How old is the Doctor - Discussion / Theory 

Maybe that's why Tennant's incarnation said he could do "so much more". He really didn't last that long.

Lol 10 lived less than 10 years? No wonder he didn’t want to go

As a side note - Gallifrey is Canonically three times the size of Earth and at a much wider orbit. Meaning they have longer days and longer years. So a year in Gallifrey may be as much as 6 or 10 earth years, and a day as much as four days depending on exact orbital and revolution speeds. Rather than recalculate their age It is EXTREMELY Likely that the time sense that tells them "This is cannon, this is not cannon etc" is what they use to determine their age in any given description.

Right off the bat, one thing I contend with is when you say "kid." I think when the Doctor said he was just a kid, he was referring to his time as a young adult. You know, the way a 50-year-old might look back at themselves at 22 and say they were a kid.

10th doctor is 1912 years old when he was on space Titanic, that's a huge coincidence (for anyone that doesn't know the Titanic sank in 1912)

his age and his children are two things we may never know.

The correct answer would have been: 42

My memory may be wrong, but I’m sure The Doctor did NOT accumulate memories in the Confession Dial because he kept recalculating the current time by looking at the constellations. He also made the same observations each time. He concluded that he was stuck there for billions of years, he didn’t remember each incarnation.

I remember *TardisArchives* once did a video about Doctor's age... What a pity he left RU-vid...

AANNDD... Then, there is the 4 billion years he spent in the confession dial.

the eighth doctor spend 600 years in orbis :)

Wow, I never understood why Ten said the he "could do some much more" and that he didn't wanna go, this explains a lot of that, since he usually spends hundreds of years with one face.

The Twelfth Doctor has actually aged quite a lot, meaning that his twelfth incarnation has been around for hundreds of years. Firstly, in Before The Flood, he spent 139 years in the chamber of the Fisher King (1980-2119) I don't know if this was for the Doctor or the Monks, but in Extremis, the sonic sunglasses say that the age of some being is 2300 and something. The sunglasses were probably talking about the Monks, however it's possible that they were referring to the Doctor. We most likely will never know his current age, however. But it's always fun to make theories, eh?

Rule one! The Doctor lies...

yea that episode where he spent those billions of years was so sad and amazing to see how far hed go for the people he loves, the confession dial was awesome

Thanks for the analysis!

The second Doc said to Victoria (and Jamie), in Tomb of the Cybermen, 'Well, if we count in Earth terms, I must be something like 450 years old', (plus he had a 500 year diary) the Third Doc remarks in The Time Warrior that he's over 200, and the 4th Doc fluctuated between 749 (Brain of Morbius) to 756 in Ribos Operation but was shaken up by the Recreation Generator on the Leisure Hive. The 6th Doc said he was a 900 year old in Revelation of the Daleks and the 7th said he had the same age as The Rani in his first story, and they both were 953. Then it seriously gets complecated. 😮

The Doctor is actually more than likely 4000 years old since he recently regenerated

I love your channel

According to the 6th doctor, at least 10 million years "10 million years of absolute power" -The 6th doctor referring to gallifrey If they had discovered time travel and regeneration because of the doctor (the timeless child) then the doctor must be that old. Perhaps when he gives his age he only counts the time after he started being called 'the doctor'

I'm hoping the first Doctor confirms that he was The Other and is as old as the universe

Imagine losing track of your age so badly centuries into you life that you just start over and tell people you're three. 🤣

Is this just a copy of the TARDISarchives video that was deleted but with details from new episodes?

Great video

TARDIS Archives? Is that you ? Jk, this is an amazing video

I think that the writers of Doctor Who have no clue of what his age is, and they've given numbers randomly. The first doctors have said that they have lived for thousands of years, so there's no way that the 11th Doctor could be only 1200 years old.

Yeah, I would imagine that being a time traveler where everything is the present whether it's the year 5,000,000,000 AD or the year 100,000 BC would likely messy with your perception of time.

its obvious the doctor is over 100 million tops as shown in one of the final episodes with clara he explains how long he was in that time zone reliving the moments suffering

Don't forget the 100 or so years he spent inside the cryo cabinet in Before the Flood

Trying to comprehend DOCTOR WHO is a ability that has never been mastered

Perfect!

Fantastic.

In classic who the doctor said he was around 1000 years old when the time war started the doctor restarted counting his age the 12th doctor said he was 2000 years old if I had to guess I'd say the doctors real age as off now is around 3000-4000 years old

I feel like I watched this video before, Did you reupload this?

But what about The Other theory? If the doctor really is the other (which in my opinion he is) then he’s much older than that, he’s like billions of years old

I think if the (DOCTOR WHO) show series got rebooted again someday; There could be a chance at properly revealing what his actual age is. And reveal properly what (The Doctor’s) been through, along with explain why he is much older, than all the previous TimeLords that once existed, To add mentioned about the very special types of planets that exist in certain places of the universe. In addition mentioned that on those special types of planets time moves at different levels of a slow pace.

great video! but just to let you in in the audio adventures (confirmed canon by night of the doctor) the eight doctor spent almost 200 years on earth from suffering amnesia (ancestor cell), he also spent a thousand years in the divergent universe and to make him EVEN OLDER!! he spent 600 yrs in Orbis. so given this information, he is technically 5000 yrs old. jesus even I would lose track if I was that old.

What about the time 12 spent in the cryogenic cabinet in Before the Flood? Everyone seems to forget about that.

For calculate the Doctor's age we must used the infos from the eighth series (because it's cannon since 2013), The Eighth Doctor lived more 600years (The Eighth Doctor Serie Three: Orbis). And was changed his age when he became the War Doctor.

Didn't he like wait for a billion years after Clara died or something?

I was really annoyed that they reduced the age with the reboot as until then it had been pretty consistent. However weirdly adding the War Doctor in does help the numbers better align. Though its implied that while he remembered using the Moment he had suppressed the memories of being the War Doctor. We have of course seen the Doctor even beyond the 13th as he was also the Curator.

I think that the Doctor tells his age depending on the time period he is currently locate in. Which would explain why he is younger when the universe is younger and older when he is further in the future.

His most overheard Remark is I don’t know a hundred and something (unless offcorse I’m lying . And River song confirms it by saying The Doctor Lies.

I like your channel a lot and I like Doctor Who but OH MY GOD PLEASE GET A BETTER MIC

Awesome

there is even the fact the he spent billions of years trapped to save clara.

well think of it this way, after each regeneration the doctor starts off at zero yrs... as for the 1st doctor we only now of him after he leaves home - but when he finally did come home he said that a time lord does not die on gallifrey unless they are sentenced to death plus they can be brought back to life at any time as needed. but remember he said he came from the time of Rassilon

I have a theory that you loose years time traveling. It's like traveling around the galaxy where if you see the sun your seeing it 8 hours into the past. Also, if you go millions of miles away from earth and look back, you could see the dinosaurs (if the vision was through a powerful telescope).

I think that he just restarted with Paul mcgann and after the time war he was roughly 900 by his own count, however new who makes it unclear how he was aging at that point because like you said the time of 10 doesn’t match up at all with his stories, he couldn’t have been the doctor for just a couple years, and honestly same can probably be said for 9 who by metrics would have been only in that body a year, literally the least likely thing Ive heard. So yeah he has now earthly idea how old he is

I think you ignoring an important factor of "age": how are you counting? I don't mean in the "how long is a year" sense, but rather what is age itself. Do you count from his first appearance in the universe, how he himself perceives time, in relation to his current temporal position in space time in relation to the big bang.... And what of quantum histories and other alternate dimensions? He could be zero, he could be 10 billion (US usage), he could be -10,000 ......

Is the Doctor going by Gallifreyan years, or some other measure of time ?

When you're talking about age, the first question should be whether the "age" of the Doctor is determined in Gallifreyan years, or Earth years. The rotation period of Gallifrey is unknown, as is the number of Gallifreyan days that it takes to orbit its sun. Speaking of its sun, it appear as though Gallifrey is part of a binary pair of suns, so the next question is: does it orbit one sun, and if so, which one? Does it orbit both suns? All of these questions need to be answered before you can correlate Gallifreyans' age with Earth years. Everything else is sheer speculation.

The thing is, the Doctor jumps back and forth through time. There's no rising sun in the TARDIS to tell him how many days or years he's been alive, and he can't count the seconds

I've had this theory for a while; being born Gallifreyans, Time-Lords don't count their ages from birth, but from when when they become Time-Lords, so it's more of an anniversary of their graduation from the Academy. Gallifreyans naturally have very long lifespans to begin with (barring accident and malady), and then becoming Time-Lords bestows the ability to regenerate. This would explain how the High Council was able to 1: force Two's regeneration into Three, and 2: give Eleven (really 13) another cycle. Expanding on this, I think the 1st Doctor was really his 1st regeneration, his 1st self actually being pre-Graduation Gallifreyan. this would make the list actually: edit: I forgot 10.5 Birth = Galifreyan, going by the Doctors real name ("Doctor Who" being what he named himself at Graduation) = Scared little kid in Gallifreyan barn 1st regeneration (bestowed upon at graduation from Academy) = 1st Doctor = William Hartnell / Richard Hurndall / David Bradley 2nd regeneration = 2nd Doctor = Patrick Troughton 3rd regeneration (forced) = 3rd Doctor = John Pertwee 4th regeneration = 4th Doctor = Tom Baker 5th regeneration (weird and difficult) = 5th Doctor = Peter Davison 6th regeneration = 6th Doctor = Collin Baker 7th regeneration = 7th Doctor = Sylvester McCoy 8th regeneration (medically delayed) = 8th Doctor = Paul McGann 9th regeneration (induced by the Sisterhood) = War Doctor (or, The Warrior? forgotten 9th) = John Hurt 10th regeneration = 9th Doctor (really 10th) = Christopher Eccleston 11th regeneration = 10th Doctor (really 11th) = David Tennant 12th regeneration = 10.5 / Meta-crisis Doctor (really 12th) = Also, David Tennant 13th regeneration (final of first cycle) = 11th Doctor (really 13th) = Matt Smith 14th regeneration (first of new cycle, bestowed upon at pleas of Clara to Time-Lords) = 12th Doctor (really 14th) = Peter Capaldi 15th regeneration = 13th Doctor (really 15th) = Jodie Whittaker

So the 12th doctor is the longest living incarnation in the universe

RTD retconned all previous mentions of his age to establish continuity.

The Doctor is infinity and walks in eternity. I believe River Song said something close to this in the Husbands of River Song.

have heard a couple of interesting theories, including the idea that the Doctor only counts how many years he's been in his current regeneration, with the possible exception of when he first regenerates (trying to make an impressive speech to intimidate an invading alien doesn't work when you say you're only a few hours old). It might tie into Romana saying he's been piloting the TARDIS for 500 years, because she's only counting the time since the Doctor got it operational after his Third incarnation was exiled on Earth. I've also heard the idea that he's actually on his second set of regenerations when we meet him, which may be part of the reason he's left Gallifrey, stealing a second set of regenerations would be a pretty high crime. This might be what the Third Doctor was referring to by being thousands of years old. All interesting theories. I believe the Doctor may be a lot older than the 3000 years you and others have come up with, but I guess that's part of the mystery of the Doctor.

This video had a lot of facts I didn’t know! #WibblyWobbly

Woo thats a lot of birthday

I disagree on not counting his time spent in the prison in Heaven Sent. The time did pass while he as in there, and he was alife during all of that. So from an outside point of view, he is impossibly old. Even if he doesn't remember most of it.

Ah, the artificial aging of The Doctor in the Moffat era. Although that is good for Big Finish, and the EU. Gives them room to work.

maybe Russel T Davies forgot to make him age a bit more so 10 only lived 3 years no wonder he didn't want to go

Damn..... ay he got a letter from the queen yet

The tenth Doctor lived for 5 years. You started counting his age at 'Voyage of the Damned', after he first appeared 2 seasons (2 years more or less based on how every season is basically one year) and the only reason I can see why you did that is because that's just the first time this incarnation mentions his age? How has nobody spotted this?

Four days after Doctorgeek's video

When did the 8th doctor start counting again? Was that in big finish?

Not sure if this would count but I want to point out that if we were to include his time in the confession dial then he would be well over 4.5 billion years old.

BUT sI read somewhere that the ninth doctor travelled alone for about a hundred years. Also, simewhere online they said that tenth doctor lived "about seven or eight years". You counted 3 so that would be +100 for the ninth doctor and +5 for the tenth doctor. 3203+105= 3308.

So he's got 2194 or 3203??

You forgot about the heaven sent episode where he was trapped in his “last will” for about 3 billion or so years

This makes the 11th doctoe the oldest doctor to ever lived

If the Time Lords were real, your think they'd have a way of counting the age, or remembering it. Perhaps implant a little timer somewhere on your arm, or ask the TARDIS to memorise it.

Several Billion Years old, if you count all the years he is stuck in the confession Dial

So, The Doctor didn't see Rose now about 2000 years? Blimey...

I suppose he could have viewed each regeneration as a separate time, so 903-906 years as David's doctor. added to it. Not cure which I'd rather believe.

I've been telling people of the age flux with the 8th doctor so many times

After heaven sent he's now well over 2 billion

The Doctor used to talk about 500-year diaries. All he has to do is count the diaries. If he stopped filling them in, then it's his own fault. :p

Thankyou some who says the doctor dose age in heaven sent I've been trying to say to loads of people that he does not age in that

War Doctor was 800, not 900. We know this because he went on a century long trip saving people throughout history, as told during the 9th Doctors era, mostly in Rose. Also 9 regenerated at 900, not 903

the doctor is as old as he needs to be

now how old is the tardis? that thing has to be 10,000 plus years older-

so we are jusst dismissing the fact that he spent 4.5billion years trapped in the "torture castle"? or we just dont count it as the last copy hardly spent more than few days in it? Im kinda confused as the time lords did say he is over 4.5b years old and on the next episod he claims to be only 2000

I have a feeling that timelords have different years then humans. I dont know how 40 human years (60's - 00's) could be like 400 years in the Doctor's life.

What about the billions of years he spent in Heaven Sent?

He’s now as of Season 9 billions of years old... but that now didn’t happen? Ah well. He was over 1,000 years old in Doctor Who & the Silurian.

You can't ignore 4.5 billion yrs locked away.

There is many times where calls himself 2000 Years old

I think that the Doctor can’t be older than 5000 years. You also forgot the time he spent 139 years in a status chamber. I believe that at the time the twelfth Doctor regenerated he was around 3334 give or take 20 or 30 years and to add on the 1009, he would then be around 4343.

How old is the elderly first doctor should the question not how long has he lived the first doctor was only 104 and a half if you remember he was on average in the tarids for five hundred years on earth after leaving his home planet so he would in his early years as he is the first doctor so it would seem? Unfortunately for the doctor this means he left for earth a million years a heard of his own birth but it would have been possible for him 5o get to earth with help from another where travel through his own timeline get there before he left his home planet I say this because think for a minute if the doctors is that old he would be older than the leader of the time lord? He was born a 5 million years ago at or is he?

Dear Doctor buy a cursed timex

So, Eccleston was 100 at regeneration, 101 at the most. Math, 1200-400= 800.

One bit of information, the 7th Doctor is lying. The Sixth Doctor was 990 during his travels with Mel. The Doctor Who Fandom wiki has the Doctor's timeline gathered from all different forms of media (TV, Audio, Comics, Prose, etc.). I highly recommend it as a source of you want to look beyond the show for figuring out certain events.

I don't buy the theory that the Doctor can't figure out his age... He's part of one of the first time traveling races, and they're time sensitive. He can't adjust his age, as well, because that would mean it would jump around entirely, and both classic and new Who show a steady progression, just a difference between the actual number. Lying about his age after the Time War is the only sensible explanation.

Actually the Doctor was 600 years old when he stole the TARDIS.

Not counting the billions of years in heaven sent, I say he's actually around 4500 years old. Taking Big Finish into account. Also the Seasons of War charity anthology gives an out about why he's younger. The Doctor gives up many of his memories so that he can be younger again to fight

I dunno but it was a shame he died in 2017. RIP Doctor.

David was 903 on the titanic

50 years of being a teenager? That sounds horrible!