It’s always a good day when Josh Snares uploads.

The "I got bored so I stole a TARDIS and ran away" is probably my second favorite origin story for The Doctor, my first being the TARDIS's take on that story, "I got bored, so I stole a Time Lord and ran away".

I always liked the idea that the doctor wasn't special. they weren't even clever amongst their time lord peers. It was purely their curiosity and thirst for adventure that made them anywhere near special. The doctor is not a superhero, they're just a person trying their best.

Something I've always felt needs to be accounted for with the Doctor's origins is the fact that when he left Gallifrey to go on the run, he took his Granddaughter with him. That strikes me as an interesting choice knowing what we have since 1969 and it's something I'm surprised doesn't often come up with fans. I like to think that despite a life of disatisfaction with Time Lord society, the Doctor never would've left for himself, but instead what motivated him to finally break free was seeing the same disatisfaction with Susan and a desire to give her what he always longed for.

There's actually dialogue in the TV movie that states the Doctor can change species when he regenerates, so it's possible only the Eighth Doctor was half human, and the bit about his "mother's side" was a joke. In the new series, the Ninth Doctor talks about how "dodgy" the process is, which lends credence to this idea.

Excellent video. Personally, the more ambiguous the Doctor’s backstory, the more I enjoy the show. I feel like the Doctor’s heroic nature being something anyone from any background can manifest is truly inspirational.

Keeping some mystery about the Doctor is a good way of using intrigue to string an audience along. If you reveal the mystery, you start to lose that intrigue, but if you keep stringing people along the same mystery indefinitely, people will lose interest. So you either have to change the mystery, or introduce new mysteries, both of which Doctor Who has been doing for decades. Great video.

You want to know something weirder than the fact that we didn’t know the name Gallifrey until 1974. We didn’t know what regeneration was until 1974 either. The Doctor just “changed their face. Which means we got a Multi doctor story over a year before someone decided to explain why that was possible in the first place.

I adhere to the "keep it simple" philosophy. There's something really relatable about the Doctor becoming fed up with the bureaucratic , stoic, and stuffy world of the Timelords, and stealing a Tardis to escape and seek adventure in time and space. There have been many times I wish I could do the same.

Extra fun notes: In the draft scripts for Power of the Daleks, David Whitaker revealed that the Doctor had been "renewed" several times in the past, and that it happened roughly every five centuries. Whitaker scripts also specified the Doctor's age as 750, included various references to his granddaughter Susan (although the Doctor no longer was able to recall where he left her), and also hinted that it might have been the Daleks who destroyed his homeworld.(the Doctor was still envisaged as being a refugee from the destruction of his home planet during a galactic war).

What worked best about the character of the Doctor as a hero was him NOT being special among his own people, but becoming special through their own courage and choices to intervene rather than stand back and observe. Anyone could be like the doctor by choosing to be that way. Making the character destined to be special from their beginning completely collapses anything about them that is actually special, and turns them into a tedious mary sue. Only the doctor can then be the doctor because they were literally born superior.

There was also a really weird backstory written by Anthony Coburn and David Whittaker and sent out to writers at the beginning of the series as a brief. In that one, Susan was the heir the throne of another planet that got invaded, and The Doctor rescued her during the invasion. So they were still on the run, but it was also this monarchical thing that everyone ignored lol

Another truly excellent video Josh. I've watched Doctor Who since November 23 1963 and being a child in the 60s was so exciting with the Hartnell and Troughton stories (hard to believe that you watched them on a Saturday teatime and then that was it. No other means of watching them again at the time!). Furthermore, I still remember the sheer excitement of opening the latest Doctor Who annual every Christmas morning! Magical times.

As Dan The Man says, it gives us a real Lift whenever a new Josh Snares video reaches us. He’s very very special, wonderful delivery and style, and well researched. He ought to be an international superstar in broadcasting. For me, he already is. ❤

I always liked the offhand comment the seventh Doctor makes about the hand of Omega, suggesting that he was there with Rassilon at the Dawn of the Timelords. Weirdly, that was the biggest issue I had with Chibnal’s story: that the Doctor didn’t know about anything before Hartnell, when the Seventh Doctor has directly referenced it… but then maybe he went & spent time at the Dawn of the Timelords after running away, out of curiosity, & some weird type of manifest destiny. So far as the half human thing, or many other things, for that matter, there is always rule number one: The Doctor Lies. It’ll be interesting to see where the next series takes things

Watching the show as a youth, I got hooked on the idea that The Doctor was a kind of refugee from his home planet, perhaps escaping a civil war. After all, in what situation would you find a man taking his granddaughter away in a stolen ship -no sign or even talk of his wife or Susan's parents (the unspoken truth being that they are no longer alive).

actually the whole "half-human" thing was actually addressed in a doctor who comic titled "The Forgotten" the 8th doctor told a friend of his - "i once convinced my most hated enemy that i was half human with nothing more than a wide eyed expression and a half broken chameleon arch" So either he forgot and then just remembered, or he was just lying from the start to catch the master off guard during the movie

I like the idea of smashing it all together to make it all work in a somewhat complicated way.

11:06 Pyramids of Mars. Famous line - "The Earth isnt my home Sarah, I'm not human. I'm a Time Lord, I walk in eternity. "

Thank you for simply presenting a case study on the many-conflicting origin stories that the Doctor has had rather than getting into an extended rant that bashes some interesting new directions a Head Writer has taken the show in.

There was a TV show in the early 80s here in the UK called Sapphire and Steel. The show never explained what or where the two main characters came from, even if they were actually human, during its run. Vague mentions is all we got and the show was so much the better because of not knowing. Great watch, as always sir.

I find it fascinating that when asking the question of Who is the Doctor that numerous creators settle on "THEY ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF TIME LORD CREATION" instead of "he's just some guy, you know" Also, when I read that document and got to the note read aloud at 3:18 I actually spit out my drink. I strive to write something that elicits that type of editor's note.

I think the "I made a jigsaw out of your history" thing in "The Giggle" was nice, I think that's a cute idea, that actually we're not trying to make all of this consistent, its just that the Doctor's timeline has been screwed up in cosmic ways, so it can all be true at once. Lovely!

Arcs like the Time War, confession dial, River Song, etc. show that you can reintroduce mystery into the character without changing the origin story - have something that happened between seasons, in the character's future, something they're not being honest about. Changes to the origin story are inconsequential because we know future writers will just ignore them and there's never been anything put forward that's better than the classic story you described at the end.

Looms are the only part of _Lungbarrow_ that I would actually like... But regarding origins, I think I follow a more Moffat-like approach, where I take "Doctor Who?" to be more of a character question about personality and motivation and the open future of what he'll become rather than a backstory question about where and when. Questions that we can ask about ourselves sometimes, rather than mere lore. I greatly prefer the idea that the Doctor's adventures changed him and helped make him what he is. If we had to see his younger self on Gallifrey, I'd prefer to see that he hated travel, generally didn't make any heroic effort to get involved with others' business, etc. It would highlight that contrast and make that change clear. And I like the idea that we've never had a great explanation for why Susan was with the First Doctor. I take it as evidence that every explanation like "I was bored" was a simple lie, merely offered to shut down conversation rather than really explain things.

Love the combination of humor and information in this one Snares, keep up the great work mate.

Very nicely done ... am so enjoying the uplads and especially into this 60th Anniversary year!

This was not only really interesting but absolutely hilarious. Josh you're wonderful, so glad you're uploading regularly.

I love all the positivity a new Josh Snares video always brings to fandom. So refreshing. Keep up the excellent work!

A very thoughtful roundup of the changes. Everyone who has touched upon the Doctor's origins have very wisely left us asking more questions than we've had answered. Newman's greatest single contribution to his creation was to steer it away from being reactionary, and to emphasize the mystery. He truly knew what he was doing there, and that may be the best evidence to name him as DW's sole creator, as opposed to a group effort.

So well done. Great grasp of the big picture and the little details that explain it. Well done.

I theorize with each reboot of the (DOCTOR WHO) show series, there’s the chance The-Doctor’s, origin might change, and details about him might have additions added.

I'd like to see them tackle the mystery that is Susan as the Doctors granddaughter. It implies that they had a family on Gallifrey before running away. With all of the cameos of old companions popping up in the past few years, why not have a story that has Susan return that somehow explains who she is and why the Doctor took her with him when he left.

A major factor of the Doctor's origins and life that people often overlook is that it is all subject to change within the internal rules of the world itself. Major changes to time have been made just during the Doctor's life. The Time War alone probably means both Daleks and Time Lords have been all but wiped from existence and 'rebooted' multiple times. Practically any contradiction in the sprawling mass of episodes and other media can be described as alternate time lines. Genesis of the Daleks drastically changes the Daleks. Prior to Genesis, Davros dies right after creating them and they had TARDIS Time capsule tech as good as the Time Lords and were a major threat in multiple eras. After Genesis, with Davros surviving the birth of his creations because of caution that made him install protections in his travel chair over the stories the Doctor told him they are perpetually stunted by their creator's obsessions. In other words, is the post Dalek conquest future Earth he left Susan on even THERE anymore?

I like the Timeless Child arc...I think it not only fits, but it has reinstated the mystery of the character of the Doctor...

after successfully getting my friends into Doctor Who I now need to get them into the (always) high quality videos Josh Snares releases.

I actually enjoy the idea of the Timeless Child, but I don't think it really matters what the Doctor's origin is. Right from the start of the show in 1963 the defining characteristic of the Doctor is that they travel through time and whether by luck or management finds themselves in big important situations and they usually end up playing the hero. That hasn't changed whether they were a just traveller from the future, a Time Lord, more than JUST a Time Lord, or a mysterious being from another dimension. They are, at heart, a mad person in a box who is just trying to do what is right and that, more than any origin story, is what I love most about the character

“The Doctor…born to the House of Lungbarrow…Born to a human mother…Not a single one of them seems to agree with any of the others. I find three more birth notices, all in that typical poetic Gallifreyan style, and not a single one of them seems to agree with any of the others. The Doctor attended the Time Lord Academy for twenty years. No, centuries….These aren’t lies…They're all real, except they can't be, except they are.” - Celestial Intervention: A Gallifreyian Noir Brilliant video Josh!

Your favorite is so great! Love it!

I love Josh Snares videos. They’re great. Keep it going, Josh!

It seems like everytime I rewatch a Josh Snares video, they just so happen to upload whilst I’m watching Today was no exception as I was rewatching the Rob Ritchie interview before getting this notifications. Josh has great timing Also, this video is another certified banger from a channel of certified bangers

An excellent video, thanks! 👍

I typed out my interpretation, but it was almost 2000 words long 😂Another amazing video! I really enjoy the ambiguity of the Doctor's origin, it could be any number of things, and is sort of like a 'choose your own adventure' type thing.

The half human thing was mentioned in Hell Bent as a possibility with the Doctor being the hybrid. The Doctor neither confirmed or denied it.

As always, perfect!

Heeey!! I really enjoy your videos. With the new developments in Doctor Who, I'm looking forward to your future videos!

Fridays are the best. Brilliant video Josh!

The Doctor does change and he realises that he made mistakes and he/she wants to learn from the mistakes. I have not heard of "looms" before, thank you for explaining Josh.

You’ve got serious talent- this could be on the disk as an extra on a blu-ray/DVD!

Great video, Josh. Kudos on finding the original use of Gallifrey before its use on TV.

Amazing video as usual

Another brilliant video Josh.

Fantastic video, Josh (as usual)! A sign of good things to come this year? Well, when new videos come I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back.

I think even the current writers know of how confusing it is for the Doctor’s origin, so they made a cheeky nod to it when the Toymaker states that he made his “history into a jigsaw” during the 3rd 14th Doctor Special; as well as dismissing it emotionally through the 15th doctor later on. It’s like the Doctor saying, “Ok, we have all got our emotional baggage. That was mine & I spent over a regenerated lifetime to sort it out. Let’s go on & have a grand ol’ time exploring, saving folks & ourselves when we can.” Kind of era now with Disney backing up finances for the show.

Surprisingly I dont hate the timeless children arc, I would very much rather it not be something that is a stated fact. And honestly it isnt a stated fact its just what the master said. But i do like the idea that its a possibility to the doctors origins. I dont think we should ever fully know honestly

Excellent video!

Whenever I see Josh upload, however many days or hours a video is apart, I’m like ‘oooooo, he’s back!’

I suppose it's hard to discount the Timeless Child origin, now that the Doctor has met Tecteun. I liked a theory that I read somewhere, that Leela was the Doctors mother.

What a lot of people forget, where the "half human, on my mother's side" is concerned, as River Song delighted in reminding us, the Doctor lies. And that would work with #8 getting that human to work with him. And I never thought of those extra faces as anything but The Doctor, because we'd already seen all of Morbius' faces before that happened.

I love those early ideas! And the creators' original intentions behind BOM? Wild!!!

Excellent upload. More please .

I like the idea of slowly adding onto the doctors origin, and making it more and more convoluted and contradictory tbh.

Excellent video with just one minor omission. The ancient origins of the Doctor were hinted at in a couple of Jon Pertwee stories where he referred to himself as having been a scientist for thousands of years. I'm pretty sure that one of those stories was The Mind of Evil but I am not sure of the other. It could have been the Time Monster or Inferno but I am not sure. As for the potential immortality of the Timelords Patrick Troughton referred to them as living practically forever, barring accidents I think in The Tomb of the Cybermen. The Deadly Assassin retconned that though, as did later Peter Davison stories. On the whole, though this is a fantastic video. Very well done indeed.

There may not have been an instance of the Doctor *calling* himself an alien in the classic series, but what about the establishment of him having 2 hearts and blood that isn't a human blood type in "Spearhead from Space?"

As usual great video

I think the Doctors origins will always be changing, because in reality no one knows how to describe his origin and now there have been so many, it is just an enigma within a mystery.

you're back!!!

The half human bit has been discussed in TV in Hell Bent Me specifically mentions it I swear. Great video even the looms diss tho I like them😂😂

This is excellent!

I always liked the idea that he's just some time lord who semi-accidentally stumbled into being the doctor, but then realized that he liked doing that. But that's just my headcanon.

to me honestly, the timeless child origin is very interesting, it sheds some light on the doctors past but creates new exciting questions, like where is the timeless child from, what is division, what happened there etc...

Excellent video, I'd never heard of that original (reactionary) character background for the Doctor. Did you create the Doctor Who logo/graphics/background animations for this? They are amazing - blue/white/silver with a tinge of gold are my favorite

Fantastic! I only wish your summary was the doctors origin, simple and effective!

Great video! There's another origin story alluded to in the New Adventures. You'll love this. In Human Nature the human Doctor writes a story from his dreams where a Victorian inventor creates a time/space machine in a police box. He travels back in time to a primitive Gallifrey where he teaches the locals time travel and gives them regeneration and a second heart. He then gets bored of his life there so steals one of the time machines to travel the universe. I believe Steven Moffatt helped contribute to that idea. There is also the Target novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks, written by Ben Aaronovitch which predates the New Adventures and was the first to mention 'the Other'.

AHHH THE LIGHTING

That Doctor Who intro was just *chefs kiss*

This is a great video.

Interesting how we finally got a video that brings up why Chris made The Timeless Child arc. And it is interesting.

Since the actors were credited as "Doctor Who " for a long time since classic Era, and I think he signed Dr. W once, and not talking about Cushing's movies, 😄

This video has made me appreciate The Timeless Child... I did not expect that.

Thanks Josh! For me the biggest mystery about the Doctor is how they seem to age a hundred years everytime they tell us how old they are.

I think your origin at the end is spot on. ✔️

I need to see a clean version of that beautiful time vortex!

Very well done video! I think that the doctor's origin is sort of like the joker's, it can be multiple choice! It's up to the viewer really. The only thing that matters is that they're the doctor. And they will never ever stop.

Got derailed 18 seconds in. Became temporarily obsessed with that fantastic quilted jacket Sarah Jane is wearing in that brief "Brain of Morbius" screen shot. :D Would love to see another fashion-focused vid for Sarah Jane's outfits!

Here's a possibly hot take for you all: You know, now that enough time has passed since the Timeless Children thing, I've come to more or less accept it, because, despite being horribly botched, it does build up on the past. -You have the Third Doctor in one serial (The Silurians I think?) claiming that he had lived for several thousand years- before stopping himself from finishing his sentence. -Then you have the Brain of Morbius, which I thought was a fantastic serial, building up on that seemingly throwaway line of the Third Doctor's. -Then of course, the ever popular Lungbarrow novel, featuring The Other, and their connection to the Doctor. -Then we have Missy, who claims to have know the Doctor "since he was a little girl"- a hint at things to come in retrospect. -Which brings us to the Timeless Child and the Fugitive Doctor. The concept is solid, and builds up on all of these past claims about the Doctor's past pre-Hartnell. The concepts of course, were pretty poorly executed and horribly botched, but I don't think it's actually all that terrible. If it was written better, it might have gone over well and went on to become one of the hidden gems of Chibnall's run. I think all of these concepts can work together, if written well enough. From my point of view, this was a gradual build-up over the decades of this massive franchise. While I kinda doubt our lord and savior RTD will do anything with any of those, especially the Timeless Child, I think it would still be nice if someone addressed it in some way, maybe through another novel or a comic.

Lots of fun ideas here

This video helps me better understand the Timeless Child better and seems to better sense now.

Josh has a merch goldmine right there behind him. The round things! I love the round things! What are the round things? I don't care I just want a curtain with round things on.

I personally think that the fandom's notion of "The Doctor's origin needs to stay a secret at all costs!" is overrated, because there's really no point in keeping the mystery alive if there's no payoff. A 60 year long franchise is going to leave breadcrumbs, that's just how it goes. I like that they've finally actively laid the groundwork for future writers to build on the secret origins of Doctor Who. This can lead to some of the most exciting years of Doctor Who's storytelling history if only the writers (and fans) could grow up and stop dwelling on this weird craving for questions that don't have an answer. Let the show evolve please. It can do so much more than what it has so far.

Great video. I hope the show can somehow return some mystery to the doctor, and then never answer the questions around him. I like the mystery! 😊

The important thing about the Doctor's origin is that we never know for sure.

Tbh the Doctor's origin should be a mystery it should always be retconned and weird and convoluted as it fits with the character. They're a jumble of mysteries in a humanoid shaped package, their legacy is that their a myth an anti-boogie man if you will. Changing faces, personalities, motifs and even their names. So to me, their origin being random and confusing, unable to be understood should be apart of the mythos, the Doctor shouldn't be fully understood in the past or future only known for who they are in the present.

I like to think that 8 is half human because 7 regenerated full of human blood from his surgery.

Wish the timeless child concept had been done with the master instead

Lady Peinforte knew his origins in Silver Nemesis. They need to reboot the Chibnall era as a Master trick in the matrix similar to Trial of the Time Lord. If Matt Smith was out of 12 regenerations why did he need a new regeneration cycle thru the crack in time if he was the Timeless Child.

My grand hope is that in this RTD2-era, we'll learn The Timeless Child was just some sort of mind-trick played by The Master so he could carry out his genocide of The Time-Lords... though I hate that too... I'm not sure how to undo that bit.. Davies loves his "Last of the Timelords" thing... on balance, I think a lot of us do too.

Wonderul fun video Josh! I love all origins even the silly one that was initially a part of the TV movie that got cut! I'm happy with the timeless child but i am also happy without it. The show is fun with that and I hope we never really get an origin. Also, get those STINKY looms out of my face.

I think "Breeding-Machine" is a terrible way of describing the Looms, but I do quite like the idea of Time Lords genetically engineering themselves.

Doctor Who is powerfully unique amongst Sci Fi series in its welcome-to-all “anything goes” lore. Long may that continue!