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"I'm not exactly breaking the Laws of Time, but I am bending them a little"
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| What's included in this biography? |
Doctor Who has
had spin-offs in many other media. These works often contradict the
continuity of the TV show (which, of course, frequently contradicted
itself). Many fans enjoy debating which of these spin-offs are
"real" Doctor Who. While I'm familiar with, and have enjoyed,
most of the spin-offs, I've adopted a narrow view of canon for this
work. With a few exceptions, I've limited it to the original series
and the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who (identified as Doctor Who
TVM when referenced in the biography). The first exceptions are
the 1981 TV special K-9 and Company, and the unfinished Tom
Baker story Shada, released on video in 1992, which are
referred to in The Five Doctors. Also included are the videos
of Silver Nemesis, Battlefield, and The Curse of
Fenric, which contain material cut from the original broadcasts.
Please note that my decision not to incorporate the continuity of
the spin-offs is not intended as a commentary on their quality. I've
chosen to exclude them simply because they are not universally
accepted as part of the Doctor Who "canon".
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| How's the information presented? |
This work is intended
to be read as a biography of a real person. For each entry I've
cited one or more story references (like this). The pages
which cover events shown on television are arranged by Doctor. They
include a general overview of that Doctor's era, a personality
profile, and capsule synopses for each story. In the sections
covering events before the series began, I've assumed The Doctor's
early travels were part of his Academy training, and that after
graduation he had further adventures during his doctoral studies.
Following these adventures, he returned to Gallifrey and became
involved in other pursuits. Later he fled his home planet with his
granddaughter Susan, and they shared more adventures before arriving
in London in 1963. As far as possible, I've reported only those
facts gleaned during my own viewings of the series, supplemented by
the sources cited below, and tried to keep my opinions to a minimum.
Sometimes, however, there's no easy way to explain discrepancies in
the program's continuity. When I've used my own theories (or those
of others) to explain these events, I've highlighted this
speculation in red letters. Many of these
theories simply take into account minor continuity points, and need
no explanation. For those theories which require details, and for my
ideas on continuity questions such as UNIT dating and guest
appearances by previous Doctors, I've added footnotes in a section
called Theoretically Speaking. When you see this button  click to go to the theory, and click the button
following the theory to return.
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| What's the date of this story? |
Since this work is
about the order in which The Doctor experiences events, exact dates
aren't as critical as they would be in a history or chronology,
though they are given whenever possible. For stories set on
contemporary Earth, I've assumed that the events occurred shortly
before the story's original broadcast date unless compelling
evidence indicates otherwise. For stories set in the past, I've
assumed the events took place at the same time as they did in our
own history, again provided that no evidence suggests otherwise.
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| Which version of events is correct? |
This work assumes that
The Doctor's adventures take place in a (reasonably) consistent
universe, and that the actions of The Doctor and his companions are
an integral part of that universe's history. This assumption is
complicated by a number of stories which contradict "facts" which
were established previously. How do we reconcile these
discrepancies? My approach is this: (1) The latest version of events
represents the best available information. If The Deadly
Assassin says the Time Lords aren't quite the godlike beings we
saw earlier, and The Two Doctors shows us a Second Doctor who
does missions for them, it's because new information gives us a more
accurate picture, not because Robert Holmes got his facts wrong when
he wrote the later stories. (2) With one exception, I've assumed
that what's seen on screen is fact, even if it's the result of a
production mistake. The exception is the sign on the junkyard in
which we originally see the TARDIS in An Unearthly Child,
which gives its owner's name as "Foreman". This is confirmed in the
Sixth Doctor story Attack of the Cybermen. Since Susan
used "Foreman" as her last name while on Earth, I've chosen to
ignore the misspelling of the name seen in Remembrance of the Daleks.
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| When DID The Doctor meet Napoleon? |
The Doctor's always
dropped names of historical figures, and mentioned events he's seen.
Most such references are to untelevised adventures, and there's no
way for us to know the order in which they took place. To preserve
the flavor of the series, I've arranged these events in a random
sequence, combining several references into a single entry whenever
possible. One other note: The Doctor's version of history sometimes
disagrees with ours, usually in small ways. Unless there's evidence
to the contrary, I've assumed that he's telling the truth. If we can
(and do) accept a Britain which was threatened by Daleks in 1963,
and which launched manned Mars probes in the 1970s, I don't think
it's difficult to accept that some minor historical details differ
as well.
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| How old is The Doctor? |
This question is
difficult to answer, especially considering that The Doctor tends to
lie about his age. Though the subject rarely has a bearing on
specific events, I address it for the sake of completeness. While
there must be gaps between stories to account for unseen events, I
don't believe The Doctor aged 500 years between his second and
seventh incarnations. My assumption is that he uses different dating
systems depending on the circumstances. The Second Doctor tells
Victoria Waterfield that he's 450 years old "in human terms" (The
Tomb of the Cybermen). The Fourth Doctor, in a conversation with
Sarah Jane Smith (Pyramids of Mars) which specifically
highlights the differences between Time Lords and humans, says that
he's around 750, and several of his subsequent stories confirm this.
Since these later references are usually in conversations with
Romana, another Time Lord, it seems obvious to me that, in these
cases, he's using Gallifreyan dating. To further support this idea,
at the time of his trial by a Gallifreyan tribunal, The Sixth Doctor
is 900 years old, and The Seventh Doctor says that both he and The
Rani, who'd certainly use the Gallifreyan calendar, are 953. (I'm
aware that The Third Doctor hinted on occasion that he had been
around for "thousands of years". I'm assuming, based on his habit of
mentioning historical figures as personal friends, that these
statements are meant to indicate the range of history that he'd
witnessed, rather than being literally true.)
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| What sources are used in this biography? |
I own copies of all
complete Doctor Who stories, but many of the earliest
episodes were destroyed by the BBC in the 1970s. More than twenty
adventures from the Hartnell and Troughton eras are partially or
totally lost. For these it's been necessary to rely on other
sources. Whenever possible I've read scripts of the lost stories;
the script books published by Titan Books, and the online archive of
Missing Scripts, have been invaluable. I've also listened to many of the
available audio recordings. I'm particularly grateful for the
research done by Andrew Pixley for his Archives (published in
Doctor Who Magazine), which have answered a number of
questions. For certain stories, I've consulted the Target
novelizations, giving particular weight to those by the story's
original writer. Finally, although I disagree with some of their
theories, these books have been very helpful in filling in the gaps,
and are highly recommended: The Discontinuity Guide by
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping; Doctor Who: The
Sixties, The Seventies, The
Eighties, and the Doctor Who Handbook
series by David J. Howe, Stephen James Walker, and Mark Stammers;
A History of the Universe by Lance Parkin; and
The Terrestrial Index and The Universal
Databank by Jean-Marc Lofficier. For historical
information, I've primarily relied on memory, supplemented by
Compton's Encyclopedia, The Dictionary of
Cultural Literacy, Microsoft Encarta,
The New York Public Library Desk Reference, The
Oxford History of Britain, The People's
Chronology, and The Timetables of History.
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