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Think you know everything about The Doctor? This analysis challenges common beliefs held by fans and casual viewers alike, from the idea that the Doctor always regenerates in the TARDIS to the trope of the 'young female companion.'
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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
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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.