Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe

Occasionally, elements of the Doctor Who universe are referenced in the broader popular culture. This page exists to throw a spotlight on some of these casual references made in television, comics, films and other media.

Television
This is the name that Vicki Pallister gives the robots that she, Steven Taylor and the First Doctor encounter in Galaxy 4. Later in the same episode, Phil and Lem enter a room full of used robot parts. A Dalek can be seen clearly in the corner nearest the door. Also in the same episode, Sheldon and Amy are brainstorming couples costumes for the party, and one of the ideas seen on Sheldon's board is "The Doctor & a Dalek". Additionally, several TARDIS posters can be seen in Stuart's comic book store, as well as a Dalek in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment.
 * In the last episode of season two of you can find that The Librarian talks about time travel and a cloth is lifted away by Cassandra Cillian to show the TARDIS as a broken down artefact in a room full of time travelling artefact such as the Delorean from Back to the Future.
 * In an episode of the Disney Channel series,, a guest actor appears dressed as Matt Smith at a kids' party in order to best the super hero costume wearing regular...with a sonic screwdriver in his hand.
 * In, a UK sci fi series, a character has a Dalek toy on his desk.
 * In one episode of, purple Dalek toys can be seen in the background on a shelf.
 * In (which featured Mina Anwar, Paul Antony-Barber and Rodger Barclay), the character  had a 12" remote control Dalek and 2 12" figures in his bedroom; one was of a new series Cyberman and the other was of Dalek Sec as a Human-Dalek after he had merged with Diagoras.
 * In, the son proves he's a better geek by mentioning every actor who played the Doctor.
 * In, Season 7 Episode 11... Dr. Taub mentions that he is awake at night watching TV at 3am because that's when Classic Doctor Who is playing on the BBC.
 * In one episode of, Mr. Bean plays around with toy animals in front of a diorama of Jesus's birth. He eventually begins to bring out a toy Dalek, and pretends that it killed a toy lamb.
 * In one episode of, Liv tries to get into the Brain Olympics by showing people that she's smart and references time travel. "He doesn't believe in time travel and he's like Doctor who?"
 * In one episode of Orphan Black, a picture of the TARDIS is seen in the background.
 * "Get Off My Cloud", the final episode of the third season of the BBC's anthology series Out of the Unknown was partly set in the subconscious mind of a science-fiction writer. It featured in-character appearances by the Daleks as fictional creations in the mind of the writer. (The episode's designer was Raymond Cusick, who was responsible for the original Dalek design.)
 * In the  episode "", the names of the first six Doctor actors (William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker) are seen on a screen.
 * "Arrivederci Roma", the first episode of Channel 4's comedy programme, showed the TARDIS materialising in the background in one scene. The Doctor briefly stepped out before going back in and dematerialising.
 * One episode of features a cameo of a Doctor Who fan club. Most of its members wear scarves resembling that of the Fourth Doctor, while another member wears the Eighth Doctor's costume. A K9 prop also makes a cameo.
 * In The Venture Bros. The TARDIS appears in season 5, owned by St Cloud.
 * The Fourth Doctor has appeared several times in The Simpsons.
 * In an episode of Archer titled "Archer Vice:House Call", Archer asks how much the "stock" is worth in pounds. Cyril, confused, says that the weight is in kilogrammes and not in pounds. Archer then explains that he was talking about the currency called pounds but he gets interrupted by Malory. He then says "Exactly, as in 'Doctor Who' money."
 * "", an episode of Fox Kids' children's action series , featured an on-screen note claiming that a meteoroid field that had just collided with a planet was located at "ten zero eleven zero zero, by zero two from galactic zero," in the constellation of Kasterborous. In TV: Pyramids of Mars, these coordinates are given as the location of Gallifrey.
 * In an episode of Supergirl, Winn is required to quickly hack a computer and compares the situation to Doctor Who. In the second episode of the series, Alex Danvers uses the codenames "Greyhound" and "Trap" in reference to the code names used by UNIT in Day of the Daleks.
 * The Fourth Doctor appeared twice in . Also in the show, there is a disembodied head in a jar in the Hall of Presidents with a name plaque reading 'Amelia Pond' below it. There is also a deactivated Dalek among many robot parts in a later episode.
 * Several episodes of the 2008 series include references to Doctor Who. In one episode a character is identified as "Lethbridge-Stewart". Only twelve episodes were produced, with the decision made not to produce a thirteenth. That episode, The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalpyse, also contained several references to Doctor Who, most notably having the Middleman recite the First Doctor's farewell speech to Susan Foreman in The Dalek Invasion of Earth ("There must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties..."). The script for this unmade episode was performed by the cast in a "read through" at the 2009 San Diego ComicCon, and adapted into a graphic novel by Viper Comics, both with the Doctor's speech intact. Given the series' acknowledged debt to Doctor Who, the fact that the lead character is never referred to by name, only as "the Middleman", is probably a reference to the fact that the Doctor's real name is never revealed. (The final episode, however, does reveal the Middleman's real name.)
 * In the fifth episode of the second season of the ABC television series, the scientists Phil and Lem name the small robot designed to clean up spills in their laboratory Chumbley.
 * Several episodes of Leverage reference Doctor Who, including one in which Nathan Ford is asked what ID's he has on him so that he can board an airplane. He replies, "I've got a Peter Davidson, Sylvester McCoy and a Tom Baker." Sophie adds, "I've got a Sarah Jane Baker." Hardison pronounces them man and wife. Another episode had Hardison mentioning that he had been torrenting the latest episode of Doctor Who. In the episode "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job", one of the clients said she used to work at, "McGann, McCoy, and Baker".
 * In one episode of The Sarah Silverman Program, one character (Brian Spukowski, played by Brian Posehn) buys a DVD boxset of a science-fiction show called Dr. Lazer Rage. He later feels regret at buying the expensive boxset. Ninth Doctor actor Christopher Eccleston makes a cameo as "Dr. Lazer Rage" coming to life on the cover of the box. In the same episode, one character calls another from a blue telephone box. Interestingly, this is the only example of Eccleston participating in a guest appearance that directly references and parodies his involvement in Doctor Who.
 * The pilot for the 2000 series The Invisible Man contains at least four references: A doctor named Troughton, a business card reading I.M. Foreman and a magazine cover with the headlines "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space!" and "Playing the game of Rassilon!"
 * In ', a March 2012 episode of ', a police box, clearly looking like the Doctor's TARDIS, is seen as one of the ends of a conduit. A character enters the box and teleports to, the main setting for the heroes of the series. The design of the police box is comparatively detailed. It looks like the TARDIS as seen in The War Machines, because it bears an "out of order" sign. It's unclear how Warner Bros. would have been able to use the police box design legally. The appearance was not clearly parodic nor was it even historically accurate. The scene was set in America and the DC universe had never previously established the existence of British police boxes in the United States.
 * In Nightshifter, an episode of the series, a character is convinced that a "mandroid" is responsible for several crimes and holds up a magazine with a Cyberman on its cover to illustrate his point. In "The Girl Next Door", Sam confronts a Kitsune with the name Amy Pond.
 * In the television cartoon, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there is a recurring background earth pony named (formerly "Time Turner" and "Doctor Whooves") who bears a resemblance to the Tenth Doctor. His cutie mark is an hourglass. In the episode "The Super Speedy Cider Sqeezy 6000", Dr. Hooves can be seen wearing a tie similar to the Tenth Doctor's and operating an elaborate hourglass. Another reference is seen on one of the covers of the official comic, in which Dr. Hooves can be seen wearing the Fourth Doctor's scarf, holding the fob watch, and standing in front of a statue that resembles a Weeping Angel, and a street light that bears a resemblance to the TARDIS. On top of all his official trading card says "Time Turner keeps Ponyville's clocks in sync, sets the hourglass for cider competitions, and takes care of all things timey-wimey." In the season 2 episode, "Sweet and Elite", pony versions of the Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Doctors are seen attending a party with Dr. Hooves. In the episode "One Bad Apple", Dr. Hooves wears a pear costume and a polka-dotted bowtie. It's also worth noting that various forms of the Doctor and possibly the Master have been seen in pony form. In the episode "It's Not Easy Being Breezies", he can be seen walking with a pony bearing a rose cutie mark while wearing 3D glasses. Dr. Hooves is among several background characters to take centre stage in the series' 100th episode, "Slice of Life", where his scientific background is explored. In "A Royal Problem", he has a bad dream about a statue. Official merchandise of Dr. Hooves such as t-shirts and collectable figures have been licensed by Hasbro.
 * The episode  introduces the character  as a romantic interest for, and then has the two go into a brief rendition of the "" sketch after Trey reveals that he's going to watch a Doctor Who marathon on television.
 * In the Red Dwarf episode Demons and Angels, as the crew is escaping the exploding Red Dwarf, the TARDIS can be seen in the background.
 * In Criminal Minds season 8 episode 23, Penelope Garcia, the BAU teams technical analyst, tells the team that she "found something stranger than a time-travelling police box". One episode shows Garcia and Dr. Reid dressed as the eleventh and fourth Doctors. In another, Reid defends Doctor Who after comparisons with Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure calling it "Bill & Ted's Excellent Ripoff"
 * Phineas and Ferb (in which Thomas Sangster voiced Ferb) made several references to Doctor Who, one example being a dimensionally transcendental room made possible by "a little British sci-fi technology."
 * In an episode of ABC Family's, Callie and Mariana are at a party. At one point, Mariana is talking to a girl in a room that has black light. Graffiti is seen glowing on the wall behind the girls and right between their heads are the words "Bad Wolf" printed above a non-detailed drawing of what appears to be the TARDIS.
 * Doctor Who is referenced several times in episodes of . In "The Dumpling Paradox", Sheldon tells Leonard that every Saturday, he awakens at 6:15 and watches Doctor Who. Later in the episode, he says that he will watch the last twenty-four minutes of Doctor Who, though at that point "it is more like 'Doctor Why Bother?'". In "The Justice League Recombination", Stuart is seen wearing a Fourth Doctor costume. In "The Beta Test Initiation", Penny, Amy, Sheldon, and Leonard are seen watching Doctor Who. Though the screen is not shown, you can hear parts of the episode. In "The Holographic Excitation", Raj announces he may have a TARDIS at his Halloween party. This TARDIS can be seen later on in the episode.
 * In an episode of South Park titled Funnybot, the Germans build a robot designed to be funny in reaction to being labelled unfunny. This robot looks and speaks like a Dalek, it even has a plunger and is found going on murder sprees saying, "Exterminate!"
 * In an episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon Sanjay and Craig, the snake, Craig, is talking into a walkie-talkie and speaking popular radio phrases — but one of the things he says is: "...wibbly wobbly timey wimey."
 * Marvel's has made a number of references to Doctor Who. In the episode The Hub, a model TARDIS can be seen on top of a desk. In The Only Light in the Darkness, when the agents are asked the first thing they would like to see if stranded on an island, Jemma Simmons responds "the TARDIS." In other episodes, a holographic Dalek head can be seen on the Holo-table, and an image of a Dalek is displayed on Leo Fitz's monitor.
 * In the English dub for the 2011 anime Steins;Gate, Makise Kurisu, while in a conference discussing the possibility of time travel, mentions that while the idea of travelling through time in a little blue box may be charming, it (time travel) is completely impossible.
 * In 2016 animated Disney show the main character is a fan of a show called Dr. Zone's Files which depicts an oddly dressed time-travelling alien and is said to be running for 50 years, going through various incarnations. In the 2017 feature-length special "Missing Milo", part of the plot concerns the recovery of Dr. Zone 's missing black-and-white pilot episode from 1965.
 * In Cartoon Network's, the 2015 Halloween Special, "Terror Tales of the Park V", has the character Pops dressed up as the Fourth Doctor. In the 2016 short "Robot Rap Battle", bronze robots resembling eyeless, legged Daleks are among the audience members attending the titular event.
 * In the American animated sitcom Family Guy:
 * In the season 7 episode "420", Brian says that ever since weed was legalised "crime is down, productivity is up and the ratings for Doctor Who is through the roof".
 * The Star Wars Episode IV spoof "Blue Harvest", incorporated footage from the Tom Baker-era opening credits in the scene in which the Millennium Falcon enters hyperspace.
 * In season 9's "Welcome Back, Carter", Peter names an owl "Doctor Hoo".
 * In season 12's "Meg Stinks", Peter loses his hand and says he can regenerate, regrowing his hand similar to The Tenth Doctor in The Christmas Invasion. Then, the disarmed hand regrows into another version of Peter, ala Journeys End.
 * Most notably, the season 15 episode "Inside Family Guy" contains a scene in which the Griffins are watching a TV episode called "Doctor Who Farted", where the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant providing his voice) attempts to cover up the fact that he passed gas inside his TARDIS.
 * Near the conclusion of the, makes a request over a walkie-talkie to "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".
 * In the 2017 DuckTales reboot, a Reaper appears after Louie sends Scrooge McDuck (voiced in this series by David Tennant) through different periods of time with a time machine (that looks similar to the Master's TARDIS.)
 * The favourite television series of Hugo the Duck from 2017 Netflix show is Doctor Who. In addition, Hugo only speaks Duck, which another character can understand because he learned it at a performing arts school.
 * In Detentionaire the cloning room Lee and Biffy found is similar to the genius room.
 * The 2017 episode of entitled  features a time machine known as the, which possesses a button that allows it to blend into whatever time period it visits in a manner reminiscent to the TARDIS chameleon circuit.
 * In the animated Netflix series, Sarah-Lynn’s drug provider is a man who calls himself “Doctor Who”. The titular character, Bojack, is the only one who recognises the connection, showing surprise that neither Sarah-Lynn nor Todd are familiar with the “extremely popular BBC science fiction show about the time travelling Doctor who saves civilizations”.
 * In the episode "Carried Away", a dog called "Dr. Howl", a cousin to Arthur's pet dog Pal, appears. The character wears a brown hat and red scarf, giving him an appearance similar to the Fourth Doctor, and he travels through space in a blue dog house-shaped ship called the BARCDIS ("Ballistic Astro Rocket for Carrying Dogs in Space") which is bigger on the inside and contains a console similar to that of its inspiration.
 * In the episode "The One with the Baby Carrot", Lucifer is called "Doctor Who" by a comedian due to his British accent.
 * Doctor Who is referenced in a number of skits in the stopmotion animated series :
 * A season 2 skit entitled "I Don't Get It" is a short clip of the Fourth Doctor standing on first base in the middle of a baseball field. The skit ends with the Doctor asking the audience "do you get it?”. The skit is a visual pun referencing the classic routine "Who's on first?": the joke being that (Doctor) Who's on first (base).
 * The season 7 skit "Doctor Who Meets the Nerd" sees the Doctor (a non-specific incarnation who possesses traits of the Third, Fourth, and Twelfth Doctor's) taking on the shows reoccuring Nerd character as his new companion, only for the Doctor to be left exasperated when the nerd proceeds to nitpick at the low production values of the stone age setting he's been taken to (a reference to the low production values of the shows classic era). The Doctor finally decides he's had enough when a Dalek appears and the nerd simply pushes it over.
 * A season 9 episode features a collection of skits under the title "Taking A Guess At Shows We Don't Watch", in which the writers offer their interpretations of what a show they've presumably never seen is about based on the title. The last of these skits sees a father and son involved in a fatal car accident, with the father screaming for a doctor to see to his son. An ethnic man claiming to be a doctor arrives, introducing himself as "Dr. Sunjayvandanacandanapecarpecar", with the father responding in confusion to his long name. The title card at the end reveals that the show being misinterpreted is in fact Doctor Who.
 * In the episode "The Rickchurian Mortycide", when a character says that Rick isn't a god, he responds "you don't know what I am, or what I can do! I'm Doctor Who in this motherf*cker!"
 * In the BBC sitcom (feauring Tom Ellis as Gary Preston), in the episode "The Perfect Christmas", Miranda attempts to flirt with Dr. Gail (played by Adam Rayner) at her mum's Christmas party. After he explains that he recently moved to the area, Miranda jokingly responds with "in your TARDIS, Doctor?".

Films

 * In the Pixar film, while a British spy trapped in the Big Ben was attempting to "turn back time" (as in the clock), she said, "If I can just reverse the polarity..." This was the Third Doctor's catchphrase.
 * In the early brick film The Magic Portal, the three main characters find themselves in a dimension that later found themselves being chased by Daleks after they heard a gunshoot.
 * In the Theory of Everything there are two Doctor Who references. 1) After Stephen is toasted for becoming an "esteemed and formidable Doctor...," someone says "Who?" and 2) Stephen rolls around on his wheelchair with a paper bag on his head, typing/saying EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE. In real-life, Stephen Hawking is a major Whovian. Who knew, right?
 * In the 2014 film The Postman Pat Movie (which features David Tennant), one of Pat's replacements resembled and acted like a Dalek, though it was never technically identified as such.
 * In the internet safety short film Caught on the Web (which also featured David Tennant), a Dalek poster could be seen inside the main character's bedroom.
 * In the film A Street Cat Called Bob (which featured Anthony Head, Nina Wadia, Sasha Dickens, Cleopatra Dickens, Rob Jarvis, Jill Winternitz, Daniel Fearn and Frances Ashman), when one of the characters created a scarf for the titular character, she referred to him being "Doctor Who's twin".
 * Hiro, the main character of the 2014 Walt Disney animated film Big Hero 6, can at one point be observed to have an action figure of a Dalek on his shelf.
 * In the 2018 film Bumblebee, one of the posters on Memo's room's wall is of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor (a still/set photo from The Stones of Blood).

Adventure Time

 * In one issue, after Jake failed to fix a broken time machine, he stated it didn't do "the timey wimey thing" anymore.

Marvel UK

 * Marvel UK created more than one character who appeared in titles owned by the company, including Doctor Who Magazine. The characters of the Special Executive (troubleshooters employed by the Time Lords, who had appeared in 4-D War and Black Sun Rising) appeared with in the "" storyline written by the Special Executive's creator, Alan Moore.
 * The Doctor Who comics version of Merlin appeared briefly in Captain Britain in a sequence demonstrating that Merlin had several alternate appearances and personalities that he could adopt as he saw fit. The Doctor has also appeared in cameos in several prose novels based in the.
 * In The Crossroads of Time, published in Doctor Who Magazine, the Seventh Doctor ran into (literally) Death's Head, who was thrown from the Transformers Generation 1 universe into the Time Vortex; he sent Death's Head to the future Earth of Dragon's Claws (a Marvel UK title that may be set in the Doctor Who universe, since Dogbolter and Keepsake are both residents of this Earth). Later, the Doctor guest-starred in Death's Head's comic book from Marvel UK, a crossover that ended with the Doctor depositing Death's Head in the main Marvel universe (Earth-616) atop the Fantastic Four's headquarters, Fours Freedom Plaza - providing a direct link between the Doctor Who universe and Marvel's universe. Death's Head himself interacted with mainstream superheroes from the Marvel universe, which provides another, indirect, link between the mainstream Marvel Universe and the Doctor Who universe.
 * Both Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four and Alistaire Stuart of Britain's Weird Happenings Organisation (WHO, a nod to Doctor Who) have obliquely mentioned being friends of the Doctor.
 * In an issue of The Spectacular Spider-Man concerning paradoxes, alternate realities and time travel, the words "BAD WOLF" are grafittied on an alley wall.

Marvel US
In  released in 2016, Miles Morales references Doctor Who to Thor as an example in explaining how leaving the second Mjolnir will be found by future-Captain America and future-Thor and uses the phrase "timey-wimey stuff".

DC Comics/Wildstorm

 * JLA Classified #1 reveals that Batman keeps a Dalek in his "Sci-Fi" closet.
 * The title, scripted by  and plotted by her father Alan Moore, featured a Cyberman and an Ice Warrior. It is unclear whether the Cyberman was meant to be "real" or a costume, as the scene was set in an SF-themed bar (although the "real"  is also on display). Like The Establishment, which featured a Doctor Who pastiche character, Albion was deeply rooted in English popular culture.
 * In, is led by  to the . Upon arriving, Teri notices the tower is bigger on the inside. Then, she recalls the concept is named dimensional transcendentalism, "just like on Doctor Who", to which Doctor Fate responds "Doctor who?".

2000 AD

 * The strip  features Doctor Who references so often that they are practically part of the series' format. However, it also depicted a character clearly intended to be Tom Baker being murdered by Scottish nationalist demons. This would appear to undermine the frequent suggestion by Caballistics, Inc fans that the series is unofficially set in the Doctor Who universe.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

 * Alan Moore's crossover series links the Silurians to . Additionally, the TARDIS appears in the background of the Black Dossier.
 * In the second volume of series' final instalment, Century: 1969, the Second Doctor makes a cameo in the background. The comic strip of Karkus is visible in a bookshop in the same page. A Dalek appears to Mina Murray during a drug induced hallucination sequence at Hyde Park.
 * Additionally, in the third volume, Century: 2009, the Eleventh Doctor and the First Doctor both appear in a cameo. Captain Jack appears a few panels above this cameo. Additionally, the James Bond character M makes a reference to United Nations Intelligence Taskforce and "our Cardiff enterprise", namely Torchwood Three.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 * The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler can be seen in Part 1 of the Season 8 comic .

Sergio Bonelli Editore

 * In La donna che cambiò la storia d'Italia (The woman who changed Italy's history), 14th volume of Storie da Altrove, a spin-off of italian comic series, the TARDIS, K9, Donna Noble, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, Captain Jack Harkness (with Torchwood's logo), a Silurian, a Dalek and a Weeping Angel appear in the background in different panels. The main character's cover name throughout the story is "Lady Christina de Souza" and another character directly quotes Tenth Doctor's explanation of time heard in Blink. The villain mentions being addressed as "The Oncoming Storm" and that his name "burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself".
 * In Gli enigmi del giovane Martin, 29th volume of Speciale Martin Mystère, the Fifth Doctor and the Master appear as a cameo in the Altrove base. A woman is seen asking the whereabouts of "Captain Harkness".
 * In Congiura nei cieli, 322th volume of regular series of Martin Mystère, a writer named Canton Everett is pursued by the Men in Black. All the stories listed above are written by Carlo Recagno, himself a declared Doctor Who fan.
 * In La dama che incantò Arsenio Lupin, 15th volume of Storie da Altrove, once more written by Recagno, a panel depicts the Seventh Doctor fighting harpies together with Sherlock Holmes, reprising the identical pose the duo had on All-Consuming Fire's cover. Holmes recalls having met a friend the last time at Bernice Summerfield's wedding. A woman similar to River Song is seen fighting Yog-Sothoth alongside Holmes in the subsequent panel. Additionally, Lupin uses Tenth Doctor's catchphrases "I'm so sorry" and "Allons-y!", and refers to the Countess Cagliostro as "Hell in high heels".
 * In Il matrimonio di Sergej Orloff, 330th volume of regular series of Martin Mystère penned by Recagno, Altrove's commander Tower is seen in Peru leading an Altrove joint mission with UNIT, led by Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. A Time Lord is seen in the background of Altrove's base. In a flashback, a Mu soldier is seen wearing an outfit identical to those worn by Ice Warriors.
 * The TARDIS appears a few issues (and on a cover or two) of CONSTANTINE.

Disney Comics

 * Scrooge McDuck writer and artist Don Rosa created two comics in 2012 and 2015, where his version of Scrooge comes into possession of the TARDIS and uses it to travel to his past, before selling it away at a "used TARDIS lot". Incidentally, Scrooge would eventually be voiced onscreen by David Tennant.

Prose

 * In 's novel,, a reference is made to a 'lonely god' 'adrift on the seas of time.' Paolini later admitted in the acknowledgements that he is a massive Doctor Who fan and that he believes the Doctor might have visited his world of Alagaësia at some point. In the sequel to this novel, Inheritance, the herbalist Angela begins to tell another character what she has inscribed on her blue hat- "Raxacori- Oh, never mind. It wouldn't mean anything to you anyway." Also, someone mentions having seen rooms that are bigger on the inside.
 * In the novel High Wizardry by Diane Duane, part of the Young Wizards series, a "Mysterious Stranger" helps the protagonist out of a sticky situation. He seems oddly familiar.
 * 's Star Trek novel contains references to Doctor Who and cameo appearances by the Second Doctor, the Fourth Doctor and Leela.
 * Lady Jennifer Buckingham from The War Games appears in the second volume of Kim Newman's crossover-intensive universe. Charles Beauregard, the hero of several Anno Dracula stories, is referred to in All-Consuming Fire. One of Newman's books in the  series makes references to an alternative timeline, ultra-nationalist, pro-English version of the Doctor Who television series in which the Doctor visits famous events in English history while fighting off extraterrestrial threats to the Crown. Newman's Life's Lottery, a playful exploration of the concept of alternate universes, references Inferno in some detail (and a character fantasises somewhat colourfully about Jo Grant).
 * Michael Moorcock, an admirer of Doctor Who, had "Doctor Who" and a Dalek appear, amongst many other fictional characters, in his.
 * 's Dead trilogy features numerous dark alternative time lines involved in a sex war between men and woman. At least one features a version of Doctor Who. The last scene of the final volume, Dead Things, shows the young protagonist watching a scene of the "Daleks exterminating the slave girls of Skaro" on television.
 * The novels have a number of references. Kryten, for example, owns a sonic screwdriver.
 * The Bunny Suicides book, Bunny Suicides return, involves a Doctor Who themed suicide.
 * In the The Serpent's Shadow the British character Sadie tried to create a Shabti out of a Thermos, which resulted in it flying around, yelling "Exterminate". In another part of this series, a challenge posed to Sadie is completed by stalling a huntress with tales of "fearsome" jellybabies, similar to the fourth doctor.

Borderlands 2

 * A random citizen will sometimes say "I'm missing the new episode of Constable What!", a parody of Doctor Who.
 * After blowing up the dam in a mission, Jack will list four names of workers killed in the flooding, all of which are the names of the first four actors playing the Doctor in Doctor Who. These are William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, and Tom Baker.
 * At the beginning of the game Claptrap is injured and states that he must find a Doctor, then turns away to say "Allons-y!", a catchphrase by the 10th Doctor.
 * The NPCs constantly knocking on walls in Sanctuary seem to be doing so in a similar beat and fashion to the subliminally-controlled humans in the Doctor Who episode "The Sound of Drums." The Master also refers to Captain Jack Harkness as "Handsome Jack" in that episode.
 * ECHOs found in Lynchwood bandits named 'John' and 'Barrowman' reference Doctor Who and Torchwood actor John Barrowman, who plays Jack Harkness.
 * There is a skin for Maya called Rose Tailor, a play on Rose Tyler.
 * In the Bloodshot Ramparts, there is a small platform aside a crane that has a teddy bear with a bow tie and 3-D glasses, referring to both the 10th and the 11th Doctor.
 * Hyperion robots can often be heard uttering "Deleted!" which is a popular phrase of the Cybermen.
 * In the character selection screen, CL4P-TP sometimes says, "I need to pee," which will trigger him to go into the outhouse. Said outhouse will then vanish, and pop back up, much in the same manner of the Doctor's TARDIS.
 * The character Maya was given to the Order of the Impending Storm, a play off of the nickname Oncoming Storm, given to the Doctor by the Daleks.
 * During the final mission in which you kill Handsome Jack. He has a pocket watch which reveals his true identity, similar to the Fob Watch owned by Time Lords.
 * During the Quest “Fake Geek Guy” in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina asks Mr. Torgue a question which is a clear reference to Doctor Who. The question she asks is: “In the 23rd episode of the 15th season of Blue Box Adventures. What is the name of the ship that abducts the Blue Box?”

Fallout 2

 * The TARDIS in the Desert, although it disappears after a while.Fallout.JPG appears in Fallout 2.]]
 * A speaking cyborg by the name of K9 is a recruitable companion. It refers to the player character as "Master", whenever it is an active member of the party.

Fallout New Vegas

 * In the Z-43 Innovative Toxins Plant in one building, a man in a suit with a skeleton rather than a head says, "Hey, who turned out the lights?" referring to the episode Silence in the Library.
 * An NCR Emergency Radio Broadcast references The Doctor, and the BBC. ("Bravo Bravo Charlie, the Doctor is coming")

Lemmings 2: The Tribes

 * The exit for the "Shadow Tribe" level is clearly the TARDIS.

Team Fortress 2

 * A cosmetic item in the game called "Dr. Whoa" closely resembles the Eleventh Doctor's signature bow tie, and also the name is similar to Dr. Who.
 * Another cosmetic item called "The Cronoscarf " resembles the Fourth Doctor's scarf.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

 * In  during the "Turnabout Serenade" case, if you examine the top hat in the Wright Anything Agency on the 2nd day, Trucy Wright states that her hat is "like a little universe! Bigger on the inside than on the outside!" At this, Apollo muses that this reminds him of a sci-fi show he used to watch.

Westerado

 * There is a building called the "Buffalo Express" which resembles the TARDIS, (Tiny on the outside, bigger on the inside)
 * The player also says "Wibbly Wobbly...", which is then finished off by the postman who says " Timey Wimey, yes." Westerado.JPG are scattered around Westerado.]]
 * Stone angels are scattered around the map, all of them look as if they're weeping.
 * The player can also go up to a stone angel, which will show a text box saying, " Is it... weeping?" However, this will only work on certain stone angels.

High School Story

 * In the Quest It's a Winterful Life part 5, Nishan, when asking if anything unusual happened to your main character lately, asks if you have "met a handsome doctor in a blue booth?"

Homestuck

 * In the webcomic's 8th soundtrack album release, AlterniaBound, the song, Arisen Anew, themed around Aradia, The Maid of Time's, regeneration, uses an audio clip of the Tenth Doctor's famous "Wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff" quote from the episode Blink.
 * The webcomic's main antagonist, Lord English, is a parody of the 4th Doctor. Additionally, his past-self, Caliborn, has theming based-around the number 11 and dresses like the 11th Doctor, including the suspenders and infamous bowtie.

Radio

 * In, series 4 episode 6, Harry Biscuit's childhood asthma comes back when they travel back in time, sounding just like the TARDIS. This is one of a number of references to fictional time travel in this episode, such as "88 camomiles per hour".

Big Finish Productions

 * In episode 2 of Big Finish's The Tomorrow People, The Deadliest Species, Stephen says to Tim, "You've redecorated. I like it." This is a reversal of the famous line from The Three Doctors, which would later recur multiple times in revived Doctor Who.

Out-of-universe references
A number of TV series have made reference to the Doctor Who franchise itself:
 * from has said that he wakes up and watches Doctor Who every Saturday morning.
 * The Big Bang Theory also featured a costume contest hosted by the character Stuart Bloom (who owns the comic book store) dressed up in Fourth Doctor garb.
 * In another episode of The Big Bang Theory, a poster of Vincent Van Gogh's "The Pandorica Opens" can be seen prominently displayed in a comic book shop.
 * And yet another episode of The Big Bang Theory had a copy of Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The 2017 Yearbook on Sheldon's table.
 * A 2009 episode of, "", includes the character of McGee comparing the unexpectedly spacious interior of a cargo container to the TARDIS. McGee briefly explains the meaning to his co-worker, DiNozzo, who replies with "Doctor Who - who watches that?"
 * A reference to Doctor Who also occurs in the episode "". Flack says "Paging Doctor Who." Later in the episode, the time travel machine makes a noise very much like the noise the TARDIS makes.
 * The 13 May 2010 episode of is titled "."
 * In the episode "Karma,"  believes he could put himself up for the part of the Doctor.
 * In the 20 August 2010 episode of on SyFy ("Stoned") Zane, while searching through government files mentions TARDIS blueprints as something he might be searching for.
 * In the episode "I Do Again" of Eureka, Zoe refers to her Aunt Lexi's boyfriend as her 'gorgeous Doctor WHO', meaning he's a doctor with the World Health Organisation, however, Vincent mistakes it as a reference to Doctor Who, exclaiming that he loves the tv show.
 * In the Eureka episode "Reprise", Zane call Jo's house as a TARDIS house, referring to how the house is bigger on the inside.
 * In the Disney Channel series, two characters are trapped in a phone box and the title character asks why they built another time machine.
 * In the Disney Channel series, the title characters once travelled to a parallel universe via a phone box.
 * In the Christmas special in which the title character of got married, her bridesmaids were dressed as the Tenth Doctor and two Daleks.
 * In the comedy show (made by Doctor Who show runner Steven Moffat), the character of Oliver runs a science fiction bookstore with a replica Dalek. In one scene he has a package that shouts 'Exterminate'.
 * In the UK version of ' (created by Russell T Davies), the character of Vince makes throughout the programme, and is bought a replica of  for his birthday. In episode three, a guy he brings home for a one-night stand lands up instead watching his ' tapes. In the same episode, Cameron comments on "the one with the shop dummies" and "that one with the maggots". He said the show scared him as a kid.
 * The comedy (starring and written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes) features a comic book store. The door to its back room is painted to look like the TARDIS doors.
 * In the American comedy, the character compares himself to various science fiction characters, including K9, while describing himself as a dispassionate observer of those around him.
 * Community would later make frequent references to the fictional TV show , an obvious parody of Doctor Who. A British programme, Inspector Space Time is said to be the oldest sci-fi show on television, dating from 1962, centring around "The Inspector" and his companion, who travel through Time and Space in a telephone booth. The main recurring villains are mechanical Dalek-like creatures named Blorgons, and a brief glimpse of the opening credit sequence is strikingly similar to the Doctor Who credits from the Ninth/Tenth Doctor. In an episode of season four, Abed wears a TARDIS shirt, indicating that he was also a fan of the real Who.
 * In the American comedy, Joe (one of the main characters) was going to a sci-fi convention to meet his hero the Time Lord, an inter-galactic dimension jumper who travels in a cosmic elevator and wears a bowtie.
 * In the British comedy, Max (one of the main characters) ended up getting a portable reading lamp Philip (another of the main characters) had invented clamped to his head. He then remarked about why else he'd walk around looking like a Dalek, and that if he didn't find Philip soon he might as well exterminate him.
 * The British comedy (which starred Claire Skinner, Samantha Bond, David Troughton and Mark Benton) has made several references to Doctor Who. The first was when Ben (one of the main characters) ended up stating that he was scared. While listing all the stuff he could be scared of, he asked, "What about those Krillitane bat-things from Doctor Who?" In another episode, Pete and Jake (a couple of other main characters) were flipping through TV shows that Jake liked but Pete didn't approve of and ended up with Doctor Who Confidential, which Pete didn't like because he compared TV shows to pork pies; they're something people like but don't want to know what went through the making of it. Ben later referenced it in a third episode when he walked into the kitchen saying, "Doctor, there is no escape! Exterminate!".
 * In an episode of the British TV series "The Story of Tracy Beaker" (which featured Ciaran Joyce, Sonny Muslim, Clive Rowe, Nisha Nayar, Morgan Hopkins, Roderick Smith, Richard Elfyn, Julian Lewis Jones, Madeleine Rakic-Platt, Simon Ludders, Phylip Harries, Gareth Wyn Griffiths, Amy Starling, Victoria Pugh, Brendan Charleson and Claire Cage), Elaine (one of the main characters) had tried driving the kids at the care home she worked at away from the TV by using a puppet theatre. After showing it to the kids and asking them what they thought it was, Rio (one of the kids) asked "Is it a TARDIS?".
 * This series later gained a sequel series called "Tracy Beaker Returns" (which featured John Bell, Richard Wisker, Tracy Ann Oberman, Holli Dempsey, Michael Jayston, Callum Gallaghan and Wayne Cater). Toby (one of the main characters) had a Doctor Who poster in his room.
 * It also gained a spin-off called "The Dumping Ground" (which has featured David Avery, Simon Ludders, Victoria Alcock, Ian Reddington, Michelle Collins, Pik-Sen Lim, Sheila Hancock, Carmen Munroe, Darren Morfitt, Simon Rouse, Chris Finch, Kemi-Bo Jacobs, Warwick Davis, Geff Francis, Nigel Planer and Louise Jameson). Part of one episode was centred around answering questions based on a re-enacted scene from Doctor Who.
 * In the 2009 Christmas special of, as a meta reference, a future version of Susan Harper (played by Zoë Wanamaker) makes several references to "moisturising", winking to the viewer as she does, a nod to Wanamaker's Doctor Who character.
 * The 2017 sitcom One Day At A Time references Doctor Who in its second series. In the episode Locked Down, teenage daughter Elena and her friend Syd are preparing to attend Comic Con, dressed as the Fourth Doctor and the TARDIS respectively. The episodes includes jokes about Doctor Who, and the TARDIS costume is later used as a hiding place by another character.