Cultural references to the Doctor Who universe/2020s

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 which happened during the 2020s.

Television

 * In (2020), David Tennant plays a fictionalised version of himself; he has a small TARDIS in his garden.
 * In the episode "Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men" (2020) of season 2 of, the character Frenchie wears a t-shirt featuring a cat version of the Thirteenth Doctor.
 * (2020) was created by Doctor Who fan Mike Flanagan. Owen Sharma (Rahul Kohli) wore a bowtie and tweed jacket as an homage to the Eleventh Doctor. The final episode has the line "It's not a ghost story. It's a love story," which is a quote from Hide.
 * In the episode "Down and Out" (2020) of, "Who, Dr." is listed as one of Chrisjen Avasarala's contacts.
 * Episode 4 of (2021) by Russell T Davies features the filming of Regression of the Daleks, a fiction 1988 serial of Doctor Who. The character Ritchie Tozer played Trooper Linden in the story. This is a tribute to Dursley McLinden, who played Mike Smith in Remembrance of the Daleks, raised money for AIDS-related charities, and died of the disease in 1995.

Prose

 * In the novel (2020) by Susanna Clarke, a research paper is mentioned: ‘Timey-Wimey: Steven Moffat, Blink and J. W. Dunne’s theories of Time’, Journal of Space, Time and Everything, Volume 64: 42–68, University of Minnesota Press.

Video games

 * In a 2020 update to, Cosmic Ghost Rider mentioned a TV show with an orange wormhole with catchy electronic music. He also paraphrases a line from Blink: "You see, people think time is a linear progression of cause to effect, when in reality it's more like a big ball of time--".
 * (2020) is set in a near-future London. A police box covered in graffiti is seen in an underground safehouse.

Web series

 * The RealLifeLore video "If You Get Stranded in the Past, How to Tell What Year You’re In" induded the TARDIS as a time machine.
 * 's video "Why The Web Is Such A Mess" included a Vote Saxon poster. This video was posted on 23 November 2020, the 57th anniversary of Doctor Who.

News media

 * A 2020 New York Times article titled "What to Expect From Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Election Day" included a graphic by Shira Inbar of three K9s representing Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.