8 Times Doctor Who Mocked Itself

With almost 60 years of adventures under its belt, and hundreds of writers, producers, and directors having contributed to its mythos, it’s no surprise that the Whoniverse is littered with inconsistencies.

Inconsistencies are to be expected when a show has been running for this long, and if we’re honest, it’s weirdly charming that the show likes to play fast and loose with its own rules and continuity. It’s almost like the Doctor’s madcap, carefree personality is bleeding through to the writing.

Even better, the show itself occasionally likes to poke fun at this issue, pointing out how wibbly-wobbly its lore has become over the years.

In the Series 12 opener Spyfall: Part 1, Graham chats with MI6 agent O, a character who is later revealed to be the Doctor’s arch-frenemy, the Master. At one point, O mentions that he’s got an entire shelf full of documents all about the Doctor, adding that there are “a lot of inconsistencies” in this information.

It’s a subtle jab at Doctor Who’s long, complicated, and often contradictory history. The writers clearly know that not everything in the Whoniverse fits together like a neat jigsaw puzzle, but at the end of the day... who cares?

To quote the Twelfth Doctor in The Witch’s Familiar “I'm the Doctor. Just accept it.”