Last updated on December 29, 2023
Reverse the Polarity | Illustration by Randy Gallegos
Growing up in the UK, there are a few TV shows you can't avoid knowing about. Incredible sitcoms like Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, or the globally recognized Mr Bean. And of course, there's Doctor Who, one of the longest running sci-fi shows in the world that even predates Star Trek by three years. 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of this truly iconic show, and as a Magic fan, I can’t imagine a better way to do that than by celebrating with the first Universes Beyond product that's really connected with me.
Like many other British millennials, I was introduced to Doctor Who with the modern reboot in 2005 and have become a huge fan of the show. Today, I’m going to talk you through what Doctor Who is about and discuss some of my favorite new cards from these Commander decks. While I confess that I know comparatively little about the original run of the show, I'll try to include some background information where I can.
Let’s jump into it!
What Is Doctor Who About?
The Rani | Illustration by Borja Pindado
Doctor Who follows the adventures of a time-traveling alien known simply as “The Doctor”. The Doctor is from an ancient alien race known as the “Time Lords”, beings who’ve discovered how to traverse time and space using ships called TARDISes (which stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space). The Doctor’s story starts when they steal a TARDIS from their home planet Gallifrey and set off to explore the universe. They're typically joined in their adventures by one of many companions, who are typically humans. Along the way, they solve problems across the stars, fighting aliens and plenty more.
One of the key elements of the show is that The Doctor and other time lords have the ability to regenerate when they're about to die, turning into an entirely new person. They keep the memories of their previous selves but have a completely different personality. Every one of The Doctor’s lives is different, but they're all the same person. This is simply a way to recast The Doctor when the actor wants to step back from the role, but it also allows the show to kill off each Doctor in dramatic fashion, sometimes meaning that loyal companions have to adjust to a new Doctor’s quirks.
Furthermore, the show features a variety of villains, like the Daleks, a race of genetically engineered aliens whose sole purpose is to wipe out all other forms of life, and The Master, an evil Time Lord who endeavors to sow chaos throughout the universe. But despite fighting all of these villains, one thing always shines through. The Doctor tries their best to remain a pacifist. They dislike fighting and violence, never carry weapons, and will always try to solve problems using compassion and willpower. Only when that fails do they take drastic measures.
Story Spotlight Cards
Let’s talk about some of the awesome flavor wins. As far as I’m concerned, this entire set is, as The Ninth Doctor would say, fantastic. I could probably talk about the references on nearly every card in the set, but I’ve chosen just a select few. I'll of course be talking about major plot points, so I'm warning you that there's a spoiler warning now in effect.
Gallifrey Falls // No More
This card is one of the best flavor designs I’ve ever seen. First, a quick bit of background. When the reboot began in 2005, we heard many references to the “Time War,” a war which threatened the safety of the universe fought between the Time Lords and the Daleks. While little is told to us, we know that somehow, The Doctor was the only Time Lord to survive the war. We later find out that this is because The Doctor chose to end the war by detonating a weapon of mass destruction, called “The Moment,” destroying Gallifrey and wiping out both sides. Throughout the series, we discover other survivors, but The Doctor is always haunted by the fact that he committed this act of genocide, choosing to forget the version of himself that did so, known as The War Doctor (played by the legendary John Hurt).
For the 50th anniversary of the show, we were treated to a feature-length episode, The Day of the Doctor, starring the current The Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, teaming up with the previous The Tenth Doctor, David Tennant. In this episode, The Doctor is shown a painting with two possible titles: No More, or Gallifrey Falls, depicting the final battle of the time war. Ten and Eleven end up running into The War Doctor as he's about to use The Moment and end the time war, but they come up with a solution to save the Time Lords from the blast. Using their TARDISes as well as those of all their previous lives, they hide Gallifrey in a small pocket of space, as depicted on the new artwork for Out of Time. This causes the Dalek ships around the planet to end up firing on themselves, destroying their entire fleet. This card depicts both outcomes of the war perfectly: Gallifrey Falls is a board wipe, while No More represents their solution to save the planet.
But, there’s an even deeper cut than that. At the end of the episode, having said goodbye to the other Doctors, Eleven is greeted by a man called The Curator, played by The Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker. He tells Eleven that the painting actually has one title now: Gallifrey Falls, No More. He implies to Eleven that Gallifrey is now out there for him to find and reunite with his people, which becomes one of the key plot points for the next few years of the show. This is beautifully illustrated by giving the card Fuse.
Sonic Screwdriver + Laser Screwdriver
The Sonic Screwdriver is The Doctor’s multipurpose tool. It can basically do anything that they wish, so it makes sense for this mana rock to have a few extra abilities for different scenarios. The Master needs one extra purpose though: they want theirs to kill people, so John Simm’s Master chooses to use a Laser Screwdriver when he fights The Tenth Doctor.
The Dalek Emperor + Coward // Killer + Everything Comes to Dust
The end of the reboot’s first season sees The Ninth Doctor face off against the Daleks and their Emperor. Trapped in the year 20100, he sends Rose Tyler back to her own time while he builds a “delta wave” to wipe out the Daleks and save the Earth. However, detonating it early would destroy all life on the Earth as well as the Dalek fleet. Filled with rage from his days in the time war, he threatens to do it. The Dalek Emperor goads him to do it, asking if he's a coward or a killer. This split card shows the decision perfectly, as Killer is capable of destroying all Daleks an opponent has in play, while Coward prevents a creature from getting into combat with you.
Vowing not to repeat his mistake from the time war, The Doctor simply replies “Coward, any day” and drops his equipment. He accepts his death, but Rose reappears. Having absorbed the heart of the TARDIS, she destroys the entire Dalek fleet, protecting her beloved Doctor. We see this play out on Everything Comes to Dust, and it’s also the reason that the Coward spell has time travel on it.
Weeping Angel + Blink + Sally Sparrow
Widely regarded as one of the best episodes from the reboot, if not the entire show, Blink is the story of Sally Sparrow as she investigates the mysterious disappearance of her close friend. During the course of her investigation, she finds that her friend was sent back in time to the year 1920 by the Weeping Angels; malevolent creatures that appear to be statues when you look at them but strike the moment you turn your back. Tucking creatures into their owners’ libraries is really on point for representing this ability. The episode in general is wonderfully creepy and complex and cemented the Weeping Angels as probably the best new villains that the reboot has produced. As such, they were later brought back as returning adversaries for the Eleventh and Thirteenth Doctors.
Adipose Offspring
The adipose is a creature from the fourth series of the reboot. A mysterious company has released a new weight loss pill that's turning people’s fat into these adorable little creatures. The Tenth Doctor and his new companion, [car]dDonna Noble[/card], investigate the company and find some people are completely dissolving into adipose. Giving this card emerge is the perfect representation of this, and come on, look at how adorable they are!
As Foretold + Four Knocks + Farewell
These cards tell the tear-jerking story of The Tenth Doctor’s regeneration. The Doctor meets a mysterious woman who gives him a prophecy that his death will soon come after he hears four knocks. Having narrowly escaped death a few times after hearing this, his companion, Wilfred Mott, gets trapped in a radioactive chamber. He knocks on the glass four times and The Doctor sees that the only way to get him out is to sacrifice himself. He does so willingly, triggering his regeneration. He ends the episode by saying goodbye to all of his companions before returning to the TARDIS, crying the words “I don’t want to go…” and finally regenerating into The Eleventh.
Reverse the Polarity
If you watch any amount of science fiction, you’ll be familiar with “technobabble”. The kind of made up science that helps the writers add some kind of justification to various plot points. While the phrase “Reverse the Polarity” didn't originate on Doctor Who, it was certainly popularized by it, originally from the run of Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor. In particular, he would say “Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow”. It’s also completely ridiculous since neutrons have no polarity, but there we go. Since then, it has been used all over pop culture, from Star Trek to Harley Quinn.
Bessie, the Doctor’s Roadster
I have sadly not watched any of Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor, but even I know about Bessie. The Third Doctor has been exiled to Earth without access to his TARDIS and ends up employed with UNIT, the Unified Intelligence Task Force. Naturally, without his TARDIS, he needs another way of getting around, which is of course Bessie. It’s great to me that one of the only references to this era of the show that I recognize has its own card.
This card is designed around the final episode of The Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, where he regenerates into The Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker. In this episode, he encounters The First Doctor, played by David Bradley in place of the late William Hartnell, who played The First Doctor in the sixties. The original tapes of quite a few episodes from Doctor Who’s original run were lost for various reasons.
Among these is The First Doctor’s final episode, so his regeneration episode is literally lost to time. This episode brings One and Twelve together so they can help each other come to terms with the process of regeneration and go through it together. This served to give an emotional farewell to Capaldi’s Doctor while also providing updated context to Hartnell’s regeneration. It also does this with the backdrop of helping a soldier from World War One come to terms with his imminent death on the battlefield, as shown on the reprint of Swords to Plowshares, making it a heartbreaking episode from start to finish.
Exterminate!
The Daleks are likely the most recognizable characters from the entire show. They're a genetically engineered race, devoid of all emotions, who are trying to purge the universe of any forms of life they deem inferior to themselves (which of course, is all of them). Their classic battle cry “Exterminate!” is brought to life on this brilliant card, allowing you to have each of your Daleks exterminate a creature of your choice.
Genesis of the Daleks + Crisis of Conscience
When I started watching Doctor Who as a teenager, everyone told me that I had to watch Genesis of the Daleks. This classic episode starred Tom Baker as The Fourth Doctor, with his best-known companion, Sarah Jane Smith. The Doctor is sent on a mission to Skaro, home planet of the Daleks, to stop them from ever being created. Here, he meets Davros, a fanatical military scientist researching a solution to genetic mutations occurring in his race, the Kaleds. By removing all the Kaled’s emotions, this creates the new Dalek race.
The finale of the episode sees The Doctor find a way to bring an end to The Daleks, but as the card Crisis of Conscience implies, he struggles with the decision of if he has the right to commit the genocide of an evil race. Doing so would make him no better than the Daleks themselves. With this plan interrupted, the Daleks decide that Davros is inferior to them, so they kill him. Davros comes back for several more appearances, but in a kind of running joke, he appears to die at the end of most of these encounters.
River Song
River Song is one of the show’s most intriguing characters. First appearing in season four of the reboot, she reveals herself to be someone from The Doctor’s personal future. It turns out that she and The Doctor keep meeting in the wrong order. The Doctor’s first time meeting her in this episode is at the end of her life, and each subsequent time she gets younger, while he gets older.
It’s an incredible story that's played out over multiple seasons with multiple Doctors. This is of course why she allows you to draw cards from your library in reverse order, an effect that's new to Magic. The card also has her catchphrase: “spoilers!” as she warns The Doctor that she can’t tell him what she knows of his future, appropriately rewarding you if your opponent tries to take a peek at the cards in their library.
Day of the Moon + Renegade Silent
In one of my favorite episodes of the show, The Eleventh Doctor encounters The Silence, a unique enemy that erases itself from your memory the very instant that you look away from it. They have used this ability to influence events throughout human history without anyone noticing they were even there. These cards illustrate this by goading opposing creatures. Essentially making it seem as though those creatures have forgotten that you exist, so they’re now attacking other players.
The Foretold Soldier
One of the best episodes from Peter Capaldi’s run as The Twelfth Doctor, Mummy on the Orient Express saw him confront The Foretold Soldier. This creature would select a victim and then give that person just 66 seconds to live. Moreso, only the victim would be able to see the creature. To others witnessing the murder, it simply appeared as if the victim was crying out in terror before dying of a heart attack. This design is brilliant. Only one creature can be in combat with it at a time; once it leaves combat, it exiles itself and can be recast. Not to mention that it literally has foretell. It’s awesome.
Heaven Sent
This iconic episode features a lone Twelfth Doctor as he tries to escape from a trap set for him by the Time Lords. He's teleported to a castle with a creepy, hooded figure that can kill him with a single touch, unless he confesses to what the Time Lords want him to. In searching for an alternative, he finds a crystal wall that he could escape through, but it’s harder than diamond and several feet thick. He begins a loop where he strikes the wall, is mortally wounded, then climbs back into the teleporter and is reborn.
The loop continues on for four billion years, until he eventually breaks through the wall. This saga is brilliant, letting you investigate for a solution to the wall and keep chipping away at your opponent's life totals, beginning the loop again and again until one of your opponents loses.
Fugitive of the Judoon + The Fugitive Doctor
This episode was one of the better ones from the most recent Thirteenth Doctor’s run. This episode saw Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor encounter a version of herself that she has no memory of being. We first come across a seemingly ordinary woman being chased by the Judoon, a race of alien rhinos who are an interstellar police force.
It turns out that this woman is actually The Doctor, having disguised herself as a human using the Chameleon Arch, something we saw previously in The Tenth Doctor’s Family of Blood story. Each of these plot points is outlined perfectly in the chapters of this saga. I really enjoyed this twist and I hope we see more of Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor in the future.
Awesome Flavor Texts
This set has several reprints with incredible flavor texts. Many scenes from the show would be difficult to represent on individual cards, particularly some of The Doctor’s famous monologues. Let’s have a look at some of the best ones.
Time Wipe
While battling Davros in Remembrance of the Daleks, The Seventh Doctor listens to him gleefully bragging about his evil plans. Seven then cuts him off, saying: “Crush the lesser races! Conquer the galaxy! Unimaginable power! Unlimited rice pudding!” Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor was considerably goofier than his predecessors and this particular takedown of the Dalek creator is consistently looked back on as a highlight of the show’s original run. The flavor text on this Time Wipe is from when The Seventh Doctor finished off Davros in that episode with the Hand of Omega.
Everybody Lives!
The Ninth Doctor is still struggling to come to terms with his actions in the time war. In this iconic two-parter, he is able to find a solution that allows everybody to live. This overwhelming sense of joy makes this the most memorable moment from The Ninth Doctor’s disappointingly short run.
Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey
This quote defined much of The Tenth Doctor’s personality. In Blink, The Doctor explains to Sally Sparrow why he's able to have a transcript of the conversation he's currently having with her despite being on a recording. The full quote appearing on this card as flavor text is perfect. There is, after all, a reason that this is the namesake for the Commander deck itself and was even referred back to during the 50th anniversary special.
Grasp of Fate
Perhaps one of the most memorable moments on the show, Rose Tyler has ended up in a parallel universe and separated from The Tenth Doctor. He uses the energy of a supernova to project his image into her universe to say goodbye, but the image fades away before he can say that he loves her, leaving a distraught Rose crying on the shores of Bad Wolf Bay.
Talisman of Creativity
The idea to turn The Doctor’s various quirky accessories into mana rock reprints is brilliant. In the season two finale, The Tenth Doctor keeps breaking out a pair of 3D glasses for seemingly no reason before explaining their significance during the conclusion. It’s also perfect for the blue/red talisman to be represented by a pair of blue/red glasses. Other memorable items like The Eleventh Doctor’s bow tie, The Twelfth Doctor’s electric guitar and The Fifth Doctor’s decorative celery stick also get mentions, which I think is a perfect way to feature these on cards.
Prairie Stream + Choked Estuary
The first episode of The Tenth Doctor’s first season saw him take Rose to New Earth in the year 5,000,000,023 and the city of New New York. This gave us a memorable quote about the city from The Tenth Doctor, featured on this new Prairie Stream. We then returned to the planet in the following season and met the worst traffic jam ever, as pictured on the aptly named Choked Estuary. This season three episode, Gridlock, seemed like a generic filler episode that all shows inevitably go to but ended up setting up one of the key plot points for the series, with the death of the Face of Boe.
Darkwater Catacombs
The episode Dark Water, the first part of Death in Heaven, is the season finale for The Twelfth Doctor’s first season. It’s one of the creepiest episodes in the show, as The Doctor encounters a strange end of life service that sees people’s skeletons encased in water-filled housings. Except we then learn that… well I’ll let you experience that for yourselves. It’s a brilliant finale and given the name of the land, a perfect home for this piece of flavor text.
Shadowblood Ridge
Demons Run is the location of one of the most consequential moments in The Eleventh Doctor’s story, where we finally learn the true identity of River Song. Having kidnapped Amy Pond, series antagonist Madame Kovarian holds her at Demons Run, a military fortress on an asteroid. Its name comes from an ancient poem, which seemingly predicts the events in this particular episode and is included on this card’s flavor text.
Ecstatic Beauty
I leave you with a card that is less about flavor text, but the name itself is the flavor. Doctor Who has a long tradition of providing some educational backdrops to its stories, traveling back in time to important moments in history or time periods or by visiting historical figures. The reboot, for example, has seen portrayals of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare (as seen on the perfectly named Thespian's Stage), Agatha Christie, Rosa Parks, and Nikola Tesla, to name a few.
But none were quite as brilliant as meeting Vincent van Gogh. At the end of the episode, knowing how much he's plagued by mental health issues, The Doctor brings van Gogh to the Musée D’Orsay in present day Paris, where much of his work is on display. There, he asks the curator, played by the wonderful Bill Nighy, to sum up van Gogh in a hundred words. He gives a beautiful speech which includes the line “He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty.” I humbly advise that you watch this wondrous scene because it’s incredible to see it represented on its own card.
Wrap Up
Ecstatic Beauty | Illustration by Alice Xia Zhang
I'm a huge fan of this show and I hope I’ve been able to share this love with you. If you’d like to check it out, all episodes from the reboot and possibly from before that will be added to Disney+ in the US and the full back catalog will be added to BBC iPlayer in the UK soon. For now, I’ll leave you with the iconic words of the Eleventh Doctor: “So… all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will, where do you want to start?”
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Until next time, take care of yourselves!
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