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The Doctor Who Mythos

The Mirrorball Man

The Mirrorball Man

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Purely as a pleasant way to waste some time, I've been wondering about the most important elements of the Doctor Who mythos, the building blocks which have become part of the show's identity, and when they were introduced.

I've only included concepts, characters and ideas which have been used again and again or have become important parts of the Whoniverse. I'm probably missing quite a lot of them (the JNT era is particularly barren right now), and most certainly have made a lot of mistakes, so please feel free to correct me and suggest amendments, but this his what I've found:

First Doctor
The Doctor
The TARDIS
The Time Vortex
Companions
Regeneration
Daleks
Cybermen

Second Doctor
Time Lords
UNIT
Sonic screwdriver
Ice Warriors
The Great Intelligence
Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

Third Doctor
Gallifrey
The Master
Omega
Autons
Silurians
Sontarans
Sarah Jane Smith

Fourth Doctor
Regeneration limits
K9
Zygons
Davros
Skaro
Rassilon
The Guardians of Time

Fifth Doctor
The Rani
Eternals

Sixth Doctor
The Valeyard

Seventh Doctor

Eighth Doctor
The Eye of Harmony

Ninth Doctor
The Time War
Last of the Time Lords
Psychic Paper
Bad Wolf
The Time Agency
Captain Jack Harkness

Tenth Doctor
Fixed points in time
Torchwood
The Shadow Proclamation
The Weeping Angels
Oods
Judoons
River Song

Eleventh Doctor
The Silence
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
 
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Neat idea! Not to be overly pedantic--though SOMEONE will soon enough, anyway--but a couple quibbles:

--The Rani didn't turn up until the Sixth Doctor's tenure

--The Time Agency was actually introduced in the Fourth's era, in "The Talons Of Weng-Chiang"

--while the TV movie first depicted the Eye Of Harmony as part of the TARDIS, the Eye itself first appeared in "The Deadly Assassin"

--mentions of the Shadow Proclamation date back as far as "Rose"

--g
 
I'd quibble about "regeneration" being introduced in the First Doctor's era; when it was first done, it was called "renewal" and said to be "part of the TARDIS. It wasn't actually named regeneration until "Planet of the Spiders." So the seed of the idea was there, but it took a while to mature.

For the Ninth Doctor, you could add the vortex manipulator and the "deadlock seal" which is the sonic screwdriver's kryptonite. Plus glowing "regeneration energy" and the practice of regenerating while standing up/showing no signs of being on the brink of death. And I believe the Shadow Proclamation was first mentioned in "Rose," though it wasn't defined until "The Stolen Earth."
 
The Eye of Harmony was established in the Fourth Doctor era, but as the source of all the Time Lords' power beneath the citadel on Gallifrey. The idea of there being an Eye in the TARDIS Cloister Room powering the TARDIS was a TVM invention.

It's a tiny thing, not really a major mythological development, but the Cloister Room itself and with it the Cloister Bell, can (just) come under the Fourth Doctor, having been introduced under JN-T's watch in Tom's final story Logopolis.
 
I'd say the Cloister Bell counts as a major edition, since it's been used as the TARDIS's "red alert" signal ever since.
 
ElScoob said:
Neat idea! Not to be overly pedantic--though SOMEONE will soon enough, anyway--but a couple quibbles
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I guess this is one of those threads where it's perfectly ok to be pedantic. ;)

--The Rani didn't turn up until the Sixth Doctor's tenure

--The Time Agency was actually introduced in the Fourth's era, in "The Talons Of Weng-Chiang"

--while the TV movie first depicted the Eye Of Harmony as part of the TARDIS, the Eye itself first appeared in "The Deadly Assassin"

--mentions of the Shadow Proclamation date back as far as "Rose"
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Thank you! Corrected.

Christopher said:
I'd quibble about "regeneration" being introduced in the First Doctor's era; when it was first done, it was called "renewal" and said to be "part of the TARDIS. It wasn't actually named regeneration until "Planet of the Spiders." So the seed of the idea was there, but it took a while to mature.
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You're right, but the seeds are what interest me here. Otherwise things like the Sonic would require several entries, and I'm not writing an encyclopedia.

For the Ninth Doctor, you could add the vortex manipulator and the "deadlock seal" which is the sonic screwdriver's kryptonite. And I believe the Shadow Proclamation was first mentioned in "Rose," though it wasn't defined until "The Stolen Earth.
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Excellent suggestions, thank you.

Plus glowing "regeneration energy" and the practice of regenerating while standing up/showing no signs of being on the brink of death. "
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For me that's more of an aesthetic choice than a core part of the Doctor Who mythos.

Iamnotspock said:
The Eye of Harmony was established in the Fourth Doctor era, but as the source of all the Time Lords' power beneath the citadel on Gallifrey. The idea of there being an Eye in the TARDIS Cloister Room powering the TARDIS was a TVM invention.

It's a tiny thing, not really a major mythological development, but the Cloister Room itself and with it the Cloister Bell, can (just) come under the Fourth Doctor, having been introduced under JN-T's watch in Tom's final story Logopolis.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
First Doctor
The Doctor
The TARDIS
The Time Vortex
Companions
Regeneration
Daleks
Cybermen

Second Doctor
Time Lords
UNIT
Sonic screwdriver
Ice Warriors
The Great Intelligence
Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

Third Doctor
Gallifrey
The Master
Omega
Autons
Silurians
Sontarans
Sarah Jane Smith

Fourth Doctor
Regeneration limits
K9
Zygons
Davros
Skaro
Rassilon
The Guardians of Time
The Time Agency
The Eye of Harmony
The cloister bell

Fifth Doctor
Eternals

Sixth Doctor
The Rani
The Valeyard

Seventh Doctor

Eighth Doctor

Ninth Doctor
The Time War
Last of the Time Lords
Psychic paper
Vortex manipulator
Deadlock seals
Bad Wolf
The Shadow Proclamation
Captain Jack Harkness

Tenth Doctor
Fixed points in time
Torchwood
The Weeping Angels
Oods
Judoons
River Song

Eleventh Doctor
The Silence
The Paternoster Gang
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
 
Well it's been used more in the prsent era than in the original era as the Cloister Bell didn't make an appearance till what the last episode of the Fourth Doctor's era "Logopolis" and reappeared in the first Fifth Doctor episode "Castrovalva" and didn't it not appear again unttil the Eigth Doctor and the TV movie.

THough as you given how sparingly it was used in the original era it certainly made a major impact.
 
I'd say Susan is important - but mainly because of how various strains of fandom have reacted to her - for example in the 1990s where there was all sorts of weird attempts to suggest was something entirely different because of course the Doctor would never have sex.
 
Eighth - kissing doctor/romance with Humans. It's like he reached sexual maturity and just carried on running with it through subsequent generations!

I don't mind if you ignore this. Just thought I'd point out a change in his character traits. (I was also thinking really hard to give Eight something!)
 
MacLeod said:
Well it's been used more in the prsent era than in the original era as the Cloister Bell didn't make an appearance till what the last episode of the Fourth Doctor's era "Logopolis" and reappeared in the first Fifth Doctor episode "Castrovalva" and didn't it not appear again unttil the Eigth Doctor and the TV movie.

THough as you given how sparingly it was used in the original era it certainly made a major impact.
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The Cloiser bell was also heard in Resurrection Of The Daleks.
 
Third - Multi-Doctor Episodes
Second - End of "Pure" Historicals (IE: Set in Earth's past, with no other SciFi elements, other than the means by which they got there - Except Davison did the 2 parter Black Orchid)
 
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Second Doctor: the 500 year diary
Third Doctor: Bessie and the Whomoble
Fourth Doctor: jelly babies
 
I think the McGann movie introduced a lot of stylistic things that were picked up in the new series -- the romantic Doctor, a more cinematic and action-driven style, big orchestral scoring, the main titles featuring the TARDIS spinning through the time vortex, the TARDIS interior as spacious and steampunk rather than a more compact, high-tech environment (though the retro styling had a precedent in the season-14 console room). I'm not sure how much those can be counted as core elements of the mythos, though.

Hang on, why do you have "Skaro" under Fourth Doctor? It was introduced in the very first Dalek serial, which was set on that planet.

DWF said:
Fourth Doctor: jelly babies
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Surprisingly, no. The Second Doctor offers the Brigadier a jelly baby in "The Three Doctors." So it actually originated in the Third Doctor's era.
 
Depending on whether you care about the books, a lot of the Time War elements, such as the destruction of Gallifrey, the Doctor being (almost) the last Time Lord, come from the Eight Doctor novel series.
 
Christopher said:
Surprisingly, no. The Second Doctor offers the Brigadier a jelly baby in "The Three Doctors." So it actually originated in the Third Doctor's era.
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Second. He eats them in The Dominators. It didn't become a regular thing until Tom though.

She may have originated in spin-off media but can we add Kate Lethbridge-Stewart to the Eleventh era?
 
Thank you everyone, I've incorporated most of your remarks. I thought it was simpler to add "historicals" under the first Doctor category rather than "the end of historicals" under the second Doctor's. I'm trying not to incorporate stylistic elements, because that could almost be a completely different conversation. And for me "Fixed points in time" appears in the tenth Doctor category because it's during his tenure that the notion that some points in time can be changed and other cannot was formalized and turned into a plot point.

Anything more from the JNT era? Anything for the seventh Doctor?

Here's the updated list:

First Doctor
The Doctor
The TARDIS
The Time Vortex
Companions
Regeneration
Daleks
Cybermen
Skaro
Historicals

Second Doctor
Time Lords
UNIT
Sonic screwdriver
Jelly babies
The 500 year diary
Ice Warriors
The Great Intelligence
Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

Third Doctor
Gallifrey
Bessie & the Whomobile
The Master
Omega
Autons
Silurians
Sontarans
Sarah Jane Smith

Fourth Doctor
Regeneration limits
K9
Zygons
Davros
Rassilon
The Matrix
The Guardians of Time
The Time Agency
The Eye of Harmony
The cloister bell

Fifth Doctor
Eternals

Sixth Doctor
The Rani
The Valeyard

Seventh Doctor

Eighth Doctor
Romance

Ninth Doctor
The Time War
Last of the Time Lords
Psychic paper
Vortex manipulator
Deadlock seals
Bad Wolf
The Shadow Proclamation
Captain Jack Harkness

Tenth Doctor
Fixed points in time
Torchwood
The Weeping Angels
Oods
Judoons
River Song
Christmas specials

Eleventh Doctor
The Silence
The Paternoster Gang
Trenzalore
The War Doctor
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
 
Might be a stretch and the show hasn't really done anything directly with it (and certainly not to extreme of Lungbarrow), but The Seventh Doctor era introduced the idea of The Doctor being more than just a Time Lord.
 
The Mirrorball Man said:
Anything more from the JNT era? Anything for the seventh Doctor?
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For the (late) Seventh Doctor era, perhaps the slightly darker take on the Doctor? The idea of him being manipulative and one step ahead of the game. The recent characterisation of the Doctor as hugely mysterious and secretive, more powerful than he lets on and perhaps with a terrible secret (Doctor who?), is reminiscent of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan". The destruction of Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks and Davros's pledge to "sweep away Gallifrey and its impotent quorum of Time Lords!" certainly had repercussions.

Emh said:
Might be a stretch and the show hasn't really done anything directly with it (and certainly not to extreme of Lungbarrow), but The Seventh Doctor era introduced the idea of The Doctor being more than just a Time Lord.
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Ah, yes. Although the line that spelled that out was cut from the broadcast version of Remembrance... after being vetoed by JN-T.
 
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