10 Doctor Who Fan Theories That Will Blow Your Mind

5. So Many Aliens Look Like Humans Because It's An Evolutionary Advantage

Doctor Who Matt Smith Weeping Angels Time Lords
BBC Studios

One of the most lovable things about Doctor Who is the occasionally cheap-looking effects work. There's something charming about the Doctor fighting an "alien" that's clearly just a dude painted green, or a stuntman in a suit. It adds to the scrappy, quirky nature of the show.

But that's an out-of-universe observation; is there an in-universe explanation for why so many aliens resemble humans, with (often) the same arm, leg and eye placement? There is indeed, according to Reddit user ShotFromGuns, anyway: it's because these aliens have evolved to look like Time Lords.

The Doctor travels through time and space; he's been to the beginning and the end, saving many different species along the way. Given that his adventures span millions, billions, even trillions of years, there has been plenty of time for an innumerable amount of races to have evolved to look like him.

And the more these species look like Time Lords, the more the Doctor may be inclined to save them. Why does he hang around humans so much, devoting a huge chunk of his time to protecting them? It's because they remind him of his own people. Humans, at least visually, are indistinguishable from Time Lords, and the more a creature looks like a Time Lord, the easier it will be for the Doctor to empathise with them.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.