History Recap / DoctorWhoS15E4TheSunMakers

* RunningGag: Gatherer Hade calls the Collector a variety of increasingly over-the-top honorifics.

* SoreLoser: The Doctor can't believe K-9 can play chess better than he can. When he is about to lose, he flies the TARDIS so clumsily that all pieces are thrown about, forcing them to start over. [[FridgeLogic Assuming K-9 hasn't saved the game in his memory, of course.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: The Correction Centre. Followed by death.
** Leela tells the Doctor to kill her when she starts to experience fear (due to the EmotionBomb).

* PublicExecution: Leela is sentenced to die in a public steaming. The Controller is disappointed at the turnout. Dialogue indicates that public executions are a semi-regular occurrence on Pluto.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The story is set in the far future on Pluto, which is referred to explicitly as a planet (other Doctor Who stories refer to it as such, too).

%%* Business Of Generic Importance: When the Doctor asks a group of rebels what the Company is for, who runs it, and who profits from it, no one can give a straight answer, as the populace has been suppressed and enslaved so much that they never considered to ask those questions before. - Unlaunched trope.

%% * AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The undercity.
* AirVentPassageway: The Doctor rescues Leela from the steamer by crawling through the steam vent.

** When Mandrel says that the Doctor had better have a good story, the Doctor begins, "[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Once upon a time, there were three sisters...]]"

* BusinessOfGenericImportance: When the Doctor asks a group of rebels what the Company is for, who runs it, and who profits from it, no one can give a straight answer, as the populace has been suppressed and enslaved so much that they never considered to ask those questions before.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Since the Company effectively '''is''' the entire economy, it's hard to see quite what they're getting out of the situation other than running a dystopia ForTheEvulz. It would make more sense if they were exporting raw materials or products to other cultures, but there isn't any sign of exports on screen.

* ColdBloodedTorture: The purpose of the "correction center."

* FateWorseThanDeath: The Correction Center. Followed by death.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The story is set in the far future on Pluto, which is referred to explicitly as a planet (other Doctor Who episodes refer to it as such, too).

* {{Room 101}}: The correction center.

** In this episode, Leela and the Doctor are identified as "terrorists." In real life, Leela's character was partially based on Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled.

* CensorshipBySpelling: "W-A-L-K"

* EvilDebtCollector: Gatherer Hade. Leela notes that ''everyone'' [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments runs from the tax-man]].

* BrokenAesop: The story is supposed to be a right-wing allegory about how taxation is bad, written by an openly Conservative writer. However, ignoring a few throwaway flippant comments made by the Doctor, the story is really about the evil of taxation that targets the poorest in society, and societies that strip away social safety nets so the untaxed rich can rake in massive profits. The reason for this situation is privatisation, where every utility (including sunlight) is run by corporate interests and the government is viewed only as an extension of the MegaCorp. At the very least, it comes across as left-wing in an Occupy kind of way. If you choose to read into the fact that the Doctor wins by inspiring a populist revolt to execute their leaders while quoting Karl Marx, it becomes actively ''Communist''. Not what you'd expect from something written by a UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher supporter in 1977.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The Doctor spoofs UsefulNotes/KarlMarx when he tells the workers they have nothing to lose but their claims.

* MobileSuitHuman: Except the mobile part, really. The Collector is actually confined to his wheelchair because it projects a humanoid appearance around his StarfishAlien body.

-->'''Leela:''' Doctor, can I speak now?
-->'''The Doctor:''' What? All right, if you must. What is it?
-->'''Leela:''' Well, the column has stopped moving.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The undercity.
* {{Adorkable}}: Cordo.

* SayingTooMuch: The Doctor scoffs "Oh wake up!" The guard he's hypnotised into falling asleep does so. Then the Collector says he plans to release DeadlyGas that will kill every human in the compound. "''I'' do not breathe air." The Doctor points out that the man holding a gun to his head does.

* DoubleTake: The Doctor's reaction to having a gun poking his neck.

* ProductPlacement/NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: One of the props in the story was designed to look like an oversized [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5215013/Barclaycard-washes-Sussex-beach-40-years.html Barclaycard]]. When someone expressed concern that Barclays might complain, the prop was redesigned to look somewhat less like a Barclaycard.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The Doctor spoofs UseulNotes/KarlMarx when he tells the workers they have nothing to lose but their claims.

''Series/DoctorWho'' goes all political with this thinly-disguised allegory on the evils of income tax. The TARDIS arrives on the planet Pluto, which in the future has six suns' worth of eternal daylight, a breathable atmosphere and a thriving industrial base. "The Company" controls the entire planet and exploits the workers mercilessly, paying peanuts and taxing everything. As soon as the Doctor and Leela step out of the TARDIS, they find a worker about to commit suicide. They distract him with a jelly ba--er, licorice allsort, and introduce him to the concepts of freedom and darkness.

* EvilDebtCollector: Gatherer Hade. Leela notes that ''everyone'' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny runs from the tax-man]].

* MegaCorp: The Company. The Doctor compares them to a colonising army; the Collector cheerfully admits that they've tried war in the past, but found commercial imperialism more effective.

* AllThereInTheManual: The novelisation restores a DeletedScene where Leela sees citizens lining up to be executed for their death-day.