Doctor Who’s 770 Reference

By Kirby Bartlett-Sloan: I was watching the recent Doctor Who episode “Arachnids in the UK” for the second time when I noticed the room number the Trump-y character is standing in front of when he meets Team TARDIS, he having just escaped from a room containing a giant spider.

It was Room 770.

Coincidence, or is there an old-time fan on the production team making an obscure reference?

That is either a built set, meaning the room number was chosen when creating it, or it was location shooting – and I can’t imagine they would take the trouble to go to the 7th floor for the scene so again the room number was chosen by the production team.

I’m attaching screenshots and enhancements.

59 thoughts on “Doctor Who’s 770 Reference

  1. P J Evans
    Often, my choices come down to which ones I enjoy playing. For some reason, the only arrangement I ever see of Peter Gunn’s theme, for instance, is kind of hollow and unsatisfying. Hawaii Five-O has a good arrangement, and I like 77 Sunset Strip but don’t play it, but I just pulled the music off the shelf and gave it a try, and I might put it on my tablet soon. (And if I do that, I’ll probably put another bunch of things from the same book on there as well.)

    And this reminds me of a bit of audio humor from around 1960, supposedly by Spike Jones, but really more of a franchise in his name. From the OMNIBUST lp, here’s eight minutes of drama and detective show music, “Ah-One, Ah-Two, Sunset Strip,” featuring the great bandleader, Lawrence Staccato. Most of my family can quote most of the album (the first record I owned—Dad gave it to me when I had the flu, around 1964), and this track is probably our favorite. Great lines and a solid ending that echoes the future album “Myron Floren’s Disco Polka,” which I’m sure you all know and love.

    warning: nonstop earworm-grade tunes

  2. Did nobody mention Spiderman?

    Plus, they are still sometimes making tv themes that stand with the best…

    Firefly is getting older, but it sticks in my brain and on my playlists.

    The Steven Universe opening theme (say the word “we” on the right tone and almost everyone I know conversant with the theme has an urge to burst out the rest), and the closing theme revealed bit by bit through the first 2-3 seasons.

    Game of Thrones: the theme remains my favourite part. Westworld.

  3. @Lenora Rose: The kid’s mom insisted that I record myself singing the version of Spider-Man I wrote to sing to our kid as an infant, which goes:

    Daddy-Man, Daddy-Man,
    Does whatever a daddy can,
    Sits around, belches and farts,
    His contribution to the liberal arts.
    Daddy-Man, Daddy-Man,
    Oh, Daddy-Man.

  4. That’s not the tune, though. They Simpsoned it, matching the meter exactly and changing some of the intervals and such to strongly suggest the song in a non-actionable, non-royalties kind of way. It might even sort of harmonize with it.

    added: Kudos to Alf Clausen, who did this on The Simpsons with such skill that I sometimes didn’t realize they’d changed anything in the melody. I was pissed when they replaced him.

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