Pinocchio

Pinocchio was a fictional character made of wood that wanted to "fit in".

Susan Foreman compared herself to him, citing her want to be a "real live girl" as the reason behind her choice to attend Coal Hill School while visiting Earth 1963. (PROSE: Time and Relative ^[+]Kim Newman, Telos Doctor Who novellas (Telos Publishing, 2001).)

Bernice Summerfield, who was being manipulated by the Seventh Doctor, said that she was tired of having her strings pulled like Pinocchio, whom she knew from a Disney film. (PROSE: Birthright ^[+]Nigel Robinson, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)

The Eighth Doctor compared moving wooden puppets created using Cyber-Technology to Pinocchio. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

When trapped aboard a submarine with a murderous Ice Warrior, Clara Oswald sarcastically remarked that keeping her spirits up by singing as Professor Grisenko suggested would only help "if this was Pinocchio". (TV: Cold War ^[+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)

When in the 41st century, the Tenth Doctor referenced Pinocchio when he joked that Mark Seven would one day become a real boy, glad that that pop-culture reference was understood. (AUDIO: The Wrong Woman ^[+]John Dorney, Dalek Universe (Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Behind the scenes

Connections in screen adaptations

• Sarah Alexander and Warwick Davis appeared in the 1999 film, The Adventures of Pinocchio.
• The English-language dub of the 2002 Italian film featured the voices of David Suchet and John Cleese.
• Thomas Sangster, Tim Bentinck, Sean Barrett, and Teresa Gallagher appeared in the 2009 television miniseries.
• David Bradley and Burn Gorman voiced characters in Guillermo del Toro's 2022 animated film.