Doctor Who Fandom Glossary

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Terms and concepts from Doctor Who and its fandom.

Core Concepts

  • The Doctor or Dr Who: The titular character of the show. Many fans will insist that their name is The Doctor and not Dr Who, however the latter has in fact been used in canon as their name. There's somewhat of a meme that if you call them Dr Who, you're at either end of the fan spectrum: either a casual viewer or a fan so far down the rabbithole of the show you've come back round again.
  • Companion (previously Assistant): The other main character(s) of the show who travels around with The Doctor. The criteria for what makes someone a companion rather than a recurring character is vague, and discussions about who counts and who doesn't are seemingly neverending. Conclusions will differ amongst fans.
  • TARDIS: The Doctor's time and space machine. Also sentient and a character in her own right.
  • Daleks: Iconic alien species and the Doctor's greatest enemies. Popular throughout their history amongst fans, though especially during Dalekmania.

General

  • Classic Who or infrequently Old School Who: The initial run of the show from 1963-1989
  • New Who or NuWho: The revival run of the show starting from 2005 onwards. (See the New Who section at the main Doctor Who page.)
  • The Wilderness Years: Time during the hiatus: after the Classic run and before the revival, from 1989-2005. Intercut by the TV Movie in 1996.
  • TV Movie: The 1996 TV Movie with Paul McGann, released during the Wilderness Years as an attempt to revive the series.

DWEU

  • Doctor Who Expanded Universe or Extended Universe (often shortened to DWEU): The expanded universe of the show. Takes the form of multiple different mediums including, but not limited to, spinoff TV shows, books, comics, audio dramas, video games, and plays. During the Wilderness Years, the DWEU was the only source of new content, and much of this content was allowed to go further in terms of maturity than the TV series has been both before and after, partially due to the difference in target demographic.
  • Torchwood: The first TV spinoff of Doctor Who to go further than the pilot (K9 & Company failed to gain a series). Darker series with an older target audience. Fans of the show may also be fans of the parent show, though not necessarily so.
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures (shortened to SJA): Second full series spinoff aimed at a children's audience. Many fans grew up with it.
  • Class: Third full series spinoff aimed at YA audience. Lasted only a single series, and is often viewed as underrated by its fans.
  • Big Finish: The primary source of Doctor Who audio dramas, full cast adventures set in the Whoniverse. Has several long-running series with their own distinct fanbases: Gallifrey, Jago and Lightfoot, Counter Measures etc.

Novels

Other

Eras

Being a nearly 60 year old show means that over the years, Doctor Who has evolved and changed many times through the contributions of many different creators. These periods are often referred to as eras, and tend to be differentiated either by Doctor, using the actor's name: Hartnell Era or Capaldi Era, or by showrunner/producer: Cartmel Era or Chibnall Era.

Not to be confused with the Academy Era which is a term to describe the in-universe time during the Doctor's years at the Academy.

Terminology

  • Doccy Whomst: Nickname for the show. Doccy Who may also be used.
  • Whoniverse: The shared universe in which Doctor Who and its EU take place in.
  • Time Tots: Time Lord children
  • Dalekmania:
  • Base Under Siege: Fan term for stories that take place in some kind of confined, usually isolated, space with a relatively small cast of characters being attacked and overpowered.
  • Celebrity Historical: Fan term for stories set in the past that focus on usually well known or popular historical figures.
  • Monster of the Week: Not exclusive to Doctor Who, though extensively used to describe New Who in particular. Refers to a format of TV series that usually features a new monster and scenario per episode, rather than serialised format.

Naming the Fans

  • Whovian: a Doctor Who fan
  • NMDs: A derogatory term used to describe a fan of the show who ascribes to the NotMyDoctor movement.
  • Asexualist: a fan who believes the Doctor has no sexual interest in anyone. It was the stated policy of the original series to keep romance implicit, not explicit; this has not been the case for the new series.
  • WhoTuber: A YouTuber focused on the topic of Doctor Who, whether in the form of reviews, video essays, or trivia. Examples include Jay Exci and MrTardisReviews.
  • Dr Nyarlathotep: Some fans believe that Gallifreyans are basically tentacled eldritch horrors who disguise themselves with Perception Filters. The Doctor specifically is speculated to be Nyarlathotep.

Portmanteaus have also been created for many of the (real or speculated) romantic pairings within the series, and fans who subscribe to them often identify themselves with the terms. For example, Whouffle describes the relationship between the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald (the "-uffle" part referring to a running joke regarding Clara's inability to make a souffle), while Whouffaldi (spellings vary) describes the Twelfth Doctor and Clara relationship (with Whouffle adjusted to incorporate part of actor Peter Capaldi's name). A more difficult one to parse is "Yowzah" which is used for the Eleventh Doctor/River Song relationship and derives from an exclamation uttered by that Doctor.

Naming the Wank

  • The Rose Wars - fannish disputes over the excellence vs. terribleness of the first companion in the new series, Rose Tyler.
  • Clara Who: A term used to describe a perception by certain fans that Clara Oswald had become too central and important to the show and its history. Though initially derogatory, the term was also reclaimed by her fans, and the show itself mocked this idea during the Series 8 finale Death in Heaven, in which Clara pretends to be The Doctor as a ruse, and as a result the opening titles feature her face rather than Twelve's.
  • NotMyDoctor: A movement that arose to portray dislike at the decision to cast Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. The campaign gained imfamy amongst other fans for being frequently misogynistic.

Naming The Doctor

A key aspect of the series is that The Doctor's real name is never revealed, although they often adopt aliases (with John Smith being the most often used). They/them pronouns are usually used for the character as a whole, given they've been men and women, and he/him or she/her for the relevant individual incarnations, at least canonically.

Numbered

Although the Doctor is almost never referred to by a number within the series itself (though Clara Oswald broke this rule in "The Name of the Doctor"), fans, and the franchise-runners themselves, have assigned a number to each incarnation of the character to distinguish between the different actors who played him and the era of the show therein:

Non-numbered

  • Metacrisis Doctor (aka TenToo or infrequently 10.2): Played by David Tennant, is a Timelord/Human hybrid that was created by Donna Noble touching Ten's chopped off hand: created a meta crisis of the Tenth Doctor, with the same looks and same memories as the Doctor but has a human life expectancy.
  • War Doctor: Played by John Hurt, first appeared briefly in The Name of the Doctor (Season 7 of New Who) and mainly appears in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor where it was revealed that this incarnation of the Doctor was the one that battled in the Time War.
  • Ruth!Doctor or Martin!Doctor: Played by Jo Martin, is another secret incarnation of the Doctor implied to be pre-Hartnell. Revealed during the Timeless Child arc.

Other

  • The Cushing Doctor or The Movie Doctor: In the mid-1960s, the series was adapted for two motion pictures, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD. Peter Cushing portrayed the Doctor in those films, however for the movies his character was reimagined as a human scientist named Dr. Who.
  • Morbius Doctors: Refers to the faces seen in the Classic Who serial The Brain of Morbius that are implied but not confirmed to be those of previous unseen incarnations of the Doctor. Many fans took these to actually be faces of the titular Time Lord Morbius.
  • The Valeyard: According to the Master, the amalgamation of the Doctor's dark side from somewhere between his Twelfth and final incarnations. This vagueness has lead to fans theorising about how true this actually is, especially as New Who have yet to acknowledge him despite going past the Twelfth incarnation.
  • Shalka Doctor or Shalka!Doctor Voiced by Richard E. Grant for a BBC-produced animated serial that was initially released only online for the show's 45th anniversary and generally classified as a non-canon doctor after the TV series itself was revived. Briefly, however, this Doctor was officially considered the Ninth Doctor.

Aliases and Nicknames

  • Theta Sigma: Nickname of the Doctor used during the Academy Era. Is where the first name of the portmanteau shipname Thoschei is derived from.
  • John Smith: Alias the Doctor often uses. Fanworks will often use it, especially for AUs, and similiar J names will be given to Thirteen, such as Joan, though this is never used in canon.

Fan Named

  • Dobby!Doctor: Refers to The Doctor after he is aged in the Series 3 finale The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords, due to a vague resemblance to Dobby.

Naming The Master

Like the Doctor, The Master's real name has never been revealed on screen but, being a Time Lord, he has also undergone different incarnations, including becoming the first to be shown undergoing a gender change. To specify which particular Master is being discussed, the fans tend to put the actor's name in front:

  • Delgado's Master or Delgado!Master (Roger Delgado)
  • Ainley's Master or Ainley!Master (Anthony Ainley)
  • Jacobi's Master or Jacobi!Master (Derek Jacobi). He is also referred to as Prof. Yana or the Yana!Master due to him using this alias in canon.
  • Simm's Master or Simm!Master (John Simm). He is also referred to as Harold Saxon or the Saxon!Master due to him using this alias in canon.
  • Gomez's Master or Gomez!Master (Michelle Gomez) who is also often known as "Missy" as she is referred to in canon. She is rarely referred to as the Master as a result.
  • Dhawan's Master or Dhawan!Master (Sacha Dhawan). He is also known as O or the SpyMaster, as he took the identity of MI6 agent O in canon.

A few other actors played the Master briefly, but didn't have as strong an impact on the fandom. That being said, there are two Masters referred to as the Crispy!Masters, so called because of their decaying appearances. Jacobi also played a non-Canon version of the Master (an android) in the webcast Scream of the Shalka.

Name

  • Koschei: Name used by the Master in the VMA novel The Dark Path as well as a brief implied reference in the somewhat infamous Divided Loyalties. Is where the second name of the portmanteau shipname Thoschei is derived from.
  • Magnus:

Note: Many fan works make note of the fact that the spin-off novels (which exist in a "grey area" with regards to whether they are considered canonical to the TV series, the BBC having never defined explicitly what is and isn't canon) actually identify the Master by his real name, Koeschi. Therefore it's common to see that name used when referring to the Master, especially if no specific (or perhaps an original-to-the-fan fiction) incarnation is identified.

Tropes

Notable Theories

  • Season 6B
  • The War Chief is the Master: This is a theory that the character of the War Chief from The War Games is actually the Master.

Notable Memes

  • Like a Hybrid
  • Lungbarrow: Infamous VNA that introduced looms. Is also known for being ridiculously difficult to get physically due to astronomically high prices to purchase.
  • Don't Skip Nine
  • Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Mrs Baddeley's Plum Pudding

Crossover Fandoms

Resources

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