How long was the 10th Doctor around for?

[CmdrAJD]

I finally got to watch End of Time yesterday, and I have a theory on his age. Several times over the course of the two parts, Ten indicated he considered regeneration to be his death. During the conversation with Wilf in Part One, he says that a completely different man walks away after the regeneration. With that logic, he would consider his change from Nine into Ten to be his birth; therefore, Ten was around for 906 years. Yeah yeah. I know. There are a ton of reasons why that doesn't work with the numbers as presented on the show, but considering Ten's attitude, it made a kind of sense to me.

 

[wamdue]

Sarah Jane should also returned for this multi Doctor story as well. No point celebrating the shows 50th if you cant celebrate one its most iconic companions, one who has been in both the classic & new series, and has her own spin-off. (& one failed spin-off)

 

[Classic Fan]

Who knows how long Ten was knocking around for.

I like to think he was running around the galaxy for a while inbetween on screen adventures. Could be five or five hundred years, afterall, we dont know how a Timelord ages and what effects it has on that body physically over a long period of time.


I reckon Ten wouldve been at big historical events the world over just to watch. Then bumps into previous people that his previous bodys have encountered, but they dont recognise the Tenth body.



Cue the photoshop challenge.

Thats one cool part of The End Of Time. When Wilf walks into a church and sees the Tardis in the ancient stained glass window, its so cool to think about.

Sarah Jane should also returned for this multi Doctor story as well. No point celebrating the shows 50th if you cant celebrate one its most iconic companions, one who has been in both the classic & new series, and has her own spin-off. (& one failed spin-off)

True.

Id be interested to see how Smiths Doctor will be introduced to Sarah Jane, as SJA is still running, its still a paralell to the current Who.

Even if they didnt bring Sarah Jane back into Who, which we all know that Moff probably will get her back, Smiths Doctor could guest on SJA.

I still think that another Sarah Jane reunion will lack the emotional impact it did in School Reunion where she sees the Tardis in the stair well and backs off from it in fright and Ten is standing in one light source "Hello, Sarah Jane". That was a fabulously acted emotional few scenes. It was glorious to watch.

 

[wamdue]

it is true the moment in School Reunion has an emotional impact, but you cant have that everytime, and you shouldnt try it. If we do a 3 or 4 Doctors anniversary specail, Sarah Jane being there, will just be one of many returns in the story. It seems unlikely the 4th - 7th Doctors would appear in a multi Doctor story, so she & K9 could be the only ones to represent the Classic series.

As for the 11th Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, I don't see them interacting on Doctor Who or SJA outside of a anniversary specail of course. Even then I think she may default to 10, rather than the 9th or 11th Doctor, she knows 10, not in exactly the same way she knows the 3rd & 4th, but she never meet the 9th Doctor.

 

[Pauln6]

I always thought it would be cool to wrong-foot the fans. If Smith wants a year off, instead of worrying about regeneration, have them bump into McGann and swap assistants then follow McGann's doctor for a year of specials like last year before returning in a massive multi-doctor episode where the assistant goes back with Smith again. Cheeky but only in Dr Who could you get away with it. I'd love to see more McGann!

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I always thought it would be cool to wrong-foot the fans. If Smith wants a year off, instead of worrying about regeneration, have them bump into McGann and swap assistants then follow McGann's doctor for a year of specials like last year before returning in a massive multi-doctor episode where the assistant goes back with Smith again. Cheeky but only in Dr Who could you get away with it. I'd love to see more McGann!

Heh. What a fun idea. I never thought about it this way, but there are lots of interesting things you could do with an eighth Doctor appearance. He could just pop up in one episode and leave his Companion with the eleventh Doctor. That way we could have a Companion we have never heard of, but who'd have spent years travelling with the Doctor before we met her/him!

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I always thought it would be cool to wrong-foot the fans. If Smith wants a year off, instead of worrying about regeneration, have them bump into McGann and swap assistants then follow McGann's doctor for a year of specials like last year before returning in a massive multi-doctor episode where the assistant goes back with Smith again. Cheeky but only in Dr Who could you get away with it. I'd love to see more McGann!

Heh. What a fun idea. I never thought about it this way, but there are lots of interesting things you could do with an eighth Doctor appearance. He could just pop up in one episode and leave his Companion with the eleventh Doctor. That way we could have a Companion we have never heard of, but who'd have spent years travelling with the Doctor before we met her/him!

And retroactively giving us the 8th->9th regeneration story?

 

[Turbo]

For even more convoluted fun, let's have them run across Charley and the Sixth Doctor in one story!

 

[Meredith]

The Doctor is really farking old and doesn't really keep track anymore so his 903 is somethign that sounds about how old he "Feels", He could figure out Exactly HOW old he is but it would take him a year to do so.....

 

[wamdue]

I always thought it would be cool to wrong-foot the fans. If Smith wants a year off, instead of worrying about regeneration, have them bump into McGann and swap assistants then follow McGann's doctor for a year of specials like last year before returning in a massive multi-doctor episode where the assistant goes back with Smith again. Cheeky but only in Dr Who could you get away with it. I'd love to see more McGann!

that is not a bad idea, one that had not crossed my mind.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The Doctor is really farking old and doesn't really keep track anymore so his 903 is somethign that sounds about how old he "Feels", He could figure out Exactly HOW old he is but it would take him a year to do so.....

If that was the case it's weird that he seems to be keeping track and updating it now. I guess one could argue he was wandering driftless until he met Rose when he started caring again and so started keeping track from his arbirtrary starting point.

 

[Skellington]

I definitely agree that The Doctor is fudging his age. I maintain he's ~1200. Romana said The Doctor was 759 and piloting the TARDIS for 523 years in The Ribos Operation. Add the difference (236) to The Ninth Doctor's "Nine hundred years of phone box travel and it's the only thing left that surprises me" ("The Empty Child" when Rose wanders off and gets into trouble) and you get 1136 as of Series 1.

To be glib, not long enough.
To answer the actual question 3-6 years seems a good age.

I definitely agree that The Doctor is fudging his age. I maintain he's ~1200. Romana said The Doctor was 759 and piloting the TARDIS for 523 years in The Ribos Operation.

Which relies on two timelords talking in Earth years, not Gallifreyian years. Which is how I fudge the issue in my head, hes 1200 years in one system and 906 in the other. Works for me.

I tend to agree. The 450 years he quotes to Zoe(?) in Tomb Of The Cybermen would approximate to 600 Gallifrey years then. By the Time of Time And The Rani, both he and the Rani are 953; presumably this means Gallifrey years. I think that Nine agreed with Rose about being 900 because he may have been travelling for 900 Gallifrey years while being 900 Earth years old at that point. It could be that after the Time War he adapted Earth years as, basically, Gallifrey years didn't exist any more and Earth was his only home.

 

[The Castellan]

Nah, 6 probably didn't get as long. For all we know between saying goodbye to rose and returning a few seconds later at the end of Rose, the Doctor could have travelled for years!

And again for all we know 8 might have had the longest life of all because we have no concept of how old he was when he regenerated into 9.

Pretty much yes.

Like when Doc 4 left in the Tardis in "Robot" (The nook version of "Face of Evil" said this was when he landed on the planet the Seveteam and Tesh lived on, and then went back to Earth), or when he had to leave Sarah, who knows how long before he went to Galifrey in "The Deadly Assassin", and then in between "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Face of Evil", could have been centuries. And we don't know how long the Doctor and Romanna travelled togather, or how long the Doctor and Adric travelled togather.

Same with Doc 5...we don't know how long Trakens live....Nyssa could have travled with the Doctor for 20 years and looking like she did not age a day.

The 9th Doc (Whom I prefer over 10), could have been away for a long time before going back to Rose in "Rose".

Doc, after leaving Rose on Earth after meeting her: Ok, time to move on.

~Several decades or even centuries pass~

Doctor: Hmmm....say, I think I'll head back to Earth and see if that Rose girl still wants to travel with me, I'll land about 30 seconds after I originally left.

Plus we don't know how long time went by when #10 left Donna for the first time, or from "Voyage of the Damned" and "Partners in Crime". Same with the time between "Journey's End" and "The Next Doctor", and the story after that one.

Lots of ideas there.