Well, sort of the flip side... if these are the moments we see other worlds in a book (or game), then what about the moments we see this one?

I call these 'Welcome Back' moments, probably after the line at the beginning of Tomb Raider... Three, I think? 'Welcome back to my humble abode. Feel free to take a look around...'

I think of these not just as the point you realise you're back in a world you've visited before, but the moment it feels like - well, like the canon's welcoming you back. I never had one for Portal, for instance, even though I dearly love Portal 2. There isn't one for me anywhere in Discworld, either.

Actually, I only have two I can think of - and they're both in films.

1/ Star Wars. Any of the films, or even the books - but that moment when the first words come up:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

That's when I know I'm back.

2/ The Hobbit film. The moment about a minute and a half into the soundtrack where it first samples the Shire theme has this effect on me even on the CD. And seeing the Shire itself again... yeah.

These aren't just 'yup, here again' moments - they're the moments where it feels like the canon is saying, "Welcome back... we missed you, too, and I know things have changed, but... we're still here.

Does anyone else get this (or even understand what I'm saying)? Any examples?

hS

...there is a considerable amount of references to other great works of science fiction in the series.

Spoilers ahoy!

-- A scottish engineer with a heavy accent can be found in your spaceship's engineering deck in the second (and third, if you play it right) game.

-- Commander Shepard dies in the opening sequence of the second game. When s/he returns to the Citadel after spending two years being rebuilt in a lab, a guard says that the commander's profile marks them as dead. Shepard can reply that s/he was only "mostly dead."

-- There is a flamethrower whose official designation is the M-451. Captain Beatty would be proud.

-- An in-universe movie series is titled Blasto, the first hanar Spectre and the protagonist sounds like a very calm and ethereal Dirty Harry.

-- One quest involves being lured into an ambush. Cue Admiral Ackbar.

-- Another mission involves releasing an AI from its programming failsafes. One character say that if it starts singing "Daisy Bell" and turning humans into batteries, he's never going to live it down.

-- After killing a lot of bug aliens that are in no way a reference to... well, Aliens, your pilot asks you if you want to nuke the site just to be sure.

Well, you took the Young Wizards ones, so I'll have to stretch a bit. {; P

Let's see... well, in the second book in the Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, there's a character called Zifnab who occasionally says things like this:

"Great Gandalf's ghost!" shouted Zifnab. "If he had a ghost. I doubt it. He was such a snob . . . Where was I?"

Also, he has a dragon, and they have this conversation:

"My dragon? Save anybody?" Zifnab shook his head sadly. "You must have him confused with someone else—Smaug, perhaps? No? Ah, I've got it! That lizard who gave Saint George such a nasty time of it! What was his name, now there was a dragon!"

"And you are implying that I'm not?" ... "Smaug!" the dragon thundered. "That vain-glorious fop! And as for that sniveling worm who took on St. George—" ... "And to think I ended up with a worthless old faker like you!" the dragon was shouting. "I could have gone someplace where I would have been appreciated! Pern, for example!"

So that's Middle-earth, England, and Pern implied to exist, all in one go! ... Not really that sneaky unless you don't know those names, though.

There's also a character named Fizban in the Dragonlance series by the same authors. They may or may not be, but probably are, the same person.

"Ah, well. Let's see." The old man muttered to himself. "Fiz—No, I can't use that. Furball. Doesn't seem quite dignified enough. I have it!" he shouted, smiting Paithan on the arm. "Zifnab!"

So there's that, too, as a bonus. *g*

~Neshomeh, who recommends reading the Death Gate Cycle.

Yes, I have read the Inheritence Cycle, and no, I don't hate it. It's not the greatest work of literature I have ever read, but it's not the worst either. Anyway, that's beside the point, what you care about is the Doctor in Alagaësia.

In Brisinger, Eragon and Aria are talking when Aria scribbles a poem in the dirt. While the entire thing has to do somewhat with the Doctor, the telling line is: 'the lonelly god with many faces, among the stars'

In another section, Solembum the Werecat gives a little speach to Eregon about the things the cat has seen in his life that is potentialy full of Doctor Who references, though only one point is a clear reference.

"There are many strange forces at work in Alagesia, Shadeslayer. I have seen things that defy belief: whirlwinds of light spinning in caverns deep below the ground, men who age backward, stones that speak, and shadows that creep. Rooms bigger on the inside than the outside... Galbatorix is not the only power in the world to be reckoned with, and he may not even be the strongest."

The clear reference here is the "Rooms bigger on the inside than the outside..." referencing the TARDIS. Other potential references are: The Weaping Angels with "Stone that speaks," though that would more acurately be stone that moves. The Doctor could be thought of as a man who "ages backward," though that sounds more like Benjamin Button. Finaly the Vashta Nerada with "shaddows that creep."

And finaly, Angela the herbalist was knitting a hat with runes on it. When asked what the runes read, she said, "Raxacori- Oh never mind. It wouldn't mean anything to you anyway." The word she was going to say was likely Raxacoricofallapatorius, which was a planet featured on Doctor Who.

There are probably other references in the seres to other works, but because the author acnolaged the amount of Doctor Who references in one of the afterwords ("Also, for those who understood the reference to a 'lonely god' when Eragon and Arya are sitting around the campfire, my only excuse is that the Doctor can travel everywhere, even alternate realities. Hey, I'm a fan too!") I decided to share those particular references.

Like when, in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Death Star is hanging outside a tavern in the guise of a lantern. Or all the Asian cultural references.

From The Serpent's Shadow, the third book in the Kane Chronicles:

All her previous attempts had exploded or gone haywire, terrorizing Khufu and the initiates. Last week she'd created a magical Thermos with googly eyes that levitated around the room, yelling, "Exterminate! Exterminate!" until it smacked me in the head.

Would have been more obvious if if was a saltshaker, but Sadie's British, so her enchanting something with a Doctor Who reference isn't so far-fetched, especially since:

"Why once, in my bunker at Charing Cross Station, I stalked the deadly prey known as Jelly Babies."
Neith's eyes widened. "They are dangerous?"
"Horrible," I agreed. "Oh, they seem small alone, but they always appear in great numbers. Sticky, fattening - quite deadly. There I was, with only two quid and a Tube pass, beset by Jelly Babies, when...Ah, but never mind. When the Jelly Babies come for you...you will find out on your own."

So...Jelly Babies.

The first book of the Kane Chronicles, The Red Pyramid, references Percy Jackson. They're written by the same author, so that makes sense.

"So you can't live in Manhattan?" she asked.
Amos's brow furrowed as he looked across at the Empire State Building. "Manhattan has other problems. Other gods. It's best we stay separate."

And then, from the The Lightning Thief, the first Percy Jackson book:

I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."
He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must have been good, because the guard took a while to look up.

There just happens to be a very good book with a picture of a wizard on the cover that came out in 2005, when the Lightning Thief was published.

And in The Last Olympian:

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when we all filed in with our weapons and armor clanking.

There is a big black book with a flower on the cover on the cover that wouldn't be good enough to distract you from demigods.

I actually can't take credit for these last two, I saw the Harry Potter one here and the Twilight one here.

The book All You Need Is Kill, when you paraphrase the plot, is basically the Halo games.

Main character fights aliens in a giant suit of armor, gets his ass summarily handed to him, respawns the day before the fight happened.

This goes on for the whole book.

It's worded well enough that it takes you a moment to figure out that he is constantly reviving at checkpoint, but still.

The guy's armor even comes standard equipped with a Halo-esque status HUD, for crying out loud.

Ciaphas Cain mentions in Defender of the Imperium that he had expected "[a Tyranid] to look significantly less like something Arbitrator Foreboding would shoot."

A bit of context: in 40k fluff, the Adeptus Arbites functions as the Imperium's police force. They often act as judge, jury, and executioner, and can perform summary executions, much like the Commissars of the Imperial Guard.

In short, they function like 2000 A.D.'s Judges. Combine this with his name, Arbitrator Foreboding, and it's a stealth reference to Judge Dredd.