# ...the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Thread. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485 "2013-02-16T08:55:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/221 "2013-11-27T03:14:47Z")
I am curious about this since it doesn’t seem to have happened to (or, at least not mentioned by) anyone else on the board - My 11th doctor special wasn’t broadcast (BBCA, Dish Network) until the day after ‘The Day of the Doctor’. I can’t see that Dish would have anything to do with it, but it doesn’t seem to be quite reasonable that someone at BBCA didn’t plan ahead enough weeks to get 1 through 11 all done before the 23rd. Did this happen to anyone else? I’ve got it recorded so I’m not going to miss it. Just seems strange. Bob ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/222 "2013-11-27T03:37:50Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > “Hello! I’m the Doctor. A future Doctor! I’m number eleven! Or twelve! Its hard to keep track, but I wear a Fez now! I don’t have time to answer any questions but here are some calculations I need you to start on right now. And I need to see you around Gallifrey at this date at this exact time! Right! See you in a thousand years!” The part that got me wasn’t that they managed to pull together 13 Doctors from different points in his personal timeline, but that they just happened to be exactly 1 from each regeneration. Unless they did that on purpose for some in-story reason (obviously the out-of-story reason is the coolness and nostalgia factors for the 50th anniversary), the chances are astronomically slim that there wouldn’t be, say, 2 fifth Doctors, and 0 seventh Doctors. Actually, the easiest way would have been to just go get 13 Eleventh Doctors. The spiel above from Banquet Bear would be much more believable if it started out with, “Hello! I’m the Doctor. You can tell because I look just like you. Here’s a mirror to prove it to you…” ---
**Author:** ![CorneaGenii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@CorneaGenii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CorneaGenii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/223 "2013-11-27T06:15:41Z")
> [@twhitt](#): > > There’s a point left unsettled, which it would soothe me greatly to have even a half coherent fanon explanation for. > > Why would all the previous Doctors, through eight at least, be there for that final maneuver? Have you learned nothing? When something in _Steven Moffat Presents Doctor Who_ doesn’t make sense, the only explanation you need is “timey-whimey”. (“Look. Monsters! Run!” is sooo last 50 years.) 😛 As for the question, WAG, thirteen TARDISes have a better chance of success than three. > [@gonzoron](#): > > The part that got me wasn’t that they managed to pull together 13 Doctors from different points in his personal timeline, but that they just happened to be exactly 1 from each regeneration. Unless they did that on purpose for some in-story… the easiest way would have been to just go get 13 Eleventh Doctors. Before Moffat and his “timey-whimey” get-out-of-making-sense card came along, I remember the 9th Doctor saying he couldn’t go back to a time where he already existed, because he would automatically become part of the events taking place. I took it to mean that a particular incarnation couldn’t go back to any time where that same incarnation was present. It was even shown somewhat in “Father’s Day” when Nine and Rose saw her father’s death a second time. When Rose intervened the second time, it altered events and the Nine that was there before disappeared. I’m not sure if this was true in Classic Who, but it seemed to stay consistent in RTD’s run. But as I said, this is _ **Steven Moffat Presents…Doctor Who** _. Consistency, continuity, and canon are DIRTY words. _stage whispers_ TIMEY-WHIMEY Why, yes! I DO hate Moffat as showrunner. How could you tell? Funny Doctor Who youtube video. Just because. [Timey Wimey Awesome](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TySLmj2ZWIo) ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/224 "2013-11-27T06:31:16Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Uh, Time Lord? TARDIS? It seems to me the three standing in the room making up the new decision called up _all_ the Doctor’s incarnations for this adventure. But none of them will remember, just like these three didn’t remember. In the past, it was difficult, if not impossible, for multiple Doctor incarnations to share the same time. The handwave for the special looked like it was the Moment or it could simply be that Moffat just doesn’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/225 "2013-11-27T07:26:18Z")
From [The Three Doctors](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Three_Doctors_%28TV_story%29) > [@](#): > > PRESIDENT: Yes, I am, but perhaps he can help himself. Show me the Doctor’s time stream, the section for his earlier self before he changed his form. > CHANCELLOR: You can’t allow him to cross his own time stream. Apart from the enormous energy it would need, the First Law of Time expressly forbids him to meet his other selves. In The [The Five Doctors](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Five_Doctors_%28TV_story%29) the Lord President of the High Council was doing all sorts of forbidden activities, including bringing five of the doctors together. So far, consistent. From [The Two Doctors](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Two_Doctors_%28TV_story%29) > [@](#): > > PERI: But how can two of you be together at the same point in space and time? > DOCTOR: When you travel around as much as I do, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll run into yourself at some point. Come on. Gone from forbidden to inevitable. Although, to be honest, this makes much more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/226 "2013-11-27T18:27:42Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > The part that got me wasn’t that they managed to pull together 13 Doctors from different points in his personal timeline, but that they just happened to be exactly 1 from each regeneration. Unless they did that on purpose for some in-story reason (obviously the out-of-story reason is the coolness and nostalgia factors for the 50th anniversary), the chances are astronomically slim that there wouldn’t be, say, 2 fifth Doctors, and 0 seventh Doctors. Given the Doctor’s personality, particularly Smith’s Doctor, the coolness factor may very well be the in-universe explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/227 "2013-11-27T18:31:45Z")
I kind of pictured them needing all thirteen tardises to fly round the planet weaving the web, so to speak - but then, I’d had a few beverages before the cinema viewing. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/228 "2013-11-27T18:45:23Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > So you’re saying it would get all timey-wimey, then? > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Timey Whimey, in simpler words: don’t overthink it too much or your head might explode! > [@CorneaGenii](#): > > Have you learned nothing? When something in _Steven Moffat Presents Doctor Who_ doesn’t make sense, the only explanation you need is “timey-whimey”. Oh, for God’s sake! ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/229 "2013-11-27T19:01:59Z")
Ah, so, we all talk like that now, do we? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/230 "2013-11-27T19:09:49Z")
I don’t know where they picked that up. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/231 "2013-11-27T20:15:35Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > "Hello! I’m the Doctor. A future Doctor! I’m number eleven! Or twelve! Actually (christmas special spoiler-y): [Maybe Neither](http://www.hypable.com/2013/11/25/doctor-who-retcon-matt-smith-is-the-13th-doctor/) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/232 "2013-11-27T20:18:47Z")
> [@urban1a](#): > > My 11th doctor special wasn’t broadcast (BBCA, Dish Network) until the day after ‘The Day of the Doctor’. I can’t see that Dish would have anything to do with it, but it doesn’t seem to be quite reasonable that someone at BBCA didn’t plan ahead enough weeks to get 1 through 11 all done before the 23rd. > > Did this happen to anyone else? I’ve got it recorded so I’m not going to miss it. Just seems strange. Yes, it happened to me as well. I don’t think it really matters. They decided to air the 50th special and that coincided with the weekend they wished to air the 11th special. The specials were running on Sunday evenings, the 50th ran on Saturday. I haven’t actually seen all the specials. I missed a few along the way, with them being inserted once a month and all that. Fortunately, I noticed Xfinity has them On Demand, so I’ll be trying to catch up. > [@gonzoron](#): > > The part that got me wasn’t that they managed to pull together 13 Doctors from different points in his personal timeline, but that they just happened to be exactly 1 from each regeneration. Unless they did that on purpose for some in-story reason (obviously the out-of-story reason is the coolness and nostalgia factors for the 50th anniversary), the chances are astronomically slim that there wouldn’t be, say, 2 fifth Doctors, and 0 seventh Doctors. There wasn’t an explicitly stated reason, but I can come up with two [del]fanwanks[/del] explanations cobbled together from within the universe and story. 1. It’s all timey wimey. You know how the Doctor isn’t supposed to cross his own timeline? Notice how the TARDIS freaked out when three entered at the same time. Well, it’s substantially harder to have two of the same incarnation interacting. Okay, not exactly brilliant. 2. It was a deliberate act by the Doctor as a self-reconciliation. Notice how 10 and 11 reacted to the Warrior, not wishing to include him as one of themselves. The utter disdain and his own self-identity. And then when it came time to push the big red button, they both showed up, not to prevent him from doing it, but in recognition that it had to be done but this time he wouldn’t have to do it alone. That was a deliberate act of integration, of making him welcome in the doctor’s self-identity. Well, since this giant act required multiple Doctors anyway, why not one from each incarnation as the ultimate act of unity and incorporation. “I am the Doctor, and this is the most Doctory thing that I could ever do, so I am doing it as the Whole and Complete Doctor in all my Doctorness”. No more excluding 8.5 (or does that make him 12? Dammit, somebody’s gotta sort this out so we can talk about it consistently!) > [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > I kind of pictured them needing all thirteen tardises to fly round the planet weaving the web, so to speak - but then, I’d had a few beverages before the cinema viewing. Yes, but if they pulled 6 tens and 7 elevens they would have 13, and each incarnation would bring an instant of the TARDIS so they would have 13 TARDISes. _My_ question: When we last saw the Doctor, he was inside his own timestream looking for Clara and confronting his own dark inside. When this special picks up, he’s popped up and sent Clara a note at her new job, and she races to meet him again. How did we get here from there? ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/233 "2013-11-27T20:22:38Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > _My_ question: When we last saw the Doctor, he was inside his own timestream looking for Clara and confronting his own dark inside. When this special picks up, he’s popped up and sent Clara a note at her new job, and she races to meet him again. How did we get here from there? I thought Amy and Rory implied that “Doctor’s Companion” was not a full time job – they were traveling with the Doctor a lot, but also spent a bunch of their timestreams at home. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/234 "2013-11-27T21:09:05Z")
Whine: do we really have to wait until August for Series 8? Geez. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/235 "2013-11-27T21:25:10Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I thought Amy and Rory implied that “Doctor’s Companion” was not a full time job – they were traveling with the Doctor a lot, but also spent a bunch of their timestreams at home. They were fairly unique in that regard among the Doctor’s companions, though. I think Rose was the first companion to even visit her family while still on the TARDIS, wasn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/236 "2013-11-28T03:01:06Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > They were fairly unique in that regard among the Doctor’s companions, though. I think Rose was the first companion to even visit her family while still on the TARDIS, wasn’t she? Well Susan routinely visited her grandfather while on the Tardis. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/237 "2013-11-29T20:11:20Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I thought Amy and Rory implied that “Doctor’s Companion” was not a full time job – they were traveling with the Doctor a lot, but also spent a bunch of their timestreams at home. That’s not the problem. The problem is that Clara had jumped into or been absorbed by or whatever the Doctor’s timestream in order to hunt down the Great Intelligence (or whatever) and interrupt it’s plan to hinder the Doctor at every turn of his own past. It was absorbed and depersonified, so she was absorbed and inserted as multiple incarnations. Except whenever the Doctor encountered her, she did NOT know him. And then the Doctor went into his timestream to find her, whereupon he encountered the one of whom we do not speak. And then… Clara gets a note and comes to the TARDIS. How did we get there from here? Clara is disembodied and then inserted as multiple different incarnations of herself that do not know her own identity or connection to the Doctor but are somehow charged with the task of “setting things right” or whatever, and the Doctor is _at_ Trensalore and jumps into his own timestream. I’m looking for the bit where he finds her, materializes her in 2013 UK, and then _steps out of his own timestream_. Or something. Basically, they left us with a cliffhanger and then started us on a new adventure without telling us how the cliffhanger was resolved. 😕:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/238 "2013-11-29T23:38:10Z")
I thought it was each splinter Clara was born, saved the doctor from the Great Intelligence, and died. The Doctor played by Smith went into the center where his time streams converge and got, I’m thinking, the original Clara out…Or one of her splinter selves…and the two go on happily ever after. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/239 "2013-11-29T23:41:11Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > I thought it was each splinter Clara was born, saved the doctor from the Great Intelligence, and died. The Doctor played by Smith went into the center where his time streams converge and got, I’m thinking, the original Clara out…Or one of her splinter selves…and the two go on happily ever after. I assume the same but it would have been nice for a line or two saying as much. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485/240 "2013-11-30T14:02:11Z")
It’s worth noting that when you write yourself into a corner by explaining every little detail of every little thing that you need to accomplish to further your story, your show doesn’t tend to last 50 years. By which I mean to say, by leaving it open as to how Clara works exactly, they can come back and revisit it in the future. Or the past. Whatever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-thread/650485.md?page=13)