I like how in the 2005 revival, RTD just reset his age to 900 and added for each subsequent series...until the Moffman upped it by 200 years (to 1103) for his "death" at Lake Silencio. I mean..he just went sightseeing for 200 years?

And I like how I am now named after a Peter Capaldi character. Didn't see that coming when I thought "The 12th Doctor" would make a good screen-name!

Sorry to dig up such an old thread, but being new-ish I was reading some old threads and noticed this one.

I have just watched "The War Games" and The 2nd Doctor meets the timelords and while talking to Zoe about why he left.

He says something along the lines of "Before I left my home, all we could do was watch and not interfere in history."

He basically admits that before he stole the Tardis he was bored of the Timelords "Watch Only" attitude and wanted to explore rather than watch.

So that's suggests he did little before stealing a Tardis.

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. I stole a time machine and ran away and I've been flouting the principal law of my own people ever since. That wasn't quite what I was meant to say!"

lol this thread talking about the Doctor's age he is now closer to 1800 years after The Time Of The Doctor!

Im sure in a recent episode someone asked matt smith his age (may have been clara in time of the doctor but not sure) and he went to say a number but then said 'oh I don't know I lose track'or something along those lines so I think he is so old and is never in one time period long enough to actually be aware of time being measured that he is now genuinely unsure and just gives a rough estimate

It was in Day of the Doctor. The War Doctor asked the 11th how old he was. He said he forgets and lies and forgets that he lies but he thinks its about 1200. At which point the War Doctor estimated that they thus had 400 years between them with which the sonic could be used to analyse the door of the cell and break them out.

That would make the War Doctor 800 at the end of his life which is 153 years younger than the 7th

That makes no sense as CE's Doctor said he is 900 years old at the beginning of his life, and the War Doctor was right at the end of his life so couldnt be less than say 899? If he was 899, Matt's Doctor couldve been 1299 as he was just estimating anyway!

I know it makes no sense but since when did the Doctor's age ever make sense?

Actually even the 9th Doctor isn't consistent. Apparently he has said both that he was 900 years old and also that he has been travelling in the TARDIS for 900 years. Which, apart from meaning that he was a toddler when he stole the TARDIS it is at odds with the Doctor's Wife where the TARDIS told the 10th that he had been with her for 700 years!

Like I keep saying - I think we should stop paying attention to this. Even if we suspend disbeleif moentarily for a moment and forget its a TV show, imagine the following scenarios:

Rose asks 9 - How old are you?

War Doctor asks 11 - How old are you?

In scenarios a + b is the answer given in earth years, gallifrey years, universal calendar years ..... ?

Best not to think about it too much

The thing is, the TARDIS is supposed to have given everyone the power of understanding everyone's meaning even without knowing the language. That would logically involve translation of units of measure to something understandable to the recipient. Any Terran recipient (including the viewer) would hear the equivalent number of Earth years for any unit of measure relating to years.

Stands to reason

I don't really get hung up on the lack of continuity. It's just a bit of fun at the end of the day

Thats a good point, so if we say that the TARDIS is ALWAYS converting how old the Doctor is to Earth years for us and his Earth companions, then the continuity is mucked up! Thats why Moffat is having the Doctor estimating things now.
Someone should kind of work it out though, as best as possible.

Not necessarily. Maybe the Doctor is mixing up his Earth years with his Gallifreyan years which is why he keeps getting it wrong

Just to confuse things further in The Mind Of Evil the third Doctor begins to announce that he's "been a scientist for several thousand..." before thinking better of it and clamming up. It's always been assumed that he was going to say "several thousand years."

The fourth Doctor referred to his age as around 750 on several occasions. Pyramids of Mars: "I've lived for something like 750 years" ("Soon be getting middle aged" quips Sarah, which the Doctor clearly doesn't appreciate...)
He's 756 in the Ribos Operation, though Romana says he's 759. He was due to have a birthday in Stones Of Blood so that would make him then 760.

I wonder if when the Doctor gives his age, he is stating the actual length of time he has been alive, or if he's counting from the day of his birth to the current time period he's in. Would explain why he sometimes say he is younger than he'd previously said.

One day, perhaps, we'll have the Doctor give his age as a negative.

I don't think it's quite that but the fact that he can't just look at a Calendar to work it out does explain why he can't really be very accurate. It doesn't explain why he can't be consistent, though!

Perhaps he was a bit addled by his regeneration into the War Doctor and forgot what he'd last worked it out as. He fished a number out of the air, which happened to be several hundred years less than he had previously stated and then went on from there!

Or he just lies. Didn't he tell one of the kids on SJA that he could regenerate something like 500 times? I think he just says whatever is convenient to him in the moment. He probably doesn't even care what his age is!

He lies, we shouldn't pay so much attention, the TARDIS isnt always around when gives out his age (e. G. Stuck in an elizabethan prison with two of his otherselves)

So? in 'Cold War' the TARDIS relocated itself to the South Pole and it still translated from English to Russian! They were the opposite end of the World!
In The Day Of The Doctor Tennat's Doctor's TARDIS was in ENGLAND somewhere and they were in the Tower of London!
This is much closer than in 'Cold War' and the Doctor was talking to himself so no translation was actually needed!

That depends on whether the Doctor is speaking Gallifraien and the TARDIS translates, or if the Doctor is actually able to speak all languages, he does actually use both types of years!

He may not have a calender to look at, but he could check with the TARDIS how long he has travelled in it!
Whether thats in Earth or Gallifray years is another thing, but from the Doctor's perspective he could work it all out if he wanted to!

I assumed he spoke English, being that River told us the TARDIS doesn't translate Gallifreyan.

Thats true enough, unless she only meant written Gallifreyan.

Unless all the Timelords spoke in English whenever a companion visited Gallifrey, I'd say it definitely translates spoken.

I always got the impression that it was a gift of Telepathy that the TARDIS bestows. Once it has given the gift it no longer has to be around.

I would agree, as I remember The Christmas Invasion Special, when Rose says that the Doctor is part of the TARDIS translation circuit and when he was lying in bed from the regeneration, the translator didnt work!
When the Doctor woke up then everyong on the Sycorax ship can understand each other humans and Sycorax!

So I think we can say that yes the Doctor speaks Gallifreyan all the time, but he and the TARDIS translate spoken languages.
.
I wonder though if the written languages are just done by the TARDIS as a slightly separate thing?

Anyway the point about the Doctor's age is that, if he always speaks Gallifreyan (and we have kind of proven he does!), then he must be counting in Gallifreyan years and thats translated to the year used by whoever he is speaking to!
So if this is the case then we will always get it as Earth years due to the translation!

Just watching The Silurians and the 3rd Doctor says something like "Using all my experience, which is a couple of thousand years worth??????????????????