Forum:Doctor's Age

The Doctor's Age

Taking the novels as canon, which I believe official policy with most novels is that, unless contradicted by the TV Show or 'word of god', the novels are canon, the Doctor should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200. Even ignoring novel continuity the Seventh Doctor claims to be older than this in Time and the Rani(953 I believe). The Doctor is established as being in the habit of lying about his age quite often. It seems plausible that the Doctor has been the Doctor for about 900 years, since it has been established that he was somewhere around 250(give a take a bit) when he stole the Tardis and fled Gallifrey. Since, for what reason it has still not been confirmed, that seems to be the point where he started going by 'the Doctor'. Given that, especially it seems after the events of the Time War, he has retreated even further than his earlier incarnations into the identity of 'the Doctor' it makes sense that at some point he stopped even counting his life before fleeing Gallifrey. Of course, since this has never been discussed anywhere in canon material there is no way of knowing whether this is right, but it seems plausible and makes both the older references to the Doctor's age and the newer claims of age equate fairly well with each other. Of course, that means that, assuming that the Ninth Doctor traveled for a time before meeting Rose and that the Tenth Doctor was being truthful about the change in his age(and not just picking a random number out of the air) that the Tenth Doctor is, perhaps by far, the shortest lived of the Doctor's regenerations.Doorofnight 07:13, May 3, 2010 (UTC)

The First Doctor was somewhere close to 450 years old given that Second Doctor has human companions with him the entire time between his first regeneration and Tomb of the Cybermen where he claims to be 450.

Assuming the Second Doctor was forced to regenerate immediately at the conclusion of his trial then this regeneration possibly lasted only a few years, if, and this seems likely given The Two Doctors and a number of books, he was employed by the CIA for some time then this regeneration might well have lasted as much as a couple of hundred years.

It is unclear, once the Third Doctor was granted his freedom how much he traveled around but this incarnation also possibly lasted a couple of years as well. If he did end up traveling around quite a bit then again he could have lived for quite a long time although it seems far more likely that it wasn't great lengths of time although possibly several years or decades longer than UNITS point of view.

The Fourth Doctor claims to be 750 in Pyramids of Mars, meaning 300 years had elapsed for him since Tomb of the Cybermen, since this incarnation had travelled with Sarah Jane entirely most of that time was probably made up by the Second Doctor Working for the CIA with possibly a decent chunk of time for the Third Doctor as well. The Fourth Doctor has two occasions when he is travelling along and one in which he is travelling with another Time Lord. The Ribos Operation establishes that he is 759 according to official records(and that he lies about his age, or has miscounted) meaning 9 years has passed for him since facing Sutekh. It is stated, more or less explicitely onscreen that this regeneration is getting on a bit in years, possibly even nearing the natural end of the regeneration when he falls from the Radio Tower, although exactly how long is not clear.

The Fifth Doctor spends his entire regeneration travelling with others so again, possibly, this regeneration was a short one, although it is difficult to tell since it is not established what the life-span of either Nyssa or Turlough is, since neither are human. It is also pretty obvious that this regeneration is still quite young and vibrant when he dies.

The Sixth Doctor's onscreen timeline is quite jumbled because of the events of Trial of a Time Lord and taking printed material as canon he was also nearing the end of this regeneration when he dies when the Rani captures the Tardis.

The Seventh Doctor is established as being 953 in Time and the Rani meaning that about 200 years have passed since the Key to Time adventures. Going solely by onscreen material then most of this time is probably the Fourth Doctor, but going by printed material as well then a decent chunk is probably the Sixth Doctor as well, especially since the Doctor described himself as 813 not long after his fourth regeneration.

It is difficult to tell because it has never been established onscreen how long a Time Lords' regeneration lasts without outside interference. The Doctor's original body lasts about 450 years but assuming the first century of that is childhood/adolesence(pretty much established on-screen) that still doesn't give much information on how long a regeneration can last). Taking the movie as canon(and a number of the books) the Seventh Doctor is nearing the end of his regeneration when he is killed in San Francisco adding possibly a couple hundred more years onto the Doctor's Life.

Going solely off printed material the Eighth Doctor lives for at least 100 years before the Time War occurs.

Not knowing how long the Time War lasted and at what point in the war the Doctor regenerated means that there is no way to know for certain how long the Ninth Doctor has been around for by the time he meets Rose although there is some evidence(the many pictures of him throughout history) that he has been around for at least a little while). Given previous events it is unclear why the Doctor is now claiming to be about 900 years old but again, since he seems to be even more deeply hiding behind the name(earlier incarnations just didn't talk about it and brushed off inquiries, the Ninth and Tenth are described as hiding behind the name with dispair) means that it is quite likely that the Doctor is counting only the years that he has been the Doctor(kind of like Darth Vader, he is ceased to be who he was before, at least in his own mind, and became someone knew). This would seem to be reinforce by the Doctor's commend "900 years of Time and Space. . ." which would indicate that is how long he has been travelling. Not knowing how old he was when he regenerated means that there is no way of knowing how long this regeneration lasted although it is concievable that it is only a few years.

The Tenth Doctor claims to be about 900 after regeneration and 906 right before he regenerates in his next body and taking those numbers to be literall and not the Doctor just pulling random numbers out of the air, just guess, or deliberately lying, then this regeneration has lasted about 6 years. This puts this incarnation as definitely shorter lived than the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors, almost certainly less than the Second and Sixth, probably less than Three and possibly Five and there is no way of telling with Nine, although it is certainly concievable that he was around for a bit as well.

The idea that the Doctor is just pulling some random number out of his head or deliberately lying could possibly be confirmed by the possibly days old(possibly a bit longer given his several moments of disappearing in the Eleventh Hour and possibly with a good bit of travelling between Victory of the Daleks and The Time of Angels(although that is very unlikely) but even then he can't be more than a month or two, at the absolute outside) saying he is 907 all of a sudden although that is entirely speculation.Doorofnight