An Adventure In Space And Time (And TV)
Being able to travel through space and time, the Doctor hasnt just been limited to say, modern-day Britain, with a particular emphasis on Cardiff. The TARDIS has even materialised in other dimensions especially the televisual dimension where eagle-eyed fans have either spotted sneaky Who background gags in everything from Ben 10 to old school C4 comedy Chelmsford 1,2,3 or more direct references in Castle, NCIS, Archer, an inevitable gag in Saturday Night Live or a beaut in Phineas & Ferb. That still didnt make our list, though: here are our favourite Doctor Who cameos in other shows. As we count down to Doctor Who's return in series nine on Saturday (BBC One in the UK, BBC America in the US), look out for more great Time Lord-related features on 12DOVE this week. Read more about the new series in the latest issue of SFX, on sale now. You can also prepare for the new series by reading our series eight reviews.
Red letter day
The Empty Hearse, Sherlock (2014) Oh, you Sherlock wags do like a puzzle, dont you? When the great detective translates over from the BBC to PBSs Masterpiece Mystery in the USA, he gets a specially branded set of credits too, so when "The Empty Hearse" aired, Holmes-eyed viewers spotted that certain letters were coloured red. When these clues were spelt together, it made the word "Weng Chiang" a reference to The Talons of Weng-Chiang, which is noticeably the only Fourth Doctor episode where Tom Baker foregoes his trademark scarf in exchange for something more deerstalkery.
Couch potato
I Thought My Dad Was Dead, But It Turns Out He's Not, The Sarah Silverman Project (2008) Christopher Eccleston hasnt always talked in glowing terms of his time as the Time Lord, so its a surprise to find him revisiting his TARDIS-time and sending it up a treat here, mostly due to executive producer fan Rob Schrab being something of a Who fan. The artist formerly known as the Ninth Doctor plays Doctor Lazer Rage, the favourite alien-pursuing TV show of nerdy Brian, who blows his last bit of money on a complete DVD box set instead of paying the rental on the sofa. Hey, who needs comfort when youve got Vogons and a half-stuffed bean-bag chair?
Whats in a name?
The Mile High Job, Leverage (2009) What IDs do you have? We have Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, and I have a Tom Baker. The Mission: Impossible/A-Team hybrid Leverage gave a lot of love to a lot of shows, but the biggest recipient of its affections is Gallifreys finest. The teams in-house hacker Hardison is on record as an official bow-tie fancier which explains why so many of their fake IDs have Who links: Tennant, Smith, McCann, Moffat, Davies, Sally Sparrow
Killer jokes
Funnybot, South Park (2011) Vee haff vays of making you laff. According to South Park the Germans have a great sense of humour, and any deviation from this line of thought especially voting them the Most Unfunny People (yes, less funny than Yupik Eskimos of the Chukchi Peninsula) at the South Park Schools inaugural comedy awards will cause them to invade you and force you to hang out with the greatest feat in engineering: XJ-212 Funnybot, whose harsh-metallic comedy stylings all end with an Awkwaaaard punchline. This stand-up bot shares a certain design template, speech mannerisms and, ultimately, humanity-wiping genocidal urge as The Doctors number one nemesis Awkwaaaard.
Significantly different to dusting crops
Blue Harvest, Family Guy (2007) Man, hyperspace always looks so freaky. We knew George Lucas and the embryonic ILMs vision of lightspeed seemed familiar. The Griffins have thrown in a few Who-jabs over the years the dope gag in "420", for one but the gag in the Star Wars do-over Blue Harvest is a straight right to the jaw: swapping the iconic speedy scenery for the opening credits of a Fourth Doctor episode. The next time the Empire deactivate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon, all Han and Chewie need is a sonic screwdriver.
The time (and relative dimensions in space) of Amy Farrah Fowlers life
The Skywalker Incursion, The Big Bang Theory (2015) Lets be honest, itll come as no surprise to anyone that the residents of Apartment 4A, 2311 North Los Robles Avenue, are big fans of BBC Americas favourite import, with a slew of references dotted throughout the show. Way back in the first season, Sheldons Who-time up at 6:15am, pours himself a bowl of cereal and watches Doctor Who is viciously disrupted by Penny crashing on his seat of the couch, while the last season finally saw Amy lure Sheldon into her boudoir by replacing her bedroom door with a TARDIS one. He still doesnt take her to outer space though.
Knocking one out
Treehouse Of Horror XX: Dial M For Murder Or Press # To Return To Main Menu, The Simpsons (2009) The Simpsons and Futurama are written by literally some of the cleverest guys in TV how many shows bung in a gag about Fermats notorious Last Theorem? so naturally theyre mega-Whovians. The Doctor, always in his Yank-popular Fourth incarnation, has materialised in a three-fingered dimension many times, usually just as a background gag, but our favourite remains one of the traditional spooked up credits for one of 2009s Treehouse Of Horror stories with Don He Will Knock Four Times Payne, which wins extra kudos for coming out even before the guilty knuckle-rapping party was established.
Inspector Spacetime
Conventions Of Space And Time, Community (2013) The question is not where, Constable, but when? A cute throwaway clip about a cult cheapo TV show used to distract a Cougar Town-bereft Abed swiftly spitballed into one of the shows most popular running gags, developing a convoluted history to rival its most obvious influence: the Inspector being a crime-solver who travels in a red phone box time machine with a gormless companion, battling the E-Rad-I-Cating dustbin-looking Blorgons along the way. One season later and a whole episode is set at the InspecTiCon annual convention, letting the gang deliver more swipes at sci-fi culture that you can shake a quantum spanner at. For more on top sci-fi TV shows like Doctor Who, subscribe to SFX
