Sheesh…
He’s a DOCTOR!
Ah, I did not know about the replicator business, and that’s combined with his scavenging habits a sufficient-ish explanation. My knowledge of Doctor Who starts with David Eccleston’s ninth doctor, so I’ve been assuming there’s plenty of history I’ve missed.
WRT to what the doctor’s got in his pocketses, I know that he’s also at least on two occasions carried a banana around in the past two years, because bananas are good.
No…he’s THE Doctor!
[Tom Baker] You might be a doctor, but I am The Doctor. The definite article, you might say. [/TB]
He has a ship that’s larger on the inside than the outside that can go anywhere, anytime and he sees all of time and space. He carries around a tool that does pretty much whatever he needs it to do (although my favorite Harkness quote is “who looks at a screwdriver and says…yeah! that could be more sonic!?”) and magical paper that looks like whatever he wants it to look like. I have to think stocking up on groceries is pretty simple. For all we know, the Tardis may have massive stockrooms with a thousand years worth of food stores.
I don’t mind a bit of mystery regarding the minutia of his daily life. In fact, the less a sci fi show explains that stuff the better IMHO.
The Doctor can choose any point in time to buy his stuff, so obviously he stops in Amsterdam in this era for his pot and shrooms, in Texas in the past for his Peyote, in 19th Century China for his Opium, visits Timothy Leary for his acid…
Oh wait. That’s not what you meant. Never mind.
No, I think you’re on to something, but just remember that he can only stop each time/place once because of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.