Doctor Who: 10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About The Doctor
Hey, Tom Baker? Patrick Troughton really wants his jelly babies back.
The Doctor (and Doctor Who itself) is far more complex and expansive than many people realise.
As far as the general public is aware, the Doctor is probably still a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, with only the hardcore fans being aware of the half-human and Timeless Child debacles.
That being said, the general public isn't alone in falling victim to misapprehensions about Doctor Who, and the same is true for its beloved hero. Famously, fandom was furious at the Thirteenth Doctor for being a bit awkward with Graham's admission of his cancer fears in Series 12's Can You Hear Me. This was both a misunderstanding of the scene, and an example of how fans tend to recoil with horror when the Doctor, a thousands-of-years-old Time Lord, doesn't act like they do.
Believing that a fictional character (who is an alien and has a different morality), would behave exactly as you would is just one thing that people often get wrong about the Doctor - but it's not the only thing...
10. William Hartnell Was Ancient When He Took The Role
Issue 10 of Doctor Who Adventures (released in 2006) featured an image of William Hartnell as the First Doctor, next to the caption: "Meet The Very First Doctor - Yikes! He's Ancient!"
This may have seemed the case to younger fans upon seeing Hartnell's face, and the more grandfatherly portrayal of the First Doctor (plus the long white wig) would likely do nothing to dissuade them of this notion. Part of this misconception is also likely down to the actor's ailing health and untimely death in 1975.
However, William Hartnell wasn't actually as old as everyone thinks he was when he played the Doctor.
At the age of 55, Hartnell was actually 20 years younger than David Bradley was when he filmed his first scene as the First Doctor in The Doctor Falls.
Meanwhile, Peter Capaldi was merely a few months younger than William Hartnell when he began his tenure as the Twelfth Doctor.
More surprisingly still, Fourteenth Doctor David Tennant is now 51, only four years younger than Hartnell was. Actors clearly just look after themselves a bit better these days!