Doctor Who

I do wonder when Three actually found the time to meet all these people. Unseen adventures as two and one of course, and this was back when continuity was pushing that the Doctor was thousands of years old rather than hundreds. I struggle to picture Two or One enjoying the company of a lot of the figure Three name drops.

The Doctor has mentioned twice now that he's over 2000 years old, but the last I remember his age being mentioned (during "The Impossible Astronaut") he was only around 800 or so. It's entirely possible I missed something somewhere, but when did this happen?

I think a good chunk of that was his time spent defending Christmas.

From what I can tell he spent a ridiculous amount of time as 11. He starts out in the low 900s but by The Day of the Doctor he's 1300. Then suddenly after The Time of the Doctor he's over 2000. It's kind of weird to think about because even One got worn out after about 450 years.

A few

• Maybe later regenerations have greater longevity
• All his galavanting across his lives, and fighting a war as the War Doctor, made the Doctor's later regenerations significantly hardier than his original self.
• By the same token, his original self was actually not well suited to the action of a time traveling adventurer since he'd led the life of a mostly sedentary Time Lord before that. The First and Twelfth Doctors are very different flavor of old man.
• Sheer Determinator. The Doctor stayed active as long as he absolutely could because he had a planet of innocents and his people to protect.

edited 30th Apr '17 12:26:28 PM by sgamer82

I know it goes against the entire point of the theory, but a lot more stuff makes sense characterization-wise if you assume the Doctor spends most of "season 6B" as Three rather than Two.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Ten tended to state he was around 900 something a few times, but I think I read that he was actually lying about his age.

11 put on some years during his second seasons (he was apparently 1100 something during the opening of the Impossible Astronaut), and he must have spent a lot of time running from his death on the beach.

Then came his time on Trenzalore. He probably put on quite a few years before becoming 12.

One Strip! One Strip!

It's just kind of funny because if you take the numbers he gives seriously he's spent more than half his life as 11. This isn't entirely necessary since there are certain periods of time where he could have plausibly traveled around for several decades alone but for some reason the show never takes advantage of this.

8 also spent 600 years hanging out with s entient jellyfish in a story and it was handwaved by saying he doesn't always use the same definition of a year, so I'm taking that as a good excuse fo r timelines being fucky. Pretty sure 7 also said he was over 1000 at one point.

The internet is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it-William Gibson

In Mind of Evil, the Doctor stopped himself from saying he's been a scientist for thousands.. (that's where he stops)

Months. He'd been a scientist for thousands of months.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

The Doctor is a liar.

He's also vain. Vain people tend to lie about their age. 11 mentioned he sometimes didn't even know whether he was lying or not about his age.

Even as early as 3, he said he was thousands of years old.

What "years" constitute on Gallifrey, and what they might mean to someone who lives in a time machine only further muddle the issue.

How old is the Doctor? Very.

edited 30th Apr '17 3:15:40 PM by ArthurEld

Yes, the Doctor has come right out and said he's a liar. And that's perhaps the one thing that's impossible to lie about.

Does anyone have a link to episode preview summaries for this season? I can't seem to find one.

Oh God! Natural light!

I must have missed something in "The Husbands of River Song" because I don't remember what oath Nardole was referring to.

I don't hate winter, I merely despise it.

I'm fairly certain that we aren't supposed to know what it is at the moment.

Oh God! Natural light!

He was referring to the oath to stay on-world they were talking about last week.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

I understand that part, yes. What I meant was when did he make that oath, to whom and why?

I don't hate winter, I merely despise it.

Questions which I expect will be answered as the season wears on.

"Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri, quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes."

"A very long time ago, a thing happened, as a result of the thing I made a promise, as a result of the promise, I have to stay on Earth-guarding a vault"

That's how The Doctor elaborated the current arc to Bill in "Smile"

Is it really true that the thing in the Vault knocks four times? The recap page says so, but I remember counting them and I could've sworn it was five times, though the fifth was cut short by the credits. And anyway, it knocked three times each, so if it's supposed to be alluding to "The Sound of Drums", it's pretty clumsy.

Yeah, it's kind of a stretch. Especially since the "four times" thing was mostly a quick rat-tat-tat-tat the way too many times it showed up, not four entirely separate sets of knocks.

Not Three Laws compliant.

I'm almost 90% certain that Wilf knocks sixteen times, four sets of four, which I always liked.

The thing in the Vault didn't seem to be knocking in any sort of pattern or anything that I recall.

It only seemed to knock 4 times at the very end, though I was paying attention to see if it got in one more.

I suppose with the knowledge that Simm is coming back, we're all just paying attention to knocks.

One Strip! One Strip!

It did to me. It knocked three times, then Nardole spoke. Three times more, Nardole speaks again. Three more times, and so on and so forth. But maybe it was just me.

edited 1st May '17 7:40:29 PM by kkhohoho

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around