (Bad Wolf)
Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine – In the 21st century they were the presenters of What Not To Wear, but by 200,100 they were Trine-e and Zu-Zana, intent on giving Captain Jack a permanent make-over. (Bad Wolf)
Barbara Windsor – There was no Peggy Mitchell in residence in Albert Square when the TARDIS landed there in 1993’s Dimensions in Time, but in 2006 Barbara Windsor finally appeared in Doctor Who – within an episode of EastEnders. Jackie Tyler was glued to a storyline in which Peggy tells a ‘ghost’ of Den Watts to ‘get out of my pub’. (Army of Ghosts)
MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS ON EARTH
‘I thought you were a doctor!’
The Doctor, Doctor Who
If all hospitals on Earth are full, Who-ology recommends you try Ward 26 of the New New York Hospital on New Earth (New Earth), or the Bi-Al Foundation on asteroid K4067, near the Saturn moon of Titan. Robot dogs and invading alien swarms a speciality. (The Invisible Enemy)
THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF DOCTOR WHO
‘They seemed so secure and died out virtually overnight.’
The Doctor, Earthshock
The Doctor has had a hand in some of the Earth’s greatest mysteries…
A cataclysmic event brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Accepted scientific theory suggests a large celestial object collided with the Earth.
Mystery solved: The Cybermen intended to use a large space freighter to impact with the Earth in the year 2526 to destroy a peace conference. The freighter did impact with the Earth, but not in the far future. Thanks to the interference of the Doctor’s companion Adric, the freighter travelled back in time some 65 million years. The rest is history. As is Adric. (Earthshock)
First mentioned by Plato, Atlantis was a legendary city believed to have been lost beneath the waves. According to the philosopher it sank in ‘a single day and night of misfortune’. But what was that misfortune?
Mystery solved: Atlantis was destroyed around 1500 AD when the Master unleashed the being known as Kronos. (The Time Monster) Simple. Or it would have been if Azal hadn’t claimed that the Daemons destroyed Atlantis as a failed experiment. (The Daemons) Either way, Atlantis was rediscovered by Professor Zaroff in the latter half of the 20th century. (The Underwater Menace)
Archaeologists have long been puzzled by complex temples dating from thousands of years ago. How had primitive man built such intricate buildings?
Mystery solved: Visitors from the planet Exxilon came to Earth and taught the locals how to build, mirroring the structures on their own planet. (Death to the Daleks)
On 5 November 1872, American merchant ship Mary Celeste set sail from New York City, bound for Italy. On 4 December, the ship was discovered adrift, with the crew having mysteriously vanished without trace.
Mystery solved: Trying to elude pursuit by the Daleks, the Doctor landed the TARDIS aboard the Mary Celeste, the Daleks arriving soon after in their own time machine. When faced with the horror of the Daleks, the crew sensibly threw themselves overboard. Along with a Dalek. (The Chase)