As a cultural phenomenon for half a century, Doctor Who and its spin-offs have been both the target of parodies, as well as the frame of reference for satire of other subjects which spoofed Doctor Who as their framing device, but had a different aim. Although some of these parodies were licensed by the relevant copyright-holders (and are consequently awarded coverage on this Wiki as invalid sources), many were not, as satire and parody are among the common exceptions to copyright law.
On 31 December 1963, the first ever parody of Doctor Who was broadcast. It starred Clive Dunn as the Doctor and it featured on It's a Square World. See The Doctor's New Invention for more information.
In an episode of Big Night Out, broadcast 7th April 1964, Bernie Winters plays an approximation of the First Doctor, but who is called Doctor Shmoo.
In a special episode of The Wayne and Shuster Show, broadcast 4th September 1965 by the BBC, a silent Dalek appears
In January 1966, the Toy Fair of that year was televised and had a very strange sketch with a toy baby and toy Daleks.
Blue Peter has featured many Doctor Who themed episodes, the first starting in the 1960s with a guide of how to make a Dalek cake. Others include; War Machine appearance in 1966, design your own monster in 1967, Jon Pertwee tests the Whomobile and we hear a warning from the Daleks about the stolen Dalek and its much-needed safe return in the 1970s.
1970s[]
Doctor Who has appeared several times on The Generation Game, including appearances of Daleks and K9 in role.
An episode of the children's variety series Crackerjack featured "Hallo My Dalek" including Don Maclean as a Tom Baker-ish Doctor Why and Peter Glaze as a portly Brigadier. The sketch takes place within the TARDIS, which has landed on top of the Post Office Tower. Harry is absent, having been dispatched to hospital to have his duffelcoat removed. There's a cameo of a Dalek with a eyestalk in a fixed rampant position. Don MacLean played the Doctor.
In the programme Mathshow there was a sketch called Doctor Where that featured Tony Hughes as the Doctor.
In an episode of Basil Brush, Basil confronts a Dalek.
Spike Milligan's Pakistani Dalek.
An episode of Spike Milligan's "Q" series featured the sketch "Pakistani Daleks" in which a turban-wearing Dalek is shown living in a suburban home with a human wife, Dalek child, granny and dog. The chant "Put them in the curry" followed the extermination of the last two.
The supreme Dalek makes a live appearance in role on Nationwide.
Pebble Mill and Pebble Mill at One have both had live appearances from Doctor Who villains and K9 in role.
An episode of Emu's Broadcasting Company( EBC1) featured puppeteer Rod Hull and his permanently attached avian sidekick Emu as a gestalt Doctor battling the Deadly Dustbins (with their war cry "Rubbish! Rubbish!"). The TARDIS in this segment was seen to be a red UK telephone kiosk.
Also in 1992, a Cyberman appeared in role in British comedy show Absolutely.
Daleks appeared live in role on This Morning in 1993.
In Gaytime TV, many Doctor Who aliens appeared live in role.
The actual last appearance of Jon Pertwee as The Third Doctor on Surprise, Surprise in 1996.
Jeremy Beadle played Doctor What in a sketch on Beadle's Hotshots in 1996.
In Planet Mirth, an unknown actor portrays the Fourth Doctor.
In Harry Enfield and Chums, Gary Bleasdale played a Scouse Doctor in 1997.
In the TV series Crime Traveller episode six, as one of the main characters talks to another character, he notices a blue police box there is an also slower version of the Doctor Who theme; this is a clear nod to Doctor Who's TARDIS.
Two Daleks that have failed their MOT appear in The Gay Daleks.
From 1997 - 1998 a series called TV Offal had a regular segment called The Gay Daleks.
In 1997 a TARDIS can be seen in Red Dwarf.
In 1997 Paul O'Grady, under the drag queen persona Lily Savage, played a female Doctor in episode 6 of Lily Savage Show. Brenda Gilhooly plays the Doctor's companion, Gayle Tuesday. K9, Cyberman, and a lady Dalek called a "Ladek" also appear.
In a sketch on Shooting Stars (1997), Bob Mortimer plays the First Doctor, Matt Lucas plays the Second Doctor, Vic Reeves plays the Third Doctor, and Mark Lamarr plays the Fourth Doctor as members of The Who.
In a promo for BBC Choice in 1998, Pauline Quirke plays a Fourth Doctor inside a Dalek.
From 1999 onwards, the Fourth Doctor has been seen in The Simpsons and its partner show Futurama.
2000s[]
In Dr Woo and the Kelads, an episode of the BBC children's programme Hubbub, a future version of series protagonist Les Bubb travels back in time to 2001. Now named Dr Woo, the future Les must avoid his past self while foiling an invasion of Kelads, intelligent talking wheelie bins, in order to complete his training to become a Time Lord.
The comic impressions show Dead Ringers has featured a number of Who-related sketches in its radio and TV incarnations. The earliest examples featured Jon Culshaw making spoof phones calls to retailers and service providers in the guise of the Fourth Doctor. Radio sketches included calling B&Q to get a quote for a sonic screwdriver, enquiring of a taxi to take him to Gallifrey and calling NASA for the loan of a space shuttle. In the TV version, Culshaw appeared in costume as the Fourth Doctor, attempting to buy a transdimensional wardrobe from a furniture shop.
Another sketch involved the Doctor taking part in the TV show Living With the Enemy in which he lived with the Cyberman family. Other Dead Ringers sketches included Phil Cornwell as Christopher Eccleston. In it, the actor returned home to find his family disappointed by his role as the Doctor as they are Star Trek fans. Eccleston's mum was supposed to have made his prominent "Ferengi" ears. Another sketch featured Culshaw and Jan Ravens in character as the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler. In it, they complain about the overly loud background music and elect to read their own subtitles. In a multi-Doctor sketch, the Tenth Doctor spends Christmas with some of his former incarnations and tries unsuccessfully to get them to watch the Christmas Special. It features Culshaw as the Fourth and Tenth Doctors, Cornwell as the Ninth, Kevin Connelly as the Seventh Doctor and Mark Perry as the Second Doctor.
Episodes of the comedy sketch show The Harry Hill Show featured Nicholas Courtney reprising the role of the Brigadier alongside a Cyberman, and comedian Bobby Davro as "Bobby Davros". In the same series Harry HIll appeared as the Doctor alongside Peter Davison.
In Born Sloppy, a programme of which little info is known, Colin Baker appears as the Sixth Doctor for no apparent reason in 2003.
In 2003, Top Gear featured Colin Baker in role as the Sixth Doctor and a Cyberman in role.
There is a deleted scene in which Bugs insults a Dalek by saying, "Your mother was a garbage disposal!". Also a Dalek incinerates Marvin in a cartoon style when he gets in the way. Bugs also pretends to hold a wrestling match between the two, saying, "Ok boys, I want a fair fight, a clean fight..." and ending with "May the best piece of tin win!"[disputed statement]
In 2005 The Chaser's War on Everything, a current affairs satire program produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), aired a parody song sung by Andrew Hansen, a self declared Doctor Who fan. The song featured Hansen as a Doctor Who fan (from the 'Woolongong Doctor Who Fan Club') playing a Doctor Who tribute song based on the Doctor Who theme, singing about how if you're a fan of Doctor Who, you're a social outcast. All actors who played the Doctor were mentioned (including David Tennant who had at the time just been announced to the public as the Tenth Doctor, Peter Cushing and Richard E Grant), as well as Robert Holmes, (with references to Scream of the Shalka and various companions.)
Dr Loo And The Filthy Phaleks (2005) is a pornographic parody of Doctor Who and the Daleks.
Abducted by the Daleks (2005) is a pornographic parody that was banned by the BBC for using the Daleks.
In The Charlotte Church Show (2006) , an unknown actor portrays The Tenth Doctor but he later regenerates into Todd Carty's Eleventh Doctor.
Doctor Screw (2006) is a series of 11 pornographic episodes parodying the 2005 series 1.
Robot Chicken in 2006 features Seth Green as the Fourth Doctor, and in 2014 a sketch titled Doctor Who Meets Nerd', Tim Roth plays the Doctor.
In a Doctor Who edition of The Weakest Link, K9 appears in role.
In the premiere of Series 4 of The Sunday Night Project, which aired on 5 January 2007, Justin Lee Collins (wearing the Tenth Doctor's outfit) starred as the Doctor in a spoof of Doctor Who. He travelled to the Pink Planet with his "gorgeous time travelling assistant" played by David Tennant in drag. There they faced "the most evil Time Lord of them all, the Gaylord", played by Alan Carr. After this came other aliens which the assistant thought were the Daleks. The Doctor explained that these creatures were far worse, the Carrleks. The Carrleks had Dalek skirts and were played by two men painted silver. They had Alan Carr's glasses and teeth, while Alan Carr in a silver catsuit played the Carrlek supreme. Additionally in The Friday Night Project, Catherine Tate portrays The Tenth Doctor.
Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes, collectively Sam & Mark appear as the Tenth Doctor and Parallel Tenth Doctor in TMi)
Ricky Gervais as "Shlong".
The 2007 "Extra Special Series Finale" of the comedy series Extras featured Ricky Gervais as struggling actor Andy Millman playing an alien villain opposite David Tennant in a fictional Doctor Who story. The finale showed a brief excerpt from his death scene. In the special, Ricky is reluctantly cast as a slug-like alien called Shlong. David Tennant reprises his role as the Tenth Doctor in a cameo appearance. A brief clip of the episode is shown in which the Doctor and an unidentified companion, a female police constable, are attacked by Shlong. The Doctor describes the attack as "hyper-podulating", a manipulation of "molluskian glang valves to internally vibrate our DNA", a process that will turn its victims into slugs in roughly thirty seconds. Shlong is quickly dispatched when the Doctor throws table salt on him.
The Catherine Tate Show's contribution to the 2007 Comic Relief appeal featured a meeting between her trademark "Lauren" character and David Tennant as a weary English language teacher, who secretly was the Doctor. The sketch was the first of several collaborations the two had together, which included Doctor Who.
Family Guy has mentioned Doctor Who many times. In "Blue Harvest", the Star Wars-themed season premiere of the sixth season of Family Guy, Peter Griffin (as Han Solo) comments that "Hyperspace always looks so freaky." The scene then cuts to the first Fourth Doctor title sequence (with full audio) playing outside the Millennium Falcon cockpit. Also, in the 2009 episode "420", Brian, who has successfully lobbied to have marijuana legalised in Quahog, comments that in the aftermath, "Crime is down, productivity is up, and ratings for Doctor Who are through the roof." In the episode "Welcome Back".
A 2008 episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors is semi-parodic of the end of the ignominious end of the 1963 version of Doctor Who. It features Sylvester McCoy as an actor who was the main star of The Amazing Lollipop Man, a show implied to be analogous to Doctor Who, who ends up in the series' hospital consequent to a diagnosis of angina.
In Gina's Laughing Gear, James Hurn plays a Tenth Doctor.
In the episode Party Animal of Aardman Animations' Shaun the Sheep, a Dalek can be seen.
2010s[]
In a 2010 episode of Harry & Paul, starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, they performed a sketch called "Rockin' the TARDIS", or "Doctor Who: The ITV Years". The Doctor (Harry) and his companion (Paul) crash land on the planet Woompa-woof', the planet of gay people. Suddenly, three three-breasted woman come along and start dancing with the Doctor and his companion. The whole sketch is played out like a cheaply made sitcom. Another sketch was shown. This involved them playing two characters from On the Buses.
In a 2011 episode of South Park, the Germans created a "Funnybot" to try and convince the world they could be funny. The FunnyBot was a parody Dalek, with a plunger and eye stalk. On several occasions it yelled, "Exterminate!" or, "Exterminate all humans!" He believed it would be of the most ultimate irony for a human-created robot to kill the humans, thus being the world's funniest, and indeed last, joke.
A one-off extra to Daisy McGuire's period comic series Gastrophobia, written and drawn by Rebecca Clements, and released in March of 2011, featured parodies of the Eleventh Doctor and the TARDIS (neither of them named). The Doctor and a nondescript female companion stepped out into the Ancient Greece setting of Gastropbia mistakenly believing they are in Ancient Rome, and the companion is immediately killed by a stray arrow from Phobia, the comic's Amazon protagonist. The Doctor attempts to tempt Phobia and her son Gastro into becoming his new companions, but the TARDIS appears to be a regular police box when they walk inside, prompting an irate Phobia to kill the Doctor as well.[1]
In the children's show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic there is a recurring background character that seems to share similar characteristics with the Tenth Doctor. Fans of the show (widely known as "Bronies") seem to have given this character the name, "Doctor Whooves, sole survivor of Gallopfrey". There are also background characters in the show that resemble the Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Doctors. In the episode It Ain't Easy Being Breezies, Doctor Whooves is seen in the company of another pony previously named Rose while wearing some 3D glasses, a shout-out to Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. The allusion is made far more explicit in the 100th episode Slice of Life, where he is called Doctor/Doc, speaks with an English accent, is fascinated by science and time travel, having studied them for "centuries", wears a bow tie and later a long, colourful scarf, and even yells "Allons-y!".
In My Life, a CBBC programme, K9 and Daleks are seen in role.
An episode of the Cartoon Network programme MAD (based on the magazine of the same name) contained "Doctor Who's Line Is It Anyway?," a Whose Line Is It Anyway? spoof featuring the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors being captured by the Daleks and forced to play improv games.
In Toast of London, Lewis Macleod played a Fourth Doctor in 2013.
In a Doctor Who edition of Pointless, K9 appears in role.
In 2013, K9 is seen live in role on Stargazing Live.
In 2014, Postman Pat: The Movie featured a Dalek that appeared all silver.
Dr. Whore (2014) is a pornographic parody of the 2005 series.
In the American Christian video series VeggieTales episode Veggies in Space: The Fennel Frontier, the character Archibald Asparagus is portrayed as the Eleventh Doctor with a stylised TARDIS.
In 2017's The LEGO Batman Movie, creatures resembling Daleks are seen, but never identified as anything more than "British Robots", due to an ab lib performed by Zach Galifianakis on set [2]. They are heard talking throughout the feature, but inconsistent voice work (at least once performed by Nicholas Briggs) is only sometimes consistent with the television series. No credits were given to either the estate of Terry Nation or the BBC for this usage, although the BBC certainly advertised the movie[3] and despite claims by the director Chris McKay that the BBC did give them total permission to use the characters[4], and thus this wiki has decided to consider the product an unlicensed parody until further evidence suggests otherwise.
Peter Davison as "Colin Baker" Fifth Doctor in "Brian Pern Was Shit in Doctor Who" skit.
On 29 March 2017, a short skit was broadcast called Brian Pern Was Shit in Doctor Who was part of Brian Pern: A Tribute, directed by Rhys Thomas and co-written with Simon Day, who also featured in the chararacter of Brian Pern. It featured Peter Davison (miscredited as Colin Baker, as part of a running gag from the Brian Pern series involving amusingly-inaccurate captions for talking heads) discussing The Visitation: footage from this story featured though was overdubbed. The skit also featured Jane Asher and (as the voice of the Gravis) Brian Pern himself.
