Is the Doctor 1103 now?

[Joe Washington]

In the Season 6 premiere, the future Doctor said before he died that he was 1103 years old. Since the Doctor left Amy and Rory in God Complex and seem to have been near the end of his "farewell tour" in Closing Time, does that mean in between those episodes the Doctor has spent 200 years traveling time and space on his own. Or is there a twist coming that will explain it?

 

[Sindatur]

In the Season 6 premiere, the future Doctor said before he died that he was 1103 years old. Since the Doctor left Amy and Rory in God Complex and seem to have been near the end of his "farewell tour" in Closing Time, does that mean in between those episodes the Doctor has spent 200 years traveling time and space on his own. Or is there a twist coming that will explain it?

At the moment, yea, that's what it looks like, but, yea, that can be twisted away still.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'll go with the former.

 

[Cutter John]

I certainly hope so. I hated that the Doc apparently managed to burn through two incarnations (Nine and Ten) in only four years.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, we don't know how many years Tennant spent at the end there nor any pre-Rose Eccleston years.

 

[OmahaStar]

I certainly hope so. I hated that the Doc apparently managed to burn through two incarnations (Nine and Ten) in only four years.

What do you mean? There are 100 years between Waters of Mars and End of Time. The Doctor says so. He even went and got himself married before answering the Ood's call.

This seems to have been ignored for some reason, but then, time can be rewritten.

 

[Sindatur]

I certainly hope so. I hated that the Doc apparently managed to burn through two incarnations (Nine and Ten) in only four years.

What do you mean? There are 100 years between Waters of Mars and End of Time. The Doctor says so. He even went and got himself married before answering the Ood's call.

This seems to have been ignored for some reason, but then, time can be rewritten.

And it's no wonder he erupted so violently when he finally did let go, 100 years is a long time to hold off.

 

[ITL]

I certainly hope so. I hated that the Doc apparently managed to burn through two incarnations (Nine and Ten) in only four years.

What do you mean? There are 100 years between Waters of Mars and End of Time. The Doctor says so. He even went and got himself married before answering the Ood's call.

This seems to have been ignored for some reason, but then, time can be rewritten.

And it's no wonder he erupted so violently when he finally did let go, 100 years is a long time to hold off.

Gallifreyan Timey Wimey Tantra. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

 

[Iamnotspock]

And it's no wonder he erupted so violently when he finally did let go, 100 years is a long time to hold off.

No, he didn't hold off the regeneration itself for 100 years - that was only between getting irradiated while saving Wilf and leaving Rose (so however long it took him to go and visit all his ex companions). The century comes between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

I'm with Steven Moffat in thinking that the Doctor doesn't have a clue how old he is; he's long since lost count and just picks a cool-sounding number, which he adjusts slightly periodically for his companions' benefit.

"The thing I keep banging on about is that he doesn't know what age he is. He's lying. How could he know, unless he's marking it on a wall? He could be 8,000 years old, he could be a million. He has no clue. The calendar will give him no clues." - Steven Moffat - SFX, May 2010.

He was very specifically 953 back in Time and the Rani, which was also the Rani's age and the numerical code to unlock a door in her lab, so I'd say that's a pretty reliable source. The decline to 900 in Aliens of London - two incarnations later - can either be explained with wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey stuff, or the most obvious solution that he's now taken to lying about his age.

Check out this article;
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor%27s_age

 

[Starkers]

I certainly hope so. I hated that the Doc apparently managed to burn through two incarnations (Nine and Ten) in only four years.

What do you mean? There are 100 years between Waters of Mars and End of Time. The Doctor says so. He even went and got himself married before answering the Ood's call.

This seems to have been ignored for some reason, but then, time can be rewritten.

No he doesn't. He says the Ood shouldn't have evolved as far as they had in 100 years. 100 years for the Ood could be for him the time it takes to step into the Tardis then step back out again.

 

[Cutter John]

You guys are right of course. Sorry about that ( I need to stop posting before bed). But didn't Eleven give a 900-and-something age at one point?

I suppose the best time for a long passage of time would have been between Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

 

[OmahaStar]

You guys are right of course. Sorry about that ( I need to stop posting before bed). But didn't Eleven give a 900-and-something age at one point?

I suppose the best time for a long passage of time would have been between Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

There are other gaps as well. I still say there's a huge gap in the episode "Rose" between when the Doctor leaves, and when he comes back and says "Did I mention it's a time machine" or something like that.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Why do you think there's a large gap there?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Lots of fans do. The general assumption is generally that the Ninth Doctor we see in "Rose" was still just at the beginning of that incarnation, remarking about his face as though it was the first time he'd really looked in a mirror. Given what we later learn about an apparently solo Doctor at the Titanic's departure, at the JFK shooting and washing up on the beach at Krakatoa suggests that there is a time he travels alone. The only REAL point that we see him do so is exactly when he leaves at the end of "Rose" and comes back a few seconds later, which for him could have been quite some years. Most still agree that the Ninth and Tenth Doctors burned through their time relatively quickly though, so I do hope that the Eleventh continues to have spaces deliberately built in where he can have many adventures spanning many years.

I'm okay with the Doctor not really knowing just how old he is. A useful measuring stick for him should have been the other Time Lords and Gallifrey, who always seemed to share his general time stream regardless of where or when he met them (that is, whenever he ran into the Master or Borusa or the Rani, or returned to Gallifrey, it was always after the last time he did so). Now that they're all gone, and what with time being all wibbly and wobbly, there's no real way for him to know anymore.

Since Moffat took over, the Doctor told a lustful Amy that he was 907 last year, and 909 when the younger Doctor meets everyone after his 1103 self was killed. All this is probably just for our benefit. At the Christmas special this December, he may we be back to 749 just to piss off his fouth incarnation.

Mark

 

[OmahaStar]

It's a potential gap shown on-screen. We don't follow the Tardis, we're following Rose's perspective. The ship is gone, and then comes back. From her perspective, it was less than a minute. From the Doctor's, it could have been a hundred years, we don't know.

We know for a fact that the Ninth Doctor had adventures that did not involve Rose. She was shown photographic evidence (and drawings too) of the Doctor at various points in history. JFK's assassination, for example. The Titanic as well.

Who is to say he didn't leave her, go have these adventures with other companions, and then return for Rose?

If we accept the theory that he'd only recently regenerated as some fans have postulated (he looks in the mirror like it's his first time seeing the new face), then it's really the only possible explanation. Because otherwise, Rose would have been looking at pictures of herself with the Doctor.

 

[Sindatur]

And it's no wonder he erupted so violently when he finally did let go, 100 years is a long time to hold off.

No, he didn't hold off the regeneration itself for 100 years - that was only between getting irradiated while saving Wilf and leaving Rose (so however long it took him to go and visit all his ex companions). The century comes between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

During Waters of Mars, he knew it was coming, and his Tennant body was almost done for. 100 years is quite a bit of time for it to be almost time for him to Regenerate, so, I gotta think the "Holding it off" started way before End of Time Radiation, that just added fuel to the fire.

 

[Photoman15]

And it's no wonder he erupted so violently when he finally did let go, 100 years is a long time to hold off.

No, he didn't hold off the regeneration itself for 100 years - that was only between getting irradiated while saving Wilf and leaving Rose (so however long it took him to go and visit all his ex companions). The century comes between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

During Waters of Mars, he knew it was coming, and his Tennant body was almost done for. 100 years is quite a bit of time for it to be almost time for him to Regenerate, so, I gotta think the "Holding it off" started way before End of Time Radiation, that just added fuel to the fire.

No, no, no. The radiation was killing all his cells. That he held it off for however long (a day, a month, a year, 100 years) to visit everyone was what caused the catastrophic regeneration. The 100 years that is mentioned above is between when the Ood called for him and when he showed up. 100 years for the Doctor, not for the Ood. Coincidentally, he arrived in Oodville 100 years after he release Ood-Brain.

 

[Sindatur]

No, he didn't hold off the regeneration itself for 100 years - that was only between getting irradiated while saving Wilf and leaving Rose (so however long it took him to go and visit all his ex companions). The century comes between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

During Waters of Mars, he knew it was coming, and his Tennant body was almost done for. 100 years is quite a bit of time for it to be almost time for him to Regenerate, so, I gotta think the "Holding it off" started way before End of Time Radiation, that just added fuel to the fire.

No, no, no. The radiation was killing all his cells. That he held it off for however long (a day, a month, a year, 100 years) to visit everyone was what caused the catastrophic regeneration. The 100 years that is mentioned above is between when the Ood called for him and when he showed up. 100 years for the Doctor, not for the Ood. Coincidentally, he arrived in Oodville 100 years after he release Ood-Brain.

Understood, but, he was waiting for the 3 knocks, (knowing that was the beginning of the end) in Waters of Mars

 

[Photoman15]

4 Knocks - the sound of a Timelords' heartbeat (3 knocks is Sheldon on "Big Bang Theory" who's OCD makes him knock three times, call the name of the person he's knocking for, then repeat as necessary (usually 3 times, then cycle again)).

 

[Chaos Descending]

The 100 years that is mentioned above is between when the Ood called for him and when he showed up. 100 years for the Doctor, not for the Ood.

You got that backwards.

100 years for the Ood, not 100 years for the Doctor.