Doctor Who Series 11: 10 Big Questions After Episode 5

5. What Isn't The Doctor A Doctor Of?

It’s one of the series’ ongoing gags - if the Doctor is a title, then what field of expertise is she qualified in? The Doctor has never been short of making some quite extraordinary claims, and the series is hardly consistent about them. The Doctor has repeatedly denied being a Doctor, but in his second incarnation once claimed to have received a Doctorate of Medicine under Joseph Lister in 1888 in Glasgow. The fact that Lister left the institutions several years previous suggests he might have been lying.

Elsewhere the Doctor says he has an honorary Earth degree only (Robot) and that he failed to pass medical school (The Rescue). With typical hubris, the fourth Doctor proudly declares he is a Doctor of many things (Revenge of the Cybermen, whilst both the third and fifth Doctor’s suggest they are Doctor’s of practically everything.

Since the series returned in 2005 the Doctor has continued to big up his credentials as being a Doctor of everything (Utopia). In The God Complex, Rita looks for some reassurances over the eleventh Doctor’s credentials “You are a medical Doctor, aren’t you? You haven’t just got a degree in cheese-making or something?” His quick witted reply isn’t exactly reassuring “Well yes. Both actually.” Could he have been lying about both? The Doctor’s speech in The Tsuranga Conundrum suggests that either way it doesn’t really matter.

The thirteenth Doctor runs through a lengthy and somewhat random list of qualifications, pushing the joke as far as it can go before ending on a serious note. She claims to be a Doctor of such things as lego and candy floss, before settling on hope – ‘mostly hope’. The only qualification that matters is her faith. Faith that good will prevail, faith that she and her friends will win through in the end.