Did you know Doctor Who has often been accompanied by a yo-yo, often using our favorite skill toy to ‘check the gravity’ of a planet? It’s true. Multiple versions of the Time Lord have engaged with a yo-yo in both TV and print.
The 4th Doctor, played by Tom Baker, was most frequently shown with a yo-yo, and was the most accomplished actor with the toy. The Doctor can be seen with a yo-yo in The Ark in Space, The Android Invasion, and The Brain of Morbius. In The Robots of Death the Doctor’s companion Leela played with his yo-yo thinking it to be part of the TARDIS technology. The 4th Doctor’s yo-yo was a Louis Marx Lumar 99 Competition yo-yo and there’s a fascinating exchange on the suitability of the yo-yo is documented here.
The 6th Doctor, played by Colin Baker, was shown with a yo-yo in his pocket in The Two Doctors, but he never played with it.
The 7th Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, was never shown with a yo-yo, but in the Doctor Who TV movie released in 1996 the 7th Doctor’s personal effects, including his yo-yo, were stolen from the morgue. The 7th Doctor’s yo-yo is a Tom Kuhn No Jive Mandala that was modified by the prop department. They filled in the center engraving to remove the branding, and then painted the yo-yo gold and black.
Below are a set of re-created props representing the personal effects of the 7th Doctor as shown in the Doctor Who movie. More details here.
The good Doctor went through a number of additional incarnations before once again throwing a yo-yo. The 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, used a yo-yo to inspect irregularities in gravity in Kill the Moon. Later the 12th Doctor tried to use a yo-yo to impress a Viking village into believing he was Odin in The Girl Who Died. There’s a great video of Capaldi trying to yo-yo and talking about his yo-yo tutor on YouTube here. Here’s a promo that covers the yo-yo also.