The Doctor being buddies with Mao Tse-tung

[The Four Doctor]

The Mind of Evil is from 1971, before conditions under Mao were widely known in the Western world.

Suffice to say, there has been a lot of backpedaling and retconning in spin-off media since then.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

It just means the Doctor was a Socialist in his third incarnation.

 

[Starkers]

Remember when James Bond and Rambo helped the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan?

Stories can only reflect the prevailing wisdom of the time they are written, or the past so this is pretty much a non story.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

If he's willing to be buddies with Davros at a particular moment in his life, why not the Chairman? I think the Doctor would like to think he could be friends with anybody at the right time and under the right circumstances.

However, he didn't actually say they were buddies in The Mind Of Evil. All he said was that Mao personally gave him leave to address him by his familiar name, and he said it to impress and further relations with the Chinese delegate. It's basically him saying "I'm on a first-name basis with your President, so listen to me." The Doctor's a notorious namedropper. (Not to mention a fibber.)

 

[DWF]

The Doctor was also friends with Nero and Robspierre(SP) and Napolean. In a Timewyrm book he met Hitler and helped him out in Munich. But then the Doctor was also friends with Nixon, so go figure.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

And through Big Finish, he'll probably turn out to be regular buddies with Winston Churchill. So yeah, the Doctor is really ANY people's person.

 

[Captaindemotion]

The Doctor was also friends with Nero and Robspierre(SP) and Napolean. In a Timewyrm book he met Hitler and helped him out in Munich. But then the Doctor was also friends with Nixon, so go figure.

"There is an old Vulcan, sorry, Gallifreyan proverb: only Nixon could go to China."

 

[Starkers]

And only Rassilon could go to Skaro...

 

[The Four Doctor]

Three also called Hitler a BOUNDER! It reminds me of that scene in Red Dwarf VI: "You're friends with the who?!" "It's just a social thing! We don't discuss his work..."

 

[DWF]

And through Big Finish, he'll probably turn out to be regular buddies with Winston Churchill. So yeah, the Doctor is really ANY people's person.

We've already seen that in Victory Of The Daleks, they've been friends for years.

 

[DWF]

The Doctor was also friends with Nero and Robspierre(SP) and Napolean. In a Timewyrm book he met Hitler and helped him out in Munich. But then the Doctor was also friends with Nixon, so go figure.

"There is an old Vulcan, sorry, Gallifreyan proverb: only Nixon could go to China."

"Say hello to David Frost for me."

 

[Mister Spock]

I think the novelisation of The Mind of Evil suggests that the Doctor knew Mao during his more idealistic days during the Long March.

This is also the same incarnation who claimed, in Day of the Daleks, that he invented the phrase "an army marches on its stomach" whilst breakfasting with Napoleon before the Battle of Waterloo.