Doctor Who? running joke

A number of references to the Doctor's lack of name have appeared in the Doctor Who Universe, playing on the 'Doctor Who' joke, this is an ongoing attempt to document these instances.

See separate article for a discussion of the Doctor's true name from an in-universe perspective.

List of references

Television stories

Doctor Who

First Doctor

• The first occurs in the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child when Ian Chesterton says, "Be reasonable Doctor Foreman". The Doctor then replies "Eh, Doctor Who — what's he talking about?" According to the DVD production subtitles, the response was actually added by William Hartnell himself.
• In The Gunfighters, the Doctor mumbingly introduces himself to Bat Masterson by the alias of Doctor Caligari. A rightfully confused Masterson asked "Doctor Who?" and The Doctor answered "yes, er, quite right."
• In The War Machines, WOTAN orders Dodo Chaplet to send the Doctor with the command, "DDDOCTORR WHOO ISS RREQUIREDD". This is the only time in the series that the Doctor is directly called Doctor Who. This reportedly caused angry mail to get sent to the production team. It is however possible, if belief is somewhat suspended, that the robot meant it in a different way; Doctor, who is required. Or being a logical computer, it simply meant it didn't know his surname.

Second Doctor

• The Doctor introduces himself as "Doctor von Wer" (German for "Doctor (of) Who") to which the sergeant says "Doctor who?". The Doctor then responds saying "That's what I said." (DW: The Highlanders)
• When the Doctor writes a note to Professor Zaroff, he signs it "Dr. W." (DW: The Underwater Menace)
• A moment after meeting the Doctor for the first time, Colonel Crichton asked "Who was that strange little man?". An UNIT employee answered "The Doctor.". To this Crichton replied "Who?". (DW: The Five Doctors)

Third Doctor

• In The Curse of Peladon, the Earth representative is outraged that the guards wouldn't let her in the palace, because she was the rightful representative of Earth, The Doctor claims to be the representative of Earth. The Earth representative then asks "Doctor? What Doctor? Doctor who?"

Fifth Doctor

• When Lady Cranleigh is introduced to the Doctor, she says "How do you do? Doctor... who?"

Ninth Doctor

• Rose narrowly avoids asking the question in Rose when she responds to the the Doctor's name with "Doctor what?"
• In The Empty Child, when Rose introduces the Doctor to Jack as 'Mr. Spock' she says to him; "What was I supposed to say, you don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?"
• When meeting Margaret Blaine's (Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen in disguise) secretary Idris Hopper in Boom Town this discussion occurs:

The Doctor: "Just go in there, and tell her the Doctor would like to see her." Idris: "Doctor who?" The Doctor: "Just the Doctor. Tell her exactly that. The Doctor."

Tenth Doctor

• In The Christmas Invasion, the newly regenerated Tenth Doctor fainted in front of Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith after landing his TARDIS in front of them and wishing them a merry christmas. After Rose told the pair that was the Doctor, Jackie suspecting the Ninth Doctor and not knowing the concept of regeneration asked Rose; "What d'you mean, 'that's the Doctor'? Doctor who?"
• In The Girl in the Fireplace, after The Doctor and Reinette read each others minds, Reinette says sadly; "Doctor who? It's not just a question, is it?", before inviting him to the dance.
• In Blink, Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale watched an Easter Egg on a DVD, Sally said; "The Doctor." and Larry replied; "Who's the Doctor?".
• When Sylvia Noble encountered the Doctor for the second time in The Sontaran Stratagem, she said "Oh, it's you! Doctor... what was it?"
• In The Next Doctor, the Doctor introduced himself to Rosita as "The Doctor" and she replied "Doctor, who?".

K-9 and Company

When Brendan Richards asks, "Who is the Doctor?", K-9 Mark III responds, "Affirmative."

Audio

Fifth Doctor

• In BFA: The Kingmaker, the publishing robot that comes to interrogate The Doctor about his failure to produce his final in a series of children's books entitled Doctor Who Discovers, refers to him as 'Doctor Who'. When this is questioned by Peri and Erimem, he explains that 'some idiot' at the publishing company had misprinted the title, which was originally intended to be The Doctor, Who Discovers.

Prose

Novels

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Short stories

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Comic strips

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