One particular SPOILER from The Name of the Doctor

[JoeZhang]

Since it is a British show and uses british analogues (by and large) - the only discussion I seem to remember about the Doctor and his degrees suggests he has a bog-standard undergrad degree not a doctoral degree by the terminology they use - at least in the Classic series - in the new series I think he mentions have a PhD in medicine?

 

[Mad Jack Wolfe]

Since it is a British show and uses british analogues (by and large) - the only discussion I seem to remember about the Doctor and his degrees suggests he has a bog-standard undergrad degree not a doctoral degree by the terminology they use - at least in the Classic series - in the new series I think he mentions have a PhD in medicine?

Medicine, and cheese making. (from The God Complex)

 

[Christopher]

Funny... in the original series, he often insisted that while he was a doctor of many things, medicine was not among them. I guess he got a medical degree sometime between the two series.

 

[Redfern]

What was it Tom's Doctor said in "The Ark in Space"?

"Well, my doctorate isn't in medicine and Harry here is only qualified to work on sailors."

But, as you say, he probably picked up some skills.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Davros]

Re: John Hurt as The Doctor

I think he is either McGann's doctor but a older version, or he is the Doctor before Hartnell, and he did something so bad that when he changed into Hartnell, his doctor ran away and tried to make amends for it all.

There was no Doctor before Hartnell.

 

[JoeZhang]

What was it Tom's Doctor said in "The Ark in Space"?

"Well, my doctorate isn't in medicine and Harry here is only qualified to work on sailors."

But, as you say, he probably picked up some skills.

Sincerely,

Bill

Googling it - he actually says:

Well, my Doctorate is purely honorary and Harry is only qualified to work on sailors

 

[Atticus]

Funny... in the original series, he often insisted that while he was a doctor of many things, medicine was not among them. I guess he got a medical degree sometime between the two series.

From The Moonbase:

POLLY: Listen, are you really a medical doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I think I was once, Polly. I think I took a degree once in Glasgow. 1888 I think. Lister. Hold that for me, will you?

 

[Stevil2001]

^I always figured that the Doctor was called that because he got a doctorate from the Prydonian Academy. So he would've been called that well before he left.

I don't know about that. Romana says in The Ribos Operation that her triple first is "better than scraping through with fifty one percent at the second attempt." Though I suppose he could have gotten an advanced degree later, the tone of the conversation works against that hypothesis. In The Deadly Assassin, Runcible thinks the Doctor was expelled, though he's vague on the details, and the Doctor doesn't elaborate ("Oh, it's all been forgotten about now, old boy")-- maybe that was his first attempt?

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've always loved this exchange between the Doctor and the Master from "The Sound of Drums:"

The Doctor: Master.
The Master: [smiles] I love it when you say my name.
The Doctor: You chose it. A psychiatrist's field day.
The Master: As you chose yours. "The man who makes people better." How sanctimonious is that?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

She'd presumably listed her legal guardian in the school records as her grandfather Doctor Foreman (I wonder what first name she used for him)

Probably John if the later "John Smith" is any indication.

 

[Christopher]

She'd presumably listed her legal guardian in the school records as her grandfather Doctor Foreman (I wonder what first name she used for him)

Probably John if the later "John Smith" is any indication.

Except the use of that name wasn't the Doctor's idea, at least not as originally presented. The first use of the John Smith alias in canon was by Jamie in "The Wheel in Space," without the Doctor's knowledge. The Doctor then used the alias again in "The War Games" and subsequently when he was exiled to Earth at the start of his third incarnation. (Jamie's independent coinage was repeated in the McGann movie when Chang Lee gave the wounded Doctor's name as John Smith when admitting him to the hospital.)

Although more recent works have complicated things. "The Vampires of Venice" showed that the Doctor's library card featured Hartnell's face and the name "Dr. J. Smith." Some tie-ins have indicated that the First Doctor used the alias when renting the Foreman scrapyard and picked it up from Susan's favorite rock group, John Smith and the Common Men (to whom Susan was listening in "An Unearthly Child"). So you could be right in light of later retcons.

 

[Nightowl1701]

I would have laughed - and cheered - if the Name of the Doctor, after all that drama, turned out to be simply "John Smith." (Or more likely Jonsmith, in Gallifreyan parlance.) The oldest question in the universe, hiding in plain view - well, guess what? So was the answer. Would have added more weight to Eleven's speech in the end about his real name not being the point. Or, to borrow from Batman, "It's not who I am that matters. It's what I do."

 

[Chrono85]

One possibility is that John Hurt is indeed playing the last Doctor; the one who dies. This doesn't mean that he has to be the 12th or 13th Doctor, or whatever, and he could be the 500th. Maybe the 'peace and sanity' he was talking about was his own, and that after so many life-times, and with all of those memories, and painful losses, he decided that he couldn't continue on, and wanted to end it, and so he chose not to regenerate. Since The Doctor seems to have an overwhelming will to live, this act could be considered to be against the basic principles of The Doctor, which is why this incarnation is not deserving of the moniker.

 

[RoJoHen]

One possibility is that John Hurt is indeed playing the last Doctor; the one who dies. This doesn't mean that he has to be the 12th or 13th Doctor, or whatever, and he could be the 500th. Maybe the 'peace and sanity' he was talking about was his own, and that after so many life-times, and with all of those memories, and painful losses, he decided that he couldn't continue on, and wanted to end it, and so he chose not to regenerate. Since The Doctor seems to have an overwhelming will to live, this act could be considered to be against the basic principles of The Doctor, which is why this incarnation is not deserving of the moniker.

Perhaps not so dramatic as ending his own life, but along the same lines...maybe this isn't about something the Doctor did. Maybe it's about something he didn't do. The Doctor helps people. Maybe John Hurt's Doctor made a decision to NOT step in like he normally would; maybe he allowed an atrocity to happen that he could have otherwise prevented.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

One possibility is that John Hurt is indeed playing the last Doctor; the one who dies. This doesn't mean that he has to be the 12th or 13th Doctor, or whatever, and he could be the 500th. Maybe the 'peace and sanity' he was talking about was his own, and that after so many life-times, and with all of those memories, and painful losses, he decided that he couldn't continue on, and wanted to end it, and so he chose not to regenerate. Since The Doctor seems to have an overwhelming will to live, this act could be considered to be against the basic principles of The Doctor, which is why this incarnation is not deserving of the moniker.

Perhaps not so dramatic as ending his own life, but along the same lines...maybe this isn't about something the Doctor did. Maybe it's about something he didn't do. The Doctor helps people. Maybe John Hurt's Doctor made a decision to NOT step in like he normally would; maybe he allowed an atrocity to happen that he could have otherwise prevented.

I really like that idea. Reminds me a bit of Deep Space 9's "Hippocratic Oath" where Bashir chooses to help the Jem'hadar, although that really didn't have much to do with apathy.

 

[intrinsical]

Matt Smith's Doctor specifically said Hurt's incarnation broke the promise of being The Doctor and did not deserve to be called The Doctor. I don't understand why some believe Hurt's Doctor is a pre-Doctor. Short of some time paradox, a pre-Hartnell incarnation would not have taken up the mantel of The Doctor and could not have broken the promise of being The Doctor.

 

[JoeZhang]

One possibility is that John Hurt is indeed playing the last Doctor; the one who dies. This doesn't mean that he has to be the 12th or 13th Doctor, or whatever, and he could be the 500th. Maybe the 'peace and sanity' he was talking about was his own, and that after so many life-times, and with all of those memories, and painful losses, he decided that he couldn't continue on, and wanted to end it, and so he chose not to regenerate. Since The Doctor seems to have an overwhelming will to live, this act could be considered to be against the basic principles of The Doctor, which is why this incarnation is not deserving of the moniker.

Perhaps not so dramatic as ending his own life, but along the same lines...maybe this isn't about something the Doctor did. Maybe it's about something he didn't do. The Doctor helps people. Maybe John Hurt's Doctor made a decision to NOT step in like he normally would; maybe he allowed an atrocity to happen that he could have otherwise prevented.

I really like that idea. Reminds me a bit of Deep Space 9's "Hippocratic Oath" where Bashir chooses to help the Jem'hadar, although that really didn't have much to do with apathy.

I guess but the line "What I did, I did in the name of peace and sanity' suggests agency.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Perhaps not so dramatic as ending his own life, but along the same lines...maybe this isn't about something the Doctor did. Maybe it's about something he didn't do. The Doctor helps people. Maybe John Hurt's Doctor made a decision to NOT step in like he normally would; maybe he allowed an atrocity to happen that he could have otherwise prevented.

I really like that idea. Reminds me a bit of Deep Space 9's "Hippocratic Oath" where Bashir chooses to help the Jem'hadar, although that really didn't have much to do with apathy.

I guess but the line "What I did, I did in the name of peace and sanity' suggests agency.

Yeah, it's more understandable that this action was something he chose to do. While the Valeyard and other ideas sound cool, I don't see any show runners ever having the Doctor actually become evil in some fashion, nor will the shoot the golden goose by having the Doctor's real and final death played out in any defined fashion. Redemption is something that has stood out a lot in several fashions this season. The Doctor starts in a monastery, Akhaten is about lives past and possible through the leaf, Cold War is a forgiveness tale for Saldak, Hide also for Dr Palmer, Journey explicitly brings up the Time War, and Porridge's talking about the poor bugger who blew up the galaxy to stop the cybermen. RTD's run dealt with the Doctor's survivor guilt, and I expect Moffat is going to deal with forgiveness. The Doctor expressly hoped for that in The Doctor's Wife.

Now, with a Doctor with some unforgivable sin, I expect the next story to deal with the Doctor finding personal forgiveness, most likely from the Time War. The Moment, or whatever the big bomb was called, may even have been his idea. He might have felt the war would consume all reality and he developed the bomb as a means to get the sides to stop. The didn't, he pushed the button.

The Doctor keeps being consumed with guilt, but whether he's listening to speeches from Davros or the GI, he's listening to ethical criticisms from hypocrites. Vastra has pointed out his tendency to blame himself for what he can't control. The Doctor accepts the JHDoctor had no choice in his actions, but the Doctor can't accept his having done whatever it was. I expect the story to be about the Doctor learning that he can't always control things and sometimes there's no other choice. And, he's got to forgive himself and stop blaming himself.

 

[Sindatur]

Matt Smith's Doctor specifically said Hurt's incarnation broke the promise of being The Doctor and did not deserve to be called The Doctor. I don't understand why some believe Hurt's Doctor is a pre-Doctor. Short of some time paradox, a pre-Hartnell incarnation would not have taken up the mantel of The Doctor and could not have broken the promise of being The Doctor.

Why not? The Pre-Hartnell Doctor, may have decided to change his horrible ways and even gave himself a new name of The Doctor, in order to celebrate that change and then he failed to keep that promise and did something he felt was necessary but was viewed as horrible and unforgivable by the future incarnations

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Just based on what Patrick Troughton said, it doesn't even seem clear that any pre-Doctor Doctor left Galifrey. It sounds like he was the first to left and he left because he was bored and because he wanted to help people.