Something I thought about today, which was inspired by having a Doctor Who related dream a while ago. As is the case with dreams, the detail soon vanished, but I do remember that it involved Patrick Troughton's Doctor (and no, I don't remember it being in black and white!)

I got to thinking, does the Doctor dream?
I can't think of many instances on-screen showing him asleep and waking up, apart from when he's actually unconscious rather than naturally asleep after a regeneration or being knocked out, which isn't quite the same thing.

I think we have to assume that Time Lords do sleep as we do, they've certainly been shown to have beds, but whether they spend the same nominal third of their lives asleep as we do we don't know of course.

So, if the Doctor does dream, what does he dream about?
Does he dream about things involving all of his past incarnations, or just the one he happens to be in at the time?
Does he have nightmares, like an enemy he's defeated countless times finally being about to kill him, and he wakes up in a cold sweat?
Does he have the classic insecurity dreams, like being naked in public?

I'm only talking about natural dreams of course, not artificially induced ones like in Amy's Choice and Last Christmas.

Any ideas, or indeed evidence about this?

The Doctor's closing lines in The Day of the Doctor...

"Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. "Of course I dream", I tell her. "Everybody dreams". "But what do you dream about?", she'll ask. "The same thing everybody dreams about", I tell her. "I dream about where I'm going." She always laughs at that. "But you're not going anywhere, you're just wandering about." That's not true. Not anymore. I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's. It's taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I'm going. Where I've always been going. Home. The long way round".

I guess you could argue that this refers to dreams in the sense of aspirations, rather than dreaming in your sleep but I personally interpreted it to mean that this is the sort of thing he dreams about when he sleeps.

Didn't the Tenth Doctor refer to his bad dreams in The Next Doctor?

These days he dreams about The Time War.

He dreams - he doesn't necessarlly sleep.

Honest answer please. Can you remember if you dream in colour or black and white? I can't. The doctor. I bet he dreams about idris. Naked

LOL, yes he probably does!
I can't really say whether I dream in colour or black and white, or whether there's full multi-channel surround sound either for that matter, but I have been aware of things being a particular colour in dreams, like red warning lights for instance, so I do think my dreams are in colour, at least when they need to be.

Does the Doctor even sleep?

I read somewhere that intelligent species such as man dream as some sort of mental safeguard. Apparently even Superman dreams.

Yes but a lot less than humans do.

We've seen him go off and have adventures while his companions are asleep in the TARDIS.

TARDIS' do however come equipped with beds which suggests that Time Lords must sleep at some point and we have in fact seen the Doctor asleep at least once.

The first Doctor sleeps through the landing of the TARDIS at the start of The Rescue, and Ian and Barbara deal with him kindly in his befuddled state when he awakes. It's a lovely scene. Maybe he was dreaming about his granddaughter having just lost her? When he calls out "Susan" moments later as he takes control, and she's not there....aw, what a moment. Gawd, Hartnell was good.

I was just fascinated with the idea that if the Doctor, or indeed any Time Lord, has dreams, do they come from the experiences of all the incarnations that they've been through, or just from the current one?
Our dreams are fragments made up from the memories of our experiences, although usually completely garbled almost beyond recognition of course.
Someone like the Doctor, who has had countless experiences over many "lives" would inevitably have very complex dreams, certainly if they were derived from the experiences of all of his incarnations.
They say that everyone dreams every night, even if they never seem to actually remember them at all, and without them we would go insane.
Imagine how much truer that would be for someone like the Doctor!

We see one of the Doctor's dreams at the start of The Time Monster. It's partly a premonition of the forthcoming events of the story (Minoan artefacts, volcanic eruptions, the time crystal), and partly anxiety dream (a gigantic Master towers over him laughing derisively and telling him to acknowledge his new master - this seems to be the flipside of the Master's own fears in The Mind of Evil). Jo (bless her!) describes it as "a real pippin of a dream", which is not an idiom I have encountered anywhere else, ever.

The Doctor's dreams featured in a story in Doctor Who Magazine back in 2003

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lan...s_(comic_story)

Thanks for that. I have every issue of DWM, but had completely forgotten that comic strip story!
BTW your link is a bit awry, the last bracket is not included so it fails.
It should be http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lan..._(comic_story)

Sorry about that

I only actually read that story in The Flood "graphic novel"