10 Doctor Who Moments Deeper Than You Think
6. Where On Earth Is Gallifrey?
Say what you like about Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children, but the scenes in the Irish village are a masterful pay-off to a long-running joke. And like all good jokes, it has layers to it.
In both The Hand of Fear and The Invisible Enemy, bemused Doctor Who characters have responded to the mention of Gallifrey with the mistaken belief that it's in Ireland. This joke was also included in the Tenth Doctor story Human Nature/The Family of Blood, in which Joan Redfern asks if Gallifrey is in Ireland.
Fast-forward to 2020, and Ascension of the Cybermen featured a subplot about a young Irish policeman called Brendan who appeared to be immortal. There's a clock, people who don't age, and of course it was actually Gallifrey, was it ever really in doubt?
The fact that the Matrix chose to hide the Doctor's memories inside a cosy Irish village is funny enough. However, it's even funnier that the Time Lords themselves are perpetuating the long-standing myth that Gallifrey is just a sleepy, unassuming village in Ireland.