History DoctorWho / TropesAToC

* ActionGirl: At some point one of the Doctor's female companions will find herself coming to the Doctor's rescue, often with a blaster or other weapon in hand. (Examples include Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister, Zoe Heriot, Sara Kingdom, Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, Romana, Amy Pond, Clara Oswald, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, the Mistress, etc.) though two that stand out in the fanbase are Ace and River Song. Even the TARDIS itself was a bad-ass and a human female, at almost the same time.

* AdaptationalExplanation: The novelization of the first ''Doctor Who'' stories from Classic Who added various details to the episodes and even expanded a little more the details that were unexplained, usually written by the same scriptwriters of the series. This helped in actual years to get a better help to recreate the [[invoked]]{{Missing Episode}}s with modern technology, as well using the audiobooks of the time.

** Also played straight in the Third Doctor episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]" when Sarah Jane is locked in a closet and escapes through an air duct.

** The classic episode ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E2TheInvisibleEnemy The Invisible Enemy]]'' beggars description. The BigBad is a prawn-shaped space virus which ''spawns''... let your imagination fill in the blanks.

** As of 2014, the Paternoster Gang (Madame Vastra, Jenny, Strax) have appeared in no less than five episodes, each of which can be interpreted as backdoor pilots for a potential spinoff. However, the trope has so far been averted due to the fact the while the fans and the actors want a spin-off, thus far neither Steven Moffat nor the BBC have shown any interest in elevating the trio beyond recurring status.

** In the episode "Forest of the Dead", there's a time compression montage in which Donna meets a nice man, falls in love, gets married, and has two children. After she starts suspecting something is wrong with her new life, she discovers that she's in a LotusEaterMachine - and has been for less than ten minutes. The entire process of meeting a nice man, falling in love, getting married, and having two children occupied exactly the same amount of time it took the audience to watch the montage.
** In the episode "The Power of Three", a bored Doctor needs to pass time, so he paints a fence, mows the lawn, and dribbles a football (by his count) over a million times. At the end of the montage, it's still only been an hour.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Three spends several episodes talking about how much he's looking forward to visiting Metabelis III. When he actually manages to get there, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath The Green Death]]", the planet promptly tries to kill him. And it actually ''does'' kill him when he returns there in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Planet of the Spiders]]".

** In a somewhat meta example, thanks to the announcement that Series 12 won't show up until 2020: ''Doctor Who'' in the 2010s was bookended by New Year's specials; the second part of ''The End Of Time''[[note]]David Tennant's final episode as the 10th Doctor and Matt Smith's on-screen introduction as the 11th[[/note]] having its original broadcast on January 1st, 2010, while Series 11 has ''its'' special - ''Resolution'' - broadcasting on January 1st, 2019.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk The Ark]]" is about a slave race, the Monoids, who are mute and subservient to humans. After a plague occurs, the Monoids eventually rise up over the humans and enslave them instead. The (apparent) attempted moral is announced at the end of the episode when the Doctor tells the humans and Monoids that they need to live in equality to survive, but thanks to WhatMeasureIsANonHuman writing (in which the Doctor doesn't care about the deaths of tens of Monoids but realises it's an emergency when a human dies) and the fact that the Monoids' defining character traits are being "savages" and [[IdiotBall making terrible tactical decisions for no reasons other than to allow the humans to win]], how the Monoids are returned to an underclass at the end, and how the story was made in 1966, it comes across more like a racist allegory for how extending civil rights will cause the oppressor to become oppressed by a race that can only run civilisation with incompetent savagery unless they are returned to HappinessInSlavery. Elizabeth Sandifer of the TARDIS Eruditorum subscribes to this interpretation and believes the stupidity of the Monoids was intentional, rather than the [[invoked]]SpecialEffectFailure it is generally imagined as.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]], the Twelfth Doctor's second-to-last episode, draws a parallel between him and his companion Bill Potts, who are both in situations where they each must deal with and accept an unwanted, fundamental change to their lives. She's been converted into a Cyberman against her will, he's on the cusp of regeneration. Neither wants to live if they can't stay who they are. At the end of this episode, the frustrated Doctor gets a RayOfHopeEnding setting up a ChristmasEpisode in which he accepts regeneration and the LossOfIdentity it comes with at last. Too bad that in the meantime Bill gets her original form restored with awesome new powers to boot when a barely foreshadowed Deus Ex Machina steps in to make her Ascend To A Higher Plane of Existence. [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]] does end with the Doctor deciding that helping the universe is WorthLivingFor even if it means he has to lose his identity, but never addresses Bill's fate so the Aesop remains broken.

* CaptureAndReplicate: A few aliens do this as their ''modus operandi''. Examples that span multiple episodes:
** The Zygons from episodes "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Terror of the Zygons]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" are shapeshifters, but need to keep the original person they're replacing alive so they can have a psychic link with the victim, in order to have access to the original person's body print.

And in his first episode, newly regenerated, he ran through the personalities of the First, Second and Third Doctors before settling on his own.[[note]]A testament to Creator/PeterDavison's acting abilities.[[/note]] He even finds Two's recorder.\\\

** The Cybermen didn't achieve their trademark appearance until the Second Doctor serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", their fifth appearance, and only gained a weakness to gold dust in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen Revenge of the Cybermen]]". "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis Silver Nemesis]]" as well as the 11th Doctor episode ''Nightmare in Silver'' both flanderized this into an extreme weakness to all forms of gold.

*** When Creator/RussellTDavies stepped down as showrunner for ''Doctor Who'' one of the last things he did was to undo this "year ahead" scenario by setting the Tenth Doctor's final story in the same year as its broadcast. Later, however, the 2014 episode "In the Forest of the Night" established a two-years-ahead timeframe for modern-day episodes, which was almost immediately ignored by succeeding episodes and spin-off media.

** David Maloney: A director rather than a writer, but he became notorious for the frequency with which his episodes featured characters in gas masks. He then went on to be the producer of ''Series/BlakesSeven'', and made it famous for its constant depiction of Federation soldiers as GasMaskMooks.

* CreepyChildrenSinging: A recurring motif during the second half of New Series 6, particularly the episodes "Night Terrors", "Closing Time", and "The Wedding of River Song", is creepy children singing a foreboding nursery rhyme with verses that change to suit each episode.

* AlienInvasion: Both types, almost constantly. In some cases, it's not necessarily Earth that the aliens want to invade, nor is the species invaded human at all. In many future-based stories, humans are themselves the invaders. The invaders, especially if they are human, are often not outright malicious, but simply destructive to native species, paralleling historical imperialism and colonization.

** Foremost on the list are the Daleks; super-intelligent, genetically engineered, AlwaysChaoticEvil [[ANaziByAnyOtherName space Nazis]] encased in non-humanoid PoweredArmor. They were designed to feel no emotions other than hatred, prejudice, anger and cruelty. They also experience fear but try not to show it. They are utterly fanatical about their own [[FantasticRacism inherent]] [[MasterRace superiority]], to the point where civil wars have broken out amongst them if factions start displaying minor differences, and have chosen death when "contaminated" by foreign DNA. Their goal is nothing less than to ''[[CatchPhrase ex-term-i-nate]]'' all life in the universe (and, once, the {{multiverse}}). They often tend to find themselves dealing with Earth, which they hate. (But what ''don't'' they hate?)

* AlternateUniverse: Oddly enough, not extensively used. There ''are'' alternate universes in the ''Who'' multiverse--one Classic Series StoryArc took place in one called "E-Space" and the story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E4Inferno Inferno]]" has a MirrorUniverse, and the Creator/RussellTDavies era has at least two, a ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld universe and an alternate timeline world centered on Donna Noble in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]"--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 transcendental ships...) and very dangerous.

* ArmoredVillainsUnarmoredHeroes: the Doctor and their companions are always wearing normal Earthly clothing, while monsters like the Daleks and the Cybermen are heavily armored.

** How the series handles the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler's codependent relationship. It's very apparent that the Doctor and Rose were just what each other needed in Series 1. The Doctor needed to cope with his depression and survivor's guilt so he could enjoy saving the world again, and Rose needed someone to come along and change her monotone outlook on life. But the problem with the idea of ‘needing someone’ is that that line of thought leads to really codependent places really fast, and that’s what eventually happens with the Doctor and Rose. In Series 2, the Doctor and Rose become increasingly lost in each other and their clever adventures, and increasingly detached from and uninterested in everyone around them, which numerous characters notice and become worried about. By the second half of the season, Rose comes to loathe her old life and builds so much of her new happiness around the Doctor that she can't live without him in her life. She even tries to ditch all of her friends and family in an alternate universe forever so she won't have to say goodbye to him. The denouement of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts Army Of Ghosts]] / [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]", in which the Doctor and Rose are forcibly separated and Rose in particular is absolutely devastated, appears to be a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t make one person the center of your world, because it will only lead to your heart being broken (hints of this were seeded back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion School Reunion]]", when Rose realized that while the Doctor might be the center of her world, he's lived far longer than her and she will never be the center of his). But if that’s the case, then Rose’s return in Series 4 is positively baffling. In “[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth The Stolen Earth]] / [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey’s End]]”, we learn Rose has not even tried to move on, she’s spent the last few years trying to think of ways to get back to the Doctor (remember that time moves faster in Pete’s world, so it’s been a good long while since “Doomsday”), and when the Daleks almost destroy the universe Rose leaps at the chance to jump universes so she can try to find the Doctor. She’s rewarded with a clone Doctor that can grow old for the rest of his life with her, and in a deleted scene she was going to receive a TARDIS so they can go traveling again. So that Rose can receive a happy ending, the lesson of her arc is changed from 'beware unhealthy, codependent relationships' to 'if you cling to someone hard enough, and never ever let go, eventually you’ll get everything you ever wanted and more'.

* AdaptationalExplanation: The novelization of the first ''Doctor Who'' stories from Classic Who added various details to the episodes and even expanded a little more the details that were unexplained, usually written by the same scriptwriters of the series. This helped in actual years to get a better help to recreate the {{Missing Episode}}s with modern technology, as well using the audiobooks of the time.

** Time Lords have names ranging from the ridiculous (Romanadvoratrelundar) to the mundane (Susan). Although, Susan is not her real name -- according to the [[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Susan_Campbell the TARDIS Index File]], her Gallifreyan name is Arkytior, which translates as "[[EpilepticTrees Rose]]". Also, it's revealed (much later) that Time Lords pick the names they'll be [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep known by]], and those names are quite official. (Lord President Rassilon addressed the Doctor and the Master as "Lord Doctor" and "Lord Master" while being particularly formal.) It makes sense that these names would be derived from all sources -- words describing what they do (like the Doctor and the Master), names of people on worlds that had an impact on them (presumably Susan, possibly anyone whose name isn't a dictionary word), or whatever they [[RuleOfCool felt sounded cool at the time]] (Romana's whole name, and the Doctor's "school" name of Theta Sigma).

* AnyoneCanDie: Unless someone happens to be a historical figure (and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace even]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E10VincentAndTheDoctor then]]...), there is a good chance they will die before the end of the episode. The Doctor themself is not immune to death, [[TheNthDoctor of a sorts.]] Their companions are not immune to death... sorta. (It depends on your definition of "companion." Many a OneShotCharacter fits the role in their one episode, only to die before getting to take up the Doctor on their offer to come fly with them. Also, there's been a character who joined near the end of one story and died early in the next, back in the day. However, for a show with this much NightmareFuel, it's actually surprisingly safe to be a member of the main cast; the two exceptions are of course Adric, and now Clara. However, even the latter ends up being a DefiedTrope after the events of "Hell Bent": she still has to die, but she can choose the moment and time of her death herself, and she is effectively immortal until she does so.)

* AscendedFanon: The meaning of the word "doctor" coming from the Doctor's actions was proposed by Creator/StevenMoffat in [[https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/rec.arts.drwho/fNc0-Zpirpg 1995]]. This was later promoted to canon by himself.
** The ''Peter Davison'' Doctor's daughter, ''Georgia Elizabeth Moffet'', became the ''David Tennant'' Doctor's wife after playing the Doctor's daughter, Jenny, and finally gave the Doctor a daughter, ''Olive Tennant''.

** The Daleks have been, and always will be the ultimate enemy of the Doctor, they have been around since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleksthe second ever story]], and have faced every Doctor onscreen except the Eighth, who had only one onscreen appearance. They have returned endlessly despite the Doctor's [[TheyKilledKenny continuous attempts to eradicate them]]. In the words of the Tenth Doctor "They survive, they always survive when I lose everything". Two eras of the show in particular stand out of their use of the Daleks as the Big Bad:

** A companion falling in love with the Doctor, or the Doctor falling in love with a companion, never ends well due to the MayflyDecemberRomance factor. This is explicitly discussed during the Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Clara Oswald eras, perhaps never more directly than by the Tenth Doctor in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion "School Reunion"]], an episode that confirmed long-held [[AscendedFanon fan theories]] regarding the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith's relationship while cementing aspects of the Ten's and Rose Tyler's:

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]"; it's not the gigantic bugs; those look silly. It's what seems to be a man in a sleeping bag covered in green goo, and before that, the person ''turning'' into said bag of slop by melting body parts is worse than the [[MonsterOfTheWeek alien creature it turns into]]. "The Ark in Space" also has one of the show’s most famous cliffhangers, with Noah slowly removing his hand from his pocket to reveal he's being taken over by... [[SpecialEffectFailure green bubblewrap]]?

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk The Ark]]" is about a slave race, the Monoids, who are mute and subservient to humans. After a plague occurs, the Monoids eventually rise up over the humans and enslave them instead. The (apparent) attempted moral is announced at the end of the episode when the Doctor tells the humans and Monoids that they need to live in equality to survive, but thanks to WhatMeasureIsANonHuman writing (in which the Doctor doesn't care about the deaths of tens of Monoids but realises it's an emergency when a human dies) and the fact that the Monoids' defining character traits are being "savages" and [[IdiotBall making terrible tactical decisions for no reasons other than to allow the humans to win]], how the Monoids are returned to an underclass at the end, and how the story was made in 1966, it comes across more like a racist allegory for how extending civil rights will cause the oppressor to become oppressed by a race that can only run civilisation with incompetent savagery unless they are returned to HappinessInSlavery. Elizabeth Sandifer of the TARDIS Eruditorum subscribes to this interpretation and believes the stupidity of the Monoids was intentional, rather than the SpecialEffectFailure it is generally imagined as.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators The Dominators]]" has two. The WordOfGod aim was an allegory about how the hippie movement is bad because they would have got their arses kicked if they'd been in control when the Nazis had invaded. However, the oppressed, pacifistic Dulcians don't work as a hippie allegory, as they're characterised either as elderly politicians or as attractive young people who unthinkingly repeat the elders' lessons by rote until the Doctor and companions turn them against their racist, fascist oppressors, while the old Dulcians get slaughtered through trying to negotiate with AlwaysChaoticEvil aliens. The result is that it comes off as an allegory about how student activism is the future because the apathetic old politicians are only concerned with keeping superficial comfort and not with fixing big societal problems, and have engineered their own destruction. The second is in the B-plot: The villains have an internal conflict, between Rago, who favours caution and condemns meaningless destruction, and Toba, a PsychoForHire who just loves destroying things. The problem is that everything Toba says is right - if he just had blown everyone up on sight (including the Doctor and Jamie) the Dominators would have succeeded in their plan. The result of this is that the story is simultaneously both far more left-wing and far more right-wing than intended.
** In the ScriptWank at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks Planet of the Daleks]]", the Doctor delivers a heartfelt speech that the Thals must tell their people WarIsHell, and not to make it sound like their adventure was a 'fun game'. The story involves, amongst other things, them escaping fun, toyetic AlwaysChaoticEvil nasty pepperpot people by [[DressingAsTheEnemy dressing up in purple fur coats]] and MacGyvering a hot air balloon. The reason for this discrepancy is because the scene was appended to the end by Terrance Dicks at the last minute because [[{{Padding}} the script was underrunning]].

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E4TheFaceOfEvil The Face of Evil]]" is based on the premise that the Doctor's egotistical attempts to save a space mission AI (by simply imposing a print of his own brain over it instead of actually fixing the problem) led to the AI becoming an insane God who selectively breeds the settlers into opposing CargoCult factions that worship him, and creating a dystopic {{Egopolis}} based on the Doctor's image. It all seems like it's set up to criticise the Doctor's big ego and ChronicHeroSyndrome... but it ends with the AI, having realised who it is, asking the Doctor for an explanation as to where he went wrong, absolving the Doctor of all responsibility and even having 'God' ask him for tips on how to be better. Striking because the new series absolutely would ''never'' have missed the opportunity to criticise the Doctor's god complex.

* CharacterizationClickMoment:

** The Daleks could almost have their own page for this. In the original encounter, the Daleks had been living in their underground city for only a few hundred years, waiting for the radiation from a nuclear war to fade, only to discover their mutated forms needed radiation to survive. Their self-created "travel machines" could only operate on powered metal surfaces[[note]]This was later bypassed with a power-receiving antenna dish mounted on their backs, but even that was soon forgotten.[[/note]], and even in-story stuck to smooth surfaces, ramps, and elevators. They were cold and cruel, but by no means super-intelligent. They were defeated in the Doctor's first encounter, before they had a chance to ever leave their city. By the time the new series got into action, they had become computer-integrated, universe-conquering, flying battle machines. It has to be noted that several of these Dalek Stories take place at different points in their timeline. In the first few episodes, the Doctor was dealing with Daleks native to present days/the 22th century; The later ones are usually encountered in (or come from) the distant future. TechnologyMarchesOn for the Daleks, too.

* ContinuityPorn: "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]", as the 50th anniversary episode, has lots of continuity because that is what anniversary episodes are there for. Trailers for it have even more.

** The series avoids it more than most decades-long franchises because the show embraces its NarmCharm so much and features TimeTravel. It's got no "why do the Klingons look different" situations because Zygons are still red, rubbery, and suction cup-y, and Daleks are still evil pepper shakers of doom - prop quality has advanced but the look hasn't - and no "why did the year 2000 look super futuristic then but now look like the actual year 2000 did" questions because cracks in time ''ate'' that Dalek invasion you don't remember - the malleability of reality in this show means ''it's part of continuity that continuity is flexible.'' The TARDIS interior goes from [[{{Zeerust}} the 60s and 70s idea of futuristic]] in the 60s and 70s to looking organic because it's a LivingShip in the Russell T Davies seasons to TheAllegedCar, Spaceship Edition in the Amy and Rory years to TheNewTens' idea of futuristic in the Clara years because it's a LivingShip, GeniusLoci, and EldritchLocation that can change anything about its inner dimension on a whim. Some things seem more advanced [[CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel at an earlier point in their own history]] for simpler reasons - aesthetics change and in the year 5000 when he'll be made, K9 will look modern again.

** Creator/RobertHolmes: cynicism (sometimes to localised CrapsackWorld levels), "[[ThoseTwoGuys double act]]" guest characters, fart jokes, references to Earth-Humans as "Tellurians", [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucratic villains]], plain ol' scary stuff especially regarding ParanoiaFuel and AttackOfTheKillerWhatever, something of a RebelliousSpirit mentality to his morals.

** Creator/TerranceDicks: [[DamselInDistress Companion function being to be sexy and get menaced]] and a corresponding focus on the Doctor, very tight and focused plot and dialogue almost to the point where you can tell with a stopwatch when the monster's going to show up, people escaping and [[{{Padding}} getting captured again]], BeigeProse in his novelisations, {{Continuity Nod}}s, very witty Doctor dialogue, good ol' screwdriver-in-hand monster stories with lots of running down corridors and PeopleInRubberSuits.

** Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe: WholePlotReference, LeakingCanOfEvil villains, amazing amounts of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids, GothicHorror.

** Creator/DouglasAdams: Witty dialogue full of jokes, GeniusBonus and {{Meta Guy}}s, UnfazedEveryman side characters, time travel used in-story, Pythonesque elements including SurrealHumour and {{Bathos}}, RecycledScript, ItRunsOnNonsensoleum, magic books/art/computers, Cambridge, baths, tea.

** Creator/ChristopherHBidmead: GeniusBonus {{Technobabble}}, maths, MinovskyPhysics-based MagicFromTechnology leading to PostModernMagik concerning things like art and computers, more maths, Tarot symbolism, his pet AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor is a very dark and mathsterious '[[HorrifyingHero monster]] that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters fights other monsters]]', and even more maths.

** Creator/EricSaward: KillEmAll, CrapsackWorld, badass soldiers (or mercenaries) in large numbers, FacialHorror, Cybermen, ContinuityPorn, NauseaFuel especially regarding rotting flesh and horrible smells.

** Creator/MarkGatiss: FanFlattering, InternalHomage and PanderingToTheBase, {{Pastiche}} of cult genres (particularly Film/HammerHorror) and show eras, {{Camp}}y humour.

** Creator/StevenMoffat: Time travel used inside the story, telephones, hot snarky women, aliens whose main ability invokes ParanoiaFuel, terror, doppelgangers, people who use "psychopath" as a badge of honour, avoidance of traditional villains, romantic melodrama, playing with gender stereotypes, WorldOfSnark, ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight, SexIsInteresting, witty dialogue, particular phrases and character traits cross-pollinated with his [[Series/{{Sherlock}} other show]], the Doctor scaring off enemies by telling them to look up what he's done to his enemies in the past.

-->'''Stotz:''' The boss gave me one of these. Ten seconds he said. Let's see if it works. ''(shoves it in the mook's mouth, who tries to swallow it whole but Stotz jams a fist over his throat)'' COME ON YOU SLUT! BITE! BITE! BITE! ''(lets him go)'' Next time, it'll be for real.

** Season 8 of the revived series revolves around Missy, a female reincarnation of TheMaster, using a version of the Gallifreyan Matrix above that has been adapted to collect human minds and preserve them, albeit only as a first step to later putting those minds into the bodies of Cybermen.

* BigBad: The revival series manages a couple.
** The Daleks have been, and always will be the ultimate enemy of the Doctor, they have been around since the very first series, have been directly or indirectly involved with the plot of almost every season, and have returned endlessly despite the Doctor's [[TheyKilledKenny continuous attempts to eradicate them]]. In the words of the Tenth Doctor "They survive, they always survive when I lose everything." However, they fit this role the best fit this role in the [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor Eleventh Doctor's finale]] where [[BigBadEnsemble all of the Doctor's enemies]] had gathered together to put an end to the Doctor, but the Daleks came out on top and were determined to be the one to put an end to the dying Time Lord, and very nearly succeeded in doing so.
** The second series kicked off with the equally megalomaniac John Lumic and his version of the Cybermen. The season finale featured the return of Cybermen, now led by a generic Cyber-Leader, but they spend half the time [[EvilVersusEvil competing]] [[BigBadEnsemble with]] Dalek Sec and the Cult of Skaro.
** The third series ''did'' show a two-part re-appearance of the Cult of Skaro, but it's ultimately TheMaster that takes center-stage by the finale.
** The fourth season finale had Davros and his resurgent Dalek empire, but Davros is just a representative this time around, while the Supreme Dalek is the one calling the shots.
** The Tenth Doctor's finale had Rassilon the Lord President (his actual title) of Gallifrey. He revealed the malevolent, psychotic Master was just a pawn and that he and the Time Lords themselves were the true Big Bads, and nearly succeeded in ending time and all of creation itself.

** In season 7, the Great Intelligence becomes a recurring villain and is revealed to be the reason the Doctor goes to Trenzalore and must speak his name there. It's also the reason Clara is forced to create copies of herself; to save the Doctor from the Great Intelligence corrupting his personal timeline.
** In Season 8, The Cybermen and the Master, in the female form of Missy, short for mistress.
** In the classic series, the Black Guardian was the BigBad of two separate story arcs: The Key to Time arc and what was later known as the Black Guardian Trilogy.
** Also in the classic series, the Valeyard was the BigBad of Season 23 (''The Trial of a Time Lord''). Depending on how far you want to stretch the definition, the Master might qualify as such from Seasons 8 and 9, as well (making him the show's first Big Bad).
** In the Seventh Doctor era Fenric may count as the Big Bad, having manipulated events in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire Dragonfire]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis Silver Nemesis]]" before appearing in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]".
** The Daleks were effectively the Big Bad for the first half of the 60s: They are the only recurring villains of the First Doctor's era (bar IneffectualSympatheticVillain the Meddling Monk, whose second appearance sees him very much treated as a minor nuisance compared to the Daleks) and were almost always chosen for the big multi-part stories. When permission to use them was withdrawn after the fourth season, the Cybermen took on the role somewhat, topping and tailing the fifth season and appearing in the big mid-season eight-parter of Season 6.
** The Sontarans became the Big Bad by default in the mid-70s, when a combination of a NoContinuity soft reboot and their creator being on the production staff meant they were the most recurring enemy, appearing in three stories across five seasons. The fact that an early American syndication package consisted of the first four Tom Baker seasons created a curious viewing experience: As the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Master only made one appearance each during that period, the Sontarans were the only recurring foes, returning for a GrandFinale where they invaded the Doctor's home planet.

** Nardole from season 10. He's a short, somewhat chubby bald man, with a squeacky voice, appears to be an utter coward, weed himself in his first appearance, and can't seem to stop talking without putting his foot in his mouth. He also can pilot the TARDIS (and stops the Doctor from making course adjustments!), is a former criminal with a vague past, and was clever enough to [[NoodleIncident rule an empire]].

** With the new series and {{spin off}}s, we don't even know that. Most of this confusion is due to Rose "losing" a year in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Aliens of London]]", putting most of the first season's contemporary stories in 2006, a year after broadcast. However, despite being consistent with this for the first couple of years, by Series 4, ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', they began using the same year as production, even though they were mentioning past events that should have happened ''next'' year.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter The Doctor's Daughter]]", Jenny is played by Creator/GeorgiaMoffett, who actually is the daughter of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison. And her mother is Sandra Dickinson (Trillian from the ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1981''). When Jenny appears for the first time, a bit of the theme music from the ''Hitchhiker Series'' can be heard.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter The Doctor's Daughter]]", Jenny is played by Creator/GeorgiaMoffett, who actually is the daughter of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison. And her mother is Sandra Dickinson (Trillian from the Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy). When Jenny appears for the first time, a bit of the theme music from the Hitchhiker Series can be heard.

** 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, the trope is fully in effect, though this seems to be more a case of the Doctor being able to beat the Daleks each time they appear regardless of the numbers even though they are a tremendous in-universe threat. Pretty much every time the Doctor isn't present or isn't really invested in their enemy surviving (aka when Daleks fight the Cybermen, both were enemies and if either survived the survivor would take over the world) the result is that the Daleks pretty much [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp their opponent]] [with the only real exception being the Time Lords themselves who were still losing. The Cybermen lose easily, and let's not forget that it took minutes for them to subdue Earth in spite of tremendous preparations specifically for this eventuality.

** Andrew Cartmel: Moral ambiguity, heavy use of the GambitIndex, villains with explicitly right-wing political motivations, social satire.

* AlanFridge: Since the revival, a lot of tabloid stories have claimed exclusives on upcoming plots. It's a very scatter-gun result. It helped that the last minute or two of the penultimate episode and the entirety of the finales were [[NotScreenedForCritics withheld from press previews]].

** The Time Lords were a race of supposed [[PrimeDirective non-interventionists]] who were (until the Last Great Time War), in the worst interpretation (DependingOnTheWriter), really a controlling, elitist, and stagnant race of [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] who, as their name suggests, had mastered TimeTravel, amongst other technologies. They had decent members, notably the Doctor themself, but they throw up plenty of maniacs like the Master and the Rani, not to mention their insane founders Rassilon and Omega... As the Time War drew to a bloody close they became a race of [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Maniacs]] who were ready to put an end to time itself in an effort to avoid ultimate defeat, which means they last showed up as a villain race.

** There's the Gallifreyan Matrix, a device where dead [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Time Lords]] can be uploaded to preserve their knowledge and memory.

* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: Gallifrey, usually, and several other alien examples. Gallifrey may be a subversion; the crystal spires and togas help hide the stagnation and decay of Time Lord culture: a [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien sufficiently advanced]] alien society that has rested on its laurels for ten million years.

** Eric Saward: KillEmAll, CrapsackWorld, badass soldiers (or mercenaries) in large numbers, FacialHorror, Cybermen, ContinuityPorn, NauseaFuel especially regarding rotting flesh and horrible smells.

** The UNIT dating controversy is lampshaded by the Doctor in the new series, who mentions not being entirely sure when precisely he worked for them, narrowing it down to roughly some time in the 70's or 80's. In "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" has Kate Stewart (the Brig's daughter) mention that UNIT used a few differing dating methods back then, so even ''they'' are a little muddled on the issue as well.

** Creator/ChrisChibnall: Social satire, a LighterAndSofter approach to the Doctor, HumansAreTheRealMonsters and conversely sympathetic aliens, Silurians, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters massive numbers of supporting characters]], companion's families.

*** Though in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]" he does mention his Big Finish companions and Big Finish tries to fit in with New Who.

** Christopher H Bidmead: GeniusBonus {{Technobabble}}, maths, MinovskyPhysics-based MagicFromTechnology leading to PostModernMagik concerning things like art and computers, more maths, Tarot symbolism, his pet AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor is a very dark and mathsterious '[[HorrifyingHero monster]] that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters fights other monsters]]', and even more maths.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger The Lodger]]", the Doctor played soccer. His actor, Creator/MattSmith, played soccer before becoming an actor.

* AliensAndMonsters: Basically contractual.

** David Whitaker: ScienceFantasy tropes and shittons of occultist symbolism (especially UsefulNotes/{{Alchemy}}), psychedelic MagicFromTechnology, elements of FairyTale, villains defined by being inversions of the heroes, the TARDIS being a SapientShip BlueAndOrangeMorality StarfishAlien, WhatTheHellHero moments, mercury (usually as AppliedPhlebotinum and/or a MacGuffin).

** First Doctor companion Ian Chesterton was played by William Russell, famous as the lead of the 1950s swashbuckling series ''[[Series/TheAdventuresOfSirLancelot The Adventures of Sir Lancelot]]''. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade The Crusade]]", he gets knighted and the Doctor jokes that he could always have imagined him as a knight.

** Barry Letts: Buddhism RuleOfSymbolism, [[GreenAesop environmentalism]]
** Philip Hinchcliffe: WholePlotReference, LeakingCanOfEvil villains, amazing amounts of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids, GothicHorror.

** The ending to "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of The Doctor]]" sets up an arc surrounding The Doctor searching for Gallifrey. The Doctor comes close in [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor the next Christmas special]] but the Time Lords sacrifice their chance to return to grant him a new regeneration cycle. After a few mentions and a FakeOut in series 8, The Doctor just stumbles upon Gallifrey at the end of series 9 (he reached the planet by passing though a portal in the Confession Dial that was stated to lead "home" but assumed it would lead to the TARDIS). After series 9, Gallifrey doesn't appear again until The Master destroys it in series 12 and we never find out the role the Twelfth Doctor plays in saving the planet.

** Valentine Dyall, who played the Black Guardian during seasons 16 and 20, had previously been well-known as Creator/TheBBC's radio HorrorHost "The Man in Black".

*** Truly exemplified by a two parter episode in season 3. The Cult of Skaro, consisting of four Daleks who are the only few granted the ability to think, develop and innovate outside of the otherwise widespread 'EXTERMINATE' ideals of their kin, are forced into utilising human DNA to create new Daleks, after attempts at creating new embryos from what little they had failed. Their leader, Dalek Sek, undergoes an initial experiment and is turned into a human dalek hybrid... And is quickly subjugated by his three followers for not being true Dalek. Any reasoning he tries to give to explain to the others why he thinks this is better for them? Rejected, because he's no longer true dalek. The other three might be able to think outside the box, but their natural, furious prejudice against all who aren't Dalek overrides them.
** The Cybermen were alternate humans, from Earth's twin planet Mondas who, in an example of CyberneticsEatYourSoul, converted themselves into emotionless cyborgs. They are exclusively concerned with the survival of their race, and the best way to do that is to forcibly convert humanity into them. That they are a direct threat to mankind means that they have also sought to destroy them, or sizeable chunks, in the distant future when we manage to successfully fight back. Other Cybermen originated from a more advanced parallel Earth. Created by a man desperate to transcend the limitations of his crippled body, these Cybermen see their mission as "upgrading" humanity in a perverse attempt to free mankind from physical deterioration and emotional pain. However, the revival's "Cybus Cybermen" have, as of series 6 and beyond, been said by Creator/StevenMoffat to be the original Cybermen despite continuing to look and behave precisely as they always have (though the new design tweak at least removes the big Cybus Industries logo.)

** Eleven's era has its own arc words: "The [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Pandorica]] will open" and "Silence will fall." Expanded upon in series 6 to "Silence will fall when the question is asked."

** Perhaps the biggest arc words spanning the whole series are: "Doctor Who?" It is also the question that will be asked, the question that has been [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall hiding in plain sight]], where "Silence will fall." And then it gets played with, lampshaded, and ultimately subverted in season 7. The Doctor's true name is never revealed, and is explicitly stated as unimportant. What matters is the name they have chosen.

** Series 9 has the word "hybrid" come into play. In the literal sense, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E2TheWitchsFamiliar The Witch's Familiar]]" reveals an ancient Gallifreyan prophecy about a hybrid creature created from two warrior races, and stronger than both. So far, in series 9, two hybrids have been revealed - the half-human, half-Mire Ashildr and the half-human, half-Zygon Osgood. In a more metaphorical theory, Missy posits that everyone is a hybrid; both simultaneously friend and foe. "Heaven Sent" reveals that the Hybrid is either the Doctor or Ashildr/Me, thanks to AmbiguousSyntax. In the end, the identity of the Hybrid is [[TheUnreveal not clearly revealed]]; the Doctor admits he was making up his statement at the end of "Heaven Sent", but it was later revealed to be the Doctor and Clara.

** For season 10, it's "[[WhatYouAreInTheDark In darkness, we are revealed]]", often accompanied by "without hope, without witness, without reward". This turns out to be from River Song's diary.

** Twice in series 5, the freakin' ''Daleks'' pull one on the Doctor.

** The Silence, a religious order primarily made up of creepy make-you-forget-they-exist aliens and LargeHam lackeys, look to be the BigBad of Eleven's era. They were an unseen [[TheManBehindTheMan man-behind-the-man]] villain in series 5, causing the cracks in time that almost erased the universe from existence and drove most of that series' villains away from their homes and towards the Doctor. They made their onscreen debut in series 6 with a convoluted and almost-successful assassination attempt on the Doctor, and returned for Eleventh's final episode.

** Also in the classic series, the Valeyard was the BigBad of season 23 (''The Trial of a Time Lord''). Depending on how far you want to stretch the definition, the Master might qualify as such from season 8 and 9, as well (making him the show's first Big Bad).

** [[TheNthDoctor Regeneration]] is actually used as this a couple of times - most apparently in the regeneration from the Fifth to the Sixth, where the Sixth Doctor is shown to react relatively realistically to the trauma of having [[CameBackWrong transformed into a completely different person with a much less stable brain that he doesn't feel belongs to him]], with this having long-term effects on his behaviour. The novelisation of the regeneration story goes into more detail about this and adds an anecdote about a Time Lord who regenerated into something so horrible all the Time Lords could do was put it out of its misery. The novelisation of the First Doctor's regeneration into the Second has several pages of Ben watching the Doctor's PainfulTransformation, with attention paid to bones shifting and reforming and skin moving. And then, in the new series, the Tenth Doctor seems to feel this way about regeneration and finds it completely disturbing, possibly even worse than death. Most recently the Twelfth Doctor in the series 10 finale is shown several times actively refusing to regenerate, finding the idea of becoming an entirely different person yet again to be horrifying, but what is truly horrifying is watching his regeneration trying to start over and over again, realizing how ridiculously painful fighting it back must be, let alone how much pain he must be in that his body is actively trying to regenerate to heal him of it. At the end of the episode when he runs into the First Doctor shortly before HIS regeneration muttering to himself how ridiculous the whole idea is and how HE refuses to go along with it, it becomes clear that to the Doctor, regeneration has ALWAYS been body horror.

** Averted in Creator/StevenMoffat's first series, series 5, where of the six stories set in the UK, [[note]]there's a seventh if you count the Starship UK from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]]"[[/note]] only two are London-based. Two of series 6's seven stories set or partially set in UK also take place in London, and even then, neither are as the central focus. Moffat's production staff have lampshaded that focusing action on London has started to be a cliché.

** ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' -- the season 23 story arc -- repeatedly refers to Earth's entire constellation being moved by advanced aliens, ravaging Earth in the process.

** There are sound arguments that ''[[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Revenge of the Slitheen]]'' happened after "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones Smith and Jones]]", and equally sound arguments it happened first. Evidence that "Revenge of the Slitheen" comes first include a mention in the previous episode (chronologically a week earlier) that it takes place eighteen months after the events of "School Reunion" and the plot of "Revenge" seeming to take place at the beginning of the school year. However, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]" has the cast of Series 1 of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' enter the plot of "Smith and Jones" which seems to take place -at the latest- in May due to ''Series/DoctorWho'' series 3 having a plot point revolving around an election (British elections take place in May).

** This seems to be a general problem with Dalek stories in New Who, as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan Daleks in Manhattan]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks Evolution of the Daleks]]" tries to be a story entirely themed around the evils of racism, while still blatantly depicting humans and Time Lords being good and Daleks being evil as [[InTheBlood overwhelmingly determined by their genes]].