Talk:Doctor Who? running joke

Prop delete
This doesn't deserve a page of its own, because the topic does not admit itself of concise definition. I vaguely know what the page is trying for, but the examples given aren't all of the same type. For instance, what's going in in The War Machines is different from the quick pre-credit "stinger" Jackie gives before The Christmas Invasion starts. WOTAN's "Doctor Who" was in deadly earnest (and a production error, by the admission of the director). Meanwhile, Jackie's bit was, we're told by RTD in a commentary, a bit of a lighthearted Christmas pun.

But therein lies the rub.

How do you actually define the difference between a perfectly ordinary question and a "joke"? In Black Orchid, it's completely reasonable for Madge to ask "Doctor who?" when she's being formally introduced to the Doctor. That's not a "joke" or a "gag" or anything more than the perfectly obvious thing to do in that social situation. A similar thing happens in The Gunfighters. Bat misunderstands the Doctor and so asks, "Doctor who". That the Doctor then sort of agrees to that name isn't an indication that he's being called "Doctor Who", but rather that he's just attempting to speed away from the issue of being assigned a name.

In order to register most of these instances as "jokes", you almost have to go to a behind the scenes source who tells you, "Yes, that was a deliberate play on the name of the show." Even the "eggiest" of them — probably a tie between Jackie's TCI one, the Brig's replacement in The Five Doctors, and the one in "A Girl's Best Friend" — can be read as perfectly reasonable questions. It's only because we know the behind the scenes info on how those lines came to be inserted that we don't hear them as ordinary bits of conversation.

I also think that by including a definite article in this page's title, we're implying something that simply isn't true. There is no single, running joke involving the question "Doctor Who?" To the extent that the words "Doctor" and "Who" ever occupy consecutive spaces in dialogue — which is far too infrequently to be considered "running" —  they aren't ever used in quite the same way. Jackie's already well familiar with the Doctor before she says "Doctor Who"; The first Doctor's obviously musing so as to solve the "mystery" of the name "Dr. Foreman", Bat Masterson hasn't heard the name "Caligari", etc. There is therefore no single, running joke.

This page should therefore be deleted, its observations relegated to the pages of the individual serials/episodes from which they're drawn.  Czech Out  ☎ | ✍  17:49, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Is this debate still open? Are waiting for more people to give their opinons?  Should it be closed by an admin?   Czech Out   ☎ | ✍  18:10, February 5, 2010 (UTC)

Support deletion

 *  Czech Out  ☎ | ✍  17:49, 3 May 2009 (UTC),  per above.
 * Agree. This information is already in part discussed in the Doctor Who article and anything else can be incorporated into it prior to this page's deletion. --Tangerineduel 06:55, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Oppose deletion
--Catkind121 19:53, 5 May 2009 (UTC) (Why it gives information ion this re ocurrence)
 * It deserves it's own page as it's the longest running joke in the show's history. --AKR619 00:36, 6 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It's so nice to have a list of whenever this occurence happens--210.49.251.226 11:46, 14 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Several of the instances of the joke listed here really don't seem to actually be examples of this. For example, if people just say "Who is the Doctor," or "Doctor, what was it?" then it really isn't an exammpple of this. If nobody objects, I am going to remove everything where nobody actually says "Doctor who?" The title of the page may also have to be changed, as with the ending of The Wedding of River Song, it doesn't seem to be a joke anymore.Icecreamdif talk to me 22:43, October 2, 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't think it should be deleted. We are an encyclopaedia about Doctor Who and the Doctor Who 'running joke' is basically the foundation of the the entire show. This page is documenting one of the biggest questions in the show's history and fundamental to the readers/viewers/fans understanding of the Doctor. Also, given that as of the events of The Wedding of River Song, the Doctor Who 'running joke' is actually something that is not just a joke, but is actually something part of the Doctor Who Universe, which we should be documenting. On a side note, it should not be really called "The Doctor Who running joke" since it has been established that it is not actually a 'joke' any more, but something more concrete within the Doctor Who Universe. MM/ Want to talk? 17:43, February 19, 2012 (UTC)

Merge with The Question?
Given that the "Doctor Who?" question is now something with in-universe significance, shouldn't this be merged into The Question? (I would remove the ones that aren't literally "Doctor who?", though). 94.75.90.48talk to me 00:22, February 19, 2012 (UTC)
 * It's generally forbidden to just remove a maintenance tag without discussion, but in this case, the motion is flawed from the outset. We simply can't merge an out-of-universe and an in-universe article, on principle.  The Question and the running joke are two separate things.  They might be related, but they're ne'er to be joined.  See Forum:The Question for more.  17:09: Sun 19 Feb 2012