I remember when this was mentioned in the TV movie and I didn't like the idea then and I still don't.

For me the Doctor should always be mysterious, so going back and revealing more and more details of his younger life eats away at that mystery. If you knew his name was Bob Kasterberous who lived at 23 Panoptican Avenue with Doris for 47 years, would any of this enrich the character?

In regards to the Doctor's connection with earth: I prefer that he stumbled across our world, maybe even as appears in An Unearthly Child got stuck here for a bit. Then developed a fondness for our species without any preexisting connection. He can see our flaws but also our potential or as the 4th Doctor says in The Ark in Space:

Homo sapiens. What an inventive, invincible species. It's only a few million years since they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenceless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts. And now, here they are, out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life. Ready to outsit eternity. They're indomitable. Indomitable.

Leaving out the comment in the TV movie there is little evidence the Doctor has any human blood.

• It is never mentioned by him or anyone who is likely to be aware of the fact such as the Master.
• Would he be eligible to be President of Gallifrey? I don't know.
• His Time-Lord extract is examined and used in the Deadly Assassin and again no mention is made of any difference.
• He is immune to the Dalek factor in the The Evil of the Daleks, stating "I don't come from earth Jamie" we have seen it affect another human so if the doctor was half human you would expect some effect.

@wonder2wonder

This is just my personal view on things. I've responded to 2 of your posts with an alternate view. With few people debating I hope it doesn't feel like I am just trying to argue with you.

What a delightful response. I appreciate this very much. We humans (and I consider myself as human ) are like children in this vast universe. As a 'child' I question everything (who, what, where, when , why) and I learn something each day. Even Doctor Who can learn a thing or two, be it good or bad, from us Homo sapiens.

It sound like you are An Unearthly Child

My personal view is that he isn't. Several episodes of the new series have stated that he is completely alien.

@cloister56 said:

It sound like you are An Unearthly Child

I am humbled. Wonder where Susan is now.

@wonder2wonder -
Wonder where Susan is now.

There is a 1994 BBC Radio 4 broadcast called "Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?" I've never heard it but it might answer some questions.
Big Finish produced a story called An Earthly Child
It features an adventure with Susan, it's not brilliant but it was ok.

@laurence01 said:

My personal view is that he isn't. Several episodes of the new series have stated that he is completely alien.

Thanks for adding that, I'm not as up on the new series as I tend to only watch most episodes once.
It's interesting they have kept with that concept as, with the exception of the Pertwee era, this run of Doctors have spent more time on earth.

@cloister56 said:

@wonder2wonder -
Wonder where Susan is now.

There is a 1994 BBC Radio 4 broadcast called "Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?" I've never heard it but it might answer some questions.

I don't think that would be much help actually. It's not a proper Doctor Who drama or documentary. It's a mockumentary (one of a series of six).

You can find out more at tardis wikia.com. There is also a transcript at dwtpscripts.tripod.com. I would post a link, but I'm not sure how to. Just type Whatever happened to Susan Foreman into your search engine and the sites should show up in the first few entries. They did for me anyway.

The TV movie is considered canon, but for some it was just misdirection.

Yet, in the latest season we learnt about the prophecy of the Hybrid, a being who will destroy the Time Lords. And what are the words of the Doctor when he's finally set free at the end of Heaven Sent?

You can probably still hear me, so just between ourselves... you've got the prophecy wrong.

The Hybrid is not half Dalek. Nothing is half Dalek. The Daleks would never allow that.

The Hybrid destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins... is me.

Yes, he could have been talking of Me, the character. But it doesn't matter. What matters, is that this was a threat, and such a threat would only be believable if he was indeed an hybrid. (And in the end of the episode they're both standing on Gallifrey's ruins.)

So yeah the Doctor is still, most likely, half-human.

The Hybrid is not half Dalek, Nothing is half Dalek. The Daleks would never allow that

Apart from when they did in Daleks in Manhattan turning Dalek Sec into a Dalek-Human hybrid.

As the Doctor was present for this it seems odd he would say something he knows not to be true.

Anyway as for the Doctor being the hybrid and therefore half human. My understanding of the episode was that it was the pair of the Doctor and his companion which was the hybrid. The Doctors actions to save Clara made him the Hybrid.

In the "Ask Steven Moffat" section of Episode 504 of Doctor Who Magazine he is asked Why did the TARDIS dislike Clara?
He answers that it knew she would be the motivator for the Doctor to go to extreme length endangering all time and space. "She was bad for him and that the coming of the Hybrid would be the result of their association"

I think the hybrid was awfully executed to be honest. With so many is it this, is it that, that in the end it came to nothing.

But I don't think it is evidence that the Doctor is half human.

It appears his mother (according to RTD) was Gallifreyan. But maybe if he was half human that half went with Handy.

The prophecy was that the hybrid was to stand in the ruins of Gallifrey. The Doctor stood (Me sat) and Clara stood (in the Tardis which sat on the ruins). The mistake the High Council made was in thinking that the Hybrid caused the ruins.

@The Watcher80 said:

The TV movie is considered canon, but for some it was just misdirection.

Yet, in the latest season we learnt about the prophecy of the Hybrid, a being who will destroy the Time Lords. And what are the words of the Doctor when he's finally set free at the end of Heaven Sent?

You can probably still hear me, so just between ourselves... you've got the prophecy wrong.

The Hybrid is not half Dalek. Nothing is half Dalek. The Daleks would never allow that.

The Hybrid destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins... is me.

Yes, he could have been talking of Me, the character. But it doesn't matter. What matters, is that this was a threat, and such a threat would only be believable if he was indeed an hybrid. (And in the end of the episode they're both standing on Gallifrey's ruins.)

So yeah the Doctor is still, most likely, half-human.

I don't think he is.

@wonder2wonder said:

There's an ongoing debate whether the Doctor's mother is human or not. This idea of the hero having a human mother is not new, e.g. Hercules and Spock. If it is true, then it might explain a lot of the Doctor's behaviour with regard to Earth. Could she also be from London ?

The short answer is no.

The long answer is, it was a setup for an ongoing storyline that a TV series spun out of the TV movie was going to tackle. The Doctor was going to be on some sort of quest to find his father, who fell in love with an earth woman, the Doctor's mother. And his father's other child, the one he had with a Gallifreyan woman, was going to be revealed to be the Master. Yes they were setting up the Doctor and the Master to be half-brothers with the same father.

But, the TV series never happened and we wouldn't see Doctor Who again until the 2005 revival. Any proposed storylines for a series that never happened should not be considered canon. True, if the new showrunners wanted to use it, they could have, but they did not and so far have not. Outside media that expands on it does not count, with the lone exception being the Audio Dramas (Night of the Doctor made at least his appearances in the Audio Dramas canon) but even then it was never used or brought up.

As it stands now, its easy to look at that comment from the TV movie as the Doctor telling that lie to amuse himself. No different than when he told Clyde (from The Sarah Jane Adventures) he can regenerate 305 times. Or was it 350? Either we we know that's not exactly true.

@RodimusConvoy said:

As it stands now, its easy to look at that comment from the TV movie as the Doctor telling that lie to amuse himself. No different than when he told Clyde (from The Sarah Jane Adventures) he can regenerate 305 times. Or was it 350? Either we we know that's not exactly true.

If I recall correctly the Doctor said 507.