David Bowie was a singer from Earth. (PROSE: Life on Mars on Mars)
Biography[edit | edit source]
On the 12th of November, 1969, the newborn Paul Magrs dreamt that David Bowie sung The Laughing Gnome at Dr Oho's party. (PROSE: In the Sixties)
In 1974, the Eighth Doctor mentioned Bowie as one of the great musicians of the period to Lucie Miller. (AUDIO: Horror of Glam Rock)
In 1977, Bowie had been recorded saying that he had just recorded his album called Low, and that he moved to Berlin to "escape all the bad stuff". (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)
The Fourth Doctor had once played Find The Lady with a young David Bowie in a punt that Romana was poling. (PROSE: No Future)
Ace and Julian Milton listened to a Bowie tape during their trip to Lincolnshire. (PROSE: Love and War)
Evelyn Smythe spoke of her experience in a space suit as "like that David Bowie song." (AUDIO: The Feast of Axos)
Bowie spent time aboard the Doctor's TARDIS while it was in Artron II Recharge Mode, with the arton pulses leaving Bowie's left eye permanently dilated, an incident the Thirteenth Doctor felt guilty about. (PROSE: Press Play)
In early 2012, the BBC unearthed some archived recordings of Bowie from 1977, and they broadcast them on Radio 2. By this time, Fester Cat had listened to many of Bowie's songs on records owned by Paul Magrs and Jeremy. (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)
After his death, Erimem and Andy Hansen left a copy of Bowie's song "Life on Mars" on Mars. It was discovered by a mars rover on New Year's Eve 2020. (PROSE: Life on Mars on Mars)
The Twelfth Doctor recited some of his song "Ashes to Ashes" to a robot, with the line "I'm Happy, Hope You're Happy Too". (TV: Smile)
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
- Bowie and his song "Life on Mars" were presumably the influence for the name of Mars station Bowie Base One. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
- In 1983, Bowie was offered the role of Sharaz Jek in TV: The Caves of Androzani but the dates clashed with his Serious Moonlight tour.
- In 1973, Bowie and his band, The Spiders From Mars, mingled with the cast of Planet of the Daleks at BBC Television Centre, leading a passer-by to ask if they were playing aliens in the show.
- The Doctor Who Confidential episode Is There Life on Mars? is titled in reference to Bowie's song "Life on Mars".
- The novel Loving the Alien shares the title of a Bowie song.
- The comic strip The Woman Who Sold the World is a reference to the Bowie song "The Man Who Sold the World".
- The character John Jones was heavily inspired by Bowie.
- Bowie served as the basis for Peter Capaldi's portrayal of the Twelfth Doctor; Capaldi, a fan of Bowie, stated that he believed the musician would be an optimal template after searching through his "scrapbook of ideas".
- The novel Diamond Dogs shares the title of a Bowie song and album.
- Bowie's song, Starman, was used extra-diegetically in Random Shoes and was heard in Aliens of London when the Ninth Doctor left the Powell Estate to return to the TARDIS.
- Bowie had anisocoria, a condition which left one of his pupils permanently enlarged. The short story Press Play suggests that this was a result of a genetic mutation caused by him being aboard the TARDIS. In real life, Bowie's condition was caused when as a teenager, he was punched in — and nearly lost the sight of — his left eye during a fight at school.
- He was one of many actors considered for the role of the Master in the Doctor Who TV movie.[1]
