What is the Doctor’s name in Doctor Who?
I have a theory, and something you could call fan fiction, but if I was in charge, this is what I would reveal the Doctor’s name to be.
And look, there’s no point it being some weird alien sounding name at this stage, or something pretentious like how Inspector Morse was revealed to be named Endeavour.
No, I would pick a name which could have a brilliant back story, and something that has been hidden in plain sight this whole time.
I would name the Doctor…John Smith.
It would be just like the Doctor to hide his true name as his fake alias, and if you all are reacting thinking John Smith is too common, that’s the point.
Imagine, that during the early days of the First Doctor, that he was simply known as John Smith, and that he went amazing places and did wonderful things to help people.
Well, how have a lot of people throughout history got their names? They’ve been named after people who were seen a good people, and heroes. So, wouldn’t it make sense that the most common name of all time be because so many people were named after the great John Smith who helped people across time and space?
How incredible would it be that we’ve been hearing the name John Smith as the alias of the Doctor for all these years, and that it was his real name the whole time?
But what about The Doctor?
If we run with my theory that his real name is in fact John Smith, where does the name Doctor come from?
Well, this is where I dip further into fan fiction.
Let’s say that the Doctor, who at this stage is known as John Smith, and the Master, who is not yet known as the Master were friends at Time Lord Academy as we know them to have been. Perhaps there was a time where they weren’t all that different from one another, but where their paths went in opposite directions. John Smith going the path of helping people, whilst the future Master going the route of ruling people.
Let’s paint this scenario. One day, as two rebellious young time lords, there was a situation where they got themselves into trouble. Perhaps they take advantage of a TARDIS, or some other Timelord technology, but find themselves on another world with a much lower civilization than the Timelords.
The two young Timelords are somewhere they aren’t supposed to, but at this point their destinies are forever forged to go in different directions.
Let’s say the Timelord who would one day become known as Master saw some of these vulnerable people from this lower civilization, and decided he could treat them badly. Rule over them, and this would start to form his view of the potential of being ruler and Master over others. And let’s say the other Time Lord, John Smith, didn’t agree with this. He saw his friend being corrupted by the allure of power.
And let’s say that attracted to power, the Master took actions that scared, hurt or even killed the vulnerable people he was trying to rule over. From that moment on, their paths would be set, and the trust between them would never be returned.
Imagine if the Master, going mad with power is stood up to, but the bravest person from this lower civilisation. The local medicine man. Completely outmatched in every way by the Master, but stands up against him anyway, because he is loyal to his people.
The Master, embarrassed and enraged goes too far and does something that fatally wounds the medicine man, and then the Master flees.
This happens whilst John Smith remains to help, but the bravest person there who stood up to the Master doesn’t survive.
More people could have been hurt or killed if it wasn’t for the bravery of this local medicine man who saved people, and whose name was…Doctor.
After this medicine man died, whose name was Doctor, the people there looked to the young John Smith as the person who stayed to help. They see that unlike the Master, he too is an honourable person, and John Smith stays to help them.
This lower civilisation recognise that John Smith isn’t like the other radical Timelord who tried to rule over them. They see he is kind and brave like their fallen medicine man, and consider John Smith to be like him. They consider John Smith to be the new Doctor.
From here, John Smith, once a rebellious young Timelord decides to follow the example of the bravest person who he had met on this world, and decides to take up the medicine man’s name to honour him. From that day forth, the young Timelord John Smith decides he will carry on the name Doctor. He takes up this mantel of Doctor to honour the bravest person who he had met who would form his world view.
For the people of this lower civilisation, they would speak on the legend of John Smith, as the brave and powerful person that helped them.
The name John Smith would start to spread throughout the universe, named after the man who stayed to help. And that would leave the young timelord to carry forth the name Doctor to remember the bravest person who died. Two names carried forth throughout time and each named after a brave individual who stood up for what was right and who helped people.
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