Doctor Who and Belgium: the complete(ish) list

Tomorrow is the 57th anniversary of the first Doctor Who episode. To commemorate the occasion, I've updated my list of all the times Belgium is mentioned on Doctor Who on TV (plus the Sarah Jane Adventures) and compiled them for you, in historical order.

I've also made an even fuller list of all of the references I felt worth including to Belgium in the Whoniverse as a whole. It's striking that the Doctor seems to have been at the famous battlefield football match during the Christmas Truce of 1914 several times over (though perhaps there was more than one football match). The First World War is a favoured topic for writers, so I've given those stories a tinted background. (NB however that the First World War scenes of The War Games are explicitly in France.)

I'm sure that there are some I have missed; do let me know.

Story: The Unicorn and the Wasp Year of setting: 800 AD (flashback from 1926) Year of broadcast: 2008 Doctor: Tenth Medium: TV Writer: Gareth Roberts Director: Graeme Harper DOCTOR: You know, I've been to Belgium. Yeah. I remember I was deep in the Ardennes, trying to find Charlemagne. He'd been kidnapped by an insane computer.
	Story: The Lonely Computer Year of setting: 800 AD Year of publication: 2008 Doctor: Ten, with Donna Medium: Short story, on BBC website Writer: Rupert Laight 'We're heading for Belgium, actually,' said the Doctor, without looking up. The TARDIS suddenly jolted to a stop. 'Belgium?!' yelled Donna. 'I don't think so!' But the Doctor had already sprinted over to the main doors and yanked them open. Donna trotted down the ramp to join him. 'I ask you,' she said, 'what's the point in Belgium?' 'They do fantastic lace,' offered the Doctor.
Story: The Doomsday Chronometer Year of setting: 1538 (in part) Year of release: 2016 Doctor: Eighth, with Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair and River Song Medium: Big Finish audio play Writer: Matt Fitton Director: Ken Bentley Thomas Cromwell decides to leave for Flanders to find a bride for Henry VIII (a bad move, as it turned out) and puts aside thoughts of the supernatural.
	Story: The Astrea Conspiracy Year of setting: 1666 Year of release: 2019 Doctor: Twelfth Medium: Big Finish audiobook, read by Neve McIntosh Writer: Lizbeth Myles Director: Nicholas Briggs Aphra Behn is in Antwerp, preventing a plot to assassinate Charles II, and a strange Scottish man turns up trying to restore the timeline.
Story: World Game Year of setting: 1815 (the Belgian bits anyway) Year of publication: 2005 Doctor: Second, with Lady Serenadellatrovella (Serena for short) Medium: Novel Writer: Terrance Dicks Someone is trying to alter the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo, and the Doctor is sent by the Time Lords to set things right. (A Season 6B story.) The Doctor and Serena sat at a pavement café table in the Grande Place in Brussels and watched the world go by. It was a pleasant sunny morning in June 1815 on the eve of Waterloo. The battle was still unfought, history still unchanged. ‘This mission seems to involve a great deal of sitting in cafés,’ said Serena. ‘It’s the Continental lifestyle,’ said the Doctor.
	Story: The Curse of Davros Year of setting: 1815 Year of release: 2012 Doctor: Sixth, with Flip and Davros Medium: Big Finish audio play Writer: Jonathan Morris Director: Nicholas Briggs The Daleks are in 21st century London, but in fact Davros is also trying to alter the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo. (Several scenes are set in Wavre, the rather nondescript provincial capital of Brabant-Wallon, which I pass through most mornings when I get the train to work. I've never seen any Daleks there myself.)
Story: Year of the Pig Year of setting: 1913 Year of release: 2006 Doctor: Sixth, with Peri Medium: Big Finish audio play Writer: Matthew Sweet Director: Gary Russell Toby the sapient pig is in hiding in Ostend. (Also fearures Adjoa Andoh, who played Martha's mother in New Who, Maureen O'Brien, who played Vicki in Old Who, and Michael Keating, who played Vila in Blake's 7.)
	Story: The Weeping Angels of Mons Year of setting: 1914 Year of publication: 2014-15 Doctor: Tenth Doctor, with Gabby Medium: Comics (Titan) Writer: Robbie Morrison Artist: Daniel Indro Colourist: Slamet Mujiono Letterers: Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt When Gabby and the Doctor arrive by accident in No Man's Land in July, 1916, they're met by Corporal Jamie Colqhoun — a soldier who knows from bitter experience that there are worse things than the Jerries out in the rat-strewn trenches. Things that drift through the smoke of a thousand cannon shells, and move only when you look away. Shadows that flit over artillery-blasted field hospitals and throw their terrifying wings over the living. Statues that steal your life in an instant. The Weeping Angels. But in a conflict where the life of young men is cheap, and thousands die every day — are the Angels actually offering salvation?
Story: Warfreekz Year of setting: 1914 Year of publication: 2006 Doctor: Tenth, with Rose Medium: Comic, in: Doctor Who Adventures issue 5 Writer: Alan Barnes Artist: John Ross Colourist: Adrian Salmon The alien Warfreekz are enjoying the slaughter in the Forest of Mormal; the Doctor and Rose stop them. (Incidentally the Forest of Mormal is just over the French border, so this may not actually be set in Belgium at all, but of course in the fog of war nobody can be quite sure where they are.) (Apparently an earlier story in the same magazine but the same authors has the Doctor finding a "Belgian phrasebook" in his pockets. Hmmph.)
	Story: Brotherhood of the Daleks Year of setting: reference to October 1914 Year of release: 2008 Doctor: Sixth, with Charlie Pollard Medium: Big Finish audio play Writer: Alan Barnes Director: Nicholas Briggs The Doctor recalls his visit to Folkestone where he met Jessica Borthwick in October 1914 when she was taking Belgian refugees across the Channel in her yacht while under fire from the Germans.
Story: The Wrong Doctors Year of setting: 1987 with reference to Belgium in 1914 Year of release: 2013 Doctor: Sixth (twice), with Mel Medium: Big Finish audio play Writer: Matt Fitton Director: Nicholas Briggs Most of the play is a complicated origin story for Mel, but there's a reference to one character losing her husband in Belgium in 1914.
	Story: Twice Upon A Time Year of setting: Christmas 1914 Year of broadcast: 2017 Doctors: Twelfth and Firist Medium: TV Writer: Steven Moffat Director: Rachel Talalay Also 2018 novelisation by Paul Cornell The First and Thirteenth Doctors, both on the verge of regeneration (or not, depending) get caught up in a final adventure for them both which starts on the battlefield and ends with the Christmas Truce. You've probably seen it.
Story: Deep and Dreamless Sleep Year of setting: Christmas 1914 Year of publication: 2006 Doctor: Tenth Medium: Short story, in The Sunday Times Writer: Paul Cornell Daniel Francis Thompson, aged four, and the Doctor also visit the battlefield to witness the Christmas Truce, where the Doctor referees the famous football match.
	Story: The Little Drummer Boy Year of setting: Christmas 1914 Year of publication: 2003 Doctor: First, with Steven and Sara Medium: short story, in Short Trips: Companions edited by Jacqueline Rayner Writer: Eddie Robson The Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom, having survived their adventure in Hollywood, find that the TARDIS is constrained to visiting various places at Christmas only, including the Christmas Truce, where Steven participates in the famous football match (maybe there was more than one of them). The slaughter of the trenches of the First World War was an image that had easily resonated down the four centuries to Steven's time. He'd expected to see tentative men keeping their heads below the tops of the trencftes,a deadly impasse.He hadn't expected to see the opposing forces mingling in the middle of No Man's Land, talking as best they could in spite of the language barrier, and sharing cigarettes. A sizeable group, down in one of the dugouts, was the source of the singing that Steven had heard. There was even a game of football taking place between the enemy trenches. This seems to be the earliest visit to Belgium in the Doctor's personal timeline.
Story: Never Seen Cairo Year of setting: Christmas 1914, and briefly a year later Year of publication: 2004 Doctor: Fifth, with Peri; and briefly Seventh Medium: short story, in Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, edited by Paul Cornell Writer: Darren Sellars The Fifth Doctor and Peri encounter Edward Woodbourne in the trenches (and the football match, again). A year later, the Seventh Doctor delivers a letter from Edward to his widow. (Not a spoiler, the story starts there.) The Doctor was certainly an odd chap, much more friendly than any of the officers who'd visited the trenches.
	Story: Horrors of War Year of setting: 1914, just after the outbreak of war in Belgium. Year of release: 2018 Doctor: Third, with Jo Grant Medium: BBC audiobook, read by Katy Manning Writer: Justin Richards The year is 1914, and the Great War is just getting started. In a field hospital in Ypres, Belgium, Nurse Annie Grantham receives two visitors: a distinguished doctor and his administrative assistant, Miss Grant. They have many questions to ask of Annie, and of her distressed and wounded charges. The Doctor is returning to a scenario he encountered long ago: a version of the First World War where the Archduke Ferdinand wasn’t murdered, leading to changes all along the subsequent timeline. He now suspects that someone is at large in 1914, intervening in events with some unknown purpose.
Story: The Haunting of Malkin Place Year of setting: Flashbacks to 1917 Year of release: 2017 Doctor: Fourth, with Romana II Medium: Big Finish audio play Writer: Phil Mulryne Director: Nicholas Briggs It's 1922, and the Doctor and Romana get mixed up with a dubious spiritualist (played by Simon "Arthur Dent" Jones). Young Maurice does not seem to have fully escaped the Third Battle of Ypres.
	Story: Timechase Year of setting: unspecified First World War Year of publication: 1975 Doctor: none, just Daleks Medium: short story, in the 1976 Terry Nation's Dalek Annual Writer: Terry Nation (presumably) Also 2018 audiobook version read by Matthew Waterhouse A story that is not very subtly based on the 1965 TV story The Chase. The Daleks pursue our protagonists to various places, including the trenches, where they unintentionally blunt a German advance. (NB the earliest published reference to Belgium in spinoff fiction, as opposed to TV Who.)
Story: Autumn Mist Year of setting: 1944 Year of publication: 1999 Doctor: Eighth, with Sam Jones and Fitz Kreiner Medium: Novel Writer: David A. McIntee The Ardennes, December 1944: the Nazi forces are making their last offensive in Europe — a campaign which will come to be called the Battle of the Bulge. But there is a third side to this battle: an unknown and ancient force which seems to pay little heed to the laws of nature. Where do the bodies of the dead disappear to? What is the true nature of the military experiments conducted by both sides? The Doctor, Sam and Fitz must seek out the truth in a battlefield where no one and nothing is quite what it seems…
	Story: The Cabinet of Light Year of setting: 1949, flashbacks to Belgium 1944 Year of publication: 2003 Doctor: Unknown (possibly Shalka Doctor?) Medium: Novella Writer: Daniel O'Mahoney Also audio read by Terry Molloy Protagonist Honoré Lechasseur was wounded fighting in Belgium in 1944.
Story: Good Night Year of setting: 1952 (probably) Year of release: 2011 Doctor: Eleventh Medium: DVD extra Writer: Steven Moffat Director: Richard Senior Doctor: River! I'll see you in Antwerp! Tell Marilyn she's too late, she'll have to use the biplane. Take care! Reference presumably to Marilyn Monroe who the Eleventh Doctor met (and possibly married) in 1952.
	Story: The Idiot's Lantern Year of setting: 1953 Year of broadcast: 2006 Doctor: Tenth, with Rose Medium: TV story Writer: Mark Gatiss Director: Euros Lyn Guard: Wait, wait, wait! Where do you think… (The Doctor shows him the psychic paper.) Guard: Oh! I’m very sorry, sir. Shouldn’t you be at the Coronation? Doctor: They’re saving me a seat. Tommy: Who did he think you were? Doctor: King of Belgium, apparently. (Of course there is no such person as the King of Belgium. Our head of state is the King of the Belgians.)
Story: The Faceless Ones Year of setting: 1966 Year of broadcast: 1967 Doctor: Second, with Ben, Polly and Jamie Medium: TV story Writers: David Ellis & Malcolm Hulke Director: Gerry Mill Also novelisation by Terrance Dicks Commandant: Splendid, Splendid. I'll take that Brussels call now. Doctor: There's just one thing, Commandant. Commandant: Yes, yes, right. Doctor: Our Tardis. Our police box. Commandant: Ah Bruxelles. Oui, j'écoute. [Excruciating accent] Doctor: The police box on the runway. Commandant: Oh, yes, of course. Jean, see that the Doctor gets his property back, will you? Goodbye, Doctor, and thank you so much. (The first time any part of Belgium was mentioned in the show. Lost from the archives, sadly.)
	Story: The Time Monster Year of setting: UNIT era Year of broadcast: 1972 Doctor: Third, with Jo, Brigadier, Benton, Yates and the Master Medium: TV story Writer: Robert Sloman, Director: Paul Bernard Also novelisation by Terrance Dicks Percival: But I'd stake my reputation on the professor's integrity. Cook: You already have, Charles. You already have. A foolish gamble gone wrong. Now, it's not surprising that you lost. Percival: Please, Humphrey! Cook: I can see no alternative to a full Whitehall inquiry. I can only hope that we don't have to parade our dirty linen at Westminster, not to mention Brussels.
Story: The Man from DOCTO(R) Year of setting: post-UNIT era Year of publication: 2003 Doctor: none, just Harry Sullivan Medium: short story, in Short Trips: Companions edited by Jacqueline Rayner Writer: Andrew Collins ‘And so the girl gets on this blooming great spaceship with the seeding device to save an entire alien civilisation,and promptly leaves the planet. Leaving me to get back from the Belgian Alps without my passport’ Harry sat back and swirled his brandy. ‘Fortunately, I know a chap at the Embassy…’ Downing their pints, Chumpy Withers and Buffy Worthington were chortling in gleeful disbelief. Buffy gave him a shrewd look. ‘Does Belgium actually have Alps,old man?’ he asked. Harry looked up sharply, then cleared his throat, ‘My round, I think,’ he said,and headed for the bar.
	Story: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith Year of setting: 2009, Brussels visit implied in early 1990s Year of broadcast: 2009 Doctor: Tenth, but it's Sarah's show Medium: TV – Sarah Jane Adventures Writer: Gareth Roberts Director: Joss Agnew Also novelisation by Gareth Roberts Gita: So, Peter, where are you heading after the reception? Somewhere exotic? Peter: Afterwards is a surprise. Gita: It can't be any worse than our honeymoon. Total disaster. Haresh: I enjoyed it. Gita: Brussels. There's nothing there!
Story: Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman Year of setting: 1994 Year of broadcast: 1994 Doctor: no Doctor, just Susan, Ian and Barbara Medium: BBC audio play Writer: Adrian Mourby Jane Asher plays Susan, James Grout is Ian Chesterton, Andrew Sachs is Temmosus, Peter Woodthorpe is the researcher, finding out what exactly happened to her. It turns out that in 1994 she is working in Brussels (in a job that in our time stream was not actually invented until 1999). See the video (well, pic with soundtrack) for the full story.
	Story: Escape Velocity Year of setting: 2001 Year of publication: 2001 Doctor: Seventh, with Fitz Kreiner and introducing Anji Kapoor Medium: Novel Writer: Colin Brake After five years as an item, three living together, Dave and Anji had come to the conclusion that they were meta-morphosing into some kind of off-the-shelf parody of a married couple long before their time. This year they had decided to do something about it, and their joint New Year’s resolution had been to do Wild and Spontaneous Things. ‘I’m really not sure Brussels was quite the right choice to be a Wild and Spontaneous Thing,’ moaned Anji, hugging her elegantly-cut designer coat tighter against the cold, drizzly wind. She started walking again, quick but small steps taking her back towards the centre of the city. Dave hurried after her, speculating – not for the first time – as to whether his long-time girlfriend had hidden powers of telepathy.
Story: Death in Heaven Year of setting: Unspecified, probably 2014 Year of broadcast: 2014 Doctor: Twelfth, with Missy Medium: TV Writer: Steven Moffat Director: Rachel Talalay Missy: In fact, you know what? Just for that, I'm leaving. Boys, blow up this plane and, I don't know, Belgium, yeah? Kill some Belgians. Might as well. They're not even French. Byeeee!
	Story: An Extraterrestrial Werewolf in Belgium Year of setting: Unspecified, probably 2015 Year of broadcast: 2015 Doctor: no Doctor, but Iris Wildthyme Medium: Big Finish audio play, in the Wildthyme Reloaded collection. Writer: Scott Handcock Director: Scott Handcock Iris Wildthyme and her friend Edwin Turner visit Mechelen, between Brussels and Antwerp, and have a typically eccentric adventure with a Flemish werewolf.
Story: Time Crash Year of setting: beyond time and space Year of broadcast: 2006 Doctors: Fifth and Tenth Medium: TV Writer: Steven Moffat Director: Graeme Harper The Fifth Doctor: That's an alert, level five, indicating a temporal collision. It like two Tardises have merged, but there's definitely only one Tardis present. It's like two time zones or more at the heart of the Tardis. That's a paradox that could blow a hole in the space time continuum the size of…. Well, actually, the exact size of Belgium. That's a bit undramatic, isn't it? Belgium? Undramatic, eh? I guess I'll take what I can get.