As a Whovian, one of my ultimate goals is to go back and watch the classic Doctor Who series. It’s a task I have not yet completed, but I’m getting there. After the series was rebooted in 2005, we’ve seen past Doctors show up every now and again for special occasions and franchise anniversaries, which is always a treat.
During this time of social distancing, the Doctor Who cast and crew have done a fantastic job of keeping fans united and entertained. Past and present writers, actors, showrunners, and the like have come forward to give us brand new tales or simply to rewatch episodes alongside fans, and it’s been absolutely beautiful.
We’ve also been learning a lot of new things about the show. For example, during a recent fan watch-along of “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion,” Doctor Who writer Peter Harness shared a new tidbit about the series that fans of the old-school show will especially appreciate. Back in 2014 after writing “Kill The Moon” (great episode, by the way), Harness pitched the idea of bringing back two classic-era villains: the Mara and the Meddling Monk.
The Mara was a villain during the 1980s Doctor Who episodes, specifically “Kinda” and “Snakedance.” I haven’t personally seen these episodes, but thanks to YouTube, I found out the Mara apparently feeds off fear and can turn into a giant snake:
Meanwhile, the Meddling Monk takes it back to 1960s-era Doctor Who. The Monk was a friend of the First Doctor’s back in Gallifrey, a fellow Time Lord who loved to meddle with history, and not in a good way:
And during that same rewatch, Harness wrote a new scene he called “The Zygon Isolation,” where both the human and Zygon versions of the character Petronella Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) chatted about how they were holding up in quarantine:
Keep the extras coming! Us Doctor Who fans are loving it and we want more.
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h/t Radio Times