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WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!
Fridge Brilliance
- In the Expanded Universe, it's revealed that the Daleks' name for the Doctor is actually the Ka Faraq Gatri, roughly translated as "The Bringer of Darkness". That strikes me as being every bit as poetical as "The Oncoming Storm"...which turns out to be what the Draconians call him. When I first saw the episode, I thought, "There's no excuse for this, as RTD wrote one of the New Adventures himself, and it was in the NAs that the latter name was established. Then I considered how the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors are very much aware of his own press and uses it to his own advantage ("Look me up" from "Forest of the Dead" being an excellent example). But this is the Ninth Doctor, who has some issues with doing the heroic thing at times and has a tendency towards ensuring "it's gone just a bit wrong" by his actions. I took this as the Doctor knowing about his own press, trying to make it work for him for the first time - and getting it wrong, in front of an audience of companions who don't know any better (Rose using this phrase for him in "Girl in the Fireplace" later) and Daleks who are so debased from their origins that they don't know any better, either. Hell, they're being confronted by their version of the Devil - this isn't the time when one of them will speak up and say, "Er, um, don't you mean we refer to you as the Bringer of Darkness, Doc?" Even if Daleks did such silly things. It's an insight into the flawed character of the 9th Doctor - and a bit of foreshadowing that he's about to get it wrong again... - Emperor Dalek
- Actually depends on your POV. In the novel for "Remembrance of the Daleks" (written by the same guy who wrote the episodes, and just including expanded info they couldn't shoot), Ka Faraq Gatri means Destroyer of worlds. Oncoming Storm suddenly sounds like the nice version...
- I always saw The Oncoming Storm as the perfect name for the Doctor's dark side. When he's the Valeyard, trying to save one of his Companions, or beyond angry, he doesn't care who gets in his way. Storms are forces of nature. They don't care what's in thefir way, either. -Epitome O Random
- It's also entirely possible the Daleks either picked up the name from the Draconians, or independently came up with it. Much stranger things happen all the time than two cultures having the same nickname for an individual.
- The character Omega was originally going to be named Ohm, which looks like "Who" upside down. The symbol for the SI unit of Ohm is the Greek character Omega. -Ardentsonata
- In "Zagreus" it is claimed Rassilon gave Time Lords the power of regeneration, stealing it from the Vampires. Yet in "A Good Man Goes To War" it is claimed regeneration was developed from exposure to the time vortex. Well which version would be more likely to be written down in the records? It is quite clear that Rassilon has gone through a lot of Historical Hero Upgrade, being an Evilutionary Biologist and Omnicidal Maniac. The Second Doctor even says that despite the official history portraying Rassilon well, there are stories that he was a tyrant who was overthrown by his fellow Time Lords. Obviously later Time Lords would prefer the version that made him look less evil. This could basically explain away any contradictions on Gallifreyan history.
- And now it turns out they're both wrong. Possibly.
- Doctor Who versus Scratchman by Tom Baker is written first person by the Doctor. But the Day of the Doctor novelisation makes a big deal out of the fact the Doctor always writes about himself in the third person, except when he's failed to live up to the name. There's nothing in Scratchman that would make him feel that way. But Day of the Doctor isn't consistent about this; the Doctor also writes about himself in the first person at the most triumphant moment, and the paratext is written first person by the Curator. If the Doctor uses third person because, on some level, he sees "the Doctor" who does these things is the person he's trying to be, then possibly these indicate moments when he feels he's really succeeded in being the Doctor. And it would make sense that the self-confident Fourth would feel that more than the angst-ridden post-Time War incarnations.
