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The Doctor's age

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Nyki
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« on: August 30, 2011, 01:08:29 am »

This was the first time the Doctor's specific age was ever mentioned.  There's never really been any clear continuity on his age - here he's 450, the Third Doctor says he's lived for "thousands of years", the Fourth is 749 (and various other comparable ages over different stories), the Sixth and Seventh are 900.  Then, on the reboot, the Ninth Doctor is still 900, in spite of everything that seems to have happened since the Movie, let alone since Revelation of the Daleks.

So, can anyone rationalise this?  Or do we have to admit defeat and chalk this one up to continuity errors?
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« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2011, 01:15:08 am »

OK, my attempt to answer my own question.  There's a theory that the Second Doctor wasn't regenerated and exiled straight after his trial, but was used as an agent by the CIA for a while.  It's stretching things a bit that that could have lasted 300 years, but not totally impossible.  The Third Doctor's "thousands of years" could have been a slip of the tongue and refer to his existance as "the Other" as well as his life as the Doctor.  The Fourth Doctor had two periods when he wasn't travelling with mortal companions, which could have consequently lasted longer than they seemed to - between The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil, and while Romana was his only companion.  Again, it's stretching things a bit that it could have been 150 years, but possible.

The lack of time passing between the classic series and NuWho is harder to explain.  It could be a side effect of the Time War, but I can't quite see how.
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« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2011, 09:52:25 am »

I've noticed a few times how the Doctor's age crops up - and it seems to be quite an arbitrary decision. As Nyki says, there was one quote from a Tom Baker story (forgive me I can't remember the exact one but it might be Destiny of the Daleks) where he says "You can't kill me I'm only 749 and we have a saying, life begins at 750" (or something like that. In the Masque of Mandragora we, again, get his age as being around 700 years old. And then going forward to TIA/DOTM we have an explicit statement (and quite a key plot device) of the Doctor's age.

One thing that tickles me is that the Doctors regenerations have (by and large) made him younger. So that means that William Hartnell will have actually been the youngest iteration of the Doctor and Matt Smith is the oldest. I actually think this is quite a cool idea (although not done deliberately, I really like the idea of him ageing backwards).

In attempting to answer the question, perhaps one thing (as yet unexplained) about regenerations is that they are non-linear in the way they interact (and so any real attempt to give the Doctor's age is actually meaningless but he approximates for us depending on where they are relative to the start of his existence). Sadly though, IMHO, what we have here is genuine continuity mistakes that we can make up some timey wimey business to excuse Smiley
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« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2011, 01:41:19 pm »

Until the stuff in The Impossible Astronaut where they used it as a plot point, I had always just assumed that he joked about it or randomly plucked a number out of thin air and hoped for the best. I tend not to take him too seriously when he talks about his age
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« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2011, 09:40:53 pm »

The Tom Baker quote was from The Brain of Morbius, when the Sisters sentenced him to death.
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« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2011, 11:13:50 pm »

The Tom Baker quote was from The Brain of Morbius, when the Sisters sentenced him to death.

Thanks Nyki - every time i get new stuff in my brain it pushes some old stuff out Smiley
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« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2011, 11:16:32 am »

Until the stuff in The Impossible Astronaut where they used it as a plot point, I had always just assumed that he joked about it or randomly plucked a number out of thin air and hoped for the best. I tend not to take him too seriously when he talks about his age

Yea I have to say I thought along the same lines. People ask him and he seems to pick a random number and I guess in the newer series he kept it around the 900's, much like his quick reply to Clyde about his regenerations in SJA. It does though seem more definitive in the astronaut two parter because his age is a crucial part of the early plot
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« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2011, 11:41:50 am »

Until the stuff in The Impossible Astronaut where they used it as a plot point, I had always just assumed that he joked about it or randomly plucked a number out of thin air and hoped for the best. I tend not to take him too seriously when he talks about his age

Yea I have to say I thought along the same lines. People ask him and he seems to pick a random number and I guess in the newer series he kept it around the 900's, much like his quick reply to Clyde about his regenerations in SJA. It does though seem more definitive in the astronaut two parter because his age is a crucial part of the early plot

Yep me too. I just assumed that the randomness of the number he chooses whenever it is brought up just comes down to whatever comes into his head when he was asked
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« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2011, 04:13:34 pm »

I think it's way too easy to just pass it off as timey wimey stuff so they can pretty much get away with saying anything I suppose. I remember when CE said his age when the show first came back a lot of fans complained because he hadn't really aged in the time since the show went off the air. I'm not sure why that matters, but it's just something I remember reading about
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« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2011, 12:50:40 am »

He has to be guessing, surely. He doesn't have any sort of sense of linear time. In this story he was talking and thinking and then gave his answer in 'earth years', but at other times he just comes out with a number straight away. Thing is, realistically would you even keep counting? I think he makes up as he feels
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« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2011, 10:45:08 am »

I agree with TC. If you hit a thousand, or even 500 would you even bother keeping track? I know I plan to stop aging once I hit 30. If I lived to 1000 years old I think I would definately lose track and just pluck numbers out of thin air
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« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2011, 04:39:31 pm »

I always assumed he just made up whatever number felt right to him at the time. He does occasionally seem to decide to get younger, since he claimed to be 953 in Time & the Rani, but was back to 903 in Voyage of the Damned.
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