Doctor Who: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''He saves worlds, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures, and [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others|runs a lot]]. Seriously, there's an ''outrageous'' amount of running involved.''|'''Donna Noble''', in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E06 The Doctor's Daughter|The Doctor's Daughter]]"}}

Since its debut on 23 November 1963 on [[The BBC|BBC television]], the British sci-fi series ''Doctor Who'' has thrilled, entertained, and [[Nightmare Fuel|terrified]] three generations of fans worldwide. It takes place in and established the [[Whoniverse]], which has a [[Broad Strokes|very loose and lax continuity]], even discounting the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]]. It is the longest running sci-fi series in the world, bar none -- innone—in fact, the latest three actors to play the title role were all born after it started.

The premise of the show is simple enough: it follows the adventures of a renegade [[Time Lord]], the Doctor, and his various companions through time and space. Travelling in his time machine, the TARDIS, he meets many foes, ranging from heavily armoured robots to microbes and pollen to - well, members of his own race. The TARDIS and the Doctor's recurring enemy the Daleks have become British cultural icons and it is fair to suggest that the overwhelming majority of Britons would instantly recognize both. It is, in fact, difficult to over-state the extent to which ''Doctor Who'', ostensibly a slightly daft children-oriented sci-fi show, has become a part of the British cultural landscape. It casts as much a shadow over British culture, as one Anthropology Professor put it, as ''[[Star Trek]]'' casts over American culture; more so, in fact, as while acknowledged fans of ''[[Star Trek]]'' are still rather consistently made fun of by mainstream culture, ''Doctor Who'' is beloved by Britons of all ages and demographics. Including, as it happens, [[HMElizabeth The Queen|Her Majesty the QueenII]].

In 2005, a [[Revival]] began. It's presented a continuation of the old series (rather than being a [[Continuity Reboot]]), with the Ninth Doctor being a direct successor to the original series incarnations ''and'' the 1996 movie's Doctor. The revival series has radically upgraded production values, shorter story arcs but much more continuity throughout, and it introduced deeper [[Character Development]] and romance to the series. The revival's sixth series finished airing October 2011. The old series lasted 26 seasons, and the new episodes are called "series". Officially, the show went from Season 26 to ''Series'' 1, and so on.

** The Time Lords are a race of supposed non-interventialists, but they are really a controlling and elitist, and somewhat stagnant, race of [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]s who, as their name suggests, have mastered [[Time Travel]], amongst other technologies. Generally they are not malevolent and have plenty of decent members- notably The Doctor himself- but they throw up plenty of maniacs like the Master and the Rani, not to mention their insane founders Rassilon and Omega, amongst other miscreants. As the Time War drew to a bloody close they became a race of [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]]s who were ready to put an end to time itself in an effort to avoid ultimate defeat, which means they last showed up as a villain race.

** The Sontarans are an entire race of [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]]s who are engaged in a 50,000 year war with another species, and to ensure a ready supply of troops turned to cloning, to the point where practically every living Sontaran is now a clone of someone else, resulting in a buttload of uniformity. They usually attack Earth as part of a strategy aimed at achieving victory in their war rather than any particular feelings about us, though they enjoy it when we fight back because [[War Is Glorious]].

* [[Aliens of London]]: The Doctor speaks with an [[British Accents|accent]]. ''Which'' accent depends on the incarnation. The original series Doctors mostly tended towards Received Pronunciation, Seven sounded Scottish, Eight sounded Liverpudlian, Nine Mancunian, Ten had the accent of Estuary London,<ref>as opposed to [[David Tennant|the actor's]] native Scottish accent</ref>, and Eleven has a Northampton accent.

* [[Alternate Universe]]: Oddly enough, not extensively used. There ''are'' alternate universes in the ''Who'' multiverse--onemultiverse—one Classic Series [[Story Arc]] took place in one called "E-Space" and the story ''Inferno'' has a [[Mirror Universe]], and the [[Russell T. Davies]] era has at least two, a [[Zeppelins from Another World]] universe and an alternate timeline world centred on Donna Noble in "Turn Left"--but—but travel between alternate universes seems to be extremely difficult (compared to travel in time and space, creating and controlling a black star, making dimensionally transcendental ships...) and very dangerous.

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: Jake, from "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel", seems to love Ricky. A deleted scene would have confirmed it. An unusual case; since the show's return in 2005 (under openly gay producer Davies), most of the gay characters are not ambiguous in the least. Then there's the Silurian Madame Vastra and her 1880s1880's-era human maid Jenny in "A Good Man Goes to War", who in addition to being heavily teased as lesbians, are also an inter-species couple.

*** Unusually, Series 4 also had arc words specific to each of the two main characters. The Doctor had "she is returning,", while Donna Noble had the thoroughly unsettling "there's something on your back." In addition to that, The Doctor also referred to The Shadow Proclamation on several occasions before it was properly revealed.

** Series 5 had "cracks" which is spoken often but also emphasized visually. Near the end most episodes, after the Doctor had left, the camera would linger on some part of the scenery where a mysterious crack similar to the one that appeared in the first episode of the series had appeared, {{spoiler|later revealed to be a result of the TARDIS exploding on June 26, 2010}}. The cracks played a more prominent role in some episodes than others.

** In "Aliens of London", he gets out of being held at gunpoint by a room full of armed soldiers by using this -- whenthis—when a scream sounds from another room he yells, "Defense plan Delta! Come on!" and runs out of the room, and they all instinctively follow his orders, even though he's presented no identification at all.

** In ''Silver Nemesis'', the TARDIS arrives in the present day on the grounds of a castle and the Doctor approaches the little old lady he sees confidently, telling Ace, "Act like we own the place... Always works. We own the place." Ace has to point out that the woman they're approaching really does own the place -- andplace—and the place is Windsor Castle.

** The mild, polite Fifth Doctor has one of the highest onscreen body counts for the entire series. He also looked on and did nothing while the Master ''burned alive.''.

** The third series ''did'' show a two-part re-appearance of {{spoiler|the Cult of Skaro}}, but it's ultimately [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] that takes center-stage by the finale.

* [[Big Labyrinthine Building]]: theThe TARDIS.

** Any number of critters, not least of which is the Doctor himself--hehimself—he can do things like regenerate, re-grow hands, and absorb radiation, transform it into a form harmless to humans, and expel it through his ''foot''. Oh, and he has two hearts.

** Averted in [[Steven Moffat]]'s first series, Series 5, where of the six stories set in the UK, <ref>there's a seventh if you count the Starship UK from "The Beast Below"</ref> only two are London-based. Two of Series 6's seven stories set or partially set in UK also take place in London, and even then, neither are as the central focus. Moffat's production staff have lampshaded that focusing action on London has started to be a cliché.

** A Tennessee-born New Yorker in "Daleks in Manhattan" uses the word "lorry" instead of "truck.".

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The Doctor's Hand. ''Three times.''.

** ''[[Torchwood]]'', Series 1 (2006-072006–07), Jack has a mysterious hand in a container for the entire first series.

** '''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E05 The Horns of Nimon|Myyyyyyy DREEEAAAAMS of CONNNNN-QUEEEST!!!!]]'''

** The Daleks could almost have their own page for this. In the original encounter, the Daleks had been living in their underground city for only a few hundred years, waiting for the radiation from a nuclear war to fade, only to discover their mutated forms needed radiation to survive. Their self-created "travel machines" could only operate on powered metal surfaces,<ref>This was later bypassed with a power-receiving antenna dish mounted on their backs, but even that was soon forgotten.</ref>, and even in-story stuck to smooth surfaces, ramps, and elevators. They were cold and cruel, but by no means super-intelligent. They were defeated in the Doctor's first encounter, before they had a chance to ever leave their city. By the time the new series got into action, they had become computer-integrated, universe-conquering, flying battle machines.

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: The Master, at least when played by John Simm. He even likes to [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] when he should make a typical villain mistake and doesn't. Hell, his first step of {{spoiler|taking office as prime minister was to kill all of his 'advisors',' as every one of them had abandoned their parties and candidates to latch onto him and would likely treat him the same way.}}.

** The [[Russell T. Davies]] era has seen "Thethe end of the Daleks" no less than three separate times, and yet everyone's still surprised when more Daleks show up. They wised up after a bit--outbit—out of those three "ends of the Daleks", two happened in Series 1. After that, they made a point of ensuring that at least one member of the Cult of Skaro survived each encounter, until Russell T Davies decided to go out with a bang and did them in again at the conclusion of Series 4. Naturally, this meant Steven Moffat had to go and dig them up again, but he's been careful to keep them alive since.

* [[Death Ray]]: ''Everywhere.''.

* [[CowboyMedia BebopResearch at His ComputerFailure|Doctor Who In His Tardis]]: It's become generally accepted, by fans and production alike, that The Doctor's name is '''''not''''' "Doctor Who", but the media doesn't seem to know this. Even the end titles sometimes list the character as "Doctor Who". (Thatthat last is less [[Egregious]] of an error in early episodes, when the name distinction wasn't firmly established yet.).

** The show also tried to keep this going till the last possible moment, with the Doctor remarking, while pointing at the baby, that "it's mine.". He meant the cot, of course.

* [[For Want of a Nail]] / [[In Spite of a Nail]]: Occasionally even in the same adventure.

* [[Fur Bikini]]: Leela.

* [[Gender Bender]]: It was hinted that regeneration can do this in ''The End of Time'', and confirmed in "The Doctor's Wife", in which the Doctor mentioned that this has happened to another Time Lord, the Corsair, on several occasions. And it finally happened to the Doctor, in the regeneration from Twelve to Thirteen (Jodie Whittaker).

* [[Genius Breeding Act]]: In one episode, Rattigan explains his master plan for a new world to the other [[Teen Genius|Teen Geniuses]]es he'd collected, and mentions that he's written up a breeding program. They are appropriately appalled.

* [[Genre Roulette]]: borderlineBorderline [[Genre Busting]] at times. It did so even more in the era of William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor, before the series had quite settled into its format. As showrunner [[Steven Moffat|The Grand Moff]] put it: "Sometimes it's comedy, sometimes thriller, sometimes horror, sometimes children's stories, the silliest stories you've ever seen. Sometimes it's all that in the same episode"

'''Amy:''' It's been a while? }}

* [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]]: What happens to some Time Lord when they are Initiated.

** The Tenth Doctor is seen to do this on a couple of occasions (most notably "The Stolen Earth") when his insane ingenuity has failed him and he can't think of anything to do--hedo—he simply stands there, motionless, his face blank and fixed. It's fairly creepy, in fact.

* [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]]:

* [[Instant Web Hit]]: The Doctor Who Cast and Crew's music video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s4Czla6tXc I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)]. It was released on October 30th30, and the Tumblr Doctor Who fandom promptly exploded.

* [[Large Ham]]: [[Large Ham/Live-Action TV/Doctor Who|Has its own page]].

* [[The Last Dance]]: {{spoiler|theThe Tenth Doctor himself, in the 2009 specials. At the end of "Planet of the Dead", a low-level psychic tells him he's going to die, so he spends the next episodes running around having as many adventures possible before his inevitable [[The Nth Doctor|regeneration]]}}.

* [[Man of Wealth and Taste]]: The Master...usually. He's not his usual smart dressed self in {{spoiler|''The End of Time''}}. Then again, {{spoiler|he has just come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]], [[Came Back Wrong|wrong too]]...a tailor is low on his list of priorities}}.

* [[The Master (trope)|The Master]]: The Master, of course.

** For a [[Guile Hero]] the Doctor's very good at [[Badass Boast|Badass Boasts]]s.

** And [[The Master (trope)|The Master]]. No-one good was ever named the Master. Come to that, 'The Doctor' has an ominous ring to it too, if only because of its anonymity. The Eleventh Doctor even invokes this trope at the start of the 5th series:

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: {{spoiler|painfullyPainfully, averted in "The Pandorica Opens"}}, played straight in {{spoiler|"Flesh and Stone". The Doctor would have had no clue how to stop the light in the crack, if the angels hadn't suggested he sacrifice himself, which gave him the idea to sacrifice them instead}}.

* [[Oh Crap]]: It says a ''lot'' about this show that [[Oh Crap/Live-Action TV/Doctor Who|it has its own subpage for this trope]].

** Averted ''hard'' with last names: The number of unrelated characters with the last names "Smith" ,<ref>Mickey Smith, Sarah Jane Smith, and the Doctor's alias John Smith</ref>, or "Jones" <ref>Ianto Jones, Martha Jones, Harriet Jones, Clifford Jones</ref> seems to definitely be on the excessive side.

* [[Oop North]]: Three of the eight Doctors from the classic series were played by actors from from the North of England (and one from Scotland), but the two Bakers were expected to use [[British Accents|the Queen's English]]. Paul McGann and [[Bonnie Scotland|Sylvester McCoy]] still had audible regional accents, but were toned down from their normal speaking voices. When (Mancunian) Christopher Eccleston, who played the Ninth Doctor, claimed to be "the first Northern Doctor", (Liverpudlian) [[Tom Baker]]--the—the iconic Fourth Doctor--calledDoctor—called him on it.

* [[Organic Ship]]: The TARDIS.

*** Of course, the "rules" were being explained to Barbara by the Doctor, who himself seemed surprised to find he could have an effect on history in the early <ref>(prior to the Time Meddler arc)</ref> seasonSeason twoTwo story ''The Romans''.

* [[Phony Newscast]]: Common -- oftenCommon—often using real newscasters -- innewscasters—in the present-day episodes in the Davies era of the show.

** [[Queen VickyVictoria]] to a monk in "Tooth and Claw".

* [[Raygun Gothic]]: Cybermen and Daleks.

* [[Science Fantasy]]: Famed ''[[Discworld]]'' author [[Terry Pratchett]] claims in [http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/03/guest-blog-terry-pratchett-on-doctor-who/ this post] that, while the show is very entertaining, it lies more in the realm of fantasy than science fiction. To be certain, a lot of [[Speculative Fiction Tropes]] from [[Fantasy]], [[Science Fiction]], and [[Horror]] are blended together.

** "The Beast Below" has a fairly ambitious quotient of these. There's ''[[Star Wars]]'' (the royal [[Action Girl]], the heroes landing in the garbage chute, "you're my only hope", the villain looks like an expy for Grand Moff Tarkin, finding oneself inside the digestive tract of a giant space creature), ''[[Discworld]]'' (the [astral plane] ship that was never meant to fly, the space whale that looks just the ones in ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'', and the final shot of the country being carried on the back of the giant space-sea-creature), and ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' (involving a miraculous whale, and Amy is new to space/time travel and wears pajamas).

** The name and garbs of the [[Church Militant|army]] in '"The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" is obviously a shout-out to the [[Warhammer 4000040,000|Imperial Guard]], although with quite different ranks.

** River's relationship with the Doctor, a woman who falls in love with a time traveller and meets him in the wrong order throughout her life is a pretty obvious shout -out to ''[[The Time TravellersTraveler's Wife]]''.

** In "The Runaway Bride", the Racnoss Webstar bears a striking resemblance to the Cylon Basestar of the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]''. Both ships are made with Y shapes stacked on each other. The names are also quite similar.

** Averted in "The Parting of the Ways" -- Lynda—Lynda (with a 'y') looks out a window of the space station to see a Dalek looking in at her. Though we can't hear it, the lights on its head clearly flash in synch with the word "<small>EXTERMINATE</small>!"

** The Doctor won't kill anyone and [[Gun Hater|doesn't like guns]] because he thinks they're wrong. When people around him are willing to kill and use guns, his reaction is little more than scolding... and he doesn't go out of his way to [[Hoist by His Own Petard|save his enemies from themselves]]... and some of his enemies amount to [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]]s with [[Joker Immunity]], so killing them really would be the kindest option overall... and he'll visit all kinds of horrible [[And I Must Scream|fates worse than death]] on people [[Beware the Nice Ones|he thinks deserves it]], mind you... but he won't kill (although he has killed people and things on numerous occasions, including releasing cyanide into a room with a mad surgeon).

* [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]:

** The Seventh Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S25/E04 The Greatest Showinthe Galaxy|The Greatest Show in the Galaxy]]''.<ref> Also McCoy himself. The pyrotechnics were a mite bit bigger than expected, but McCoy knew there'd be no second shot, so just kept rolling. His clothes were actually partially set on fire in that shot.</ref>.

** In ''The End of Time'', {{spoiler|the Doctor's present to Donna outside her wedding is a lottery ticket.}}.

** In "Doomsday", {{spoiler|Rose gets this sort of future since Alternate Universe Pete is a wealthy businessman}}.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: ''The Reign of Terror'', ''The Massacre'', ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'', ''Robot'', ''Remembrance of the Daleks''.

** ''The End of Time'', Part One. That last twenty seconds. To drop some ''major'' spoilers in: {{spoiler|The Time Lords aren't just back, ''they're'' the ones trying to do as the title says}}.

** Especially during Christmas specials in the [[Russell T. Davies]] era -- wellera—well, London Is Always Doomed, at any rate. The residents [[Genre Savvy|have picked up on this]] after ''two'' successive Christmases running of destruction and chaos, and get out of town for Christmas Day.

* [[World War OneI]]: The ending of "The Family of Blood". The war is also alluded to throughout "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" Also the setting for the initially visited War Zone in "''The War Games"''.

** Special mention should be made of "Victory of the Daleks", in which the Daleks run an elaborate [[Xanatos Gambit]] in which pretty much every possible outcome has them come out ahead. {{spoiler|And it works}}!

** Statistically the most likely title? ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S10/E04 Planet of the Daleks|Planet of the Daleks]]''. Also surprisingly high on the list: [[Death Takes a Holiday|The Death of Death]] and [[Groundhog Day|The Day of Time]].

** So overdone that the title convention itself was parodied in "''The Curse of Fatal Death''."

* [[You Have Failed Me...]]:

* [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry]]: The Doctor (Ten and Eleven get special mentions).

* [["You?" Squared]]: usedUsed in "Partners in Crime", in which the Doctor and Donna meet for a second time—except they do it in mime, through a window.

[[Category:HistoricalTV FictionSeries]]

[[Category:AncientTelevision RomeSerial]]

[[Category:EdutainmentTrope ShowOverdosed]]

[[Category:PagesThis withIndex commentAsked tagsYou a Question]]