The Doctor

So you sling rocks at the rip tide
Am I wrong or am I right?
I hit the bottom with a "huh!"
Quite strange
I get my glory in the desert rain
Watch me go
-The Killers


1. The Doctor is not lying when he says he's 975--he truly has lost track of about five decades from when he was his first and eighth selves. For perspective, he knew Sarah Jane and Romana in the beginning of his seventh century, and Ace near the latter end of 800; this him is only about a year old. The events of TCI through Army of Ghosts/Doomsday took place over six months, and six months have occurred island-side. This is my standard continuity for him, and if I've accidentally deviated from it, please let me know, as it was a...well, typical DW canon error, really. Check OOC posts in his journal for a comment on times and places he's appeared in the 20th/early 21st century.

2. Earth pop culture references are, for those who didn't know, canonical. I merely play it up from time to time because of my own breadth of knowledge (for those who didn't know, my degree's in American Studies focusing on popular culture, and I was raised conservative Protestant). There will often be uncited quotations and allusions in his speech. If you think something's there, it probably is.
He has favourites, though--in my fanon, he's a sucker for punk/new wave music, the Transcendentalists, early 20th century and postcolonial literature in English, Changing Rooms and home decor shows, and cheesy action films. For canonical reasons, exploitative reality television and game shows appall him.

3. If there's a major historical event that has controversy around it, he was probably there. If he wasn't, Jack probably was. His love for punk and new wave comes out of having spent 1982-1985 in Washington, DC. When it comes to the Bible: He observed the Nativity but not the crucifixion, met David and Jonathan (who were together, yes) and once the fourth him punched Saint Paul in a bar fight. The rest he's not saying yet. Basically, many of his reactions and interactions have a story behind them.

4. He's terrified of sex, of what it does to him and of how much he wants it, and of what it's like when he loves someone, how much better. The fact that now, due to brain chemistry and hormones, he can lose himself in it--that's the real factor, his lack of control. This is part of the reason that he plays word games and annoys people into bed; he can't believe they'd want to sleep with him, and he's scared about what would happen when or if they do. He has a dark streak running through him anyway, though he would never violate consent. That, and more things than you'd think, are anathema. He should never, ever, be blindfolded, at risk of a breakdown worse than opposite weekend.

5. If this him is the him he's stuck with, he's fairly certain he could have done worse.