He lasted for something like 400 years before the Time of the Doctor and then another few centuries sitting around defending Tranzalore. Does this make him the oldest ever incarnation in terms of canon? The only contenders are the War Doctor and the First Doctor.


I don't like how Moffat has done these huge off screen leaps forward in time. There were 200 years between the start and end of series 6, seemingly hundreds between series 6 and 7, bumping him up to 400 years of age and then another few hundred on Trenzalore. And yet, 11 didn't age at all for the 400 pre-Trenzalore years. Makes no sense.

The First Doctor was supposedly 600 when he regenerated, but his 500-year diary only details from when he left Gallifrey.

I always put him at about 450 when he first changed. I dunno why, but that's my own view.

2nd does reveal a 500 year diary in Power of the Daleks.

True, but I bought a 2014 diary in 2013. Perhaps it's the same principle.

I dunno why I look into stuff like this so deeply lol.

Actually, it makes loads of sense. Physical aging is the sign of the body decaying. Essentially this is because the body has stopped actively growing and is also being affected by external sources such as radiation from the sun, etc. I'm sure you've heard the saying that we are all dying from the age of 21 onwards. Whilst slightly inaccurate (its not THAT precise) it is essentially true.

Now what we know from Doctor Who. The first Doctor was supposedly around 650 when he regenerated, if I remember the details correctly. The first Doctor also died from old age, rather than being "killed." From this, we can assume the average natural age of a "cycle" for a Time Lord is going to be around the 600 year mark.

Based on this, it would be unreasonable to assume a Time Lord physically ages in the same way a human would. There's no good reason to think that a fifty-year-old Time Lord would look physically like a fifty-year-old human. As an example, my fourteen-year-old cat is starting to feel quite bony and thin. You can feel his spine protruding through his back. He isn't as fit or as energetic as he was in the past. This is a STARK contrast to my physical state at fourteen, where I was lean and fit.

If a Time Lord can live for 600-odd years before regenerating due to old age, it would also make sense that their body would be healthy for a lot longer than a human's would. A Time Lord would only start to show physical signs of aging once their body stopped "growing." The Doctor could easily remain fit and healthy (and consequently, looking like a young man) for hundreds of years and then only start to show signs of aging in the last 50 - 100 years of his life.

There's nothing odd about this. In fact, it makes a lot of sense for a long-lived species. Its also fairly typical in other science fiction media where you have a long-lived species. You wouldn't be a long-lived species if you aged at a similar speed to a human, after all.

Judging by the audio, the diary was full.

Wasn't it said in Invasion of Time that a Time Lord can live naturally for over 1000 years?

Yeah, I've always thought that he ages a lot slower than us peeps, but I always found it weird how he went 400 years without showing any age. However, you know the sciencey wiency stuff, so I'll take your word for it lol.

I kind of like the fact he near enough doubled in age during Matt's time as the Doctor. He has to be about 1600-1800 years old now!

I know lol. Probably a lot more, because the Cyber Planner said something about him having "over 2000 years of memories" in his head. Perhaps he doesn't include his life as the War Doctor when he says his age.

He goes back on his age, EG. 7th says he is 953, 9th says he is 900. So I think that the age of 9-11 is added on to 7th's age, making him nearly 3000 years old.

Not sure if was Invasion of Time, but it was originally said that a Time Lord could live "effectively forever," barring injury. That's obviously been altered a bit over the years, too.

I'd say that the age of the first and eleventh Doctors seem to about match for their time to becoming a physically old man and getting close to a natural death. They both seem to tally at around the 600-700 year mark. Based on that, I'd say that is good evidence that, at the very least, the Doctor's body is geared towards that length of time as its natural lifespan for a single regeneration cycle.

But my main point was about the visible effects of aging. Of course the eleventh Doctor DID age in all the time he appeared young. It just wasn't visible. The visible signs of aging only occurred towards the end of his life, because that is when his body started to fail. It was beginning to die of old age and that's why he starts to look old. For a good 500 years, his body wasn't failing and was still in its "prime," hence him showing no visible signs of aging.

It not only makes sense, but is a noticeable reality that we can see when comparing ourselves to animals with different lifespans to ours.

I think he has actually said, on a few occasions, that he is so old, he doesn't actually know how old he is. So much so that he knows he's often lied about his age, but can't remember which was the truth and which was the lie!

surely the TARDIS would be able to tell him how long he has traveled in it? He could work out his age in any form he wanted then!

A theory on this is in the classic series he was using Gallifreyan years in Nu Who as Gallifrey was gone he started using Earth years

so question is how many Gallifreyan years to an Earth year?

It might. But it seems he doesn't even know how to take the brakes off, so its quite possible he hasn't a clue how to use the odometer

I suppose, but I thought he didn't take the breaks off as he liked the sound it made! Also after the 50th I think the sound has a lot more importance!

Eleven was on Trenzalore for about 600 years and aged into an old man.

Eight was trapped on Orbis for 800 years and didn't age a day.

I think when it comes to the the Doctor's age, and anything related to it, flies right out the damned window.

Then again, how long does a jellyfish year last?

The First Doctor was about 450 when he regenerated (Idris implies as much in TDW, as I explained in my thread "The Doctor's Age", and the Second Doctor outright says in TotC that he's about 450, which wasn't too long after he regenerated).

There was a total of about 300 years over the lifespans of the Second and Third Doctors (the Fourth Doctor gave his age as about 750 not too long after his regeneration).

There was a total of about 200 years over the lifespans of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors (the Seventh Doctor confirms his age as 953 just after he regenerates). The Sixth Doctor in particular lasted about 50 years (he said he was around 900 years old not long after his start), so Four, Five and Seven share about 150 years.

I have no idea how long the Eighth and War Doctors lasted, but my calculations (again in my thread) indicate that they probably lasted a combined total of about 200 years.

The Ninth Doctor lasted anywhere from one year to a few years (depending on how many off-screen adventures he could have had).

The Tenth Doctor lasted between 6 and 7 years.

The Eleventh Doctor lasted at least 600 years (200 years Farewell Tour + 100 years miscellaneous travel + 300 years fighting on Trenzalore), plus the time between his "middle aged" look and his "ancient old man" look, which I'm assuming was another 300 years for the sake of consistency (so a total of about 900-1000 years).

So yes, Eleven was definitely the longest-lasting incarnation. I'll just assume that his aging process took a lot longer because it was his final incarnation or something.

if you look how Matt's hair style has changed from series 5 to TOTD he does actually appear older just from that. amazing how young he looks in his first series

Simple explanation...

...he doesn't count time spent in timelines which were later erased

He aged 900 years on Trenzalore, as the book Tales of Trenzalore states this in it's release synopsis.

And that's fact! So yeah, 200+ 900 makes him 1100 years old, making him the longest lasting incarnation as he's about 2100 now.

but the same matt smith body, went through hundred's of year's of aging twice, and only showed signs of it in time of the doctor