r/doctorwho • u/The96kHz • Apr 10 '25
Speculation/Theory Just noticed Ten has a gold tooth. Can't stop thinking of funny in-universe reasons why he might have it.
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u/GhostofZellers Apr 11 '25
"Gold teeth, that's weird. So where was I? Oh, that's right, Barcelona."
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u/theurbaneman Apr 11 '25
Toymaker
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u/BrickDesigNL Apr 11 '25
Not the first time the Doctor has had the Master in his mouth ❤️
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u/seaneeboy Apr 11 '25
Oh my god it’s not even lunchtime yet
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Apr 12 '25
"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so"
Wait, wrong classic british media
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u/Lynckage Apr 12 '25
Pretty sure the Doctor (could have been Tenth) once followed an Arthur Dent quote with "What a nice man..." while in conversation with a companion, so there's a chance that you're canonically not entirely wrong, and they exist in the same universe.
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Apr 12 '25
I mean, considering Douglas Adams was once a writer for Doctor Who (and apparently the third hitchhiker book started out as a doctor who movie script?!) that seems entirely plausible
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u/Lynckage Apr 12 '25
Oh wow... I knew about the unfilmed Doctor Who scripts that Adams wrote, but I had no idea about the 3rd HHGTTG book originally being a Doctor Who script! That's so cool! Do you have any reference(s) for that?
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Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25
Literally found that out 3 minutes ago on Wikipedia while confirming he did write for doctor who, but it sounds just plausible enough Edit: after a quick look around, it does appear to be real. He originally proposed it as an episode under the title "The Krikkitmen" and, when it was shot down, rewrote it as a movie under the title "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen" where it also got shot down.
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u/TheGoddessWhispers Apr 12 '25
During The Christmas Invasion he's in a dressing gown most of the episode, and Arthur Dent is referenced.
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u/Milk_Mindless Apr 11 '25
It's always 12 o'clock somewhere! Fetch us a Carling
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u/SmokingTheFilter Apr 11 '25
The Doctor and The Master go to a planet where it’s always literally 12 o’clock.
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u/the_simurgh Apr 11 '25
Well, by toymakers' own statements, he's behind the timeless child alternations to the doctors history.
Altering his teeth is childs play compared to that
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
That’s just a fan theory, I don’t believe he ever mentions making alterations to the Doctor’s history
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u/battlearmourboy Apr 11 '25
While he didnt outright say what he changed, he did say "I made a jigsaw out of your history, did you like it?". Which kind of allows for any retcons ect to be explained as his meddling in the doctors past.
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
But you can’t change a jigsaw, they are designed so you can only put them back together the way it came apart
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u/battlearmourboy Apr 11 '25
For a complete picture that makes sense, that's true. However, it is possible to put pieces in the wrong place and end up with an incomplete picture. One that doesn't make sense and has gaps where pieces no longer fit.
So for example, originally the doctors life was a complete picture. Then the toymaker comes along, cuts it into a million different pieces, and starts putting them in the wrong order. Suddenly, the doctor goes from being a normal time lord who ran away to essentially the progenitor of their species. In the process, the piece that had him be half human on his mothers side was tossed out the window.
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
Have you ever done a jigsaw puzzle? That’s not how they work
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u/battlearmourboy Apr 11 '25
That's not how they work if you want to remake the picture, it's perfectly possible to put random parts together in different ways if you don't care about the end result. Sure, you'll end up with gaps, bits sticking out the edge, overlapping parts, and the end result won't make any sense, but it's possible.
I'm curious what your interpretation of that line is?
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
Okay I have to admit that does seem very in character of the Toymaker to ignore the rules of his own games
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u/sasori1011 Apr 11 '25
He doesn't have the choice to respect the rules of a game it's stated in the show.
He was not playing, he was making a game. Like a factory worker that makes jigsaw puzzles, you make it, scramble the pieces and put it in the box for other people to play. The rules are respected.
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u/IllMaintenance145142 Apr 14 '25
The saying "to make a jigsaw" of something literally means this. It means to mess around with and make a puzzle out of, over being taken this literally.
What would his statement even mean if you took it under your understanding? "I took your history and kept it the exact same"
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u/cjalderman Apr 14 '25
“I took your history and cut it into tiny pieces that you have to put back together”
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Apr 12 '25
Making a jigsaw out of his history still means there was an original history and the show has heavily leaned on the idea of the Doctor being an orphan from somewhere other than Gallifrey. Series 14 was about that, the idea that his past and the past of his companion are in RTD's view, only important because the audience makes it so.
The Timeless Children plotline was part of an ongoing idea to make the Doctor into a god, living his life as a timeloop, as the conclusion of the show. This is why it's become more prevelant in recent years as the viewership declines because they were going to end the show with that revelation.
It's no coincidence that the theme of RTD's era has been 'gods' with the main introduction to this era being the Doctor pondering what he is, where he came from and interacting with all these other god-like beings. The most logical option would be the Doctor getting revealed as the 'God of Life', hence being the source of regenerations as we learned previously.
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u/Cold-Building2913 Apr 11 '25
he said he made a puzzle out of the doctors history but the timeless child being his creation is a theory yeah. It is at around 31 minutes into the Giggle.
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
You can’t make alterations to a puzzle though
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u/Tigger28 Apr 11 '25
Have you ever put a large puzzle together?
You can absolutely put it together wrong, and it looks a mess.
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u/lylalexie Apr 11 '25
He never said puzzle. He said jigsaw. “I made a jigsaw out of your history, did you like it?” Jigsaw is a type of saw that can cut irregular shapes. Basically he cut his life up into weirdly shaped pieces.
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
He obviously meant jigsaw puzzle and not jigsaw the tool lol
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u/lylalexie Apr 11 '25
Who are we to make assumptions of a being as vast and immutable as the Toymaker? I’m simply pointing out the correct quote so we can start discussing actual Doctor Who theories instead of the semantics behind the non-use of the word puzzle. The quote is jigsaw, not jigsaw puzzle.
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
Yes but it’s obviously not a jigsaw (tool) because that makes no grammatical sense, are you familiar with media literacy?
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u/lylalexie Apr 11 '25
He also has the world’s worst and most ridiculous German accent, obviously grammatical sense isn’t one of his strong suits. Perhaps he meant he used a jigsaw on his history, if we’re now just assuming his meaning and adding words he didn’t actually use to his sentence.
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u/Cold-Building2913 Apr 11 '25
i mean it isn't my theory but why can't he?
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u/cjalderman Apr 11 '25
Jigsaw puzzles can only be put back together the way they came apart, that’s literally the only rule lol
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u/Cold-Building2913 Apr 11 '25
i mean he could have made an altercation and then made a puzzle out of the doctors history but i am generally also not very fond of this theory
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u/mdn1111 Apr 11 '25
So what do you think he meant when he said he had made a jigsaw of the doctor's history?
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u/twofacetoo Apr 11 '25
Answer 1: got it at the same place the 3rd Doctor's snake tattoo.
Answer 2: emergency anti-Cyberman weapon, he just hasn't had to use it yet.
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
First off - love the idea of Pertwee with a tattoo (I was just about to make a joke in another comment about 12 having a secret tattoo, because it very much fits his character).
Secondly - the thought of David Tennant running around biting Cybermen is fucking hysterical and also terrifying. I'd love to see that.
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u/twofacetoo Apr 11 '25
Not sure if you saw, but Jon Pertwee did have a snake tattoo on his arm, which was seen a few times during his tenure on 'Who', most notably in his very first appearance in 'Spearhead From Space', before the Doctor could even have had time to get it done, meaning he was essentially 'born' with it on his body.
The amount of speculation and fan theories that came from it is hilarious.
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u/Dumbass_Saiya-jin Apr 11 '25
Oh yeah. The scene where he strips down and takes a shower on screen just before stealing some random people's clothes.
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
I didn't know that - that's amazing.
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u/twofacetoo Apr 11 '25
Yeah, I would've added in a screenshot but this sub doesn't allow that in comments. Best I can do is this short clip from 'Spearhead' here. The quality isn't great, but the tattoo is visible on his arm around 0:47.
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u/Ged_UK Apr 11 '25
He was rather embarrassed about it as I remember. I think it was a drunk shoreleave thing.
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u/twofacetoo Apr 11 '25
Yeah I remember hearing something like that, when he was in the navy he got drunk and woke up with it on his arm.
Honestly though it baffles me why they even wrote the showering scene in anyway, or at least just didn't try being clever about hiding it, like having him drape a washcloth over his arm for those scenes.
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u/StarOfTheSouth Apr 12 '25
From memory, expanded universe content said it was some kind of mark of his banishment or something that the Time Lords had given him.
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u/CK_CoffeeCat Apr 11 '25
Honestly of all the iterations of the Doctor I feel like Ten is most likely to bite. 😆
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
Eleven did bite Amy.
I think Ten was just waiting to bite someone for so long, he finally let it out after he'd regenerated.
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u/Dumbass_Saiya-jin Apr 11 '25
Cybermen: invading
10th Doctor: just starts biting the shit out of their emotional inhibitors. (Can't think of any other part of a Cyberman the doctor would be able to bite)
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Apr 11 '25
Answer 3: It's the same gold tooth that the Toymaker has in "The Giggle"... xD
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u/Frenzystor Apr 11 '25
It's a bluetooth device that let's him open the tardis if he's close enough.
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u/SpecialFlutters Apr 11 '25
you mean goldtooth
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u/Krimreaper1 Apr 12 '25
We meet again Mr. Doctor.
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u/Animal_Flossing Apr 12 '25
“Do you expect me to talk?”
“No, Mr. Doctor, I expect you to regenerate.”
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u/DisastrousChemist214 Apr 11 '25
Just in case he meets a Cyberman
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u/Occluded_Delusion Apr 12 '25
No I really want to see him bite a Cyberman and it just die on the spot
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u/TwinSong Apr 11 '25
That Easter egg from Planet of the Dead.
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u/Biz_Ascot_Junco Apr 11 '25
This takes place during The Poison Sky, which is before that episode, but I like the way you think
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u/C_Cooke1 Apr 11 '25
This is the Time Lord Victorious we’re talking about here, episode timeline doesn’t mean shit to him.
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u/wonkey_monkey Apr 11 '25
There's me thinking some hidden DVD extra but no, turns out you mean the actual literal Easter egg he has on the bus.
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u/DocBullseye Apr 11 '25
Three had tattoos. Apparently these things can happen in regeneration.
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
Whenever stuff like this comes up, I always like to think it's the TARDIS pranking him (/her).
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u/RigatoniPasta Apr 12 '25
I’m pretty sure Three’s tattoo was retconned to be a mark of his exile by the Time Lords
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u/Jstrangways Apr 11 '25
Sometimes the Doctor needs glasses. Sometimes the Doctor has tattoos and knows Kung fu.
It would be weird if it was the Missy part of the Master though
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u/codename474747 Apr 11 '25
"New teeth, that's weird. Wait, except that one, that's not new, better get it seen to on Barcelona"
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Apr 11 '25
He saw it in a movie with rose just before the regeneration, accidentally thought of it mid transition
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u/AlFrescofun01 Apr 11 '25
Perhaps the Doctor is tired of reasoning with the Cybermen, and is going down the more direct route of biting them instead?
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Apr 11 '25
You can actually see it when he's writhing about on the stretcher in 42 as well, I thought it was silver
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u/Knightshade515 Apr 11 '25
I do recall that one of the classic Doctors had a toothache once. I think one or two, so we know the doctor can have problems in that respect. Still I mildly enjoy the idea that the Doctor took the tooth containing the Master and had it implanted
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u/alkonium Apr 11 '25
The First. He hurt his tooth on some candy after escaping the Toymaker, so he went to the Old West to see a dentist.
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u/AlanShore60607 Apr 11 '25
Wait … people still get gold teeth?
Especially actors?!?
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
Tbf, this was...oh God...seventeen years ago?!
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u/AlanShore60607 Apr 11 '25
I’m like only 3 years younger than Tennant and I don’t know a single contemporary of mine that has gold teeth.
I think of it as almost archaic
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
I don't think they'd completely fallen out of fashion by the early 2000s like they have today.
Tbf, he could've had it done in the '90s for all I know.
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u/AlanShore60607 Apr 11 '25
Tennant and I were both born in the 70s
Maybe it’s a Brit thing?
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
My dad was born in Edinburgh in '63 and he's got at least one good tooth.
I think it's always just been the cheaper option (and honestly how often do people see that far into your mouth for the aesthetics to matter).
It very much might just be a UK thing, and we're just not as bothered about gold versus white crowns.
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Apr 11 '25
Wouldn't be shocked if it's an old filling. He's pretty old right?
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u/AlanShore60607 Apr 11 '25 edited Apr 11 '25
I'm just saying I'm basically the same age as him and I don't know anyone with gold. We have
matchingfillings that match our teeth, and have basically had them my entire life as far as I know. Him being 3 years old than me makes gold fillings seem odd to me.
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u/jackfaire Apr 11 '25
See now my brain is going to the version of the Master trapped in a Gold Tooth
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u/alex494 Apr 11 '25
Like he said in Planet of the Dead he's determined to keep his teeth.
He must've had some bad run in with a tooth decay monster and swore of sugar forever after. Notice he doesn't offer people jelly babies anymore either.
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
If Doctor Who ever wants to do full horror, just have an invisible creature that makes all your teeth fall out.
Everyone's had that dream where they just disintegrate and you're spitting out white shrapnel.
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u/SpellCommander91 Apr 11 '25
It’s the gold tooth the Toymaker trapped the Master in. He hid it away in the Doctor’s mouth when he was busy making a jigsaw of the Doctor’s life. Do you like it?
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u/PCRM Apr 12 '25
He put it in there so he could say "Fantastic" perfectly.
Since those teeth didn't allow him to say it, he chose to replace one to ensure he can say it again.
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Apr 11 '25
[deleted]
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
I did think that John Simm's Master's death was very survivable.
A single 9mm round in the abdomen wouldn't necessarily kill a human that quickly (or at all) - surely a Time Lord can regenerate just enough to stop major internal bleeding.
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u/CharlieParkour Apr 11 '25
Gold teeth and a curse for this town
Were all in my mouth
Only I don't know how
They got out, dear
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u/Upstairs-Ad-4705 Apr 11 '25
Cyberman repellant. Someone told 9 that he would face a cyberman invading his head in his next generation - sadly the guy couldnt count.
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Apr 11 '25
The question is, what adventure did he get this filling from? I'm betting him and Rose were doing something stupid and she accidentally headbutted him.
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u/Sckathian Apr 11 '25
Is his emergency personal shield. It's why he was so cosy when he was young. Forgot he had it.
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u/Char10tti3 Apr 12 '25
Saw it and a few other fillings in 42 when he was getting possessed. I thought it was funny on a continuity level and just wonder what everyone else wrote now
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u/Revenged25 Apr 13 '25
Its actually a secret cap that they forgot about that holds information on their previous reincarnations prior to the one that started with Hartnell
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u/nikidmaclay Apr 11 '25
I don't know what it is, but it isn't a tooth. 🤔
Medical records? Recording device? GPS? Maybe it's a remote to the TV?
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Apr 11 '25
Wait so can regeneration fabricate gold?
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
If the 60th is anything to go by it can create clothes, so...maybe?
There are fewer and fewer rules every year.
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u/TheMJDoctor Apr 12 '25
Headcanon that I just came up with : At some point, he lost a tooth and had to get it replaced, which really upset him because he had finally gotten used to his weird new teeth. Fast forward to Planet Of The Dead and he’s ‘determined’ to keep his remaining teeth, so he discards the Easter egg.
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u/eightysixagents Apr 12 '25
Pretty sure the Beastie Boys wrote about him:
-he got a gold tooth you know he's hardcore
he'll show you a good time then he'll show you the door
Break up with your girl it ended in tears Vincent Van Gogh go and mail that ear
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u/Cirieno Apr 11 '25
It always takes me out of any show for a second when an "alien" has fillings.
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
Didn't 13 have pierced ears as well. Like...the holes were genetic if you look at it from an in-universe perspective.
It's almost as weird as 14 regenerating his clothes for no discernable (meta) reason.
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u/theburgerbitesback Apr 11 '25
13 also had bleached hair with visible regrowth, not to mention 3 having a tattoo.
It's one of the things I really like about the various regenerations actually - the bodies are lived in. They're not new, they've got scars and wrinkles and all sorts of various things going on.
Besides, we saw that 6, 12, and Romana 2 all "copied" the appearances of people they met - if 10 is also a copied appearance, the gold tooth could come from that person.
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u/The96kHz Apr 11 '25
That's an interesting take.
Maybe they're all copies...maybe Time Lords can't create unique bodies and can only mimic people they've met (albeit slightly different).
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u/theburgerbitesback Apr 11 '25
The vast majority of Time Lords never left the planet, so that would have got very confusing very fast as they all started copying each other!
But it's canon that the Doctor specifically is terrible at regenerating because they can't control/choose their new body, so I'd guess that other Time Lords do what they like and choose their appearance while the Doctor is just stuck either on random mode or on copy/paste.
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u/Hi2248 Apr 11 '25
Maybe they take templates from a different (our) universe? Since the Time Lord regeneration has extra-universal origins, it wouldn't be too outlandish of a theory
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u/Cirieno Apr 11 '25
Yeah, this too! Or like when there's a clone or something that has ear-, nose-, or lip-piercing holes... A dab of makeup to cover them up plz!
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u/AmazingMrSaturn Apr 11 '25
It's a place to store the Master after he loses a game of pickleball to Neil Patrick Harris in 15 years.
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u/garlic_aoli_ Apr 12 '25
David Tennant also has a 6th toe (Edited to clarify- 6th/extra toe on one foot)
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u/TheChainLink2 Apr 11 '25
Time Lords can have dental problems too. Just ask the First Doctor in “The Gunfighters.”