The Doctor Who Mythos

[Alidar Jarok]

Although Remembrance of The Daleks was the beginning of the 25th Series, wasn't the actual 25th Anniversary Episode The Silver Nemesis?

That's correct. The first episode of "Silver Nemesis" aired on November 23, 1988. "Remembrance" had anniversary elements, but "Nemesis" was the official anniversary serial. But since "Remembrance" was awesome and "Nemesis" was lame, fandom has embraced "Remembrance" as the "real" anniversary serial, and thus we sometimes forget that it wasn't.

Well, it was my understanding that, while Silver Nemesis was the official anniversary episode, Remembrance was also intended to celebrate it.

 

[Christopher]

Well, yes, of course it was celebrating the anniversary; I'm not saying it wasn't. I'm saying that "Silver Nemesis" was intended to be the primary anniversary episode, with "Remembrance" more secondary (kind of like how "The Name of the Doctor" has a lot of anniversary-year homages in it but "The Day of the Doctor" is the actual anniversary episode), but since the "secondary" celebration is by far the better and more apposite one, it's retroactively come to be considered the prinicipal one.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Sure. Either way, it doesn't really change my point that Coal Hill school isn't a recurring element of Doctor Who, all the other times it's mentioned is an homage instead.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

Would the introduction of the TARDIS being "partly sentient" warrant a separate entry under the First Doctor? Also the TARDIS's power source, located beneath the console, as being something you shouldn't let "escape" as well? Both were mentioned in "The Edge of Destruction", and the latter sort of lead on into the new series with the Bad Wolf entity being created by the energy of the "Heart of the TARDIS" released from within the console.

There's also this tumblr picture post about the reference to the heart of the TARDIS made by both the First and Ninth Doctors: http://unwillingadventurer.tumblr.com/post/38895851826/the-heart-of-the-tardis-edge-of-destruction

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

First Doctor
The Doctor
The TARDIS
The TARDIS is sentient
The TARDIS is obsolete
The Doctor can't steer the TARDIS
Chameleon circuit
The Time Vortex
Psychic powers
Companions
Susan
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
Venusian aikido
The Master
Omega
Autons
Silurians
Sontarans
Sarah Jane Smith
Multi-Doctor stories

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

Fifth Doctor
Eternals
Companions' private lives

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 Doctor speaks with babies and animals
The Silence
The Paternoster Gang
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
The Curator
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

 

[JoeZhang]

Eleventh Doctor
The Doctor speaks with babies and animals
The Silence
The Paternoster Gang
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
The Curator
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

How can you know that any of these will be used in the wider mythos? It is likely but surely too soon to tell? The Curator in particular seems a one-off bit of fanservice.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Eleventh Doctor
The Doctor speaks with babies and animals
The Silence
The Paternoster Gang
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
The Curator
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

How can you know that any of these will be used in the wider mythos? It is likely but surely too soon to tell? The Curator in particular seems a one-off bit of fanservice.

I think some of these elements are part of the wider mythos whether they're used again or not. The Doctor can speak with babies and animals now, whether he does it again or not. The Silence is what forced him to go into exile for hundreds of years, a significant part of his life. The Paternoster Gang, I wager, will play at least a small part in the twelfth Doctor's life, which means it's as relevant as Torchwood. Trenzalore is where he dies. The existence of the War Doctor modified our perception of the Doctor's life, and so did the Curator, and yes, I'm betting that we're going to see Kate again.

 

[Green Lantern]

How about Skaro's destruction of The Seventh Doctor and Half Human for The Eighth Doctor? Oh, and TARDIS can change desktop for Tenth Doctor (see Time Crash). No sonic screwdriver for Fifth Doctor?

Also, I wouldn't say The Curator was a big thing in the 11th Doctors era.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

How about Skaro's destruction of The Seventh Doctor and Half Human for The Eighth Doctor? Oh, and TARDIS can change desktop for Tenth Doctor (see Time Crash).

Excellent suggestions.

No sonic screwdriver for Fifth Doctor?

The absence of a core concept is not really a core concept in itself, in my opinion.

Also, I wouldn't say The Curator was a big thing in the 11th Doctors era.

I included it because the existence of the Curator means that the Doctor finds a way to go beyond the regeneration limit and that he uses familiar faces for some of his future lives. It's a bit of a game changer.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

First Doctor
The Doctor
The TARDIS
The TARDIS is sentient
The TARDIS is obsolete
The Doctor can't steer the TARDIS
Chameleon circuit
The Time Vortex
Psychic powers
Companions
Susan
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
Venusian aikido
The Master
Omega
Autons
Silurians
Sontarans
Sarah Jane Smith
Multi-Doctor stories

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

Fifth Doctor
Eternals
Companions' private lives

Sixth Doctor
The Rani
The Valeyard

Seventh Doctor
Skaro's destruction

Eighth Doctor
Romance
Half-human

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
Desktop themes
Torchwood
The Weeping Angels
Oods
Judoons
River Song
Christmas specials

Eleventh Doctor
The Doctor speaks with babies and animals
The Silence
The Paternoster Gang
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
The Curator
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

 

[Green Lantern]

OK, awesome.

In that case how about "Hands free" for the Fifth Doctor?????

Also, how about Brainy Specs and heightened taste buds for the fifth doctor?

Choice of next incarnation for the Second Doctor? (see The War Games)

 

[Reverend]

Hasn't Moffat dismissed the whole half-human idea, saying that the Doctor was either lying or confused?

Also, was the 10th Doctor the first time we saw events happen to him out of order? River Song, Elizabeth I, Sally Sparrow etc?

 

[Green Lantern]

Some fans (including me) still like to believe the Doctor is half human. Plus the Master confirms that the Doctor is Half human in the film as he looks into his eyes and sees that they're human. Also in spin-off media the theme is re-used.

 

[JoeZhang]

Some fans (including me) still like to believe the Doctor is half human. Plus the Master confirms that the Doctor is Half human in the film as he looks into his eyes and sees that they're human. Also in spin-off media the theme is re-used.

Confirmation in the thing that has been dismissed is hardly particularly useful. The fact that it has never been mentioned again means to me that it is in the same category as the idea that Superman accesses his powers by visualising a Lynx - an oddball idea that never took.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, it's not part of the Doctor Who mythos, it's part of the movie alone.

 

[Sindatur]

11 - Confirmation that Gender Change is possible in Regeneration

11 - TARDIS Navigation was never broken, she always too him where he needed to go

Both from The Doctor's Wife

 

[Iamnotspock]

Also, was the 10th Doctor the first time we saw events happen to him out of order? River Song, Elizabeth I, Sally Sparrow etc?

We had a taster of it in The Trial of a Time Lord, with him meeting Mel out of order, which probably would have been followed up on had Colin Baker not been fired. When that happened they had little choice but to jump ahead to Mel having travelled with him for some time. The spin-off media explored it, but it was never really done properly until Moffat came along.

"Time-wimey" plots are therefore something that could come under the Tenth Doctor era?

11 - Confirmation that Gender Change is possible in Regeneration

11 - TARDIS Navigation was never broken, she always too him where he needed to go

Both from The Doctor's Wife

I suppose we can add to that the idea that the TARDIS "stole" the Doctor as much as vice versa, although that seemed to be undone by the Great Intelligence and put right again by Clara, who steered him to the "right" TARDIS.

 

[Green Lantern]

Some fans (including me) still like to believe the Doctor is half human. Plus the Master confirms that the Doctor is Half human in the film as he looks into his eyes and sees that they're human. Also in spin-off media the theme is re-used.

Confirmation in the thing that has been dismissed is hardly particularly useful. The fact that it has never been mentioned again means to me that it is in the same category as the idea that Superman accesses his powers by visualising a Lynx - an oddball idea that never took.

Spin-off media, SPIN-OFF MEDIA!

 

[jbny67]

There was also the ability to open & close the T.A.R.D.I.S. doors with the snap of a finger introduced during the 10th Doctors era.
In The Day of The Doctor it seems that Clara can do it now as well.

 

[MacLeod]

^Or rather the TARDIS permits it.