History Recap / DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock

* AdultsAreMoreAthropomorphic: We meet an interspecies couple — human female and catman male. They recently had a litter of children who all look like normal kittens (because they were all played by kittens).

The Doctor tells Martha that her one trip is over, and she can go home now... unless she wants to travel more. No reason, really, he'd just like to travel more. In fact, he'd like to take her to the future -- and how about another planet? Martha is all for it, but throws him by asking if they can visit ''his'' home. Planet of the Time Lords, after all; got to be worth a look? The Doctor finds himself agreeing, fondly recalling the burnt orange sky, mountains covered in red grass, a gleaming city under its mighty glass dome...

-->'''The Doctor:''' What if the traffic jam never stops? What if there's no help coming, not ever? What if there's nothing? Just the motorway, with the cars going round and round and round and round, never stopping. ''Forever''.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Done very subtly when the Face of Boe's last four words are "You are not alone." This is later revealed to be a reference to the Master's disguise of Professor Yana, whose last name is an acronym of the four words. Thing is, the only reason [[note]]barring time paradox-related reasons, given that the Face of Boe is implied to be a future Jack Harkness[[/note]] for the Face of Boe to be so cryptic rather than saying something genuinely useful like "The Master is alive" is because the Face of Boe was deliberately hiding information from the audience so that there could be a big reveal in the finale.

** One of the car drivers is a completely red dude -- we saw another one in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth New Earth]]".

* DiscoDan: The Cassini "sisters", they're old ladies but born in the far future later than any of us and they still decorate their car stereotypical for the 30's - 40's.

* FuturisticSuperhighway: The Doctor returns to the planet New Earth to discover one of these in the city of New New York stuck in a massive traffic jam because the entire population of the rest of the planet died in a virulent plague, and the under city, including the motorway, was sealed off to protect the population. Afterward, there wasn't enough power to reopen it. And if that wasn't bad enough, there are devolved Macra which escaped from the zoo living on the bottom of the pollution-choked tunnel waiting to snatch anyone who tries to use the 3-person "fast lane".

* NoProductSafetyStandards: The future society nearly collapsed because of drugs that "blissed" you to death.

* NothingIsScarier: We don't really see the Macra beyond their claws and [[ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes eyes.]] Makes it all the more terrifying whenever they peel open a car like a tin can and eat the people inside.

-->I saw it on a film. They used to do it in submarines. The trouble is, I can't remember what they did next.

** According to WordOfGod, the concept of an endless traffic jam in a dystopian city is a shoutout to Mega-City One in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', and the man with the bowler hat is based on Max Normal, a supporting character in the comic.
** Sally Calypso was an homage to [[ComicBook/TheBalladOfHaloJones Swifty Frisko]].
** Ma and Pa at the start of the episode are based on the farming couple in the painting American Gothic, both having identical hairstyles, glasses and fashions.

-->'''Brannigan:''' You think you know us so well, Doctor. But we're not abandoned. Not while we have each other.

* FirstTimeInTheSun: In the end, the denizens of the motorway finally ascend into the sky.

** Thomas Kinkaide Brannigan: "Til the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]."
* FuturisticSuperhighway: Currently experiencing the mother of all traffic jams.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Among the cars the Doctor passes through is one belonging to a nudist couple. The Doctor doesn't stick around long enough to give an excuse.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The first scene shows that some people - the mood sellers and their customer - are alive in New New York's Undercity. In the third act, it's heavily implied that '''nobody''' outside the Motorway survived the viral plague. These two seemingly-contradictory details are never reconciled.

** Apparently, the Doctor's coat was a gift from Janis Joplin.

* RuleOfThree: In order to use the fast lane, you have to have three passengers. Lie to the computer, and your car is shut down. We see the effect of this in the episode's beginning (where the GothicCouple lied to the computer, got stopped in the fast lane, and were thus eaten by the Macra), and the entire reason Martha is kidnapped is so that the couple she's with can get to the fast lane.

* ShoutOut: According to WordOfGod, the concept of an endless traffic jam in a dystopian city is a shoutout to Mega-City One in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', and the man with the bowler hat is based on Max Normal, a supporting character in the comic.

There's [[CuteKitten kittens]] in this one!! YAY!!!\\

There's [[CuteKitten kittens]] in this one!! YAY!\\

[-([[NakedPeopleAreFunny And nudists...]] yay...?)-].

There's [[CuteKitten kittens]] in this one!! YAY!

Also, [[CuteKitten kittens]] and [[NakedPeopleAreFunny nudists]]. Only one of these is adorable.

[[caption-width-right:350:TheOneWith The Traffic Jam.]]

Also, [[CuteKittens kittens]] and [[NakedPeopleAreFunny nudists]].

As the Face dies, he imparts his final message, as foreshadowed in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]]. The message? "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia You are not alone.]]"

* TheAtoner: Novice Hame, the cat nun assistant to the Face of Boe, was the survivor out of the three named cat nuns from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]].

** One of the car drivers is a completely red dude -- we saw another one in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]].

* SeriesContinuityError: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]], the Doctor says the titular planet is in the galaxy [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87 M87]]. In this episode, he says it's 50,000 light-years from the former location of Old Earth. That's a difference of over ''fifty million'' light-years, even accounting for the episodes being set five billion years in the future.

The Doctor tells Martha that her one trip is over, and she can go home now . . . unless she wants to travel more. No reason, really, he'd just like to travel more. In fact, he'd like to take her to the future - and how about another planet? Martha is all for it, but throws him by asking if they can visit ''his'' home. Planet of the Time Lords, after all; got to be worth a look? The Doctor finds himself agreeing, fondly recalling the burnt orange sky, mountains covered in red grass, a gleaming city under its mighty glass dome . . .

. . . but nah, why would he want to go back there? Better idea: New New New, etc., York. Where drugs are cheap, legal and socially acceptable. Where people inexplicably look like cats. Where traffic never moves. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth Where the Doctor also took Rose once.]]

Martha gets kidnapped by a couple named Milo and Cheen so that they can have enough people in their car to get access to the elusive fast lane. The Doctor chases after her . . . into the Traffic Jam from Hell.

Martha refuses to leave until the Doctor tells her just what he is and what's going on. The Doctor sits down with her and tells his story from the beginning, starting with "there was a war" . . .

The one with mass pollution (and the traffic jam).

* FlatWhat: Martha's reaction to the length of time the car-jacking journey will take.

The one with-- oh wait, the picture caption already has us covered.

The one with--- oh wait, the picture caption already did it for us.

'''Cheen:''' ''(nonchalantly)'' Oh, six years?\\

. . . but nah, why would he want to go back there? Better idea: New New New, etc., York. Where drugs are cheap, legal and socially acceptable. Where people inexplicably look like cats. Where traffic never moves. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth Where the Doctor also took Rose once]].

* TheAtoner: Novice Hame, the cat nun assistant to the Face of Boe was the survivor out of the three named cat nuns from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]].

-->'''Brannigan:''' You think you know us so well, Doctor. But we're not abandoned. Not while we have each other."

[[caption-width-right:350:TheOneWith The Traffic Jam]]

-->'''Cheen:''' It's only ten miles.\\