You might not realise it, but the Series Eight Doctor Who episode ‘Listen’ actually plays an important role in tying the whole Whoniverse together.
There’s a lot buried in ‘Listen.’ In typical Steven Moffat style, it jumps around in time and space, and not all of it happens in chronological order.
“Basic stuff first,” as someone once said. The Doctor’s companion Clara plays a key role in this Doctor Who episode. She works at the Coal Hill School which, as any hardcore Doctor Who fan will know, is the same one attended by the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan. It was also the school at which the First Doctor’s companions Ian and Barbara worked.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Coal Hill School also formed the backdrop of another popular Doctor Who episode ‘Remembrance of the Daleks.’ Set in the 1960s, this story saw the Seventh Doctor and Ace return to Coal Hill in 1963 to recover something the Time Lord left behind on his previous visit. But as you can probably guess from the title, the Daleks are also keen to get their “grubby little protuberances” on it, and the result is all-out battle.
Finally, you may remember Coal Hill School from the Doctor Who spin-off series Class, which came out shortly after ‘Listen’ was broadcast. As such, Coal Hill is an important location in the Whoniverse, and it plays an important role in ‘Listen’ in that it brings Clara and Danny Pink together on a date, as they work together at the school.
In fact, Danny and Clara’s relationship influences the direction of the TARDIS. Clara is thinking about Danny when she plugs herself into the ship’s telepathic circuits, and the TARDIS follows his timeline. The end result is a meeting with one of his descendants, Captain Orson Pink: a time traveller whose vehicle has become trapped at the end of the universe. The Doctor and Clara rescue him.
But Orson Pink’s appearance plays a bigger role in this Doctor Who episode. It’s implied that he has figured out who Clara is, and what her relationship is to Danny. He gives her one of his mementos (a broken toy soldier) stating that it belongs in the family. This raises the question: why does he regard Clara as “family”? He either knew about Danny’s relationship with Clara, or he’s directly descended from her.
The latter is unlikely, given that (spoiler alert) Danny Pink dies in a later Doctor Who episode. Unless, of course, Clara was originally meant to have a baby with Danny, and time was rewritten as a result of his death, which is possible. In this scenario, Orson Pink would never have been born.
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey. We’ll probably never know.
And speaking of wibbly wobbly, the whole premise of this Doctor Who episode hinges around the fact that Clara goes back in time and visits the Doctor when he’s a young boy. She finds him sobbing on a bed, and she speaks to him to calm his fears.
And this is where things get really interesting, because Clara’s words link back to an earlier Doctor Who episode. This is what she says: “You’re always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like a companion. A constant companion, always there. But that’s okay, because fear can bring us together. Fear can bring you home. I’m going to leave you something, just so you’ll always remember: fear makes companions of us all.”
Do you recognise these words? If you’ve been watching Doctor Who for a long time, you may well do, because the phrase “fear makes companions of us all” is actually a quote from one of the very first Doctor Who episodes ‘The Forest of Fear,’ which is the third instalment of ‘An Unearthly Child.’ Technically, the Doctor’s actual line is “fear makes companions of all of us, Miss Wright,” but it’s close enough, and a deliberate link by Steven Moffat.
And it’s a clever link when you think about it, as it shows just how far back Clara‘s influence reaches. The Doctor, either consciously or unconsciously, was quoting the words she’d whispered in his ear as a child. Moreover, it’s not an overly well-known Doctor Who quote, so some fans will only have spotted this link when they went back and re-watched ‘An Unearthly Child.’
And if your brains are not fried enough, there’s one other link to the series’ history in this Doctor Who episode. When Clara finds the Time Lord as a little boy, he’s sleeping in a barn on Gallifrey. This is the same barn that the War Doctor took refuge in on the final day of the Time War. He had stolen a weapon called the Moment, and was contemplating whether to use it to wipe out both the Daleks and the Time Lords. ‘Listen’ even features a brief flashback to ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and a clip of John Hurt.
Admittedly, this reference may have been confusing for anyone watching this who wasn’t overly familiar with the series’ past. But for the fans, it was a neat link to the show’s lore, and really showed how powerful Doctor Who‘s continuity could be when handled sensitively. Overall, it’s just very clever, as is the case with many a Steven Moffat Doctor Who episode.
So if you’ve never seen ‘Listen’ before, go and watch it now, armed with these fascinating titbits.
In the meantime, tell us: did you spot any other reference in this very special Doctor Who episode? Let us know in the comments below.
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