Dr. Plagiarism · 8:11pm Mar 12th, 2013
"The Doctor" is one of, if not THE most annoying memes in ponydom. There's nothing clever or interesting about it. The entire crux of the character is "hur hur, I reckernize him from that thar tee vee." There are no jokes; only a simian grunt of recognition.
We have the opportunity to make this background pony into a genuinely interesting character, and there is nothing less interesting than something we've already seen before and know so well that nothing he does will ever come as a surprise. The key to making a character interesting is originality.
Yes, this pony looks a little bit like David Tennant, but this doesn't mean we have to go and plagiarize his interpretation of the Dr. Who character with absolutely NOTHING added or changed except his being a pony now.
We're better than blatant idea theft. At least, I like to think we are.
An interesting view. Could you maybe give me an example of a good way and bad way to use it?
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Okay. Most of the times you see Dr. Whooves in any story, I'd consider to be bad examples. He usually just shows up, acts strangely, and says "Oh, I'm The Doctor." Now, if someone were unfamiliar with Dr. Who, they'd think this is just an overpowered OC, since he's out doing things that no other character has been shown to be able to do by traveling through time and space at will. That's a lot of backstory to take at face value without any actual character development put in.
A better way to accomplish something similar would be to make a character who is LIKE Dr. Who, but isn't just a ponified clone of the David Tennant Dr. Who. Rather than ask the reader to accept a MASSIVE backstory quickly so you can move the story on with your gag character joining the party, consider telling (or at least explaining) his origin story and keep it as simple and in-line with the MLP universe as possible. We see he has an hourglass for a cutie mark; perhaps he's a clockmaker whom Princess Celestia commissioned to make a new perfectly-accurate kind of clock, and by experimenting with what would be the first atomic clock, he managed to tear a hole in spacetime (thanks to some convenient pseudoscience.)
There, we now have something similar, if that's what's really desired, and all without stealing from a 40 year old british TV show.
To think that in the MLP game app, his name is "Dr. Whooves." Not Time Turner. Oh, and his bio contains the word "timey-wimey".
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Interesting view. I have read several Dr. Whooves/ Time Turner fancies and they usually aren't as clear cut as you have them. Some of the fanfics have Dr. Whooves as actually from the Mlp universe, from a planet called Gallopfrey and he's always been a pony. Some of them have Time Turner being the hidden version of the Doctor when he isn't a timelord. Time Turner being the clock maker/ keeper is just as stereotypical as having the Doctor stumble out of the TARDIS and be a pony. In the ones I have found enjoyable he was more than just a clock maker/keeper.
Truthfully it just depends on how one views the character. Its really not any different than calling Ditzy Doo, Derpy Hooves. Neither one is right or wrong they are just different views on the character.
Ps. Doctor Who is not 40 years old. November 23, 2013, marks the 50th year anniversary, making it one of the longest running tv series with 26 original seasons, 1 movie, and its on its 7th season of the reboot and there has been a total of 11 Doctors.