Talk:Anything You Can Do (short story)

Fifth Doctor?

I don't think this should be designated a Fifth Doctor story.

It was clearly Rudden's intention to have the Doctor's incarnation ambiguous - he even uses gender-neutral pronouns for the Doctor here, to avoid excluding (say) 13. The point of the story is the timeless nature of the conflict between the Doctor and the Master, and their essentially different but enduring natures.

The illustration doesn't look to me like 5. It's entirely in silhouette, with one figure having no distinguishing features and the other looking like it's wearing a longish jacket and a small, brimmed hat. The hat itself looks a lot more like a Fourth Doctor kind of hat, with a more pronounced dent in the top.

But in any case, the illustration is just an artistic interpretation of the theme. I mean, in the audiobook edition the Master is given a Scottish accent, which makes the Delgado identification equally tricky - that's just the reader's artistic interpretation. I'd say privilege Rudden's stated intention over either.– The preceding unsigned comment was added by 2A02:C7D:B306:ED00:9457:EE4E:8C5F:39B2 (talk).

I'm not seeing gender-neutral language here. Definitely he/him pronouns. In any case, authorial intent is not really a valid source for in-universe information. That said, we can definitely look further into the evidence.
× SOTO (☎/✍/↯) 20:02, November 30, 2018 (UTC)

I can confirm the Doctor who is actually the Doctor in the story never gets any he/him pronouns. When the TARDIS shows up 'A figure stepped out. In the flickering light of the passageway, Cade could barely make them out. "Trying to be me, Master, and yet you missed the most basic part." The figure shook their head.' Those are, in fact, the only two pronouns for the Doctor in the story. (Cade, of course, gets gender-neutral pronouns too, as they are some kind of non-binary person.) 165.225.80.114^{talk to me} 15:55, December 6, 2018 (UTC)

I hate to reply on a two-year old thread, but I agree that this is not a Fifth Doctor story, especially since Rudden went out of his way to avoid specifying the Doctor's incarnation. Within the story, there are three parts that give any hint of an indication of which Doctor it is: the illustration, the phone call, and the physical appearance of the Doctor at the end. The silhouette in the illustration is wearing a coat and a brimmed hat, so it looks a bit like the Fourth Doctor, but appears to be missing his scarf. It's certainly not the Fifth Doctor, since the hat in the photo has a prominent dent and the brim goes up, whereas the Fifth Doctor's Panama hat is smooth on top and the brim folds downwards. The phone call confirms that this Doctor has a temper, speaking with "icy rage" and sometimes whispering or "hissing" (which admittedly doesn't narrow it down much). The physical appearance (again, using they/them pronouns) confirms that this Doctor is charismatic, particularly in the dialogue on the last page.

Based on the flippant attitude to the potential apocalypse, and the grin at the end (a hallmark of 4, particularly in the Target novelisations), I might argue that this is the Fourth Doctor. But, just as Rudden intended, this is hardly any evidence to go on, so it makes more sense to follow the precedent set by The Colour of Monsters, From Eternity, and The Five O'Clock Shadow and either create a page for The Doctor (Anything You Can Do) or simply list this unspecified incarnation as The Doctor. -EnyapCo ☎ 04:53, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Just finished reading this, and the majority of users here are correct; only they/them pronouns are used for the actual Doctor. To explain the discrepancy with SOTO's account, the character called "the Doctor" at the beginning of the story, who is identified by masculine pronouns, is not actually the Doctor. I also agree that the illustration does not particularly resemble the Fifth Doctor. Schreibenheimer ☎ 02:32, 13 January 2022 (UTC)