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5 reviews
Doctor Who
alt title(s): Nu Who; Dr Who
"I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the Sun at 67,000 miles an hour and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... That's who I am."
— The Ninth Doctor, Rose

"I am the man that gives monsters nightmares. The Daleks call me the Bringer of Darkness. I am the Eighth Man Bound. I am the Champion of Life and Time. I'm the guy with two hearts. I make History better. I am the Doctor."
— The Eighth Doctor, from the New Adventures novel, "The Dying Days"

Since its debut in 1963, the British scifi series Doctor Who has thrilled, terrified and aroused three generations of fans worldwide. It takes place in and established the Whoniverse, which has a very loose and lax continuity, even discounting the Doctor Who Expanded Universe.

The show originally ran from 1963 to 1989 (with a 18 month hiatus in 1985-6 caused by Executive Meddling, during which it "rested"). A Made For TV Movie, created as a pilot for a new series aired in 1996, but nothing else resulted. There were also two non-canon cinematic movies involving a human called "Doctor Who" and starring Peter Cushing.

In 2005, a Revival, still in the same canon, began. It has finished its fourth complete season and has aired two (of five planned) specials in a fifth sorta-season. (The old series lasted 26 seasons. When the new series started, fans were split on whether to call the 2005 season "Season 1" or "Season 27"; officially, the series went from Season 26 to Series 1 and so on. Once the new season with Steven Moffat as showrunner begins, the clock will again be reset to "Series 1", equating to Season 31, or 32 if one counts the five 2009 specials as constituting a season.)

Significant characters and concepts

The Doctor

(The Doctor, not "Doctor Who"), a Human Alien who travels through time and space. He started off as an Anti Hero (or even Anti Villain) but soon settled into the hero role. He usually (though not always) functions as the series' moral center. The Doctor has been played by ten different actors in the TV series to date  1  2; an eleventh will take on the role beginning with the 2010 series. That's the first ten around the edge of the picture, clockwise from top left.

The TARDIS

Stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space (but not In Space!) A combination Cool Ship, Living Ship, Alleged Ship, Time Machine and Clown Car Base, which as well as having Time Travel abilities and the power to traverse the universe, can do pretty much anything. In a subversion, while the TARDIS is a product of Time Lord über-tech, it was gradually revealed as old, obsolete, and barely functional. It's gotten worse since then—like the alien equivalent of a jalopy held together with duct tape—though it's still light years ahead of all other such technology currently known to exist. The TARDIS engine noise is the distorted sound of a door key being scraped along the bass strings of a piano. This 46-year-old sound effect is still used in the new series.

Companions

The Doctor is rarely alone in his travels. For the purposes of Exposition and for someone the audience can identify with, he has had a large number of companions (not like that, unless you're dealing in Fan Fic, in which case it is like that). In the show's very early days, he just traveled with his grand-daughter and two humans, who, in the very first episode, he kidnapped. The idea was that the companions would be the "point-of-view" characters for the audience at home, in contrast to the mysterious, anti-heroic Doctor. However, as the Doctor's character softened and became more heroic, and the show became a fixture on British TV, the companions became more explicit exposition-generators, as the Doctor himself had become a point of viewer identification. In-universe, there's no particular reason why the Doctor should travel with a companion or two; he seems to just like the company.

Companions are predominantly young, female, and attractive. Sometimes they are men, or humanoid aliens, or, famously, a robot dog. They have joined and left the TARDIS for various reasons. The Doctor reserves the right to kick a companion out of the TARDIS for bad behaviour, or to take on a new companion over the objections of present companions. Classic Series companions tended to have few or no ties to their homes, and—anniversary specials aside—did not cross paths with the Doctor after leaving the TARDIS. New Series companions don't divide their lives as neatly: they continue to interact with their families while away with the Doctor, and with the Doctor after (or between) their travels with him.

It's most common for the Doctor to have one companion along at a time, though periods with two or even three companions are not unknown. Classic Series Doctors usually referred to their companions as "friends" or "assistants"; New Series Doctors, in a bit of Ascended Fanon, tend to use "companion".

Companions are stereotyped in pop culture memory as helpless screaming women, but a surprising number of them have been surprisingly kickass, from no-nonsense history teacher Barbara to savage warrior-woman Leela to Time Lady Romana (both of her) to reality-warping super-temp Donna. See also : List of characters.

UNIT, Torchwood Institute, etc.

Secret (or, in some stories, not-so-secret organizations) designed to kick alien ass and/or aid the Doctor. UNIT, a United Nations taskforce that deals specifically with alien or superscientific threats was introduced in 1969. Torchwood, an organisation funded by the British royalty (as opposed to the government) with the specific aim of arming the 'Empire' with alien technology, was introduced in the new series.

The Doctor detests Torchwood on general principle (the feeling is mutual—the Doctor is specifically named in Torchwood's charter as an alien enemy), though Captain Jack, former companion and now leader of Torchwood 3, is doing his best to change the Doctor's mind. The Doctor's relations with UNIT are much more cordial—he's even worked for UNIT, as a scientific advisor—though he has little patience with its bureaucracy, established procedures, and chains of command.

How the Doctor is treated by the government tends to vary with the characters encountering him. As most of his adventures on Earth have taken place in England, he has something of a history with the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth I considered the Doctor to be her "sworn enemy" due to whatever came from their previous interaction(it was in the queen's past but the Doctor's future, meaning that he has no idea as yet what went wrong Though a clip shown at Children in Need may have provided the answer, as its implied he may have married her, and since he obviously left afterwards, of course she'd be rightly pissed). Queen Victoria considered him to be a heathen who took delight in dark ideas, and named him in the Torchwood Institute charter as an enemy of the crown. (This was right after she knighted him, for saving her life, so he really ought to be known as "Sir Doctor.") The royal attitude seems to have changed a bit though, as by the time of Voyage of The Damned, Queen Elizabeth II declares her thanks when the Doctor prevents the starliner Titanic from crashing into Buckingham Palace.

The Evolving Show

First, a quick note: Classic Who tends to be referred to by serial, not by episode. Serials were usually four episodes, though a handful of two-parters were produced over the years, and early Who experimented with serials of up to 13 episodes. Usually there is little or no linking between serials: one self-contained story ends, and another begins. Some might be loosely linked by a common villain, for instance. But sometimes serials follow on very closely, and are thematically linked to such an extent that they form a sort of super-serial (or maybe meta-serial): the whole of season 16, for instance, is informally called "The Key to Time"; and season 23, called "The Trial of a Time Lord". The new series follows the more recent pattern of The X Files, Buffy, etc., of standalone episodes that develop a season-long (or longer!) arc.

Doctor Who serials vary wildly in its style and tone, depending on writers and executive producers. Serials and episodes range from comedic to gothic or nihilistic, and the Science Fiction goes all over the place on Mohs Scale Of Sci Fi Hardness. In fact, calling it sci-fi is not entirely accurate- fantasy would be better, with many people who dislike other Science Fiction loving this show.

Those aspects of the show that would normally be set by the series creator—style, tone, mythology—are largely the province of the executive producer, or showrunner, who may or may not write episodes. Over its forty years, the show has seen several executive producers, each of whom has left his or her mark: Barry Letts (who died recently and will be honoured in the credits of "The Waters of Mars") for example, who gave us the UNIT era and cast Tom Baker, mid-Seventies producer Philip Hinchcliffe produced many gothic or horror-themed Who stories; Eighties producer John Nathan-Turner favored glossy, fast-paced adventures with guest stars a-plenty, Continuity Porn, fairly hard science, and—to the dismay of his Doctors (Five through Seven)—question-mark-themed outfits. We are currently in the Russell T Davies (or RTD, Big Russell, or Uncle Rusty) era: a time of many in-jokes, Lampshade Hanging and big epic stuff. Steven "Cap'n of the Oil Tanker Full Of Nightmare Fuel" Moffat (or The Moff, the Grand Moff) will replace RTD for the 2010 series. Every showrunner is, for some fan, the one who Ruined It Forever. Possibly even Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman, who created the show.

To put it into perspective: This is the first scene of the first episode, and this is the last scene of the latest one.

One of the most controversial discussions in fandom is whether Doctor Who is a (to quote a line from a newspaper article which used to explain the show's appeal on the blurbs of the novelizations) "The children's own program that adults adore", a "family show" or a "Dark And Edgy show like Battlestar Galactica meets the X-Files, at midnight in an unlit cellar! Constant death and misery! Pain! Lots of pain!" That Doctor Who can plausibly be described in ALL of these terms is a possibly key to its long-term appeal. In the opinion of Steven Moffat it's fundamentally a children's programme that adults can appreciate; if an episode of Doctor Who isn't scaring the beejezus out of entertaining the kids, it isn't doing its job properly. A large part of this disagreement is down to the fact that most American sci-fi fans would have discovered the show as teens or adults, while Brits all remember the show as a ubiquitous childhood favorite. It has to be remembered that the show enjoys a huge UK level of popularity, with an audience of about 9 million a week, equivalent in US terms to the likes of CSI. It is beaten in the UK only by soaps, Britain's Got Talent and major sporting events.

Doctor Who was originally intended to be an educational show explaining science and history to children in an entertaining science-fiction context (this is why two of the first three companions were, respectively, a science teacher and a history teacher). However, the popularity of the outer-space romps and outlandish aliens (particularly the Daleks) eventually shifted the series' emphasis from education to adventure. The TARDIS' police-box appearance was, apparently, a matter of budget. Just as the Star Trek transporters papered over the Enterprise's budgetary inability to land, the TARDIS' supposed shape-shifting circuit was jammed from the outset to avoid having to create a new TARDIS prop for each episode. The First Doctor acts as if this is the first time it's happened: "It's still a police box! Why hasn't it changed? Dear dear, how very disturbing."

Since the beginning, the show has had a high number of deaths which are unpleasant in many cases, although never particularly gory (in fact the new series is probably the most bloodless the show has ever been). Indeed, Nu Who seems to follow the rather odd philosophy of "Bad guys kill other people, good guys kill themselves." Incoming show-runner Steven Moffat quips that Russell T Davies' philosophy is "Create interesting characters, then melt them." - it is also worth noting that among writers, Steven Moffat has the lowest character bodycount of all, with only one death and that from natural causes, if you accept that being uploaded to a computer is the same as being alive.

Missing Episodes

In The Sixties and The Seventies, BBC policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired  * The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, just over 100 are lost, with William Hartnell's and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected. Doctor Who was not the only show affected—the classic Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch show was very hard hit—and is even lucky, in that every episode survives in some form, even if it's only the audio.

Theme Tune

No discussion of the show is complete without mentioning its Theme Tune, which has a number of variations and the varying Title Sequences - several of which are well-known Nightmare Fuel. The original 1963 version of the Doctor Who theme is a hallmark of pre-synthesizer electronic music and, when paired with the trippy feedback titles, looked forward to late-60s psychedelica. Ron Grainer composed the music, and Delia Derbyshire, working in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, realized it by taping a variety of electronic tones and distorted instruments, and splicing the tapes together by hand. The original theme recording was used, with various edits and mixes, until 1979, when a totally new recording was made. The new version(Series 1-3), by Murray Gold, remixes the original recording with orchestral and electronic embellishments. Another version was recorded for Series 4, this one with more of a rock-n-roll feel(electric guitar, bass and drumkit).

Spin-offs

Along with countless books and semi-canonical audio/video releases, the show has two official television spin-offs: Darker And Edgier Torchwood (bisexual alien hunters in Cardiff); and the (somewhat) Lighter And Softer The Sarah Jane Adventures (beloved ex-companion and a handful of Meddling Kids fight aliens in London.)

This series has its own Fetish Fuel page. And its own recap page.

Perhaps you'd like to try your hand at writing ''Doctor Who''?

Trope Namer for...

Tropes

  • Action Girl: All female companions have their moments, but most of all Sara Kingdom, Leela, Erimem, Dorothy "Ace" Mc Shane, and Izzy Sinclair.
    • This troper feels mention must also be made of Fey Truscott-Sade and Destrii.
  • A Nazi By Any Other Name: Before the events of "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday", Torchwood is very Nazi-like - just substitute "aliens" for "Jews". The Daleks were also based partly on the Nazis, and the Kaleds (from whom the Daleks were genetically engineered) more so. Remember it was only 18 years after the war when they first appeared.
  • Affably Evil: Several of the Doctor's recurring foes, mostly the Master
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Valiant, a homage to Cloudbase.
  • Alas Poor Scrappy: Adric's death in "Earthshock"
  • Alien Invasion: Almost constantly.
  • Alien Scrappy: Most fans do not like the Slitheen.
  • Aliens And Monsters
  • Aliens Speaking English: Justified due to Translator Microbes. Mostly. The TARDIS is said to feature a psychic translation facility (mentioned in "The Masque of Mandragora", "The End of the World" and "The Fires of Pompeii"), but it seems to rely on the Doctor's conscious presence to complete the "circuit," as it has been shown not to work when the Doctor is unconscious or out of range.
    • Taken to the logical extreme when Donna Noble tries to speak Latin to an ancient Roman in Pompeii, only for him to hear Celtic (so the TARDIS is translating her Latin back into English?).
      • Into the contemporary Celtic language of Chiswick, presumably, which would be an ancestor of Welsh... I'll get my coat.
  • Alternate Universe: Oddly enough, not extensively used. There are alternate universes in the Who multiverse—one Classic Series Story Arc took place in one called "E-Space", and the New Series has at least one, a Zeppelins From Another World universe—but travel between alternate universes seems to be extremely difficult (compared to travel in time and space, creating and controlling a black star, making dimensionally transcendent ships...) and very dangerous. The reason for this(at least by the time the new series comes along) is because of the Time War. Turns out that the Time Lords used to be the ones making travel between universes possible (what with being masters over the void and all), but when the War wiped them out, there was no one left to manage it, hence why it became the most dangerous thing to attempt.
    • Which, presumably, is why it wasn't so difficult in Inferno for the Third Doctor to end up in a Dystopia with eye patches.
    • In one Big Finish audio play, it's implied that the Eight Doctor Adventure series of books takes place in a parallel universe.
  • Always Save The Girl
  • Ancient Astronauts: Earth has been visited a lot over its history. See "Pyramids of Mars" for a prime example.
  • And I Must Scream: The Weeping Angels in "Blink." They cannot move while someone is looking at them, and four of them are tricked into looking directly at each other, causing all four to be permanently frozen in stone, but they're still conscious.
    • At least, until the light-bulb burns out.
    • And this MORE then describes the fate of the Family of Blood
      • Father Bound in unbreakable chains forged from a neutron star and dropped in a hole.
      • Mother Trapped in the event horizon of a black hole.
      • Daughter Trapped inside every mirror in the universe so that she could only be glimpsed quickly, out of the corner of a persons eye when they barely glance at a mirror.
      • Son Put into time stasis, unable to move but watching everything, and dressed as a scarecrow and put in a corn field to watch over it for eternity.
  • Anyone Can Die: Unless someone happens to be a historical figure, there is a good chance they will die before the end of the episode. The Doctor and his companions are not immune to death, either. Not even Adric. Especially not Adric.
  • The Apple Falls Far: subverted: the sonic screwdriver falls far in "Evolution of the Daleks", but not as far as it looks.
  • Arc Words: A staple of the new series.
  • Arthur Dent: The Doctor's many companions.
  • Asshole Victim: Jeremy Baines in "Human Nature"
  • Author Existence Failure: Robert Holmes, one of the best writers Doctor Who ever had, died partway through writing the final story of Sixth Doctor serial "Trial of a Time Lord".
  • Author Tract: "The Green Death" (Green Aesop), "The Two Doctors" (vegetarian), "Aliens of London"/"World War III", "The Sunmakers" (anti-tax), "The Curse of Peladon", "The Monster of Peladon"...
  • Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Doctors 2, 3, and 8.
  • Badass Army: Inverted. The Sontarans appear to be one of these until UNIT overcomes their weapons being disabled and gives them the ass-kicking of the century. Inverted because the Doctor had just introduced them as the greatest soldiers in the universe, too. Despite all their talk of discipline they fought as individual warriors, and once their advanced technology(a field that made brass-jacketed bullets unfireable) was gotten around, they were immediately cut down by UNIT's organized fire-teams. It's implied that they still could have easily destroyed Earth from orbit without much trouble, but on the ground UNIT was more than equal to the challenge.
  • Badass Boast: More than a few. This one was delivered right into a Dalek eye-stalk:
    Rose: If these are going to be my last words then you're going to listen. I met the emperor. Then I took the time vortex and poured it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that? God of all daleks and I destroyed him.
  • Batter Up: "Who are you calling small!?" The original Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
  • BBC Quarry: Filled in for hundreds of planets over the years - and not necessarily just for Doctor Who. An anecdotal account exists of the Doctor Who and Blakes Seven crews shooting in the same quarry on the same day.
  • Beware The Nice Ones: The tenth Doctor practically personifies this trope. When pushed too far he's been known to dish out a Fate Worse Than Death and even commit genocide.
    • The mild, polite Fifth Doctor might burn you to death. The goofy Seventh Doctor might blow up your planet.
    • Rose Tyler is a nice, average London girl, but when she snaps, she snaps hard. In "The Parting of The Ways" she tore open the TARDIS, absorbed the power of the Time Vortex, and used it to disintegrate an entire Dalek fleet.
  • Big Creepy Crawlies: The Zarbi in "The Web Planet"; the Wirrrn in "The Ark in Space", the giant aphids in "The Infinite Quest".
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Any number of critters, not least of which is the Doctor himself—he can do things like regenerate, re-grow hands, and absorb radiation, transform it into a form harmless to humans, and expel it through his foot. Oh, and he has two hearts.
    • "Anything else he's got two of?"
  • BLAM Episode: "The Feast of Steven", a Christmas special in the middle of the grim twelve-parter "The Daleks' Master Plan", is a Big Lipped Alligator Episode complete with a fourth wall breach that is never mentioned again.
  • Blofeld Ploy: The Captain in "The Pirate Planet".
  • Bloodless Carnage: Usually. A few stories have gotten pretty gory - "The Brain of Morbius" featured a pretty graphic blood squib when Condo gets shot, and the sheer bloodiness of Season 22 may have contributed to the show's first hiatus. As a family show, the series mostly shies away from graphic violence. Due to the BBC's current attitudes, the new series is far less violent than the original show, though the classic series' violence was often undercut by its endearing phoniness.
  • Body Horror done twice in Planet Of The Ood, once explaining what's done to get the glowing balls attached to the Ood. The second is the base leader getting his comeuppance for doing it.
  • Bond One Liner: "Vengeance on Varos", "The Two Doctors"
  • Brainwashed And Crazy: Given how long running the series was it was inevitable this trope would crop up. In fact virtually every Doctor and companion underwent this trope or the milder brainwashed trope at some point in the series not to mention guest characters in some stories.
  • Britain Is Only London: Considering that the TARDIS can travel anywhere and anywhen in the universe, a disproportionate number of episodes take place in present-day London.
    • Or Cardiff. And it's remarkable how their London always looks so much like Cardiff.
  • British Series: Do we really need to explain?
  • Broken Base: Probably best exemplified by the fact that a lot of the examples on the relevant Crowning Moment Of Awesome and Wall Banger pages are the exact same thing.
  • Broken Pedestal: The Myth Makers, The Five Doctors
  • Brown Note: Victoria's screaming defeats the weed creature in "Fury from the Deep".
  • By The Book Cop: Subverted; the Judoon strictly obey the letter of the law - but their "book" allows for a lot of Cowboy Cop or even Knight Templar behavior on their part.
  • Cameo: In one of the novels by Paul Cornell, Death from Neil Gaiman's Sandman appeared as a character.
    • That might have been the multi-author chapter in 'Happy Endings'. The Death section's credited to Neil Penswick.
    • In the novel 'Millennial Rites' by Craig Hinton, John Constantine and Doctor Strange make brief appearances.
    • And from the other side of the looking glass, the Tenth Doctor and Rose are seen walking down the street in Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #6.
    • DWM comic 'TV Action!' cameos a whole host of British light entertainment stars from the 1970s.
    • The Fifth Doctor makes an appearance in Diane Duane's High Wizardry — go back and re-read the bit in the bar.
    • The Second and Fourth Doctors both make appearances in Barbara Hambly's Ishmael.
  • Camp Gay: Light, the angelic Sealed Evil In A Can of "Ghost Light".
  • Cast Incest: David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, is dating Georgia Moffett, who played the titular character in "The Doctor's Daughter", and *is* the daughter of 5th Doctor actor Peter Davison, who interestingly enough is Tennant's favorite Doctor.
  • Catch Phrase: Nearly every Doctor has at least one. See the List of characters.
    • Since she doesn't have a Character entry: "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister." Not that we don't already know who she is.
  • Christmas Episode: Lampshaded one year when London was evacuated because the people had learned it gets invaded by aliens every Christmas.
  • Circus Of Fear: "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy"
  • Clock Roaches: "Father's Day"
  • Clown Car Base: The TARDIS
  • Complete Monster: In the new series, it's a toss-up for most fans between The Master and Davros. The Master genetically engineers the last humans alive at the end of the universe into the Ax Crazy Toclafane, then uses them to wipe out one-tenth of Earth's population and he turns the planet into slave labor to build a new Time Lord empire. Davros gets rescued from the Time War and then builds a machine that will eliminate all non-Dalek life in the entire multiverse.
  • Continuity Nod: There has been considerable debate among fans as to whether the newer seasons are a separate series or a continuation of the original after a very long between-seasons gap. The latter seems to be very much the case, as the Doctor's diary in "Human Nature" and a data cylinder in "The Next Doctor" both depict previous incarnations of the character. "School Reunion", which reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith, may be seen as the first official bridging of the previously ambiguous gap between old and new. In fact, this is Word Of God.
    • It should be noted there was never any serious doubt that the new series was a continuation of the old as Word of God stated it was several times very clearly. The idea that it wasn't was a mix of Fan Dumb and fanboys crying about it being Ruined Forever!
    • Permanently writing off any notion of it being different should be "Time Crash", where the Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison, the original actor and both acknowledge in character that they are the same person. It's the same Doctor Who, people!
  • Conservation Of Ninjitsu: In "Dalek", a single Dalek manages to wipe out an entire baseful of trained elite soldiers (and is only defeated because it decides to destroy itself). More recent episodes have seen entire armies of the supposedly terrifying and insurmountable space-Nazis regularly thwarted by a combination of technobabble and genetic wizardry.
    • In-universe, it's strongly implied that the lone Dalek was moments from being thoroughly blasted by the Doctor, and vast armies of Daleks are treated as the end of the world rather than Mooks. In practice, trope is fully in effect.
  • Creepy Child: In "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", "Remembrance of the Daleks", "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" and "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood", not to mention "Fear Her".
  • Crew Of One: Rarely has the Doctor had a companion who could fly the TARDIS, or do much of anything besides simple button-pushing. When regular human Tegan lands it, in "Castrovalva", it ends up sticking out of a hill at a 45 degree angle. Even that was because of the Master.
    • Though in "Journey's End", the Doctor pointed out that a TARDIS is supposed to be piloted by six people at once, and the reason it has so much Explosive Instrumentation going on is because the Doctor isn't quite filling in perfectly for the other five - though the fact it runs at all is probably proof that he's just that good.
    • Leela was seen to have piloted the TARDIS in "The Invisible Enemy" amongst other episodes back in the day of the Fourth Doctor.
  • Critical Research Failure: To name just one of many examples, in the episode "New Earth", the Doctor cures a bunch of people with horrible infections diseases by dumping the fluid from IV packs on them. And then the now-cured ones go around, and every infected person they touch is cured.
    • Can you really apply this trope to medical technology billions of years in the future? Very soft science certainly, but...
    • A particularly jarring one was in "The Impossible Planet," where everyone stated that it was impossible to orbit a black hole without falling in. In fact, this is completely possible, and also completely likely, because a black hole has roughly the same mass as the star that collapsed into it, so only things occupying the space where the star was, but has receded, are affected by stronger gravitational pull.
    • And in "Castrovalva", the word "galaxy" is used repeatedly and prominently where "universe" was clearly intended. So much for teaching the kids about science.
    • That this show's not our timeline/The Gunfighters tells:/Ike Clanton survived it/They rang not his knell/There was no Warren Earp there/To meet with his doom/And there was no Johnny Ringo at/The Last Chance Saloon.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Many. Check this page.
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: Many. Such as the line "This is my Timey-Wimey Detector. It goes ding when there's stuff,"
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: The immortal electronic theme tune, and (according to some) Murray Gold's scores.
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!"
  • Cruel Mercy
  • Crystal Spires And Togas: Gallifrey, usually, and several other alien examples.
    • Gallifrey may be a subversion, actually. The crystal spires and togas help hide the stagnation and decay of Time Lord culture: a Sufficiently Advanced alien society that has, basically, rested on its laurels for ten million years.
  • Cue Cullen: Bizarre example-the announcement of Matt Smith provoked cries of "That one's too young!" (to use the Doctor's own words) and "He's wrong for the role!" Then him eccentrically wiggling his fingers in a interview managed to win over the majority of those who initially objected to his casting (such as the many who were hoping for Paterson Joseph).
    • Not all of them, though; there is still a vocal minority who disagree with the casting decision. But then again, it wouldn't be Doctor Who otherwise.
    • The new series as a whole received a shot of enthusiasm in the arm when it was announced that 'proper' actor Christopher Eccleston had been cast as the Doctor after a long period of worrying tabloid stories about various light-entertainment stars being rumoured for the role.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Daleks vs. Cybermen
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The Cybermen, one of the earliest examples of this trope, as they first appeared in 1966.
  • Death By Pragmatism
  • Death Ray: Everywhere.
  • Detonation Moon: In the Doctor Who Magazine comic "The Love Invasion". It actually did get destroyed in another DWM story, "Wormwood", set in the Far Future.
  • Deus Est Machina: The Face of Evil
  • Development Gag
  • Die For Our Ship: The new series upped the (previously unspoken) romantic side of traveling through space and time with a heroic, dashing genius, with each companion dealing with it in their own way. Of course, everyone has their favorites.
  • Disappearing Box: "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"
  • Distaff Counterpart: Lady Cassandra.
    • Romana's far closer - she even had a pink-ed up version of the Fourth Doctor's costume at one point.
    • And, of course, The Master had one (more or less) in the form of The Rani.
  • Doesnt Like Guns: Sonic Screwdriver, anyone?
  • Dug Too Deep: Inferno, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
  • Ear Worm: The theme tune, and the titular Sound of Drums.
    • An Ear Worm for viewers is "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" from The Gunfighters.
  • ET Gave Us Wi Fi: The episode Dalek features a tech mogul who steals alien tech. According to him, Broadband is from Roswell.
  • Evil Counterpart: The Master, the Rani, the Railyard Valeyard.
  • Evil Has A Bad Sense Of Humor
  • Evil Me Scares Me: The Brickyard Valeyard.
  • Expanded Universe: In a word, huge. At least two hundred original novels covering all ten Doctors, over 100 audio dramas made by Big Finish, and around forty-five years' worth of comics. There are several EU companions who have become well-known among the fandom. See Doctor Who Expanded Universe.
  • Executive Meddling: The show's cancellation following the Sylvester McCoy era has been explicitly, if not exclusively, pinned on BBC executive Michael Grade's personal distaste for it. Seventh producer Philip Hinchcliffe was moved on from the show following complaints about the levels of violence and horror during his tenure.
    • Grade's a bit of a self-publicist and has been bigging up his role in axing the show for years. The 22nd season was postponed for six months (not cancelled) in 1985 to free up funds to launch East Enders - only when fans and creatives stirred up a media furore did 'cancellation' get talked about. He wasn't even working for the BBC in 1989 when the axe actually fell, and apparently even that was at the instigation of Philip Segal, an exec at Spielberg's company who wanted to launch a new American version. (Grade is now a fan of the show.) However, the sacking of sixth Doctor Colin Baker was at the behest of BBC management.
  • Explosive Decompression: Exceptions. Several times.
  • Extra Strength Masquerade: People in Doctor Who's world will insist aliens can't possibly exist while aliens are actively killing them.
  • Faceless Goons: Sontarans, Judoon, Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors and so many more...
  • Fake American: In the few times they've had one, it's almost never been a real American. The classic example is Bill Filer in "The Claws of Axos." He even has his own fan-produced spinoff.
  • Fan Of The Past: The Doctor's been shown to be rather fond of Earth's history.
  • Fanon: Pretty much every question that's gone unanswered has fan theories, some more widely accepted than others.
  • Fan Service Pack: Nyssa and Tegan both changed their looks to get more attractive during the Fifth Doctor's second year.
    • Nyssa spends half her last story in frilly underthings after taking her skirt off for no especially good in-story reason (the actress actually said it was a thankyou to the fans when questioned). The following year Turlough took his trousers off in his last story for apparently similar reasons.
  • Faster Than Light Travel: Just about every spaceship shown, including the TARDIS which is essentially Faster Than Time.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Donna Noble at the end of series 4, when she is reverted to her original abrasive personality upon having her memories of the Doctor removed. Even Donna herself protests before the wipe. YMMV as to that one, but there was definitely one against the titular "Family of Blood" in series 3. To recap: the Doctor was in love with Rose, and even at this point he still wasn't over her; then while he's temporarily human in this story he falls in love and has a Flash Forward that shows him the potential for a life that he knows he could never have with his temporary love interest or could have had with Rose. This perspective helps to explain his state of mind at the time, but it also shows just how far the Doctor will go if you push him. The description from that episode sums it up best.
    Son of Blood: He never raised his voice, that was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why, why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind. He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, to be imprisoned there forever. He still visits my sister, once a year, every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is, can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror. Every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time, and the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England as their protector. We wanted to live forever. So the Doctor made sure that we did.
  • The Fettered
  • Feudal Future: Various planets the Doctor's landed on, from time to time.
  • Fingertip Drug Analysis: The Doctor's Bizarre Alien Biology lets him taste things safely...including human blood. Eww.
  • First Contact: In "Aliens of London", the Slitheen hoaxed a "first contact" situation as part of a plan to destroy the planet.
  • Flat What: Shows up from time to time. One example: at the end of "Time Crash", when the TARDIS crashes into the Titanic.
  • Flowers For Algernon Syndrome: Donna Noble.
  • Flying Saucers: Do we even need to explain?
    • It should be noted that the most classically-presented 'flying saucer' design among alien spacecraft seen are those used by the Daleks.
  • Foe Yay: Doctor/Master since the seventies.
  • Fonzarelli Fix
  • For The Evulz: The Toclafane from "The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords" view this as an excuse to decimate the Earth. Bonus points for proper use of the word "decimate."
    • This was originally the Master's reason for his acts, at least until the new series gave him the Freudian Excuse of going mad from looking at a hole in reality.
  • For Want Of A Nail / In Spite Of A Nail: Occasionally even in the same adventure.
  • Friendly Enemy: The Master, the Monk.
  • Fun With Acronyms: Come on now... there's one that's been used at least a dozen times on this page alone.
  • Future History: Over the course of its own history, the series has worked out a mostly self-consistent set-up.
  • Future Me Scares Me: The Valeyard. Some Doctor Who fans eagerly await the day the new series reaches the place the Valeyard is supposed to occupy in the Doctor's future. Events in the new series might almost justify some of his actions.
  • Gannon Banned / I Am Not Shazam: Repeat after me; He is The Doctor, not Doctor Who (except in Peter Cushing's two non-canonical movie outings). The show is "Doctor Who," not "Dr. Who" or "Doctor Who?"
  • Genius Cripple: Davros. C'mon, he's eyeless, has one arm, and is in a Dalek-base wheelchair.
  • Genius Loci: The TARDIS, others
  • Genre Savvy: After various aliens make a mess of London each Christmas for three years in a row, the citizens pack up their bags and leave for the country for the holidays.
  • Genre Shift: The series was originally meant to be a historical edutainment series for children. The popularity of the Daleks changed that after only one four-episode story arc.
  • Ghost City: Several examples, notably the Exxilon city in "Death to the Daleks" and the seemingly-abandoned Dalek city in the first Dalek story from 1963.
  • Ghost Planet: "Planet of the Dead" (2009), "The Dead Planet" (1963), the Library planet in "Silence in the Library" (2008)
  • God Emperor- A vaourite position of Dalek leaders, being used by both the Emperor of the Dalek and even more so by Davros.
  • God Mode Sue: Arguably how several of the Tenth Doctor's opponents seem to view him, and occasionally how certain writers actually write him - perhaps forgetting that this is a man who has been known to wear vegetables on his clothing and throw childish tantrums. The most obvious examples may be Human Nature, in which the Doctor was only fleeing the Family of Blood because he knew what he could do to them if he wanted to (though this episode is also a subversion, as one character wonders if anyone would have died in the first place had he simply not been there), and Forest of the Dead, in which he makes the Vashta Nerada back down simply by telling them to look him up in the planet sized library on which the episode is set. In the same episode, a future acquaintance of the Doctor's mentions that he's able to open the TARDIS' doors with a snap of his fingers. At the end of the episode he incredulously tries it out - and it works.
    • Three words: The Oncoming Storm.
    • River Song proves neatly that there are people and places in the universe that have already interacted with the Doctor's future self, due to timeywimeyness, implying (as River Song explicitly does) that part of the reason the Doctor is so feared and famed is for incredible things he hasn't done yet.
    • This is not new; it started in Sylvester McCoy's run with Battlefield in which it is revealed that the Doctor is, at some point in his personal future, Merlin to an alternate-universe King Arthur. He went on to massively over-use Bill-And-Ted-esque temporal trickery as a standard plot device throughout the novelized adventures of the 7th and 8th Doctors.
  • Government Agency Of Fiction: UNIT and Torchwood, among others.
  • Ham And Cheese: on display in virtually every episode of the series, especially in the classic 1970 - 1978 years. Soldeed in "The Horns of Nimon" is the all-time champion ham, dripping with rich savory cheese.
  • Hands Off My Fluffy: poor Vicki...
  • Heel Face Turn: Salyavin, aka Professor Chronotis, in Shada.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Rather, He Who Outsmarts Monsters After The Mundanes Fail Miserably At Five Rounds Rapid.
  • Hey I Know You: The fourth season takes this to the extreme. Let's see, that's Rose, Martha, Jack, Jackie, Mickey, Sarah Jane, Francine, and Harriet Jones, not to mention robotdog K-9.
  • Hey Its That Guy: Pat Gorman, who made a career out of performing stunts and playing monsters and bit parts, actually appears in more episodes than Peter Davison. Some other frequently recurring faces in the Whoniverse are actors Michael Sheard, Bernard Horsfall, Philip Madoc, and John Scott-Martin.
  • Hey Its That Voice: Gabriel Woolfe, who voiced the Beast in The Impossible Planet, also voiced Sutekh in the much older episode Pyramids of Mars (as well as the Faction Paradox spinoff series). Coincidentally or otherwise, the Doctor mentions that Sutekh was also known as Set and later Satan. Also Molasar in 'The Keep'. Peter Hawkins and Roy Skelton both performed many monster and Dalek voices over the life of the classic series, a position now filled by Nicholas Briggs.
  • Hey You Haymaker: Used by the Brigadier in The Five Doctors when he taps the Master holding the Doctors at weapon point and slugs him, saying "Nice to see you again". CMOA for the Brig.
  • Hidden In Plain Sight: The TARDIS, plus many times when characters barely conceal themselves in an alcove or behind a pillar until the monsters pass by (all monsters have limited peripheral vision). Known by some as a "quantum hide."
  • Hiroshima As A Unit Of Measure: "The exact size of... Belgium?"
  • Historical In Joke: Hello, it's a show with time travel...
  • Ho Yay: While the writers dabbled with homoerotic subtext in [McCoy's] era, there's a lot more of it in the new series. Mostly seen in the form of Foe Yay (see above), although Jack extends it to Anything That Moves-Yay.
  • Human Alien: Excepting some physiological differences that aren't readily apparent(the two hearts thing, etc.), Gallifreyans are indistinguishable from humans, at least on the outside.
    Christina: You look human.
    The Tenth Doctor: You look Time Lord.
  • Humans Are Bastards: A number of stories have shown future humans abusing (or enslaving) other humans or aliens, for example "The Ark" and "Planet of the Ood."
    • As Gwen says in the trailer for the Torchwood mini-series, "Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame."
  • I Did What I Had To Do: Terror of the Vervoids.
  • Im A Humanitarian: Shockeye in The Two Doctors, Tilda and Tabby in Paradise Towers
  • I Would Say If I Could Say
  • Impersonating An Officer
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: There've been quite a few over the years, but the worst is the Sixth Doctor's "he'll need more than water, Peri, eh?" quip from Vengeance on Varos.
  • In Joke: When UNIT begins passing out gas masks during "The Poison Sky", the Doctor dons his and asks the Colonel in charge "Are you my mummy?"
  • Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha: The Cyber King. It's supposed to be a ship to launch an invasion, but it's in the form of a mecha because of this trope.
  • It Got Worse: The end of Army of Ghosts. And most of Turn Left. Hoo boy.
  • It's All About Me: Boom Town.
  • Jerk Ass: Jeremy Baines
  • Just Ignore It: Inverted in "Blink".
  • K-9 Companion
  • Kangaroo Court: "The Trial of a Time Lord" and "The Deadly Assassin" Also Ian's trial in "The Keys of Marinus".
  • Knight Errant
  • Large Ham: The Captain in the Douglas Adams story The Pirate Planet. Very intentional. Also, if the word "the" appears in the character's title, chances are they're getting their ham on.
    • Sutekh in "The Pyramids of Mars" and the Faction Paradox audio series manages to be a Large Ham while speaking in barely more than a whisper. This was lampooned in the DVD extra "Oh Mummy!", in which Sutekh (still voiced by Gabriel Woolfe) attempts to find work after "The Pyramids of Mars."
    • BRIAN BLESSED plays Yrcanos in Mindwarp.
    • "The talons of Weng-Chiang will shreeeeed your fleeeeesh!"
  • Limited Animation: Any of the animated stories produced by Big Finish.
  • Living Forever Is Awesome
  • Long Runner: 45 years of continuity. 16 straight DAYS of film. Second only to the entire Star Trek franchise in total length for Science Fiction series (23 days). And there is a good healthy margin between Who and the number 3 series (Stargate, with nine days).
  • Loss Of Identity: Addressed at each regeneration.
  • Mac Guffin Location: Utopia.
  • Made Of Explodium / Explosive Instrumentation: Everything explodes, and if there's a computer, chances are it'll explode in a shower of sparks. Even the TARDIS. Especially the TARDIS.
  • Magnificent Bastard: So very many.
  • Mary Sue: Most companions have been labelled this by the various segments of the Broken Base.
  • Mass Hypnosis
  • The Master: Canonical member.
  • Mayfly December Romance: David and Susan in The Dalek Invasion of Earth..
    • And the Doctor and pretty much anyone else he gets Shipped with.
  • Mayincatec: The Aztecs: feathered headresses, as much of a step pyramid as you can fit into a 1960s Dr Who budget, and a priest obsessed with human sacrifice.
  • Mega Neko: The Cheetah People in Survival, the Sisters of Plenitude in New Earth, and Brannigan in Gridlock.
  • The Midlands: Eleventh Doctor actor Matt Smith.
  • Mind Rape: Arguably Donna's Laser Guided Amnesia counts as this.
    • Mind Raped for her own survival; psyche.
    • Also Midnight. It's like that one episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, except quieter and without the visuals. And no giant mechas, obviously.
  • Mix And Match Man: The Doctor+Donna clone.
  • Mobile Suit Blob: The Daleks' large, nigh impenetrable armor hides their small and defenseless bodies.
    • Though they have been shown to quite viciously strangle people outside of their casings.
  • Monster Decay: The Cybermen were victims of Monster Decay before the new episodes, which have actually gone some way toward reversing the effect.
  • Monster Of The Week: Almost every episode of the series features the Doctor facing a different alien, mutant, or robotic creature.
  • Mundanger: Although the earliest episodes alternated between science-fictional and purely historic episodes (the series started out as an educational show, you see), it soon evolved into a purely sci-fi show. The only post-'60s episode to feature a completely mundane threat was the Fifth Doctor story "Black Orchid".
  • Murderous Mannequin: The Autons
  • Mr Vice Guy: Jack and Lust.
  • My Card: "The Happiness Patrol"
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: The Farmyard Graveyard Valeyard
  • Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Any name starting with "Dalek" (e.g. Dalek Caan, Dalek Jast, etc).
    • Not to mention the Doctor's sobriquet to the Daleks: The Oncoming Storm.
    • And The Master. No-one good was ever named the Master. Comes to that, 'The Doctor' has an ominous ring to it too, if only because of its anonymity.
    • The Controller in The Macra Terror. Subverted as he's even more a slave than the rest of the colony.
  • Narm: "I am a Human Dalek...I am your future!"
    • Actually, atleast 75% of dialogue for Daleks is Narm.
  • Never Speak Ill Of The Unalive: The Kangs in Paradise Towers.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The usual anecdote is about kids hiding behind the sofa or watching it through their hands - for good reason. This is particularly true of the era starring Tom Baker and produced by Philip Hinchcliffe. Or anything written by Steven Moffat. He feeds on fear.
    • Moffat has made a concerted effort to avoid the first anecdote, by making children afraid of the shadows behind the sofa.
  • Nightmare Fuel Unleaded: See above.
  • No Equal Opportunity Time Travel: Somewhat Depending On The Writer. Martha, as a black companion, usually gets away in odd settings with an appropriate alibi and some smooth talking from The Doctor. "The Family Of Blood" is an exception: the Doctor can't help her and she encounters resistance because of her race, gender and "servant" status. C'rizz, the Eighth Doctor companion, can change his skin color and gets picked up by a Victorian-age sideshow.
  • Nobody Over 50 Is Gay: Averted in Gridlock.
    • ... And technically, Captain Jack Harkness.
  • Non Actor Vehicle: Kylie Minogue and Billie Piper were (and are) both singers.
  • Noodle Incident: While the Time War in the new era has been a constant point of mention (especially when the Daleks or some re-introduced species are involved), it has never been specifically explained what exactly the Doctor did throughout the war. All that is known is that his actions resulted in the almost-complete extinction of both the Daleks and the Gallifreyan Time Lords, as well as the destruction of Gallifrey, and various other universal disturbances. This, of course, has been used as a Chekhovs Gun for the Doctor's Character Development repeatedly.
    10th Doctor: Queen Elizabeth the First!
    Queen Elizabeth: THE DOCTOR!
    Doctor: What?
    Queen: My sworn enemy!
    Doctor: What?!
    Queen: Off with his head!
    Doctor: WHAT?!
  • Nothing Is Scarier: We never find out exactly what that things in Midnight is.
  • The Nudifier: The Defabricator
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Murray Gold's Dalek theme music for the new series, not to mention chants performed on-screen by various spooky cults of Exxilon, Karn, Pompeii, etc. Leitmotif.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Sutekh, the Beast, Davros, the Daleks, the Fendahl...
  • One Steve Limit: Usually obeyed, although "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" gave us Proper Dave and Other Dave.
  • Only So Many Equity Members: Lots of actors have appeared on the show more than once.
  • Oop North: four of the eight Classic Doctor actors were either Northern or Scottish, but actors in those days were expected to use the Queen's English. When (Mancunian) Christopher Eccleston, who played the Ninth Doctor, claimed to be "the first Northern Doctor", (Liverpudlian) Tom Baker—the iconic Fourth Doctor—called him on it.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Light in Ghost Light.
    • Though, only one character refer them as angels.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: "State of Decay", "The Curse of Fenric", and "Smith and Jones" each featured different variations on the standard bloodsuckers.
  • Our Time Travel Is Different: Confusing for the first 50 years of the show as there is no definite description of how time changes work. The 2006 show sort of explains how even in the show the trope holds.
  • Out Gambitted
  • Pajama Clad Hero: The Tenth Doctor, for some time after his initial regeneration.
  • Paranoia Fuel: The Waters Of Mars Don't drink the water.Don't even touch it. Not One Drop. Being turned into a monster if you touch something that your body physically needs is terrifying.
  • Parent Service: A lot of it, referred to as "for the dads", although both male and female Fan Service occurs.
  • Perspective Magic
  • Percussive Maintenance: Thumping things often gets them working again... including the TARDIS. In fact, the Doctor has a mallet on a piece of twine on the console for just that.
  • Phantom Zone Picture: "The Five Doctors," though the CGI special edition DVD changes this to a weird swirly-cone effect.
  • Pirate Booty: The Smugglers and, in a very Douglas Adams way, "The Pirate Planet."
  • The Pirates Who Dont Do Anything: When do we hear Jamie play the bagpipes?
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: The Master (as Harold Saxon) and Jeremy Baines.
  • The Power Of Acting: In an episode about acting in Shakespeare's time.
  • Prisoner Of Zenda Exit: Count Grendel in "The Androids of Tara"
  • Psychopathic Man Child: The Celestial Toymaker from the story "The Celestial Toyroom", Hindle from "Kinda", the John Simm incarnation of the Master, Rattigan in "The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky".
  • Red Shirt Army: UNIT soldiers. From the villain side, many.
  • Reign Of Terror: The First Doctor visited the original French one, each Doctor has overthrown at least one.
  • Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Donna Noble, thanks to a lot of character development. Unfortunately all undone at the end of series four.
    • Mickey Smith, beginning with The Age of Steel.
  • Reset Button: Used far too often in the newer seasons, though it has sometimes been used to tell stories that otherwise would not fit into the Doctor Who format ("Turn Left" and "Last of the Time Lords").
    • Hm. Only one other occasion in the new series springs to mind ("Father's Day") although Margaret Slitheen and Donna both get their own personal Reset Buttons.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Reign of Terror, The Robots of Death.
  • Riddle For The Ages: The Doctor pulls this a lot in "Curse of the Fatal Death."
    • Of course, Co FD was a for-the-lulz, outside continuity fundraiser...
  • Ripple Effect Proof Memory: Exploited in several serials involving direct rewrites of history, most notably the Year That Never Was in "The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords".
  • Rock Paper Scissors: In one of the novels, and was used to flummox the logical disco robots in "Destiny of the Daleks."
  • Romance On The Set: Most notably, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, and David Tennant with a couple of the guest actors.
  • Rule Of Ice Hot
  • Running Gag: Several, like the TARDIS' broken chameleon circuit and wonky steering. More recently, the fact that it never really snows on Christmas - Christmas "snow" is usually due to an alien ship detonating in the atmosphere and spraying ash all over London and vicinity.
  • San Dimas Time: Despite being a show about time travel, all recurring characters always seem to remember their last encounter from the same perspective, and the Doctor's idea of "present day" always agrees with the audience's. It is taken for granted that Time Lords meet each other in sequence, due to a presumptive "Gallifrey Standard Time." Of course, it's also easier to run a recurring character if you can refer back to the previous encounter.
    • Averted in "Silence in the Library", where River Song has clearly had a long and complex relationship with the Doctor before, from her perspective, but from his perspective he's not met her yet.
    • Also averted in "The Shakespeare Code", as the Doctor finds himself running away at the end of the episode from an antagonist that he hasn't had the opportunity to antagonise yet.
    • Also averted in "The Five Doctors" when the Second Doctor accidentally reminisces about an adventure he and the Brigadier haven't had yet.
    • In the same episode the Third Doctor has no idea who Sarah-Jane is
  • Scapegoat Creator: The series has no one creator to lay blame on, but aside from original producer Verity Lambert, just about everyone who's ever worked on the show has been designated Scapegoat Creator by some segments of fandom. John Nathan-Turner (Producer, 1980-9) and current Executive Producer / Head Writer Russell T Davies (the "T" stands for "Television!") are both frequent and popular targets of this.
  • The Scrappy: Donna Noble, in The Runaway Bride.
  • Screw The Rules I Make Them: Quite literally in The Waters of Mars. And with harsh consequences.
    Adelaide: You can't know that. And if my family changes...the whole of history could change. The future of the human race. No one should have that much power.
    The Doctor: Tough.
    Adelaide: You should have left us there.
    The Doctor: I've done this sort of thing before. In small ways, certain little people. But never somebody as important as you before, ooooooh I'm good!
    Adelaide: Little people? ... who decides who's so unimportant? You?
    The Doctor: For a long time, I thought I was just a survivor, but I'm not. I'm the winner. That's who I am. The Time Lord Victorious.
    Adelaide: And there's nobody to stop you.
    The Doctor: No.
    Adelaide: This is wrong, Doctor...The Time Lord Victorious is wrong.
    The Doctor: That's for me to decide.
    ...
    Adelaide: Is there nothing you can't do?
    The Doctor: Not anymore.
  • Scry Vs Scry
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Ice Warriors, The Pyramids of Mars, The Seeds of Doom, Dalek, The Runaway Bride
    • Genesis Ark?
  • Series Hiatus: The 1985-86 hiatus, as mentioned up top. More recently, the series is taking a break in 2009, in part to ease the transition between production teams. Despite initial reports, the latter break was planned before David Tennant decided to do his Hamlet run.
  • Shout Out: The Tenth Doctor is fond of these.
  • Shut Up And Save Me
  • Sickly Green Glow: Most monsters.
  • Silent Credits: At the end of part IV of Earthshock
  • Somebody Else's Problem: Justifies Hidden In Plain Sight above and Unusually Uninteresting Sight below.
  • Special Effects Failure: The BBC was somewhat notorious for giving the set and costume designers of Doctor Who a shoestring budget; that is, a bundle of shoe strings that they were expected to make fifteen monsters out of. Interestingly enough, however, this has always been viewed as part of the series' charm, and the fanbase reacted negatively when the TV movie upped the effects budget.
  • Starfish Language: For when the Translator Microbes are broken, absent or just unable to cope. See "The Doctor's Daughter" and "Planet of the Dead" in the new series, and "The Creature from the Pit" for a notoriously suggestive classic series example.
  • Stylistic Suck: Harrison Chase's music in The Seeds of Doom
  • Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The Time Lords are repeatedly referred to as "self-appointed gods" and at least once (in the Expanded Universe) mentioned as having exceeded level four of the Kardashev scale.
  • Technobabble: So... much... technobabble!
  • They Changed It Now It Sucks: Fan reaction first to Eccelston's casting as the Doctor, then Tennant's, and now Matt Smith's. There is also a divide of sorts between fans of the old and fans of the new series.
  • Thirty Xanatos Pileup: Common in stories involving the Master and/or the Daleks.
  • Time Paradox: Happens often, but this was the entire goal of Faction Paradox, from the Doctor Who Expanded Universe. They are a splinter cult of Time Lords dedicated to causing temporal chaos through voodoo - led by Grandfather Paradox, no less. The Faction were recurring enemies of the 8th Doctor and currently occupy a separate timeline in which their spin-off radio plays, comics and novels take place.
    • So much so that in the newer series, there exists a thing called a Paradox Machine which prevents time from healing itself in the face of a temporal contradiction. So, for example, you could kill your own grandfather and the Paradox Machine would ensure that nothing happened to you.
  • Timey Wimey Ball: The Trope Namer!
  • Title Drop: Once in a while. Just in case you'd forgotten the last time someone asked, "Doctor who?"
    • But sometimes "Doctor what?" just to screw with you.
  • Took A Level In Badass: Mickey, during The Age of Steel and culminating in his Darker And Edgier persona in Doomsday and Journey's End
  • Translation Convention / Translator Microbes: The new series uses the latter to explain the classic series's use of the former.
  • Turn The Other Cheek
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Doctor, despite going back and forth through time and space, never seems to have his outfit questioned, though his companion(s) might. Then there's the blue box that pops up in the weirdest places and very few people think to question... even when they do notice it, they're more likely to write it off as Somebody Else's Problem rather than investigate thoroughly.
    • The TARDIS was explained by the Doctor as generating a Somebody Else's Problem field, making any normal being subconsciously want to look away from the blue box. This explanation coming from his companion's inquiry as the Doctor had fashioned a miniature version of the field to avoid detection by police or rival time-lords, so it not only made sense from a story view-point, it finally answered the question of "Why the doesn't anyone notice a giant blue police box just sitting there!?" Especially when the Doctor has gone to places like Ancient Rome or 19th Century England.
      • "perception filter" according to the new series.
      • The Doctor does explain that the TARDIS usually have a 'Chameleon Circuit' that allows them to appear as anything, generally something that fits in with whatever time/place it has landed in. Of course, since the Doctor's TARDIS is a complete wreck, his got stuck on 'Police Box' in the very first episode and he's never bothered to fix it, since he apparently prefers this shape.
      • He actually did get the Chameleon Circuit fixed for a while but he kept losing the TARDIS because he couldn't remember what it looked like so he broke the circuit again so he could have his blue box back.
    • Actually, the Doctor does get called on his outfit on at least two occasions (excluding mentions/questions by his companions): the first time (in Tom Baker's first outing), he tries to head out on an adventure wearing a UNIT issue hospital gown, before the Brigadier stops him and recommends something 'a bit less conspicuous'. The Doctor agrees, steps into the TARDIS and changes into a viking outfit, complete with battle axe, then tries a playing card king costume, then a pantomime clown outfit before being persuaded to go with the eponymous brown coat and scarf. The second occasion was during the 'The Unquiet Dead' episode in Christopher Eccleston's tenure: he introducies himself to Charles Dickens as (of course) the Doctor, only to have Dickens retort "Doctor? You look more like a navvy!"
    • And there's the episode The King's Demons where the TARDIS appears during a mediaeval jousting tournament and everyone assumes that the Doctor and companions are demons. And coninues to refer to them as such throughout the serial.
      • Also when the Doctor meets Jack for the first time, "Oh, should've known, the way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-boat Captain?"
  • Unpleasable Fanbase: Oh so very much.
  • Used Future: Despite being light-years ahead of most technology even approaching the end of the universe, the TARDIS is seriously broken and worn out by Gallifreyan standards.
    • Let's not forget the Time Lords were also phasing out that particular TARDIS model for being outdated when the Doctor nicked it.
      • The Deadly Assassin had an extremely aged, senior Time Lord reminiscing about how he "hadn't seen a Type 40 since [he] was a boy". Think about that for a moment.
  • Utopia Justifies The Means: The villains in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Robot thought this.
  • Vichy Earth: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Day of the Daleks, The Sunmakers, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
  • The Virus: Inferno, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. The Cybermen, being techno vampire/zombies, are a form of virus.
  • Visual Effects Of Awesome: Seriously, for all the mocking the classic series receives for it's Special Effects Failures, they did manage to acheive some pretty awesome effects on pretty much no money at times. Examples that immediately come to mind include the epic opening shot of the space station in Trial of a Time Lord and and the flying ships in Enlightenment.
  • Walking the Universe
  • The Wall Around The World: In "Inferno", the Doctor pushes through a barrier in time and ends up in a Mirror Universe.
  • Wasn't That Fun?: The Doctor is fond of this quip.
  • The Watson: Often called "The Sarah Jane" for Lis Sladen's assistance in defining the trope.
  • The World Is Always Doomed: Two episodes, "The Ark" (1965) and "The End of the World" (2005) have gone whole hog and actually shown the Earth gettin' blowed up.
    • Especially during Christmas specials — well, London Is Always Doomed, at any rate. The residents have picked up on this after three two years running of destruction and chaos, and get out of town for Christmas Day.
  • We Have Forgotten The Phlebotinum
  • Whooshing Credits
  • Xanatos Gambit: So very many.
    • Well, at least three, anyway...
  • Xanatos Roulette
  • You Have Failed Me: Many a Big Bad says this.
  • You Watch Too Much Television: "Thought maybe he was your evil brother or something?" -Martha (asking the Doctor about the Master.)
  • Your Head A Splode: The Cybermen, Daleks and others.
  • Your _____ Is Broken: "What gas?" "This gas."
  • Zeerust: Both intentional (the TARDIS's controls look rather clunky, possibly partly because of its jury-rigged condition) and unintentional. Basically every story set in space or and/or the future from the first eleven years of the series by now looks absurdly out-of-date, though the bell-bottomed space uniforms of the 70s now look oddly fashion-forward. And while the late 1960s stories makes some gestures toward internationalism, they almost always show show a preponderance of men in technical or scientific roles.
  • Zeppelins From Another World: Specifically, the other world that the new series's Cybermen came from.
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