Doctor Who “Listen” Open Thread
I’m back. Last week, I couldn’t do this thread, as something more important was going on.
One of my best friends, a sweet, and very devout Christian, is going to the UK to help a Christian Group in Oxford, and I won’t see her again for 2 years. I decided to watch the late night repeat, spend some time with her instead. :)
Anyway, before I get the episode, I wanted to take a look at one of the mysteries of the Doctor, his age.
Before we go any farther, I do need to bring up Moffat’s view of the subject:
The thing I keep banging on about is that he doesn’t know what age he is. He’s lying. How could he know, unless he’s marking it on a wall? He could be 8,000 years old, he could be a million. He has no clue. The calendar will give him no clues.
This view of the showrunner’s was made canon in the Day of the Doctor.
So why mention this? Because we can at least bring up a bottom limit to his age. And, right now, 12th Doctor is far more correct than his predecessor.
The last known solid point in the Doctor’s life age wise was Time and the Rani, the introduction of the 7th Doctor. At this point, he was the same age as the Rani, 953 years old. From her, things get tricky. The definite Doctor Who canon consists most definitely of Classic Who, New Who, and the Big Finish Audiobooks. However, there are a legion of books, short stories, and even comics that complicate matters, some of which maybe canon, and some which quite clearly aren’t.
The next known solid piece of information places the 8th Doctor at about 1,009 at regeneration, and the 8th Doctor being 1,012 during the events of a book called Vampire Science. After this, things become a matter of adding.
During the 8th Doctor’s Adventures, he traveled a further 6 years, and then eventually stuck as an amnesiac for about 107 years on earth, then was later trapped on another planet in another story for some 600 years. At the end of this life, the Doctor was no younger than 1719.
The only bit of information from the War Doctor comes from a story, which mentioned that he fought for about about 400 years, and that in The Day of the Doctor, he was approximately 400 years younger than the 11th. Amusingly, this means that by the time the 9th met Rose, he was about 100 years since that initial point, giving an age by the end of the 9th Doctor of no less than 2219.
The Tenth is not as clear cut as it looks, though very short. He starts off about “900”, but claimed to be is “903” by the Voyage of the Damned. However, this is fuzzy, as during an animated short, he spent 33 months looking for Martha, spent an unknown amount of time stuck in 1969 during Blink, spent 2 months during the leadup to Human Nature, and a year during the Series 3 Finale. After that, things become more sensible, as he is “904” during The Day of the Doctor, and is “906” by his regeneration. After just 7 years, he regenerated, at the age of 2226.
The 11th Doctor, of course, lived the longest of them all. He was apparently “907” by the time of Vampires of Venice. By the time of the Impossible Astronaut, he had aged 2 more years, to about “909.” By the time of Night Terrors, he tells the child he was 8 years old around a thousand years earlier by his flawed reckoning. By the time of The Wedding of River Song, he stated his age to be 1103, and by A Town Called Mercy called himself age wise to be 1200. During the Day of the Doctor he says he is around 1200, give or take. However, he spent 900 years on Trenzalore. By the time of his regeneration, he had aged to about 3,413 years old, making this his minimum age as of now.
So, you may ask, how is the 12th Doctor correct? He gives his age as being “Over 2,000 years old,” which is correct, if vague.
In regards to this episode, we may be in for a treat. This episode, from the leaked script, seems to be a psychological terror episode, possibly enough to challenge Blink, and some of the people who have seen the script have said it is better than Blink as well. We could be in for a really big treat tonight.