History Fridge / DoctorWhoClassicSeries

* Throughout ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids Of Mars]]'', the Doctor makes it ''absolutely clear'' that Sutekh is dangerous and must be destroyed at all costs. We only get to see glimpses of what he has done from the ravaged 1980s Earth and what the Doctor says, along with the things he makes Scarman do, and the only thing that could defeat him was the might of 740 Osirans, including Horus. Which begs the question: '''How dangerous is Sutekh at his full power?''' According to the Doctor, he can't defeat him and the Time Lords cannot defeat him either-which is coming from the race who later waged centuries of warfare against the Daleks! Furthermore, Sutekh would happily kill ''everything'' on the planet without a second thought-from reptiles to fish to humans-and he wouldn't stop there. He would wipe out ''every single existing thing'' in the universe-stars, planets, etc. He could annihilate the Daleks, crush the Ice Warriors, destroy the Sontarans, wipe out the Cybermen, burn the Autons, kill the Master, make the Silurians extinct and even take on the Great Intelligence (and very likely win.) And if he ever got his hands on a TARDIS, he could make companions or ''the Doctor himself'' no longer exist! Worst of all, he would not stop until the universe was ''completely empty.''

* Throughout ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids Of Mars]]'', the Doctor makes it ''absolutely clear'' that Sutekh is dangerous and must be destroyed at all costs. We only get to see glimpses of what he has done from the ravaged 1980s Earth and what the Doctor says, along with the things he makes Scarman do, and the only thing that could defeat him was the might of 740 Osirans, including Horus. Which begs the question: '''How dangerous is Sutekh at his full power?''' According to the Doctor, he can't defeat him and the Time Lords cannot defeat him either-which is coming from the race who later waged centuries of warfare against the Daleks! Furthermore, Sutekh would happily kill ''everything'' on the planet without a second thought-from reptiles to fish to humans-and he wouldn't stop there. He would wipe out ''every single existing thing'' in the universe-stars, planets, etc. He could annihilate the Daleks, crush the Ice Warriors, destroy the Sontarans, wipe out the Cybermen, burn the Autons, make the Silurians extinct, murder the Master and crush the Great Intelligence itself! And if he ever got his hands on a TARDIS, he could make companions or ''the Doctor himself'' no longer exist! Worst of all, he would not stop until the universe was ''completely empty.''

* Throughout ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids Of Mars]]'', the Doctor makes it ''absolutely clear'' that Sutekh is dangerous and must be destroyed at all costs. We only get to see glimpses of what he has done from the ravaged 1980s Earth and what the Doctor says, along with the things he makes Scarman do, and the only thing that could defeat him was the might of 740 Osirans, including Horus. Which begs the question: '''How dangerous is Sutekh at his full power?''' According to the Doctor, he can't defeat him and the Time Lords cannot defeat him either-which is coming from the race who later waged centuries of warfare against the Daleks! Furthermore, Sutekh would happily kill ''everything'' on the planet without a second thought-from reptiles to fish to humans-and he wouldn't stop there. He would wipe out ''every single existing thing'' in the universe-stars, planets, etc. He could annihilate the Daleks, crush the Ice Warriors, destroy the Sontarans, wipe out the Cybermen, burn the Autons and make the Silurians extinct. And if he ever got his hands on a TARDIS, he could make companions or ''the Doctor himself'' no longer exist! Worst of all, he would not stop until the universe was ''completely empty.''

* Throughout ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids Of Mars]]'', the Doctor makes it ''absolutely clear'' that Sutekh is dangerous and must be destroyed at all costs. We only get to see glimpses of what he has done from the ravaged 1980s Earth and what the Doctor says, along with the things he makes Scarman do. Which begs the question: '''How dangerous is Sutekh at his full power?''' According to the Doctor, he can't defeat him and the Time Lords cannot defeat him either-which is coming from the race who later waged centuries of warfare against the Daleks! Furthermore, Sutekh would happily kill ''everything'' on the planet without a second thought-from reptiles to fish to humans-and he wouldn't stop there. He would wipe out ''every single existing thing'' in the universe-stars, planets, etc. He could annihilate the Daleks, crush the Ice Warriors, destroy the Sontarans and make the Silurians extinct. And if he ever got his hands on a TARDIS, he could make companions or ''the Doctor himself'' no longer exist!

* The Meddling Monk's plan to alter English history would have created HUGE ripples. It is even doubtful that Vicki would have existed--and she's Cressida. Furthermore, genetic analysis has revealed that the Anglo-Saxons actually assimilated the Celts and Romans of Britain into their culture, so some of these villagers might be ''descended'' from Vicki. Ware [[ClockRoaches Reapers]].

* Why would a middle-aged schoolteacher like Ian Chesterton handle fights so well? Given his age, there's a good chance he served in WorldWarII! (If he's the same age as his actor, he turned 18 in 1942).
** According to the wiki, he was a private in the British Army in 1950, and spent his service in Malaysia. So there's a good chance that he picked up some ''very'' useful skills there.

* Why would a middle-aged schoolteacher like Ian Chesterton handle fights so well? Given his age, there's a good chance he served in WorldWarII! (If he's the same age as his actor, he turned 18 in 1942).

** This in fact referenced in story by some of The Doctors later incarnations. Ten once mentioned that his first incarnation was more of a bright young child trying to act mature in an attempt to appear smarter than everyone else.

* In ''Terror of the Autons'', the Master plans to use living plastic to take over the Earth. Although plastic bottles weren't common ''yet'' in that era, plastic cups ''were'' common, esp. as sippy cups and baby bottles! Crosses with FridgeBrilliance when you realize that attacking Earth by killing children was his plan all along, as he did take over a ''toy factory"! (And NightmareFuel for any kids watching the episode!)

** This in fact referenced in story by some of The Doctors later incarnation. Ten once mentioned that his first incarnation was more of a bright young child trying to act mature in an attempt to appear smarter than everyone else.

* The First Doctor's character was originally intended to be a grumpy old man, stubborn and set-in his-ways, but very wise. However, in hindsight, it makes more sense to view him a young man who acts impulsively without thinking, but is very clever. In this light, many of his actions (stealing an antiquated TARDIS that he didn't know how to operate, running away from Gallifrey with his granddaughter, abducting two humans, nearly killing an innocent man with a rock to save himself, nearly getting himself, his granddaughter, and his companions killed from radiation poisoning because he wanted to go exploring, drugging his companions and accusing them of sabotage, threatening to abandon his companions during the French Revolution, and leaving his daughter in post-Dalek invasion Earth, to name a few) make more sense: He wasn't a foolish old man; he was acting without thinking. Similarly, he's not wise, but very clever: On both of his multi-Doctor stories, he constantly insults his future incarnations without thinking that he would someday be receiving those insults. Yet in both cases he comes up with the plan to save the day, showing his cleverness.

* The single most brilliant line ever uttered in DW as a throwaway joke has insane levels within it, and was unsurprisingly written by Douglas Adams. When the Doctor explains the TARDIS being bigger on the inside than the outside" as "dimensionally transcendental."

* In Pyramids of Mars, when Sarah sees the vision of Sutekh in the TARDIS it is assumed that this is of the imprisoned Sutekh. But consider that Sutekh is supposed to have lost his powers to influence the outside world while imprisoned. Then consider that in the vision, Sutekh is not wearing his mask, and the TARDIS is going back through time when it occurs: perhaps the vision is of Sutekh *after* he escaped.
* In Genesis of the Daleks, the Doctor starts the Time War.

* It seems hard to imagine that the Doctor and the Master were ever friends, right? But look at the First Doctor - originally the kind of person who'd kill an injured person for slowing him down. That sounds more like a friend of the Master, now doesn't it?
* In the McGann movie, when Grace and the Doctor walk into the TARDIS, within moments she understands the concept of the interior and the exterior being in separate dimensions. The Doctor seems surprised by this. But, just before Grace says this, she's rubbing her wrist where she was burned by the Master's...discharge. Conclusion: this was the first sign that the Master was controlling her. And, about a minute later, she's got black eyes and is bashing the Doctor with the neutron ram.
* Why would a middle-aged schoolteacher like Ian Chesterton handle fights so well? Given his age, there's a good chance he served in WorldWarII! (If he's the same age as his actor, he turned 18 in 1942).

* It has been stated many times that the Doctor's interference in Genesis of the Daleks started the Time War. But when you think about it, the Doctor is not only to blame for the Time War itself, but also for every other appearence of Daleks not set on Skaro. Remember, before meeting him, the Kaleds believed Skaro to be the only inhabited planet in the universe.

** Even more FridgeHorror from that same episode -- [[spoiler:both factions of ]]Daleks have been in the area for quite some time -- how many people were made slaves to the Daleks, like the little girl and the teacher from the school? How many people were simply killed outright because they were unlucky enough to cross paths with a Dalek? Also? The area wasn't evacuated until AFTER the first skirmish in the episode, and there are people standing around looking at the commotion when the dead soldiers are discovered. How many civilians got killed when the Daleks started throwing around energy beams? One of the onlookers is a woman with a baby!

** "Physiology" wouldn't have been right in any case, as it's the study of body ''function''. Judging his looks post-regeneration would be "anatomy".

* When I watched the Classic Who serial ''State of Decay'' for the first time, I thought it was silly that the vampires looked so much like something out of a HammerHorror film. But then I thought about it later, and realised that it made perfect sense - they were originally astronauts from ''earth'', and had ''deliberately'' modeled themselves (and the whole set-up of the village and the tower) on their own perception of vampires. --Tropers/PennyAnna
* In my British Lit class, our teacher was telling us about physiognomy, the belief that you can determine someone's personality by looking at their facial features. The first thing I thought of was the Fourth Doctor in ''Robot'', when he looked in the mirror just after regenerating and said, "As for the physiognomy..." I started to think, "He used the wrong word! He should have said ''physiology!''" But before I even finished the thought, it hit me--he didn't make a mistake. He said exactly what he meant to say. ''He was looking at his new facial features to try to figure out who he was.'' -- [=SqueakyTheDuck=]
* Series/DoctorWho is just full of FridgeBrilliance in many of their stories. A great example would be the Classic Who serial ''Ghost Light.'' Watching it for the first time, I could see that there was a lot going on that almost made sense and almost clicked... until I watched it a second time. Then it finally clicked. Really, [[spoiler: the entire serial is a commentary upon evolution in general, as well as a massive tribute to the era that brought up the theory - the Victorian Era. And if this wasn't enough, the entire story is disguised as a freaking ''alien invasion'' told with the tropes of a ''Victorian-era horror story''... and finally, we have a story that also has the companion Ace dealing with her past and moving on with her life, as ''the entire theme of the story is also about change in general'']]! It's just such a shame that this serial almost doesn't make sense without multiple viewings or [[AllThereInTheManual seeing the documentary and commentary attached to the DVD release...]] --Tropers/{{NewtypeS3}}
* There are a crapload of blatant InternalHomage elements in "Remembrance of the Daleks"--the presence of the Coal Hill School and Foreman junkyard, Ace finding Susan's book on the French Revolution, and so forth--but there's a marvelously subtle one when Ace, talking to a new friend, expresses confusion over the monetary system because she's in 1963 so it's pre-decimalisation. Susan, in "An Unearthly Child", gives a wrong answer in class because she's forgotten decimalisation hasn't happened yet. Not particularly profound, but I couldn't help but chuckle when I noticed the connection. --{{Tropers/Wackd}}
** Speaking of "Remembrance", at one point Mike Smith is right in the sights of a Dalek that has a direct shot aimed at him -- and it misses. Obviously, we can chalk this up to simply a moment of extreme good luck on Mike's part or the Dalek being a very poor shot -- except the story later reveals that Mike is a traitor informing on the military's actions to the neo-Nazi group affiliated with one of the Dalek factions. It's possible that the Dalek was under orders to 'make it look convincing' but that Mike, being a valuable source of intelligence, wasn't to be harmed -- at least, not until he had outlived his usefulness. -- Doctor Nemesis.
* A small but weird point... when one of his companions pointed out that Time Lords look human, he replied by saying that Time Lords came billions of years earlier, so really humans look Time Lord. But is there more to it than that? Before Rassilon, there were all kinds of uber-powerful non-anthropomorphic aliens running around. Then Rassilon shows up and there's all these wars against the Nimon, the Nestene Consciousness, the Great Vampires, etc. Over the course of the series, that's a lot of SealedEvilInACan that the Time Lords locked away. Now suddenly most aliens are human-looking, and the Time Lords are in charge but suddenly have a Prime Directive. But they're ''time travelers''. So during their rise to power they fight all these time wars with their rivals. Then once they win, they re-arrange time to suit themselves, making themselves undisputed masters of reality, and making sure that most aliens are basically inferior Time Lord look-alikes. Even the Daleks started out human-looking. Then, once they have history the way they like it, they make it illegal for anyone to meddle in history so that they can keep themselves Number One for eternity. NiceJobBreakingItHero. --RAR/REC
** This is canon in the Creator/BigFinish ExpandedUniverse.

* In the [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie Doctor Who movie]] the seventh Doctor is forced to land when the escaped Master sabotages his TARDIS. When he steps out of the TARDIS, he ends up in the middle of a gang war and is gunned down on the spot. Remember what was wrong with the TARDIS? The screen said "critical timing malfunction". In other words, ''bad timing''. The reason the Doctor isn't killed every time he first sets his foot on a new planet is because his ship is ''programmed to have good timing''. -- Tropers/SpiritOfSahara
* The makers of the Classic series always seemed to squick out at the actual relationship between Susan and the Doctor. If he was her grandfather in the usual sense of the word, that would mean that the Doctor had, at some point, been a breeder. But think...If a Time Lord reproduces once each time they regenerate, it would not take long for Gallifrey to become a horribly overpopulated planet (even if Time Lords have only twelve regenerations.) Thus, it would make sense for Time Lords to lose their reproductive drive (or at least, become sterile) as part of the regeneration process. Thus, the First Doctor had at least one child, but the Second and other Subsequent Doctors wouldn't. Assuming, of course, that regeneration is a manifestation of Time Lord super science and not inherent to all life on Gallifrey (you'd have to stomp on that Gallifreyan cockroach several times to kill it.) And this way, I can keep my mind free of Looms.
** Alternatively, a planet-full of people who were near-immortal even before they could regenerate to renew their lives would naturally develop less of a drive to propagate the species anyway, because they would naturally last longer anyway. This might also explain why the Doctor has been, if not necessarily sexually active, then at least a bit more interested or capable of forming romantic / sexual bonds with other people; since he's the last Time Lord, there's more of a subconscious drive to breed.
** The only companion with whom the Doctor can be seen to have an ''unquestionable'' flirtation in the classic series is Romana (II) -- a member of his own species. Then the Time War occurs, and now the Doctor is visibly flirting with Rose, Jack, Madame de Pompadour ... of course the Doctor is more open-minded about cross-species liaisons now. He's the last of his species; there are no other options!
*** This also explains why he's so desperate not to kill the Master regardless of the provocation. According to "The Doctor's Wife," Time Lords can change sex when they regenerate. The Master is the only hope for repopulating the species.

* The character of Zoë Heriot seems like human {{Zeerust}} -- who would bother [[{{Literature/Dune}} training a human to be a walking computer?]] But when you consider how often advanced computers [[AIIsACrapshoot go insane and attempt to destroy humanity]], it makes sense that [[{{Literature/Dune}} people would want a human backup,]] just in case.
** [[{{Literature/Dune}} Ask Paul Atreides]]
** Judging by what she does to the computer in "The Invasion", it's possible she was engineered as a weapon ''against'' advanced computers. -{{john_e}
* The single most brilliant line ever uttered in DW as a throwaway joke has insane levels within it, and was unsurprisingly written by Douglas Adams. When the Doctor explains the TARDIS being bigger on the inside than the outside" as 'dimensionally transcendental'

* Why would a middle-aged schoolteacher like Ian Chesterton handle fights so well? Given his age, there's a good chance he served in WorldWarII! (If he's the same age as his actor, he turned 18 in 1942)

* FridgeHorror: In "The Time Monster", Stu retains his 25 year-old consciousness when he gets superaged into an Octogenerian. Which means that Sgt. Benton ''also'' retains his adult consciousness when he gets deaged into a baby! No wonder he won't eat the marmalade sandwiches mashed up in cold tea.
* FridgeHorror: The Doctor dropped his teenage granddaughter in a war zone with the first man she fell for and never came back for her. Think about that for a moment. The question of would've happened if things didn't work out with David is only the tip of the iceberg for how horrible this seems if you really stop and think about it for more than two seconds.
* Morbius was one of only a handful of people the Time Lords ever executed. Now, our old friend the Master has done some terrible things (attempting to destroy Gallifrey for the sake of his own survival (The Deadly Assassin), attempting to wipe out humanity with living plastic (Terror of the Autons), and almost destroying the entire universe (Logopolis)). Yet in the eyes of the Time Lords, none of this merits execution. So, what the hell did Morbius do?!
** This is possibly more down to change in Gallifreyan society. By "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Invasion of Time", the Time Lords had become decadent and complacent. Things were very different in the early days. I can see Rassilon or Omega ordering Morbius's execution in a heartbeat. (Though it was probably a bit later than their time).
** It's not what Morbius did, it's who he did it to. Morbius threatened to break the treaty the Time Lords had with Sisterhood, cutting off their supply of Sisterhood elixir -- a medicine required to save Time Lords who die in ways that prevent regeneration. Such as by playing barbaric Old Time bloodsports like the one in "The Brain of Morbius" itself.

** This is canon in the BigFinish ExpandedUniverse.

* "The Rescue": Just why '''did''' Bennett keep Vicki alive and go through his over-complicated masquerade as Koquillion? Fanon has some {{Squick}}y [[WifeHusbandry answers]].

* Here's one from the Doctor Who movie ("The Enemy Within"): remember how the Seventh Doctor was begging Grace not to operate? Remember how he "woke up" during surgery? Well, because they have two hearts, Time Lords also have a respiratory bypass system; in other words, any anesthetic you give them isn't going to last very long--[[spoiler: and neither are any painkillers...]]