Doctor Who Spotting Week

Next week we want you to help us with a unique Doctor Who experiment

Anything worth watching on there, Doctor?

If this article were by Terrance Dicks it’d be called Doctor Who And The Invasion Of The Zeitgeist . Because Doctor Who references are everywhere in the media these days; it is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. But how much of a cultural phenomenon? That’s what we want you to help us find out.

Next week, from Saturday 9 July to Friday 15 July we want you to tell us about every Doctor Who reference you see or hear on TV or radio in the UK – any channel, any station. And we mean every reference, no matter how big or how small. We don’t just mean Who -related articles on magazine programmes or actor interviews on local radio stations (though they do count), we also mean things like:

• Jokes involving Doctor Who in sit coms and comedy shows (we can almost guarantee one in The Now Show every week)
• Casual references by presenters to, “It’s just like A TARDIS.”
• Mentions of Doctor Who in dramas
• Questions about Doctor Who in quiz shows
• Any random plays of Doctorin’ The TARDIS on music radio
• Use of the TARDIS sound effect when something needs to appear out of thin air…
• Random use of the Doctor Who music

You get the idea. We’re sure more references will crop up in places we can’t begin to imagine, but that’s the kind of thing we’re looking for.

We are NOT looking for Torchwood coverage, unless that coverage specifically mentions Doctor Who in some way.

Those with long memories may remember that we tried this before, but rather stupidly, we did it in a week that was just before a Who Christmas special was aired, and the result was hundreds of people sending us info on the big interviews and trailers and news articles , but very few of the more fun nitty, gritty stuff – the result was rather unwieldy and unprintable. This time we’re specifically running this while Who is off the air, to see how much influence it has even when it’s not “hot”.

You can inform us of anything you spot in the following ways:

• Leave a message in the comments section below
• Email dgolder@futurenet.co.uk
• Tweet us @sfxmagazine, including the tag #sfxwhospot
• Leave a message in this thread on our forum

So, come this Saturday, have your Who -dars switched on and keep us informed of anything you spot. We’ll credit as many contributors as possible in the final article, which be in a printed version of SFX later this year.

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.