Aliases of the Doctor

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During his travels in time and space, the Doctor employed many different aliases; sometimes only briefly and sometimes on an ongoing basis. Owing to his refusal to tell all but a few people his real name, he often had names bestowed upon him by others, often to his chagrin.

The Doctor's real name

Ubiquity of the Title

File:Drcallingcard.jpg
The Doctor's calling card. DW:Remembrance of the Daleks

"The Doctor" was not, in fact, a name, but a title. His given name was not generally known (see below), and as such the very title "the Doctor" was an alias. It has been implied his given name was ceremoniously withdrawn and stricken by his Cousins, as punishment for a disgrace he visited upon his House. (NA: Lungbarrow) When asked about the Doctor's name, his companion Peri Brown once said she'd been told she couldn't pronounce it. (BBCR: Slipback) Similarly he once told an interrogator (when being asked his name): "you wouldn't be able to pronounce the first syllable of it." (PDA: Salvation) Even when he was twice put on trial by his own people, the Time Lords, he was only ever referred to during these events as "the Doctor" (DW: The War Games), although The Valeyard, who prosecuted the second trial (and who, himself, was a future manifestation of the Doctor), acknowledged that it was an alias. (DW: Trial of a Time Lord) However, as the Doctor chose that "name" as part of Gallifreyan custom (DW: The Sound of Drums), its use in an official capacity is not unexpected.

The Doctor was able to keep his true name hidden despite numerous "mind-probe" attempts, both voluntary (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace) and involuntary. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)

Individuals with knowledge of his name

The Master and the Doctor had known each other since their Prydon Academy days, and by one account even earlier (BFA: Master), but it is not known for certain whether he ever knew the Doctor's true name, although he was well aware that "the Doctor" was an alias (DW: The Sound of Drums).

Another classmate of the Doctor's, Drax, may have known his real name, but instead referred to the Doctor by the nickname "Thete", short for Theta Sigma. (DW: The Armageddon Factor; The Happiness Patrol)

Madame de Pompadour recognized it as an alias when she was briefly connected to the Doctor's mind, stating "Doctor...Doctor who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it?". (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace)

Whether or not Madame de Pompadour actually learned his name this way remains undisclosed. She was able to see into his mind and into his past, although it was established that if mind-reading was done in this way, memories could be closed off at will. That said, the Doctor was not aware that she was reading his mind at the time.

River Song, who when the Doctor first encountered her, claimed to have known him at some point in his future, is one of the only individuals confirmed to know his true name. In order to win the Doctor's trust, and prove her "credentials", she was seen to whisper the name into his ear. The Doctor seemed particularly shocked at this, later saying to her "there is only one reason I would ever tell anyone my name, only one time I could." (DW: Forest of the Dead)

She whispered the Doctor's name for a duration of roughly two seconds, suggesting the name may only be a few syllables long (assuming she uttered a complete name). As Steven Moffat made a point of mentioning the Doctor's name (and its secrecy), it is possible he will make some sort of a point of it in the upcoming Series 5. Indeed, he has stated in the past[source needed] that he always felt the Doctor's name was never revealed only because it must have been some "terrible secret".

At least one other person, the Doctor's companion Samantha Jones, was also told his real name. She found it quite alien and virtually unpronounceable. (EDA: Unnatural History, Vanderdeken's Children)

When the Doctor spoke his real name aloud in the novel Vanderdeken's Children it was not written in the prose, but represented by "—" instead.

Near the end of his tenth incarnation, members of an unidentified pan-dimensional race came to know the Doctor's real name. At this point he was of the opinion there was no one left in the universe who knew it. (BBCR: The Last Voyage)

To date there have been at least two individuals who received intimate knowledge of the Doctor's life and history -- Jackson Lake (DW: The Next Doctor) and Craig Owens (DW: The Lodger). There is no indication that this information, received via a data recording device for the former and the Doctor himself via the latter, included knowledge of his real name.

Significance

Far from being a random title, or one intended to inflate his credentials, the Doctor did, indeed, possess at least one doctorate. (DW: The Moonbase, The Armageddon Factor, The Mysterious Planet) On other occasions he described himself as a "Doctor of many things" (DW: Four to Doomsday), or, indeed, "everything". (DW: Utopia) Exactly what his doctorate(s) were for remain a mystery, although on several occasions the Doctor stated he was not a medical doctor (although that didn't stop his tenth incarnation from sporting a stethoscope on occasion).

True name

The Carrionite Lilith, unable to discover the Doctor's true name even with the "witchcraft" used by her kind, remarked, "There is no name. Why would a man hide his title in such despair?" (DW: The Shakespeare Code) The psychically-gifted Evelina, who attempted to foretell the Doctor's future, remarked that his "true name" was in fact "hidden". (DW: The Fires of Pompeii)

List of Aliases

During his life, numerous names were either used by, or bestowed upon the Time Lord most widely known as the Doctor.

The Doctor

As noted above, The Doctor itself was an alias, despite it being the name by which the Time Lord was most widely known. It has been claimed that, as per Gallifreyan custom, he chose this alias himself (DW:The Sound of Drums), though it may have just been a misunderstanding caused by an earlier alias (see Names given by others.) On at least one occasion, a Human knew this name without the Doctor even saying it out loud. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead) His other aliases often included the title "Doctor". He implied to Peri that his given name also began with such a title. (DW: The Mysterious Planet) Drax, a fellow Time Lord, indicated that the Doctor did indeed possess a doctorate (although in what is not indicated). (DW: The Armageddon Factor) According to one account, during his first incarnation, the Doctor adopted this name for the benefit of Human colonists on the planet Iwa at the same time that his grand-daughter adopted the name "Susan". (TN: Frayed)

During his eleventh incarnation, the Doctor claimed that he didn't actually know why he and other people called him 'The Doctor'. (DW: The Lodger) This may have been in an attempt to prevent Craig from asking why they call him the Doctor. This would have been hard to explain to him.

John Smith

John Smith was the alias the Doctor often used on Earth and around Humans when a "standard" name was often required or demanded. It was usually preceded by the title "Doctor", though not always - for example, when he worked undercover as a teacher at a school and as a patient in a hospital. (DW: School Reunion, Smith and Jones) The earliest known use of the name occurred during his first incarnation, when he used a library card with the name Dr. J. Smith while still living at 76 Totter's Lane (DW: The Vampires of Venice), as well as for identification when renting the junkyard (ST: The Rag and Bone Man's Story) In his second incarnation, the name was independently used by his companion Jamie McCrimmon (who would not have known of the Doctor's earlier use of the name). (DW: The Wheel in Space) Later, he adopted it on a semi-regular basis during his third incarnation while exiled on Earth when he served as unpaid scientific advisor to UNIT. (DW: Spearhead from Space, et al)

As "John Smith" is considered a very generic name in some Earth cultures, the Doctor's use of the alias was occasionally treated with skepticism by others. (DW: Midnight)

The Doctor has twice temporarily changed himself into a human who used the name John Smith. This occurred in his seventh incarnation (NA: Human Nature) and in his tenth (DW: Human Nature/The Family of Blood).

Known uses of "John Smith"
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The Doctor's library card, issued to "Dr. J. Smith." (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

Theta Sigma

Theta Sigma (ΘΣ), informally "Thete", was a nickname used by the Doctor during his years at the Time Lord Academy on the planet Gallifrey. (DW: The Armageddon Factor, The Happiness Patrol, DWM: Flashback) The name might also have been a codename used by some aspects of Time Lord government to refer to the Doctor. (The Adventures of K9 series)

River Song used the written form "ΘΣ" on a message to the eleventh Doctor on Planet One, though the Doctor specifically called these and other apparently Greek numbers on the cliff face "co-ordinates". (DW: The Pandorica Opens)

"ΘΣ" was also a commonly-used abbreviation for "God" in Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. The capital letters Theta and Sigma together resemble the word "ΟΣ", (who), and some scribal variations in New Testament texts will have "ΟΣ" in a few passages while others have "ΘΣ" in the same passages.[1]

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According to The Making of Doctor Who this was the Doctor's real name. This same inscription appears written in Old High Gallifreyan in the Tomb of Rassilon. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Merlin and Muldwych

This was, the Doctor believed, an alias used by a future and/or alternative Doctor residing in a magic-using parallel Earth. (DW: Battlefield) This was, apparently, a future incarnation of the Doctor who, at times, also used the name Muldwych. (NA: Happy Endings) Another account, however, says that another renegade Time Lord used the alias of Merlin. (ST: One Fateful Knight) The Doctor would later claim that he was named Merlin by King Arthur. (IDW: Fugitive)

For more on each individual, see Merlin and Muldwych.

Minor aliases

First Incarnation

  • Doctor Foreman: While spending time in 1963 Earth to repair the TARDIS. (DW: An Unearthly Child).
  • Maximus Pettulian: While visiting the Roman Empire prior to the burning of Rome, the Doctor briefly impersonated a murdered lyre player named Maximus Pettulian in the court of Nero until his true identity was uncovered. (DW: The Romans)
  • Zeus: When the Greek warrior Achilles mistook the Doctor for Zeus posing as an old man, he went along with it, until the already unconvinced Agamemnon spoiled the Doctor's ruse. (DW: The Myth Makers)
  • Doctor Caligari: Name used by the Doctor when he arrived in Tombstone, Arizona, impersonating a magician. (DW: The Gunfighters)

Second Incarnation

Fourth Incarnation

Fifth Incarnation

  • The Supremo: For a year, the Doctor used the alias of "the Supremo" as leader of the alliance against the army of the evil renegade Time Lord, Morbius. Originally, his title was that of "Supreme Controller", but the Ogrons, which he chose as his personal praetorian guard, were unable to correctly pronounce it as such and shortened it to the simpler "Supremo". (PDA: Warmonger)
For an unrelated use of the term, see the Supremo.

Sixth Incarnation

Eighth Incarnation

Ninth Incarnation

  • The Oncoming Storm: A name the Doctor says that the "legends of Skaro" calls him whilst taunting the Daleks. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) The name is later used by Rose Tyler when the Tenth Doctor appears (apparently) drunk from a pre-revolutionary French party as follows: "Oh, look what the cat dragged in! The Oncoming Storm," to which the Doctor replies, "Oh, listen to you. You sound just like your mother." (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace) The Eleventh Doctor is also called by that name by the Dream Lord (DW: Amy's Choice) and refers to himself as such. (DW: The Lodger)

Tenth Incarnation

Eleventh Incarnation

Names given by others

The name was often unintentionally invoked when characters wished to learn who the Doctor was and what his name was: "Doctor? Doctor who?"
See also: The "Doctor Who?" running joke.
"Qui", "quae" and "quod" were the masculine, feminine and neutral forms of "who" in Latin.
See The Watcher
  • Doctor Bowman/James Alistair Bowman: Dr. Grace Holloway invented this name for the Doctor whilst introducing him to others. (DW: Doctor Who) The Doctor subsequently used this alias on occasion, filling it out to James Alistair Bowman. (EDA: Seeing I)
  • The DoctorDonna: After saying the phrase "Doctor, Donna, friends" so many times as defense against a group of rabid Ood, the Ood collective adopted this name for the two of them. Ood Sigma promised that generations of Ood children would grow up on the Ood Sphere, singing the songs of "the DoctorDonna." (DW: Planet of the Ood)
This was a foreshadowing of Donna Noble becoming the half-human/half-Time Lord being known as DoctorDonna. (DW: Journey's End)

Nicknames

See also

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