The Doctor Who Mythos

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by The Mirrorball Man, Nov 30, 2013.

  1. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Purely as a pleasant way to waste some time, I've been wondering about the most important elements of the Doctor Who mythos, the building blocks which have become part of the show's identity, and when they were introduced.

    I've only included concepts, characters and ideas which have been used again and again or have become important parts of the Whoniverse. I'm probably missing quite a lot of them (the JNT era is particularly barren right now), and most certainly have made a lot of mistakes, so please feel free to correct me and suggest amendments, but this his what I've found:

    First Doctor
    The Doctor
    The TARDIS
    The Time Vortex
    Companions
    Regeneration
    Daleks
    Cybermen

    Second Doctor
    Time Lords
    UNIT
    Sonic screwdriver
    Ice Warriors
    The Great Intelligence
    Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

    Third Doctor
    Gallifrey
    The Master
    Omega
    Autons
    Silurians
    Sontarans
    Sarah Jane Smith

    Fourth Doctor
    Regeneration limits
    K9
    Zygons
    Davros
    Skaro
    Rassilon
    The Guardians of Time

    Fifth Doctor
    The Rani
    Eternals

    Sixth Doctor
    The Valeyard

    Seventh Doctor

    Eighth Doctor
    The Eye of Harmony

    Ninth Doctor
    The Time War
    Last of the Time Lords
    Psychic Paper
    Bad Wolf
    The Time Agency
    Captain Jack Harkness

    Tenth Doctor
    Fixed points in time
    Torchwood
    The Shadow Proclamation
    The Weeping Angels
    Oods
    Judoons
    River Song

    Eleventh Doctor
    The Silence
    Trenzalore
    The War Doctor
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2013
  2. ElScoob

    ElScoob Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Neat idea! Not to be overly pedantic--though SOMEONE will soon enough, anyway--but a couple quibbles:

    --The Rani didn't turn up until the Sixth Doctor's tenure

    --The Time Agency was actually introduced in the Fourth's era, in "The Talons Of Weng-Chiang"

    --while the TV movie first depicted the Eye Of Harmony as part of the TARDIS, the Eye itself first appeared in "The Deadly Assassin"

    --mentions of the Shadow Proclamation date back as far as "Rose"

    --g
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I'd quibble about "regeneration" being introduced in the First Doctor's era; when it was first done, it was called "renewal" and said to be "part of the TARDIS. It wasn't actually named regeneration until "Planet of the Spiders." So the seed of the idea was there, but it took a while to mature.

    For the Ninth Doctor, you could add the vortex manipulator and the "deadlock seal" which is the sonic screwdriver's kryptonite. Plus glowing "regeneration energy" and the practice of regenerating while standing up/showing no signs of being on the brink of death. And I believe the Shadow Proclamation was first mentioned in "Rose," though it wasn't defined until "The Stolen Earth."
     
  4. Iamnotspock

    Iamnotspock Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The Eye of Harmony was established in the Fourth Doctor era, but as the source of all the Time Lords' power beneath the citadel on Gallifrey. The idea of there being an Eye in the TARDIS Cloister Room powering the TARDIS was a TVM invention.

    It's a tiny thing, not really a major mythological development, but the Cloister Room itself and with it the Cloister Bell, can (just) come under the Fourth Doctor, having been introduced under JN-T's watch in Tom's final story Logopolis.
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I'd say the Cloister Bell counts as a major edition, since it's been used as the TARDIS's "red alert" signal ever since.
     
  6. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I guess this is one of those threads where it's perfectly ok to be pedantic. ;)

    Thank you! Corrected.

    You're right, but the seeds are what interest me here. Otherwise things like the Sonic would require several entries, and I'm not writing an encyclopedia.

    Excellent suggestions, thank you.

    For me that's more of an aesthetic choice than a core part of the Doctor Who mythos.

    Thank you!
     
  7. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    First Doctor
    The Doctor
    The TARDIS
    The Time Vortex
    Companions
    Regeneration
    Daleks
    Cybermen

    Second Doctor
    Time Lords
    UNIT
    Sonic screwdriver
    Ice Warriors
    The Great Intelligence
    Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

    Third Doctor
    Gallifrey
    The Master
    Omega
    Autons
    Silurians
    Sontarans
    Sarah Jane Smith

    Fourth Doctor
    Regeneration limits
    K9
    Zygons
    Davros
    Skaro
    Rassilon
    The Guardians of Time
    The Time Agency
    The Eye of Harmony
    The cloister bell

    Fifth Doctor
    Eternals

    Sixth Doctor
    The Rani
    The Valeyard

    Seventh Doctor

    Eighth Doctor

    Ninth Doctor
    The Time War
    Last of the Time Lords
    Psychic paper
    Vortex manipulator
    Deadlock seals
    Bad Wolf
    The Shadow Proclamation
    Captain Jack Harkness

    Tenth Doctor
    Fixed points in time
    Torchwood
    The Weeping Angels
    Oods
    Judoons
    River Song

    Eleventh Doctor
    The Silence
    The Paternoster Gang
    Trenzalore
    The War Doctor
     
  8. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Well it's been used more in the prsent era than in the original era as the Cloister Bell didn't make an appearance till what the last episode of the Fourth Doctor's era "Logopolis" and reappeared in the first Fifth Doctor episode "Castrovalva" and didn't it not appear again unttil the Eigth Doctor and the TV movie.

    THough as you given how sparingly it was used in the original era it certainly made a major impact.
     
  9. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'd say Susan is important - but mainly because of how various strains of fandom have reacted to her - for example in the 1990s where there was all sorts of weird attempts to suggest was something entirely different because of course the Doctor would never have sex.
     
  10. MikeS

    MikeS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Eighth - kissing doctor/romance with Humans. It's like he reached sexual maturity and just carried on running with it through subsequent generations!

    I don't mind if you ignore this. Just thought I'd point out a change in his character traits. (I was also thinking really hard to give Eight something!)
     
  11. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    The Cloiser bell was also heard in Resurrection Of The Daleks.
     
  12. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Third - Multi-Doctor Episodes
    Second - End of "Pure" Historicals (IE: Set in Earth's past, with no other SciFi elements, other than the means by which they got there - Except Davison did the 2 parter Black Orchid)
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2013
  13. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    Second Doctor: the 500 year diary
    Third Doctor: Bessie and the Whomoble
    Fourth Doctor: jelly babies
     
  14. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    First Doctor surely?

    "You can't rewrite history! Not one line!"

    (although that is obviously clearly forgotten for many years).
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I think the McGann movie introduced a lot of stylistic things that were picked up in the new series -- the romantic Doctor, a more cinematic and action-driven style, big orchestral scoring, the main titles featuring the TARDIS spinning through the time vortex, the TARDIS interior as spacious and steampunk rather than a more compact, high-tech environment (though the retro styling had a precedent in the season-14 console room). I'm not sure how much those can be counted as core elements of the mythos, though.

    Hang on, why do you have "Skaro" under Fourth Doctor? It was introduced in the very first Dalek serial, which was set on that planet.

    Surprisingly, no. The Second Doctor offers the Brigadier a jelly baby in "The Three Doctors." So it actually originated in the Third Doctor's era.
     
  16. sidious618

    sidious618 Admiral Admiral

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    Depending on whether you care about the books, a lot of the Time War elements, such as the destruction of Gallifrey, the Doctor being (almost) the last Time Lord, come from the Eight Doctor novel series.
     
  17. Iamnotspock

    Iamnotspock Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Second. He eats them in The Dominators. It didn't become a regular thing until Tom though.

    She may have originated in spin-off media but can we add Kate Lethbridge-Stewart to the Eleventh era?
     
  18. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thank you everyone, I've incorporated most of your remarks. I thought it was simpler to add "historicals" under the first Doctor category rather than "the end of historicals" under the second Doctor's. I'm trying not to incorporate stylistic elements, because that could almost be a completely different conversation. And for me "Fixed points in time" appears in the tenth Doctor category because it's during his tenure that the notion that some points in time can be changed and other cannot was formalized and turned into a plot point.

    Anything more from the JNT era? Anything for the seventh Doctor?

    Here's the updated list:

    First Doctor
    The Doctor
    The TARDIS
    The Time Vortex
    Companions
    Regeneration
    Daleks
    Cybermen
    Skaro
    Historicals

    Second Doctor
    Time Lords
    UNIT
    Sonic screwdriver
    Jelly babies
    The 500 year diary
    Ice Warriors
    The Great Intelligence
    Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

    Third Doctor
    Gallifrey
    Bessie & the Whomobile
    The Master
    Omega
    Autons
    Silurians
    Sontarans
    Sarah Jane Smith

    Fourth Doctor
    Regeneration limits
    K9
    Zygons
    Davros
    Rassilon
    The Matrix
    The Guardians of Time
    The Time Agency
    The Eye of Harmony
    The cloister bell

    Fifth Doctor
    Eternals

    Sixth Doctor
    The Rani
    The Valeyard

    Seventh Doctor

    Eighth Doctor
    Romance

    Ninth Doctor
    The Time War
    Last of the Time Lords
    Psychic paper
    Vortex manipulator
    Deadlock seals
    Bad Wolf
    The Shadow Proclamation
    Captain Jack Harkness

    Tenth Doctor
    Fixed points in time
    Torchwood
    The Weeping Angels
    Oods
    Judoons
    River Song
    Christmas specials

    Eleventh Doctor
    The Silence
    The Paternoster Gang
    Trenzalore
    The War Doctor
    Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
     
  19. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Might be a stretch and the show hasn't really done anything directly with it (and certainly not to extreme of Lungbarrow), but The Seventh Doctor era introduced the idea of The Doctor being more than just a Time Lord.
     
  20. Iamnotspock

    Iamnotspock Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    For the (late) Seventh Doctor era, perhaps the slightly darker take on the Doctor? The idea of him being manipulative and one step ahead of the game. The recent characterisation of the Doctor as hugely mysterious and secretive, more powerful than he lets on and perhaps with a terrible secret (Doctor who?), is reminiscent of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan". The destruction of Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks and Davros's pledge to "sweep away Gallifrey and its impotent quorum of Time Lords!" certainly had repercussions.

    Ah, yes. Although the line that spelled that out was cut from the broadcast version of Remembrance... after being vetoed by JN-T.