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What's that, Doctor Who? The man who never would? Ha.
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00:00The Doctor is a far more complex and expansive character than many people realise.
00:04Now, we've already covered some misconceptions that both casual viewers and hardcore fans might
00:09have about Doctor Who in general, but what about the Doctor themselves? Well, let's take a look
00:14at some, shall we? I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 things everyone always gets wrong
00:19about the Doctor.
00:21Number 10. William Hartnell was ancient when he took the role.
00:25Issue 10 of Doctor Who Adventures, released in 2006, featured an image of William Hartnell
00:30as the first Doctor next to the caption,
00:33Meet the very first Doctor. Yikes, he's ancient.
00:36Now, this may have seemed the case to younger fans upon seeing Hartnell's face, and the more
00:41grandfatherly portrayal of the first Doctor, plus the long white wig, would likely do nothing to
00:46dissuade them of this notion. Part of this misconception is also likely down to the
00:51actor's ailing health and untimely death in 1975. However, William Hartnell wasn't actually
00:57as old as everyone thinks he was when he played the Doctor. At the age of 55, Hartnell was actually
01:0220 years younger than David Bradley was when he filmed his first scene as the first Doctor
01:07in The Doctor Falls. Meanwhile, Peter Capaldi was merely a few months younger than William
01:11Hartnell when he began his tenure as the 12th Doctor. More surprisingly still, 14th Doctor
01:16David Tennant is now 51, only four years younger than Hartnell was. It would seem that actors clearly
01:22just look after themselves a bit better these days. Or, you know, we put them in costumes that don't
01:27make them look old, like a white wig.
01:29Number 9. The Doctor Always Regenerates in the TARDIS
01:33Jodie Whittaker's regeneration wasn't just a big deal because of who she regenerated into,
01:38it also marked the first time in the modern era that the Doctor regenerated outside the TARDIS.
01:44This idea of the Doctor always regenerating in the TARDIS took hold during the Russell T.
01:48Davis years, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was a precedent in the classic series.
01:53However, it's only the first, fifth, and sixth Doctors who actually regenerate inside the TARDIS,
01:59and with much less damage to their surroundings, might we add.
02:01So it's odd that this notion has stuck with the show since it returned in 2005, especially given how
02:06unsafe it is to regenerate inside the TARDIS. The sixth Doctor is under attack when he regenerates,
02:11and the TARDIS appears to operate itself in the tenth planet. In the modern series,
02:16everything explodes, and a slightly frazzled Doctor momentarily forgets what the hell is going on.
02:21So it's no wonder, really, that the TARDIS eventually ejected the thirteenth Doctor out
02:25the doors at the end of Twice Upon a Time. She's clearly learned her lesson, and hopefully the show
02:30has too.
02:31Number 8. The Doctor Always Travels with a Young Female Companion
02:35Comedy sketches about Doctor Who have existed for almost as long as the show itself.
02:40Hell, the first known parody was broadcast just over a month after An Unearthly Child,
02:45when the TV show It's a Square World featured a sketch with Dad's Army actor Clive Dunn as
02:49William Hartnell. Since then, there have been many more, and most of them are based on some
02:54well-worn and inaccurate interpretations of what Doctor Who actually is.
02:59One of the most common of these is that the Doctor always travels with a young female
03:02companion that they want to get jiggy with. This is one of the gags in Lenny Henry's Doctor
03:07Who sketch from 1985, the main gag in a sketch from A Kick Up the 80s in 1982, and Steven
03:13Moffat
03:13went there because, of course he did, in The Curse of Fatal Death.
03:17David Tennant even dressed up as a sexy Doctor Who companion to face off against Alan Carr on
03:22the Friday Night Project. However, the history of Doctor Who's weird and wonderful companions
03:26is a far richer vein for comedy than these sketches suggest. A clapped-out, shape-shifting
03:31android, an overgrown schoolboy, a robot dog? Then again, perhaps those were deemed to be beyond
03:37parody.
03:38Number 7. The classic Doctors were all posh
03:41Christopher Eccleston spoke of wanting to have a northern accent because a posh voice
03:46would imply that only upper-class people could be hyper-intelligent like the Doctor.
03:50The notion of a posh Doctor certainly influences a lot of the parody versions, particularly American
03:56spoofs like the Inspector Spacetime gag in Community, but those types of characters aren't really
04:01reflected in the casting of the Doctor. While it's certainly true that the first and third
04:05Doctors had what could be classed as establishment voices, that doesn't tell the full story.
04:10William Hartnell grew up in London's slums without ever knowing his father. Tom Baker was
04:15working on a building site when he was cast as the Doctor. In his youth, Peter Davison's father
04:19was a greengrocer, and after leaving school, Davison was briefly an odd jobs man who once worked
04:24as a mortuary attendant. Ultimately, the Doctor is a time lord, and that may have affected the
04:30performances of the previous actors. However, even with that in mind, the Doctor's voice is very
04:35rarely posh or snooty, and the character certainly doesn't hold themselves in such a manner.
04:40Number 6. Never cruel or cowardly originated in New Who
04:45Nowadays, the line, never be cruel, never be cowardly, is inextricably linked with Peter Capaldi's
04:51pre-regeneration speech in Twice Upon a Time. However, this is merely a reference to a description
04:56of the Doctor's character that has existed for decades. Although never properly stated on screen
05:01until the day of the Doctor, it first featured in a 70s book by Doctor Who legends Terence Dix and
05:07Malcolm Hulk called The Making of Doctor Who. The book features this description of the Doctor,
05:12one that would define the character for decades to come. The Doctor believes in good and fights
05:17evil. Though often caught up in violent situations, he is a man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly.
05:23It would take another 40 years for this description to be mentioned on screen, but it comes at exactly
05:29the right moment, when the 10th and 11th Doctors join forces to avert the War Doctor's Gallifreyan
05:34genocide. Number 5. Their name is Doctor Who
05:38Doctor Who is the name of the show, the Doctor is the name of the character.
05:42Is to Doctor Who fans what Frankenstein is the name of the scientist is to horror fans. But is that
05:48really true? From 1963 to 1981, the character was credited as both Doctor Who, as in DR, and Doctor
05:56Who, as in D-O-C-T-O-R. In The War Machines, the super-intelligent computer Votan states that
06:01Doctor
06:02Who is required, while the second Doctor refers to himself as Doctor Who, albeit in German, in The
06:07Highlanders. Doctor Who and the Silurians is the literal name for the John Pertwee serial,
06:12while a large number of target novelisations refer to the character as Doctor Who as well.
06:17When the show returned in 2005, Christopher Eccleston was credited as Doctor Who. But when
06:22David Tennant was cast, he insisted on being credited as the Doctor, because he's a massive
06:27fanboy. Although he was also a massive fanboy, Capaldi didn't insist on reverting his credit,
06:33but wonderfully referred to the character as Doctor Who in press interviews. However, arguably
06:38the clearest answer to this debate came in the name of the Doctor, which asserted that
06:42the Doctor is the name that was chosen. Not that that will stop people continuing to call
06:47the Doctor Doctor Who in years to come.
06:49Number 4. Jelly Babies originated with Tom Baker
06:52Jelly Babies are synonymous with Tom Baker. There's no argument there, and most appearances
06:57of the delicious confection are, of course, nods to the iconic fourth Doctor. Jelly Babies
07:02are found on the seventh Doctor's person when he's shot in San Francisco, while the ganger Doctor
07:06offers Jelly Babies to the real 11th Doctor in the voice of Tom Baker, no less. However,
07:12the Doctor's love for Jelly Babies didn't actually originate with Baker's Doctor, and
07:16it goes back much further than the 1970s. The first reference to a Jelly Baby in Doctor
07:21Who actually dates back to 1968's second Doctor serial, The Dominators. Here, the second Doctor
07:27munches on some Jelly Babies while waiting inside one of the travel capsules. When Troughton
07:31returns to the show for the three Doctors, the second Doctor offers the Brigadier a Jelly
07:36Baby in the TARDIS. The second Doctor still has Jelly Babies to hand in the five Doctors,
07:41so it's the Doctor's second incarnation who first got a taste for them, rather than the
07:45fourth, like most people think.
07:48Number 3. The Doctor often experiences post-regenerative trauma.
07:52From Castrovalva onwards, every regeneration has been followed by some degree of trauma.
07:57The fifth Doctor can barely keep it together for the majority of that serial, and later,
08:01the sixth Doctor is so disorientated by the process that he throttles his companion. Then,
08:06in a post-regenerative funk, the seventh Doctor believes the Rani to be Mel, and plays along
08:11with her scheme until he sees the error of his ways. This tradition continued into the
08:15TV movie, and then the Christmas invasion. Thankfully, Stephen Moffat appeared to dispense
08:20with this tiresome trope when he introduced Matt Smith, but when Matt Smith regenerated into
08:24Capaldi, it was back to the out-of-control, unpredictable state of flux.
08:27It's hard to see where this trope originated from, especially as the second Doctor's companions
08:32are more put out by his regeneration than he is. His only concern is whether he can still
08:36call himself the Doctor, which he soon proves that he can. It's likely the result of his
08:41forced regeneration into the third Doctor that set the ball rolling, a process that has been
08:45seen to be fairly traumatic. Pertwee's amnesiac state in Spearhead from Space is likely what
08:51set the tone for the Doctor's subsequent regenerations, but thankfully, the 14th Doctor knows
08:55exactly who he is. Or does he?
08:58Number 2. The numbering matters.
09:01Doctor Who fans are pretty passionate about two things. One is that the show needs reinvigorating
09:06to appeal to a modern audience, and two is that the numbering of the Doctors is some hard
09:10and fast rule. Interestingly, these two things are currently in direct conflict with each
09:15other. Promoting Shuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor implicitly suggests to audiences that they
09:19have to catch up on the previous 14th. New audiences just wouldn't bother, would they?
09:24There's even some debate as to whether Tennant is actually the 14th Doctor, despite Russell
09:28T. Davis stating that as a fact. The Timeless Child was a flawed attempt by Chris Chibnall
09:33to detonate the fandom's obsession with the numbering of Doctors. After discovering that
09:38she's lived countless lives that she wasn't previously aware of, the 13th Doctor ultimately
09:42decides that the only thing that's important is who she is now. That's the real message of
09:47The Timeless Child, but it got buried in all the controversy. Regardless, for the audience
09:51at home, the numbering of the Doctors only really matters when they're at the local
09:55pub quiz. David Tennant may be the 14th Doctor, but chances are there'll be riots in pubs across
10:00the UK where non-fans get a point for saying it's Shuti Gatwa.
10:041. The Doctor is a Pacifist
10:06Make the foundation of this society a man who never would. The 10th Doctor, the Doctor's
10:12daughter. Except he would and he has. The Doctor's history of pacifism and his distaste
10:17towards guns and violence has largely defined the 21st century era of the show. However,
10:22this history is very patchy indeed. In the Doctor's very first on-screen adventure into
10:27the past, he almost brained a caveman with a rock. The Reign of Terror then sees the
10:31first Doctor batter a man around the head with a shovel. Some might say that the first
10:35Doctor was a little bit unfinished and softened with age, but just look at the evidence from
10:39other Doctors. The fourth Doctor smashed through a skylight and twisted a guy's neck in the
10:44Seeds of Doom. The fifth Doctor blasted a Cyberman to death in Earthshock and put a gun
10:48to Davros' head in Resurrection of the Daleks. The sixth Doctor strangled his companion, threw
10:53some henchmen in an acid bath and gassed Shokai to death. The eleventh Doctor left Solomon
10:57to die in dinosaurs on a spaceship. The man who never would? Yeah, if you say so.
11:02And that concludes our list. If you think we missed something, then do let us know in
11:05the comments below and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that
11:09notification bell so you never miss a Who Culture video again. Also head over to Twitter
11:13and follow us there and Instagram as well, and I can be found across various social medias
11:17just by searching Ellie Littlechild. Don't forget to look out for Sean Ferrick as well
11:21and Dan the Meigs too. I've been Ellie with Who Culture and in the words of Riversong herself,
11:27goodbye, sweeties.
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