Doctor Who wouldn’t have been the success it has become after its revival in 2005 had it not dived into its comedy. “NuWho” has felt distinct due to its taste for comedy and the Doctors have reflected this style as well, with the Tenth Doctor’s comedy coming in the form of his one-liners
Over the course of his sadly short life, the Tenth Doctor delivered some memorable quotes that have passed on to his future versions as well. Now that we’re waiting for the Thirteenth Doctor’s second series to debut, it’s worth taking a look at the character’s tenth incarnation and the funny lines that made him so memorable.
“Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey…Stuff.”
This quote’s lasting quality is such that it has persisted ever since the Tenth Doctor first coined it. When the Doctor couldn’t understand how the Weeping Angels were able to send someone in the past without killing them, and yet killing them, he started mumbling to himself.
His conclusion was that time is “Wibbly-wobbly,” and that stuff he couldn’t understand was now classified under this. Since then, the Doctor has been shown terming things as wibbly-wobbly every instance that Time doesn’t make sense. The “Timey-Wimey” part seems to have been put in just for fun.
“I Hate Pears.”
Like the above quote, we’ve seen this one go down in Doctor Who’s canon as well, as the Twelfth Doctor also had a fierce hatred of pears. When the Family of Blood was about to find the Doctor, he wiped his memory and hid in the early 20th century to avoid a confrontation, which is when he made a video to give his companion Martha instructions.
While speaking, the Doctor went on a different tangent and started talking about how much he hated pears. Hence, one of the most important things for Martha to do was to ensure the Doctor didn’t eat a pear in his new identity. Unfortunately, he ended up doing just that and even enjoyed it.
“…What!?”
This became a trademark for the Tenth Doctor every time he was taken by surprise and was at a loss for words - and you can find a lot more of this in the comics. The best instance of this happening was when he and Donna Noble first came across each other.
Just moments after having said goodbye to Rose Tyler, the Doctor saw Donna clad in a wedding dress in his TARDIS, and he could do nothing else other than exclaim “What!?” in a voice that went squeakier by the second. Following this, the Doctor regularly employed the use of this word and the squeaky voice whenever he was caught off guard.
“Am I…Ginger?”
Priorities, right? Well, as far as priorities go for the Doctor, that is. After finally regaining full conscience when his regeneration sickness healed up, the Doctor walked right into a tense situation between the humans and the invading aliens.
Rather than defuse the situation through a cool speech like the Twelfth Doctor would be known for, the Tenth Doctor instead made it his first priority to ask Rose Tyler if his new incarnation was ginger. When he was told he wasn’t, the Doctor was more bummed out about not having red hair than the fact that the aliens were ready to destroy Earth.
“I Have No Idea Where He Picks That Stuff Up.”
People tend to get embarrassed by their own antics once they see it in a different lens, and the Doctor saw himself twice when he had the Eleventh and War incarnations in front of him. Even funnier was the fact that the Tenth Doctor felt he had to defend himself from the actions of his future self to his past self.
The Eleventh Doctor, carrying on the “Timey-Wimey” idea he had started when he was the Tenth Doctor, scandalized the War Doctor through the use of this phrase, leading to the Tenth Doctor feeling embarrassed at how silly it sounded and attempt to pretend he didn’t know where the phrase had been originated.
“I Need…I Need…I Need You To Shut Up.”
Somebody had to tell Jackie Tyler to shut up at some point, and the Doctor did just this as part of his first conversation with Jackie in his new incarnation. The funny part about this was that the end of his sentence wasn’t even what he’d set out to tell her, rendering the whole exchange pointless.
As it happened, the Doctor was in pain due to his regeneration and needed something to help with it; Jackie made it worse by giving him a long list of things that would quell the pain, but it only ended up annoying the Doctor. Eventually, after saying “I need…” about ten times, the Doctor simply told her to shut up.
“Yup, Still Got It.”
Fangirls will be shattered to realize that the Doctor and Rose never had a true kiss with one another, as each instance had them be different people (it makes sense in context), with this instance being the funniest one.
In this scene, the villainous Cassandra possesses Rose and has access to a body after a long time, leading her to give the newly regenerated Doctor a prolonged kiss because she found him attractive. The Doctor, not realizing it wasn’t Rose who kissed him, simply got an ego boost and thought he’d still got it with the ladies.
“The Doctor. Doctor…Fun.”
After almost fifty years by that point, we found out why the Doctor engaged in any of his missions; it was all in the name of fun. When he arrived on Mars in 2059, the Doctor was held at gunpoint by the first human colony on the planet, with their leader asking him what his name, rank, and intention was.
Not missing a beat, the Doctor told the truth that he was the Doctor, his profession was that of a doctor, and that his intention was fun. So, all those adventures we saw him have, all those lives he saved, the grand plan he’d had all this time was just to have fun.
“I Let You Keep Mickey!”
The Doctor doesn’t get attached that easily, but he tries to cling on to things that he does get attached to, one of these being a horse he’d taken from the past. When Rose told him he couldn’t keep a pet in the TARDIS, the Doctor argued that he’d let Rose keep Mickey.
As every Doctor Who fan remembers, the Doctor generally treated Mickey as if he wasn’t a companion. His treatment usually had him bully Mickey for fun, which sort of seemed like an owner messing around with his pet, and this scene sealed that he did indeed see Mickey as Rose’s pet.
“Allons-y, Alonso!”
For the longest time, the Doctor had one dream in mind and that was to come across a guy named Alonso. There was no profound meaning behind this; rather, the Doctor just wanted a guy named Alonso because he wanted to say “Allons-y, Alonso!”
The crazy thing is that he actually got his wish, as one of the crew members of the Titanic spaceship had this name. And he also got to find out this fact just when the time came for the “Allons-y” part to be uttered. Sometimes, the stars just do align the way you want them, don’t they?
