Doctor Who? running joke

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

The Doctor Who running joke is based on the apparent lack of a name of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Many people, confused by the title, have asked Doctor Who?, including the Doctor.

Television

Doctor Who

First Doctor

  • The gag first occurred in the second episode of the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child, when Ian Chesterton said, "Well just open the doors, Doctor Foreman." The Doctor replied, "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 same episode, Barbara also referred to the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman", to which Ian replied, "That's not his name. Who is he? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name we might have a clue to all this."
  • In The Keys of Marinus, when Ian was a suspect for murder, he was told to find someone to speak for him at the tribunal. He said he knew someone in the city, and when asked, "Who is he?" he replied, "Who?", smiled, and continued, "He's a Doctor."
  • In the final episode of TV: The Chase, the Doctor attempted to pass himself off to a group of Daleks as the (now-destroyed) robot duplicate of himself. It didn't work, and after escaping the Doctor said, "They now know who's Who." According to the DVD production notes the script capitalises the second "Who" as an in-joke. (The production notes also indicate that Terry Nation's original script for the story had no less than two lines of dialogue that would have directly referred to the Doctor by the name Doctor Who.)
  • At the beginning of The Time Meddler, Vicki said (referring to Ian and Barbara, who had just left), "I shall miss them, Doctor," to which the Doctor replied, "Who?"
  • In The Gunfighters, the Doctor hesitantly introduced himself to Bat Masterson by the alias of Doctor Caligari. Masterson asked, "Doctor Who?" and the Doctor answered, "Yes, er, quite right."
  • In The War Machines, WOTAN ordered Dodo Chaplet to send the Doctor with the command, "DDDOCTORR WHOO ISS RREQUIREDD". Later in the serial, some of the scientists used the name "Dr. Who" to refer to the Doctor as well. This is the only time in the series that the Doctor was directly called Doctor Who. This reportedly caused fans to send angry mail to the production team.

Second Doctor

  • The Doctor introduced himself as "Doktor von Wer" (German for "Doctor (of) Who") to which the sergeant asked, "Doctor who?" The Doctor replied "That's what I said." (TV: The Highlanders)
  • When the Doctor wrote a note to Professor Zaroff, he signed it "Dr. W." (TV: 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". Crichton replied, "Who?", followed by an immediate cut to the Brigadier, in the middle of an unrelated conversation with the Doctor, saying "Yes". The three lines, played rapid fire as they are, tip the hat to both the in-joke and the Abbot and Costello "Who's on First" sketch. (TV: The Five Doctors)

Third Doctor

  • In The Curse of Peladon, the Earth representative was outraged that the guards wouldn't let her in the palace, because she was the rightful representative of Earth. The Doctor claimed to be the representative of Earth. The Earth representative then asked, "Doctor? What Doctor? Doctor who?"
  • In The Mutants, the Investigator asked Cotton, "Doctor... who, did you say?"
  • The Doctor's vehicle, Bessie, carried the licence plate "WHO 1". (However, the vehicle introduced later in Pertwee's era, while referred to as the Whomobile in publicity and by Pertwee himself, is never referred to by this name on screen.)

Fourth Doctor

  • Continuing the in-joke from the Third Doctor era, the Fourth Doctor drove Bessie with its WHO 1 licence plate on one occasion. (TV: Robot)
  • During her initial meeting with the Doctor, Tegan referred to him as "Doctor whoever-you-are". (TV: Logopolis)

Fifth Doctor

Sixth Doctor

  • When Russell found the Doctor and Peri in the London sewers, he demanded their names, leading to the exchange: ‘Shall it suffice to say that this is Peri and I am known as the Doctor?’‘Doctor who?’‘Actually, it’s more a matter of what. I’m a doctor of medicine, science, philosophy –’ (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen)
  • When questioned "Doctor who?" on Sylvaniar, the Doctor replied "Quite." (COMIC: Revelation)

Seventh Doctor

  • A more serious version was used as Lady Peinforte asked Ace, "Doctor who? Have you never wondered where he came from? Who he is?" in an attempt to blackmail the Doctor into surrendering his component of Nemesis. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
  • The joke turned metafictional in Battlefield when the Doctor drove Bessie once again, but the licence plate had been inexplicably updated to "WHO 7".

Ninth Doctor

  • Rose's online search for information about the Doctor brought her to a website titled "Who is Doctor Who?"
  • In The Empty Child, when Rose introduced the Doctor to Jack as "Mr. Spock" she said to him "What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?"
    • According to Steven Moffat a more explicit use of the joke was planned but cut. The Doctor was to have responded to Rose's bestowal of the name Mr. Spock by saying "I'd rather Doctor Who than Star Trek."
  • When meeting Margaret Blaine's (Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen in disguise) secretary Idris Hopper in Boom Town this discussion occurred:
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

Eleventh Doctor

  • In The Impossible Astronaut, Charles II burst into a room and asked Matilda, "Where's the Doctor?" She replied, "Doctor who?"
  • In The Impossible Astronaut, Canton Delaware asked Amy about the Doctor, saying, "Doctor who, exactly?"
  • In Let's Kill Hitler, when the Teselecta attacked Melody Pond for killing the Doctor, the Doctor emerged from the TARDIS with a different outfit, saying "Sorry, did you say she killed the Doctor? The Doctor? Doctor Who?"
  • In The Wedding of River Song, Dorium claimed that "Doctor Who?" was a question that should never be answered. Dorium said that the Silence believed that when the question was asked, "silence must fall".
  • In Asylum of the Daleks, the Daleks' knowledge and memories of the Doctor are deleted from their Pathweb network by Oswin Oswald. Upon returning to the Dalek Parliment for the TARDIS, the Doctor tests this by telling them his name and asking why they won't attack him. He is told that the title of Doctor is meaningless, and thousands of Daleks began chanting "Doctor Who?" as he left in the TARDIS. Afterwards, the Doctor himself was also heard chanting this out of apparent joy.

K9 and Company

The Sarah Jane Adventures

  • In Revenge of the Slitheen, the Slitheen told Sarah Jane that members of their family died at 10 Downing Street. Sarah Jane tried to tell them that she might know "what happened. Or rather, who happened."

Audio

Big Finish Productions

Fifth Doctor

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

Sixth Doctor

  • In AUDIO: Real Time, the President suggested contacting "the Doctor." His subordinate, Dean, responded, "Who?" (This scene is exclusive to the story's audio release. It does not appear in the webcast version.)
  • The summary for AUDIO: Pier Pressure, written from the point of view of Max Miller, features the line "No, this bloke called himself the Doctor. Doctor who, you ask?"

Prose

Novels

Virgin New Adventures

Second Doctor
  • In PROSE: The Dark Path, after the Second Doctor introduced his companions and himself: 'This is Victoria, Jamie, and I'm the Doctor', Adjudicator Secular Brandauer asked: 'Doctor who?' (to which the Doctor replied: 'Oh, don’t you mean Doctor whom? I do hate to be contrary, but...' and changed the subject).
Fourth Doctor
  • In PROSE : Evolution, Breckinridge addressed the Doctor as "Dr. Smith," to which Abercrombie asked: "Doctor who?"
  • In PROSE: A Device of Death, when the amnesiac Fourth Doctor was reminded of his title and he said: "That's right; I'm the Doctor', he was asked: 'Dr who?', to which he replied: 'Who? Who, who, who. Possibly, possibly...'
  • In PROSE: System Shock, during a conversation with a computer the Doctor typed in the question: 'You know Who I am?' (with a capital 'W').

Past Doctor Adventures

First Doctor

Others

  • Special note should be given to the novelisation Doctor Who and the Zarbi for rendering any opportunities for the joke moot by referring to the Doctor throughout by the name "Dr. Who". This stands as the only official novel ever published to break the naming convention.

Short stories

Short Trips

First Doctor
Fifth Doctor
Seventh Doctor
Unspecified Doctor

Virgin Books' Decalog

Third Doctor

Comic stories

Doctor Who Magazine

Fourth Doctor

TV Comic

Fourth Doctor

Others

  • As with the Zarbi novelisation, opportunities for the joke in the pre-Doctor Who Magazine era comic strips, especially those published in the 1960s and featuring companions John and Gillian, are mooted due to the strips consistently referring to the Doctor by the name Dr. Who, including in dialogue.
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