Doctor Who: 5 Questions Which May Go Forever Unanswered

5. Is The Doctor Really Half-Human? (And Who Is His Mother, Anyway?)

Forget "The Snog" in the 1996 TV movie which broke a 33-year run of chasteness despite the Doctor's proclivity for travelling with attractive humanoid companions. The true classic Doctor Who fan was far more unsettled by this infamous exchange: Professor Wagg: Grace says you have a big secret. What is it? The Doctor: I'm half human. On my mother's side. The two subsequently laugh off the exchange; we therefore might be tempted then and there to write off the remark as post-regeneration wibbly-wobbliness except that a crucial bit of this story's plot (for lack of a better word) is also founded on this idea, i.e. the Eighth Doctor's human DNA is essential to opening the Eye of Harmony and et cetera et cetera. Despite the insane chaos of events spilling forth in "The Enemy Within," this supposition actually does make for convenient reconning to answer another unsatisfactorily answered question at the heart of Doctor Who, namely "What's up with his fashion for humans?" Making the Doctor a half-human himself certainly settles that debate. But with the reboot, this idea was utterly ignored and Christopher Eccleston's Doctor made clear that he was 100% Time Lord. Then we have a fairly well-accepted idea that the mysterious woman appearing alongside deviant Time Lords and inside Wilfred Mott's TV set in "The End of Time" is in fact the Doctor's mother, thereby implying that the woman is true-blue Gallifreyan. However, this belief lies outside of Official Doctor Who Canon„, relying on only comments made by then-show producer Russell T. Davies in the epistolary work "The Writer's Tale." Further, within the show credits this character will be forever known unimaginatively as "The Woman." Despite the teasing of "The Doctor's Daughter" and "The End of Time," then, we're back to square one on questions of The Doctor's family €“ and we'll probably stay there.