There have been certain Doctor Who stories the show repeated and hoped that viewers wouldn’t take notice of. Even some of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time have parallels in terms of narrative structure or character arcs, but some were more noticeable than others.

Several of these repeated Doctor Who stories were apparent from the get-go, whereas others required a little more time before audiences spotted them. Between Doctor Who’s best companions having to share backstories and endings to the show recycling the narrative structure of certain episodes, the Doctor’s adventures haven’t always been as unique as they could be.

8

Clara & Bill’s Endings

Both Doctor Who Companions Faced A Similar Fate

Clara Oswald and Bill Potts were two Doctor Who companions the show killed off. The main companions of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor sadly both didn’t survive traveling in the TARDIS. While the pair died in different ways, as Clara succumbed to the Quantum Shade and Bill was converted into a Cyberman, they both ended up as glᴀss avatars as a part of the Testimony. However, considering Bill was Clara’s successor, it was baffling that Steven Moffat didn’t expect audiences to notice that he gave both characters the same fate so close to one another.

Even though the events that led to their deaths weren’t exactly the same, there was no doubt that the parallels in Bill and Clara’s endings were obvious. In fact, both companions were accompanied by a strange new character whose partially immortal forms played a part in their eventual final states as glᴀss avatars – Ashildr and Heather. The way Bill and Clara’s stories wrapped up were fantastic ideas, but it was still odd that Doctor Who repeated this same narrative again so soon.

7

Alan Budd & John Lumic’s Final Forms

The Two Villains Ended Up As More Machine Than Human

When the origins of Doctor Who’s Cybermen were altered yet again in season 2’s “Rise of the Cybermen,” John Lumic was introduced. Lumic was the CEO and founder of Cybus Industries in Pete’s World, and due to his poor health, he was eventually converted into the Cyber-Controller. But even before this, Lumic’s deterioration meant that he was more robotic than he was actual flesh and blood, but the final conversion cemented his fate. Lumic’s story was unique for a long time, at least until the season 15 premiere episode, “The Robot Revolution.”

Doctor Who borrowed Lumic’s story and reused elements of it for Alan Budd. While Budd wasn’t unwell like Lumic, his obsession with power and control infected him. When Belinda encountered her ex-boyfriend, Budd boasted about the various upgrades that made him the AI Generator. Both men not only died as machines, but they also caused the demise of many by overthrowing their respective societies with the ᴀssistance of robots. Thankfully, Doctor Who waited a little while before repeating Lumic’s story.

6

Rose, Ruby, Martha & Belinda’s Character Designs

RTD’s Doctor Who Eras Both Introduced Companions With Similar Backstories

Many have noticed the parallels between the first two companions introduced in Russell T Davies’ original, post-2005 reboot of Doctor Who and the recent seasons 14 and 15. Rose Tyler was a young woman with little direction in life at the time of meeting the Doctor, didn’t know her father because he had died when she was a baby, and found a purpose when traveling with the Time Lord. Martha Jones was a sharp woman who worked in the medical field and didn’t hesitate to call the Doctor out. Sound familiar?

Ruby Sunday’s introduction to Doctor Who was similar. She’d recently moved to London, was seeking out her biological parents, and got more out of her life when she befriended the Doctor. Belinda Chandra’s provoked a feeling of déjà vu, too, and I couldn’t help but think of Martha when the sharp-tongued nurse made her first appearance in “The Robot Revolution.” Although not everything about these characters was identical, I immediately noticed the connections between Davies’ first two companions in both of his Doctor Who eras.

5

The “Mystery Girl” Companion

River, Clara, Belinda, & More Filled A Certain Role In Doctor Who

Doctor Who’s “mystery girl” companion story has been done so many times I can’t even count. Between River Song’s idenтιтy, Donna’s coincidences, Ruby’s parentage, and Belinda’s unclear connection to the Doctor, the mystery girl trope became overused years ago. In fact, the many versions of Clara Oswald in Doctor Who was one of the reasons the companion was labeled as such, as if this storyline had never been touched on before. In the modern era especially, this concept was reused often.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that so many of the Doctor’s companions were “mysteries,” and if everyone was a “mystery,” surely none of them really were? It has been a while since the Doctor’s companion wasn’t wrapped up in an unknown scandal or destined for a shocking fate, so perhaps Doctor Who should take a break from this kind of story for a while.

4

An Alien Traps Humans During A Worldwide Televised Event

Season 2’s “The Idiot’s Lantern” & “Fear Her” Were Basically The Same Story

There were two episodes in Doctor Who season 2 that essentially used the same story structure – episode 7, “The Idiot’s Lantern,” and episode 11, “Fear Her.” “The Idiot’s Lantern” saw the Tenth Doctor and Rose visit London during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and face the Wire, an alien that trapped humans inside TV sets. “Fear Her” was similar, and the Doctor and Rose returned to London during the 2012 Olympics, where they encountered a young girl who was possessed by an Isolus, which allowed her to trap others inside her drawings.

Both of these stories were set during mᴀssive worldwide events that were watched by millions on TV, featured a vulnerable child character with a complicated relationship with their father, and saw either the Doctor or Rose throw themselves straight into danger to save the other. Behind-the-scenes, “Fear Her” was actually a last-minute replacement for another episode that was pushed back, which would explain the repeтιтion. However, it didn’t stop viewers from spotting the parallels in these episodes’ narratives.

3

A Fake Villain Simply Doesn’t Understand Human Physiology

Season 1’s “The Empty Child”/The Doctor Dances” & Season 6’s “The Curse Of The Black Spot” Both Featured Aliens In The Medical Field

The Doctor Who two-part story from season 1, “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances,” and season 6’s “The Curse of the Black Spot” have similar story endings. Both stories included villains, who were later revealed to be anything but – the nanobots who created the “gas mask zombies” and the Siren. In both of these installments, the antagonists were presumed to be dangerous and trying to kill others, only for the Doctor to realize they were trying to help.

The nanobots didn’t understand the human form, and so when they found young Jamie wearing a gas mask, they presumed that was how everybody was supposed to look. The Siren, however, couldn’t understand how to heal her patients and simply kept them going on life support. While both the nanobots and the Siren appeared to be the big bad of their respective episodes, they were simply medical professionals in their own right, but they struggled to translate their problem to anyone and were so perceived as villainous – a great but less obvious Doctor Who twist that was repeated.

2

An Evil Prime Minister

Harold Saxon And Roger Ap Gwilliam Both Tormented The UK

The return of the Master in Doctor Who’s modern era was an astounding moment, and the way Davies hid the villain in plain sight as Prime Minister Harold Saxon was brilliant. The Saxon Master was one of the most unhinged incarnations of the Time Lord, who caused all manner of death and destruction around him. The Master became Prime Minister in Doctor Who after he escaped the Tenth Doctor at the end of the universe, when he then had a rather toxic marriage to Lucy, and destroyed the Earth (until Martha reversed these events).

Although only a few details about Roger ap Gwilliam were revealed in season 14, hopefully future Doctor Who episodes will shed some more light on the dangerous politician. According to the Fifteenth Doctor, Gwilliam was “the most dangerous Prime Minister in history,” and almost caused a nuclear war on Earth because of his policies. Like the Saxon Master, Gwilliam was eventually overthrown thanks to the Doctor’s companion, Ruby. While it was unlikely Gwilliam was one of the Master’s incarnations in Doctor Who, it wasn’t impossible either, and this narrative repeat could suggest that audiences weren’t told the full story.

1

The Master Creates A Twisted Army

The Toclafane, The Cybermen, & Billions Of Harold Saxons All Served The Villainous Time Lord

The Master has formed several armies in Doctor Who. Even his first appearance in the show, during the serial “Terror of the Autons,” saw him team up with the Nestene Consciousness. However, in the modern era, the Master created more armies than ever. For example, the Saxon Master had the Toclafane during the Year That Never Was, and he later converted every human on Earth (except Donna and Wilf) to look exactly like him in “The End of Time.” Missy had a Cybermen army when she first met the Twelfth Doctor in “Dark Water,” too.

Brilliantly, the Saxon Master and Missy later worked together and reigned over yet another Cyber army in “The Doctor Falls,” and Sacha Dhawan’s Master also formed an army of Cyber Masters, too. The Master loved an army of villains, especially when it was made up of Cybermen for some reason, but Doctor Who has done this so many times that it became predictable rather quickly. Hopefully, whichever Master audiences meet next will have some new tricks up their sleeve.