Tardis

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Tardis
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Tardis
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Eighth Doctor offers jelly baby

The Eighth Doctor offers a jelly baby. (TV: Doctor Who)

Jelly babies were an English sweet favoured by the Doctor, his fourth incarnation in particular. They were also enjoyed by the Saxon Master. The Fourth Doctor often offered them to companions and others he met on his travels. Jelly babies were in the shape of a miniature humanoid child. They were made out of gelatin and were offered in a variety of colours.

Appearances and mentions

Second Doctor

Third Doctor

Fourth Doctor

  • The Fourth Doctor offered Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan jelly babies. They both accepted. (TV: Robot)
  • The Doctor offered round a bag of jelly babies while aboard Space Station Nerva, shortly making an analogy to Wirrn eating up humanity, should they win. (TV: The Ark in Space)
  • The Doctor threw a bag of jelly babies to Vira as Sarah Jane, Harry and he were about to beam down to Earth via the transmat. (TV: The Ark in Space)
  • After the Doctor was neutralised by the Cybermen, Kellman searched through his pockets and found a packet of jelly babies. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
  • He offered one to Leela of the Sevateem tribe upon their first meeting, leading her to think he ate babies. He also bluffed the Sevateem by threatening one of the tribe with a "deadly jelly baby". (TV: The Face of Evil)
  • The Doctor pondered whether a market world sold jelly babies. (AUDIO: Death-Dealer)
  • When emptying his pockets for Magnus Greel, one of the things the Doctor placed on the table was his bag of jelly babies. He began eating them. The Doctor offered one to Greel, but was refused. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
  • The Doctor offered round a bag of jelly babies while on the sandminer; they were slapped out of his hands by an imposter working there. To this, he replied, saying, "A simple no thank you would have been sufficient". (TV: The Robots of Death)
  • The Doctor gave Ted Moss a jelly baby. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
  • While investigating the Fendahl on Earth he offered "Eustace" a jelly baby in jest. (However, the sweet in question was actually a liquorice allsort, not a jelly baby.) (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
  • The Doctor told a suicidal man that instead of ending his life, he needed a jelly baby. When Cordo tried to take one, the Doctor grabbed his hand through the bag and Leela knocked him down. (TV: The Sun Makers)
  • While in the Correction Centre on Pluto, the Doctor offered the workers jelly babies, telling them they were in his jacket pocket. After he was freed, he left the bag with Bisham, another prisoner. This was later a clue Leela used to find him. (TV: The Sun Makers)
    Like this

    The Fourth Doctor and Andred eat. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

  • Upon arriving on Gallifrey the Doctor declared the Chancellery Guard were not worthy to guard a jelly baby before offering Andred one, which was declined. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
  • Upon returning to his TARDIS to, apparently, retrieve another bag of jelly babies, the Doctor was confronted by Chancellery Guard, Andred. After explaining what the jelly babies were, the Doctor simultaneously ate one while Andred ate another. He then gave the bag to Andred, saying to beware a "certain someone" because he didn't approve of the delicious sweet. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
  • While on Gallifrey as Lord President, he asked Castellan Kelner to remove a jelly baby from his pocket for him. He asked it be orange, his preference. However, once he heard that there weren't any orange jelly babies, the Doctor slammed the bag to the table. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
The Doctor offering jelly babies

The Fourth Doctor offers jelly babies to a Starfleet away team. (COMIC: Assimilation²)

Fifth Doctor

Sixth Doctor

Seventh Doctor

Eighth Doctor

Tenth Doctor

  • The Doctor gave Donna Noble a bag to breathe into when she began hyperventilating; she commented that it smelled of jelly babies. (AUDIO: The Forever Trap)
  • When shopping for some Brainy Crisps to conduct an investigation, the Doctor was able to ignore a lot of the sweets but gave the jelly babies a longing glance, hinting his taste for jelly babies lingered through regeneration. (PROSE: Code of the Krillitanes)

Eleventh Doctor

Other

Behind the scenes

Fourth Doctor eating allsort

The Fourth Doctor eats an allsort while offering a jelly baby (TV: The Sun Makers)

  • On a number of occasions, the Doctor offered "jelly babies" when in fact he was holding another kind of sweet, such as liquorice allsorts. (TV: The Sun Makers and Image of the Fendahl)
  • Tom Baker has claimed that the original script of The Face of Evil involved the Doctor threatening the tribesmen with a knife. Feeling that such an act was not appropriate, he insisted that the Doctor bluff his way out with a jelly baby instead.[1]
  • In the United States, jelly babies had a low profile as a confectionery product. When Pinnacle Books published Doctor Who novelisations in new packaging, the editorial changes made by them included changing jelly babies to jelly beans, for fear of confusing American readers. Later, when the series had a great deal more popularity, many Americans simply associated jelly babies with Doctor Who and with the Doctor as played by Tom Baker. Under license from the BBC, one company sold jelly babies in packaging resembling the Doctor's TARDIS, advertising them as "the Cosmic Candy of the Time Lords".
  • The "Inside the TARDIS" featurette on the UK DVD of Doctor Who includes a closeup view of the bowl of jelly babies enjoyed by the Seventh Doctor at the start of the film.
  • Jelly babies appear as collectible cards in The Adventure Games.
Jelly baby

Footnotes

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