There’s nothing quite like spotting a hidden detail or a cheeky reference in your favourite show, and Doctor Who fans are the best for the job.
Whether it’s homages to the first ever episode, references to other sci-fi classics, or just the writers having a joke with fans, here are some of our favourite hidden details and Easter eggs.
How many did you catch the first time round?
The 50th anniversary special, starring David Tennant and Matt Smith, is filled with loving nods to the show’s origins, including Totter’s Lane, Ian Chesterton’s name on a school sign, and the original broadcast time and date etched into a wall.
These little references connect the modern era of the show to its very first episode, rewarding long-time viewers but not getting in the way for newer fans – proving that even after 50 years, Doctor Who never forgets where it came from.
One of the most meta moments in Doctor Who history arrived in 1988’s Remembrance of the Daleks, in which we hear a continuity announcer introducing “a new adventure in the science-fiction series Doc…”. The scene cuts before the full title can be announced.
The idea that a TV show called Doctor Who might actually exist in Doctor Who has been played with a few times across the show’s history – with the Fifteenth Doctor actually meeting some “fans” in Lux, by stepping out of the TV.
While this doesn’t have any major impact on the story, it’s a fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail, and an intriguing little joke from the writers.
Doctor Who fans got a stark reminder of the terror of the Doctor’s enemies in Hell Bent, showing a hidden chamber filled with motionless remnants of past enemies – including a Cyberman, a Weeping Angel, a Mire helmet, a Scarecrow, and the severed head of an Ood.
As the Doctor and Clara pass through the Cloisters of Gallifrey, these creatures are not alive but serve as frozen echoes of the Doctor’s long and troubled history, haunting the digital landscape of Time Lord memories. The ultimate sci-fi rogues’ gallery…
Clara’s mother’s gravestone in The Rings of Akhaten shows she died on 5th March 2005 – the same day the Nestene Consciousness attacked London in Rose, the revived series’ first episode.
While the rest of the episode mainly explores alien worlds – and of course features that fantastic speech from Eleven – this poignant moment links Clara’s backstory to the wider Doctor Who mythos and the show’s modern rebirth.
In the devastating two-parter Human Nature/Family of Blood, the Doctor creates an entire human identity for himself, calling himself by his alias, John Smith, to hide from the Family of Blood.
At one point, John Smith reveals his parents names are Verity and Sydney, a sweet tribute to Doctor Who’s creators.
The sci-fi was originally created by a team including the BBC’s head of drama Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert, who was the first female producer at the BBC, and who was instrumental in bringing the show to screens.
It’s a tiny detail from one of the show’s most popular stories that ties it beautifully to its origins.
Slade’s 1973 classic Merry Xmas Everybody plays quietly in several episodes, including The Christmas Invasion, The Runaway Bride, Turn Left and The Power of Three.
The song is often heard faintly on radios or in shops, making Christmas on Earth feel very familiar in the Doctor Who universe – monsters might attack, but Slade still fills the airwaves every December!
The Doctor and Clara enter the hidden trap street, a secret refuge filled with strange architecture, and coded signage. The set includes subtle background details and sly visual jokes, with one nod in particular being picked up on by sci-fi fans.
During an emotionally charged scene, a poster of a flux capacitor (a reference to Back to the Future) is accompanied by text in Aurebesh (Star Wars script) that translates to “DeLorean”, referencing the time-travelling car from Back to the Future.
Maybe an epic Doctor Who, Star Wars and Back to the Future crossover isn’t out of the question after all..?
The Doctor explicitly mentions his granddaughter Susan Foreman while in 1963 Shoreditch, connecting to An Unearthly Child. A rooftop billboard also advertises “Chris Waites & the Carollers”, the band Susan listened to in the first episode.
Of course, this would all lead up to Carole Ann Ford’s long-awaited return to the show in The Interstellar Song Contest.
It was a huge talking point for fans young and old, as new viewers went back through the Doctor Who archives to learn about Susan’s time in the TARDIS.
It’s not often an Easter egg can change the canon of the entire show, but Richard E Grant’s appearance in Rogue, alongside an homage to all the past Doctors, did exactly that.
Grant played the Doctor in a 2003 animated web series Scream of the Shalka, which was previously thought to be non-canonical. However, his inclusion in the episode completely shatters the canon.
Doctor Who’s canon has been changed and messed with, for better or for worse, quite a few times over the course of the show. But never quite like this!
There have been plenty of homages to the late, great William Hartnell but one of the sneakiest came in Vampires of Venice, when Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor shows his psychic paper as a library card – only for it to display a picture of Hartnell’s First Doctor.
During the episode, the Doctor’s attempt to show the library card backfires, as he realises he hasn’t renewed it since his first incarnation.
It’s a small moment but beautifully pays tribute to Hartnell, the man who first brought the Doctor to life.
