Moff error? Or is the Doc lying?

[Cutter John]

You have to imagine after the first 600 or so you just stop counting birthdays.

Hell I'm only 47 and I have to stop and think for a second sometimes.

 

[Bones2]

Of course, in reality this is me trying to justify in-universe some (in my view) terrible decisions like the character of the Ninth Doctor and this lazy continuity-ignoring notion that he's 900 years old, just because it's easier to say. Anyway, I'd better go and find a tissue after that fanwank.

Oh, yes, terrible decision to have the Doctor give a different age for himself. Just awful. Such a big deal. How could they?

I'm sorry, don't you have anything of value to add?

 

[Cyke101]

The Eighth Doctor was very much an archetypal Doctor in my view; he had much in common with many of the others, and is possibly the Doctor I first think of when you mention the Doctor to me because he has so many characteristics of the others.

As a fan of the, imo, underrated Eighth Doctor, I thank you very much for bringing this up.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

You have to imagine after the first 600 or so you just stop counting birthdays.

Hell I'm only 47 and I have to stop and think for a second sometimes.

I was about to say something similar, and I'm only 27. There are a couple of occasions when I've been asked how old I am and I've had to think about it, so I can't imagine how hard it'd be after hundreds of years... especially when you consider you have had time on your hands and not been keeping track of the days it can be hard enough to know what day or month it is when you're living time linearly never mind how hard it would be out of sequence.

 

[DeadmeatDiggory]

This is something that's always gone over my head.

If we are to say that from the very episode back in the sixies to the end of this year's fifth season, and not counting the time between the end of the "1996 Movie" and "Rose", we have pretty much been with The Doctor from the get go, then how could have aged (in Earth terms) any more than 40-50 years.

It's not as if months to years take place between episodes; the presence of human companions puts a cabosh to this idea, as they would have noticably aged over their time traveling around with The Doctor.

Although we can leave some time between episodes, It's fair to say that Rose traveled two years with the Ninth Doctor, not five; a year for Martha, a year for Donna, etc. Hell, even the first few episodes of this years series came one after another, so there is no gap between them.

With the exception of between the end's of Series 2 and "Smith and Jones", and the end of "Last of the Timelords" and "Partners in Crime", and last years stand-alone specials, there really hasn't been a lot of time for The Doctor to travel alone, so therefore their couldn't be a massive amount of time for him to age a lot. On top of this, The Doctor has never been one to travel alone, so one can safely say that their wasn't a lot of time between companions.

All things considered, if I was The Doctor, I would be concerned about how many Regenerations that I was going through in such a short time (10 Regenerations in 50-100 years [11 if you count 10.5]), especially if you take into account that The Doctor would have to be born and age into old age (however long that takes) while still being the First Doctor (especially if that takes hundred of years).

It almost seems like The Doctor has a death wish.

 

[captcalhoun]

the Doctor travelled alone for some time as his Fourth incarnation, there's no knowing how long the Seventh travelled after Survival before the TVM or how long Eight was around for or for how long Ten travelled between TRB and S&J, between Voyage and PiC or between JE and TND or between each special.

 

[Sci]

This is something that's always gone over my head.

If we are to say that from the very episode back in the sixies to the end of this year's fifth season, and not counting the time between the end of the "1996 Movie" and "Rose", we have pretty much been with The Doctor from the get go, then how could have aged (in Earth terms) any more than 40-50 years.

I'm not familiar enough with the original series to comment there, but there's already been plenty of breaks in the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors' chronologies for him to have ages and ages of unchronicled adventures.

To start with, we have no idea how long it had been before meeting Rose since the Eighth Doctor regenerated into the Ninth.

In "Rose," we have no idea how much time passed for the Doctor between the TARDIS dematerializing and then rematerializing, with the Doctor leaning out to say, "Did I mention that it also travels in time?"

We have no idea how much time passed for the Doctor between Rose's becoming trapped in Pete's Universe and the Doctor using a supernova to send one final goodbye signal into the alternate universe on Christmas Day of 2007.

We have no idea how much time passed for the Doctor between "The Runaway Bride" and "Smith and Jones."

We know that the Doctor spent three months impersonating John Smith in 1913 England, and we know that he and Martha spent another three months living in 1969 as a result of the Weeping Angels in "Blink." And we know from "The Infinite Quest" that he was at one point separated from Martha Jones for three years before reuniting with her.

We have no idea how much time passed for the Doctor between "Voyage of the Damned" and "Partners in Crime."

And, of course, we have no idea how much time passed for the Doctor between "Journey's End" and "The Next Doctor," nor between "The Next Doctor" and "Planet of the Dead," nor between "Planet of the Dead" and "The Waters of Mars," nor between "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time, Part One."

And we have no idea how much time passed for the Doctor between his disappearance after defeating the Atraxi and his reappearance in Amy Pond's garden to offer her the chance to travel with him.

Although we can leave some time between episodes, It's fair to say that Rose traveled two years with the Ninth Doctor, not five;

I'd put it closer to one year, myself. I figure she probably travelled for one year with Nine and one year with Ten.

a year for Martha,

Well, depends on how you're counting the Year That Never Was. We know she travelled with him for at least six months between their getting stranded in "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" and "Blink." "Smith and Jones," "The Shakespeare Code," "Gridlock," "Daleks in Manhattan," "Evolution of the Daleks," "The Lazarus Experiment," and "42" all seem to take place, for Martha, more or less one right after the other. And we have no idea how much time passed between "The Family of Blood" and "Utopia," though we know that at least three months were spent in 1969 and there was some unchronicled adventure during which the Doctor and Martha encountered Sally Sparrow (at the end of "Blink"). I'd guestimate that Martha spent at least seven months with the Doctor, and of course a year traveling the world to spread the Doctor gospel, before leaving the TARDIS.

Hell, even the first few episodes of this years series came one after another, so there is no gap between them.

Well, we really don't know how much time passed for the Doctor and Amy between "Victory of the Daleks" and "The Time of Angels," nor how much time passed between "The Vampires of Venice" and "Amy's Choice," nor between "Amy's Choice" and "The Hungry Earth." We can probably assume it's been a relatively short period between "Cold Blood" and "Vincent and the Doctor," though, as Amy's remarks that the Doctor's been unusually kind to her seems to imply this is a new development.

 

[The]

I've got two theories (though they're not mutually exclusive) as to why he's been lying about his age. The first is that in Time Lord society, if you pass 1000 you're considered an older person (or perhaps not considered a young man any more, like turning 40). The other is to do with the 8/9 regeneration and the Last Great Time War. If we look at the Seventh Doctor as the dark Doctor people say he is (though I'd contend that's only down to his reinterpretation in the Virgin New Adventures; his actions towards Ace in Fenric were necessary in the situation, leaving his destruction of Skaro as the only real questionable moral grey I can think of), then despite seeming to have changed in his 8th incarnation to a more life-loving romantic character, he then had to fight in a war in which he was ultimately responsible for the end of his own people and the Daleks. I think this act induced his regeneration into the Ninth Doctor, and (in-universe) is the reason the Ninth was so different from all the preceding Doctors. The Eighth Doctor was very much an archetypal Doctor in my view; he had much in common with many of the others, and is possibly the Doctor I first think of when you mention the Doctor to me because he has so many characteristics of the others. I like to think that after his actions in ending the War, he intentionally regenerated into someone very different from anyone he'd been before, to try separate himself from his actions. Where his age comes in is that I think in saying he's 900 he's effectively turning the clock back not only to an easy round number but also to before he was the dark Seventh and the war-fighting Eighth, and to a Doctor who was more like the Doctor of old; travelling around, fighting usually smaller-scale evil, perhaps underappreciated and largely unknown.

I agree with this, as well as add I think Nine's broken emotional state was because he was suffering from "shell-shock". Survivor's guilt, if you will. Whatever ended his life, I'd say everything surrounding the destruction of Gallifrey and the War was so traumatic as to actually scar the following life. That's why when he became Ten, it was such an actual rejuvenation. A notch closer to who he actually is. With Smith, we've pretty much gotten as close back to The Doctor, as we know him from the past. However, I think there are certain traumatized aspects that will never fade. At least he's not crying about the Time War anymore, though...

 

[DWF]

It's also possible that he's just forgetting his age, Romana had to correct him once.

 

[RevdKathy]

How does time pass inside the TARDIS anyway? Is it measurable at all? There won't be anything resembling day and night, let alone months or years. It's quite possible that time spent inside the TARDIS 'doesn't count', in which case the Doctor's age becomes incalculable. Add to that time spent on planets with shorter days, years etc, and you have a complete nonsense in terms of age. Personally I think the Doctor plucks a figure out of the air that seem sppropriate and will convey to the audience his unimaginable age, and doesn't worry too much about anything resembling accuracy.

 

[Skellington]

The Master confirms that the Doctor is 900 years old in season 3. However, Seven was 953 Gallifrey years old in Time And The Rani; same age as the Rani. Nine twice indicates that he's been travelling in the TARDIS for 900 years or so, but agrees with Rose that he's 900 years old.
Solution? Gallifrey years are shorter, with about 4 Gallifrey years to 3 Earth years. Nine is 1100 to 1200 Gallifrey years old, so about 900 Earth years old. At some point he switched to Earth years, either so that he'd be less than 1000 or because Gallifrey had been destroyed and so Gallifrey years no longer existed.

(Edit: Alterntively, some of his lpast adventures have already been changed/deleted by events such as the Time War).