Smith and Jones
In this episode Martha asks the Doctor if he has a brother. The Doctor replies, "Not any more". Although this was likely included as a nod to the season long Master story arc, there might just be a bit more to it's inclusion. Back in 1999 it had been suggested that the Doctor had a brother in one of the New Adventure books. The novel Tears of the Oracle by Justin Richards suggests that the character Irving Braxiatel was the Doctor's brother, a name we'd kind of been introduced to back in classic Who when the Fourth Doctor's companion Romana mentions the Braxiatel Collection in passing during the 1979 story City of Death. What also makes this line in Smith and Jones interesting is that Tears of the Oracle was edited by Simon Winstone who also happened to be script editor for Doctor Who throughout series 2 and 3.
Also in Smith and Jones the Doctor reminds us that he's resilient to high levels of electricity, when stating that he received an electric shock whilst flying a kite with Benjamin Franklin. We've seen his resilience before during the Fourth Doctor stories Genesis of the Daleks and Terror of the Zygons.
The Shakespeare Code
Shakespeare has made an appearance in Doctor Who once before, back in 1965 during the First Doctor adventure The Chase. The Doctor did not travel back in time to meet him then, instead the First, Ian, Barbara and Vicki watch the Bard talk with Elizabeth I on the Time-Space Visualiser. In the 1975 story Planet of Evil, Tom Baker's Doctor says he's met Shakespeare and in 1979's City of Death the Fourth claims that he'd helped Shakespeare transcribe the original manuscript of Hamlet. Gareth Roberts, the writer of The Shakespeare Code, later revealed that there was "a sly reference to City of Death" in his original script. He claimed it was removed because "it was so sly it would have been a bit confusing for fans that recognised it and baffled the bejesus out of everyone else." There was one other Shakespeare mention in classic Who, that one came from the Sixth Doctor during The Mark of the Rani, when he said "I must see him again some time".
There are several small nods to the past during The Shakespeare Code. Firstly, the witch-like Carrionites were a race we almost heard about 30 years earlier. In the lost adventure Shada by Douglas Adams there is a line referring to a Time Lord called Scintilla, who was imprisoned for conspiring with Carrionites. There is also a mention of Dravidian Shores, a Dravidian Starship is mentioned in the 1976 adventure The Brain of Morbius. The Carrionites leader Lilith mentions the Eternals, we first heard about this race during the Fifth Doctor 1983 story Enlightenment. Finally one of the lines from the play Shakespeare is writing during the episode, Love's Labour's Won, is "the eye should have contentment where it rests". This was first heard during the 1965 First Doctor Pure Historical story The Crusade, an episode written in a very Shakespearean style.
Gridlock
Gridlock feature the Macra, who previously appeared in the 1967 Second Doctor adventure The Macra Terror.
Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks
There are several key elements in this story that we were introduced to during the Second Doctor adventure The Evil of the Daleks. In that 1967 adventure humans are infused with the Dalek Factor, and Daleks infused with the Human Factor. This was also not the first time the Empire State Building was featured in Doctor Who. Back in 1965 William Hartnell's Doctor, along with companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki landed on the observation deck during episode three of The Chase. Incidentally, during that episode on that observation deck, a rather dim-witted tourist from Alabama is seen inspecting a Dalek (the things they have in the Big Apple!), this was a character called Morton Dill who was played by Peter Purves. He clearly impressed the show's production team because just three weeks later Purves was recast as Steven Taylor and became a full time companion to the Doctor.
The Lazarus Experiment
There is a lovely nod to the Third Doctor during The Lazarus Experiment. After the Doctor reverses Lazarus's machine he claims it should not have taken him so long to "reverse the polarity".
Human Nature / The Family of Blood
John Smith's skill with the cricket ball is clearly a nod to the Fifth Doctor, and his Journal of Impossible Things features some sketches of classic Doctors including the First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth. During this story it is speculated that Gallifrey must be somewhere in Ireland, this assumption was made before during the Fourth Doctors adventures The Hand of Fear and The Invisible Enemy, the Fifth Doctor story The Arc of Infinity, and also in the 1996 TV Movie.
Utopia
We'd first met the Master back in 1971s The Terror of the Autons, back then he was played by Roger Delgado, but Derek Jacobi had actually played the Master before. He was in the one-time-official-but-quickly-rendered-unnoficial Ninth Doctor 40th anniversary adventure Scream of the Shalka. Prior to the Master's regeneration in Utopia we heard audio clips from previous classic Who Master's Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley. Utopia also marked the second on screen regeneration of a Time Lord other than the Doctor, back in 1974 K'anpo had regenerated in the Third Doctor adventure Planet of the Spiders. And before you say "Ah, you forgot Romana", well she did regenerate in the first episode of Destiny of the Daleks, but it happened off screen in a private room of the TARDIS.
The Sound of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords
The Master tells the Doctor that that the Time Lords resurrected him to serve as a soldier in the Time War. We can presume that they gave him a new body with a new set of regenerations, similar to the end of The Time of The Doctor. This ability of the Time Lords had been previously mentioned, and offered to the Master, during The Five Doctors.
When we see the flashbacks of the Master as a boy, he is wearing a similar outfit to that of the Time Lords featured in the 1969 story The War Games, the adult Time Lords are wearing ceremonial robes like the ones we first saw in the Fourth Doctor adventure The Deadly Assassin. We also get to see the Seal of Rassilon, which made it's first appearance during 1975s Revenge of the Cybermen.
John Simm's Master features lots of moments and characteristics that are direct references to past Masters, including when he addresses the World's press cameras he opens his speech with "Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully". Back in 1981 during episode four of Logopolis, Anthony Ainley's Master said "Peoples of the Universe, please attend carefully." We also see the Master watching an episode of Teletubbies, he clearly enjoys children's television because we'd previously seen Roger Delgado's Master watching The Clangers during The Sea Devils. The Seas Devils themselves are also mentioned, along with the Axons, who we met in the 1971 adventure The Claws of Axos. Also, the Master offers Lucy Saxon a Jelly Baby, in much the same way Fourth Doctor Tom Baker would've, and his Laser Screwdriver is said to have isomorphic controls, the same mentioned about the TARDIS controls during Pyramids of Mars.
Other nods to the past featured in the season finale include when U.S. President-Elect Winters states that UNIT protocols for alien first contact were established in 1968. That just so happens to be the year that UNIT was introduced during the Second Doctor adventure The Invasion. We've also seen the Doctor prematurely aged before, back when he was Tom Baker during the The Leisure Hive. Finally, Earth is referred to as Sol 3, meaning the third planet from the star Sol, this was the same reference given to it during The Deadly Assassin.
That's all for Series Three, but please let me know if you think I've missed anything. It should come as no surprise to know that next time I'll be looking at Series Four.
Previously
Nods to the Past Series 1
Nods to the Past Series 2
