I think most people who have never seen the show think the Doctor's name is "Who" and are generally surprised when they learn it isn't. Which in its way is kind of cute. The mark of a fan is to know what his name isn't - like an initiation process. Congratulations, you've passed the test!
I love the scene in "The Empty Child" when Rose says, "How do you handle, all this time, not having a name?" and he says, "Nine hundred years, I'm coping." And then there's the whole business of his 'real' name being known to River Song, which brings the thing psychologically to another level - the 'real name' being a secret known to none or only a few, with a 'used name' - in this case, the Doctor - which anyone can use.
They played with this nicely in "The Sontaran Stratagem", too, when Luke Rattigan told the Sontaran General he didn't know the alien's name, though the Sonatarans too would have known him as "the Doctor".
Many layers of silliness and gamesplaying. Like "Frankenstein" not being the name of the monster in the original novel, but we all think of the monster when we hear the name. There's a whole series of mystery novels about a detective hero who has no name - the story's all in the first person. Or another series in which the protagonist has a name that could be the name of either a man or a woman and the series never indicates which he (or she) is.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-10-17 02:44 pm (UTC)I love the scene in "The Empty Child" when Rose says, "How do you handle, all this time, not having a name?" and he says, "Nine hundred years, I'm coping." And then there's the whole business of his 'real' name being known to River Song, which brings the thing psychologically to another level - the 'real name' being a secret known to none or only a few, with a 'used name' - in this case, the Doctor - which anyone can use.
They played with this nicely in "The Sontaran Stratagem", too, when Luke Rattigan told the Sontaran General he didn't know the alien's name, though the Sonatarans too would have known him as "the Doctor".
Many layers of silliness and gamesplaying. Like "Frankenstein" not being the name of the monster in the original novel, but we all think of the monster when we hear the name. There's a whole series of mystery novels about a detective hero who has no name - the story's all in the first person. Or another series in which the protagonist has a name that could be the name of either a man or a woman and the series never indicates which he (or she) is.