10 Times Doctor Who Appeared In Other TV Shows

3. Community

Community Inspector Spacetime
Sony Pictures Television

Much-beloved sitcom Community is another show that's littered with Doctor Who nods, from the mention of "K9" in Season 2's Critical Film Studies, to the TARDIS t-shirt worn by Abed in Season 4's Basic Human Anatomy.

However, it's the ongoing gag "Inspector Spacetime" that people will remember the most.

This fictional show - which exists as a real show within the Community world - was first introduced in the Season 3 episode Biology 101, and follows the titular Inspector as he travels the universe in his red phone box.

On top of parodying the Doctor and the TARDIS, Inspector Spacetime also pokes fun at the Daleks, with the Inspector's arch-enemies (the Blorgons) resembling actual pepper pots, which - along with "tin cans", "rust buckets", and "annoying gits" - is how Doctor Who fans have jokingly described the Daleks over the years.

Community Inspector Spacetime Blorgons
Sony Pictures Television

What's more, Inspector Spacetime clearly has that Doctor Who "low budget" factor, it's been on the air since the early '60s, and there are even conventions based around the show, which several Community characters attend.

In other words, Inspector Spacetime has been fleshed out in a surprising amount of detail, and considering that Community creator Dan Harmon has a soft spot for Doctor Who (his other major show, Rick and Morty, was heavily inspired by the Whoniverse), the gag seems to come from a place of admiration.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!