List of references to other DWU media in live-action BBC stories

References to non-televised works in live-action BBC DWU stories can be few and far between, but over the years, writers have slipped in references to characters, places, and events which originated in media other than the parent show.

Although starting as early as the show's second season, with Terry Nation striving to maintain continuity between televised Dalek material and the Skarosian tyrants' solo appearances in printed media, this behaviour became more common with the advent of the 2005 series of the show, with writers having lived through, and even participated in the writing of, the novels, comics, and audio stories of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

Season 2

 * used the term "Dalekanium" to refer to the metal that comprises the casing of a Dalek. The term, spelled "Dalekenium", had first been used several months earlier in the comic in The Dalek Book. It would remain a frequently used term, both on television and in other media, through to the 21st century.

Season 4

 * David Whitaker's was set on the planet Vulcan, which first appeared two years earlier on a star chart in the comic . The comic was co-written by Whitaker and fellow television writer and Dalek creator Terry Nation.
 * This story marks the first televised appearance of the Dalek Emperor, not counting their brief appearance in . The Dalek Emperor also first appeared in Invasion of the Daleks. It was implied at the time that the two Emperors were the same individual, and later works would confirm this by identifying them as the Dalek Prime.
 * Although in his early appearances the Dalek Emperor operated a small and mobile casing, he had been shown to transition to a huge, static casing located in the Great Hall of the Dalek City for the sake of increased intelligence the year prior in, a story printed in The Dalek Outer Space Book.
 * Although in his early appearances the Dalek Emperor operated a small and mobile casing, he had been shown to transition to a huge, static casing located in the Great Hall of the Dalek City for the sake of increased intelligence the year prior in, a story printed in The Dalek Outer Space Book.

Season 6

 * introduces the Time Lords, a highly advanced civilisation who were the inventors of the TARDIS. The notion that the Doctor's TARDIS had been built by a highly advanced civilisation had earlier been spoken of by the First Doctor in the Doctor Who Annual 1966 short story.

Season 9

 * In, the Third Doctor says that Horatio Nelson was a friend of his. The Second Doctor had met Nelson in the Doctor Who Annual 1968 short story.

Season 10

 * featured a future Earth being ruled by a President of Earth. The title had first appeared in the DWU in a TV Century 21 short story,.
 * The Dalek Supreme in shares its black and gold colour scheme with the Dalek Leader from the comic strip, which predated the serial by a year.

Season 12

 * In, Sarah Jane Smith berates Benton after he chases off K1, prompting him to reply: "The US Cavalry never got treated like this." Sarah previously called for the US Cavalry to fend off the Daleks during the audio segments meant for the live performance at Goodwood Motor Circuit on 18 May 1974. Robot began airing in December of that year. (In the novelisation, the line is less specific: "The US Cavalry never get treated like this.")
 * The Fourth Doctor's recollection of the conclusion of the Dalek invasion of Earth fails to tally with the on-screen events of, but references accounts of the invasion given in spin-off media:
 * Instead of a mere bomb collapsing their tunnelwork, he claims that the Daleks were defeated in part by the power of Earth's magnetic core, something shown in the theatrical film ;
 * Instead of the mid-22nd century, the Doctor tells Davros that the invasion happened in 2000. The 1966 Target novelisation mentioned the Dalek invasion as having happened in "the 21st century".
 * Additionally, while it conflicts with its event, the story does borrow some elements from the previous account of the creation of the Daleks given in the first The Daleks comic story, . Beyond the similarity of title, details present in both Geneses but not previously mentioned in (or even conflicting with) the account of the Daleks' origin in include:
 * The Daleks' casings having been invented by one of the Daleks' humanoid ancestors before the actual Dalek mutants (instead of the Daleks having built them themselves after mutating).
 * The Daleks' ancestors having already been the aggressors in the war against the Thals, rather than initially innocent victims of warmongering, slave-driving Thals as suggested in the original Dalek story.
 * The Daleks' ancestor taking refuge in a bunker, and becoming one of the last survivors of the original Dalek race.
 * The Daleks vowing to conquer the rest of the universe almost immediately after being created and supplanting their makers.
 * Although interpreted by later lore as a once-normal-looking man who was disfigured in an explosion, Davros seems originally to have been intended to be a mutant himself; indeed, he would be identified as such by the Movellans in . His appearance recalls the humanoid Daleks of Genesis of Evil, with an enlarged, wrinkled forehead. The History of the Daleks would later point to the comics' humanoids as later descendants of the Kaleds at a later stage of mutation.
 * Davros creates the Dalek mutants by "accelerating the evolution" of the Kaleds. In a different pre-1975 account of the Daleks' origin,, also written by Terry Nation, he had already presented the Dalek mutants as the result of artificially accelerated evolution, that time of transplanted humans at the hands of the Halldons.
 * Davros creates the Dalek mutants by "accelerating the evolution" of the Kaleds. In a different pre-1975 account of the Daleks' origin,, also written by Terry Nation, he had already presented the Dalek mutants as the result of artificially accelerated evolution, that time of transplanted humans at the hands of the Halldons.

Season 13

 * is set on Karn, which was first a setting in the stage play Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday.

Season 17

 * This story features a Dalek lie detector, which first appeared in the comic story.
 * The Doctor uses his hat to block a Dalek's eyestalk, just as he did in the comic story.
 * The Doctor uses his hat to block a Dalek's eyestalk, just as he did in the comic story.

Season 19

 * In, the Doctor levitates himself, which he learned to do in a TV Comic story.

Season 22

 * In, a Glass Dalek makes an appearance. A Dalek with glass casing first appeared in.

Season 25

 * In, the casing used by Davros as Dalek Emperor has a spherical upper section, thus having a similar silhouette to the casing used by the original Dalek Emperor in the TV Century 21 Daleks comics. Indeed, at an early stage in planning of the storyline, Remembrance was planned to feature the Emperor in earnest.

30th Anniversary Special

 * features a brief cameo by Zog from the stage play The Ultimate Adventure.

Series 1

 * A London double decker bus resembling Iris Wildthyme's Celestial Omnibus, the Number 22 to Putney Common, can be glimpsed in the opening scenes. (This was retroactively made to be a reference, with designs of the Celestial Omnibus later on being heavily influenced by this one bus in Rose.)
 * The concept of a time war originated in the Doctor Who Magazine comic, where Time Lords of the Dark Times fight in the Black Sun War. The concept would later become a major part of the War in Heaven of the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, before eventually finding its way onto television in the form of the Last Great Time War, initially mentioned in.
 * In the Virgin New Adventures novel, the Time Vortex is red when travelling forward in time and blue when travelling backwards. This idea was used again from Series 1 to 4 of the new series.
 * UNIT officer Muriel Frost, who originated from the 1990 Doctor Who Magazine comic, appears in.
 * This story is Robert Shearman's adaptation of his 2003 audio drama . This fact is referenced by the Jubilee Pizza boxes seen in the story.
 * Simmons' line "What are you going to do? Sucker me to the death?" is very similar to Abslom Daak's line "Whatcha gonna do now, big shot? Suck me to death?" from the comic story.
 * Kronkburgers, first eaten by soldiers of an alternate Roman Empire in the Doctor Who Magazine comic, were sold on Satellite Five in , and mentioned in dialogue by the Ninth Doctor.
 * In, Rose Tyler recalls her visit to Justicia from the BBC New Series Adventures novel.
 * The Anne Droid asked Rose a question about the planet Lucifer, which first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel.
 * The Doctor's promise to "wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky" echoes Abslom Daak's promise to "kill every damned stinking Dalek in the galaxy" from his debut comic story.
 * In, the Doctor claims that ancient Dalek legends refer to him as the "Oncoming Storm", a title that was first applied to him in the novels and . It would remain frequently used in subsequent years of televised and non-televised media alike.
 * The Anne Droid asked Rose a question about the planet Lucifer, which first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel.
 * The Doctor's promise to "wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky" echoes Abslom Daak's promise to "kill every damned stinking Dalek in the galaxy" from his debut comic story.
 * In, the Doctor claims that ancient Dalek legends refer to him as the "Oncoming Storm", a title that was first applied to him in the novels and . It would remain frequently used in subsequent years of televised and non-televised media alike.

Series 2



 * In, the Doctor refers to Arthur Dent as a "nice man". Dent had written about encountering the Doctor in the section of the Who is Doctor Who? website.
 * K9 Mark III is shown to have fallen into an irreparable state, at least, to Sarah Jane Smith's abilities. K9's fate had previously been shown in the short story Moving On and the audio Mirror, Signal, Maneuver, though the latter story shows K9 being completely disassembled.
 * K9 Mark IV makes his debut at the end of the story. His existence was first revealed by the Eighth Doctor in the novel.
 * In, young Reinette asks what monsters have nightmares about and the Doctor responds, "Me." A similar exchange took place in the novel.
 * The two-parter /  is loosely based on the audio story, with Marc Platt being thanked in the end credits of the story.
 * mentions the existence of a Kaled God of War. The novel had previously mentioned that the Klade (implied to be the future descendants of the Daleks, themselves offspring of the Kaleds) worshipped a God of War.
 * contained several adverts and posters for Millingdale ice cream. Millingdale ice cream was a fictitious brand of ice cream created for an in-universe website to coincide with the first few series of the 2005 revival of the series.
 * hinges on the existence of "the Void", being the space between universes. Although the "dimensional divide" was first referenced on television in, it was the DWM comic story which first described what lay beyond the Doctor's universe with the name of "the Void" — and, incidentally, the first story to attempt to depict it visually.
 * includes the first televised reference to rels, a Dalek measurement of time. A Dalek unit called a "rel" was created in 1964's The Dalek Dictionary, where it measured "hydro-electricity"; it was first depicted as a unit of time in the film, and had since appeared in comics and audios.
 * includes the first televised reference to rels, a Dalek measurement of time. A Dalek unit called a "rel" was created in 1964's The Dalek Dictionary, where it measured "hydro-electricity"; it was first depicted as a unit of time in the film, and had since appeared in comics and audios.

Series 3

 * The Doctor mentions that he used to have a brother. The character of Irving Braxiatel, first introduced in the Virgin New Adventures, had previously been established as the Doctor's brother.
 * The Doctor mentions an encounter with Emmeline Pankhurst, someone he previously referenced meeting in the novel.
 * The episode was partially adapted from Gareth Roberts' Ninth Doctor comic story A Groatsworth of Wit.
 * The Doctor indicates that he is a fan of Harry Potter. He had previously been shown to possess the entire series of books in his TARDIS in the novel.
 * The Face of Boe's final message to the Doctor in was reused from Davies' short story  in the 2006 Doctor Who Annual.
 * Paul Cornell's two-parter /  is an adaptation of his Virgin New Adventures novel.
 * Steven Moffat's is an adaptation of the short story, published two years earlier.
 * The depiction of the Citadel of the Time Lords as a city encased in a huge crystalline dome originated in illustrations of Doctor Who Magazine's "Gallifreyan Guardian" feature, and was first seen in a narrative work in the comic story . It was seen for the first time on television in a flashback in.
 * In, the Doctor mentions the Sabre-Toothed Gorillas as a potential threat outside the TARDIS; the Sabre-Toothed Gorillas had been introduced in the TV Comic story, aptly named , as well as being mentioned in the short story.
 * The depiction of the Citadel of the Time Lords as a city encased in a huge crystalline dome originated in illustrations of Doctor Who Magazine's "Gallifreyan Guardian" feature, and was first seen in a narrative work in the comic story . It was seen for the first time on television in a flashback in.
 * In, the Doctor mentions the Sabre-Toothed Gorillas as a potential threat outside the TARDIS; the Sabre-Toothed Gorillas had been introduced in the TV Comic story, aptly named , as well as being mentioned in the short story.

Series 4

 * The Butler Institute, originally from the Virgin New Adventures novel, was briefly seen in.
 * Although the final design of the Supreme Dalek only retains the three dome lights (in place of the typical two) as evidence of it, concept art proves that its design was influenced by the TV Century 21 Golden Emperor's, much like that of Davros's imperial casing in.
 * Davros has a mechanical hand that replaced the one shot off in . He was first depicted this way in the audio play.
 * The UNIT New York City Base appears, being a plot-relevant location. The details of the base, such as it being the primary UNIT base in New York, was something established in the short story, which showed Major A Highway's ambition to shift UNIT's activities into a "pivotal single site operation".
 * The American version of UNIT had also been first mentioned in the novel, and UNIT's previous amount of separate divisions were seen in the novel.
 * In, the TARDIS is piloted by six people. This was the intended number, as revealed in the novel.
 * The Space Agency, first featured in the TV21 Dalek prose story, is mentioned in.
 * Henrietta Goodheart from the novel is mentioned as Netty, a member of the Silver Cloak.
 * Rassilon's partisans intend to survive the Ultimate Sanction by becoming "beings of consciousness alone". The novel was the first story to show this as a possibility for Time Lords, having been used by a similar purpose by the Celestis.
 * In a flashback to the creation of the Eye of Harmony in the novel, the words Rassilon pronounced just before switching on the machinery, creating conventional time, were "For our children. For the sake of Gallifrey, and for time itself". At the end of Part 1, when setting in motion his plan to bring about the end of Time, he intones "For Gallifrey. For victory. For the end of time itself".
 * Rassilon's partisans intend to survive the Ultimate Sanction by becoming "beings of consciousness alone". The novel was the first story to show this as a possibility for Time Lords, having been used by a similar purpose by the Celestis.
 * In a flashback to the creation of the Eye of Harmony in the novel, the words Rassilon pronounced just before switching on the machinery, creating conventional time, were "For our children. For the sake of Gallifrey, and for time itself". At the end of Part 1, when setting in motion his plan to bring about the end of Time, he intones "For Gallifrey. For victory. For the end of time itself".

Series 5

 * and subsequent stories establish that the Doctor and Winston Churchill are old friends. The novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures was actually the first story to depict the relationship in this way, and was reinforced by Churchill's cameo in.
 * In, the Doctor describes himself as a complicated space-time event. In Steven Moffat's first-ever Doctor Who story, the Seventh Doctor short story , Professor Candy's research defined the Doctor as "a CSTE – a Complex Space-Time Event. In fact, I believe he is the most complex space-time event there has ever been anywhere".
 * Amy Pond mentions that the Doctor took her to Arcadia, a paradise planet first mentioned in the comic and featured in the novel.
 * The Eleventh Doctor refers to having met Michelangelo and Pablo Picasso. The Sixth Doctor was shown to have a portrait of himself by Michelangelo in the comic and a meeting between the Third Doctor and Picasso was mentioned in the novel.
 * is an adaptation of the Doctor Who Magazine comic of the same name.
 * At the opening of the Pandorica in (the aptly named), the Pandorica Alliance is mentioned to include Chelonians and Haemogoths. Chelonians originated in the Virgin New Adventures novel , while the Haemogoths had been mentioned in the BBC New Series Adventures novel , published a few months prior.
 * In, the Eleventh Doctor tells an Auton duplicate of Rory Williams that he, as an Auton, is vulnerable to heat and radio signals. This fact was first established in , wherein Lt David Judd theorises that the Nestene Consciousness was weak to radio signals.
 * In, the Eleventh Doctor tells an Auton duplicate of Rory Williams that he, as an Auton, is vulnerable to heat and radio signals. This fact was first established in , wherein Lt David Judd theorises that the Nestene Consciousness was weak to radio signals.

Series 6

 * reveals that the TARDIS has the ability to archive old console rooms. This was a plot point in the comic . There is a contradiction between the two stories, as the Doctor is aware of this ability in the comic but unaware in the episode.
 * Professor Arthur Candy, who first appeared in Steven Moffat's Decalog 3: Consequences short story, appears again in Moffat's television story . Furthermore, he meets River at Luna University, which was first mentioned in that short story.
 * In, the Doctor mentions Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday among the bedtime stories he knows. This references the stage play Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday, which was also later adapted into an audio story by Big Finish.

Series 7

 * The Brig's daughter Kate Stewart, who first appeared in the 1995 home video, appears as a major recurring character in the series starting with.
 * reveals that Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax live on Paternoster Row, hence why they are called the Paternoster Gang. This fact was first established in The Brilliant Book 2012 (published one year earlier).
 * features the first televised depiction of the TARDIS library. The library had been visited many times in other media, beginning with the comic.
 * In, the Doctor claims that the Time Lords invented chess. The idea that chess is not a human invention first appeared in the novel though in that case the Doctor admitted that he did not know the game's precise origin.

2013 specials

 * Before regenerating in, the Eighth Doctor recalls some of his audio-original companions, including Charley, C'rizz, Lucie Miller, Tamsin Drew, and Molly O'Sullivan.
 * The story features the Drylands (also known as the Outlands). This part of Gallifrey was first referenced in the novel and appeared in the audio stories Fractures and Panacea.
 * The story also prominently features the War Council of Gallifrey, first seen in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures as part of the War in Heaven. It is also referred to in dialogue as "Gallifrey High Command", a phrase first used in David Martin's The Adventures of K9 books from the 1980s.
 * The story also prominently features the War Council of Gallifrey, first seen in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures as part of the War in Heaven. It is also referred to in dialogue as "Gallifrey High Command", a phrase first used in David Martin's The Adventures of K9 books from the 1980s.

Series 8

 * In, Clara Oswald is a teacher of Class 1C, which was identified as Barbara Wright's class number in the novelisation.
 * In, the Doctor says he learned sword fighting from Richard the Lionheart, just as he had in the audio story . Although Richard had appeared in , he was never shown practicing sword fighting with the Doctor in that story. The Doctor also mentions sword fighting with Errol Flynn. He had previously mentioned sparring with Flynn in the audio.
 * Abslom Daak, who first appeared in the Doctor Who Magazine comic, was seen in the memories of the cyborg Psi in.
 * In, the Hyperscape Body Swap Ticket from Doctor Who at the Proms can be seen in Clara's room.
 * In, Kate Stewart mentions her children. Her son Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart had appeared in.

Series 9

 * The Magician's Apprentice revealed that had survived the events of Death in Heaven, a fact which had been foreshadowed by the Doctor Who Magazine short story The Secret Diary of the Master the previous year.
 * The Witch's Familiar:
 * Missy mentions that the Doctor once fell into a nest of vampire monkeys. Vampire monkeys were featured in the comic story Tooth and Claw.
 * The Doctor says that "mercy" does not exist in the Daleks' vocabulary. He said the same thing in the comic Nemesis of the Daleks.
 * In Before the Flood, the Twelfth Doctor thinks he is about to die and says "I've had a good innings". The Sixth Doctor said the same thing before regenerating in two conflicting stories, the novel Spiral Scratch and the audio The Brink of Death.
 * The Girl Who Died:
 * The Doctor mentions the Velosians, who had first been mentioned in the audio Starlight Robbery two years earlier. They went on to debut in Tales of the Dark Times in 2020.
 * The Doctor is seen carrying a Two Thousand Year Diary. The Twelfth Doctor had previously been shown to carry such a diary in The Daft Dimension.
 * In The Zygon Invasion, the Twelfth Doctor tells Petronella Osgood that he wears question mark underpants. The Eighth Doctor was the first Doctor to be shown to wear such undergarments in the comic The Glorious Dead and the novel Seeing I.
 * The Husbands of River Song:
 * River Song uses a sonic trowel. A sonic trowel previously appeared in the 2005 novel The Tree of Life, in the possession of Bernice Summerfield.
 * While still pretending to be a simple surgeon, the Twelfth Doctor mentions that the real Doctor might be batting "giant robot fish from the Ninth Dimension". The Second Doctor sent the Arcturians to the Ninth Dimension in the 1967 short story Only a Matter of Time, from Doctor Who Annual 1968.

Series 10

 * The colony planet in Smile, though not named in dialogue, was identified in advertising and reference material around the time of the episode's release as Gliese 581d, a link eventually confirmed in a narrative work in the 2018 Doctor Who Annual. This planet had first been mentioned as a future human colony ten years earlier in All Snug in Their Beds, a Fourth Doctor short story printed in Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas.
 * In Thin Ice, the Twelfth Doctor says he has been to the Frost fair a few times before. The First Doctor visited the fair in the audio story Frostfire and the Tenth Doctor did so in the short story The Frozen.
 * In Extremis, the Doctor expresses his distaste for Moby-Dick, something he previously did in the short story Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988.
 * In World Enough and Time, Nardole asks the Doctor how he manages to use Venusian aikido, given that the martial art required five arms. While Venusian aikido was first used in the TV story Inferno, it was the 1994 Virgin Missing Adventures novel Venusian Lullaby which first featured five-armed Venusians, with the Virgin New Adventures novel First Frontier making the connection between the art and the five-armed species a month before.
 * When recalling the planets on which the Cybermen have originated in The Doctor Falls, the Twelfth Doctor mentions Marinus, which had been revealed as a Cyberman origin planet in the Doctor Who Magazine comic The World Shapers. However, it also conflicts with that comic in that it mentions Marinus, Mondas, and Planet 14 as separate planets.
 * Twice Upon a Time:
 * When the First and Twelfth Doctors meet, time freezes. The same thing happened when the First and Eighth Doctors met in the novel The Eight Doctors.
 * The First Doctor tells Bill Potts that his belief that good always prevails is why he left Gallifrey. The Eighth Doctor told Charley the same thing in the audio story The Stones of Venice.
 * Before regenerating, the Doctor tells his future self never to eat pears. The Doctor's distaste for pears was first mentioned in the novel Human Nature.

Series 11

 * In The Ghost Monument, the Thirteenth Doctor says she knew Pythagoras, whom the Fourth Doctor mentions knowing in the audio The Labyrinth of Buda Castle and the comic Gaze of the Medusa.
 * In Rosa, the Doctor mentions knowing Elvis Presley. The Doctor's friendship with Elvis was previously referenced in the novel Ghosts of India and video game Blood of the Cybermen.
 * In Arachnids in the UK, the Doctor refers to an encounter with Amelia Earhart. Such an encounter was first mentioned in the novel Seeing I.
 * In The Tsuranga Conundrum, the Doctor says she loves the musical Hamilton and had seen all 900 casts. The Doctor's fondness for the musical had previously been explored in the comic story The Long Con in which the Second, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors attended a performance of Hamilton.
 * In Resolution, the reconnaissance scout variant of Dalek was introduced. A similar concept — a hitherto unseen type of Dalek specialised to "spy out the land for an imminent full-scale invasion", which also arrived on Earth — was seen in the 1966 short story Have Daleks Invaded Scotland?. Dalek reconnaissance missions were also cited in the Dalek Survival Guide.

Series 12

 * Spyfall:
 * It is mentioned that Graham O'Brien hailed from Essex. This hometown was first mentioned in Graham's character profile on the official Doctor Who website and hinted at in the novel The Good Doctor (though the former is non-narrative, meaning it is not treated as a valid source on this wiki).
 * The Doctor makes repairs to the TARDIS that drain the rainforest floor. The TARDIS had been shown to contain a rainforest in the audio story No Place Like Home.
 * In Fugitive of the Judoon, Ruth Clayton calls the leader of the Judoon "Daddy Rhinoform". The Sixth Doctor referred to the Judoon as "rhinoform bipeds" in the audio drama Judoon in Chains.
 * In Praxeus, the Doctor mentions a "talking cat in Ontario". Talking cats, Gallifreyan in origin, were first mentioned in The Legacy of Gallifrey. The BBC America website corroborated the connection.
 * In Can You Hear Me?, the Doctor mentions that the TARDIS has a jacuzzi, which was depicted in the prelude to the novel Tragedy Day.
 * The Timeless Children:
 * The actor for Rassilon was cast to resemble Don Warrington, who played Rassilon in the audio story Zagreus.
 * Dialogue in the same scene suggests that the founders of Gallifrey knowingly restricted Time Lord regeneration to a maximum of twelve renewals, an idea first made explicit in Zagreus, albeit now attributed to Tecteun.
 * Revolution of the Daleks marked the televised introduction of a Dalek death squad, which first appeared in the Dalek Survival Guide.

Series 13

 * Once, Upon Time:
 * This story features the Siege of Atropos in which the Time Lords capture the Ravagers and allow the Mouri to control Time. This event is part of the anchoring of the thread that was first established in the novels Christmas on a Rational Planet and The Book of the War.
 * A Weeping Angel emerges from Yasmin Khan's phone. The Angels had previously attempted to escape via mobile phone in the game The Lonely Assassins.
 * In The Vanquishers, the Doctor encounters the embodiment of Time. The Virgin New Adventures had established that Time was a sentient being, specifically an Eternal. However, the episode conflicts with the novels since the Doctor says she had always wondered what Time looks like even though the Seventh Doctor had met Time in Lungbarrow.
 * In Eve of the Daleks, the Doctor remarks that she has not seen so much gunpowder since 1605. She and Yasmin Khan had witnessed Guy Fawkes' attempted destruction of Parliament in the short story Black Powder. The First Doctor also became involved with these events in the novel The Plotters, as had the Eleventh Doctor in the video game The Gunpowder Plot. However, since all three stories conflcit with one another, the episode is most likely referencing Black Powder.
 * The Power of the Doctor:
 * This story refers to Ace parting ways with the Doctor due to a falling out between them. While no details are given in the episode, a falling out did occur in the novel Love and War.
 * The story also reveals that aspects of the Doctor's previous incarnations continue to exist in their mind after regeneration, something that had previously been explored in the novel Timewyrm: Revelation and audio drama Zagreus. The concept is also prominent with the Big Finish character known as "the Eleven" (and other incarnations of the Time Lord) whose previous incarnations are retained following regeneration and frequently manifest and influence the actions of their successors.
 * The story also features a Type 75 TARDIS, which first appeared in the short story Going Once, Going Twice.
 * Additionally, the story also features the Holo-Doctor, who debuted in the Seventh Doctor novel Infinite Requiem.
 * Although not named as such, the story features the first televised retro-regeneration. The Doctor and other Time Lords had been subject to this concept numerous times in other media. Examples include the novels State of Change and Sky Pirates!, the comic The Fountains of Forever and the audio The Lost Magic.

2023 specials

 * Castavillian suggests several anagrams for Kaled, one of which is Klade. The Klade are humanoid descendants of the Daleks, first mentioned in the novel and later featured in the novel  and the comic.
 * Davros identifies the Dalek's gunstick as a "ruby ray blaster"; the game, released in Doctor Who Annual 2006, established that some Dalek flying saucers were equipped with ruby ray lasers.
 * During the “adventurer continues section” of, a colourised clip from is a scene showing the Red Dalek Leader. This seems to be a reference to the novelisations of the story, Mission to the Unknown and The Mutation of Time, which add the Red Dalek Leader into the text in the place of an unnamed silver Dalek who commands the mission.
 * is an adaptation of the Doctor Who Magazine comic of the same name.
 * is an adaptation of the Doctor Who Magazine comic of the same name.

Torchwood

 * Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang refers to an Arcadian diamond, which originates on the planet Arcadia from the novel Deceit.
 * After Freema Agyeman was cast in, which featured a character called , Torchwood script editor Gary Russell mentioned in a tweet that the alias used by Agyeman's character, Martha Jones, in the television story Reset, was a deliberate reference to the Eighth Doctor's companion Sam Jones.
 * John Frobisher from Children of Earth was named after Frobisher, a Sixth Doctor companion in the Doctor Who Magazine comics. (REF: DWMSE 39)

The Sarah Jane Adventures

 * Invasion of the Bane features Bubble Shock!, which is similar in both name and concept to Bubbleshake from the novel The Highest Science.
 * In Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane, Sarah Jane mentions that there was "Graske activity on Earth a few years ago", referencing the video game Attack of the Graske.
 * The Lost Boy:
 * The UNIT file on Sarah Jane Smith is comprised of text copied exactly from PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown from the U.N.I.T. website - this also, in turn, references the UNIT dating controversy, as it is referenced in the text of the story.
 * The story also features the appearance of an unnamed "Chief Inspector". In Gary Russell's novelisation, this inspector's name was given as Robert Lines, a policeman who had appeared several times in author Russell's novels and short stories.
 * The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith features the deaths of Sarah Jane's parents in a car crash. The fact that they died in a car crash was first established by The Roving Reporter, a fictional biography of Sarah Jane published in the 1992 Doctor Who Magazine Holiday Special. However, some details differ, such as the year of the crash and her parents' names.
 * The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith:
 * Clyde Langer mentions that Sarah Jane's aunt had died before he met her. Lavinia Smith's death had been mentioned in the novel Millennium Shock and the audio Comeback, although the two accounts give contradictory dates.
 * The Trickster creates a time trap, trapping characters inside a single looped second of time. A time trap previously appeared in the The Adventures of K9 novel K9 and the Time Trap, described in much the same way; there, Omega's anti-matter universe was described as such a trap.
 * The Raxacoricofallapatorian villains of the story The Gift, the Blathereen, first appeared in the BBC New Series Adventures novel The Monsters Inside''.
 * In Death of the Doctor, it is mentioned that Liz Shaw is working for UNIT on the Moon, which was established in the novel Eternity Weeps. However, it also conflicts with her death in the same story.

Class

 * The Coal Hill School Roll of Honours Board includes the names A. Okehurst, J. Gibson, and D. Hatcher, who all perished in the events of the Telos Doctor Who novella Time and Relative.

Tales of the TARDIS

 * In Vengeance on Varos, Peri Brown mentions that she is from Fell's Point, which was established in the audio story The Reaping.
 * In The Three Doctors, Clyde mentions the UNIT space station from the audio story In Memory Alone.
 * In The Time Meddler, Steven Taylor mentions that he became a King after leaving the Doctor, as depicted in the audio drama The War To End All Wars.

Mini-sodes

 * In Ian Chesterton: An Introduction, the home video reconstruction of The Crusade, Ian Chesterton recalls two untelevised adventures. The first involves the talking stones of Tyron, mentioned in the parent story's novelisation, Doctor Who and the Crusaders, and the second is his witnessing of the Salem witch trials, depicted in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel The Witch Hunters.
 * In Liberty Hall, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart mentions being with the Doctor in Malebolgia in 2003, which are references to the audio story Minuet in Hell. He also mentions Gordon and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who are his family members in the independently produced Downtime.
 * In The Eternal Mystery, references are made to the death of Yrcanos and Peri Brown resuming her travels with the Sixth Doctor, both of which occurred in the audio story The Widow's Assassin. However, there is a contradiction as Rex says the Queen vanished "just after" the King's death, ignoring the five-year gap between the two events from the audio.
 * In Meet Doom - the Universe's Greatest Assassin!, Doom reveals that she works for the Lesser Order of Oberon from the Time Lord Victorious series.

Other
There have been times when a reference to other DWU media was meant to appear in a live-action story but did not for various reasons. These include:


 * The never-produced The Dark Dimension would have featured a character named Summerfield who would be an alternate universe version of Bernice Summerfield from the Virgin New Adventures. Ace's name would be revealed as Dorothy McShane, just as it was in the novels.
 * Planet of the Dead would have featured the Chelonians from the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures. However, the heat of the Dubai desert was thought to be far too intense for an actor in a turtle-like costume to endure.
 * The Mad Woman in the Attic was to have featured a clip from Downtime but Reeltime Pictures refused permission.
 * The Day of the Doctor originally had Kate Stewart walk past posters for the Peter Cushing films while noting the need to screen the Doctor's associates. However, the production team could not afford the rights to the posters. This scene does appear in the novelisation.