The Doctors Mental Degeneration

[Tom]

So I was watching the Three Doctors again and was noticing how much smarter the first Doctor seemed over 2 and 3, then noticed it a bit in the Five Doctors. It got me thinking that with each regeneration the Doctor maybe getting less smarter. He is still infinetly smarter than anyone else mind you, just in comparison to his previous selves.

In 'Journeys End', Donna defeats the Daleks by just using the Doctor's knowledge and the 10th Doctor (and meta Doctor) are surprised they did not think about the stuff she was doing. She was doing things that was more like what the earlier DEctors would do it seems like.

It could just be there personality traits that effect them. Could also just be that 900 years of existence is a lot of memories to process and my overwrite some things .

 

[Chaos Descending]

I always found it weird that Doc 2 and Doc 3 deferred to Doc 1. That would be like Mid 20's me and Mid 30's me teaming up and electing Pre-Teen me as the leader.

That makes no sense at all.

 

[Peacemaker]

I've given thought before to a fanfic in which the Doctor meets his final (potential, mind you, since time can be rewritten) incarnation to find out that he's completely senile - gone totally potty...and he finds out that at some point he realized that he was going to come to the end of his regeneration cycle and decided to run from it. He found a way to extend it, but he didn't realize that the price he'd pay would be his mind. In other words - there was a good reason the Time Lords imposed a twelve regeneration limit on themselves - anything beyond that would result in a greatly diminished quality of life. So, in the end, the Doctor embraces his mortality in order to avoid this consequence.

 

[DS9Continuing]

...maybe getting less smarter...

A particularly apropos mistake.

.

 

[23skidoo]

I've always interpreted the "let's defer to the First Doctor" thing (which also happens in the Five Doctors - the First Doctor figures it all out, the others don't) as, being younger, the First Doctor could be seen as having the ability to "think out of the box" as youth is often credited with doing. Two and Three (plus Five in The Five Doctors) have developed the bad habits and die-hard habits of age. Set ways of thinking. The First Doctor is still developing those habits.

Put another way, let's say you're 40, been driving for 24 years, and suddenly it's time to take 16-year-old Junior, who has just gotten his licence, for a lift to the store. Odds are Junior will point out all the bad habits like rolling stops and popping the clutch that you knew were bad back in 1987 but you've developed the habits over the years.

Alex

 

[MacLeod]

Popping the Clutch, is a term more associated with a push start rather than with moving away whilst the engine is already running. but yes we all do pick up bad habits

 

[G2309]

I thought it odd like someone asking their tenage self for advice. But from a TV point of view the series original character often gets the highlight.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Maybe in Time Lord years all the Doctors are middle aged. So its more like defering to a guy slightly younger than yourself.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I think the Doctor's reverance for the first persona comes from the fact he was the one who made the decision to walk away from the Time Lord's way of life. He lived it, thought about it, came to passinoatly be apposed to it, and then ran off and had the tennacity to steal a TARDIS. It's one thing to wake up in a new life and continue the decisions made by another "you", a forme "you, but to actually make the decision and carry it out is hard. I kind of figure each of the future incarnations wonder deep down if they would have been strong enough to break away if their previous lives hadn't already have done it.

 

[Yminale]

I think the Doctor's reverance for the first persona comes from the fact he was the one who made the decision to walk away from the Time Lord's way of life.

Well personally I think the writers just screwed up and since the 1st doctor looks the oldest they had the other characters defer to him.

As for the senility, that's an interesting question since there was a similar Short Trips story where the 1st doctor out smarted an alien that got the other 7 doctors. I don't think it's senility but as others implied the lack of experience which makes him more objective and observant.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think it's a case that the Doctor always regard his various incarnations as separate people--even though they're all the same man. The First Doctor was a sly and wise old bugger and being the eldest of the bunch in the rare occasions multiple incarnations are together, later Doctors will generally defer to him as their senior like any proper gentleman would.

 

[Anbaric Amber]

I think that if your teenaged self was awesome and you find your middle-aged self considerably less awesome, especially after you've "died" a number of times in circumstances your teenaged self was able to easily avoid, you might hold your past self in some reverence.

The Original Doctor appeared to have been in the incarnation a very long time, longer than any of his other selves. That speaks to a level of skill and cunning that his later selves have seemed to lack. Then again, after you go through regeneration, you know it's not "really" the end so perhaps you take the kinds of risks you might not have before you knew. Certainly the Doctor's later incarnations were more physically active and daring, particularly the 3rd and 10th. There's certain amount of arrogance that comes with age and it may be nice to meet your past self when you were so much more open-minded, idealistic, and merciful.

Remember, the 10th Doctor did say that he USED to have so much mercy when he was younger and gave the Krillitane just one warning before he killed them.

AA

 

[Whofan]

Regarding how the Doctor feels about his other selves,there's also the case of Time Crash, in which the Tenth is a big fan of the fifth, and patterned himself somewhat after him.
Interesting that there's been a tendency, in the older novels at least, to regard the Sixth Doctor as a 'broken' Doctor. There's even a battle in one of the novels (Head Games?) where the Seventh Doctor has to battle a manifestation of his Sixth self. The Seventh also seems to note that he sacrificed his Sixth self so he could exist. Then again, a lot of the New Adventures continuity has been undone by the new series, and Colin's Doctor has IMO been redeemed a great deal by the audios.

 

[Iamnotspock]

The Original Doctor appeared to have been in the incarnation a very long time, longer than any of his other selves. That speaks to a level of skill and cunning that his later selves have seemed to lack.

Also that the first Doctor lived most of his life on Gallifrey, and therefore lived a much less active and dangerous lifestyle.

 

[Tom]

The Original Doctor appeared to have been in the incarnation a very long time, longer than any of his other selves. That speaks to a level of skill and cunning that his later selves have seemed to lack.

Also that the first Doctor lived most of his life on Gallifrey, and therefore lived a much less active and dangerous lifestyle.

Hmmm not so sure. I think we can believe that the 1st Doctor was close to 450 years old when he regenerated , since the 2nd Doctor said he was 450 years old in Tomb of The Cybermen and always had the human companions with him so the 2nd Doctor could not have aged much since regenerating.

So we then have the line in the 'Doctor's Wife' where Idris said the Doctor has had the tardis for 700 years, so if he is 908 or so, he was just over 200 when he took the Tardis and left Galifrey giving him about 240 years or so in the tardis.