They present the Doctor as wholly human, actually. Half-human didn’t come up until the TV movie with McGann. Also, both Barbara and Susan are his granddaughters.
One of the NuWhos - Smith, I think - had a throwaway line about the fashion for looking elderly that was popular when he was young. A clever bit of retconning, I thought.
Well, there is a simpler explanation: loneliness. Renette, in “The Girl In The Fireplace” says “such a lonely, lonely childhood” when she reads his memories.
Holy crap, you’re right! How did I never notice that before?
Which bit? The bit about 16 mariners tossing in his purse? Or something else?
I think they also hint at his need for companions in “Midnight” … without his companion witnessing him (both complementing and complimenting) he ends up more impotent, than “victorious”.
Also, in this year’s “God Complex” they demonstrated how he really can’t help himself. Even as he was bemoaning how he could no longer travel with Amy and Rory, putting them in danger, how it was unfair of him to basically offer such candy to humans, he was making the offer to Rita … who called him out on it.
The one instance of “hanky-panky” in the TARDIS that is know to have occurred
Amy and Rory’s wedding night was spent on the TARDIS in transit through the time vortex resulted in Melody Pond/River Song, and human woman with some oddly Time Lordish traits and a backwards-in-time relationship with the Doctor
had enough significant consequences that the “no hanky-panky in the TARDIS” rule starts to look really, really sensible whether it involves Time Lords or not.
Um…yes, that one.
Antecedent added my me
Clarification:
In the Peter Cushing movies, His name is Doctor Who, and he is a human inventor. His Granddaughters are Susan (age 7) and Barbara (young adult - possibly late teens). Ian is Barbara’s boyfriend.
In the original Series, He is called The Doctor, and belongs to a mysterious race (later to be called Time Lords). His Granddaughter is Susan, a highschooler (or the English equivalent), who is very knowledgeable about science and history, but incredibly ignorant about every day life. (She doesn’t even know how many shillings are in a pound!) Her history and science teachers, Barbara and Ian, follow her home one day to meet her mysterious Grandfather. They watch her enter a blue police box in a junkyard, and they sneak in behind her. The adventure begins…
Nnn, yes, my post was not as clear as it ought have been.:smack: Sorry.
I’m pretty sure the Doctor and at least one companion has explicitly said he thought out companions because he is incredibly lonely.
Further clarification:
In the second movie, Barbara is replaced by Louise, who is Doctor Who’s niece, and Ian is replaced by constable Tom, a policeman who tried to use the Police Box to report a robbery.
He had essentially this conversation when he asked Donna to come with. ‘I just want a mate…’ (ie, a friend, not…you know…made clear when Donna misinterpreted it.)
No worries. I figured it out.
<Johnny Carson>I did not know that.</Johnny Carson>
WOW… okay, point taken. But Sampiro’s quite right. Based on hotness alone, Eccleston can eat crackers in my bed **any **tme he wants to… 
And Tom was played by Bernard Cribbins, who later played Donna’s grandfather, Wilfred Mott.
You see how it all ties together?
I generally acknowledge Sylvester McCoy to be the least popular, don’t know if fandom agrees with me though 
McCoy or McGann, I’d say. Both were fairly short-term (McGann especially), and didn’t get much play in the US, at least. I’ve heard that the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) is also not terribly popular.
I think Colin Baker is the least popular. I know he is with me.
I wasn’t a big fan of Colin Baker’s Doctor, but I faithfully watched his entire run.
I gave up fairly early on Sylvester McCoy, and never checked in again before Eccleston.
You missed some great Doctor Who! His first season was fairly atrocious, but they really got their act together for his second and third seasons and pulled out some great stories. Remembrance Of The Daleks, The Curse Of Fenric, and Ghost Light rank up there with with the best of Who, and there were quite a few other good stories too. They added a few layers of mystery and depth - and even a manipulative streak - to the character after his initial debut as a spoon-playing buffoon.
Now look what you’ve done! (My wife thinks my current binge is almost over.)
Hey, here’s a silly question for folks whose memories of classic Who are fresher than mine: When did the Doctor first become unambiguously gay-positive? I mean, it’s very up-front post-2005, but it seems so natural and in keeping with the spirit if the Doctor that you don’t really blink.
Obviously wouldn’t expect the same level of frankness but is there any precedent apart from the fourth Doctor lifting a few pages from Oscar Wilde?