Doctor Who: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Day Of The Doctor

11. The Origins Of Osgood

Doctor Who The Day of the Doctor Osgood
BBC Studios

Petronella Osgood made her debut in The Day of the Doctor. Played by Ingrid Oliver and complete with a Tom Baker scarf, the character was essentially a Doctor Who fangirl who just so happened to work for UNIT.

Long-time Whovians might remember the character of Sergeant Osgood in the Third Doctor serial The Daemons, and the fact that the two characters share a name is no coincidence.

Steven Moffat originally planned for Petronella to be the daughter of Sergeant Osgood, but ultimately decided against explicitly stating this in the episode.

Following the popularity of Petronella, Sergeant Osgood has been included more in Titan Comics stories, where he often shares characteristics with his daughter - including using an inhaler.

Hopefully he's not just a really badly copied Zygon clone!

 
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Ellie has been part of the WhatCulture team since 2021 where she began as a freelance presenter for the WhoCulture channel. As a diehard Whovian with a BA (hons) degree in Drama and Acting, this role was the perfect opportunity for her to combine her screen presence training with her extensive Doctor Who knowledge. From there, she branched out to various other WhatCulture channels, including TrekCulture, and became a full time Content Producer/Video Presenter in 2023. Ellie is now a regular fixture on both WhoCulture and TrekCulture and has become a well respected public figure within both fandoms, building up a substantial following across her social media platforms and being given the opportunity to represent the channels and the wider communities at several industry events. Her favourite Doctor Who character is River Song and her favourite Star Trek character is Captain Janeway - which tells you everything you need to know about how she approaches her role within a generally male dominated field.

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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!