The storage lockers of the TARDIS contain priceless treasures from the Doctor’s many voyages in time and space. Never one for meticulous cataloguing, the Doctor bungs most of the treasures any old how into any old bin that comes to hand: a nineteenth century tea chest, overflowing with beautiful embroidered silks and labelled “From the journey to Cathay”, nudges up against the most sophisticated 23rd Century replicator; a beautiful walnut bookcase, stuffed full of first editions of Dickens (each signed, “For my old friend, the Doctor, with love on this Christmas Day 1851 – Charlie”), vies for room with a workbench and a Laserson probe. Only the eagle-eyed will spot the tiny, worn leather notebook, and be able to decipher the trembling script on the cover page. It reads…

The Doctor Who Companion Christmas Quiz 2022!

Dare you, my friends, answer 50 of the most fiendish questions ever devised at Christmas? Of course, you dare…

Questions today – answers after Christmas. So – as a 1980s producer once said – stay tuned…

Adventures of the First and Second Doctors

1. Where is the fire Za makes?

2. What facial adornment do the War Lords put on in order to hypnotise their subjects?

3. What do the initials HADS stand for?

4. What is the purpose of the HADS and what happens when it is activated?

5. In an alternative history, what lands in the vicinity of Sloane Square?

6. In another alternative history, who stops the car at last near a police box on Barnes Common?

What connects:

7. Jano, Professor Sorenson, and Professor Marius?

8. Xoanon, BOSS, and The Oracle?

9. Mike Yates, John Andrews, and Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment?

Which companion…

10. – is to be steamed to death?

11. – has a pet called Sandy?

12. – conceives a child while the TARDIS is in flight?

Which Doctor calls, or refers to, which other Doctor (or Doctors) as…?

13. “Scarecrow”.

14. “A dandy and a clown.”

15. “Teeth and Curls”.

16. “A white haired Scotsman.”

17. “Corporal Jones.”

18. “Captain Grumpy”.

19. “A pixie”.

20. “A tall light bulb – he glitters.”

21. “Mr Pastry”.

22. And – for a bonus mark – why is number 21 an in-joke from the production team?

Which crackpot societies number the following among their members?

23. Professor Kettlewell

24. Eric Klieg

25. Dugeen

Behind the scenes

26. Which actress, in which Fourth Doctor story, couldn’t drink for a whole day once sewn into her monster costume, for fear of accidents?

27. The original script for Terror of the Zygons conceived of the Zygons not as pustule-encrusted foetus-like aliens, but as – what?

28. Why were the Sontaran masks redesigned between The Time Warrior (1974) and The Sontaran Experiment (1975)?

29. [Bonus question – and why did the redesign create a continuity mistake in the first five minutes of episode two of The Sontaran Experiment?]

30. Which actress, playing which companion, got fed up with which problem with her first costume and was relieved that it was rectified with her second costume?

Questions from the Randomiser:

31. Which Doctor became a vegetarian and in which story?

32. Who has the lungs of a Birostrop?

33. What substance is The Privateer made from…?

34. And in which story is the same substance used to build an American jail to contain the Doctor?

35. Stotz fails to deliver the promised arms shipment to Sharaz Jek. How many kilos of spectrox does he nevertheless demand in payment?

36. And how many kilos does Sharaz Jek offer him?

37. Who wrote Last Chance for Man?

38. Humans give the undersea Silurians the insulting name, Sea Devils. Returning the favour, the Sea Devils use which two insulting epithets for human beings?

39. In order of appearance on screen, can you name the disguised forms of the six segments of the Key to Time?

40. Which story is the first to feature, on screen, a gay female couple who are identified as such?

41. When the first manned NASA mission to Mars approaches the surface of the red planet, what message, spelt out on its surface, dumbfounds Mission Control?

42. How many models or marks of K9 have featured in Doctor Who from 1977 to 2022?

43. And how was each model or mark of K9 written out of the series, and in which stories?

Identify the villain from the line of dialogue – and name which story features the villain!

44. “You are not accustomed to feeling frightened, are you, Doctor? You are very wise to be afraid of me!”

45. “We play the contest again – Time Lord.”

46. “You she-devils want to destroy me! Now, before I can have my revenge!”

47. “I think that is exactly the question I ought to be asking you – Doctor.”

48. “Come, Kronos! Come!”

49. “Imbeciles! Fools! Worthless and incompetent idiots! What pernicious injury have you inflicted on my precious engines?”

50. “A hero? I should have been a god!”

Come back to the DWC on Boxing Day to find out the answers!