Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde was a 19th century Irish author and playwright . He was a good friend of the Paternoster Gang . ( PROSE : " The Importance of Being Strax " ) Biography . The Sixth Doctor told Evelyn Smythe that Wilde was " not out of short trousers " in 1865 . ( AUDIO : " Assassin in the Limelight " ) During his days at the University of Oxford , an alien infected Oscar with a disease that turned him into a vampire . Returning home to Dublin , he passed the disease to Florence Balcombe . ( COMIC : " Bat Attack ! " ) In 1882 in the town of Deadwood , Wilde crossed paths with the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald . At one point while aboard the Doctor ' s TARDIS he found the Eighth Doctor ' s old Wild Bill Hickok outfit and tried it on , finding it a perfect fit . ( COMIC : " Dead Man ' s Hand " ) In 1893 , Wilde stayed at the Diogenes Club . ( AUDIO : " The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel " ) He lived in London with his wife Constance and their two children during the early 1890s . By this time , he had written a widely read novel entitled " The Picture of Dorian Gray " in addition to being a successful playwright . ( AUDIO : " Beautiful Things " ) Following the appearance of metal spheres from the future in London in the 1890s , the Metropolitan Police Service issued the cover story that they were a stunt by a group by Bohemian artists . When Professor George Litefoot raised the possibility that this may , in fact , be the case , Sergeant Quick told him that the police had interviewed Wilde to that end and were confident that he had nothing to do with it . ( AUDIO : " Chronoclasm " ) Having been supplied with tickets by Professor Claudius Dark , Henry Gordon Jago , Leela and Ellie Higson attended the premiere of his latest play " A Woman of No Importance " at the Haymarket Theatre . Wilde was accompanied to the premiere by his close friend Lord Alfred Douglas . Warren Gadd , who observed him in Douglas ' company , threatened to tell Constance that Wilde had a terrible secret which he was keeping from her if he did not cooperate . ( AUDIO : " Beautiful Things " ) In 1895 , he invited Vastra , Jenny and Strax to the opening performance of " The Importance of Being Earnest " at St James ' s Theatre . The actress playing Lady Bracknell was actually an alien from the planet Proscenia . She paralyzed the audience with laughter , Oscar was the able to resist her laughter ray because of his superior intellect . " Lady Bracknell " was defeated when she was punched by Strax . The play continued with one difference ; Lady Bracknell was played by Strax . ( PROSE : " The Importance of Being Strax " ) The Sixth Doctor was also present at this performance . ( AUDIO : " Assassin in the Limelight " ) Bernice Summerfield noted that Oscar Wilde ' s era had been less than enlightened in respect to his bisexuality . ( PROSE : " All - Consuming Fire " ) In 1897 , he was imprisoned in Reading Gaol , where the prison doctor experimented on him . After the Tenth Doctor cured Wilde of his vampirism and he was released from prison , Wilde left for Paris . ( COMIC : " Bat Attack ! " ) Iris Wildthyme and one of the Doctor ' s first seven incarnations met Wilde at some point after his arrival in Paris . ( PROSE : " The Scarlet Empress " ) References . In the 1970s , on Earth , the artificial intelligence BOSS explicitly misquoted the writer by saying : " As Oscar Wilde so very nearly said , to lose one prisoner may be accounted a misfortune , to lose two smacks of carelessness . " ( TV : " The Green Death " ) In his fourth incarnation , the Doctor recalled having met Wilde . ( PROSE : " The Clanging Chimes of Doom " ) Later the Eighth Doctor mentioned having met George Bernard Shaw at a party hosted by Wilde . ( PROSE : " The Gallifrey Chronicles " ) In his tenth incarnation , the Doctor joked that his first incarnation had got his walking stick in an adventure involving Wilde and " midget assassins " . ( COMIC : " The Forgotten " ) He cited Wilde as an example of a " name - dropper " . ( AUDIO : " The Sword of the Chevalier " ) Wilde and Noël Coward were two people that Professor Whitaker wished he could use his Time Scoop to meet . ( PROSE : " Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion " ) Henry Gordon Jago erroneously believed that Wilde wrote " Widower ' s House " , which was actually written by his fellow Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw . ( AUDIO : " Beautiful Things " ) Shortly before his death on 31 December 1926 , Major Cyril Haggard quoted Wilde ' s line , " We ' re all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars . " ( AUDIO : " The Emerald Tiger " ) In Washington DC on 14 April 1865 , Wilde was impersonated by Robert Knox in the lead - up to the assassination of U . S . President Abraham Lincoln . The Sixth Doctor realised the incongruity immediately because the real Wilde would have been too young . ( AUDIO : " Assassin in the Limelight " ) Jack Bartlett checked out two Oscar Wilde books and one by James Baldwin from the Holborn Library . He felt as though the librarian could tell his secrets by his reading choices . In his hurry to leave , he ran into Eddy Stone who had similar interests . ( PROSE : " Bad Therapy " ) When she was eight years old , the Second Doctor ' s companion Zoe Heriot read Wilde ' s complete works in a day . ( AUDIO : " Echoes of Grey " ) Dorothy Bell quoted Oscar Wilde as saying : " When the gods wish to punish us , they answer our prayers . " ( COMIC : " Spiral Staircase " )