Doctor Who #1063: The Shrink

"That sounds like a plug if I ever heard one."

TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired May 6 1989, during On the Waterfront series 2, episode 3. Available on YouTube.

IN THIS ONE... The Third Doctor consults a psychiatrist.

REVIEW: Almost doesn't count because of the metatextual elements, but I think the Doctor's dialog saves it and makes it "real". Well, maybe with the help of a Theory, below. Because yeah, this is essentially a sketch to plug The Ultimate Adventure stage show which originally starred Jon Pertwee, giving tour locations (if not dates) as if they were TARDIS destinations. But while the knowing psychiatrist calls it a plug, the show is never mentioned. Even the unnecessarily mean swipe at Bonnie Langford isn't acknowledged by the Doctor.

That said, this is a very slight mini-sode. An unenergetic Doctor goes through lists of his enemies (the Master is his greatest) and he explains the concepts behind the show and denies his name is Who (one of the Doctors who most needs to say that), and then things get weird as "Miss Grant" walks in and is a Cyberman (never a 3rd Doctor monster, he eventually met them in The Five Doctors) and the Doctor turns the tables on the shrink and starts asking him the same questions. He, too, seems confused about whether he's "Doctor Who". This was co-written by Russell T Davies, so there's a further link to the show, but only Doctor Who historians need apply.

THEORIES: The absurdist ending holds the key as to why I consider this a Doctor Who story. The psychiatrist played by Andrew O'Connor thinks maybe he might be Doctor Who, and is dressed eccentrically. Could he be a possible Doctor? Not in the real world, but in the strange mental landscape that we saw in Power of the Doctor? There, past Doctor personalities seem to continue to exist and look more aged (as Doc3 does here), and perhaps future/possible personalities are also hanging around. The psychiatrist might even be some kind of "check" on the various personalities, an avatar of some mental process that verifies information between personalities (the questions) during regeneration, for example. And if we're in the middle of regeneration confusion here, it would explain the non sequiturs like Cyber Jo.

REWATCHABILITY: Low - Might have been cool to see Pertwee playing the Doctor again at the time, but there's really very little to this skit.

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