The Doctor: What's in a Name?

[fajrdrako]

Doctor Who in some ways this season reminds me of the Guy Gavriel Kay novel Tigana.

Now, if you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it. This is a fantasy novel about a group of freedom-fighters, but even more, it's about the power of a name. It's the Rumpelstiltskin theme: the power that comes from saying a name, or taking away the power to say a name, or the power of invoking a name.

The Doctor, of course, doesn't use a name. He's just... the Doctor. As in the wonderful exchange with Rose in "The Empty Child":

Rose: What was I supposed to say, you don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?
Doctor: Nine centuries in, I'm coping.

So they tease us with his name, or the absence of his name, and we get nicknames like Theta (or so I'm told) but no clues as to his original name. I was rather hoping he didn't have a real name; that Gallifreyans didn't have to have names, that they could just be The Master or The Doctor or Whatever. No, Romana wouldn't fit that pattern. Or perhaps the fun of it is that the pattern is that there is no pattern. A free for all for names.

Rose called the Doctor 'Spock' in the scene I quoted. I was disappointed, back when I was an ardent Star Trek fan, to learn that Spock had an unpronounceable last name. Why did he need a last name at all? For aliens to have the Indo-European pattern of first name and last name seems absurd to me. I don't even know why we need that pattern, but don't get me started on that....

So now it seems the Doctor has a name, and would use it in one one situation.

There's an interesting parallel here to Captain Jack Harkness, another man with no known name, using a stolen one as an accidental tribute to the man he stole it from.

So they've raised the mystery: what was Jack's name, before he was Captain Jack Harkness? Does Captain John known? Grey would know, but Grey is in a frozen coma. Toshiko asked Jack directly in "Captain Jack Harkness", and he didn't answer. What was the Doctor's name, and why is it such a secret?

Having raised the question as a tease and a mystery, will they feel compelled to answer it? Part of the game in the new series of Doctor Who was that the Doctor never said the name of Gallifrey - not until "The Runaway Bride". But that's different. We already knew the name of Gallifrey.

The bottom line: I don't want to know the name Captain Jack's parents called him by. He is Captain Jack Harkness and that's enough for me.

I don't want to know the Doctor's name. I don't ever want to know. I love the scenes in which the question is raised, but dread any hints or clues. What name could be good enough for either of them, except the names we know?

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Lovely last sentence.

I'm not nearly so interested in awhat the name is, as in what circumstances he would speak it in -- look at how River apologized before telling him he'd spoken it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm not nearly so interested in awhat the name is, as in what circumstances he would speak it in -- look at how River apologized before telling him he'd spoken it.

Yes. I liked that, but didn't understand it in the least. And why would he only tell his name in one particular rare or unique circumstance? We have no reason to think names on Gallifrey are generally particularly secret or sacred, though it's possible. Nor can I think of any reason this would be the case with the Doctor, but no one else. Maybe he and the Master made a pact - no names!

My guess would be that the circumstances of telling his name involve either marriage or death, but I can't think of anything that would explain this. And I can't think why she would apologize about the marriage, unless she was just worrying about a spoiler for his future. But perhaps the revelation meant one of them was going to die?

No, it doesn't really make sense... but it's all I can think of.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

"And why would he only tell his name in one particular rare or unique circumstance? "

Well, in canon, he's never spoken it, not even (Deadly Assassin) on Gallifrey. Something is going on there. (My speculation was that he no longer *had* a name, that it had been stripped from him. Ah, well.)

The only Gallifreyans we've seen who use titles (The Master, The Rani, The Meddling Monk) are all exiles. So it makes sense that there is some sort of prohibition going on, or some sort of custom that he still honored.

> marriage or death,

Marriage, maybe. We've seen him die, repeatedly, so no cigar there. I'm hoping it's something far more interesting than that. It's sci-fi, after all. He can only speak it when the universe is ending. He can only speak it when he's doing something uniquely Gallifreyan. He can only speak it when confronting Rassilon. (He's done that before, though.)

But it's something so dreadful that River apologizes, repeatedly, before telling him his name. She's not just apologizing because she knows it, she's apologizing because she's telling him something in his future that he doesn't want to know. I very much doubt that's marriage, and he's certainly faced death with reasonable equanimity before.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

in canon, he's never spoken it, not even (Deadly Assassin) on Gallifrey

So his wive and kids didn't know his name?

Something is going on there.

Definitely, even if just in the recesses of Steven Moffat's devious mind.

My speculation was that he no longer *had* a name, that it had been stripped from him. Ah, well.

I thought that too.

some sort of custom that he still honored.

Especially since he is the last one.

We've seen him die, repeatedly, so no cigar there.

I meant the death of the person he's telling, not his own death. But I hope it's more interesting than that, too.

it's something so dreadful that River apologizes, repeatedly, before telling him his name.

Yes. There must have been a reason. And his reaction was... well, whatever it was, it wasn't a simple, "How did you know that?" It was something more.

And no, marriage wouldn't warrant the apology and the tension. So - ?

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

in canon, he's never spoken it, not even (Deadly Assassin) on Gallifrey
Agh! No, I wasn't clear. He's never spoken it in a TV episode. We don't know what he's done in the rest of his life. (It wasn't even canon that he *had* a wife until the RTD era. There was this elaborate theory by a previous show-runner that all Time Lords were grown in vats. Google Doctor Who Looms.)

I really am trying to imagine but I haven't a clue. What could be more dreadful than what he's already done?

These next few are all wild dreaming, no basis in show history.
Hmm. He could say it when naming a baby. He could say it when confronting some dreadful entity from Gallifrey's mythological history. I dunno...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

He's never spoken it in a TV episode.

So what happened in "Deadly Assassin"? Did someone try to force him to say it?

It wasn't even canon that he *had* a wife until the RTD era.

I thought he had a granddaughter from the beginning. Doesn't that imply a family, including a wife?

There was this elaborate theory by a previous show-runner that all Time Lords were grown in vats.

I've heard of that. I thought it was a sort of joke.

He could say it when naming a baby. He could say it when confronting some dreadful entity from Gallifrey's mythological history. I dunno...

Hee. Lots of possibilities.