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16 IDRIS
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We have Neil Gaiman to thank for the TARDIS in female form. A simple idea, but exquisitely transferred to screen in a story that was a love poem to a vehicle. Anyone who’s ever named their car will empathise. Great performance from Suranne Jones, too.
17 REUSED PROPS
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Doctor Who was in at the ground floor when it came to recycling. The most obvious of countless examples? Take one blobby, tentacular Axon monster from “The Claws Of Axos”. Apply coat of green paint. Voilà: one blobby, tentacular Krynoid for “The Seeds Of Doom”!
18 THE UNSEEN
Who can conjure vast imaginative vistas with a single line of dialogue about, say, “the metal seas of Venus”. Seventies script editor Robert Holmes was a master of this. The moment in “The Talons Of Weng-Chiang” when the Doctor states that he was there, in the 51st century, “when the Filipino army made its final advance on Reykjavik” makes your head whirl. The Filipino army? In Iceland? Then there’s the mention of “the silent gas dirigibles of the Hoothi” in “The Brain Of Morbius” – so richly evocative. Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have continued this fine tradition, creating empty spaces in which childish imaginations can run wild.
19 JUDOONESE
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These space rhinos’ lyrical flow is proper bo, fo’ sho. We particularly like the bit in “The Stolen Earth” where the Doctor (communicating in their language) says, “Ma ho”, and suddenly sounds like 50 Cent.
20 THE CLOISTER BELL
DOONNNG! DOONNNG! Ask not for whom the TARDIS bell tolls… it warns of impending disaster. It’s season 18 script editor Christopher Bidmead’s one truly lasting contribution to the series, and we were delighted when it made a return in the new series.
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