Tuesday 2 October 2012

There - and back again...


Congratulations to Manhattan for being the only place on Earth to appear in two episode titles, thanks to the Daleks and the Angels. For such a British programme, you'd really expect a clutch of anglocentric locations littering the story titles - but not so. London only manages to get itself into one title (Aliens of London) despite having more stories set there than anywhere else in the entire Universe. Manhattan gets two cool monsters, London Space Pigs and the farting Slitheen...
There are only two other real Earth locations to feature in story titles, and both are in Italy - Venice (Vampires of...) and Pompeii (Fires of...).


There are two fictional Earth locations which make it into titles - Fang Rock and A Town Called Mercy.
The planet Earth itself only manages two titles, both thanks to the Daleks - who invaded it and then later stole it. New Earth doesn't count, as it's a totally different planet which just happens to be named after this Earth. It's relegated to the one-off planets list below.
Mars does well with 2 titles - Pyramids of... and Waters of...


The Moon also gets two mentions - though one of these is more specifically something on the Moon (a Base), rather than the satellite itself.
Of the fictional planets, there are not as many as you might think (only 14). Significantly, the key worlds of Gallifrey and Skaro have never featured. Peladon gets 2 titles (Curse of... and Monster of...).


The one-off planetary mentions in story titles are: Marinus, Ribos, Tara, Eden, Traken, Logopolis, Castrovalva, Frontios, Androzani, Varos, New Earth, Utopia and Midnight.
Other fictional places which make it into titles are The Leisure Hive, Paradise Towers, Terminus, The Arc of Infinity and the whole of Galaxy 4.


If you decide to break the Hartnell stories down into individual episode titles then you can add the following mix of real and fictional locations:
Shang-tu and Peking (a rider from, and an assassin at, respectively in Marco Polo); France and the Conciergerie Prison ( tyrant of, and prisoners of, respectively in The Reign of Terror); World's End (Dalek Invasion of Earth) - the title may be a play on the area of Chelsea, London, where the opening is set, as well as what has happened to the Earth; Rome (where all roads lead in The Romans); the Crater of Needles (a specific region on Vortis in The Web Planet); Jaffa (Ian makes a knight of it in The Crusades); the Celestial Toyroom (The Celestial Toymaker) and the OK Corral (The Gunfighters).

Even adding these, Manhattan still wins. Just a pity that the Doctor has now said he can never go back to New York ever again...

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