One thing that irked me about the Destiny trilogy. *spoilers inside*

[Christopher]

Re: One thing that irked me about the Destiny trilogy. *spoilers insid

Well, I'm going by what was suggested in the old series.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Aliases_of_the_Doctor

Far from being a random title, or one intended to inflate his credentials, the Doctor did, indeed, possess at least one doctorate. (DW: The Moonbase, The Armageddon Factor, The Mysterious Planet) On other occasions he described himself as a "Doctor of many things" (DW: Four to Doomsday), or, indeed, "everything". (DW: Utopia) Exactly what his doctorate(s) were for remain a mystery, although on several occasions the Doctor stated he was not a medical doctor (although that didn't stop his tenth incarnation from sporting a stethoscope on occasion).

Of course I'm not suggesting that's the complete explanation, but it shows that there have indeed been canonical efforts made to at least suggest an explanation for the Doctor's name.

There's always going to be a tension between the idea that it's better to explain things and the idea that it's better to leave them mysterious. There's no absolute right answer to that question; as with most things in life, the best answer is to strike a balance between the two rather than favoring one absolutely. For instance, although I took the writing of DTI: Watching the Clock as an opportunity to explain a bunch of things about time travel in the Trek universe, I also discovered that there were some aspects of the story and characters that it was a lot more fun to leave cryptic and mysterious. There's value in both approaches.

 

[David cgc]

Re: One thing that irked me about the Destiny trilogy. *spoilers insid

^ I read once that "Master" also being an academic degree was part of the reason it was chosen as the name for the Doctor's nemesis. Same with the parallel between one being "a Doctor of Everything," and the other wishing to become "Master of All."