Dog bites, animal fights, and getting Spotify cancelled – take the Thursday quiz

A dalmatian puppy yawning, as it obviously hasn’t done the Thursday quiz to perk it up yet. Photograph: Coneyl Jay/Getty Images

In an incredible moment of serendipity, the 135th Thursday quiz just happens to fall on the 60th birthday of Doctor Who. You lucky, lucky people. Here come 15 questions about topical news and general knowledge, and all of them with a tenuous link somehow to the children’s Saturday teatime science fantasy favourite, just to make the author happy. Have fun!

The Thursday quiz, No 135

1. 

   Here is the quizmaster with K-9, the official robot dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. But it was a dog called Codrut who made news this week, after biting Austria's president, Alexander Van der Bellen, on the hand. To whom does Codrut belong?

   1. Estonia's prime minister, Kaja Kallas

   2. Finland's prime minister, Petteri Orpo

   3. Bulgaria's president, Rumen Radev

   4. Moldova's president, Maia Sandu

2. 

   Another eccentric hero with a dog sidekick is Wallace, and Aardman Animations has reassured fans that there is no need to worry about a shortage of clay. What was the name of the first Wallace and Gromit animation in 1989?

   1. The Wrong Trousers

   2. A Close Shave

   3. A Grand Day Out

   4. The Curse of Fenric

3. 

   As Doctor Who enjoys its 60th anniversary, the BBC has announced that it has “decided to rest the UK show” of its Top Gear franchise. It follows a 2022 crash involving the presenter Freddie Flintoff. When was Top Gear first broadcast by the BBC, initially only in the Midlands?

   1. 1967

   2. 1977

   3. 1987

   4. 1997

4. 

   Doctor Who's original Delia Derbyshire-realised spooky electronic theme tune is the stuff of legends. But you won't be able to listen to it on Spotify in which South American country after the company said it would phase out its service there following a new copyright bill requiring "fair and equitable remuneration"?

   1. Argentina

   2. Colombia

   3. Brazil

   4. Uruguay

5. 

   Talking of music, the Eighth Doctor claimed to have met the writer of La Bohème among other works. To which opera composer was he referring?

   1. Giuseppe Verdi

   2. Giacomo Puccini

   3. Claudio Monteverdi

   4. Gioachino Rossini

6. 

   Demons of the Punjab was a 2018 Doctor Who story that featured the partition of India. When did the dominions of India and Pakistan come into legal existence, on the day the British partitioned India?

   1. 1945

   2. 1947

   3. 1949

   4. 1951

7. 

   In the episode Rosa, the 13th Doctor strongly hinted she might be elusive street artist Banksy on the sly. A lost 2003 interview with Banksy that contains the only known instance of him revealing his first name has just been unearthed. What did he say it was in the interview?

   1. Preston

   2. Robbie

   3. Ron

   4. Graham

8. 

   An entire season of Doctor Who was once dedicated to a story called Trial of a Time Lord. But after an attempt to overturn their acquittal, the high court in England has ruled that two protesters were "reasonable" in calling Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith precisely what?

   1. "Milk snatcher!"

   2. "Lying toad!"

   3. "Tory scum!"

   4. "Worse than that Davros off the telly that invented the Daleks!"

9. 

   The Star Beast is the next Doctor Who episode and it will be on the television on Saturday. It is based on a 1980 Doctor Who comic strip of the same name, partly written by Pat Mills. Which famous British comic title (not pictured) was Pat Mills instrumental in creating?

   1. 2000 AD

   2. Starburst

   3. TV21

   4. Miniature Dachshund Monthly

10. 

    1989 Doctor Who story Survival features lots of Cheetah People fighting on a planet helpfully known as the Cheetah Planet. But Oklahoma's Republican governor has got himself in a pickle after recording a video in support of an organisation that encourages fights between …

    1. Bears

    2. Cocks

    3. Cougars

    4. 30-50 feral hogs

11. 

    Carl McCoy of Fields of the Nephilim has been asked by the Doctor for tenuous quiz-related reasons to simplify b⁶ ÷ b³, in order to punch the correct galactic coordinates into the Tardis console. Which of these is correct?

    1. b⁹

    2. b⁶

    3. b³

    4. b²

12. 

    Vincent and the Doctor is a critically acclaimed 2010 episode where the Doctor and Amy met Vincent van Gogh, and also for some reason fight a giant invisible alien budgie monster in a church. But when did Van Gogh die?

    1. 1870

    2. 1880

    3. 1890

    4. 1900

13. 

    Doctor Who used to drive around in the stylish Bessie. But what was it that was causing mayhem at last weekend's Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix?

    1. The special coating added to the road surface to cover up intersection markings melted in the heat

    2. Electrical interferance with the in-car radio from illuminations on the strip

    3. Loose manhole covers causing a safety issue

    4. The horrible racket from U2 playing at that massive ping-pong ball venue near there putting the drivers off

14. 

    This is the face Willow, the official not-robot dog of the Guardian's Thursday quiz, pulls when yet another Doctor Who DVD goes on at home. But what was the name of the very first episode of Doctor Who in 1963?

    1. The Keys of Marinus

    2. Attack of the Cybermen

    3. An Unearthly Child

    4. Genesis of the Daleks

15. 

    And finally … which Guardian article this week included the immortal line "A friend, who declined to be named, said she was '100% certain' it was not aliens."

    1. ‘It’s a bit of a mystery’: what’s causing Omagh’s hum?

    2. That’s not a potato: mystery of Egyptian treasures found buried in grounds of Scottish school

    3. Mystery of ‘decades-old’ plane wreck in Canadian backcountry solved

    4. Scientists say mystery of how red wine headaches occur may be solved

Solutions

1:D - Sandu apologised in English and said the dog, a rescue named Codrut, meaning small forest, had become frightened by the large numbers of people nearby. In a video posted to Instagram later, Van der Bellen sympathised with the dog, saying: "Everyone who knows me knows I’m a big dog lover and can understand his excitement.", 2:C - It was only 23 minutes long but finally proved that the moon is indeed made of cheese – one that perhaps most closely resembles Wensleydale, rather than some terrible US-produced variety., 3:B - The original series of the Top Gear programme was broadcast in the BBC Midlands region in 1977, and Top Gear boffins on Wikipedia seem as obsessively weird as Doctor Who fans about dividing it up into different eras and productions and the Thursday quiz already has a dread of Top Gear pedantry erupting in the comments., 4:D - Spotify also recently eliminated payment for songs with fewer than 1,000 streams, costing the Thursday quiz's terrible electronic music midlife crisis side project at least $0.03 in royalties., 5:B - For complicated reasons, the regeneration of the seventh Doctor into the eight Doctor involved someone bungling heart surgery while Madame Butterfly plays in the background. Puccini also knocked out La Bohème, Tosca and Turandot and probably didn't really envisage them as soundtracks for surgeons., 6:B - The partition took place on 14–15 August 1947. The present day constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan came into effect on 14 August 1973, the Republic of India dates its constitution to 26 January 1950, and the People's Republic of Bangladesh dates its constitution from 16 December 1972. The picture shows a pair of cricket fans at the recent World Cup painted up for the India v Pakistan clash in the group stage. Australia, out of shot, are just about to steal the cup., 7:B - The 2003 recording features an interview with a BBC reporter who asks if Banksy’s real name is "Robert Banks", to which the artist replies: "It’s Robbie." Cue Tales of the Unexpected theme music., 8:C - A senior district judge last November found Ruth Wood, 52, and Radical Haslam, 30, not guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent. Haslam and Wood had followed Duncan Smith from a short distance. They separately called him "Tory scum". Wood added: "Fuck off out of Manchester.", 9:A - Splundig Vur Thrigg., 10:B - Stitt made a video in support of the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, a group that has been working to reduce penalties for cockfighting in the state. What a donkey., 11:C - Essentially the initial sum is b x b x b x b x b x b ÷ b x b x b, so you just need to get rid of three lots of b. These are usually GCSE questions in this quiz and the quiz would definitely get a mark for the right answer, but maybe never the marks for demonstrating the working intelligently and correctly., 12:C - On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died two days later., 13:C - F1 is believed to have invested as much as $700m to make the race happen, but it nearly didn't after the first practice session was abandoned after a drain cover struck Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari., 14:C - The first Doctor Who episode is an incredible atmospheric bit of television, only let down by the next three episodes being some slightly dull cavemen arguing about fire in posh drama school accents. It is a wonder it survived. The second story did actually show a genesis of the Daleks, although there wouldn't be a story with that title until the Dalek's history was retconned in 1975., 15:A - Those who hear the Omagh hum describe a continuous, low-frequency drone, or buzz, and say that once heard it cannot be unheard, merely endured. That sounds like the opening of a Doctor Who episode to us …

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun and enjoy watching Doctor Who at the weekend!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and you can watch the next episode of Doctor Who at 6.30pm on BBC One on Saturday, and his episode recap will be live shortly afterwards.