Doctor Who? running joke

A number of references to the Doctor's lack of name have appeared in the Doctor Who Universe, playing on the 'Doctor Who' joke, this is an ongoing attempt to document these instances.


 * See separate article for a discussion of the Doctor's true name from an in-universe perspective.

First Doctor

 * The first occurs in the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child when Ian Chesterton says, "Be reasonable Doctor Foreman". The Doctor then replies "Eh, Doctor Who — what's he talking about?" According to the DVD production subtitles, the response was actually added by William Hartnell himself.
 * In The Gunfighters, the Doctor mumbingly introduces himself to Bat Masterson by the alias of Doctor Caligari. A rightfully confused Masterson asked "Doctor Who?" and The Doctor answered "yes, er, quite right."
 * In The War Machines, WOTAN orders Dodo Chaplet to send the Doctor with the command, "DDDOCTORR WHOO ISS RREQUIREDD". This is the only time in the series that the Doctor is directly called Doctor Who. This reportedly caused angry mail to get sent to the production team.

Second Doctor

 * A moment after meeting the Doctor for the first time, Colonel Crichton asked "Who was that strange little man?". An UNIT employee answered "The Doctor.". To this Crichton replied "Who?". (DW: The Five Doctors)

Third Doctor

 * In The Curse of Peladon, the Earth representative is outraged that the guards wouldn't let her in the palace, because she was the rightful representative of Earth, The Doctor claims to be the representative of Earth. The Earth representative then asks "Doctor? What Doctor? Doctor who?"

Ninth Doctor

 * In The Empty Child, when Rose introduces the Doctor to Jack as 'Mr. Spock' she says to him; "What was I supposed to say, you don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?"

Tenth Doctor

 * In The Christmas Invasion, the newly regenerated Tenth Doctor fainted in front of Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith after landing his TARDIS in front of them and wishing them a merry christmas. After Rose told the pair that was the Doctor, Jackie suspecting the Ninth Doctor and not knowing the concept of regeneration asked Rose; "What d'you mean, 'that's the Doctor'? Doctor who?"
 * In The Girl in the Fireplace, after The Doctor and Reinette read each others minds, Reinette says sadly; "Doctor... Doctor who?", before inviting him to the dance.
 * In Blink, Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale watched an Easter Egg on a DVD, Sally said; "The Doctor." and Larry replied; "Who's the Doctor?".
 * In The Next Doctor, the Doctor introduced himself to Rosita as "The Doctor" and she replied "Doctor, who?".

K-9 and Company
When Brendan Richards asks, "Doctor who?", K-9 Mark III responds, "Affirmative."

Audio
to be added

Novels
to be added

Short stories
to be added

Comic strips
to be added