In The Devil’s Chord there is the line “I thought that was non-diagetic” This suggests the Doctor can hear and recognise non-diagetic music, and knows it is non-diagetic. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, non-diagetic sounds are the sounds(including, and especially music) in a TV show or movie that the audience can hear, but the charcters can’t. For the Doctor to be labelling it as non-diagetic, they have to know they’re in a TV show. This definitely fits in with some of the phrases and actions of particularly the 12th doctor.
I am probably thinking to deep into this, but it is intersting to think about
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The Idea that the Doctor is in a TV Show is actually a Theory that has been around for a while, especially now with this new Era it seems like that Theory is getting quite popular again.
Are there evidence for it? Well outsides of the Things that you pointed out there is also the Episode of DMP where the first Doctor wishes everybody a good Christmas, his Phrase “Merry Christmas to all of you at home”. There are other Moments where various Doctors broke the fourth Wall that could factor in as evidence.
Now, does that make this Idea/Theory true? Well, that’s for you to decide. Personally speaking I think those Moments are just Fourth Wall Breaks, it’s a fun Idea certainly but one that I don’t subscribe to it as much personally speaking.
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Fair enough. I personally see it as a fun thing, with no actual connotations inside the show, but this is one of the lines that has the most implications to the effect of the doctor knowing they are in a show.
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I don’t think it’s true, but I do like it as a theory as a bit of fun. My favourite example of Doctor Who suggesting they know they’re in a TV show is Heaven Sent.
“I’m nothing without an audience”
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In the current season there’s the obvious scenes in Lux and Wish World…
The Mind Robber mostly taking place in the land of fiction, and the way The Greatest Show In the Galaxy was very meta commentary on the state of the show, and culminated in the Doctor having to put on a show for an audience. And, of course, Trial of a Timelord was literally the show on trial.
I could also see The War Machines “Doctor Who is required” as a fourth wall break…
Not to mention Missy’s iconic fourth wall breaking.
MISSY: Well, I am that mysterious adventurer in all of time and space, known only as Doctor Who. And these are my disposables, Exposition and Comic Relief.
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The Doctor certainly messes with the concept that they may be in a TV show, but this is not the same thing. The Doctor is a thinker and likes to mess with people - some incarnations more than others have a strong (and often mischievous) philosophical mindset. That said, the line that @TimeyWimeyStuff references from The Devil’s Chord does seem to go further, doesn’t it?
Can Ruby hear non diegetic music? Is the Doctor always (or, at the very least, often) aware of it? It’s a fascinating question. It is, of course, blurred by the fact that RTD is a playful writer and he likes to mess with the audience as much as the Doctor likes to mess with people in the stories themselves.
Recently, the series has been playing with the boundaries between fiction and reality a great deal. Personally, it’s one of the many things I love about this show. I like how it plays with perception, raises deep questions playfully and continues to be bold and inventive.
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Honestly, going back to World Enough and Time, Missy is so meta…
BILL: Sorry, what do you mean, it’s his real name? Nobody knows the Doctor’s real name.
MISSY: I do, because I grew up with him, and his real name is Doctor Who.
DOCTOR: Bill, she’s just trying to wind you up.
MISSY: Chose it himself, you know, trying to sound mysterious.
MISSY [OC]: And then he dropped the Who when he realised it was a tiny bit on the nose.
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In The 100 Days of the Doctor, the Sixth Doctor speculates that Time Lords - or other people - use something like a Time-Space Visualiser to watch his adventures, acting as a sort of audience for him, so it might be that?
Perhaps his line in The Feast of Steven is him making a joking reference to the Time Lords he assumes are watching him, and by the time of his 15th incarnation he’s so used to the idea that he subconsciously adds music to events.
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How much I love the idea that they have a Time Lord composer to write non diegetic music to accompany their viewing of the Doctor’s adventures. 
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I imagine Time Lords sitting down, discussing how to name the various adventures, not to mention which one to watch.
“Genesis of the Daleks today, your excellency.”
“Oooh, that’s a good one, isn’t it?”
“Really? I preferred ‘The Daleks’. Can’t beat the original.”
“I still don’t like the title ‘The Daleks’. Personally, I think ‘The Dead Planet’ is much more evocative.”
“But, your excellency, everyone calls it ‘The Daleks’ these days!”
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Do you think Damon was invited as a guest when they watched “Arc of Infinity”?
(turned into reply to make clearer)
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I think with the Mrs Flood stuff, it seems they’re using 4th wall breaks as a ‘time lord power’, which is, to me at least, a really fun way of showing the time lords have a heightened awareness and are just on a completely different level to the rest of the universe
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Just wait until we have the scripts and can see what was cut!
“Grandfather… find me… get me back on screen with some better writing and a regeneration scene…”
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I absolutely love the idea of The Doctor being aware, perhaps to a greater or lesser degree depending upon the level of sensitivity to it granted to each incarnation, of their existence in a fictional world. What a wonderful ability fraught with narrative possibilities that would be, is, has been…
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That sounds so cool
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