2. Villains
The Doctor fights for peace in a universe at war. That's the show in a nutshell: that lonely Gallifreyan fighting pepper pots, statues, and Peter Kay dressed as snot. And when aliens return to Who, they usually bring something new, but they acknowledge the past with nostalgic nods here and there. The Cybermen in 'Nightmare In Silver' have the same weakness to gold as those in the '60s, and a '60s Cyberman head coincidentally featured in a museum in the first Dalek story of NewWho ('Dalek'). Despite the big reveal of the Dalek floating up stairs in that episode, they previously did so in
Remembrance of the Daleks, and the episode ends with the Doctor claiming "I win: how about that?" after the Dalek dies, a line mirrored by the Master in 'The Last of the Time Lords'. Meanwhile in Moffat's era, the Headless Monks are referenced a whole series before their official introduction ('The Time of Angels'), Eleven gives the Great Intelligence the idea of attacking the London Underground in 'The Snowmen', something they did in
The Web of Fear, and 'Asylum of the Daleks' mentions Daleks from every era: there are the modern ones from 'Dalek' onwards, the Power Rangers ones from 'Victory of the Daleks', and then there are Renegade Daleks, a Special Weapons Dalek (
Remembrance of the Daleks) and an early silver Dalek (
The Daleks), as well as the Daleks that were found on Aridius (
The Chase), Exxilon (
Death to the Daleks), Kembel (
The Daleks' Master Plan), Spiridon (
Planet of the Daleks) and Vulcan (
The Power of the Daleks). That's an awful lot of Daleks. Quite possibly the funniest reference to an enemy though is the Tenth Doctor asking "Are you my mummy?" whilst wearing a gas mask in 'The Poison Sky'. David Tennant forgot his line, and that was the first thing that came to him. It's a good job they kept it, right?