What's that, Doctor Who? The man who never would? Ha.
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00:00The Doctor is a far more complex and expansive character than many people realise.
00:04Now, we've already covered some misconceptions that both casual viewers and hardcore fans
00:09might have about Doctor Who in general, but what about the Doctor themselves?
00:13Well, let's take a look at some, shall we?
00:15I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About The Doctor.
00:21Number 10. William Hartnell was ancient when he took the role.
00:25Issue 10 of Doctor Who Adventures, released in 2006, featured an image of William Hartnell
00:30as the First Doctor, next to the caption, Meet the Very First Doctor. Yikes. He's ancient.
00:36Now, this may have seemed the case to younger fans upon seeing Hartnell's face,
00:40and the more grandfatherly portrayal of the First Doctor, plus the long white wig,
00:45would likely do nothing to dissuade them of this notion.
00:48Part of this misconception is also likely down to the actor's ailing health and untimely death
00:53in 1975. However, William Hartnell wasn't actually as old as everyone thinks he was
00:58when he played the Doctor. At the age of 55, Hartnell was actually 20 years younger than
01:03David Bradley was when he filmed his first scene as the First Doctor in The Doctor Falls.
01:08Meanwhile, Peter Capaldi was merely a few months younger than William Hartnell when
01:12he began his tenure as the 12th Doctor. More surprisingly still, 14th Doctor David Tennant
01:17is now 51, only 4 years younger than Hartnell was. It would seem that actors clearly just
01:22look after themselves a bit better these days. Or, you know, we put them in costumes that don't
01:27make them look old, like a white wig. Number 9. The Doctor Always Regenerates in the TARDIS
01:33Jodie Whittaker's regeneration wasn't just a big deal because of who she regenerated into,
01:38it also marked the first time in the modern era that the Doctor regenerated outside the TARDIS.
01:44This idea of the Doctor always regenerating in the TARDIS took hold during the Russell T.
01:48Davis years, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was a precedent in the classic series.
01:53However, it's only the First, Fifth, and Sixth Doctors who actually regenerate inside the TARDIS,
01:58and with much less damage to their surroundings, might we add. So it's odd that this notion has
02:03stuck with the show since it returned in 2005, especially given how unsafe it is to regenerate
02:08inside the TARDIS. The Sixth Doctor is under attack when he regenerates, and the TARDIS
02:12appears to operate itself in the 10th planet. In the modern series, everything explodes,
02:17and a slightly frazzled Doctor momentarily forgets what the hell is going on. So it's no
02:21wonder, really, that the TARDIS eventually ejected the 13th Doctor out the doors at the end of Twice
02:26Upon a Time. She's clearly learned her lesson, and hopefully the show has too. Number 8. The
02:32Doctor Always Travels with a Young Female Companion Comedy sketches about Doctor Who have existed for
02:38almost as long as the show itself. Hell, the first known parody was broadcast just over a month after
02:43An Unearthly Child when the TV show It's a Square World featured a sketch with Dad's Army actor
02:48Clive Dunne as William Hartnell. Since then, there have been many more, and most of them are based on
02:54some well-worn and inaccurate interpretations of what Doctor Who actually is. One of the most
02:59common of these is that the Doctor always travels with a young female companion that they want to
03:04get jiggy with. This is one of the gags in Lenny Henry's Doctor Who sketch from 1985, the main gag
03:09in a sketch from A Kick Up the 80s in 1982, and Stephen Moffat went there because, of course he did,
03:15in The Curse of Fatal Death. David Tennant even dressed up as a sexy Doctor Who companion to face
03:20off against Alan Carr on the Friday Night Project. However, the history of Doctor Who's weird and
03:25wonderful companions is a far richer vein for comedy than these sketches suggest. A clapped-out,
03:30shape-shifting android? An overgrown schoolboy? A robot dog? Then again, perhaps those were deemed
03:37to be beyond parody. Number seven, the classic Doctors were all posh. Christopher Eccleston spoke
03:43of wanting to have a northern accent because a posh voice would imply that only upper-class people
03:48could be hyper-intelligent like the Doctor. The notion of a posh Doctor certainly influences a lot
03:53of the parody versions, particularly American spoofs like the Inspector Spacetime gag in
03:58Community, but those types of characters aren't really reflected in the casting of the Doctor.
04:03While it's certainly true that the first and third Doctors had what could be classed as
04:07establishment voices, that doesn't tell the full story. William Hartnell grew up in London slums
04:12without ever knowing his father. Tom Baker was working on a building site when he was cast as
04:17the Doctor. In his youth, Peter Davison's father was a greengrocer, and after leaving school,
04:22Davison was briefly an odd jobs man who once worked as a mortuary attendant. Ultimately,
04:26the Doctor is a time lord, and that may have affected the performances of the previous actors.
04:32However, even with that in mind, the Doctor's voice is very rarely posh or snooty, and the
04:37character certainly doesn't hold themselves in such a manner. Number 6. Never cruel nor cowardly,
04:43originated in New Who. Nowadays, the line, never be cruel, never be cowardly, is inextricably
04:50linked with Peter Capaldi's pre-regeneration speech in Twice Upon a Time. However, this is
04:54merely a reference to a description of the Doctor's character that has existed for decades.
04:59Although never properly stated on screen until the day of the Doctor, it first featured in a
05:0470s book by Doctor Who legends Terrence Dicks and Malcolm Hulk called The Making of Doctor Who.
05:10The book features this description of the Doctor, one that would define the character for decades
05:14to come. The Doctor believes in good and fights evil. Though often caught up in violent situations,
05:20he is a man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly. It would take another 40 years for
05:25this description to be mentioned on screen, but it comes at exactly the right moment,
05:30when the 10th and 11th Doctors join forces to avert the War Doctor's Gallifreyan genocide.
05:35Number 5. Their name is Doctor Who. Doctor Who is the name of the show,
05:40the Doctor is the name of the character. Ears to Doctor Who fans, what Frankenstein is the
05:45name of the scientist is to horror fans. But is that really true? From 1963 to 1981,
05:51the character was credited as both Doctor Who, as in D-R, and Doctor Who, as in D-O-C-T-O-R.
05:58In The War Machines, the super intelligent computer Votan states that Doctor Who is
06:02required, while the second Doctor refers to himself as Doctor Who, albeit in German,
06:07in The Highlanders. Doctor Who and the Silurians is the literal name for the John Pertwee serial,
06:12while a large number of Target novelisations refer to the character as Doctor Who as well.
06:17When the show returned in 2005, Christopher Eccleston was credited as Doctor Who,
06:21but when David Tennant was cast, he insisted on being credited as the Doctor,
06:26because he's a massive fanboy. Although he was also a massive fanboy, Capaldi didn't
06:31insist on reverting his credit, but wonderfully referred to the character as Doctor Who in press
06:36interviews. However, arguably the clearest answer to this debate came in the name of the Doctor,
06:41which asserted that the Doctor is the name that was chosen. Not that that will stop
06:46people continuing to call the Doctor Doctor Who in years to come.
06:494. Jelly Babies Originated With Tom Baker Jelly Babies are synonymous with Tom Baker. There's
06:55no argument there, and most appearances of the Delicious Confection are, of course,
06:59nods to the iconic fourth Doctor. Jelly Babies are found on the seventh Doctor's person when
07:04he's shot in San Francisco, while the Ganger Doctor offers Jelly Babies to the real eleventh
07:08Doctor in the voice of Tom Baker, no less. However, the Doctor's love for Jelly Babies
07:13didn't actually originate with Baker's Doctor, and it goes back much further than the 1970s.
07:19The first reference to a Jelly Baby in Doctor Who actually dates back to 1968's second Doctor
07:24serial, The Dominators. Here, the second Doctor munches on some Jelly Babies while waiting inside
07:29one of the travel capsules. When Troughton returns to the show for the three Doctors,
07:33the second Doctor offers the Brigadier a Jelly Baby in the TARDIS. The second Doctor still has
07:38Jelly Babies to hand in the five Doctors, so it's the Doctor's second incarnation who first
07:44got a taste for them, rather than the fourth, like most people think.
07:48Number 3. The Doctor often experiences post-regenerative trauma
07:52From Castrovalva onwards, every regeneration has been followed by some degree of trauma.
07:57The fifth Doctor can barely keep it together for the majority of that serial, and later,
08:01the sixth Doctor is so disorientated by the process that he throttles his companion.
08:06Then, in a post-regenerative funk, the seventh Doctor believes the Rani to be Mel,
08:10and plays along with her scheme until he sees the error of his ways.
08:13This tradition continued into the TV movie, and then the Christmas Invasion.
08:18Thankfully, Stephen Moffat appeared to dispense with this tiresome trope when he introduced Matt
08:22Smith, but when Matt Smith regenerated into Capaldi, it was back to the out-of-control,
08:26unpredictable state of flux. It's hard to see where this trope originated from,
08:30especially as the second Doctor's companions are more put out by his regeneration than he is.
08:35His only concern is whether he can still call himself the Doctor, which he soon proves that
08:39he can. It's likely the result of his forced regeneration into the third Doctor that set
08:43the ball rolling, a process that has been seen to be fairly traumatic. Pertwee's amnesiac state
08:49in Spearhead from Space is likely what set the tone for the Doctor's subsequent regenerations,
08:53but thankfully the 14th Doctor knows exactly who he is. Or does he?
08:58Number 2. The numbering matters
09:01Doctor Who fans are pretty passionate about two things. One is that the show needs reinvigorating
09:06to appeal to a modern audience, and two is that the numbering of the Doctors is some hard and
09:10fast rule. Interestingly, these two things are currently in direct conflict with each other.
09:15Promoting Shutigatwa as the 15th Doctor implicitly suggests to audiences that they
09:19have to catch up on the previous 14. New audiences just wouldn't bother, would they?
09:24There's even some debate as to whether Tennant is actually the 14th Doctor,
09:27despite Russell T. Davis stating that as a fact. The Timeless Child was a flawed
09:32attempt by Chris Chibnall to detonate the fandom's obsession with the numbering of Doctors.
09:37After discovering that she's lived countless lives that she wasn't previously aware of,
09:41the 13th Doctor ultimately decides that the only thing that's important is who she is now.
09:45That's the real message of the Timeless Child, but it got buried in all the controversy.
09:50Regardless, for the audience at home, the numbering of the Doctors only really matters
09:54when they're at the local pub quiz. David Tennant may be the 14th Doctor, but chances are there'll
09:58be riots in pubs across the UK when non-fans get a point for saying it's Shutigatwa.
10:04Number 1. The Doctor is a pacifist.
10:07Make the foundation of this society a man who never would.
10:11The 10th Doctor, the Doctor's daughter. Except he would and he has.
10:14The Doctor's history of pacifism and his distaste towards guns and violence has largely defined the
10:2021st century era of the show. However, this history is very patchy indeed. In the Doctor's
10:25very first on-screen adventure into the past, he almost brained a caveman with a rock. The
10:30Reign of Terror then sees the First Doctor batter a man around the head with a shovel.
10:34Some might say that the First Doctor was a little bit unfinished and softened with age,
10:38but just look at the evidence from other Doctors. The Fourth Doctor smashed through a skylight and
10:42twisted a guy's neck in the Seeds of Doom. The Fifth Doctor blasted a Cyberman to death
10:47in Earthshock and put a gun to Davros' head in Resurrection of the Daleks. The Sixth Doctor
10:51strangled his companion, threw some henchmen in an acid bath, and gassed Shockeye to death.
10:56The Eleventh Doctor left Solomon to die in Dinosaurs on a spaceship. The man who never
11:00would. Yeah, if you say so. And that concludes our list. If you think we missed something,
11:04then do let us know in the comments below and while you're there, don't forget to like and
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11:16various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. Don't forget to look out for Sean
11:20Ferrick as well and Dan The Meeks too. I've been Ellie with WhoCulture,
11:25and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.