Comments on: If The Character is Named ‘The Doctor,’ Why is the Show Called Doctor Who?

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 20:31:51 +0000

In reply to Duggy.

That’s the twist that I mentioned I was going to address in a TV Legends Revealed! 🙂

Here it is…

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-the-doctor-originally-called-doctor-who/

By: Duggy

Duggy — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 04:09:39 +0000

The name comes from early productions notes have the Doctor as:

“DR. WHO A frail old man lost in space and time. They give him this name because they don’t know who he is. He seems not to remember where he has come from; he is suspicious and capable of sudden malignance; he seems to have some undefined enemy; he is searching for something as well as fleeing from something.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20170921194253/https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/doctorwho/6403.shtml?page=txt

By: Robert Newell

Robert Newell — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 21:45:28 +0000

I’m old enough to remember seeing the first series. Susan Foreman is introduced as the Dr’s grand-daughter. When they meet the Dr, one of Susan’s teachers (Ian) refers to him as ‘Dr Foreman’ asking him to open the doors of the Tardis and William Hartnell replies: ‘Eh? Doctor who? What’s he talking about?’, implying that his name is not Foreman. That’s all there is to it. The rest is speculation. This programme made a hug impression on me when I was 9 and I remembered most of this verbatim, but I did go and check it with ‘The Dr Who transcripts’, and so can you at: http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/1-1.htm
It’s near the beginning of episode 2.

By: Kevin Woods

Kevin Woods — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 14:05:14 +0000

In the War Machines Wotan refers to him as Doctor Who The 2nd Doctor calls himself Doctor Von Wer, (German for Who)
Mpore importantly I, initially there was a Mystery about the Doctor, the first episode revealed he was an alien, his planet was described on a few occasionally by his granddaughter, and his companions talked about the fact that they knew nothing about him, we gradually learned he waves puoneer, a campaigner for themselves of other soecues, a hermit lived in his father’s estate,she was a Prydonian who failed at University, etc
The description “Mysterious traveller in Space and Time ” was an accurate description

By: Philip S.

Philip S. — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 13:42:27 +0000

Thx for the explanation. Makes a lot of sense, actually.

By: John King

John King — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 21:39:19 +0000

I read somewhere that the name came from a planning meeting. There was a suggestion that a character would be a professional man, such as a doctor and someone (who had apparently not been paying attention) asked “Doctor who?”.
Of course, such stories are often urban legends so I can’t say whether there is any truth in it (I’m still puzzled by the number of references I have seen to an alleged James Bond film called “Never say die”)

I will add that a number of novelisations refer to the character as “Doctor Who”, one episode was called “The Death of Doctor Who”, and in the story the War Machines, there is a line “Doctor Who is required, bring him here”.