And for me, it works fine whether it airs at midnight (which is 4:00pm on Friday for me) or simulcast with the TV airing (which is around 9:30am on Saturday for me). For the Christmas Special, I wasn’t able to watch it right when it dropped, so I watched it when I could. But being on Disney+ (which I currently have access to) is still better than Jodie’s era where I had to wait for the library to get the DVDs.
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Not so much with that, but I used to struggle with missing Doctor Who if I was out somewhere and didn’t get back in time. When I was a kid, when I was out with my parents and brother, we had to rush back for Doctor Who, otherwise I’d cry, even though I knew about the BBC3 repeats.
I’m much better at managing that as a working adult though, when my work schedules don’t always align with the broadcast times of Doctor Who.
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When it comes to the Christmas Special, everything has to stop for Doctor Who on Christmas Day. It sounds selfish, but I made my brother wait to open his joint present for myself and my parents until that and Wallace & Gromit finished, because there was no way I was missing watching those two live on Christmas.
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I find this thread very therapeutic. Thank you to everyone on here. I know I witter on sometimes, but I love this thread and sharing my thoughts, quirks and approach with you all.
Despite the people around us, it’s not uncommon to feel alone/isolated given that I think about, and interact with, the world differently to most people. This thread reminds me that I’m not alone in this. We might all manifest differently (ah, unique diversity! 
and the wonders of neurodivergence) but we are not alone. We are a community.
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Question, do any of you have Doctor who characters you see as autistic?
I know the Doctor themselves is an obvious one. Although a lot of people read autism into their character because they’re awkward around humans, but how they don’t fit in with their own people (time lords) is a big reason why I see them that way too.
I also see The Meddling Monk as autistic for that same reason + other things. Like how they have disproportionate emotional reactions to things (eg in the prints of Denmark they get really upset because they couldn’t watch the first hamlet on VHS) which is a common symptom and one I can relate to.
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I’d personally suggest Zoe could be.
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I could see Romana as being one. She has a lot of similar traits to the Doctor that make her simultaneously successfully at Gallifreyan politics and also constantly distant and unable to fully relate to her peers at home.
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[points enthusiastically at my icon] there’s a reason my autistic ass imprinted on him immediately at age 8
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The Doctor isn’t human so we can’t really ascribe autism but we can, with a high degree of confidence, recognise that the Doctor’s behaviour reflects many common traits associated with how autism manifests in humans. We can also, with confidence, define the Doctor as neurodivergent. They are very much an outlier in Gallifreyan society (we know why a little better these days) and obviously not neurotypical for humanity.
As for Romana, she’d be neurodivergent to humanity, but I’m less convinced in relation to Gallifrey. She seems very typically Gallifreyan when we first meet her in Season 16. I think her difference in thinking to most Time Lords is more to do with how she has learned from her time with the Doctor rather than a fundamental wiring difference.
Zoe Heriot? Absolutely! Love Zoe so much! She’s amazing.
There’s a case to be made for Adric. Again, autism is a stretch given he isn’t human, but he certainly seems the equivalent for Alzarius. Again, he’s certainly neurodivergent.
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I do think there’s a point to be made about Romana being autistic as well. It’s more evident in Gallifrey though. There’s a scene in the beginning of season 2 in which you see some of her time in the academy and in which it’s revealed that she doesn’t have any friends and struggles to make connections with the other students, they call her the ice-maiden and she considers failing her exams on purpose to make the others like her. All of that feels very reminiscent to my own childhood (though I’m not diagnosed autistic, it’s just a suspicion so far). Obviously all of this would work differently for gallifreyans too, but I think it’s evident that Romana appears to work differently to the norm.
I also think a point can be made for Leela. While again, it’s hard to say given her different background and especially education, her literal thinking, way of talking and sense of justice can be interpreted this way
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Susan.
Also, the Doctors I enjoy the most are, when I think about it, probably the ones who display autistic traits.
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Ianto is (kinda) canonically autistic. As in, GDL writes for his character now and considering he’s a writer who has said that Ianto is autistic it’s kinda canon. But someone probs mentioned that earlier in the thread. I probably mentioned it too.
But that still doesn’t change the fact I feel soo seen by the way his character is presented/written. Especially with his preference for being alone, not being much of a talker, always wearing what makes him comfortable. And the amount of times he’ll just miss a social cue (dear god do I love that Blind Summit audio).
Probably a headcanon but in The Lincolnshire Poacher there’s a line where he’s like “I haven’t eaten”, and then clarifies it to “…I mean, I can’t eat.” Headcanoning AFRID since I heard that line.
I did wonder how he manages to organize himself so well, and then came to the conclusion that 1) it isn’t a natural trait, he’s highly disorganized before he joins TW, and 2) he literally dates his boss/ calls his other boss highly dominant over his life. That’d certainly help 
And how he’s absolutely obsessed with James Bond…like I am with him lol. And also having an absolute obsession with going to the cinema for the experience of…being at the cinema. And then the whole stopwatch fascination. And those “nice, clicky pens”. Yeah. Just. Yeah.
And the fact he’s (so far-Big Finish pls pls pls pls) undiagnosed, also highly relatable.
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Also, her appearing ‘typically gallifreyan’ when we first meet her vs her character arc of becoming more like the doctor could also be interpreted as her unmasking
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To the point of even dressing like him. And by the end, when she left, she was deliberately avoiding going back to Gallifrey.
And:
ROMANA: I’m not coming with you.
DOCTOR: Inside. That’s an order.
ROMANA: No more orders, Doctor. Goodbye.
DOCTOR: What? What a moment to choose.
ROMANA: But it is, isn’t it? A moment to choose. I’ve got to be my own Romana.
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That video is precisely what I was thinking of just now, lol
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Seconding Ianto. He’s extremely autistic coded.
Ianto’s eating issues are so important to me. I started headcanoning him with disordered eating after hearing the bit in Coffee where he apparently sneaks sandwiches into Jack’s pockets in case he gets hungry.
“It’s the button on top.”
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I’d never heard about that :o that’s so cool. I went looking for canonically autistic doctor who characters once but found basically nothing.
I feel like remember a writer for The Monk saying something in suport of the headcannon that they’re autistic on twitter, but annoyingly I can’t remember more detail than that.
Rufus Hound (One of the actors for The Monk) did say this about a drawing I did of The Monk stimming so I can hold that dear at least xD
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Thirding what the others have said about Ianto
Also on the Torchwood line, Orr also reads as very autistic to me (though as someone else genderfucky, that could be me projecting)
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Oooh, good point! 
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To be fair, genderfuckery is considered a symptom of autism, or at least there’s a strong correlation.
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