Who and What Would the Doctor be without the TARDIS?
Guest contributor Chris Taylor explores five ideas.
2nd Doctor: “Oh, it’s the TARDIS. It’s my home. At least it has been for a considerable number of years.”
–The Tomb of the Cybermen, Episode One
Imagine the Doctor without the TARDIS. Do you find it hard to? I know that I do. The TARDIS is the Doctor’s longest-serving companion and without it, without ever having had it, I believe that his life would have been very, very different. In this article, I will be exploring my top five theories of who and what the Doctor would be without the TARDIS.
A Safer Man
This theory relates more to those that the Doctor has met over his many centuries of travelling. It also relates to series 4’s Turn Left – how one thing (in Turn Left Donna Noble turning right and in this article the Doctor never having “borrowed” the TARDIS) can have larger consequences at a later time – the butterfly effect.
The Twelfth Doctor had some difficulty deciding whether he’s a “good man” or not; which is understandable – if regenerating doesn’t make you think twice about who you are then what will? One thing’s for sure though: the Doctor would be much safer to be around if he didn’t have the TARDIS.
Many of the Doctor’s companions’ time with him have come to an end with devastating and life-changing consequences: being trapped in a parallel world, being trapped in the past, having all memory of the Doctor and travels with him wiped etc. The worst of all though is death, in the case of: Adric (Earthshock), Astrid Peth (Voyage of the Damned) and Victorian Clara (The Snowmen), for example. If the Doctor had never have met them then they wouldn’t have died, and the Doctor would have been viewed as a safer man; rather than a man of whom travelling with would come with such a dangerous gamble – the chance of a brilliant time or heading straight “into darkness”.
Whilst the lives of the Doctor’s companions might have been saved from devastating consequences, there is an alternative viewpoint to consider: their lives would never have been enriched and their eyes never opened to the magnificence of what lies beyond planet Earth. Some might say that to have had and to have lost is better than to never have had at all. Personally, I’d rather have never met the Doctor if it meant I could live a full and normal life, rather than having spent some time with the Doctor and having to bear the consequences of that time for the rest of my life. One thing is for sure though: a TARDIS-less Doctor would mean that the lives of millions would have been lost, as he wouldn’t have been there to save the day – a safer man doesn’t necessarily make for a safer universe.
A Traveller
Yes, even without the TARDIS I believe the Doctor would still travel. Gallifrey is a much larger planet than Earth, as seen in The End of Time: Part Two, so although not “the entirety of space and time” there would still be an awful lot to see and do.
I believe that the Doctor wouldn’t travel alone. As much as I’d like to believe he’d be more of a family man, I can’t picture him cosying up by the fire with his family, on a cold “Gallifreyan night”. I can however picture him travelling with his family (albeit he being far more enthusiastic) – perhaps even with more members than just his granddaughter Susan Foreman.
Without the TARDIS travelling would be costly. As such, I believe the Doctor would have lived a life that would fundamentally be relatable to that of human beings. This brings me nicely to my next theory…
A Professor at the Time Lord Academy
Everyone needs to earn a living, and the Doctor’s no exception. Without the TARDIS the Doctor would actually have to earn a living to afford a home (or he could just steal one, though knowing he’d be unable to “run away” with it I doubt that he’d even bother trying). So what would the Doctor do for a living, if he spent his entire life on Gallifrey? My theory is that he would be a professor at the Time Lord Academy.
In Human Nature/The Family of Blood the 10th Doctor becomes a teacher in 1913, to hide from being detected by the Family of Blood. With the Doctor’s vast intelligence (a slightly exaggerated “27 brains” in The Bells of Saint John) a career in education would seem like the most appropriate choice. Without the TARDIS I believe the Doctor would still be as enthusiastic about learning and discovering new things about the universe, knowledge he would pass on to his students, like how he “teaches” his companions – giving them the opportunity to see and learn about the universe.
An Earlier Incarnation
The Doctor owes many of his regenerations to his own decisions in getting involved in life-threatening situations. Without the TARDIS the Doctor wouldn’t have been able to have been involved in events which as a result triggered him to regenerate. As such, the Doctor would most likely be an incarnation many times fewer than who we are accustomed to acknowledging as the “Twelfth Doctor”.
As was depicted in The Time of the Doctor, the Doctor does age but at a much slower rate than human beings – taking him over 900 years to age from what would appear to be a human being in their early 30’s (in the case of Matt Smith) to at least into their 80’s. If the Doctor, now claiming to have “lived for over 2000 years” (in the series 8 launch trailer), had been able to age naturally and only regenerate because of old age, then he would most likely only be on his third incarnation.
The Doctor’s age is a very controversial subject. The First Doctor regenerated due to old age at around 450, meaning the Eleventh Doctor was over twice the First Doctor’s age, and only just “dying of old age”. Due to this controversy, my assumption that a TARDIS-less Doctor would only be on his third incarnation is only a rough guesstimate. One thing I am pretty sure of though is that without the TARDIS, and without the Time Lord’s ever giving him a new regeneration cycle – meaning no matter what he dies after his 13th incarnation – the Doctor would live a much longer (though definitely a much less happy) life.
Dead
As grim as this is to consider, it’s more than likely true. I’d like to believe that my previous theory would still be relevant past the Doctor’s age at the time of the Last Great Time War, but if its events are anything to go by then I believe it’s highly unlikely that a TARDIS-less Doctor would have survived beyond it.
I believe that the Doctor would have helped – would have done anything in his power to try and prevent his race’s extinction. I’d like to believe that he had a role in caring for the injured, as opposed to fighting “on the front line” – we all know how hard it was for the Doctor to become a “warrior”.
It was stated by the 10th Doctor that “2.47 billion” children died when the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey. Without the TARDIS the Doctor wouldn’t have been able to take control of the Time War in the way that was depicted in Day of the Doctor. As such, it’s highly likely that nature would have taken its course and not only those 2.47 billion children killed but the whole of creation possibly destroyed.
Overall
I believe that the TARDIS has a lot to answer for when questioning who and what the Doctor is. The TARDIS is his life. Without it, although fundamentally being the same man, he would lead a very different life. He wouldn’t be “a legend woven throughout history”. He wouldn’t be “the saver of worlds”. He wouldn’t be “a mad man/idiot with a box” . He would just be the Doctor. Or perhaps not even that. Perhaps the alias “Doctor” wouldn’t even exist. Or perhaps not even that. Perhaps without the TARDIS, Doctor Who wouldn’t exist at all.
Thanks for reading!
