Amongst the twelve Doctors, no two actors have the same pair of initials.

The most popular first initial is P, with a Patrick, a Paul and a pair of Peters. All other first initials are unique except for C, a Colin and a Christopher.

P - 4
C - 2
W - 1
J - 1
T - 1
S - 1
D - 1
M - 1

There is no standout among the last initials, with a three-way tie of T, B and M having two each - Troughton and Tennant, Baker and Baker, McCoy and McGann.

T - 2
B - 2
M - 2
H - 1
P - 1
D - 1
E - 1
S - 1
C - 1

Only three Doctors, however, have first and last initials that are both unique: WH, JP and MS.

And thus the pointless thread about initials. Thank you.

I've changed my mind, we do need a trailer to talk about. As soon as possible.

Cool, now do the companions' initials

MeddlingMonkey thinks that forum members tweeting Paul McGann about his love of cress might make him think Whovians are mental.

Cress, I put it you, is the least of our problems

This on the other hand interests me. Please keep us informed.

BTW, I personally don't like cress, but I try not to judge those that do.

I actually found this quite interesting. I REALLY need to get out more... And so do you CHJ!!

Well, if you liked that I can do an encore:

It's also only three Doctors who have both non-unique initials: PT, CB and PM.


And I shall attempt to get out more, yes. Good advice.

And that's why I love Doctor Who fans!!

Any idea how the alphabetical distance between initials correlates with production staff turnover? Or with duration of stay? I can't help noticing that CB and CE have letters that are very close together. Conversely T and B are really quite far away.

Not counting John Hurt?


It would leave Matt as the only unique one.

Well, if you're going to include John Hurt, you really ought to include Michael Jayston too. And that means Matt doesn't have totally unique initials.

One reason I started this thread was to see how long it would take for arguments to start, thus proving that our sort will indeed argue about well and truly pointless things.

I'll leave you all to it.

CHJ, can you tell me what the Whoonie Inn and the Part Ian thing is about?

I've asked before but it got washed away in the general hubbub.

Cheers.

Oh, sure. In January 2009 a FM called Tigger-Roo started a thread called 'New Doctor Who Fan', which she was at the time. An ever-growing group gathered round her to enjoy experiencing the show through her eyes as she watched through all of New Who and then some of Old Who. The thread became a 'happy place' where people could chat about Doctor Who without complaining and negativity. We called ourselves the Whoonies. The Whoonie Inn was eventually founded by Digital Sid as a place where the lot of us (always a non-exclusive group, btw) could enjoy general chat and insanity in a pub-like atmosphere.

At some point the mods started splitting threads, so the original thread became New Doctor Who Fan Part Two, Part Three and so on. We kept pestering the mods to name the new parts after the Doctors, so finally the fourth part was officially named Part Tom Baker. After we ran out of Doctors with Part Smith, the mods started naming them Part Susan, Part Barbara and now Part Ian. And at some point it changed from 'New Doctor Who Fan' to 'Doctor Who Fans'. Only question is, what will come next, Capaldi or Vicki?

Anyway, hope that explains the history of the threads. Anyone is welcome in either of them as long as they leave the negative vibes outside.

WH PT JP TB PD CB SM PM CE DT MS PC
When looking at the initials from this perspective, as I tried it lengthways but on my phone I cant extrapolate anything coz I couldnt see them all at once, I noticed stuff.

firstly, I knew all the Doctors in the correct order. Secondly, it really stood out that some of the actors had initials that stood out as other things like diseases,law terms and even truckers radio. I was astonished. PT stands for Physical Training and was what PE (Physical Education) turned into at my school, around the same time RE (Religious Education) turned into RS ( Religious Studies). JP stands out as Justice of the Peace. TB is Tuberculosis and PD are the first two initials of PD James the writer. CB is Citizens Band (radio). SM is Steven Moffat as the & symbil is missing from between the S and M... Oh bugger, I said it...PM is Post Meridian. CE is the kitemark thing written on everything not made in China.DT is Dillerium Tremons, which looks like Ive spelt incorrectly coz I cant be botheeed looking it up.MS is of course Multiple Sclerosis and PC is Politically Correct or Personal Computer. This absolutely amazed me and made me think that all this has been preordained by a higher farce... I mean force. Pity William Hartnell's initials WH Spoil it... wait... WH Smith... omfg... Smith! It all makes sense. I must now depart to write down my findings for my thesis.

Right then.

There is a correlation between alphabetical distance and number of episodes filmed.

(note to numerologists: it's a coincidence in a very small amount of data. Or maybe I've been indoctrinated by the fiendish cult of 'scientists'?)

Where would Doctor Who be without pseudoscience? Well done.

My favourite letters of the alphabet are V and Z. I find them both sexy. My favourite vowel is A

Well apart from Ecclescake, the Doctor is clearly your consonant companion.

And probably Toby Jones as well.

And does the fact that both the "aspects" of the Doctor have surnames starting with J while no actual Doctors do mean anything?

What about Richard Hurndall? If he gets included, that means only JP has totally unique initials.

Or rather none of them do - forgot the J of John Hurt

I'm debating which thread I find most interesting, the cress one or this one. I must say all the initials make me a little dizzy. I wonder if cress is good for that.

Should Edmund Warwick also be included?

I've always liked the mysterious, sexy quality of X. And my favourite vowel is O.


Which is very intriguing, not to mention downright spooky.