The Stories of "Doctor Who" Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Daleks

Our first glimpse of a Dalek was in the second serial of "Doctor Who", appropriately titled "The Daleks". Although you did see a Dalek sucker arm at the end of the first episode of this seven-episode serial, you did not see a full Dalek until the second episode. Barbara Wright had the distinction of being the first character within the show to see a Dalek.

Answer: The Keys of Marinus

For the first six seasons, "Doctor Who" was filmed nearly year round. Because of this strenuous schedule, there would often be episodes in which a main character (either the Doctor or his companions) would be absent. In-universe reasons for their absence would be either they were kidnapped, unconscious, or (in this case of the serial) away on a different adventure. The Doctor was searching for the whereabouts of a friend whereas Ian, Barbara, and Susan were looking for the remaining keys.

For this serial "The Keys of Marinus", it was the Doctor, played by William Hartnell, who enjoyed a two week vacation while the other cast members were filming episode three ("The Screaming Jungle") and episode four ("The Snows of Terror").

Answer: The Tenth Planet

The First Doctor's swan song, "The Tenth Planet", not only introduced the concept of regeneration, but was also the debut of the Cybermen. In this serial, the Cybermen's plan was to destroy Earth with z-bombs since Earth was draining power and destroying the Cybermen's home planet Mondas.

Throughout "Doctor Who", the Cybermen's appearance has changed, as well as their voices. For example, they orginally had bare hands and a large lamp on their heads in this story. In "The Tenth Planet", their voices were more singsong rather than a more metallic sound. "The Tenth Planet" was also the only story in which the Cybermen had names.

Answer: The Web of Fear

"The Web of Fear' is a six-part story known for the introduction of Brigadier (then Colonel) Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. At the end of the second episode, there is an unknown soldier following Victoria, but in the third episode, it is revealed to be Lethbridge-Stewart. Interestingly, the first meeting of the Doctor and Lethbridge-Stewart happened off-camera. Originally, Lethbridge-Stewart wasn't going to be a recurring character, which may explain why such a historic meeting did not happen on-screen.

Nicholas Courtney worked with the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Doctor on the show itself as Lethbridge-Stewart. He worked with the First Doctor as Bret Vyon in "The Daleks' Master Plan" (the First Doctor was also in "The Three Doctors" which featured Courtney as the Brigadier, but the First Doctor was not the incumbent doctor at the time.) Finally, Courtney appeared with the Sixth Doctor, not in the show itself, but in the 30th anniversary charity special "Dimensions in Time".

Answer: The War Games

In "The War Games", aliens have kidnapped humans from several different time periods, and they were assisted by the War Lord. Another character, the Chief Scientist, noticed the Doctor had knowledge way beyond what one of the kidnapped humans would have, and he told the security chief that he suspected the War Lord was bringing in his own people, the Time Lords. He was originally unaware that the War Lord had not brought in the Doctor.

Not only was "The War Games" the first episode to mention the Time Lords, but it was also the first serial to show the Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey, although it wouldn't be named until the Season 11 story "The Time Warrior".

Answer: Colony in Space

Roger Delgado originated the role in the story "Terror of the Autons" and last played the Master in the story "Frontier in Space". Sadly, Roger Delgado died in a car crash in Turkey while filming a mini-series.

The Master first appeared in the eighth season and was featured in every story in that season. To vary things up, the Master did not appear until episode four of the six-episode story "Colony in Space". It was also the first serial since the Doctor's exile on Earth by the Time Lords in which the Doctor was allowed to leave Earth.

Answer: The Deadly Assassin

Mary Whitehouse, a moral guardian who often would call out "Doctor Who" for its violence, claimed that the image of the Doctor supposedly drowning was too violent for children to be left with for a whole week. It probably didn't help that the image was a freeze frame.

The Doctor was in a virtual reality called the Matrix, and the Master had conjured up various illusions to stop the Doctor. One such illusion was a man named Goth trying to drown the Doctor.

This was also the only "Doctor Who" story in the classic series in which the Doctor had no companion.

Answer: Black Orchid

One of the adventures of the Fifth Doctor was to Earth in 1925 where he and his companions met the Cranleigh family. While there, a mysterious man killed the Cranleigh butler in the disguise of a harlequin, which happened to be the costume the Doctor was wearing at the ball. One of the Cranelighs, Charles, was engaged to Ann Talbot, who bore a remarkable similarity to the Doctor's companion, Nyssa.

This story, titled "Black Orchid", was also the last time a "Doctor Who" story in the classic series had no science fiction elements, apart from the Doctor, his companions, and the TARDIS. Stories with no science fiction elements, particularly historicals, were common during the First Doctor's tenure, but after his departure, there were only two such stories: this one and "The Highlanders", which was during Patrick Troughton's turn as the Doctor.

Answer: True

All multi-doctor serials in the classic series were named after the number of doctors that appeared. This story, which featured Colin Baker (the incumbent doctor) and Patrick Troughton (the returning doctor), was naturally called "The Two Doctors". This serial also had the return of Frazer Hines as James "Jamie" Robert McCrimmon. Also, this show aired as part of Season 23 which experimented with a 50 minute episode format instead of a 25 minute episode format.

This meant that although the serial was the length of a six episode story, it was only three episodes in length.

Answer: Battlefield

In the 26th and final season of the classic series, there was a story called "Battlefield" where the Doctor got involved in an archeological dig. This dig resulted in a tunnel where the Doctor found a spaceship and Arthur's sword Excalibur. Arthurian characters that appeared in the story were Morgaine and Mordred. Furthermore, the Doctor was revealed to be Merlin, although that event had not occurred in the Doctor's past, just in Mordred and Morgaine's. Along the way the Doctor would find messages his future self (as Merlin) sent that would help him in his defeat of Mordred, Morgaine, and a creature known as the Destroyer.