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

18. He Had An Encounter With Sally Sparrow

Doctor Who Blink Series 3 Sally Sparrow
BBC

From the Weeping Angels to the Tenth Doctor's iconic speech, we all know that Blink absolutely rules. 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.

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

Rather than encountering the Tenth Doctor, this original version of the 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, 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 one of Doctor Who's all-timer episodes.

Contributor
Contributor

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!