Talk:The Curator

Summer Falls

In Summer Falls, the novel based on the in-story book, the Doctor is known as the Curator and says "magic is cool". Do you think we should add some of that stuff on this page? It seems suspiciously similar.. ---Knight

Other Versions of The Doctor

Surely The Curator is a similar manifestation of The Doctor to The Watcher? An echo of his conciousness sent by a future version of The Doctor to help/remind himself of what he needs to do. --86.21.136.74^{talk to me} 18:26, November 24, 2013 (UTC)

Well... there's really nothing in the narrative to suggest that. So that's more a Howling discussion than anything. --Constonks 19:47, November 24, 2013 (UTC)

We just don't know ! -- Beardouk ☎ 03:28, November 25, 2013 (UTC)

Elizabeth's letter

In Queen Elizabeth I's letter to the Doctor, which is delivered to the Eleventh Doctor by Kate Stewart early in the film, the Queen appoints the Doctor "curator to the under gallery where deadly danger to England is locked away". 147.194.20.157^{talk to me} 00:15, November 25, 2013 (UTC)

There's no evidence that Baker is the curator to the Under Gallery, though. The establishing shot and the changed environment visually suggests they're in the National Gallery proper.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  18:03: Fri 29 Nov 2013

Except it seems unlikely that Gallifrey Falls No More would be allowed out into the main gallery ? -- Beardouk ☎ 00:31, November 30, 2013 (UTC)

Apart from it being more reasonable, compare the room deco and styling of where the painting sits in the end scene, the same white-walled rooms shared by the other Time Lord 3d paintings, to where it was at the beginning of the serial when it was brought out into the regular gallery to demonstrate Elizabeth I's "credentials". The normal location of Gallifrey Falls No More is the Under-Gallery to which Tom Baker's character is referred to as the Curator. -- philosoraptor 107.3.161.174^{talk to me} 00:57, December 6, 2013 (UTC)

If he were the Doctor, and were this the Under-Gallery, then Kate Stewart would not have logically gone on some hunt for Eleven, would she? His being the Doctor would have obviated the need for Stewart to grab the TARDIS with her helicopter and present Elizabeth's message to Eleven. Surely, if he were the Doctor, Kate would have handed over Liz 1's message to him ages ago. He's the curator in spite of the Liz 1 message, not because of it — so logically he's not the curator of the Under Gallery, but of the gallery proper.

Moreover, Gallifrey Falls No More was in the main gallery at the beginning of the episode — a gallery which, as can be seen in the background of some shots as 11 and Clara walk up to the painting, has rooms that are white-walled. (5'11") But you don't need to scour those shots for proof; the room in which the 10/Liz 1 painting exists is not in the Under Gallery and yet it has white walls. (19'10") Not that white walls are terribly unexpected in a gallery. Therefore, there's nothing in the script or the visuals which suggest that the Tom Baker scene must be in the Under Gallery, and thus nothing to make us think that he's taken up the position offered by Liz 1 to "the Doctor".
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  15:10: Fri 27 Dec 2013

I realize I'm just over five years late here, but though your argument makes sense that we can't prove the Curator is that of the Under Gallery… why would Moffat have included that line in the Queen's letter if he wasn't?

Besides, the Eleventh Doctor ponders that he might "retire and be the curator of this place", and the Curator is clearly meant to be taken as his eventually fulfilling that dream — and which of the two Galleries do you think the Doctor might consider himself well-suited to being Curator of?

Why Kate sent for the Eleventh Doctor even though she had a Doctor right there as her curator (and it's now confirmed that the Curator is the future Doctor)… I can think of three explanations off the top of my head. First, the Curator is the Doctor fulfilling Eleven's musing abotu "retiring and becoming the curator of this place"; operative word being retiring. The Curator is a future Doctor who has retired from adventuring. Second, one might wonder whether the Curator told UNIT (or, really, anyone) who he really was, precisely to enjoy his retirement without anyone peskily dragging him out of it. Or, third, it could be a stable-time-loop thing — Kate asked the Curator for help first, but he, remembering that he had already sorted it as previous incarnations, told her he couldn't interfere and she had to get his younger self. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 19:27, January 2, 2019 (UTC)

Overlapping Text

I can't read the text in the article. it overlaps photos ——Unsigned

The Wink

The part about the wink suggesting the Fourth Doctor is speculation. It should say that the wink suggess he knows who he is.--108 as 12.230.34.138^{talk to me} 02:36, February 13, 2014 (UTC)

The Curator and The TARDIS

Firstly this is merely speculation on my part, something which I like to think is canon but is not established as official canon

Let's assume the Curator IS a future version of the Doctor revisiting the Fourth Doctor's incarnation.

I noticed when the exchange between the Curator and Eleventh Doctor takes places you can see roundel/hexagons on the back wall.

It has been hinted in previous episodes and even shown in the classic series that the Doctor could indeed fix the chameleon circuit in the TARDIS.

So if the Curator really is the future Doctor what if the National Gallery is actually the TARDIS?!

Again only my speculation but I like to consider it "fan-canon"– The preceding unsigned comment was added by 31.87.94.207 (talk).

Please note that per Tardis:Discussion policy, talk pages are only for discussing the editing of pages. Any theories, fanon or speculation do not belong here. We do have a place for this kind of thing, located at Howling:The Howling. Thanks. Shambala108 ☎

The curator is the 4 doctor

at least acording to the official doctor who youtube chanel <removed per Tardis:Video policy> – The preceding unsigned comment was added by Hc.hcsen (talk • contribs) .

Per Tardis:Valid sources, the youtube channel is not a source for in-universe articles. In addition, our video policy absolutely forbids linking to offsite videos. Shambala108 ☎ 13:48, September 21, 2014 (UTC)

The Curator is the Moment?

Given the power that the moment has, is it possible that the curator is another avatar for the Moment to guide the Doctor? – The preceding unsigned comment was added by 38.108.156.122 (talk).

Article talk pages are for discussing how to edit the article. Speculation and theories can be posted on The Howling. P&P talk contribs 21:19, November 19, 2014 (UTC)

Dubbed?

I removed the information but it got restored. Are we really concerned with who voiced The Curator in the German dub (which, for the record, is not actually stated on the page - whoever wrote it just said he was voiced by this other actor, which is at best misleading and at worse flat-out wrong) since we don't mention who dubs other characters or mention any other actors who dubbed this particular character?– The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.162.112.147 (talk).

I'll tell you why we're concerned. No page on the wiki should have zero pages linking to it. The voice actor page had no pages linking to it, so I added it here. The list at Special:Lonelypages should be empty, and I usually make a run through it, adding links to these orphaned pages. It's a long and tedious process, with more orphaned pages being added all the time, and I'm not going to put a lot of detail in these links when users can just click on the link. For what it's worth, I didn't add all these dub actors to the wiki, I'm just cleaning up after the person/people who did.

Next time you have a question about an edit, especially if it's done by an admin, ask on the user talk page, don't just remove info. Shambala108 ☎ 21:31, May 28, 2016 (UTC)

Rename

I don't see a point in rename this article. The current title follows Tardis:Disambiguation, and is not a conjecture. Why add a conjecture title when we have a perfect non-conjecture, non-ambiguous title? We don't refer to the Watcher (Logopolis) as the Watcher Doctor, or the Valeyard as the Valeyard Doctor, so why would we name the Curator as Curator Doctor? OncomingStorm12th ☎ 23:09, November 21, 2016 (UTC)

War Doctor? - Denchen: Lord of Invalidness ☎ 23:13, November 21, 2016 (UTC)

Look at The War Doctor (audio series). Aside from the fact that the audio series itself names him The War Doctor, so does the credit lists of the Big Finish website. OncomingStorm12th ☎ 23:18, November 21, 2016 (UTC)

And let's not forget "Introducing John Hurt as The War Doctor"
× SOTO (💬/📈/↯) 23:20, November 21, 2016 (UTC)

Fair enough but in dialogue he was never called that. Perhaps a rename to Curator (Doctor) just something that's a proper dab for a Doctor incarnation. - Denchen: Lord of Invalidness ☎ 23:24, November 21, 2016 (UTC)

That's now how we disambiguate here. The current title is correct per T:CHAR NAMES.
× SOTO (💬/📈/↯) 23:28, November 21, 2016 (UTC)

Well… it isn't quite. The novelisation of The Day of the Doctor clearly names this character "the Curator" with a capital C. It should by all rights be The Curator (The Day of the Doctor) or just plain The Curator. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 16:51, February 15, 2020 (UTC)

Lots of sourcing missing

The Reunion section is a mess. There are no sources to indicate in which story Clara visited the Curator post-Hell Bent, for example, or the bit with the Brigadier. Indeed, with the exception of Twice Upon a Time I am unaware of any post-Hell Bent Clara story in any venue that would be considered a source for this wiki. If I didn't know better I'd think someone just started to insert fanfic. 23skidoo ☎ 16:22, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

You're mistaken. The entire "Reunions" section is cited to the novelisation of The Day of the Doctor, which, since it is narrated by the Curator, features a lot of asides about his life — including the stuff about him meeting the post-Hell Bent Clara. It is, I believe, the required style that if multiple paragraphs in succession are all sourced to the same story, you only mention the source once, at the end.

(Oh, by the way, the post-Hell Bent Clara also appears in the novelisation of The Witchfinders, although that's neither here nor there.) Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 16:25, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

Multiple Curators?

Forgive me - I haven't listened to the relevant audios - is the Colin Baker Curator intended to be a different incarnation of the character? If so, should there be a tabbed gallery showcasing Tom Baker from 2013/his audios, and now Colin's Curator? And should each Curator have his own individual page, or no? Fractal Doctor ☎ 14:30, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

As the page's intro says "There was only one Curator. However, his form varied.". DrWHOCorrieFan ☎ 15:54, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Interesting, noted. So I'm guessing a tabbed gallery of the Curator's "forms" wouldn't be warranted? Shame. Fractal Doctor ☎ 16:12, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

I don't see any reason not to include one - even if he can change fluidly between them, they're still distinct forms of the character, right? Seems more like a Jekyll and Hyde situation than a Kamelion one. PintlessMan ☎ 16:38, 8 February 2023 (UTC)