10 Times Doctor Who Accidentally Predicted Our Future

7. BBC Three

Doctor Who Tenth Planet Cybermen
BBC Studios

When Doctor Who returned in 2005, BBC Three was the home for follow-up show Doctor Who Confidential, and regular repeats in the days before iPlayer existed. However, BBC Three's connection to Doctor Who goes back much further than that.

The Dæmons, 1971's stone-cold classic of sentient stone gargoyles and satanic worship, accidentally predicted the channel's existence. The BBC Three in that story was a more high-brow affair than the youth-oriented channel it's known as today. Rather than screening Ru Paul's Drag Race and Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, it broadcast live feeds of archaeological digs!

It's through the BBC Three broadcast that Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates learn of the strange goings-on in Devil's End as all hell breaks loose, live on television. It's not difficult to trace a line between this and the use of contemporary news broadcasts in Russell T Davies' era of Doctor Who (bring back Trinity Wells!).

After a brief spell as an online-only service, BBC Three is now back as a broadcast channel, just in time for RTD's return to the show. Maybe this is where the rumoured revamp of Doctor Who Confidential will live?

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.