Doctor Who - I'll Explain Later

[@GrahamPointer1972]

Then there's all the ones in "The Curse of Fatal Death"

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

Exactly what inspired this. But since it's a spoof it didn't feel right to include.

[@AzguardMike]

Tell me....what *do* they call you The Master?

[@DittoGTI]

​@@AzguardMikeI'll explain later

[@Jeremy-f3s]

I never realised he actually said this, I never got the joke in curse of the fatal death I just thought it was a joke invented for that spoof.

[@AnthonyP73]

Exact same! ​@@Jeremy-f3s

[@nickferrazza]

I want Big Finish to write a story where the Fifth Doctor finally sits down and explains everything.

[@natalielidster7551]

Oh boy I think that would last a week worth of audios and it would be worth it hahahah

[@sibionic]

The Fifth Doctor has quite a lot of posthumous explaining to do...

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

Before he even uttered a word... Security Chief to the 3 companions - Hands up, and lean on it! C'mon quick! You lot have got some explaining to do!

[@JPH1138]

lol that last clip with Jo is awesome. "Axonite, the copying molecule!" She explains it in less than five seconds.

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

This is why Jo is one of my favourite companions. She's so much smarter than anyone gives her credit for.

[@BaeYeou]

I feel like it might be one of those things where the Doctor wants to explain it, but in great detail, so might as well just go "I'll explain later" for the full thing rather than waste time now. Meanwhile, Jo gives enough relevant information for a short explanation that can be expanded upon later. I know I suffer from the former, always going on tangents and tangents of tangents to add more information that might be relevant, lol

[@SwiftFoxProductions]

Right?! And I love how the Doctor actually sounds slightly annoyed by it. 😂Apparently, it wasn't quite as complicated to explain as he assumed it was... 🤣 (Granted, the Doctor is not always skilled at being succinct)

[@mikhaeldarriens3810]

"Why do you have chairs on a Dalek spaceship anyhow..?!"

[@Benjiesbeenbetter.]

They maybe hate filled blobs of murderous unpleasantness, but nobody is going to accuse them of being poor hosts.

[@MuscleboySV]

Drone 808: "We will explain later!"

[@Swenglish]

@@Benjiesbeenbetter. "WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEA?"

[@IllusivePrime]

WE. WILL. EXPLAIN. LATER!

[@topmandog1]

1:00 i imagine the brig respected the doctor just knicking his land rover

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

I always thought it was a Peter Davidson thing (and he does do it a lot!) but I'm glad the others joined in as well 😁

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

Davison definitely does it more than most, but it's by no means confined to him. I couldn't find any examples of 8,9,13,14 or 15 doing it.

[@DayOldMeat]

​@@wtfmcgurk6315 8 does it a fair bit on Big Finish, and it's sometimes lampshaded a bit.

[@feynthefallen]

Welcome to our new video about every time the doctor actually DID explain later. Thank you for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe, bye.

[@meiray]

All the Davison ones really explain Moffat's POV of this being the Doctor's catchphrase.

[@Uzumakipavel]

Ninth Doctor: explaining how he's gonna defeat the Daleks and save Rose

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

1:59 - that's the most Alan Partridge mannerism I've ever seen in Doctor Who

[@5roundsrapid263]

I grew up on Classic Who. This was always my favorite expression of his!

[@MiguelGarcia-oj9ol]

I like how this is one character trait that carries on in all his lives, intentional or not

[@patrick_j_lee]

Well, at least the Doctor explained how people from different times and places all seemingly know British English... only took him nearly 30 years to do it.

[@adamsinclair1959]

I always thought Timelash was what was really being made fun of in The Curse of Fatal Death, it’s the only time it’s really used in place of actually explaining a plot point to the audience. Otherwise, it’s The Doctor not bothering to explain stuff that he and the audience already know, so it’s not really a writing flaw.

[@WyldstaarStudios]

This was great. It reminds me of the "What are you doing here?" compilation someone made years ago.

[@mohammedamir799]

Doctor, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!🤣

[@fruitybnnuy]

Thank you so much for making this compilation. I'm surprised there wasn't one already!

[@thebackup2121]

Hmm, interesting episode title for a 70's show that, "Kinda"...

[@Attempt62]

...i genuinely enjoy Time-Flight and the fact it started the precise phrase makes me very happy :p

[@kevinlewis3029]

I might adapt this tactic at work when my boss asks me a question.

[@tortysoft]

Lovely. I am delighted to say I worked on several of these shows :-)

[@Altmetalpunk]

7 and ace had such a lovely father and daughter relationship

[@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765]

but why doesn't the doctor explain immediately? we must know!

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

Half the time it's because he's in a hurry, the other half seems to be because the writers just didn't know.

[@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765]

@@wtfmcgurk6315 I set it up, I stepped back, I gave you the space you needed... All ya had to say was "there's no time, I'll explain later." But no, you had ta play it straight. Okay everyone... let's take five minutes. McGurk, in my office. Now.

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

I am ashamed

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

I guess now I really will have to explain later...

[@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765]

@@wtfmcgurk6315 let's put this down to 'was tired after such a marathon of research.' but in future when you see me give this hand signal [redacted video clip] ... you know what to do ok? ;-)

[@callumwalton8904]

They forgot to put the 10th Doctors one in for the Sarah Jane Adventures

[@obeeah]

Should include a clip from "Sarah Jane Adventures" clip "wait, you said you would explain later, well, it's later, please explain".

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

Yeah I didn't know about the SJA clip. I only searched the main show. It should definitely count though.

[@ValueNetwork]

I don’t think it’s wise for me to compliment Neil Gaiman too much due to the ongoing situation surrounding him (and let’s be honest nightmare in silver isn’t the best). But I do really like how he intentionally used Mr clever to revive the “explain later” catchphrase, since the Cyberiad is a learning AI adapting itself to different parts of the doctors Brain, and as a byproduct of that its dredging up older Doctor mannerisms like “I’ll explain later” and putting them back into 11s lexicon. It’s a very natural way to revive the defunct catchphrase (definitely more natural then it getting casually chucked into girl in the fireplace).

[@bananatiergod]

There's a thing about separating the art from the artist. No matter the kind of person he is, it won't be fair to deny that his writing for the show was some of the best

[@MrBGS101]

Sad we never got to see Jodie use that line. If we're luck Big Finish might change that with their upcoming series.

[@Problembeing]

At least Jo relented!

[@BattlestarZenobia]

Love that Ace just threatens him with the baseball bat

[@wallacewallaby5782]

She was awesome.

[@markpostgate2551]

I notics though that generally it's not that the writer is lazily avoiding a subject they don't have an answer to and clearly haven't put much thought into themselves like is what appears on psychic paper a projection from the mind of the viewer or from the mind of the wielder and if it is from the subconscience of the viewer why doesn't it reflect their distrust, but that the question is something the companion or guest character would ask since it is a question anyone in their situation would ask (so much so that it would seem odd if they didn't) but to which all the audience already know the answer (either because they have literally just seen it e.g. where the doctor has been or it is common knowledge to the audiences e.g. TARDISes are bigger on the inside) so having the doctor explain it on screen would be a huge waste of info dump (given info dumping makes for tedious dialogue usually because it is virtually monologue). That isn't how Moffat and co send it up - they are misrepresenting the phenomenon.

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

I think there's definitely some examples where that's true but there's also several where it's being used exactly the way Moffat sends it up. Particularly by the 6th doctor, it seemed to be something of a crutch for the writers in that era. The worst example being Timelash where the Doctor is in the tardis, staring down imminent death by missle, the missle explodes on target and then the Doctor shows up later without a scratch. His survival is not anticipated or explained, ever. All we get is the clip at 3:08

[@optimuprime500]

I mean that example with the Fourth Doctor *technically* he did explain later. Just by several centuries...and to different people.

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

He vaguely explains it to Sarah later in the same story

[@Antropologopt]

Well, we did got one explanation about the 1:20 question. It's the TARDIS.

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

I'm sure there must be more! Lots more if you threw in The Curse of Fatal Death. :)

[@dazzag371]

Curse of fatal death was making fun of the trope

[@minicle426]

Steven Moffat plots in a nutshell.

[@hundetuem]

That´s probably not all of them 🙂

[@AnthonyP73]

Gold

[@tayloredwards7441]

Not Season 19 with 5 different uses (and with Arc also having one too!)

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

Does Arc of Infinity have one? I checked but didn't spot it.

[@808nemec]

i like his servants am still waiting ahahaha

[@TheMilkman-ur5ip]

There were definitely more in Matt Smith’s era

[@DoctorWhoNo1A]

The name of this 1st episode is Be-cky of Mariner? 🙃

[@Awelbeckk]

did he explained any of it yet?

[@jonathanmoore3130]

Did Jodie never say it?

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

I looked but I couldn't find any examples of 8,9,13,14 or 15 saying it.

[@jonathanmoore3130]

@@wtfmcgurk6315 thanks for doing this video. It was great! ♥️

[@lucywillis4174]

Did the 7th doctor just say trans rights???

[@wtfmcgurk6315]

Doctor Who has always said trans rights

[@hbomb6775]

He was referring to aliens you pleb

[@divyanshgoel128]

As someone who has only seen the new who, this avoidance of the explanation is completely new, and a bit annoying to be honest

[@DayOldMeat]

I feel like this wasn't said nearly enough to warrant its catchphrase nature, although I note many examples are from the JNT era, and a truly huge number from Time-Flight, the most JNT-era story.

[@Swenglish]

It's a pretty common bit of stock dialogue in general, not just in Doctor Who. It's natural to have a character who doesn't understand what's going on ask what's going on, and if the audience already knows enough or if explaining it would ruin the surprise for the audience, you can't just halt everything to drop a bunch of unnecessary exposition, so you can instead use the moment to underline the urgency of the situation. Two birds, one stone. Sometimes you've just gotta get it out of the way and move the scene along. Not so much a catchphrase as just a writing shorthand that some writers have leaned into as a running gag.

[@paulannable3734]

I’ve been watching a lot of classic Who on the BBC Iplayer and can’t help but notice another cliche - for no real reason the Doctor will say ‘You stay here. I’ll go over there and do whatever’. Leela/Sarah etc never does ‘stay here’, but will wander off, some stuff will happen and they’ll meet up further into the story. Those 4 episode adventures sure needed a lot of padding out.