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Doctor Who (view source)

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Line 906:
** Averted with River Song, who never meets with the Doctor in the right order. In his [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E08 Silence in the Library|first meeting]] with River, she's already formed a very long and complicated history with him that he hasn't experienced yet.
** Also averted in "The Shakespeare Code", as the Doctor finds himself running away at the end of the episode from an antagonist that he had yet to "antagonise". {{spoiler|In fact, the Doctor apparently later ''married'' Queen Elizabeth I}}.
** Also averted in "Blink" where {{spoiler|Sally Sparrow discovers at the end that the only reason the Doctor was able to record a message in the past telling her what's going on and what to do is because SHE gives him the message in the future. The Doctor naturally has no idea who this crazy girl is when he meets her.}}.
** Also averted in "The Five Doctors" when the Second Doctor meets the Brigadier after both have left UNIT (from the Brig's point of view) and the Third Doctor meets Sarah Jane after the Fourth Doctor dropped her off in not-Croydon.
** For ''The End of Time'' Part One, the Ood elder implies that because the Doctor waited to meet them and went off on other adventures after the events of "The Waters Of Mars", things are going badly because of this. Events happening in modern day only just affecting the Ood.
Line 920:
** The {{spoiler|time lock keeping all life from entering and exiting}} in the Time War could be seen as this, especially from what we've learnt about {{spoiler|the Time Lords}} in ''The End of Time''.
** According to info supplied in one of the novels, the green slime in ''Inferno'' was evil deliberately sealed in a planet, even though nobody in the T.V. story knew that.
* [[Sealed Good in a Can]]: The Doctor himself in "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" as well as {{spoiler|in the end of "The Pandorica Opens", and Amy in the beginning of "The Big Bang".}}.
* [[Searching the Stalls]]: In ''Partners in Crime'', and it turns out that {{spoiler|the bad guys are actually searching for a ''different'' person, also a spy, who happens to be in the cubicle next to Donna's}}.
* [[Self-Made Orphan]]: The Doctor destroyed his people, including his parents, and his entire planet to end the Time War.
Line 950:
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** The Tenth Doctor is fond of these.
** David Tennant's final episode, ''The End of Time'' Part 2 was seemingly a 75 minute ''[[Star Wars]]'' homage: {{spoiler|Bernard Cribbins shoots down aggressors from an on board ack-ack gun}} a scene that Davies described as making him seem like Luke Skywalker); {{spoiler|in an act of self-sacrificial redemption, the Master}} casts arc lightning at his superior in order to save the protagonist, (Vader-style sporadically visible skeleton thrown in for good measure); we even see {{spoiler|Captain Jack hanging around in}} what is definitely an alien cantina.
*** 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 40000|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 Travellers 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|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].
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* [[Space Is an Ocean]]: "Voyage of the Damned" has a space Titanic orbiting Earth, which almost crash-lands into Buckingham Palace.
* [[Space Is Noisy]]:
** {{spoiler|In "Victory of the Daleks", laser fire from the Dalek ship and the British Spitfires can be heard}}. Justified - {{spoiler|the genius scientist has created a bubble of gravity and oxygen, which was how the spitfires came to be in space. Thus, there was sound.}}.
** Averted in "The Parting of the Ways" -- Lynda (with a 'y') looks out a window of the space station to see a Dalek looking in at her. Though we can't hear it, the lights on its head clearly flash in synch with the word "<small>EXTERMINATE</small>!"
* [[Space Whale Aesop]]:
Line 984:
* [[Spoiler Opening]]: "Doomsday".
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Rose Tyler''': This is the story of how I died.}}}}
** {{spoiler|Subverted, because it refers to her fictional 'death' in her home universe; she ended up stuck in a parallel one.}}.
** Then again in "Cold Blood".
* [[Spot of Tea]]:
Line 994:
** The Red Nose Day short "Time" runs on this - Amy, Rory, and Eleven all get info from their past selves then go back in time to deliver it.
** {{spoiler|Amy named her daughter "Melody" after a friend she grew up with; said friend turned out to be her daughter waiting for The Doctor to show up.}}
*** This character falls prey to it a lot, really. {{spoiler|River Song only calls herself that because that's what Team TARDIS call her when she first regenerates. The 'spoiler' thing only became a catch-phrase for this reason. Pretty much, her whole live could be called a [[Stable Time Loop]]- she could only have been born if she'd sacrificed her life in the library so her parents could conceive her on the TARDIS.}}.
* [[Staff of Authority]] -: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart often carried a Swagger stick with him, and the Sontaran baton is a device is carried by certain high ranking officers of the Sontaran Empire symbolizing rank as well as being functional.
* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]: The Tenth Doctor and Rose.
** Kazran and Abigail in ''A Christmas Carol''.
Line 1,003:
* [[Starfish Language]]: For when the [[Translator Microbes]] are broken, absent or just unable to cope. See "The Long Game", "Partners in Crime", "The Doctor's Daughter", "Planet of the Dead", ''The Web Planet'', "The Waters of Mars" and ''The Creature from the Pit'' for a notoriously suggestive classic series example.
* [[Starfish Robots]]: The metal casings that the Daleks and the Toclafane use for transportation and combat.
* [[Staring Kid]]: Common. One example being the group of kids at the end of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E12 Closing Time|Closing Time]]". An interesting example, since they actually had some influence on the story! {{spoiler|The next scene shows River Song reading interviews with the grown-up children about their memories of the Doctor.}}.
* [[Station Ident]]: For Christmas 2009, BBC One has a specially-filmed ''Doctor Who'' ident (following the special ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'' idents for Christmas 2008). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kXvs0aKSt0 Watch It Here.]
* [[Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle]]: The Fourth Doctor gave one to Davros at the end of the adventure where he was revealed to have escaped being killed by the Daleks (just before being put in cryo for transport to his trial):
Line 1,010:
''Doctor'': Do you know what a human would say to that?
''Davros'': What?
''Human'': Elephants aren't pink. }}
* [[Stop or I Shoot Myself]]: The Eighth Doctor in [[Doctor Who/Recap/TVM the TV Movie|the TV movie]].
* [[Strange Syntax Speaker]]: The Malmooth Chantho begins every sentence with Chan, and ends it with Tho. Apparently, to not do this is rudeness the equivalent of swearing in the Malmooth language.
Line 1,021:
** Type 0: Most companions and companions' family members, UNIT scientists, historical figures
** Type 1: UNIT soldiers and other human soldiers, [[The Brigadier|Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart]], Torchwood staff, a few companions
** Type 2: Captain Jack Harkness, the Doctor (with flashes of Types 3 and 4 on occasion), the Master, Romana, most Time Lords, {{spoiler|The Doctor Donna}}, Davros, most villains and races, the Ood (including Ood Sigma), the Face of Boe, {{spoiler|Rory in the Series 5 finale}}, {{spoiler|River Song}}.
** Type 3: The Daleks, the Cybermen, {{spoiler|The Master (in ''The End of Time'')}}, the Weeping Angels, several villains.
** Type 4: The Black Guardian, the White Guardian, the Animus, the [[Eldritch Abomination|Great Intelligence]], Sutekh, the metamorphosed Solonians, [[Mind Rape|the Midnight monster]], [[A God Am I|The Bad Wolf Entity]], the TARDIS, higher Time Lords (including Rassilon), {{spoiler|the Star Whale}}, the Eternals, the Beast, {{spoiler|the Silence}}, {{spoiler|House}}, presumably the [[Eldritch Abomination|Skaro Degradations, Horde of Travesties, Nightmare Child, and Could've-been King]]<ref>considering the Doctor was more worried about them getting out of the Time Lock than the Daleks...</ref>
Line 1,030:
* [[Take a Third Option]]:
** The Doctor's good at finding these.
** Subverted in Series 5's {{spoiler|"The Beast Below", in which the Doctor's third option is just as horrific as the other two... on first glance. It's Amy who figures out that there's a miscommunication going on and the second option isn't that bad after all}}...}}
* [[Take That]]/[[Self-Deprecation]]: Any time two or more incarnations of the Doctor meet, it's a safe bet they'll have something snarky to say about one another's looks or attitude {"A dandy and a clown?"). Counts as a [[Take That]] between the actors ''and'' [[Self-Deprecation]] for the character.
** In "The Almost People", the Ganger!Doctor is coming to grips with his various regenerations. At one point he speaks in the Tenth Doctor's voice, immediately following up with "We've moved on!" Likely a [[Take That]] to the large amount of David Tennant fans that still want him back.
Line 1,038:
** The Doctor won't kill anyone and [[Gun Hater|doesn't like guns]] because he thinks they're wrong. When people around him are willing to kill and use guns, his reaction is little more than scolding... and he doesn't go out of his way to [[Hoist by His Own Petard|save his enemies from themselves]]... and some of his enemies amount to [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]] with [[Joker Immunity]], so killing them really would be the kindest option overall... and he'll visit all kinds of horrible [[And I Must Scream|fates worse than death]] on people [[Beware the Nice Ones|he thinks deserves it]], mind you... but he won't kill (although he has killed people and things on numerous occasions, including releasing cyanide into a room with a mad surgeon).
** A good example of this is the Family of Blood who [[Be Careful What You Wish For|want immortality]] at any cost, so he gives it to them...[[And I Must Scream|by keeping them alive but putting them in hellish prisons that they cannot die in but cannot escape from]].
** However in "Day of the Moon" he {{spoiler|admitted he quite liked River Song's gun toting ways, even if he shouldn't}}.
* [[Techno Babble]]:
** Averted when [[Steven Moffat]] writes. He ''did'' invent the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].
Line 1,045:
{{quote|'''Doctor:''' It must be a spacio-temporal hyper-link.
'''Mickey:''' What's that?
'''Doctor:''' I dunno. I just made it up. I didn't want to say 'magic door'. }}
** Made fun of slightly in "A Christmas Carol". While Abigail is calming the shark with her singing, the Doctor attempts to ruin the magic by technobabbling about how it works (something about resonating delta wave patterns...). He gets several fishbites for his trouble and is shushed.
* [[Temporary Love Interest]]: Rose Tyler, River Song, and every companion or person the Doctor ends up loving or falling in love with.
Line 1,056:
* [[The "The" Title]]: During the Second Doctor era, only "Fury from the Deep" did not start with "The", and its working title was "The Colony of Devils".
* [[This Banana Is Armed]]: "Pssh, what could a screwdriver do?" is a pretty common reaction at first. But did we mention it's ''sonic''?
* [[This Is My Human]]: The Doctor has always insisted that the stole ("borrowed") his TARDIS from a museum in order to see the universe. But in "The Doctor's Wife" when {{spoiler|the TARDIS' soul is implanted in a human host}}, she insists that ''she'' stole ''him!''
* [[Thoughtcrime]]: The Happiness Patrol, where enforced cheerfulness was the law on one planet.
* [[Three-Way Sex]]: Captain Jack alluded to this when three Doctors (kind of) turned up in "Journey's End".
Line 1,075:
** 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.
** Donna, who goes from a person whose best achievement is being the "best temp in Chiswick" to being able to make the entire Dalek race's weaponry useless, not to mention making them ''spin in circles uncontrollably''.
** In "The Big Bang", {{spoiler|Rory does this, first by becoming a legendary figure while protecting the Pandorica for nearly 2000 years, and then in this scene:}:}
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Dalek:''' SCANS INDICATE INTRUDER UNARMED!}}!
{{spoiler|'''Rory:''' Do you think?}}?
{{spoiler|''Then he shoots the Dalek with his 'hand' gun.''}} }}
** Amy Pond in " {{spoiler|The Girl Who Waited}}". She's become a proficient warrior, sword fighter, hacker and designed her own sonic screwdriver.
* [[Town with a Dark Secret]]: ''The Daleks'', "The Velvet Web", ''The Savages'', ''The Macra Terror'', "Amy's Choice".
* [[Transformation Is a Free Action]]: Averted. Whenever possible, the Doctor makes sure to regenerate in a safe place (usually the TARDIS). Even the Master does this.
* [[Translation Convention]]/[[Translator Microbes]]: Started as the former, then was [[Justified Trope|justified]] as the latter.
* [[Trash the Set]]:
** ''The End of Time'' Pt. 2 - {{spoiler|The Tenth Doctor's Regeneration into Eleven results in [[Stuff Blowing Up]] and some pillars falling down inside the TARDIS. Oddly enough, the set is mostly intact as of series 6, having been used as a backup control room in "The Doctor's Wife". Instead, word on the tubes is that the old [[Torchwood]] hub set (which was previously demolished off-screen) donated its sound stage to the new set for the TARDIS.}}.
** This also happened to Solon's laboratory in ''The Brain of Morbius'' when the Doctor was looking for an air vent.
* [[Trust Me I'm a Doctor]]: More like, "Trust me, I'm the Doctor." From "The Eleventh Hour".
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