Swearing
Swearing was the use of speech considered rude.
The Ninth Doctor once mentioned that the TARDIS's translation circuit had a swear filter that prevented the passengers from hearing any swear words; even an angry cavewoman's rants were translated as her saying, "Blinking", rather than a more apt phrase. (PROSE: Only Human)
The War Doctor made a habit of uttering "damn", usually as a sign of frustration or when things did not meet his satisfaction. (PROSE: Engines of War; AUDIO: Light the Flame, The Innocent, The Thousand Worlds, The Heart of the Battle, A Thing of Guile, The Neverwhen, Eye of Harmony, Pretty Lies, The Enigma Dimension)
The Eighth Doctor said "Who the hell are you" to Lucie Miller when the Time Lords teleported her onto his TARDIS, (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks) thinking she was Karen Coltraine. (AUDIO: Human Resources)
News broadcasts would sometimes censor swear words in their footage, bleeping them out with sound effects. (AUDIO: Outbreak)
Having been sent to the Diary Room following his arrival in the Big Brother House aboard the Game Station in the year 200,100, the Ninth Doctor received the instruction from Davinadroid: "You are live on Channel 44000. Please do not swear." Bewildered, the Doctor responded "you have got to be kidding." (TV: Bad Wolf)
Jack Harkness chided Gwen Cooper for her language when she called him a bastard. (TV: Everything Changes)
The Malmooth Chantho respectively began and ended her sentences with "chan" and "tho"; as she explained to Martha Jones, to not do so would be akin to swearing. When Martha requested that she swear just once, Chantho complied by saying "no". (TV: Utopia)
"Pacifism" was a swear word for Sontarans. (AUDIO: The Eternal Battle)
Yasmin Khan's grandfather often swore loudly in Punjabi when he accidentally injured himself. He hoped that his young granddaughter hadn't understood, but she had. (AUDIO: Fallout)
The Twelfth Doctor's internalised anger sometimes led to a preponderance of swear words appearing on the psychic paper. (TV: Dark Water)
In a Mondasian colony ship, Missy told Jorj not to be a bitch. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Loading...["World Enough and Time (TV story)"])
The Eleventh Doctor, on the other hand, was prone even to chastise horses for their foul language. (PROSE: Houdini and The Space Cuckoos)
In a parallel universe, a Time Lord chided a colleague for his language when he reacted to news of the Doctor's escape with the exclamation "Oh, shit!" (AUDIO: Exile)
Rose Tyler referred to Corin's profanity as "Donna swearing". (PROSE: The Turning of the Tide)
The First Doctor disliked swearing, chiding Susan and Bill Potts for their crude language. (TV: An Unearthly Child, Twice Upon a Time)
Rose Tyler once called Cassandra a "bitchy trampoline". (TV: The End of the World)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Ninth Doctor's explanation about the TARDIS translation systems is a reference to the lack of swearing in televised Doctor Who, which has remained a family programme since its inception. Indeed, William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor, specified that the show had "no sex or swearing" in a 1964 interview. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)
The iconic instruction from Big Brother, "You are live on Channel 4. Please do not swear." is referenced in Bad Wolf.
The BBC Wales series sometimes teases at swearing, cutting it close in editing for humour. One 2017 episode, Thin Ice, cheekily cuts away as Bill Potts utters: "No sh—". Back in 2006, The Satan Pit has Rose Tyler cut off from calling the Doctor "you stupid—" with a screech from the communicator followed by the Doctor's reaction and New Earth cuts from Cassandra calling Rose "that little—" to Rose saying, "bit rich". Later in the same episode, after Cassandra says that the skin currently making up her body was taken from her back, Rose humorously remarks that that means she's "talking out of [her]…" before Cassandra cuts her off with "Ask not!"
In the days leading up to his debut as the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa recounted in interviews how he had initially gotten into trouble with production for swearing whilst in-costume, to the point that Russell T Davies called him into his office to warn him that that kind of language was "unacceptable" whilst at work on a family friendly series like Doctor Who. Gatwa, taking the warning on board, acknowledged that he was "on a constant journey of learning what it is to be a PG role model and the lead of a family show" after four years of leading an X-rated show like Sex Education.[1]
