Doctor Who Series Twelve: Comprehensive callback guide

Series 12’s opening story alone featured a great deal of nods to the past.

Photo Credit: Ben Blackall/BBC America/BBC Studios

As well as giving us brand new stories, new twists, and even a new Master, Doctor Who’s twelfth series also had a lot of callbacks, too. Here’s our guide to the ones that really stood out.

For me, one of the best elements of Doctor Who is its enormous and ever-expanding continuity. With nearly 60 years worth of content spanning multiple mediums and spin-offs, there’s truly nothing like the lore of Doctor Who. With such a large and rich history, opportunities for acknowledging the past and other areas of the show are in abundance.

Many fans appreciate the cheeky callbacks to days gone by, or a subtle (and sometimes unsubtle) nod to other features of the vast Whoniverse. Series 12 is, naturally, not immune to this. But, what were they? You may very well have missed them. So sit back as I comb through each episode, unveiling the referential material featured.

Spyfall Parts 1 & 2

When C, the head of MI6, rubbishes the idea of extraterrestrial life, the Doctor retorts back to ask his colleagues at GCHQ about the concept. This references the Dalek incursion that took place in the previous story, Resolution.

C mentions UNIT and Torchwood as organisations set-up to counter the potential threat of aliens. The Doctor informs him that both organisations are “gone”.

The Doctor theorises that both her and Yaz remained unscathed from the Kasaavin due to “fizzing with artron energy”. Artron energy is radiation that occurs in the time vortex and used as a power-source for time-travelling. First mentioned all the way back in Fourth Doctor story, The Deadly Assassin, with the origins of its name explored in audio release Ravenous 4.

To contact the Master, the Doctor utilises four beats in Morse code. The heartbeat of a Time Lord and more importantly, the so-called “drums” that plagued the Master’s mind, most notably seen in John Simm’s version of the character.

The Doctor also uses telepathic contact to reach out to the Master. This is a Time Lord ability to form a telepathic link with one or more minds for speedy conversations. This ability was showcased for the first time in The Three Doctors.

The Master reveals his Tissue Compressions Eliminator, a weapon that shrinks beings to death. This marks the first time the device has been shown in the modern series, but it was a staple of the Master in Classic Who. The Master even had it in his first-ever story, Terror of the Autons.

The Master asks the Doctor if he ever apologised for his role in making the Fourth Doctor fall from the Pharos Project telescope. This was the cause of the Fourth Doctor’s demise in Logopolis.

Thirteen, for the first time, reveals to her companions that she’s from the planet Gallifrey, located in the constellation of Kasterborous and the fact that she stole her TARDIS.

Right from the start, Fugitive of the Judoon had some major callbacks.

Photo Credit: James Pardon/BBCAmerica

Orphan 55

Coincidentally, Orphan 55 bears a striking plot similarity to The Mysterious Foe. The Sixth Doctor once identified a planet as Earth with the help of an underground train station.

“When I say run, run” is a phrase the Doctor has utilised in the past, such as in her Second and Twelfth incarnations.

Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

The Doctor informs Nikola Tesla that she made her sonic screwdriver out of spoons. This calls back to when Thirteen, still in her post-regenerative haze, decided to construct her own sonic in The Woman Who Fell To Earth.

The scavenger race, the Skithra, use a stolen Silurian Blaster. A common weapon used by the Silurian race, first seen in Series 5 story Cold Blood.

Fugitive of The Judoon

The Doctor emotionally recalls the fact that she’s seen Gallifrey destroyed twice. First by “war” referencing the Last Great Time War fought between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and by a “lunatic”, referencing the Master.

The Doctor attempts to rhyme Judoon with ‘moon’, much like her Tenth incarnation did.

Captain Jack is attacked by nanogenes. Nanogenes are sub-atomic robotic beings he and the Ninth Doctor encountered in Series 1 two-parter The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

Ruth uses a Chameleon Arch, a piece of Time Lord technology that erases your memories and rewrites your DNA. This device was first seen when the Tenth Doctor utilised it in Series 3 story Human Nature.

Praxeus

The Doctor and her companions use comm dots, a piece of communication technology they previously used in Series 11 story The Tsuranga Conundrum.

Whilst trying to work out who or what is behind the Praxeus virus, the Doctor briefly entertains the notion it could be Autons.

Along with revealing some major history, Series 12’s finale featured many callbacks to both the Doctor’s and the Master’s long history.

Photo Credit: James Pardon/BBC Studios/BBC America

Can You Hear Me?

Zellin references the Eternals, the Guardians, and the Celestial Toymaker: all villains from the Classic Series and all entities that are God-like. These beings possess immortality, have immense power, and often transcend the laws of space and time.

Rakaya refers to human beings as “ephemeral”, a term the Eternals disparagingly used to beings they thought of as lesser than them.

The Haunting of Villa Diodati

The Doctor says she will not lose anyone else to the Cybermen, referring to her previous friends Bill Potts (World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls) and Adric (Earthshock).

Ascension of the Cybermen

The Doctor tells Yaz that the Cybermen are allergic to gold, a weakness originally established in Revenge of the Cybermen. The Cybermen going insane if they’re made to feel their suppressed emotions is also mentioned, which has been shown in The Invasion, The Age of Steel and Closing Time.

Yaz mentions her and Graham surviving the vacuum of space, seen back in their second story The Ghost Monument.

The Timeless Children

Inside the Capitol, the Master reminisces about old times – including how he once arranged the assassination of the President, as seen in The Deadly Assassin.

The Doctor and the Master enter the Matrix. Rather than a nod to a certain trilogy starring Keanu Reeves, the Matrix of Gallifrey had been featured in many stories of the Classic Series, including The Deadly Assassin, Arc of Infinity and The Trial of a Time Lord. While Missy had used a slice of it to create the Nethersphere back in Series 8, this is our first direct trip to it on-screen since Trial.

Graham and Yaz tried to disguise themselves as Cybermen by wearing their armor. A similar trick was used in Sixth Doctor story Attack of the Cybermen.

The Master allies himself with the Cybermen once more – something we’ve seen in The Five Doctors, Dark Water/Death in Heaven, and as recently as Series 10 in World Enough & Time/The Doctor Falls.

When freeing herself from the Matrix, a lot of memories were used. But perhaps the most significant was the faces previously seen in Fourth Doctor story The Brain of Morbius – one of the only stories in the Classic Series to have implied that there were Doctors before Hartnell’s.

The Doctor sends her companions home in a TARDIS while she stays behind to sacrifice herself. The Ninth Doctor did something extremely similar back in The Parting of the Ways, when he sent his companion Rose home to both keep her and the TARDIS safe.

Next. Review: At Childhood’s End explores Ace’s past, present and future. dark

What reference or callback did you particularly appreciate in Series 12? Are there any that stood out that aren’t on this list? Let us know in the comments below.

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