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[[File:The_12_Doctors.png|frame|Not pictured: The War Doctor, the Thirteenth and later Doctors<ref>[[William Hartnell]], [[Patrick Troughton]], [[Jon Pertwee]], [[Tom Baker]], [[Peter Davison]], [[Colin Baker]] (no relation to Four), [[Sylvester McCoy]], [[Paul McGann]], [[Christopher Eccleston]], [[David Tennant]], [[Matt Smith]], [[Peter Capaldi]]</ref>]]
 
{{quote|''He saves worlds, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures, and [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others|runs a lot]]. Seriously, there's an ''outrageous'' amount of running involved.''|'''Donna Noble''', in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E06 The Doctor's Daughter|The Doctor's Daughter]]"}}
|'''Donna Noble'''|"[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E06 The Doctor's Daughter|The Doctor's Daughter]]"}}
 
Since its debut on 23 November 1963 on [[The BBC|BBC television]], the British sci-fi series ''Doctor Who'' has thrilled, entertained, and [[Nightmare Fuel|terrified]] three generations of fans worldwide. It takes place in and established the [[Whoniverse]], which has a [[Broad Strokes|very loose and lax continuity]], even discounting the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]]. It is the longest running sci-fi series in the world, bar none—in fact, the latest three actors to play the title role were all born after it started.
 
The premise of the show is simple enough: it follows the adventures of a renegade [[Time Lord]], the Doctor, and his various companions through time and space. Travelling in his time machine, the TARDIS, he meets many foes, ranging from heavily armoured robots to microbes and pollen to - well, members of his own race. The TARDIS and the Doctor's recurring enemy the Daleks have become British cultural icons and it is fair to suggest that the overwhelming majority of Britons would instantly recognize both. It is, in fact, difficult to over-state the extent to which ''Doctor Who'', ostensibly a slightly daft children-oriented sci-fi show, has become a part of the British cultural landscape. It casts as much a shadow over British culture, as one Anthropology Professor put it, as ''[[Star Trek]]'' casts over American culture; more so, in fact, as while acknowledged fans of ''[[Star Trek]]'' are still rather consistently made fun of by mainstream culture, ''Doctor Who'' is beloved by Britons of all ages and demographics. Including, as it happens, [[HMElizabeth The Queen|Her Majesty the QueenII]].
 
The show originally ran from 1963 to 1989 (with an 18 month hiatus in 1985-6 caused by [[Executive Meddling]], during which it "rested"). A canon [[Made for TV Movie]], created [[Backdoor Pilot|as a pilot]] for a revival, aired in 1996, but nothing else resulted.
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Between 2001 and 2003, [[The BBC]] produced a series of webcasts which it considered in every way an official continuation of the series (insofar as the Beeb ever indicates what is and isn't canon). It is possible more would have been made but for a very exciting development on the television front:
 
In 2005, a [[Revival]] began. It's presented a continuation of the old series (rather than being a [[Continuity Reboot]]), with the Ninth Doctor being a direct successor to the original series incarnations ''and'' the 1996 movie's Doctor. The revival series has radically upgraded production values, shorter story arcs but much more continuity throughout, and it introduced deeper [[Character Development]] and romance to the series. The revival's sixth series finished airing October 2011. The old series lasted 26 seasons, and the new episodes are called "series". Officially, the show went from Season 26 to ''Series'' 1, and so on.
 
The show has spawned several spinoffs within its [[Whoniverse]], which tend to cross over with the main show. The main ones are:
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It also has a behind-the-scenes [[Companion Show]] called ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'' which aired in 2005 and was canceled in 2011.
 
{{tropenamer}}
Now with its very own [http://fyeahdoctorwhotropes.tumblr.com/ Doctor Who TV Tropes Tumblr].
* [[Alan Fridge]]: Joke announcement by [[Steven Moffat]] on [[Outpost Gallifrey]].
* [[Aliens of London]]: [[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E04 Aliens of London|Episode of the same name]].
* [[Bigger on the Inside]]: Well, aren't ''you'' going to say it about the TARDIS? (Almost) everyone else does.
* [[Bow Ties Are Cool]]: [[Catch Phrase]] of the Eleventh Doctor.
* [[The Brigadier]]: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, recurring character.
* [[Changed My Jumper]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E03 The Unquiet Dead|The Unquiet Dead]]".
* [[Everybody Lives]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E10 The Doctor Dances|The Doctor Dances]]".
* [[Five Rounds Rapid]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S8/E05 The Daemons|The Daemons]]".
* [[Immune to Bullets]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S12/E01 Robot|Robot]]".
* [[Mind Probe]]: No, ''not'' the mind ''probe''. ("[[Doctor Who/Recap/20th AS the Five Doctors|The Five Doctors]]")
* [[The Missus and the Ex]]: Welcome to every man's worst nightmare. ("[[Doctor Who/Recap/S28/E03 School Reunion|School Reunion]]")
* [[The Nth Doctor]]
* [[Perception Filter]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E11 Boom Town|Boom Town]]".
* [[The Slow Path]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S28/E04 The Girl in the Fireplace|The Girl in the Fireplace]]".
* [[Spooky Silent Library]]: "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E08 Silence in the Library|Silence in the Library]]"/ "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|Forest of the Dead]]".
* [[Time and Relative Dimensions In Space]]: Or "Dimension", depending on what era.
* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: Of wibbly-wobbly... er... stuff. ("[[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E10 Blink|Blink]]")
 
{{franchisetropes}}
For more detailed information, check the [[Doctor Who/Analysis|Analysis tab]].
 
{{tropelist}}
* For tropes used in specific episodes of the TV series, go [[Doctor Who/Recap|here]].
* For tropes used in ''Doctor Who'' media outside of the TV show, go [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe|here]].
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** The first series had the megalomaniac Dalek Emperor and his revived army of Daleks.
** The second series kicked off with the equally megalomaniac John Lumic and his version of the Cybermen. The season finale featured the return of Cybermen, now led by a generic Cyber-Leader, but they spend half the time [[Evil Versus Evil|competing]] [[Big Bad Ensemble|with]] {{spoiler|Dalek Sec and the Cult of Skaro}}.
** The third series ''did'' show a two-part re-appearance of {{spoiler|the Cult of Skaro}}, but it's ultimately [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] that takes center-stage by the finale.
** The fourth season finale had Davros and his resurgent Dalek empire, but {{spoiler|Davros is just a representative this time around, while the Supreme Dalek is the one calling the shots}}.
** The Silence, a religious order primarily made up of creepy make-you-forget-they-exist aliens and [[Large Ham]] lackeys, are shaping up to be the [[Big Bad]] of the [[Steven Moffat]] era. They were an unseen [[The Man Behind the Man|man-behind-the-man]] villain in Series 5, causing the cracks in time that almost erased the universe from existence and drove most of that series' villains away from their homes and towards the Doctor. They made their onscreen debut in Series 6 {{spoiler|with a convoluted and almost-successful assassination attempt on the Doctor}}, and all indications are that they'll be back in future series of the Moffat era.
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** There's also the Wirrn from ''The Ark in Space''.
** "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People" has {{spoiler|Ganger Jennifer}} finding interesting/terrifying ways to change her body, eventually settling on some sort of {{spoiler|gangly demonic hellbeast, all while retaining her original face, more or less}}.
* [[Post MortemBond One -Liner]]: Plenty, but [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E02 The Beast Below|Liz 10]] gets in a pretty good example after blowing away one of The Smilers:
{{quote|"I'm the bloody queen, mate; basically, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|I rule]]."}}
* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: Given how long running the series was it was inevitable this trope would crop up. In fact virtually every Doctor and companion underwent this trope or the milder [[Brainwashed]] trope at some point in the series as well as guest characters in some stories.
* [[Brandishment Bluff]]: In "Victory of the Daleks", the Doctor convinces the Daleks that a jammie Dodger (a type of cookie) is a super weapon.
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** The Simm incarnation of the Master seems to have made his catchphrase "Oh NO you DON'T!"
* [[Catfolk]]: The Sisters of Plentitude in the episodes "New Earth" and "Gridlock".
* [[Chaos Entity]]: The Black Guardian embodies the force of chaos in the universe and uses this element throughout it.
* [[Character Development]]: The First Doctor started off as someone, who'd in a moment of desperation, tried to bash in a injured man's skull in, to escape the present danger. He was stopped by a Human who called him on this, even though he was someone the Doctor had belittled as beneath him until then. This might explain why all of his later companions are mostly Human, because they do ''stop'' him, when he goes too far. [[Russell T. Davies]] and [[Steven Moffat]]'s runs seem to embrace this interpretation.
** Some companions also get their fair share. Notable examples from the revived series include Jack Harkness, Donna Noble and Rory Williams.
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** Son of Mine, '''''SIR''''', from "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E08 Human Nature|Human Nature]]", '''''SIR''''', and ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E09 The Family of Blood|The Family of Blood]]'', '''''SIR'''''.
** '''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E13 Last of the Time Lords|HERE. COME. THE. DRUMS!]]''' The Master knows it's '''''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E17 E18 The End of Time|DINNERTIME!!]]'''''
** '''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E05 The Horns of Nimon|Myyyyyyy DREEEAAAAMS of CONNNNN-QUEEEST!!!!]]'''
* [[Christmas Episode]]: The aforementioned comedy episode, "The Feast of Steven", the first (and, until New Who, only) episode to air on Christmas Day, which had no continuity to the main serial ''The Daleks' Master Plan''. In New Who, an annual series of specials, which between 2005 and 2009 doomed London (usually, but not always present day London) in some way. Aliens also threaten the Earth in 2011's episode, though it's not the primary plot.
* [[Cliffhanger Copout]]: The programme did this many times. The most (in)famous is probably from ''Dragonfire'', in which The Doctor dangles himself over a precipice because the episode was coming to an end, and [[Pseudo Crisis|just...climbs out of it next episode]].
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** The rejuvenated Daleks have different colored casings to identify their functions, but thus far we haven't seen enough of them for it to really make a difference. Black Daleks are usually called "Supreme" and have leadership positions. And when they were divided into two factions in ''Remembrance of the Daleks'', they had different colors as well.
* [[Conqueror From the Future]]: The Master, the Daleks, and several others over the years.
* [[Contrasting Sequel Character]]: This TV series loves this trope, the latter's the reason why the [[The Nth Doctor|Nth Doctor]] exists.
* [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]: In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E06 Dalek|Dalek]]", a single Dalek manages to wipe out an entire base full of trained elite soldiers (and is only defeated because it decides to destroy ''itself''). More recent episodes have seen entire armies of the supposedly terrifying and insurmountable space-Nazis regularly thwarted by a combination of [[Reverse Polarity|technobabble]] and [[A Wizard Did It|genetic wizardry]].
:In-universe, it's strongly implied that the lone Dalek was moments from being thoroughly blasted by the Doctor, and vast armies of Daleks are treated as the end of the world rather than Mooks. In practice, trope is fully in effect, though this seems to be more a case of the Doctor being able to beat the Daleks each time they appear regardless of the numbers even though they are a tremendous in-universe threat. Pretty much every time the Doctor isn't present or isn't really invested in their enemy surviving ({{spoiler|aka when Daleks fight the Cybermen, both were enemies and if either survived the survivor would take over the world}}) the result is that the Daleks pretty much [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomp their opponent]] {{spoiler|with the only real exception being the Time Lords themselves who were still losing. The Cybermen lose easily, and let's not forget that it took minutes for them to subdue earth in spite of tremendous preparations specifically for this eventuality}}.
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* [[Cuteness Proximity]]: The Doctor is this with K9.
* [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]: The Cybermen, one of the earliest examples of this trope, as they first appeared in 1966.
 
 
== D-F ==
* [[Damsel in Distress]] and [[Dude in Distress]]: The Doctor, in varying degrees throughout all his incarnations; most if not all of the companions, whether male or female, at some time or another; assorted bystanders of both sexes. Seriously, having someone taken prisoner or menaced by the [[Monster of the Week]] is one of the standard plots.
* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: The Master, at least when played by John Simm. He even likes to [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] when he should make a typical villain mistake and doesn't. Hell, his first step of {{spoiler|taking office as prime minister was to kill all of his 'advisors',' as every one of them had abandoned their parties and candidates to latch onto him and would likely treat him the same way.}}.
* [[Dark Secret]]: Everything about the Doctor.
{{quote|'''Reinette''': Doctor? Doctor Who? ''It's more than just a secret, isn't it?''}}
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* [[Death By Pragmatism]]
* [[Death Is Cheap]]: The Master has [[Deader Than Dead|died on-screen without regenerating]] no less than {{spoiler|three}} times. It's never stopped him from coming back for more. The show doesn't even bother to explain why his possessed Trakenite body is alive again in ''The Mark of the Rani'', after burning to death in ''Planet of Fire''.
** The [[Russell T. Davies]] era has seen "Thethe end of the Daleks" no less than three separate times, and yet everyone's still surprised when more Daleks show up. They wised up after a bit—out of those three "ends of the Daleks", two happened in Series 1. After that, they made a point of ensuring that at least one member of the Cult of Skaro survived each encounter, until Russell T Davies decided to go out with a bang and did them in again at the conclusion of Series 4. Naturally, this meant Steven Moffat had to go and dig them up again, but he's been careful to keep them alive since.
* [[Death Ray]]: ''Everywhere''.
* [[Death Seeker]]: All of the incarnations of the Doctor following the Time War have shades of this.
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* [[Development Gag]]
* [[Divine Chessboard]]: In whole-season spanning story arc ''The Key To Time'' there were the White and Black Guardians.
* [[CowboyMedia BebopResearch at His ComputerFailure|Doctor Who In His Tardis]]: It's become generally accepted, by fans and production alike, that The Doctor's name is '''''not''''' "Doctor Who", but the media doesn't seem to know this. Even the end titles sometimes list the character as "Doctor Who". (Thatthat last is less [[Egregious]] of an error in early episodes, when the name distinction wasn't firmly established yet.).
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: The Silence are the distilled essence of dramatic irony, since everyone else in the show can only remember they exist when they're looking at them.
* [[Driving Question]]: "Doctor ''who''?" It's been asked an ungodly number of times, and as of Series 6, {{spoiler|it's the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight, and must never '''''ever''''' be answered. "Silence must fall when the question is asked."}}
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* [[Fauxshadow]]: The parenthood of Amy's baby. A lot of twists in the show are like this, but the prologue of "A Good Man Goes to War" goes out of its way here:
{{quote|'''Amy''': He’s the [[Last of His Kind]]. He [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|looks young, but he’s lived for hundreds and hundreds of years]]. [...] [[Wham! Line|this man is your father]]. He has a name, but the people of our world know him better as {{spoiler|The Last Centurion}}.}}
** The show also tried to keep this going till the last possible moment, with the Doctor remarking, while pointing at the baby, that "it's mine.". He meant the cot, of course.
* [[Females Are More Innocent]]: The original show ran for a quarter century and had a large number of villains yet in that time period only about 10 were women, and only one or two of theme appeared in the shows first 15 seasons.
* [[Feudal Future]]: Various planets the Doctor's landed on, from time to time.
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:In "The Eleventh Hour", he can tell the exact age of a shed by licking it.
:In "Day of the Moon", he can tell {{spoiler|where the TARDIS-blue envelopes from the previous episode were made from licking}}.
* [[Five-Man Band]]:
** During the Eleventh Doctor's era:
*** [[The Hero]]: The TARDIS.
*** [[The Lancer]]: The Doctor (the above two are interchangeable).
*** [[The Big Guy]]: Rory Williams, {{spoiler|at least after he becomes the Centurion}}.
*** [[The Smart Guy]]: River Song.
*** [[The Chick]]: Amy Pond.
** During the Third Doctor's exile to Earth:
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*** [[The Chick]]: Jo Grant.
*** [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]]: Captain Yates.
** First Doctor's initial group:
*** [[The Hero]]: Barbara/Ian.
*** [[The Lancer]]: The Doctor.
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* [[For the Funnyz]]: Leave it to the Doctor to make quips and resort to measures with an amusing/ironic edge.
* [[For Want of a Nail]]/[[In Spite of a Nail]]: Occasionally even in the same adventure.
* [[Fourth Wall Shut-in Story]]: This is the trap in The Land of Fiction in the serial ''The Mind Robber'': defeat the (supposed) Big Bad by writing yourself into a story as the hero.
* [[Friendly Enemy]]: The Master. Particularly so, since that he and the Doctor ''used'' to be friends as children on Gallifrey. Despite everything they do each other, they still want the other alive.
* [[Fun with Acronyms]]: Come ''on'' now... there's one that's been used several dozen times over on this page alone.
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* [[Future Imperfect]]: Cassandra really really sucks at history. Highlights include believing the ostrich had a wingspan of 50 feet and was able to breathe fire, and thinking a jukebox is an iPod.
* [[Future Me Scares Me]]: The Valeyard.
 
 
== G-I ==
* [[Gambit Pileup]]: Common in stories involving the Master and/or the Daleks.
* [[Gambit Roulette]]
* [[Gender Bender]]: It was hinted that regeneration can do this in ''The End of Time'', and confirmed in "The Doctor's Wife", in which the Doctor mentioned that this has happened to another Time Lord, the Corsair, on several occasions. And it finally happened to the Doctor, in the regeneration from Twelve to Thirteen (Jodie Whittaker).
* [[Genius Breeding Act]]: In one episode, Rattigan explains his master plan for a new world to the other [[Teen Genius]]es he'd collected, and mentions that he's written up a breeding program. They are appropriately appalled.
* [[Genius Cripple]]: Davros. C'mon, he's eyeless, has one arm, and is in a Dalek-base wheelchair.
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** In ''The Armageddon Factor'', The Doctor makes a point out of how easily this could happen by having the Key to Time.
* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: ''The Pirate Planet'' and ''The Happiness Patrol''.
* [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]]: What happens to some Time Lord when they are Initiated.
* [[Government Agency of Fiction]]: UNIT and Torchwood, among others.
* [[Great Offscreen War]]: The Time War, taking place at a scale so epic it broke space and time.
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* [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]]: In many new series stories, future humans seem to be taken to modified P90s as their weapon of choice.
* [[Kingpin in His Gym]]: Played for laughs when the Delgado Master, locked up in a sea fortress, exercises on a rowing machine. It doesn't seem to be working, though—the Doctor remarks that the Master has put on weight!
* [[Large Ham]]: [[Large Ham/Live-Action TV/Doctor Who|Has its own page]].
* [[The Last Dance]]: {{spoiler|The Tenth Doctor himself, in the 2009 specials. At the end of "Planet of the Dead", a low-level psychic tells him he's going to die, so he spends the next episodes running around having as many adventures possible before his inevitable [[The Nth Doctor|regeneration]]}}.
** {{spoiler|It occurs more literally in ''The End Of Time''; after receiving a fatal dose of radiation, the Doctor spends his last hours visiting the people he'd cared about during his tenth life and... well, not so much saying goodbye as helping them out from a distance and then staring sadly at them before wandering off. Except for Rose, whom [[Timey-Wimey Ball|he meets before she met him]] to have one last conversation with her. ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' says he visited every companion from all his incarnations}}.
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* [[Male Gaze]]: The Doctor's companions have consistently been attractive young women, with some dressed in, shall we say, less than practical clothing. Ya'know, considering they're running around all of time and space, often with things with sharp teeth just a step behind.
** This [http://zahrawithaz.livejournal.com/20996.html#cutid1\] article covers different aspects of the issue quite well, (lovingly) using Amy Pond as an example.
* [[Man of Wealth and Taste]]: The Master...usually. He's not his usual smart dressed self in {{spoiler|''The End of Time''}}. Then again, {{spoiler|he has just come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]], [[Came Back Wrong|wrong too]]...a tailor is low on his list of priorities}}.
* [[Mass Hypnosis]]
* [[The Master (trope)|The Master]]: The Master, of course.
* [[Mayfly-December Romance]]:
** David and Susan in ''The Dalek Invasion of Earth''.
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* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]:
** Any name starting with "Dalek" (e.g. Dalek Caan, Dalek Jast, etc), not to mention the Doctor's sobriquet to the Daleks: The Oncoming Storm.
** And [[The Master (trope)|The Master]]. No-one good was ever named the Master. Come to that, 'The Doctor' has an ominous ring to it too, if only because of its anonymity. The Eleventh Doctor even invokes this trope at the start of the 5th series:
{{quote|'''Eleventh Doctor''': "Hello, I'm The Doctor. Basically, Run."}}
*** This has gotten to be an actual truth in-series as well, with Lorna's people (of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E07 A Good Man Goes to War|A Good Man Goes to War]]") having the word 'Doctor' mean 'Great Warrior' in their language. Heck, it's outright stated that our word Doctor was taken from him in the first place.
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* [[The Nudifier]]: The Defabricator. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].
* [[Off the Record]]: The Brigadier to Sarah Jane.
* [[Oh Crap]]: It says a ''lot'' about this show that [[Oh Crap/Live-Action TV/Doctor Who|it has its own subpage for this trope]].
* [[Ominous Floating Castle]]: The Aircraft Carrier ''Valiant'', first seen in "The Sound of Drums", which was {{spoiler|used by the Master as his base (of sorts) when he conquered the Earth during the Year that Never Was}}.
* [[Ominous Floating Spaceship]]: Seen in "The Christmas Invasion" with the Sycorax ship. Several Dalek ships do this too.
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** Also the domain of House and his caretakers Auntie, Uncle, and Nephew in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E04 The Doctor's Wife|The Doctor's Wife]]".
* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]: The Master (as Harold Saxon) and Jeremy Baines.
* [[Post Mortem One Liner]]: Plenty, but [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E02 The Beast Below|Liz 10]] gets in a pretty good example after blowing away one of The Smilers:
{{quote|"I'm the bloody queen, mate; basically, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|I rule]]."}}
* [[Pound of Flesh Twist]]: In ''The Five Doctors'', Time Lord President Borusa, having manipulated the Doctors into granting him access to Rassilon's tomb, claims the reward of immortality promised to the winner of the game of death. Rassilon grants it, which, unfortunately for Borusa, takes the form of being turned into a living statue.
** In "The Hand of Fear". Eldrad the Kastrian, having long ago been executed by his people for attempting to usurp rulership of Kastria, is resurrected on Earth many centuries later. He returns to Kastria to become its ruler, only to find the planet entirely dead. A final message from King Rokon (the king who Eldrad planned to usurp) crowns him 'King of Nothing'.
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** Subverted in ''The Curse of Fenric''. {{spoiler|Ace's love and faith in the Doctor prevents the Ancient One from moving to attack Fenric. To defeat the ancient god, the Doctor is forced to cruelly and methodically disavow his companion, calling her a social misfit and emotional cripple and turn her trust and love into hatred}}.
* [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]: Several.
** [[Queen VickyVictoria]] to a monk in "Tooth and Claw".
{{quote|''The correct form of address is'' your majesty.}}
** John Lumic in "Rise of the Cybermen" to a dissenter.
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*** The actions of Cribbins' character as detailed above avert the phenomenon by which Luke Skywalker, upon {{spoiler|climbing into the gunner's chair in the ''Millennium Falcon'', was able to work the thing on the first try without being told}}. Wilfred {{spoiler|screams frantically for instructions, and gets them}}, but fortunately they aren't all that complex.
** "The Stolen Earth", where Rose and the Doctor are running to each other in the street and a Dalek attacks, feels to some like a homage to ''[[West Side Story]]''.
** "The Beast Below" has a fairly ambitious quotient of these. There's ''[[Star Wars]]'' (the royal [[Action Girl]], the heroes landing in the garbage chute, "you're my only hope", the villain looks like an expy for Grand Moff Tarkin, finding oneself inside the digestive tract of a giant space creature), ''[[Discworld]]'' (the [astral plane] ship that was never meant to fly, the space whale that looks just the ones in ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'', and the final shot of the country being carried on the back of the giant space-sea-creature), and ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' (involving a miraculous whale, and Amy is new to space/time travel and wears pajamas).
** The name and garbs of the [[Church Militant|army]] in '"The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" is obviously a shout-out to the [[Warhammer 4000040,000|Imperial Guard]], although with quite different ranks.
** River's relationship with the Doctor, a woman who falls in love with a time traveller and meets him in the wrong order throughout her life is a pretty obvious shout -out to ''[[The Time TravellersTraveler's Wife]]''.
** The name of Bowie Base One in "The Waters of Mars" is a shoutout to [[David Bowie]]'s song ''Life On Mars''. {{spoiler|It later also works as a shoutout to ''Space Oddity'' with astronauts stranded and knowing that they are about to die}}. In the same episode, there's a shout out to ''[[28 Days Later]]'' with a character becoming infected just by looking up and a single drop falling on to their eye from above.
** In "The Runaway Bride", the Racnoss Webstar bears a striking resemblance to the Cylon Basestar of the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]''. Both ships are made with Y shapes stacked on each other. The names are also quite similar.
** The Toclafane bear an uncanny resemblance to the spheres from ''[[Phantasm (Film)|Phantasm]]'', right down to {{spoiler|being powered by the brains of the creator's human victims}}. Bonus points for the similarity between [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUizt6kMgbQ this] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ieQxm_M2I this].
** In "Flesh and Stone", the ship is referred to as "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Galaxy-class]]".
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* [[Sickly Green Glow]]: Most monsters.
* [[Single-Target Sexuality]]: Rory for Amy in the flashbacks of "Let's Kill Hitler" (causing her [[Mistaken for Gay|much confusion]]).
* [[Signature Device]]: The Time Lords' sonic screwdrivers and TARDIS.
* [[Skeleton Key]]: The Doctor's sonic screwdriver often acts as one of these.
** In the serial ''Carnival of Monsters'', the Doctor complains that he can't open a non-electronic lock with the sonic screwdriver. Jo Grant responds by producing an impressive collection of skeleton keys.
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** More prominently, they do this in the sixth season finale. "DOC... TOR... ''WHO?!''"
** Also in the episode "Amy's Choice".
* [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]:
** The [[Russell T. Davies]] era has a recurring theme of the Doctor turning the companions into badasses.
** Mickey, during "The Age of Steel" and culminating in his [[Darker and Edgier]] persona in "Army of Ghosts", "Doomsday" and "Journey's End". This started in "World War Three" when after a whole year of being slandered and accused of killing her daughter, he doesn't even think, he immediately picks up a baseball bat to defend Jackie Tyler and tells her to run while he holds it off.
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** Supposedly the motivation behind the Cybus Cybermen's massive conversion factories: they plan to "upgrade" humanity by force in order to eliminate emotions and the pain connected to them:
{{quote|'''Cyber Leader:''' This broadcast is for humankind. Cybermen now occupy every landmass on this planet; but you need not fear. Cybermen will remove fear. Cybermen will remove sex, and class, and colour, and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us.}}
 
 
== V-Z ==
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* [[Video Inside, Film Outside]]: Throughout most of the classic series, though ''Spearhead from Space'' was entirely in film. Some episodes shot studio segments on film to make them "feel" outside.
** Many early episodes, however, were originally recorded on video but only preserved as film telerecordings made for overseas sales. It has only recently become possible to reprocess the film recordings (using the [[Vid FIRE]] process) to restore the original video "feel" for DVD release.
* [[Villain-Beating Artifact]]: Subverted in the "Last of the Time Lords" episode, Martha Jones spent the whole year searching for a weapon, which was divided into four parts. It's shown in the end that the quest for the Villain-Beating Artifact {{spoiler|was all a ruse to distract from Jones' real objective.}}
* [[The Virus]]: ''Inferno'', "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances". The Cybermen, being techno vampire/zombies, are a form of virus.
* [[Walking the Earth|Walking the Universe]]
* [[Wasn't That Fun?]]: The Doctor is fond of this quip.
* [[The Watson]]: The role of all the companions, or close enough.
* [[We All Do It Together]]: "Arachnids in the UK", the fourth adventure of the 13th Doctor, ends with the Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan all grasping the lever that activates the TARDIS and pulling it as one to symbolize their active decision to travel together.
* [[Wealthy Ever After]]:
** In ''The End of Time'', {{spoiler|the Doctor's present to Donna outside her wedding is a lottery ticket}}.
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* [[World of Badass]]
* [[World of Ham]]
* [[World War OneI]]: The ending of "The Family of Blood". The war is also alluded to throughout "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" Also the setting for the initially visited War Zone in ''The War Games''.
* [[World War Two]]: The settings of ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26/E03 The Curse of Fenric|The Curse of Fenric]]'', "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E09 The Empty Child|The Empty Child]]", "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E10 The Doctor Dances|The Doctor Dances]]", the final scene of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E02 The Beast Below|The Beast Below]]", "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E03 Victory of the Daleks|Victory of the Daleks]]", {{spoiler|"[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E12 The Pandorica Opens|The Pandorica Opens]]" (partially), with "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E13 The Big Bang|The Big Bang]]" using the fires of the London Blitz as a plot point}} and "[[Doctor Who/Recap/2011 CS the Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe|The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe]]".
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: So ''very'' many.
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* [[You Are Number Six]]: As the Doctor fills Craig in psychically in "The Lodger", the Eleventh Doctor simply responds: "Eleven" to Craig's [[Angrish|rambling gibberish]].
* [[You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good]]
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]:
** Many a [[Big Bad]] says this.
** Notably averted in ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'', in which [[The Dragon]] is simply fired, and sets out to save face on his own.
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