10 Most British Doctor Who Moments
Is there anything more British than a Dalek offering you a cup of tea?
The TARDIS can travel anywhere in time and space. But it has a tendency to keep coming back to Earth. Or more specifically, Britain.
Likewise, despite hailing from Gallifrey, the Doctor is a quintessentially British character.
The original Doctor reimagined the archetype of the Victorian traveller for the 1960s – an age in which technology was developing rapidly, space travel was becoming possible, and Britain was navigating its place in a post-war, post-imperial world.
With each subsequent incarnation the character has evolved to reflect current British ideas and concerns, to the point where they are now as embedded in our culture as Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood.
And along the way, various elements of British culture have worked their way into Doctor Who.
Ok, the Doctor doesn’t recite “God Save the King” every five minutes while drinking tea, eating scones and riding a red double-decker bus. But there are quite a few things about the show which, when you stop and think about it, are quite specific to the British Isles.
From iconography and stereotypes to past and present cultural references, Britishness runs deeper in Doctor Who than you might think…
10. Quaint British Villages
With their natural character and old-fashioned charm, British villages have offered escapism to television audiences for decades, most commonly in the cosy crime genre.
They’ve also appeared extensively in Doctor Who (though usually as the backdrop to an alien invasion rather than plain old murder).
Most famously, The Dæmons involved strange goings-on in the picture-postcard village of Devil’s End, featuring scenes of Morris dancing on the green, the Doctor and Jo staying in the local pub, and the Master posing as the local vicar.
A slightly-too-convincing model shot of the church blowing up at the end prompted a complaint from one viewer, so outrageous was the suggestion that the BBC had actually blown up a historic English church!
Elsewhere in the classic series, the idyllic nature of the village visited by the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane in The Android Invasion disguised the fact that it was, in fact, an alien simulation.
The most iconic new series village would have to be Leadworth, as introduced in The Eleventh Hour. It’s another one that plays up to all the stereotypes, boasting a perfect village green, a duck pond, an ice cream van, red phone and pillar boxes, and even a quirky old resident played by Annette Crosbie.
Other notable examples include the former mining village Cwmtaff from The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, plus the coastal villages of Glyngatwg and Colson seen in 73 Yards and Lucky Day.