Adam K

Challenge yourself with the 2023 9th Doctor Who Varsity Quiz!

Enter the Matrix… – The Varsity Quiz competitors meet on Zoom (Image credit: Adam Kendrick)

Adam Kendrick reports from the ninth Doctor Who Varsity Quiz between Oxford and Cambridge, which was held on Sunday 29th October 2023.

After last year’s in-person event at Trinity College, Oxford, the 2023 Varsity Quiz once more returned to the Matrix – also known as Zoom. While the Cambridge University Doctor Who Society successfully congregated in the same room, dispersed members of the Oxford Doctor Who Society came up with a system where they muted their mics during each round and conferred on a separate video call. Despite numerous challenges including prior commitments, tutorial work, essay crises, and various illnesses, Oxford managed to assemble a team consisting of six humans, one cat, and one Cyberman figure to face off against Cambridge’s team of twelve. But before you find out which side won the Varsity trophy (or more precisely, the various pieces of the regrettably still-broken trophy), why not test your own knowledge of Doctor Who by having a go at some of the rounds which were played?

Classic Who (1963-1996)

  1. The original pilot of the show featured a different variant of the theme. How is it different from the final televised version?
    1. It starts with a TARDIS dematerialisation
    2. There’s an extra thunderclap at the beginning
    3. It featured Hartnell’s face
    4. The bassline was quieter 
  2. In The Celestial Toymaker, what was the last game Steven and Dodo had to play to get to the TARDIS?
    1. Hopscotch 
    2. Blind man’s buff
    3. Red light, green light
    4. Freeze Tag
  3. In The War Games, which of the following wars is NOT part of the War World?
    1. World War I
    2. The Mexican Civil War
    3. The Russo-Japanese War
    4. The War of 1812
  4. In The Ambassadors of Death, why were the titular ambassadors’ touch deadly to humans?
    1. Their skin is covered in deadly neurotoxin
    2. The temperature of their skin is close to absolute zero 
    3. They emit blasts of radiation from their hands 
    4. It forms a psychic link that can fry a human’s brain
  5. In The Power of Kroll, what is Kroll?
    1. A cult among the native population
    2. A giant squid-like creature
    3. The planet the Doctor lands on
    4. A fire-breathing dragon
  6. In The Five Doctors, what instrument does the Fifth Doctor play to access Borusa’s time scoop control room?
    1. The Recorder of Rassilon
    2. The Viol of Rassilon
    3. The Lute of Rassilon
    4. The Harp of Rassilon
  7. In The Mark of the Rani, what establishment does the Rani run in the quiet village of Killingworth?
    1. A bath house
    2. A Pub
    3. A School
    4. A very nice little gift shop
  8. In The Curse of Fenric, what does the Doctor chant to repel Haemovores?
    1. Gallifreyan scripture
    2. The names of his former companions
    3. The TARDIS instruction manual
    4. The Bible
  9. In the TV movie, what maneuver does the TARDIS execute to reverse the effects of the Eye of Harmony?
    1. Space-time continuum reset
    2. Hostile Action Displacement System
    3. Temporal orbit
    4. Temporal slipstream
  10. In Dimensions in Time, why is the Rani assembling a menagerie of all sentient lifeforms in space-time?
    1. To create a hybrid “ultimate lifeform”
    2. To control the evolution of all creatures 
    3. To build a zoo and get money
    4. To spite the Doctor

New Who (2005-2023)

  1. What interrupted the first broadcast of Rose?
  2. What does Jack think is the Doctor’s name when they first meet in The Empty Child?
  3. What is the full name of the alien who disguises herself as Margaret Blaine?
  4. According to the Tenth Doctor in Journey’s End, how many pilots is the TARDIS designed to have?
  5. In what year does The Unicorn and the Wasp take place?
  6. In Gridlock, who does the Tenth Doctor say gave him his coat?
  7. In The Sontaran Stratagem, what is the name of Martha’s first fiancé?
  8. Who wrote Vincent and the Doctor?
  9. In how many episodes has both Matt Smith and an incarnation of the Master appeared?
  10. By what percentage did Topman report an increase in sales of bow ties by the end of April 2010, thanks to the Eleventh Doctor?

Spin-offs

  1. How many different incorrect names does Chrissie call Sarah Jane?
  2. Steven Moffat described Class as “dark and sexy and right now”. To memorialise this quote, add together:
    1. the number of names added to the roll of honours board during the series
    2. the number of “sexy” scenes and
    3. the number of times someone says, “right now”.
  3. We see the pterodactyl in Torchwood three multiple times. What’s it called?
  4. Which of these things does NOT happen in the intro to K9 and Company?
    1. K9 sits on a wall
    2. Sarah Jane takes a sip of wine at a Bus Stop
    3. K9 chases after another dog
    4. Sarah Jane goes for a run
  5. Terry Nation planned for a spin-off series about the Space Security Service, who appeared in Mission to the Unknown/The Daleks’ Masterplan. Which proposed character from the series recently starred in Big Finish’s Dalek Universe arc?
  6. Who said “Your brain, Miss Quill. Best weapon there is!”

Big Finish

  1. Which hugely influential detective novel by Agatha Christie did the Eighth Doctor receive a signed first-edition for his birthday in Terror Firma, and later discovered in the library while searching for the TARDIS manual during the opening of Storm Warning?
  2. In Doctor Who and the Pirates, Evelyn claims that the Doctor is a close personal friend and adviser of which British Prime Minister?
  3. What was the title of the Victorian omnibus that Charley received as a Christmas present from her grandmother (as revealed in Zagreus), and whose protagonist was criticised by Erimem for taking “rash and foolhardy” actions in The Axis of Insanity?
  4. Which legendary disc jockey makes a cameo appearance as himself during The Rapture?
  5. In Memory Lane, the TARDIS gets stolen after being strapped to the roof of what kind of vehicle?
  6. In The Kingmaker, which real-life series of educational children’s books was the Fourth Doctor contracted into writing, of which only five were completed?
  7. In Colditz, what electronic device from the early 2000s falls into Nazi hands after being confiscated from Ace’s rucksack?
  8. In Grand Theft Cosmos, Lucie pretends to be a posh lady with the same surname as which real-life socialite and TV personality?
  9. In Year of the Pig, which seven-volume work by Marcel Proust does the Sixth Doctor read on the beach in 1913, more than a decade before it had been fully published?
  10. Which mathematician featured in a major supporting role in the Companion Chronicle, The Library of Alexandria, and briefly appeared in Time and the Rani?

Master Round

  1. What acronym did The Face of Boe create from the name of the War Master’s “fobwatched” identity?
  2. What does “TCE” stand for?
  3. Name one of the TV shows that the Master has watched on air.
  4. How many outfits does the Dhawan Master wear on screen? 
  5. Which of these names has the Master never used as an alias? A) Tremas B) Estram C) Masters D) Ramset
  6. In Frontier from Space, name one nursery rhyme which Jo Grant recites to fend off the Master’s hypnotism.
  7. What is the canonical name/species of the Eighth Doctor TV Movie’s ‘goosnake’ Master?
  8. In Logopolis, what proportion of the universe is wiped out by an entropy wave?
  9. According to external sources and novels, what was the Master’s childhood name before he left Gallifrey?
  10. Of all the actors to play the Doctor and the Master across all forms of media, only one has played both roles twice. Who?

Answers

Classic Who 1963-1996

  1. B
  2. A
  3. D
  4. C
  5. B
  6. D
  7. A
  8. B
  9. C
  10. B

Doctor Who 2005-2013

  1. The sound of Graham Norton hosting Strictly Dance Fever
  2. Mr Spock
  3. Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen
  4. Six
  5. 1926
  6. Janis Joplin
  7. Thomas “Tom” Milligan
  8. Richard Curtis
  9. Two (The End of Time: Part Two and Deep Breath)
  10. 94%

Spin-offs

  1. Eight (Sarah Lou, Sally Anne, Suzie Q, Sally Jane, Mary Jane, Bobby Sue, Contrary jane, Calamity Jane)
  2. 19
    1. 7 names added to the roll of honours board in the series
    2. 3 “sexy” scenes
    3. 9 times in the series someone says “right now”
  3. Myfanwy
  4. C. K9 chases after another dog
  5. Mark Seven
  6. The Twelfth Doctor (in Class)

Big Finish

  1. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
  2. Winston Churchill
  3. The Alice Compendium
  4. Tony Blackburn
  5. An ice-cream van
  6. Doctor Who Discovers
  7. A portal CD player (CD Walkman)
  8. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
  9. In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu, or “Remembrance of Things Past”)
  10. Hypatia

Master Round

1. YANA (You Are Not Alone)

2. Tissue Compression Eliminator

3. Teletubbies, The Clangers

4. Nine (O, the tuxedo, Adelaide Gallery suit, Nazi uniform, purple and plaid outfit, orange and black outfit, Rasputin’s clothes, the Thirteenth Doctor’s clothes, and the Master-Doctor’s clothes)

5. Ramset

6. Mary Had a Little Lamb, Humpty Dumpty, See Saw Margery Daw

7. Deathworm Morphant

8. One-third

9. Koschei

10. Derek Jacobi

Following a fiercely fought WHouse of Games round where Cambridge pipped Oxford by a single point, Oxford ultimately emerged as the Doctor Who Society Victorious with a final score of 66 points to Cambridge’s 54 1/3. It was a terrifically fun afternoon for everyone who showed up and we’re confident that the next Varsity quiz will be even better!

Leave a comment