Inspired by a series of Facebook posts that I saw, we have been running through an alphabetical series of Doctor Who-related themes. However, lately there haven’t been any updates to the Facebook posts so I hadn’t been continuing this series. I’ve decided not to wait any longer and just come up with own prompts. So, today we continue this with the letter X…
X-Ray
Seriously, what else could it be for? (Xylophones, maybe?)
X-Rays have shown up in Doctor Who a number of times.
In The Hand of Fear, Dr. Carter used X-Rays to try to understand Eldrad’s hand.
The Tenth Doctor used a sonic screwdriver-enhanced X-Ray machine against his enemies in Smith and Jones.
The Cybermen seemed to have all manner of X-Ray-baed weapons in the 1960’s–The Moonbase, Tomb of the Cybermen and The Wheel in Space.
And apparently Vega was an interesting place to go, as in The Pirate Planet the Captain once declared, “By all the x-ray storms of Vega!”
But my pick for x-rays in Doctor Who is much more mundane than that, but ultimately more significant:
Spearhead in Space
The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is newly regenerated and not completely well. He winds up in hospital under the care of a Dr. Henderson who look at his x-rays and discovers that the man appears to have two hearts! And so Robert Holmes introduces a new bit of canon (technically a retcon, but a very mild one), which has held true to this day!
Years later, Dr. Grace Holloway would see the same thing with new x-rays about a critically injured patient (Sylvester McCoy)on her operating table.
The legend continues!
Blue Towel Productions 