10 Doctor Who Moments More Important Than You Realised

4. The Canon Of The Doctor

One of the many things that fans loved about The Night of the Doctor was the way that it didn’t ignore existing Eighth Doctor continuity.

Right before he regenerates, Paul McGann’s Doctor name-drops all the companions that he’d travelled with (up to that point) in Big Finish audio dramas, including Charley Pollard, Lucie Miller and Molly O’Sullivan.

Beyond putting a neat bow on the Eighth Doctor’s era, this line had bigger implications, because it was the first time televised Doctor Who had directly acknowledged Big Finish.

And extrapolating this further, you could argue that this single line effectively canonised all Big Finish, before and since. Which would mean that the Sixth Doctor’s met Jackie Tyler, the Master’s been played by Neil’s Dad from The Inbetweeners (yes really), and River Song has met every classic Doctor.

Obviously Big Finish’s audios had always been licensed by the BBC, and before the 2005 revival they were the closest thing to 'new Doctor Who' that fans had.

But acknowledging Big Finish on screen gave it a legitimacy it hadn’t had before, while simultaneously giving new fans an excuse to check it out.