Doctor Who clichés

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This is a list of story-telling and scripting clichés that have been employed in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

[edit] B

Base under siege An isolated base with a limited staff comes under attack from an alien force, and its inhabitants must defeat the threat without aid from the outside world.
1. Examples: The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase, almost all of Season 5 [1], The Ark in Space, Dalek.
2. Counterexamples: The Seeds of Doom (which begins as a base-under-siege story, but then relocates); Kinda[2].

[edit] C

Corridors Many set designers and directors chose to use corridors because they relatively easy to design and build in cramped studio conditions.
1. Examples: The use of a corridor as a prison in The Enemy of the World, The Face of Evil, The Sunmakers
2. Counterexamples: The inertia defying corridor in The Pirate Planet, The episodes produced by BBC Wales have largely eliminated this cliché.

[edit] D

Death (aka. Everybody Dies) All or nearly all of the supporting characters die. The death toll may or may not include the Doctor and his companions.
1. Examples: The Daleks' Master Plan, Horror of Fang Rock, Warriors of the Deep, Resurrection of the Daleks, The Caves of Androzani, The Two Doctors.
2. Counterexamples: The Savages, Fury from the Deep, The Three Doctors, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Fear Her.
Doctor's Treachery The Doctor pretends to collaborate with the enemy, as part of a larger plan.
1. Examples: The Evil of the Daleks,The Claws of Axos, The Invasion of Time, Mindwarp, The Curse of Fenric
2. Counterexamples: The Daleks (the Doctor deliberately sabotages the TARDIS for his own ends), The Armageddon Factor (the Doctor really does turn bad, at least seems tempted for about thirty seconds),

[edit] E

Everything Ends with a Big Explosion No matter what, the conclusion somehow involves the wanton (usually explosive) destruction of a military base, spacecraft or sometimes a moon or planet.
1. Examples: The Invisible Enemy, The Curse of Fenric, Silver Nemesis, Terror of the Zygons, The Evil of the Daleks, The Sea Devils
2. Counterexamples: Genesis of the Daleks (the Doctor decides not to blow up a Kaled lab, but it happens anyway), Kinda (Hindle wants to set off a big explosion)
Expensive Sets and/or Costumes Starting with Series 1, expensive sets and costumes guarantee that the villain/location in question is part of a two part story and/or will return before the season finale.
1. Examples: Aliens of London/World War Three and Boom Town; The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.
2. Counterexamples: Rose.

[edit] F

Falsely Accused In the first episode of a multi-part story, the Doctor and company show up at the wrong place at the wrong time, find a body and get suspected of perpetrating one or more murders (or some other crime).
1. Examples:Planet of Evil,The Robots of Death,Image of the Fendahl, Earthshock
2. Counterexamples: The Power of the Daleks (the Doctor stumbles across a body on arrival, but takes advantage of the situation)

[edit] L

Last Moment (a.k.a. In the Nick of Time) The Doctor prevents a planet from being invaded by aliens, taken over by a hostile force, or destroyed by some menace at the last possible moment.
1. Examples: The War Machines, The Power of the Daleks, Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, The Seeds of Doom, Snakedance, Battlefield, Aliens of London/World War Three, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday.
2. Counterexamples: The Tenth Planet, The Invasion, Father's Day.
Lost TARDIS The Doctor and companions lose access to the TARDIS and spend the majority of the story attempting either to get back to it or to get it back.
1. Examples: An Unearthly Child and many early historical and alien adventures, The Sensorites, The Daleks' Master Plan, Frontier in Space, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.
2. Counterexamples: Frontios (The Doctor and companions believe the TARDIS has been destroyed and do not expect to recover it); and in The Hand of Fear, Earthshock and Attack of the Cybermen access to the TARDIS is crucial to change locations for the Doctor and the villains.

[edit] M

The Master survived Peculiar to the John Nathan-Turner era of production was the survival of The Master no matter what peril he faced in his previous appearance.
1. Examples: Time-Flight, The Mark of the Rani, Survival
2. Counterexamples: The original intent of the Third Doctor's final story was to kill off The Master. However, this was prevented by the death of actor Roger Delgado.
Military, questioning the use of The Doctor finds himself pitted against a high-ranking member of the military or government who proposes to use lethal force rather than listen to Doctor's advice.
1. Examples: The War Machines, The Silurians, The Claws of Axos, The Sea Devils, The Armageddon Factor, Remembrance of the Daleks, The Christmas Invasion (albeit after PM Harriet Jones has used lethal force).
2. Counterexamples: The Daleks (where the Doctor argues that the pacifist Thals should go to war against the Daleks), The Seeds of Doom where he carries a gun and uses the RAF to destroy the Krynoid.
Mocking the Baddy Particularly the provenance of the Fourth Doctor, pointing out the clichéd nature of the baddies and their plans became in itself a cliché.
1. Examples: The Green Death, The Brain of Morbius, Destiny of the Daleks
2. Counterexamples: The Time Meddler (the Doctor acts as the Monks's "straight man"), Pyramids of Mars (the Doctor seems genuinely awed by Sutekh's power), City of Death (Count Scarlioni insults the Doctor quite devastatingly), The Happiness Patrol (the Doctor opposes the villain's forced levity), Dalek (where the Doctor begins to act more like a Dalek than the Dalek does).

[edit] N

Name-Dropping The Doctor casually mentions meeting a famous historical or fictional character.
1. Examples: The First Doctor: Pyrrho (The Keys of Marinus); The Second Doctor: Joseph Lister (The Moonbase); The Third Doctor: Mao Tse-Tung (The Mind of Evil); the Fourth Doctor was taught how to sing by Dame Nellie Melba (the Power of Kroll); the Tenth Doctor implies he has met Arthur Dent.
2. Counterexample: In many of the 6th Doctor Audio adventures, Evelyn points out how the Doctor loves to name-drop.

[edit] O

Obstinate Authority figure The Doctor must convince someone in charge and unwilling to listen that disaster is about to strike.
1. Examples: The Tenth Planet, The Faceless Ones, Inferno, The Claws of Axos, Frontier in Space, The Seeds of Doom, The Armageddon Factor, Snakedance, Vengeance on Varos, Dalek.
2. Counterexamples: The Aztecs where he does not challenge the impending end of the civilisation, many UNIT stories where the Doctor is asked to investigate a problem, Meglos, Arc of Infinity, The Christmas Invasion.

[edit] P

Previous adventures The story makes a number of references to previous adventures.
1. Examples: Attack of the Cybermen, Arc of Infinity, Timelash (and other episodes from the John Nathan-Turner production era).
2. Counterexamples: The Five Doctors (where the very intent of the programme was to show off its past), Dalek (and other episodes from Series 1 (2005)).

[edit] Q

Quarry The episode was filmed in or around a quarry, primarily for budgetary reasons.
1. Examples: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Dominators, Colony in Space, The Three Doctors (the novelization provides a sufficient reason for the use of a quarry but the transmitted story does not), The Invasion of Time, Time and the Rani, Survival.
2. Counterexamples: The Hand of Fear the setting actually was a quarry [3], City of Death filmed on location in Paris, Planet of Fire filmed on location in Lanzarote.

[edit] S

Screaming Many of the Doctor's female companions had this reaction to monsters, some more so than others.
1. Examples: Susan, Polly, Victoria, Mel
2. Counterexamples: Ace; the importance of Victoria's screaming in Fury from the Deep; Rose Tyler.
Shock Reveal The horrific visage of a new enemy or the unexpected return of an old one (like the Master) reveals themselves at the climax of an episode.
1. Examples: The Faceless Ones, The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment, Terror of the Zygons, City of Death, Earthshock, The King's Demons, Army of Ghosts
2. Counterexamples: The Daleks (only part of the Dalek gets revealed), Terminus (the monster appears only off-handedly towards the end of the story), The Two Doctors (the Sontarans appear in a long-shot without any visual build-up)
Sonic screwdriver The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to easily solve a difficult problem or defeat a dangerous opponent, either in the current episode or from the previous episode's cliffhanger.
1. Examples: The Sea Devils, Carnival of Monsters, The Sontaran Experiment, most of the new series.
2. Counterexamples: The Invasion of Time, Four to Doomsday, The Visitation (where the sonic screwdriver is destroyed and does not appear in televised adventures for 14 years).