History Recap / DoctorWhoS33E04ThePowerOfThree

** One of Rory's patients at the hospital shows up in a wheelchair...with his feet in a toilet. Apparently it's not the first time.

* LegacyCharacter: [[spoiler:Kate Stewart, the current leader of UNIT is revealed to be the daughter of former UNIT leader and Doctor ally [[TheBrigadier Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart]]. (She dropped the name Lethbridge because she "didn't want any favours from UNIT.")]]

* ArcNumber: 3. The whole episode appears to be an elaborate homage to the Third Doctor, including the Doctor spending an inordinate amount of time on present-day Earth, futzing with science while becoming friends with a [[spoiler: Lethbridge-Stewart]] running UNIT, before finally solving the problem by [[spoiler: [[ReverseThePolarity reversing the polarity]]]]. "Three" and "cubes" are mentioned throughout.

* InTheStyleOf: The Third Doctor's UNIT days.
* InternalHomage: The Eleventh Doctor is thrown into a Third Doctor era style plot.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Brian's Log.

* ADayInTheLimelight: The plot focuses more on Amy and Rory, their time with the Doctor, and the impact he's had on their lives.

* BottleEpisode

* NoodleIncident: The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the Savoy, which is invaded by Zygons and Amy accidentally gets married to Henry VIII. The Doctor also once ran a restaurant and ended up inventing the Yorkshire pudding.

** The Doctor also mentions he used to have a [[RobotBuddy metal dog]] that could float.

* DeadpanSnarker: [[spoiler:Kate Stewart]] has her moments, especially when she's claiming her team are trained in beheadings and she has death ravens.

* DoomedNewClothes: Amy's PimpedOutDress gets a bit charred.

* FauxHorrific: One of the cubes [[EarWorm emits the Birdie Song on a constant loop.]] [[TakeThat The Doctor and Amy are suitably horrified.]]

* ArcSymbol / ArcWords: Christmas light during the final scene.

** The [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Zygons]] show up in Savoy in 1890.

** The Doctor and the Ponds visit [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E03ATownCalledMercy Henry VIII]] again.

** When Amy grabs the defibrillator paddles, the Doctor has [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie good reason]] to be nervous.

** The Doctor and the Ponds visit [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E03ATownCalledMercy Henry VIII]] again. (Or this is the [[AnachronicOrder original incident mentioned in that episode]])

** The Doctor and the Ponds visit [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E03ATownCalledMercy Henry VIII]] again.

One day, [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture ten years]] after Amy and Rory started traveling with the Doctor (in their relative time), billions of tiny black cubes fall out of the sky. Professor Brian Cox is on TV talking about it and everything. The Doctor and his Ponds -- including [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E02DinosaursOnASpaceship Rory's dad Brian]] -- investigate, with the help of UNIT's new scientific leader, [[DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Kate]] [[CanonImmigrant Stewart]]. The Doctor decides to come live with Amy and Rory for a while and gets to know them as they do their everyday jobs and live their everyday lives. Amy is now a travel journalist, Rory is considering working fulltime.

* AccidentalEngagement: Amy accidentally marries HenryVIII.

** Just imagine the cute little Doctor Mii he's probably using.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The cubes can, among other things, stop people's hearts, fire lasers....and play the Chicken Dance[[labelnote:better known as...]]"The Birdie Song" in the UK[[/labelnote]].

* StealthPun: The episode is called "The Power of Three" and the plot revolves around cubes. [[spoiler:Subverted, because [[DontExplainTheJoke Amy explains the joke at the end of the episode.]]]]

--> "This planet, these people are precious to me. And I will defend them until my last breath."

* CallBack:
** The Doctor references what's happened to some of his previous Companions: those who have left, those who have been left behind, and those who have died.

* ContinuityNod:

** And the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Zygons]].

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Although it's obvious someone's behind the cubes, there are no hints as to the identity or motive of this MonsterOfTheWeek until the last few minutes of the show. The villain is introduced and disposed of at breakneck speed, as more time in the episode is given to the relationship between the Doctor and his friends.

* [[spoiler: HumanityOnTrial]]
* [[spoiler: HumansAreTheRealMonsters: This is the motivation for why the cubes are used, to prevent the spread of humanity throughout space.]]

** [[spoiler: Kate seems a lot like her dad, Alistair]].

* NoodleIncident: These seem to be becoming a RunningGag. The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the Savoy, which is invaded by Zygons and Amy accidentally gets married to Henry VIII. The Doctor also once ran a restaurant and ended up inventing the Yorkshire pudding.

** The Apprentice contestant is fired for failing to sell the cubes. [[FridgeLogic How could Alan Sugar expect anyone to actually buy one when there are millions just lying in the street?]]
*** The Apprentice contestant has to be good enough to sell ice to Eskimos, as it were.

* WorkingTitle: Was originally known to the public as ''Cubed''. And incidentally, this was ''also'' [[TitleDrop Title Dropped]] in the same sentence by Amy (see above).