Doctor Who fans made a bizarre, funny and unexpected appearance in the Series 2 episode ‘Lux.’
In the Series 2 episode ‘Lux,’ the Time Lord and Belinda find themselves battling one of the Pantheon gods – in this case, the god of light – who has taken the form of an evil cartoon known as Mr Ring-a-Ding. This character has the power to trap his victims on film, which is just what he does to our heroes. The Doctor and Belinda then have to find a way to break out of their celluloid prison.
This triggers a rather amusing moment where the Doctor and Belinda literally have to ‘break the fourth wall’ (i.e. the TV screen) in order to escape this filmic reality. Inevitably, this leads to them stepping into a Doctor Who fan’s living room, while the fez and Meep-emblazoned group glare at them agog. And yes, one of them is even wearing a Lovarzi scarf (the shorter one) which is exciting to see.
Naturally, these Doctor Who fans are nonplussed as to how their heroes have managed to step out of the screen and into their home – almost as nonplussed as the Doctor, in fact, who finds himself surrounded by shelf-loads of Doctor Who books, DVDs, and even the Collection box sets. The Doctor Who fans explain that he is the main character in a TV show, and that they have watched all of his adventures. Naturally, their favourite episode is ‘Blink’ – an amusing nod to the classic story from Steven Moffat, which saw the debut of the Weeping Angels.
This entertaining scene with the Doctor Who fans does also prove to be an important plot point, however. The fans already know what is going to happen in the rest of the story, as the details were leaked online, and there’s a funny ‘meta’ moment where one of the characters criticises the writing for being too “obvious.” She then gives the Doctor a subtle clue as to how he can defeat the Pantheon god.
And just in case you’re worrying that this bizarre encounter with Doctor Who fans will cause the entirety of canon to explode like the cinema’s film cans, rest assured; it’s established that these viewers are in fact fictional, and they will disappear as soon as the Doctor and Belinda step back into the TV.
Or will they? Because, as always with any canon-breaking Doctor Who moment, there is some wiggle room. The Doctor Who fans reappear during the episode’s credits to offer a rather amusing critique. “Well, I really, really loved it,” says Lizzie, “though I’d mark it down to a seven out of ten, ‘cos it gave away the ending in the middle, and the villain’s motivation changed.” Another one adds: “And technically, it’s puppets that want to be boys, not cartoons.”
There was also a reference to the Doctor Who fans’ hashtag #RIPDoctorWho, which is used by viewers who believe that the series is on its last legs, or indeed believe that it died at a particular moment in Doctor Who‘s past.
But what does all this mean for the Whoniverse? Is this the first time that the show has broken the fourth wall?
By no means. During the latest Russell T Davies era, Doctor Who has broken the fourth wall on a number of occasions. The first incident involved the mysterious Mrs Flood who, after having watched the Doctor depart in ‘The Church on Ruby Road,’ turned the viewer and asked, “Never seen a TARDIS before?” She also addressed the audience directly at the end of Series 1, warning them that the Time Lord’s travels were about to end in “absolute terror.” Perhaps we will need the #RIPDoctorWho hashtag after all…
And then there was the moment in ‘The Devil’s Chord‘ when the Doctor looked into the camera and said, “There’s always a twist at the end,” before breaking into a song and dance routine with the episode’s cast, and strutting across Abbey Road’s famous zebra crossing like it was a piano.
William Hartnell, too, famously broke the fourth wall when he turned to wish all the viewers at home a very merry Christmas, in a lost episode from 1965’s ‘Daleks’ Master Plan.’ The Fourth Doctor Tom Baker also, on occasion, would turn to the watching Doctor Who fans and say things like, “Even the sonic screwdriver won’t get me out of this one.”
But in terms of the Doctor Who fans themselves being directly referenced, these instances have been fewer and further between. Perhaps the closest and most famous example is the character of Petronella Osgood – a UNIT scientist who idolised the Doctor and used to arrive at work in all manner of cosplay items including, yes, the famous Lovarzi scarf (did we mention we sell them?) and the Seventh Doctor’s question mark tank top (did we mention we sell them too?) She even dressed up as the Fifth Doctor on one occasion, donning a variation of his classic cricket whites complete with the question mark collars and celery.
Beyond this, the writer Steven Moffat toyed with the idea of having the movie posters for the Peter Cushing Dalek films in UNIT’s Black Archive in ‘The Day of the Doctor,’ rationalising that Doctor Who fans in that universe were making movies of the Time Lord’s adventures. Alas, this idea never came to fruition owing to the rights.
Finally (and perhaps most controversially) Russell T Davies built an entire episode around Doctor Who fans in 2006’s polarising ‘Love & Monsters,’ in which a group of the Time Lord’s avid devotees formed an underground club dedicated to finding him – the famous London Investigation n’ Detective Agency, or L.I.N.D.A for short. Many people have suggested that the character of Victor Kennedy (played by Peter Kay) was a parody of the famous Doctor Who fan Ian Levine, who worked as a continuity adviser on the classic show and recovered a number of missing episodes.
And so the series does have a history of being self-referential, although this scene with the Doctor Who fans in ‘Lux’ is perhaps the funniest and most overt example to date. How did you feel about this moment from Series 2? And what is your favourite ‘fourth wall-breaking’ moment from Doctor Who‘s past? Let us know in the comments below.
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