10 Doctor Who Episodes You Didn’t Know Were Connected

6. The Five Doctors & The Time Of The Doctor

Doctor Who Dalek Sec Captain Jack Harkness
BBC Studios

Is this the longest payoff in Doctor Who history? It might just be.

In 1983's 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors, the Master presents the Third Doctor with the Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey, only for the Doctor, naturally, to assume that his longtime foe has forged it.

Turns out it's the real deal though, and so the Doctor vows to return the artifact "at the first opportunity." But he never does.

In fact, he's still in possession of the Seal in 2013's Christmas special The Time of the Doctor, where he uses it (with an assist from Handles) to decode the message the Time Lords are sending through the crack in time.

Doctor Who The Time of the Doctor Handles Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey
BBC Studios

The Doctor picks up all sorts of junk on their travels, so we can only assume that the Seal is now languishing at the bottom of a TARDIS cupboard.

Or, maybe the Doctor will actually return it one day... the long way round.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.