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

18. He Once Had An Encounter With Sally Sparrow...

Doctor Who the Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston
BBC

Blink is great for many reasons - the Weeping Angels, Murray Gold's unsettling music, the Tenth Doctor's timey-wimey speech - but the whole thing is anchored by Carey Mulligan's fantastic performance as Sally Sparrow, a woman who ends up saving the Doctor after the Angels strand him in 1969.

Written by Steven Moffat, the episode is based on a short story he wrote in the mid-2000s, which features a younger version of Sally as the main character.

Rather than encountering the Tenth Doctor, the short story has Sally helping out the Ninth Doctor instead, who has got himself trapped in 1985. Just like the episode, the short sees the Doctor leaving a message for Sally underneath some wallpaper ("help me, Sally Sparrow"), and the two of them even have a wibbly-wobbly conversation via a TV screen, just like adult Sally and the Tenth Doctor do in Blink.

Doctor Who Sally Sparrow Ninth Doctor
Panini UK/BBC

While there are no Weeping Angels involved, it's a fascinating read, especially knowing that the story would later be adapted into a terrific episode.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.