Doctor Who pays tribute to past Doctors with remembered TARDIS
Eagle-eyed fans will no doubt be spotting Easter Eggs in Doctor Who's season 14 finale for a long time to come.
Warning: contains spoilers for Doctor Who: Empire of Death.
Much has been made of Doctor Who's fresh new start with Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor, but it's certainly true that the show has not been afraid to embrace its past in recent episodes.
This was perhaps no less clear than in the two-part season 14 finale, The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death, with saw the return of Fourth Doctor villain Sutekh as a major reveal.
However, when it comes to references, a sequence in the remembered TARDIS has to take the cake. Midway through Empire of Death, the Doctor, Ruby and Mel boarded the new version of the TARDIS (as previously seen in spin-off show Tales of the TARDIS), which was created via a combination of Ruby's memories and the UNIT Time Window.
As in Tales of the TARDIS, the remembered TARDIS was full of nods to the show's past - including some notable tribute to previous Doctors.
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One particularly moving sequence saw Bonnie Langford's Mel, who first travelled with Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor, grasping fondly at that incarnation's cravat and coat.
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She was later also seen sleeping while holding onto the iconic question mark jumper worn by Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor.
Meanwhile, a tribute was also paid to Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor, with Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor and Millie Gibson's Ruby seen observing his memories of Sutekh via the Time Window, which took the form of clips from Pyramids of Mars.
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A behind-the-scenes look as part of Doctor Who: Unleashed revealed some other paraphernalia from the show's past which formed part of the set, including the Eleventh Doctor's trusty cyberman head Handles and Vinder's mobile phone from The Power of the Doctor.
In the episode, the Doctor remarked that the remembered TARDIS contains "bits and pieces of every TARDIS that ever was, held together by hopes and wishes and luck" - meaning any future appearances of the machine, or any new episodes of Tales of TARDIS, still have plenty of the show's history they can turn to for nods and references.
Doctor Who will return Christmas 2024 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One. Previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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