• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Dr Who, is he Autistic?

Kempy

Well-Known Member
I watch Dr Who each week and I keep picking out typical characteristics of the doctor that are traits of autism. He appears to be very extravagant, takes things literally and surprises people when he bumbles on about some kind of alien technology. This seemed especially clear with this weeks episode with James Corden.

Do you think the character The Doctor is autistic? He is certainly on the "wrong planet".

PS. He is called The Doctor, not Dr Who. If you refer to him as Dr Who I can guarantee the following post will be a correction, simply because we all enjoy correcting people so much!
 
I think he is a fictional character that has traits which are specifically made to comically clash with other character's traits. It's comedic irony.
 
I watch Dr Who each week and I keep picking out typical characteristics of the doctor that are traits of autism. He appears to be very extravagant, takes things literally and surprises people when he bumbles on about some kind of alien technology. This seemed especially clear with this weeks episode with James Corden.

Do you think the character The Doctor is autistic? He is certainly on the "wrong planet".

PS. He is called The Doctor, not Dr Who. If you refer to him as Dr Who I can guarantee the following post will be a correction, simply because we all enjoy correcting people so much!

Uh... not to be a kill joy, but do you know the rest of "The Doctors", before Matt Smith I mean.

Tom Baker didn't display characteristics of Autism or Asperger's. From what I could tell, he was just meh at time.

Peter Davison was just perfect some fans opinions. Not saying it isn't possible, but uh... he had very good social skills. :p

David Tennant didn't display the characteristics either. :p Then again, I didn't watch the whole season episode by episode.

Anyways, I am not a Doctor Who expert. I only know as much as I am able to know. My aunt knows more because she grew up watching doctor who. I only like the modern Doctor Who series. Matt Smith is ok, but he is just so Twilightish. I mean shoot, he would so fit in with the Twilight cast!

Just to remind you guys, I know very little about Tom Baker and Peter Davison because they weren't of my time period. I would run out and watch their season(s)/series, but I don't have time like that.

Again, I am sorry to be such a kill joy. If I offended anybody, I do apologize. :D


@Ferdinand: Well said. (Y)
 
I haven't really watched a lot of Doctor Who, but from the episodes I have seen the doctor seems to be sufficient in the use of facial expression, body language and reading them in others.

Not to mention that he would not meet the part of the diagnostic criteria that calls for the person to be dysfunctional at life.
 
Not to mention that he would not meet the part of the diagnostic criteria that calls for the person to be dysfunctional at life.

Pardon me, but I'm pretty sure "dysfunctional at life" is not part of the diagnostic criteria. According to a 2002 website, part of the diagnostic criteria is "The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning." but I would not translate that into such a phrase as "dysfunctional at life."

(and probably the doctor would have impairments in occupational functioning. Has he ever had a real job? Did you see the episode with Matt Smith where the doctor tries to pass as a "normal bloke?)
 
I doubt it, he's an alien and any eccentric traits he has are there to show how he's different to Humans. And as mentioned, the different incarnations all have slight differences in personality.
 
Uh... not to be a kill joy, but do you know the rest of "The Doctors", before Matt Smith I mean.

Tom Baker didn't display characteristics of Autism or Asperger's. From what I could tell, he was just meh at time.

Peter Davison was just perfect some fans opinions. Not saying it isn't possible, but uh... he had very good social skills. :p

David Tennant didn't display the characteristics either. :p Then again, I didn't watch the whole season episode by episode.

Anyways, I am not a Doctor Who expert. I only know as much as I am able to know. My aunt knows more because she grew up watching doctor who. I only like the modern Doctor Who series. Matt Smith is ok, but he is just so Twilightish. I mean shoot, he would so fit in with the Twilight cast!

Just to remind you guys, I know very little about Tom Baker and Peter Davison because they weren't of my time period. I would run out and watch their season(s)/series, but I don't have time like that.

Again, I am sorry to be such a kill joy. If I offended anybody, I do apologize. :D


@Ferdinand: Well said. (Y)
I haven't seen the original series but I honestly think all of the new doctors have traits of the spectrum. 11 definitely had the most traits but 9, 10, 12, and even 13 all have similar traits. Not knowing if they've lost someone while they're talking, talking in a very authoritative way about special interests. I wish I could have seen the old doctors but I really don't like the idea of watching it because there are episodes missing and I feel like I'd miss very important information if I tried to watch them without all the episodes. Even though the writers don't specify the Doctor as on the spectrum, I look up to them as though they were.
 
@Spiritbear25 If you like Doctor Who and you don't watch the pre 2005 shows you're missing out on a lot. 20+ years of great stories in fact. The few missing episodes and stories will make no difference to the experience. There was very little in the way of an ongoing narrative to worry about.
The Doctor is not autistic, but there aspects of each incarnation which are familiar to us. He (she) is an idealistic and rebellious alien with a powerful sense of right and wrong that many of us can relate to, but whilst the character is one many of us identify with, like Spock, autism is not the reason for the Doctor's differences, it's a species thing ;)
The Doctor wasn't even an alien in the beginning, just an eccentric old scientist. It was several years before the Time Lords and later Gallifrey were introduced, and his two hearts were unknown until Jon Pertwee's third Doctor.
Give it a go, you won't regret it. You may prefer to do it one Doctor at a time, but picking random stories can be just as much fun.
You might enjoy this series of YouTube documentaries to whet your appetite :)

 
I will say I did watch the first doctor back when they had the old series on Hulu and I found that they didn’t have the regeneration episodes and a lot of missing episodes which is why I stopped watching the old series. If anyone knows where I can find all of the episodes that are available, I’d greatly appreciate it. I do really want to give it a try but that Hulu experience kind of ruined it for me. As to whether or not the doctor is autistic or not, I say if you feel more connected to him believing that he is then believe that he is. Maybe he’s boarderline autistic maybe he’s not autistic at all but I’ve watched a number of shows with neurotypical and autistic main characters and I notice that I connect with the autistic characters in a whole other way and the Doctor is one of those characters I connect in that other way. Maybe he’s just neurodiverse, not autistic but something in the category of neurodiversity.
 
Well, he is just an alien.

However, those of us on the spectrum are also aliens.

The Doctor often finds himself on Earth, a planet entirely different than the planet on which he was born and raised.
 
Last edited:
I will say I did watch the first doctor back when they had the old series on Hulu and I found that they didn’t have the regeneration episodes and a lot of missing episodes which is why I stopped watching the old series. If anyone knows where I can find all of the episodes that are available, I’d greatly appreciate it. I do really want to give it a try but that Hulu experience kind of ruined it for me. As to whether or not the doctor is autistic or not, I say if you feel more connected to him believing that he is then believe that he is. Maybe he’s boarderline autistic maybe he’s not autistic at all but I’ve watched a number of shows with neurotypical and autistic main characters and I notice that I connect with the autistic characters in a whole other way and the Doctor is one of those characters I connect in that other way. Maybe he’s just neurodiverse, not autistic but something in the category of neurodiversity.

Most of the missing stories are from the B&W era of the first 2 Doctors. From Jon Pertwee onwards it's pretty complete. There are some amazing stories in those years. If you've never seen "Genesis of the Daleks" you've really missed out ;)
 
I'm immersed in doctor Who at the moment. I don't think he's autistic, but is of another species and I know I can relate to feeling thst way and certainly many of us on the spectrum have found the show to be a shining light in a world of darkness from childhood on. I wear scarves like the Tom Baker Who, and am driven with a "big picture" questing nature like all the doctors but he never seems to feels out of his depth in the face of difference and conflict, and I certainly can.
I'm not up to the "She" doctor so I'm not going there. I haven't watched any past Matt Smith, but remember the show from my childhood, in the seventies, so it's been a important part of my life for, pretty much, all of my life.
I relate very much to the show and the Doc and it's keeping me going while I'm in a psych hospital, at the moment. Thank you to netflicks for offering so many seasons.:)
 

New Threads

Top Bottom