Doctor Who Series 10 Episode 9: 7 Big Questions After 'Empress Of Mars'

2. How Many References To Previous Episodes Can You Spot?

Doctor Who Empress Of Mars Nardole Peter Capaldi
BBC

Easter Egg hunters will have a field day with this one. The episode might have been influenced by movies such as Zulu and The First Men In The Moon, but it is Mark Gatiss’ thorough knowledge of Doctor Who’s back catalogue that really shines though. We’ve already discussed the obvious links to the Peladon stories, but there are many more besides.

This episode was as old school as it gets and from the ‘rank has its privileges’ line (The Day of the Daleks) to the Doctor playing mediator between the humans and the aliens (Doctor Who and the Silurians), it is the early Seventies Jon Pertwee era that is channelled the most.

There are plenty of other references too. Plot points from the first Ice Warrior story are combined with design elements from the Tomb of the Cybermen, and in the defrosted Ice Warrior, Friday, we have another alien appearing to be a human servant (Power of the Daleks, Victory of the Daleks).

Those fans who were not amused that stock photographs of Winston Churchill had been used in The Lie of the Land rather than the Ian McNiece Doctor Who version, will have been delighted to see the portrait of Pauline Collins’ as Queen Victoria (as played in Tooth And Claw).

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.