26

Similar to Has the Doctor ever observed himself, without revealing who he was? but with a slight difference.

Has the Doctor ever worked with himself to solve a problem where both incarnations are the same?

There are numerous examples ("The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors", etc) of different incarnations working together - but has he ever worked with himself?

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    Does the Meta-Crisis Doctor count? (sort-of different regenerations, but both played by Tennant) – Rand al'Thor♦ Jan 11 '17 at 10:38
  • @Randal'Thor its close but he's technically a new incarnation – user46509 Jan 11 '17 at 10:38
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    Journey to the centre of the tardis is close to. With the button but I'm not sure it classes as interacts – user46509 Jan 11 '17 at 10:41
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    Heh, you left that last comment 23 seconds before I finished typing my answer. GMTA? :-) – Rand al'Thor♦ Jan 11 '17 at 10:48
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    If the Meta-crisis Doctor doesn't count, then the Flesh Doctor from The Almost People doesn't either, right? – Mr Lister Jan 11 '17 at 14:40
14

The 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant interact with future versions of themselves in Episode 1 of Day of the Daleks.

Starts at about 3:25

(The Doctor goes underneath the console. A moment later the doors to the lab open and a second Doctor and Jo are standing there.)
DOCTOR 2: Yes, of course, I remember now. Look, don't worry, my dear. I know you're alarmed but you needn't be.
DOCTOR: Yes, well I think that should do it. Why on Earth I never realised that.
(Then the Doctor sees himself standing there.)
DOCTOR: Oh, no. What are you doing here?
DOCTOR 2: Well, I'm not here. Don't worry. Well, that is, in a sense I am here, but you are not there. Yes, well, it's a bit difficult to explain really.
DOCTOR: This won't do at all. We can't have two of us running about.
DOCTOR 2: Yes, well don't worry. It will all sort itself -
(Flash, bang from the console and the duplicates vanish.)
JO: Doctor? What happened?
DOCTOR: Well, it's a very complicated thing, time, Jo. Once you've begun tampering with it, the oddest things start happening.
JO: But there was another you and another me. Well, where've they gone?
DOCTOR: Back into their own time stream, of course. Or do I mean forward?

-- transcript

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43

Yes, in "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS".

After the Doctor and Clara have finally made their way all the way to the heart of the TARDIS, the Doctor pushes through a glowing crack in the wall to meet his earlier self from right back at the start of the episode. From the transcript (emphasis mine):

DOCTOR: Oh, yes. Big friendly button.
CLARA: You're lying.
DOCTOR: Yep.
CLARA: To stop me freaking out?
DOCTOR: Is it working?
CLARA: Not so much.
(The future Doctor pushes through the crack.)
FUTURE DOCTOR: Doctor, Doctor. I'm from your future. We haven't got long to reset time.
(He vanishes. The grenade rolls across the floor to Clara. She picks it up.)

As a bonus, there are also at least two more occasions in the show where Matt Smith has interacted with himself on-screen, although in-universe only one of these selves is the Doctor, the other being:

  • in one case ("The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People"), a Ganger in the form of the Eleventh Doctor:

    Ganger

  • in the other ("Nightmare in Silver"), a Cyber Planner taking over the Doctor's body and appearing inside his head as a Borgified version of him:

    Cyber

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  • Good spot there 🤔 – user46509 Jan 11 '17 at 10:48
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    I assume that if there isn't a separate clip of this scene on Youtube, linking to a full version of the episode on Youtube that is likely to be removed sooner or later is not acceptable? – Nzall Jan 11 '17 at 12:45
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    The first one counts, but I don't think the other two do. Technically they're not the Doctor. – Tim Jan 12 '17 at 0:43
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    @Tim Agreed. I thought they were a fun bonus though. – Rand al'Thor♦ Jan 12 '17 at 0:47
28

In the BBC Children in Need special Space / Time, the 11th Doctor speaks to a version of himself from mere moments into his future.

DOCTOR: I'm setting up a controlled temporal implosion. It's the only way to reset the TARDIS but unless I find exactly the right lever to control the implosion we're all gonna die.
AMY: You don't know which lever?
DOCTOR: No, but I'm about to find out.
(A second Doctor steps into the TARDIS through the main doors)
DOCTOR 2: The wibbley lever!
DOCTOR: The wibbley lever. Thank you!
(The original Doctor throws the wibbley lever and steps into the TARDIS parked in the control room which then dematerialises)

You can watch both parts legally on YouTube, at least here in the UK.

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    Good catch, good episode. – Gallifreyan Jan 11 '17 at 12:44
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    Good catch, bad episode. Also, is this canon? – Rand al'Thor♦ Jan 11 '17 at 13:43
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    @Randal'Thor Not sure what constitutes canon for Doctor Who, it's all a bit wibbley-wobbley. This answer specifically mentions that this special is canon but cites no sources. – Equalsk Jan 11 '17 at 13:46
  • I can't get the exact timestamp right now but it's within the last minute of the second video "Time". – Equalsk Jan 11 '17 at 16:13
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    @randal'thor doctor who explicitly doesn't have a canon policy, according to both the current and previous showrunners. – evilsoup Jan 12 '17 at 0:40
17

The 11th Doctor meets himself in the episode The Big Bang

From the plot synopsis

The injured body of a future version of the Doctor appears and whispers something to his earlier self.

The whole plot of this episode can be seen in this awesome music video by Chameleon Circuit The Big Bang 2

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7

Yes, this has happened a few times.. most notably in the Mini-Series Night and The Doctor

In episode 4 (Last Night), Doctor Who interacts with a second version of himself, and 3 different versions of River. They dont solve a problem exactly, but it's the longest interaction between multiple Doctor Who's of the same incarnation I can remember.

And yes, Calling him "Doctor Who" is a joke. And yes, calling it a joke makes it less funn.. never mind.

Night and The Doctor - Wiki

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    You can call him Doctor Who, for many years that was what his character was called in the closing credits. – AndFisher Jan 12 '17 at 11:08
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    @AndFisher Peter Capaldi calls his character Doctor Who, probably because he grew up in the era where the character was credited as Doctor Who. I can't remember if it was Tom Baker or Peter Davison who was the first Doctor to be credited as just The Doctor, but I'm pretty sure it was the star field version (all of Peter Davison, last season of Tom Baker). – CJ Dennis Jan 13 '17 at 4:16
  • @CJDennis I would assume it would be Tom Baker given his famous quote: "You might be a doctor, but I am the Doctor. The definite article one might say." I could be wrong though. – Pharap Jan 13 '17 at 11:23
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    @Pharap I just double-checked on my DVDs. The credits go like this: Logopolis - Episode 4 (the regeneration episode): Doctor Who - Tom Baker; Doctor Who - Peter Davison; ... Castrovalva - Episode 1: The Doctor - Peter Davison; ... So, a bit of trivia there: the only time Peter Davison's character was credited as Doctor Who was in Tom Baker's last episode! – CJ Dennis Jan 13 '17 at 12:32
5

Not a direct interaction, but in Smith and Jones, the Doctor of the near relative-future sets up Martha's interactions with the Doctor of the relative-present.

Arguably, Blink is along those lines as well, as it's the Doctor's discovery of the future transcript that causes him to record the video that eventually gets transcribed in the first place.

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    You could also throw in "Time Heist" with these, the Doctor intentionally interacts with his past self, although he doesn't know it at the time. – Equalsk Jan 12 '17 at 16:20
2

If you were to stretch a point, it could be argued that in Logopolis, The Watcher (or Doctor 4.5) helped both his current self (4) and his future self (5).

As Nyssa says: "The Watcher. He was the Doctor all the time."

But like I said, it's probably stretching a point.

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