Doctor Who: 10 Bizarre Powers You Forgot The Doctor Has

5. Communication With Babies

Doctor Who Closing Time Matt Smith the Doctor Alfie Stormageddon
BBC Studios

This one has barely been seen in the show so a lot of fans tend to forget that it's even a thing, but yes: the Doctor can speak to babies.

In the Series 6 episode A Good Man Goes To War, the Eleventh Doctor has a chat with Amy and Rory's newborn baby, Melody Pond, while the two parents stand there looking completely and utterly bemused. Supposedly, Melody insults the Doctor's bow tie, while also referring to Amy as "big milk thing". Cheeky little bugger.

When Amy asks the Doctor what he's doing, he simply claims "I speak baby."

Doctor Who A Good Man Goes To War Melody Pond
BBC

This ability then returned a few episodes later, with the Doctor appearing to understand all of the sounds and squeals made by Craig Owens' baby boy, Alfie - or, as he prefers to be called, Stormageddon: Dark Lord Of All.

Ordinarily, the Doctor is able to speak and understand any language he requires due to the TARDIS translation matrix helping him out, but crucially, said matrix also works with other people - like the Doctor's companions - and not just the Doctor.

However, when the Doctor talks to Melody and Alfie, Amy, Rory and Craig don't seem to have a clue what their children are saying, meaning that the matrix isn't in play: only the Doctor can communicate with babies in this manner.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!