Fridge / Doctor Who – General

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WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!

Revival Series (General)

• Some Fridge Brilliance on the Ninth Doctor's comment that "Lots of planets have a north" in "Rose". At first, it seems odd to think of a planet that doesn't have a north... but consider that on Earth, north is defined either by Earth's magnetic pole or by its rotational axis (which, by the way, are two different things that don't always line up). We know that not all planets have magnetic poles; e.g. Venus and Mars don't. And the Moon doesn't have a rotational axis relative to Earth, so while we don't know of any planets that don't have a rotational axis, they could possibly exist. No doubt the Doctor is right about the vast majority of planets having a north (i.e. a magnetic pole and/or a rotational axis with which to define north), but it's possible that a few might have neither.
  • Alternatively it could be a joke based on social commentary; in the UK there's something called the 'North-South Divide' where the 'South' is the southern parts of England stereotyped as the 'posh' part of the country and the 'North' is the northern parts of England stereotyped as being the 'working class' part of the country (obviously not all posh people live in the south and all working class in the north, it's just stereotyped that way because there tends to be more factory work/industry in the north while the south, containing London, leans more towards government, the stock market, etc). As a result the accents from those regions have become associated with the divide; the southern accents are usually seen as posher and more associated with the upper class (eg Received Pronunciation) while the northern accents (such as the Ninth Doctor's) are seen as rough and more associated with the working class (of course there are exception, eg Cockney). As such, the Doctor could be lamp shading that he sounds like a rough working class bloke rather than a refined gentleman (like many of his previous incarnations) because Earth is not the only planet with differences in wealth (of course this would be more for the viewer's benefit, but it also works in universe if he mistook Rose's comment as meaning she thought he sounded like a rough working class guy and he was countering with "Earth isn't the only place with poor people and a working class you know?").
    • Considering what we saw of his family "estate" in "Hell Bent" and the War Doctor episode, he may have enough "highborn" lineage to become a Time Lord, and a rusted out shell of a farm out in the wasteland but not much else. Nine being the first incarnation off Gallefrey since the Time War, probably chose an Oop North persona as a way of putting some distance from being a "Lord" from a world that was no longer on the map and that he hadn't liked much anyway.
• "I'm the Doctor, I work in a shop now. I am here to help. Look, they gave me a badge with my name on it in case I forget who I am. Very thoughtful as that does happen." Just seems like the Doctor saying something crazy as usual. Well, until you remember his bout of amnesia after his regeneration in the 1996 movie.
  "Who am I? WHO...AM...I?!"
• The voiceover from the end of "Forest of the Dead" details almost exactly what happens in "The Pandorica Opens". Because for River, it had already happened.
  River: When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end. But however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it.

• During her initial refusal to become the Tenth Doctor's companion, Donna Noble tells him that he should find someone because, sometimes, he needs someone to stop him. Back in the First Doctor's first episode, what does Ian do? Stop the Doctor from committing murder. Donna was far more right than she could possibly have realized.
  • Actually this is true. Ian is the reason why the Doctor relies on being around humans as companions. Because they keep him on the straight and narrow. When he isn't around close friends, we get endings like "The Waters of Mars" or sometimes his darkness becomes so powerful not even his friends can hold him back "The Family of Blood"
  • Remember the name: TIME LORD, as in LORD AND MASTER, as in someone who is arrogant, proud, stubborn, stuck-up and selfish, always thinks they're right and never hesitates to do what they please. The Doctor is a good person, but he's still a Time Lord, and maybe the vanity and smugness of that title never truly dies. Without a companion to keep him sane, the Doctor could wind up being exactly like the Master
    • And why not? Telepathic powers, the ability to go anywhere but not to DO anything there, and all the things the Doctor has seen... realistically speaking, he's a mental breakdown waiting to happen
  • Considering the Companions' job is that of Morality Chain, then Ashildr is fucked if she ever crosses paths with The Doctor again. Threatening a Companion is often a fast way to get on The Doctor's bad side. Threatening an innocent is also a bad way to get on the Doctor's naughty list. Trying to trick him is also a bad idea. Doing all three and getting his Companion killed in the process? She will be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her unnatural existence for a little blue police box and there isn't anything stopping him save his notoriously dubious restraint.

• I considered this and almost made myself cry. Okay, my logic is as follows:
  1. The Time Lords all died in the time war
  2. They were desperate enough to keep bringing back the dead via time travel and raising the MASTER. so logically they would go get a time lord that wasn't anywhere near a TARDIS right?
  3. This means Susan died in the Time war.
  4. This means that there is a very good chance the Doctor killed his Grand daughter.
     Oh damn. Can anyone please find a fault in my logic? because i so so so want to believe I'm wrong here.
  • Unless Susan isn't all Time Lord. Even though she certainly has been shown to be telepathic, she's never been shown to regenerate, and time lord society has always been shown to be very pretentious (read: racist) in who they will accept even the slightest bit of communication to. It's truly plausible that they just didn't want anything to do with Susan because she isn't 100% time lord. If that is true, then you get fridge brilliance, as it means that the "half human" revelation contributes to the time lords ill will towards the doctor, considering that the Time Lords have their own Intervention Agency that does the same thing the Doctor does...
    • Except The Doctor being half-human was a mistake in The Movie, and has been jossed/ignored/retconned ever since.
    • And racism didn't stop them from recruiting the Master, even though he'd been living in stolen non-Gallifreyan bodies for ages and had been turning into a cat when he'd last appeared in the classic series.
  • Extra fridge brilliance to support this logic: If the time lords wanted to ascend to a higher plane of consciousness, then it makes sense that they wouldn't accept help from anyone but a 100% time lord. Anything else would be acknowledging the need for lesser lifeforms.
  • One thing The Doctor didn't destroy Gallifrey, so, Susan's alive.
  • Here's something positive. Because keep in mind, during the Doctor's First and Second incarnations. He was hiding from the Time Lords, and it was a LONG WHILE before they found him. Chances are they never found Susan at all, and she's still where The Doctor left her.
  • Well, the last time the Doctor saw her (as of this writing), he left her to mourn the death of her son alone on future Earth. Nine, Ten and Eleven all suggest that after that, he never sought her out again. It's entirely possible he has no idea where she is either, but he obviously thinks she's dead.
  • We don't have any evidence that Susan ever attended the Academy to be granted the title of Time Lady, and she certainly wasn't trained as a soldier. So far as the Gallifreyan military was concerned, she may have been designated as just another civilian, not someone they'd draft into the Time War.
  • Not to mention she's, y'know, a teenager. Desperate though they were, it's not likely that the War Council would have wanted to conscript people as young as Susan to the front lines: given their usual lifespans, Gallifreyan military training probably takes decades before you're even allowed to test-fire a live weapon.
    • She didn't stay a teenager forever! Even if, like most TV fans, you don't consider Big Finish canon, we saw a middle-aged Susan on-screen in "The Five Doctors," well before the Time War happened in the collective Gallifrey timeline.

• In "The Big Bang", only the Earth was left out of all of creation before Big Bang Two brought it all back. The first Big Bang took place from a single point of matter.
• Watching "The Doctor's Wife" I thought, wow, what's with the Ood always being taken over, then it hit me they've been lobotomized meaning probably it's really easy for forces like the House or Satan to take them over rather then species with their entire brain intact. Also giving these Oods bonus Woobie points not only being lobotomized, but mind raped and then killed, no wonder the Doctor feels bad for not being able to save him.
  • Ood may also be vulnerable to mind-control even without the lobotomy, as their nervous systems are already primed to accept psychic input from their colony's giant communal brain. Those open mental channels could be easily-overridden by more powerful minds, effectively constituting a "back door" through which an Ood's individual brain(s) can be "hacked".
• One of my favorite elements of the recent Doctor Who (never saw the old one) is the habit of taking seemingly innocuous things and giving them meaning. Weeping Angels-the statues everywhere. In "Family of Blood", he imprisons one antagonist in the mirrors, and so every time you see something move in the mirror, it's her. -Paladin 852
• This is also why the name John Smith is a commonly used generic name. THE DOCTOR USES IT ALL THE TIME! (Literally, all the time.) Therefore, there may be very few men by that name, but the Doctor is a "John Smith" who does something important, public, and/or memorable often enough that it is a well-known name.
  • Also, (albeit from the Old Series) Sarah Jane Smith, who introduces herself by full name travels with the Doctor for quite a while, so by the same token her name is heard a lot throughout history, and probably mis-remembered as the "Sarah" part breaks the similarity between the male version and so is generally forgotten.
• In "The End of Time", the Doctor freaks out when he realizes that the machine can heal entire planets, with only a small pause of growing horror. Why? Because he's had this problem before... —NX Tangl
• This technically fits both Classic and Revived series'. As shown in "A Good Man Goes To War", it is revealed that the Doctor is someone who is drawn to do evil deep down, but is resisting it by being good. This lends credence to the argument that the Master is someone who drawn to do good deep down, but is resisting it by being evil. And actually, this is reinforced primarily by how they treat each other when they encounter each other time and time again: the Doctor attempts to save, but ultimately kills the Master, while the Master always attempts to kill the Doctor, but ultimately saves him.
• I just thought of this now, what if the Doctor could hear the theme song that play in the episodes for each characters? You know like the Ood's song. What if it was how he was able to choose who he can take travelling with him?
• The Doctor having a laser on his screwdriver isn't the most comforting thought considering the last person we saw having one.
• Doctor Who: We all know the Doctor was forced to kill The Time Lords to save the universe, but if you believe there were also non Time Lord Gallifreyans, this becomes much worse: some of them not wanting anything to do with them, forced into a war that had nothing to do with them the were all killed by the Doctor too and yet the Doctor, for all his guilt about killing his fellow Time Lords, has yet to give them a single mention; what measure is non-Time Lord much Doctor?
  • Not really. When he's angsting about it, he's angsting about killing everyone. What else should he say? "I'm the last Time Lord, and the last Gallifreyan, yeah, because not all Gallifreyans were Time Lords..." It's just much easier and less confusing, in and out of universe, just to say he's the last Time Lord and leave it at that.
• In Series 3 it's revealed that the Doctor refuels the TARDIS at the dimensional rift in Cardiff but according to the Word of God the rift is now permanently closed do to the events in "The Big Bang". So unless there another way to refuel this means that the TARDIS will eventually run out of power.
  • Since the TARDIS travels in time as well as space, the Doctor can easily take it to Cardiff at a point in time before the rift was closed to refuel.
  • Considering he didn't discover the Cardiff rift until his ninth life, that's pretty damn unlikely. It's not like that's the only dimensional rift in the universe, and even if it was there are probably lots of other ways of refueling the TARDIS.
    • Before he used the rift the Doctor used mercury as fuel.
    • Something else to add to Jack's fate during that year: The way the Master left him tied up probably led to him repeatedly suffocating and dying from suspension trauma each day.
• An episode during the First Doctor's run saw the Doctor leaving his Time Lord granddaughter, Susan, on earth because she fell in love with a human. This episode was produced before the nature of the Time Lords was known to the audience (or writers for that matter). Taking into account Time Lord's long lifespans one realizes that Susan will almost certainly outlive her husband as well as her increasingly diluted descendants, essentially dooming her to witness the deaths of her children, grand-children, etc.
  • It's also possible she died during the Time War.
    • Unless she chose not to regenerate.
    • Also at any point she could have used a fob watch to make herself human. What happens to this consciousness when the human body dies however is completely up in the air.
  • We also don't know that she's a Time Lady. Could be a non-Time Lady Gallifreyan. In fact, it's seldom if ever stated explicitly onscreen that she's even from Gallifrey; could even be a non-Gallifreyan the Doctor picked up and adopted somewhere.
• One I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet. Think of every episode of the series, ever. Every event the Doctor prevented or saved. Now, think of what would have occurred any time the Doctor had not been there at that moment.
  • It has been mentioned. In-universe. "Turn Left" is all about that one.
  • Moreover, "The Name of the Doctor" shows precisely what happens when all the Doctor's past victories start to be retconned by one of his enemies: the stars start going out.
• In Torchwood, it's repeatedly established that there is nothing but blackness and horror after death— no afterlife per se, but the dead are still aware enough to feel something, and it isn't good. This is fitting in Torchwood, which is much darker than its parent show. However, they're still set in the same universe. Which means that every character who's ever died on Doctor Who is now suffering in the darkness forever. -distantsun
  • Ah, but here's the question - is there truly no afterlife? Or can they simply remember nothing but the darkness and horror?
    • The conclusion of Series 8 would seem to support this theory, as Missy wouldn't want the rare person who's restored to life going around blabbing about the Nethersphere, so would have arranged for their memories of the Data Slice's "afterlife" to be wiped before they revived. And then replaced them with darkness and emptiness in the Torchwood characters' case, because Jack's crew were an occasional thorn in the Simm-Master's side, and Missy's a vindictive bitch.
  • Within (for instance) Christianity there are differences of opinion as to whether people who die will be awake and "in heaven/limbo/purgatory/some waiting room" before the Judgment Day(TM), or unaware throughout that time (it's sometimes called "soul sleep"). If we assume the latter for a moment, then there's really no reason anyone would have experienced anything after their death other than darkness. - Histrion
    • It has been long confirmed that Russell T. Davies is an Atheist, and passively-aggressively attacks Christianity in Torchwood whenever he can.
  • Also, before Russell T. Davis took over. During the 1996 Doctor Who film, Grace and Lee are both killed but later brought back to life by the TARDIS. Once back Grace assures the Doctor quite happily that what awaits after death is "nothing to be afraid of". So the in story explication for the discrepancy is that everyone experiences something different when they die.
• No matter how many times the Doctor has battled and defeated the Daleks, seemingly wiping them out entirely, the Daleks always return, as menacing as ever. While this may just appear to be Joker Immunity, consider that when Davros created the Daleks, he intended to make them the Ultimate Survivors. He succeeded: not even the Doctor can put a final end to the Daleks.
  • Which means that the Time Lords died effectively for nothing.
    • Nah, they went all "destroy everything to ascend" and "died" for that reason. One might say the Time War was for nothing but we don't really know enough about it to say.
    • But they only got that way because of the horrible war they had with the Daleks-meaning they were corrupted for nothing. Made worse by the fact that the Doctor could've stopped this in "Genesis of the Daleks."
    • But we don't really know anything about the Time War so to say failing to genocide the Daleks means it was for nothing is a baseless statement. For all we know, the Time Lords stopped the Daleks from destroying all of creation as part of the Time War which would mean that, while it sucks the Daleks were able to regain strength to full while the Time Lords are stuck with just one or two living members, it wouldn't necessarily be for nothing. We just don't know enough to say.
• At first, the whole Pandorica=Pandora's Box thing had me annoyed, since it seemed only there to sound cool. Then it dawned on me that the Doctor's enemies trapping him in it essentially does what the myth stated: It allows all evils to roam free while hope remains trapped within.
• How come The Doctor's Companions can make cell phone calls (ie: Rose and Martha calling their Mothers) while in the past\future and still reach someone at the "proper" date\time in their own timeline? Easy! When The Doctor sonics their phones to work through time and space, the modification uses the date\time settings already set on the phone for outgoing\outside of the current timeline calls.
  • As we learn in The Pandorica Opens, the calls get routed through the TARDIS, which directs them to the proper time.
• In Remembrance of the Daleks, it's implied that Skaro is destroyed, yet Asylum of the Daleks, the TV Movie, and Magician's Apprentice/Witch's Familiar are all set there. How can this be? Continuity error? Nope:
  • The TV movie could be set pre-Skaro's destruction.
  • Missy mentions at the end of Magician's Apprentice that the Daleks have rebuilt Skaro. But the Doctor doesn't seem overly surprised by this-because they presumably did so at some point after the Time War, probably post-Victory of the Daleks, and that's when Asylum of the Daleks and the first two episodes of Series 9 take place.
• As a general rule, a person or object meeting itself at multiple points in its own timeline creates a Temporal Paradox, the result of which varies from an energy discharge to monsters pouring through a tear in spacetime. However, these effects seem to be minimized in the case of a Time Lord meeting another of their regenerations, except for the earlier version losing their memory of the encounter^note (Usually). The regeneration process consists of two separate stages: the healing, and the change in physiology and personality. It's conceivable that it could have been designed to simply heal, but a society full of functionally immortal time travelers could put a real strain on the fabric of spacetime, so the change may have been added to minimize the damage when a Time Lord inevitably bumps into him/herself.
• All of the Series finales during the first seven series of Doctor Who were subtle references to the various Doctors of Doctor Who during it's original run.
  • Series 1's finale featured the Daleks, who were introduced during the First Doctor's tenure.
  • Series 2's finale featured the Cybermen, who were introduced during the Second Doctor's tenure. Additionally, a Cybermen vs Dalek story was supposed to playout sometime during the Second Doctor's era but in never materalized beyond the paperwork.
  • Series 3's finale featured the Master, who was introduced during the Third Doctor's tenure.
  • Series 4's finale featured Davros, who was introduced during the Fourth Doctor's tenure.
  • Series 5's finale does not feature any one villain, but rather all of the villains up to that point. However, the important historical note in the production world is that, before Matt Smith, Peter Davison was the youngest actor to take the mantle of the Doctor. More humourously, the Silurians were crucial in Rory William's first actual death, similar to how their story during the Fifth Doctor's era marked the decline of Doctor Who during the 1980s.
  • Series 6's reoccuring villain involved the Silence, creatures that have this ability to make you forget that you saw them and alter your memory if exposed to them long enough. During the Doctor's trial, which occured during his Sixth incarnation, the Timelords were able to manipulate the perceptions of events as a means of ascertaining the Doctor's guilt. On a humourous note, we wish we could forget The Sixth Doctor's rainbow coat.
  • Series 7 involved the Doctor removing any trace of himself across the universe, creating an illusion that the Doctor was a greater than life character. Similarly, the Seventh Doctor saw the Doctor become characterized as a person far greater than any regular Time Lord.

Monsters

The Weeping Angels

• At the end of Blink, Sally gives the Doctor a folder with pictures of the Weeping Angels in. We later find out that the image of an Angel becomes one. The first message Sally found from the Doctor was on the wall of the old house where the Angels were hiding. The Doctor went to the house to write the message, like the documents told him he had to, and while he was there the Angels became real and displaced him and Martha.
  • This one doesn't work since the message is from 1969 which is where the angels send them, not from where the angels send them.
  • In Blink the Angels never move on screen. Not once do we see a moving angel. Why not? Because WE, THE AUDIENCE, can see them!
    • This is subtly indicated early in the episode when Sally is upstairs obtaining the key; one of the angels only moves while Sally is blocking the audience's view of it. Astonishingly, no attention is called to the fact, not even in the musical score, which is what turns it into Fridge Brilliance: even if you notice it on first viewing, you probably won't think about it until later. - Histrion
    • However, in the episode "Flesh and Stone", the angels are seen in the process of moving, albeit slowly. The reasons given are that they're running away from the crack, and most of their attention is focused on that; so they assume she can see them. Once they start to realize she can't - well, better to get her out of the way so they can move freely. On the other hand, even if they can't see her while locked (which, admittedly is supposed to be an automatic process, so they shouldn't have been able to move), one did lookat her, trying to reach her and send her back in time(or just kill her). So it probably should've realized it was Amy, who couldn't open her eyes, and they should've been able to move at their normal speed.
    • Adding to that, in the basement, when the lights go out Sally and Larry couldn't see the angels, as well as they were too busy unlocking the TARDIS to look regardless. Keep in mind, how fast the Angels can move they should have touched them within a millisecond. So why were the Angels (conveniently) constantly freezing in that scene? Because WE were watching them, we, the viewers, stalled the Angels long enough to save Sally, Larry, the Doctor and Martha.
  • Near the end of Blink, the angels only move while in the dark even though nobody can see them. The TARDIS has been shown to be sentient, so the reason they don't move is because the TARDIS itself is looking at them.
    • (Possibly Jossed): Once Sally and Larry were inside, the Angels surrounded the entire TARDIS and were shaking it back and forth. There would be no way the TARDIS could miss that if it could see.
    • The angels can't move if they're seen by any living creature. The TARDIS, while certainly sentient, is a machine and likely not "alive" in the same sense that would be necessary to freeze a weeping angel.
  • The Doctor didn't come up with the description of time as a ball of "wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff," because he was just reading from the script! He wasn't pausing because he couldn't think of good descriptions and settled for bad ones just to finish the sentence, he was trying to force himself to go along with an established time-line where he has to say something completely ridiculous or risk ruining the plan that the script was part of. That sentence was randomly generated by the universe as part of the Stable Time Loop, and the nigh-omniscient Doctor has no idea why a sentence like that was set up instead of something less ridiculous.
    • Jossed: In "Time Crash" The Fifth Doctor used it. Meaning the Doctor knew that word for some time.
    • Simple, it's the stable time loop. He used the phrase, so it appeared on the transcript, so he used the phrase, which appeared on the transcript, so he used the phrase...

• Also, what do you think happens when the light in the basement where the angels are stuck staring at each-other finally gives-out?
  • The Angels can see in the dark.
• The Weeping Angels of Doctor Who are bad enough on their own, but consider the 'happy' ending of "Blink". The Angels are trapped because they're all stuck looking at each other. In the basement of an unmaintained building. Lit by one single lightbulb. Which has been shown to leave the basement in total darkness when it's burned out...
  • They can probably see in the dark. Their species' entire shtick is moving when they can't be seen, so being nocturnal to some degree seems likely.
  • And now, with "The Time of Angels" it's worse... much much MUCH worse. Because what they establish is that the Angels not only can do everything we've seen, but they can also somehow reach through any image made of themselves. "Anything that shows the image of an Angel becomes one". Anyone who heard that line was currently watching the Angel on their TV/computer screen. Even more terrifying than that is that staring at a Weeping Angel for too long burns their image into your mind, ultimately turning you into one of them. So do the math: take your eyes off of them for a nanosecond, they've got you. Keep your eye on them for too long, they've got you. You're doomed no matter what. Had the ones Eleven, Amy, and River came across not been in a state of near-death, they would have been dead and gone within minutes.
    • I thought Amy only got the Angel in her mind because she stared into its eyes. The others in the episode looked at the statues for just as long but since the Doctor had read in the book that you had to avoid the eyes no one else made Amy's mistake. Now, people without access to that book would still probably meet the Angel's eyes but the Doctor and company would know better.
    • Doesn't that mean that the actors playing the angels in the episode were turned into the characters they played?
  • At the end of "Blink," Sally Sparrow is shown with several photos of Weeping Angels.
    • Fridge Brilliance: She gave the photos to the Doctor along with the transcript and everything else. The photos become the Weeping Angels who displaced the Doctor and Martha in the first place. Stable Time Loop.
    • On a semi related note, how many Whovians out there have tons of merchandise about the house? How many of those are Weeping Angels? Now, remember that an image of an angel becomes itself an angel...
    • "Blink" has a good Fridge Horror moment after watching "The Time of Angels", and finding out that the angels now snap necks. In "Blink", after Sally realizes both of them are not looking at the statue, they turn to see the angels with claws grasping at their throat. Sending Sally to the past wouldn't help them - the key would just be sent with her. They were planning to snap her neck.
    • Another occurs when you realize that in "Blink" they are only ever shown as statues even when none of the characters are looking at them. There are two possibilities: they could JUST HAPPEN to be seen by something like a squirrel OR it's because we as part of the audience are watching them. Meta indeed.
    • Or, if you've seen "The Name Of The Doctor", you realize that one of Clara's duplicates could've been peeking at them from off-screen.
    • Another thing about Blink: The ending seems happy at the time. That is, until you realize that both Sally and Larry have looked the angels in the eyes. Several times. This may not be the case however. There is a good 30 centuries between the two events (21st Century to 51st Century), which combined with that fact that the Angels have evolved as mentioned by the Doctor suggests that the Weeping Angels did not have the ability to take over the mind or come out of an image at that point in history.f
  • How about a little Fridge Humor to dilute the Nightmare Fuel that is the Weeping Angels. Consider this; according to the Doctor, when an Angel is observed by any living thing, they got into quantum lock and turn to stone. Now imagine this. How many times has an Angel marked its target, stalked it relentlessly, only to be foiled at the last possible second from snatching its prey... because that damn grasshopper won't stop looking at it?
    • Steven Moffat himself joked about this in a commentary, where he said that the Weeping Angels had to call off an invasion because of a stray moth
• Another one about the Weeping Angels. In "The Big Bang", everyone gets back because the cracks in time close. Now, with that said... remember how the Angels were defeated? Oh, yeah.

  • It's not quite as bad as all that, since the Angels only hijacked the Byzantium in order to gain access to the energy from the Crack. So now that it doesn't exist, all the Angels in the Maze of the Dead are still dormant. That first Angel is still out there somewhere, of course.

• For being so deadly and supposedly cunning, the Weeping Angels sure seem to be their own worst enemies, sometimes; in two of their three appearances to date, they trip themselves up and allow the Doctor to defeat them by exploiting their own carelessness. But it actually makes perfect sense that the Angels would have this tendency: they've had to deal with their defense mechanism of turning into stone for their entire existence. It's completely understandable that they've learned to act as quickly as possible when they're not being observed, and as a result can get careless when victory seems to be in their grasp. (This would also make Angel Bob the most dangerous Angel to date, since rather than try to work around their limitation, as his fellows seem to do, he actually used it to his advantage, posing as a statue not just to hide, but to further his plan.)
• The first sign that Amy is becoming an Angel is that she rubs her eyes until sand pours out. Weeping Angels cover their faces with their hands — as though they're rubbing their eyes.
• Fridge Horror for Weeping Angels. The Doctor says that the quantum lock is a defense mechanism, but that defense mechanism is useless for hunting if the prey know about the angels, and it wouldn't be any use against a hostile environment. So it must be a defense mechanism against predators, which means that something out there hunts Weeping Angels.

The Daleks:

• The Daleks will Laser-Guided Amnesia THEMSELVES to maintain the Dalek imperative, erasing any memory that might inspire any sort of morality or compassion. They Mind Rape themselves technologically to maintain their "purity".
• It's fairly obvious that the Daleks are based on the Nazis, but then you take a step back and realize some things.
  • As xenophobic, fascist, and genocidal as they were, the Nazis were still human beings. They felt the same emotions we all do. Many of them showed remorse for their actions committed during the war. Some of them even helped Jews and other minorities survive, despite knowing they would be killed if they were discovered. They made some of the biggest scientific advances at the time to help improve people's lives, such as the first highway systems. Hell, even Hitler himself had some tiny drops of humanity in him, best seen in his love for animals. Daleks have none of that. No compassion, empathy, remorse, or even pity. They feel nothing but hatred for anything besides their own species, with their entire existence devoted to warfare. Every scientific advancement they have ever made has been for destroying life in one way or another.
  • While the Nazis placed their Aryan race ideology above all others, they did at least try to forge alliances with others they respected, in places like Asia and the Middle East. Daleks would prefer them to burn along with everything else.
  • Finally, the Nazis represented one group of humanity dedicated to a racist ideology where they should dominate or destroy all races. The Daleks are an entire species dedicated to this view. As much as some may try to push the Humans Are Bastards view, our destructive capabilities don't even hold a candle to what the Daleks are capable of.
• "The Magician's Apprentice" may, possibly by pure accident, have actually justified one of the most frequently-mocked attributes of the Daleks: their suction-cup "arms", which even to characters in-Verse can't help looking like a re-purposed toilet plunger much of the time. But if Davros's childhood encounter with the hand-mine field is something he's been haunted by, all this time, then it makes perfect sense that he wouldn't give his creations manipulative appendages that resembled a Kaled limb, because deep down, Davros is afraid of hands, so subconsciously couldn't allow his "perfect" creations to be equipped with anything that resembled one.
• On the subject of the Daleks, how about the fact that they were deliberately created to act this way? They weren't a "freak accident" or anything like that. No, their creator, Davros, one of the most evil, sadistic and maniacal men to EVER be on TV/media in general, made sure that the little pepper pots of doom were as terrifying, destructive, unfeeling and maniacal as possible. Why? He barely had an actual legitimate reason why! He just wanted to be a ruler/destroyer of worlds because it's fascinating to him.
  • And as a result, almost everything that posed the biggest threats and emotional torment to the Doctor and his companions happened! As described here. ^note Under the "Davros" section
• The mere fact that not once, but twice, the Daleks surpassed the Time Lords in technology (the void ship and Caan's emergency temporal shift). What's stopping them from doing so again?

The Master / Missy:

• Simultaneous Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror. It is established that The Doctor's companions help function as a morality chain, and when he doesn't have them, stuff The Waters of Mars happens. Now think about The Master, the Doctor's ex best friend and Evil Counterpart. How many friends has he had? The Doctor, and maybe a few others at the academy, and unless you count Chantho (which I don't due to him being chameleon arced at the time) that is it. He hasn't had friends for hundreds of years. No wonder he's crazy. He also doesn't seem to have been insane on Gallifrey during their childhood, which backs up this theory.
  • Also, this may point to a good part of the Master who knows this, and wants The Doctor to be a Morality Chain for him.
  • Note that the post-Time War Masters are (with the exception of Jacobi's "white sheep" chameleon arch alter-ego) considerably more nuts than the Classic Masters. In his own way, the Master wasn't any less traumatized by the Time War than the Doctor: his/her PTSD just manifests as psychopathy rather than guilt/grief.
• "The Doctor Falls" offered an unprecedented first: a multi-Master episode. But, given how that situation worked out for Saxon and Missy inflicting their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder on each other, it also makes a very good in-Verse case for why we haven't ever seen one before.
• In retrospect, it's been hinted from her first appearance that Missy would be the first Master to undergo a Heel–Face Turn, albeit one aborted by Redemption Equals Death. Not because she's the first female Master, but because, unlike her predecessors, she has a name. Sure, "Missy" was short for "Mistress", but it still functions as a personal name, not just an alias or self-aggrandizing title. Hence, it humanizes her character, and foreshadows her coming to accept that being humane has value.
  • Additionally, unlike the other Masters, this one has spent decades, if not centuries, with the Doctor's influence while she was locked up. The only other Master who comes close to that was Delgado, who practically defined Friendly Enemy and could barely go two stories without pulling an Enemy Mine against some other opponent.
• The Master torturing Jack, attempting to get the Doctor to kill Clara, trolling Bill, psychologically torturing Nyssa by using her dad's face, etc...it's not just Evil Is Petty. It's also jealousy. The Master, it has always been shown since the Delgado days, misses the days when they and the Doctor were best friends (not that they'll usually admit it). So seeing their place be taken by a tiny little human must really get on their nerves!

The Silence:

• They appear as a tall, thin, pale humanoid with an indeterminate face, wearing a smart business suit, and capable of inducing Laser-Guided Amnesia and a strange sickness. Remind you of anyone?
• From a distance, they also bear a strong resemblance to the grey aliens◊ that allegedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. And where does Part 2 of the episode dealing with the Silence take place? Area 51. Clever.
• When you first see them, you think "Why are these aliens wearing business suits?" - but oh no, the Silence didn't wear our suits! Thanks to the subliminal programming we modeled our business suits on the look of the Silence! It goes further: Putting on a business suit is a way to show, impose or interact with power and being in charge. And who was in charge until 1969?
• They've been controlling Earth for almost all of recorded history, influencing events through their post-hypnotic suggestions, How many atrocities are they responsible for? And, almost worse, how many good things did they give us to suit their own ends?
• It is unlikely that the Silence go down easily. Ever get a bruise you can't explain? A cut? A scratch? Ever notice a bad smell in your house that you can't find the source of, and then later it's gone? But if you cleaned it, you'd remember. Lose five minutes, lose 30, lose an hour. Misplace your keys. Leave a door open. Ever feel that you're not alone in an empty room, and when you turn to look there was nothing? Heck, why did you even go into the kitchen in the first place? You aren't hungry, but that is where you keep the knives. How many unexplained accidents, coincidences, and moments of bad luck have you had? Hell, how many good fortunes have you had? Who benefits from your success besides you? And what are they willing to do to ensure it? Misplaced phone, forgotten alarm, forgotten medication. Even images in media such as television, paintings, and internet videos can just be an attempt to warn you by those who half-see the truth. Or, attempts to make you look like a fool when you see it yourself. They aren't real. It's just television.
• Because of the Doctor's message hidden in the moon landing footage, everyone on Earth is now a potential murderer. Ever wandered into the kitchen and found yourself holding a knife? Or out into the garage and found yourself holding a hammer? Congratulations—you just killed one of the Silence.
  • And we're only assuming they're entirely evil. The Silence were a complex, highly intelligent race, and as such, were probably individuals. We know nothing about their politics or motivations, beyond a couple random individuals who may or may not represent the entire species as a whole.
• Any innocent Silents would be perfectly justified in defensive action, which brings up another question: How many people are vaporized in self-defense whenever the original copy of the moon landing is played? The Doctor has transformed the original unedited video clip into a cursed mysterious artifact, always longer than it actually seems for no apparent reason, and when you view it, there is a chance that you or people around you disappear forever.
• Some relief might come in the fact that humans aren't ordered to seek out the Silence—they can run and hide, or get off the planet entirely, and the humans won't find them. Not much better, but it's something.

Aliens keep invading Earth because of legends from the future:

• Why are aliens always trying to invade the Earth? Because it is famous as the birthplace of the greatest empire the universe will ever know. How do aliens know this will happen? Because time travellers have left hints across time and space. Not many, but just enough slip-ups to turn into myths, prophecies, race memories, whatever, that inspire alien species to travel here and have a go.

The TARDIS

• The TARDIS is alive. Bearing this in mind, the Master taking a blowtorch to it to convert it into a Paradox Machine in "The Sound of Drums" and it exploding at every point in space and time simultaneously in "The Big Bang" suddenly become even worse.
  • Let's not forget the stuff that happens in "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS".
  • Also, the TARDIS spends the entirety of "The Lodger" trying to materialize and failing. That must hurt. And the Doctor is psychically linked to the TARDIS... how much of her pain does he feel?
    • If that's true then you could argue that him protecting the TARDIS is a form of self defense. And I have to write a fan-fic about this.
  • The sound the TARDIS makes is caused by the Doctor driving with the parking brake on. Imagine what would eventually happen if you drove your car everywhere with its parking brake engaged... and imagine the equivalent happening with an incredibly powerful time machine.
  • Though when she/it was given physical form in "The Doctor's Wife" she/it didn't complain about it (just the fact that The Doctor always opens the door the wrong way, every single time). So maybe it really doesn't bother her/it that much.
    • Or River was just flat-out lying.
• Fridge Brilliance: Of course the TARDIS doesn't have a self-destruct. The Doctor hates weapons, and, as he mentioned in "Asylum of the Daleks", when he manipulated an unfortunate Dalek into activating its self-destruct mechanism, he considered it a weapon. He wouldn't have such a thing on his ship.
• Why does the TARDIS send stuff flying around when it comes in to land? It's clearing a space on the floor.
  • Or it's displacing the air around it, same as if you dropped a rock in water. The wind blowing around the TARDIS is all that air getting displaced.

The Doctor

• The Tenth Doctor is obsessed with Rose. All things considered, this makes sense as out of love, and I took it as that. Then the Master regenerated and specifically mentioned he wanted to be younger—and is promptly not just more physically fit, but mentally so energetic as to be, well, maniacal^note Yes, he was already insane, but still. And here it comes, the sound of drums.... So...that implies that Time Lords can affect their next regeneration to some extent. And what was Nine's biggest regret? That he wouldn't get to do all the things he wanted to with Rose. He made someone who would stay with her.—Red Wren
  • And that, in turn, would explain why Romana in the classic series could "try on" different regenerations willy-nilly where the Doctor seemingly cannot. Romana, lest we forget, is a Time Lady with superior academic merits to the Doctor, and so she most likely understands the intricacies of regeneration better than the Doctor, who - as Romana puts it - barely scraped through the Academy. He cannot control his regenerations as well, and so his regenerations mostly come out as if on shuffle. — Nemesis Kane
    • Technically, each regeneration is a response to the faults of the previous version (or what got them killed):
    • The First Doctor's body was "wearing a bit thin"; so he got himself a newer, younger one, which was what he needed for his types of adventures.
    • The Second Doctor was forced to regenerate by the Time Lords, so they made him as far away from his old self and as close to a typical Time Lord as they could; as such, the Third Doctor is more typically heroic, a man of action, and (like his former society) somewhat vain.
    • The Third Doctor was too old and stuffy, and his "man of action"-type escapades were getting worse and worse... so he regenerated into a younger, more bohemian figure, who abhors violence (when he can avoid it) and doesn't mind looking shabby with his infinitely-long scarf.
    • The Fourth Doctor didn't know who he was, anymore; he'd grown dark, and old, and his final season had him plagued with doubts about his approach to the Universe; his regeneration, after saving the Universe (which then spited him through his short fall off a tall satellite), transformed him into a younger, even meeker character, much less blustery than he had been, and more relatable to the humans he travelled with so often.
    • The Fifth Doctor had lost nearly everyone, and the troubles and travails of The Caves of Androzani had shown him that his peaceful, meek way of dealing with the Universe wasn't working; after trauma like that, who wouldn't want to become a brash, egotistical, sure-of-himself figure who doesn't take guff from anybody over his decisions (even in fashion!), such as we got with the Sixth Doctor?
    • The Sixth Doctor's bluster had alienated almost everybody from him, so a softening up seemed in order; a quick bump against the TARDIS console transformed him into the Seventh Doctor, who seemed, at first, to be a much lighter figure than his Sixth self had been; slowly, however, he revealed a much darker, more calculating side of himself — perhaps the Universe had been better off with Six?
    • The Seventh Doctor, however he might have calculated, could never have predicted he'd be killed (temporarily) by a gang of street thugs in turn-of-the-century San Francisco; that weakness, as well as the cold way in which he'd treated enemies, changed entirely when he regenerated into Eight, who went completely spur-of-the-moment and had compassion even for the Master (a trait that would be horrifically exaggerated two regenerations later).
    • The Eight Doctor was a suave, gentle figure filled to the brim with compassion for every living being. Yet the Time War turned every Time Lord, including himself, into a despised boogeyman. Dying because of his attempts to save a space pilot who literally allowed herself to die to avoid owing her life to a Time Lord, he was convinced by the Sisterhood of Karn to regenerate as a warrior, the War Doctor. It has to be noted that the Sisterhood of Karn granted him the ability to willingly choose and customize fully his regeneration, like Romana did. He still chose to become a Warrior, allowing himself to be involved in the Time War and hoping to end it once and for all.
    • The War Doctor even refused to give a number to his reincarnation, and he was reviled by his next two regenerations. He knew nothing but war, and he grew old as a bitter, gruff old soldier. While he believed himself the agent of Gallifrey's ultimate destruction, with the help of the Tenth and the Eleventh Doctor he was able to place his homeworld and his peers into a time loop, shunted in another universe. Still, his old age in the end claimed his life. Even knowing his next incarnation would have no memory of him saving Gallifrey, and would believe for many years to have doomed to an eternal death the Time Lords, he died at peace, entrusting the future of his species to his next regenerations.
    • The Ninth Doctor, oblivious to the last cathartic actions of the War Doctor, had a revelation at the end of his life: He could be happy, even in the face of death! He needed a self with more brash, more bravado, more emotion... and he got it.
    • The Tenth Doctor was afraid of change; all the emotion and brash bravado in the Universe couldn't stop regeneration... but he tried, anyway. He couldn't stand to let go, or to let emotion well out of him; a lesson the Eleventh Doctor took great heed of.
    • On top of that, the Eleventh Doctor realized Ten was far, far too involved with his Companions, making them fall in romantic love with him. Ten was too human. His solution? Love your Companions, for sure...but act like the crazy alien you are. He also knows what's coming up for him-River Song and a serious relationship, be it sexual or not. Eleven also knows this ends with River dying. Hence him being so curious to find out about their adventures - he wants to change it so she won't die. Furthermore, Ten had been plagued by a long string of losses: Rose shunted in another universe with his Meta Crisis clone, Martha abandoning him because he couldn't stop thinking about Rose, Donna being mindwiped to spare her life and the Master refusing to regenerate to avoid living in his care and then shunted in the Time Lock to help him: so the Doctor brought his "no one dies" mantra to its extremes, becoming obsessed with Clara and her long string of apparent deaths and allowing the young girl to get close to him as a way to protect her. Also Eleven knows he's at his last life, with the War Doctor counting as the "real Nine" and Ten having literally burned away a regeneration to enact his "Meta-Crisis". So, he tries to make the universe work without him, and erase the former image of the Doctor as a fearless warrior and a Dark Hero, leaving behind of himself only a legend of hope.
    • The Twelfth Doctor is actually the First Doctor of a new Cycle. He's a reset of the Regeneration Cycle, once again a suave, but a bit grumpy, old man in a box. This time, he's no longer afraid of growing old.—-Epitome O Random:
    • Some of the Twelfth Doctor's last words were to "be kind, but never tell anyone your name." The Thirteenth Doctor is one of the sweetest and nicest incarnations, but also one of the most secretive.
    • Something that paid off big in "The Girl Who Died;" Twelve knew he chose his face, but had trouble remembering why, then he lands in the Viking village that is a day away from doom, and it reminds him of one of the last times he landed in a mess like that - Pompey. Despite wanting to follow the "rules" of time as he knew them, he gave in to the pleading from Donna, and chose to save Caecilius and his family. He took the face of a man he rescued despite "the rules" as a reminder that it is possible to "break" them in small ways, or using the analogy from "The Girl Who Died", a reminder that it's okay to make ripples, it's making tidal waves he has to try and avoid..
    • Some other things about the Eleventh Doctor. River said "Rule 1: The Doctor always lies." The Twelfth Doctor is tactless and honest to a fault. The Eleventh Doctor was also optimistic, sometimes blindly so. The Twelfth Doctor is more cynical (his refusal to believe in a good Dalek and Robin Hood as an example.) The Eleventh Doctor was friendly to soldiers, or at the very least civil. The Twelfth Doctor refuses to have soldiers as companions.
    • And remember what was revealed in The End of Time. The Master, the Doctor's friend and foe, had the drums put in his head when he was a child. The Doctor couldn't help the Master, which may be part of why he's so drawn to help children, in addition to having once been a father and a grandfather.
  • The Eleventh Doctor is also notably and visibly/vocally more self-loathing and more open with his lengthy reasons for guilt than his previous incarnations — in particular the Tenth Doctor, who was by comparison incredibly cocksure and confident-bordering-on-arrogant (or at least better able to disguise his insecurities). Remember that only one story before his last the Tenth Doctor ended up on the verge of letting his cockiness become a raging megalomaniacal God-complex which ended very badly, and he spent the time between stories trying desperately to ignore or run away from both the implications of that and his forthcoming regeneration. The Eleventh Doctor has obviously learnt a lesson about the need to keep his ego from going out of control from these events, and is much quicker to remind himself that he's not perfect, possibly going to the other extreme to compensate.
    • Consider also how both Doctors react when they're given a premonition of impending death. While both don't exactly take it lying down and try their best to avoid / change things, the Tenth Doctor seems intensely frantic to avoid his fate, at times seeming unable to even accept that he could possibly die; he runs away and ignores it as long as he possibly can, his first response when confronted with the inevitable is to rant about how unfair it is, and even his last words are mourning how he doesn't want to go. The Eleventh, however, when confronted with the inevitability of death (as represented by the death of his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), does something the Tenth ultimately couldn't do — he resigns himself to it. Of course, he manages to figure out a clever little loophole to avoid death after all, but it also seems that the Eleventh Doctor has managed to better accept something that the Tenth Doctor couldn't quite manage to — that he's mortal, and that he will one day die as well. The fact that Eleven had no more regenerations to use was kind of a wake-up call.
  • Twelve's abrasive and serious attitude gave him large bouts of self doubt, and made it difficult at times to connect with others around him. Tired of the distance felt, and wanting a change in life, the result is Thirteen. A more goofy, kindly, merciful woman.
  • Thirteen tried so hard to be cheerful and friendly by hiding her trauma and exhaustion, which gave her the same problem as Twelve in connecting with her companions. As a result, Fourteen is more forthcoming about his feelings, allowing him to reconnect with his old companions and, after some nudging, decide to finally rest in order to process his trauma.
• After the Doctor regenerated after the Time War, he wanted to separate himself as much as possible from his previous "self" who did all those terrible things... Explains the Eight to War Doctor and the War Doctor to Nine transition, with every Doctor from Nine to Eleven trying to pretend that War Doctor never existed at all.
• "The Impossible Astronaut" gives us explicit insight into why the Doctor Doesn't Like Guns. It's not that he's a Technical Pacifist; although highly respectful of all forms of life, we've seen him wipe out whole races and manipulate his opponents into annihilating themselves. But every time the Doctor kills someone, it's a conscious decision based on a deliberative moral and ethical process, usually only after exploring every available alternative. Guns promote a mentality that is the antithesis of that process, especially in the hands of a companion who's scared enough to shoot before asking questions. ~ AKA Goldfish
  • As mentioned in the Crowning Moment of Funny article, Four basically implies the same thing in The Horns of Nimon.
  Sardor: Can you make it work?
  Doctor: (ignoring him) Have you noticed how people’s intellectual curiosity declines sharply the moment they start waving guns about?
  Sardor: Can you make it work!
  Doctor: YES! Oh yes. I can make it work. The question is can we generate power soon enough to take the ship to escape velocity before we fall into a black hole over the event horizon?
  Sardor: The what?
  Doctor: Shh-shh. You just hold the gun steady. Don’t tax your mind.
  • Alternately: this was originally a kids' show.
  • Yeah, but that's not an excuse to stop thinking.
  • The fact his Seventh incarnation, the Magnificent Bastard and grandmaster of Xanatos Speed Chess, met an ignoble end by a random gunshot because he landed in the wrong part of San Francisco probably hasn't helped his opinion of guns or America.
• YMMV, but I used to think that Doctor giving River the nickname of "Mrs. Robinson" was just a random joke, until it occurred to me while watching Let's Kill Hitler that River was the exact opposite of Mrs. Robinson, and Amy is the real Mrs. Robinson of the lot.
  • Absolute brilliance in the nickname choice. At the surface, the song got a Grammy in 1969: the year of the stories' setting. Next, it is about how governments control their citizens with subtlety; a parallel to the Silence's methods. To return to the movie character parallel: the Doctor throws out three aliases, and it is River who assumes that he names her Mrs. Robinson due to her regeneration's appearance of "looking more mature" despite her actual age. But, if revealed that he actually meant that moniker for Amy, it lends to the potential of biological progeny between the Doctor and River. And distantly a path of continuation of the series past 13th's death.
• At first, the Psychic Paper bugged me. If I printed out a nice looking card which said I was the King of Belgium, no one would believe me, and how is the Psychic Paper different, apart from being changeable? Then I realized, the Paper just doesn't show what the Doctor wants them to see, it makes them believe what the Doctor wants them to believe.
  • Wait a second. That guy that told me he was the King of Belgium... That was YOU??? YOU LIED!
  • It probably doesn't directly make the person believe it by mind control or anything like that. Instead it works on a similar principle to the TARDIS's chameleon circuit (other than the fact that it does work); instead of scanning the surroundings to determine the most appropriate disguise, it scans a person's mind and finds out just what they'd need to see to believe the Doctor's story.
    • Except in "Christmas Carol" he tries to make it say he's a mature and responsible adult and it refuses. "Finally, a lie too big."
• I was just wondering why so many of the Doctor's adventures take place in 20th/21st Century London, England. But then I tried to put myself in the Doctor's shoes. Imagine if you got your hands on a spaceship that could also travel through time. For 900 years, you see alien races, strange planets, and find yourself in bizarre situations. Then one day, you land on a planet populated by people who look EXACTLY LIKE YOU DO. ("I don't look human, you look Time Lord.") After all that time over all the universe, wouldn't your favorite time/place be on the planet with the human-looking species, and in the major city where you first landed?
  • The Whoniverse has plenty of planets with species that are nigh identical to humans (like the people on the Titanic in Voyage of the Damned) so that argument is fairly flimsy. I think the Doctor just admires humanity's persistence and drive to survive (he even remarks at how brilliant it is that we're still kicking around at the end of the universe). In all probability it's probably because he hid out on Earth to hide the Hand of Omega and Ian and Barbara were around to warm him to humanity in general.
    • A more pragmatic reasoning might be that the series creators are pandering to their viewers, who all live in the 20th-21st century. His companions (at least those born on Earth in the 20th/21st centuries) are just like us, and we also like to think that the Doctor is out there somewhere taking care of us (What do you mean, he isn't?! - Puts fingers in ears and starts singing la la la)
  • It was believed that the Doctor first settled on Earth for a few months in 1963 (after some begging from Susan, his granddaughter). Starting with Susan, having left her in Earth's 21st century, (better start watching out for that Dalek invasion, folks!) the Doctor started to have a lot of baggage tied up on Earth; many of his companions and best friends hail from Earth, and it's his granddaughter's future home. Pretty good reason to keep the place safe and sound.
  • Earth was also quite willing to take him in after the Time Lords executed his Second incarnation, impounded his Tardis, and exiled him. They've also been very willing to put up with his brand of crazy and even give him a job with UNIT. He's at least an honorary citizen of the UK by now.
  • "Listen" suggests a more personal motive for him taking an interest in Earth: as a small boy, a mysterious visitor left him a little toy soldier. Many, many years later, snooping around the history of one Insignificant Blue Planet, he discovered a country and era whose soldiers dressed exactly like Dan the Soldier Man. Naturally he had to stay and investigate, albeit enough years later so his young granddaughter wouldn't have to witness a war.
  • Another thing about humans is that, for better or for worse, they're always experimenting, trying, learning, pushing the boundaries, going where no one has gone before...the Doctor can definitely relate.
• Fridge Brilliance: The fifth season finale's title? "The Big Bang." How does it end? With Rory and Amy getting on the TARDIS on their wedding night... which we know led to the conception of River. A big bang, indeed.
  • According to a recent interview with Steven Moffat, that was, in fact, intentional.
• The Doctor has become noticeably darker over the years, to the point where he now seems to be taking strategies that have been used by his enemies and twisting them to his advantage. In The Big Bang, the Doctor plants a memory of himself (hidden in a short fairy tale) into the mind of a young Amelia Pond just before he is erased from existence. It is that very memory that later allows Amy to bring the Doctor back into existence - much like the Time Lords tried to do with the Master in The End Of Time. (That is, planting the four beat signal into his head as a child so that Gallifrey could be pulled out of the Time War and into reality.) And now, the Doctor has been systematically erasing himself from every database in the universe in order to stay hidden, which is very similar to the Silents' method of editing themselves from one's memory in order to go about unnoticed.
• In "The Five Doctors" the Third Doctor thinks of Rassilon as good, while the Second Doctor starts off saying how good he was, but then says there are stories contradicting this. This could show the Time Lords manipulating each Doctor, connecting to Season 6B. They make sure the Third Doctor is easier to control, so he believes the standard Time Lord history. They try to do the same thing on the more anti-establishment Second Doctor, however he questions this history more.
• Fridge Brilliance: When the Dalek Emperor asked the Doctor if he was a killer or a coward, and he answered, "Coward, every time.", it seemed reasonable enough that the Doctor would take that path. But then we learned about his involvement in the Time War, about what he had to do to Gallifrey in the name of saving the Universe. And it made even more sense. Now, take into account the events of The Night of The Doctor, when we see him make the other choice. The Ninth Doctor was consciously choosing not to repeat his past mistakes.
• The Eleventh Doctor lived an incredibly long time (according to a collection of stories, Tales of Trenzalore, he was on Trenzalore for 900 years, so Eleven was around for roughly 1200 years). The Ninth Doctor at least had part of a century (the War Doctor said he was about 400 years younger than Eleven, who was 1200-and-something at the time, and regenerated not long after, and a short story released about Nine for the 50th revealed that between him leaving and coming back for Rose with the mention that the TARDIS also travels in time, adventured on his own for a while), while Ten only had 6 years of life. No wonder he didn't want to go, he'd barely gotten started.
  • It also makes the Twelfth Doctor about 2000 years old, give or take a few years, which is also pretty much how the Christian calendar was calculated, give or take a few years around the supposed birth of Jesus Christ. This can only add to the Doctor's messianic aura...
• An observation about the Doctor's choice in companions. I've noticed that people often question and sometimes even complain about the people he chooses as companions (mostly that they're all pretty young girls). But if you think about it, there's a pattern to his choices. The Doctor's been trying to replace the first companions he ever had. Susan, the bright, cheerful and inquisitive child. Ian, the noble, selfless and heroic man. And Barbara, the thoughtful and gentle woman. Many of the Doctor's later companions exhibit at least one of these personality types. Vicky, Joe and Amy were much like Susan. Ben, Jamie, and Rory were very similar to Ian in always rushing to the rescue. And Sarah, Grace, and Donna are much like Barbara, and those are just a few examples.
  • So The Doctor likes to keep replacing his goldfish, makes sense.
  • It doesn't seem so much like he is trying to replace his old companions, especially considering the majority of his companions were forced on him through whatever circumstances; only about 3/5 of his companions were formally asked to join him. As for why he is constantly bringing aboard spunky young girls... maybe some of them were replacement goldfish, but I think we can definitely blame this one on the studio.
    • In fairness, at least when it comes to them being spunky and young, let's face it: He needs young, energetic people who can do lots of running and crawling around ventilation shafts, and wants people who'll question authority, rush to the rescue, and stand up for what's right. There's more discussion of this on the Meta page.
• Don't know if this has been pointed out before, but... John Smith, the Doctor's alias of choice, is a stereotypically generic English name, something that is occasionally lampshaded by other characters. Fridge Brilliance kicks in with the realization that the Doctor may have overused it as an alias so much throughout his adventures in Earth's history that he caused it to become a cliche, similar to how he caused "doctor" to mean "healer" (or "warrior") on many different planets. This may or may not feed into a Stable Time Loop if the Doctor uses John Smith specifically because it is so generic.
• The TV movie's claim that the Doctor is half-human is one of the reasons so many fans absolutely loathed it, and is still a continuity gaff that the revived series has never adequately dealt with ("chameleon arch" reference aside). But the reason the Master jumps to that conclusion is that he caught a close glimpse of the Doctor's eye in a vision from the Eye of Harmony, and concluded it was human-like. The Eye of Harmony had also shown images of the Seventh Doctor as well as the newly-regenerated Eighth, meaning that it's not limited to displaying the present Doctor only ... so why couldn't that image of an eyeball have been a closeup of Handy's eye, called up from the future? The Eye of Harmony transcends all of Time, and might well have the same trouble distinguishing Past from Future as Sexy or the Moment; it could easily have thrown up a glimpse of the one future Doctor who was part human, thanks to the Meta-crisis.
  • You solved it. HOLY GUACAMOLE, YOU SOLVED IT! I've heard all sorts of bizarre explanations, heard all the debates over the Doctor's alleged half-humanness, all the evidence. The quandary has always been the Master's confirmation of his species. You just solved it! The Doctor gives that throw-away line, and then later, the Eye of Harmony coincidentally pulls out the metacrisis Doctor. Brilliant!
  • Glad you like it. Incidentally, it needn't be pure coincidence that the Eye pulled up an image of Handy, out of all possible Doctors: at the time, the Master had specifically ordered it to show him a vision of the Doctor who (he hoped) might have survived Seven's death in the hospital. If the Eye interpreted that order more broadly than the Master'd intended, then it's only natural that it would pick up on Handy as well as Eight. Seven, after all, died because Grace was attempting to perform an operation on his two hearts that was intended for one, and Handy's cardiac anatomy was human, not Gallifreyan. He "might have survived" Seven's death, because he wouldn't have expired from the surgery in the first place!
  • Another possible explanation for the "half human" bit on Eight. Seven died while undergoing heart surgery after being shot. Even in the best of circumstances, we're talking massive blood loss and required transfusions. So, by the time he died on the operating table, there was probably more transfused human blood in his system than Gallefreyan. Little wonder he almost didn't regenerate, and there's always the possibility that, like Six, the regeneration had a few side effects.
  • And the TARDIS is sentient. She's pretty good at getting Time Lords to where they need to be and showing them what they need to see.
• Everything we learn about the Valeyard in the Trial of a Time Lord is flipped on it's head by The Time of the Doctor. Recall what the Master told us, "The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation." As we know from Time, the Matt Smith incarnation is in fact the twelfth, and due to Ten's aborted regeneration in The Stolen Earth, he's meant to be the last. However, he is granted a new regeneration cycle and promptly regenerates into Peter Capaldi. Due to the Exact Words, this means that even if Moffat does not use the plot point, any writer between Capaldi's tenure and that of the 24th Doctor has that opportunity.
  • Could the Doctor have done it deliberately? If he hadn't been given a whole new regeneration cycle, his twelfth incarnation would have been his final one. By embracing the Metacrisis and burning off a regeneration without actually changing, the Doctor ensured that there would be no such thing as "between his twelfth and final regenerations" because they would have been the same regeneration!

• Why does the Twelfth Doctor hate soldiers? Surely not because of his Time War angst. After all, he resolved his issues with the War Doctor in the 50th. No, it's because he's just spent 900 years fighting on Trenzalore. And during those 900 years became a loved and respected figure on Christmas town, with the residents fighting alongside him when the many alien invasions came. This means that people like Barnable, who the Doctor befriended as a child would have eventually grown up to fight for the Doctor and presumably died in battle. In essence, he became the general of Christmas, watching as thousands died on his behalf. No wonder Danny Pink's remarks about the Doctor being the Officer who lights the fire hurt so much. Whenever Twelve sees a soldier, he sees what he turned the population of Christmas into.
  • Danny threw more than that in The Doctor's face. "Soldier?" Well, he can live with that. It's Lord and aristocrat he seem to have more trouble with. Starting from when he was a young Time Lord with an old man's face who hot-wired a piece of junk Tardis, he has always seen himself as a Defector from Decadence, rebelling against the stagnation of his home world. Danny threw in his face very effectively that, no matter what he thinks of himself, he's still an elite galactic aristocrat with a lot of power to throw around casually, and that ordinary guys like Danny have to deal with the fallout.
  • Remember Davros' Breaking Speech about how the Doctor turns people into weapons? The Doctor, being so full of self-loathing, probably took that to hearts. And military training, essentially, is about turning people into weapons.

• Why is the Twelfth Doctor so cold and analytical compared to his previous self? Perhaps he's subconsciously emulating his previous companion. No, not Clara. She only appeared twice during his time on Trenzalore, and for no more than a few minutes, maybe an hour in total. His previous companion, whom he'd spent centuries with, was HANDLES.

• This idea is touched upon above, but the personalities of each subsequent Doctor make sense considering the context of their successors' regeneration.
  • One->Two: The Doctor needed to be someone who could be more companionly to his house-guests in the TARDIS, and someone better equipped to protect them.
  • Two->Three: He needed to be someone who was focused and disciplined enough to out-think his captors, OR the Time Lords needed someone who COULDN'T.
  • Three->Four: Someone who was again ready to explore the universe and travel with friends.
  • Four->Five: Someone more paternal and caring to his younger companions.
  • Five->Six: Someone who could made the Master stop laughing at him.
  • Six->Seven: He needed to outwit whoever was firing on the TARDIS.
  • Seven->Eight: He was amongst complete strangers on Earth, so he needed to be daring enough to stop the Master's machinations yet charming enough to get through the humans to do it.
  • Eight->War: He explicitly stated that he needed to become a warrior upon regenerating.
  • War->Nine: He was ready to explore and enjoy Earth again, but also needed to clean up the blowback of the Time War.
  • Nine->Ten: Someone who could take care of Rose.
    • Ten->Meta-Crisis: While this doesn't entirely count, Meta-Crisis was explicitly a product of the Doctor's need to care for Rose and defeat the Daleks. Also, some influence from Donna.
  • Ten->Eleven: Ready to not be scared of things like the drums and regeneration, yet at the same time more apprehensive of himself.
  • Eleven->Twelve: After coming to terms with his War self, he was ready to stop hiding behind younger faces and be more of his core self. Also, ready to explore the universe and have fun after Trenzalore, and find Gallifrey.
  • Twelve->Thirteen: Even if it doesn't turn out to be the much-rumored Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Twelve makes it very clear in The Doctor Falls that he is ready for something new. There's also the influence of Missy-Master, who he spent a lot of time trying to redeem, and who actually did make a kinda-sorta Heel–Face Turn (by Master-Mistress standards). There's also the fact of Twelve's encountering One. Who started the whole redemption arc of The Doctor? Well, it started in a junkyard, with a schoolteacher who saw enough holes in his granddaughter's story to start investigating and a strong enough will to keep telling him "no." And from Barbara to Bill, there's been a very long parade of human (and humanoid) women taking the shotgun seat on the TARDIS, shaping The Doctor into the entity they are now.
  • Thirteen->Fourteen: Ready to finally stop running from their trauma and pretending everything is fine, and to "settle down" and rest.
• The revival series is sometimes criticized for making the Doctor into a Living Legend who's Shrouded in Myth and "can turn an army around at the mention of his name," whereas the '63-'89 stories usually (but not always) had the Monster of the Week unaware of the Doctor. Not only is this Older Than They Think, going all the way back to the First Doctor, but the fact is that as time goes on and he saves more planets and defeats more evils, of course he'll become better known and acquire a greater reputation!
• The Doctor occasionally uses "Venusian aikido," which mostly seems to be joint locks and nerve strikes, not so much throws or punches and kicks. This actually makes a lot of sense for a Time Lord—every time the Doctor regenerates, they would have to re-learn muscle memory, whereas you can do joint locks or throws with any kind of body if you understand the mechanics, and for nerve strikes, all you need is a knowledge of the other beings' anatomy (further Fridge Brilliance: this explains why the Doctor usually does it on humans, because memorizing the pressure points of every sentient species out there would probably be too much. Especially since other species may not have pressure points).
• The Doctor sticks around in Britain far more than he does in the United States probably for the simply reason that it's far more safer to talk to a nervous UK citizen than it is to talk to a US citizen. Given how much US citizens are stereotyped as loving their guns, it's a safe bet that a madman like the Doctor would expect to be shot on sight if he tried to talk his way out of a situation in the United States without showing proper credentials as to who he is and what he knows about the situation at hand. And several of his adventures in the United States haven't gone well. His seventh incarnation died in a gunfight in San Francisco, his tenth (Eccelston) incarnation was tortured by a space collector for being alien while investigating a distress call, his twelfth (Smith) incarnation was nearly shot to death again in the 1960s for accidentally breaking into the White House. The UK has heavy anti-gun legislation, which makes it easier for the Doctor to make connections with less trigger-happy humans.
  • Plus, the Doctor just Doesn't Like Guns, period.
• Thirteen shows a much darker side to her, secretive to the point that many can compare her to Nine. But... perhaps Twelve knew this might happen: maybe that's why he said all those things back in "Twice Upon a Time", why he told the next Doctor to "never fail to be kind". Maybe he knew that this next Doctor would developer some dark personality traits, so he reminded him/her to 'be kind'; he wanted to make sure they didn't have too change their name.
• The Doctor is compared to a wizard on many occasions, from River saying all the good wizards in fairy tales turn out to be him, and a future incarnation being none other than Merlin himself. So it's possible magic wands were inspired by the sonic screwdriver.

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