New Dr Who season announced: 23rd August

[bilateralrope]

Does the Doctor have a reliable way to know how old he is ?

[Batman]

Well the Doctor's always been a bit confused about his exact age but yeah, that seems like a bit of a discrepancy.Which they're either a) never going to explain period or b) explain with 'timey-wimey stuff' so essentially a) with more technobabble.

[Iroscato]

Does the Doctor have a reliable way to know how old he is ?

Good point - I doubt he does except for counting in his head, I certainly think he's clever enough to work it out if he wanted to. In the grand scheme of things though, I don't think he's that bothered about it. He just identifies as 'real old'.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Maybe the extra time comes from Capaldi's Doctor finally acknowledging the time he spent as the War Doctor, now that he knows that he didn't burn Gallifrey and all that.

[The Romulan Republic]

Adding the War Doctor years could account for how old he says he is.

[Iroscato]

Let's just assume that's the reason and leave it at that. Daddy's got a headache.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Then take two aspirin and call me in the morning.

[Gandalf]

Maybe he's using different calendars?

Come back straws, I need to grasp at you!

[Havok]

He said "over 2000 years old" in the trailer linked. Hurt, 10 and 11 both definitely confirmed 1200. What's the confusion?

[Havok]

And I'm excited for this season. I was getting tired of Doctor Hipster.

[generator_g1]

He said "over 2000 years old" in the trailer linked. Hurt, 10 and 11 both definitely confirmed 1200. What's the confusion?

The time he spent on Trenzalore could account for some of the additional years assuming Time Lords don't age like humans do.

[Broomstick]

I don't think the Doctor really know how old he is. He's guessing.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well he was apparently 900 during Seven's time, then 903 after three regenerations into Ten's era. So obviously he's changed how he counts age.

[Bedlam]

I think the 'lost count' idea is probably the most likely.

Of course there are several ways he could count age: -

Number of years experienced seems the most reasonable.
Difference between date or birth and current date would change every time he steps out the TARDIS and can be positive or negative.
Age of a particular incarnation is used a few times

[Tribble]

Wasn't it 600 years on Trenzalore? I thought that Clara returned twice, and each time she came back 300 or so years had passed.

And speaking of Clara, I really hope they tone her down a little bit.

[NecronLord]

"The thing I keep banging on about is that he doesn't know what age he is. He's lying. How could he know, unless he's marking it on a wall? He could be 8,000 years old, he could be a million. He has no clue. The calendar will give him no clues."

Steven Moffat, SFX, May 2010

If the writer hasn't got an idea what the age is and is deliberately aiming to make it inconsistent, speculation can't be expected to come up with the goods.

[Crazedwraith]

Despite that its not really been that inconsistent since Ten started giving his age. Nine said had 900 years of phone box travel or something but Ten started at 900 and consistently added a year for each season. Eleven age started shooting up but it was always after he'd explicitly just spend lots of time flying around on his own.

Why Moffat wanted Eleven to be the longest living awesomest incarnation I do not know. Other than ego.

Still cautiously optimistic about Twelve. Each new Doctor since the revival seems to get at least one good season where they're really trying before things started to get a bit worn/more dodgy. I gave up on Eleven after the awfulness of Amy and Rory's departure and Clara's introduction in Snowmen. But came back for the 50th. then Eleven's departure reminded me why I dropped it.

[DaveJB]

Why Moffat wanted Eleven to be the longest living awesomest incarnation I do not know. Other than ego.

How do we know he IS the longest-lasting incarnation? If, as Moffat says, he makes a habit of lying about his age (or just doesn't know it), then who's to say the First Doctor or the War Doctor, the other incarnations who died of old age, didn't live for even longer?

[Crazedwraith]

Why Moffat wanted Eleven to be the longest living awesomest incarnation I do not know. Other than ego.

How do we know he IS the longest-lasting incarnation? If, as Moffat says, he makes a habit of lying about his age (or just doesn't know it), then who's to say the First Doctor or the War Doctor, the other incarnations who died of old age, didn't live for even longer?

Did you just read my post that at least for NuWho the numbers have been fairly consistent and going up? Other than one line in the 50th Anniversary Special there not that much evidences in the show. It feels more like a self-aggrandising line to avoid admit cock-ups to me. Like the one about 'there's not continuity issues in Doctor just things we haven't seen him change yet'

But that is a fair point about the First and War Docs, they could have lasted a long time. Still Moffat does make a point of aging up the Eleventh Doctor by having him spend centuries off screen doing nothing but mope on several occasions for little apparent reason other than to make Eleven much older in universe than Nine or Ten, the other modern Docs.

[Tribble]

The funny thing is regardless of the Doctor's actual age by Timelord standards he's still quite young. He only feels old because he's around humans all the time.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The funny thing is regardless of the Doctor's actual age by Timelord standards he's still quite young. He only feels old because he's around humans all the time.

Well, that and a lot more stuff tends to happen to the Doctor than to the average Time Lord. This is a group that considers changing Presidents every couple of centuries to be racing through them. If you only have an interesting day every ten years it's bound to change your perception of age.

[Parallax]

The only Time Lord who seems to go through bodies faster than The Doctor is The Master....

[Havok]

Why in the fuck would Hurt, 10, and 11 sit around in a cell by themselves, lying about their own age to each other? Especially when they are talking about a very sobering and specific number: How many Timelord babies we massacred.

[NecronLord]

Why Moffat wanted Eleven to be the longest living awesomest incarnation I do not know. Other than ego.

How do we know he IS the longest-lasting incarnation? If, as Moffat says, he makes a habit of lying about his age (or just doesn't know it), then who's to say the First Doctor or the War Doctor, the other incarnations who died of old age, didn't live for even longer?

It is in fact, only the War Doctor who died of old age. The First Doctor died of old age, yes, but after exposure to a time-accellerating field (Daleks' Master Plan, IIRC) and the Cybermen's energy drain (Tenth Planet, the immediate cause of his death) that robbed years off his life.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Why Moffat wanted Eleven to be the longest living awesomest incarnation I do not know. Other than ego.

How do we know he IS the longest-lasting incarnation? If, as Moffat says, he makes a habit of lying about his age (or just doesn't know it), then who's to say the First Doctor or the War Doctor, the other incarnations who died of old age, didn't live for even longer?

It is in fact, only the War Doctor who died of old age. The First Doctor died of old age, yes, but after exposure to a time-accellerating field (Daleks' Master Plan, IIRC) and the Cybermen's energy drain (Tenth Planet, the immediate cause of his death) that robbed years off his life.

Given that the War Doctor fought in the Time War, it may well be possible that he was exposed to similar life-shortening stuff. Freaky shit tended to happen in that war.