- 15/06/2025
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 actor's
00:51ailing 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
01:27don't make 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
02:06given how unsafe it is to regenerate inside the TARDIS. The sixth Doctor is under attack when
02:11he regenerates and 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. Hell,
02:40the first known parody was broadcast just over a month after An Unearthly Child, when the TV show
02:45It's a Square World featured a sketch with Dad's Army actor Clive Dunn as William Hartnell.
02:51Since then, there have been many more, and most of them are based on some well-worn and inaccurate
02:56interpretations of what Doctor Who actually is. One of the most common of these is that the Doctor
03:01always travels with a young female companion that they want to get jiggy with. This is one of the
03:05gags in Lenny Henry's Doctor Who sketch from 1985, the main gag in a sketch from A Kick Up the 80s in
03:111982, and Stephen Moffat went 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 the
03:22Friday Night Project. However, the history of Doctor Who's weird and wonderful companions is a far
03:27richer vein for comedy than these sketches suggest. A clapped-out, shape-shifting android? An overgrown
03:33schoolboy? A robot dog? Then again, perhaps those were deemed to be beyond parody.
03:387. The Classic Doctors Were All Posh
03:41Christopher Eccleston spoke of wanting to have a northern accent because a posh voice would imply
03:46that only upper-class people could be hyper-intelligent like the Doctor. The notion of a posh Doctor
03:52certainly influences a lot of the parody versions, particularly American spoofs like the Inspector
03:57to space-time gag in Community, but those types of characters aren't really reflected in the
04:02casting of the Doctor. While it's certainly true that the first and third Doctors had what could
04:06be classed as establishment voices, that doesn't tell the full story. William Hartnell grew up in
04:12London's slums without ever knowing his father. Tom Baker was working on a building site when he
04:16was cast as the Doctor. In his youth, Peter Davison's father was a greengrocer, and after leaving
04:21school, Davison was briefly an odd jobs man who once worked as a mortuary attendant. Ultimately,
04:26the Doctor is a time lord, and that may have affected the performances of the previous actors.
04:32However, even with that in mind, the Doctor's voice is very rarely posh or snooty, and the
04:37character certainly doesn't hold themselves in such a manner.
04:406. 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
04:56Doctor's character that has existed for decades. Although never properly stated on screen until
05:02the day of the Doctor, it first featured in a 70s book by Doctor Who legends Terrence 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.
05:355. Their Name is Doctor Who
05:38Doctor Who is the name of the show, the Doctor is the name of the character.
05:43Is to Doctor Who fans what Frankenstein is the name of the scientist is to horror fans.
05:48But is that really true? From 1963 to 1981, the character was credited as both Doctor Who,
05:54as in DR, and Doctor Who, as in D-O-C-T-O-R. In The War Machines, the super-intelligent computer
06:00Votan states that Doctor Who is required, while the second Doctor refers to himself as Doctor Who,
06:06albeit in German, in The Highlanders.
06:08Doctor Who and the Silurians is the literal name for the John Pertwee serial, while a large
06:13number of target novelisations refer to the character as Doctor Who as well. When the show
06:17returned in 2005, Christopher Eccleston was credited as Doctor Who. But when David Tennant
06:23was cast, he insisted on being credited as the Doctor, because he's a massive fanboy.
06:28Although he was also a massive fanboy, Capaldi didn't insist on reverting his credit, but
06:33wonderfully referred to the character as Doctor Who in press interviews. However, arguably the
06:38clearest answer to this debate came in The Name of the Doctor, which asserted that the Doctor
06:43is the name that was chosen. Not that that will stop people continuing to call the Doctor
06:47Doctor 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
07:06Doctor offers Jelly Babies to the real eleventh Doctor in the voice of Tom Baker, no less.
07:11However, the Doctor's love for Jelly Babies didn't actually originate with Baker's Doctor,
07:16and it 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 fourth like
07:46most people think. Number 3. The Doctor often experiences post-regenerative trauma.
07:52From Castrovalva onwards, every regeneration has been followed by some degree of trauma. The fifth
07:58Doctor can barely keep it together for the majority of that serial, and later the sixth Doctor is so
08:02disorientated by the process that he throttles his companion. Then, in a post-regenerative funk,
08:08the seventh Doctor believes the Rani to be Mel, and plays along with her scheme until he sees the
08:13error of his ways. This tradition continued into the TV movie, and then the Christmas invasion.
08:18Thankfully, Stephen Moffat appeared to dispense with this tiresome trope when he introduced Matt
08:22Smith, but when Matt Smith regenerated into Capaldi, it was back to the out-of-control,
08:26unpredictable state of flux. It's hard to see where this trope originated from, especially as the
08:31second Doctor's companions are more put out by his regeneration than he is. His only concern is
08:36whether he can still call himself the Doctor, which he soon proves that he can. It's likely the
08:40result of his forced regeneration into the third Doctor that set the ball rolling, a process that
08:45has been seen to be fairly traumatic. Pertwee's amnesiac state in Spearhead from Space is likely
08:50what set 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 and fast
09:11rule. Interestingly, these two things are currently in direct conflict with each other. Promoting Shuti
09:16Gatwa as the 15th Doctor implicitly suggests to audiences that they have to catch up on the previous
09:2114. New audiences just wouldn't bother, would they? There's even some debate as to whether
09:25Tennant is actually the 14th Doctor, despite Russell T. Davis stating that as a fact. The
09:30Timeless Child was a flawed attempt by Chris Chibnall to detonate the fandom's obsession with
09:35the numbering of Doctors. After discovering that she's lived countless lives that she wasn't
09:40previously aware of, the 13th Doctor ultimately decides that the only thing that's important is
09:44who she is now. That's the real message of The Timeless Child, but it got buried in all the
09:49controversy. Regardless, for the audience at home, the numbering of the Doctors only really matters
09:54when they're at the local pub quiz. David Tennant may be the 14th Doctor, but chances are there'll
09:59be riots in pubs across the 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 daughter.
10:13Except he would and he has. The Doctor's history of pacifism and his distaste towards guns and
10:18violence has largely defined the 21st century era of the show. However, this history is very patchy
10:24indeed. In the Doctor's very first on-screen adventure into the past, he almost brained a
10:29caveman with a rock. The Reign of Terror then sees the First Doctor batter a man around the head
10:33with a shovel. Some might say that the First Doctor was a little bit unfinished and softened with age,
10:38but just look at the evidence from other Doctors. The Fourth Doctor smashed through a skylight and
10:42twisted a guy's neck in the Seeds of Doom. The Fifth Doctor blasted a Cyberman to death in
10:47Earthshock and put a gun to Davros' head in Resurrection of the Daleks. The Sixth Doctor
10:51strangled his companion, threw some henchmen in an acid bath and gassed Shock Eye to death.
10:56The Eleventh Doctor left Solomon to die in dinosaurs on a spaceship. The man who never would?
11:00Yeah, if you say so.
11:02And that concludes our list. If you think we missed something, then do let us know in the
11:06comments below and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
11:10bell so you never miss a Who Culture video again. Also head over to Twitter and follow us there and
11:14Instagram as well. And I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie
11:18Little Child. Don't forget to look out for Sean Ferrick as well and Dan the Meigs too.
11:23I've been Ellie with Who Culture and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye sweeties.
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