Not only when did the Doctor first meet Churchill... but how come Churchill has a hotline to the Doctor's Tardis?

And do other Prime Ministers have the same hotline?

Accepting it's a made-up sci-fi show, I think it's a bit unrealistic to believe any Prime Minister can just phone up the Doctor! A fun idea but a bit hard to believe. How does someone from the PAST phone up someone from the FUTURE? And the telephone bill? Wow, must cost a lot!

The same way Rose and Martha manage to phone home when they are millions of years in the future. Because the doctor modified the phone to allow them to do it.

There could quite easily be a phone that has been modified for the current Prime Minister to use if needed. Or it might be something else that will be explained in the episode. Maybe the 'ironsides' did something to enable it.

The phone bill must be horrendous. All that time and space a phone call has to pass through. British Telecom must love it when people ring the Doctor. I hope Churchill reversed the charges.

Are we forgetting TorchWood? Churchill could have read everything going on The Doctor which Torchwood had and therefore fully aware he can regenerate etc.

This has been explained several times now in this thread.
Perhaps he gave it to him?
So, it was OK when Rose and Martha did it, but not Churchill?

Was the characterisation similar to how it seems in the trails for this weeks ep?

In the clip Churchill says something like 'is that you Doctor?' or 'is it really you Doctor?'

That suggests to me, he recognises the Tardis and knows the Doctor regenerates rather than having encountered Doc11 before.

Of course, if the Sixth Doctor is only incarnation that Winnie has met before then I'm sure that he (Churchill) will be delighted with the Doctor's change of apparel !

Well, Churchill is Churchill. Difficult to tell from one brief clip, but it seemed consistent to me. though I doubt we'll get any real explanation of their past history on screen anyway.

I think it would be pretty satisfying if it tied back to those events, even if only in the briefest of fashions so as not to alienate fans who haven't read them.

I don't think we particularly need it either. I'd much rather they get on with the story. There is only so much they can do in 45 minutes/

Oh, I agree-but I'm not holding my breath. I'll be happy if there's no direct contradiction, which I doubt there will be.

According to the writer, Mark Gatiss, there was a reference but it got cut in the edit...


http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/do...-sherlock.html

Oh, that's great! What a shame they lost it.

So I was correct and Churchill had met a number (at least two others) of different Doctors.


Churchill may not have had access to Torchwood, Harriet Jones wasn't supposed to know about them.