Talk:Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka)

In episode one, the Doctor says (of a cat,) "He must've used up his nine lives, rather like me." This (to me) seems to suggest that he could be the 13th doctor... which would certainly seem to fit his bleak outlook, being tired of his life.

His entire status-quo seems VERY removed from the Eighth's. -Derik 20:27, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * That's a very interesting interpretation. However, the more common one, and the one intended by the producers, is the more literal one.  He's at the end of — or at least not the beginning of — his ninth life.  There are (or were) a number of hard sources for this at Shalka Doctor.  The other reason that you can't quite go with your interpretation is that the script also has a reference to a painting being made of "all nine of him", which rather definitely sets the number of this Doctor in narrative stone.  Czech Out   ☎ | ✍  02:46, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
 * As an aside, Lance Parkin was smokin' crack when he wrote this bit of AHistory, a source our article here seems to treat as valid. In my view, the script does indeed pin down the Shalka Doctor's number.  If Eccleston had not come along, no one would be trying to do any sort of mental gymnastics to wriggle out of what the script says.  It's interesting that his own Gallifrey Chronicles seems to allow people to consider the Shalka Doctor a version of the 9th Doctor.  Still, he doesn't contradict his AHistory speculation, since the three 9th Doctors are never physically described.   We're all entitled so our own private speculations, but on the face of it, this seems fairly outlandish.  In the case of a statement that's so far from production and narrative intent, it needs to be quoted verbatim here (on the talk page) so readers can have the most precise understanding possible.  It probably needs to be removed from the main page altogether.  AHistory isn't a reference that can be used on this wiki.  See Canon policy for more info.  This is a definitional example of when not to use Ahistory, it seems to me.


 * The far more important information to include in the "Behind the Scenes" info is the fact that the production team was very much working under the assumption that theirs was the ninth Doctor. Production intent coupled with the near-definitional script trumps Lance Parkin's ex-post-facto musings any day of the week.   Czech Out   ☎ | ✍  03:18, 22 April 2009 (UTC)