Unseen Stories (4)

The Fourth Doctor - Part 1.
Once we get to the reign of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, we have many references to unseen stories - but the problem is that he is so flippant in his references that we really can't tell if he's being serious or not.
In his very first story we have the scene where he infiltrates the hall where the Scientific Reform Society are holding their meeting. He pulls out a huge wallet which contains a number of cards and other documents. One of these is a pilot's licence for the Mars-Venus run - or so he says. Then we have the Freedom of the City of Skaro. This must have been bestowed by the Thals, if that's what the document really states, as the Daleks would never offer such an honour. We've only seen the Doctor encounter the Thals once on Skaro up until this point, and the nomadic group he encountered way back in The Daleks didn't look the sort to issue honorary scrolls. Then there's his membership of the Alpha Centauri table-tennis club. He mentions them having six bats to go with their six arms - but the human game sees two-armed players armed with only one bat each, so they must play it differently there. Earlier, he thinks the Brigadier might be either Hannibal or Alexander the Great - suggesting that, like the Brigadier, he has met them before.
he claim his scarf was knitted for him by the wife of Nostradamus - a witty little knitter. This does sound as if it might be true. Could the Doctor in some way have been responsible for the prophesies? Was he investigating to make sure some alien interference wasn't going on? Sounds like something the Meddling Monk might have got involved with.
In trying to tie the Hand of Omega into continuity, some fans have posited that the Doctor already knew all about the Daleks before the events of The Daleks - that he must have set up the trap for them before encountering Ian and Barbara and departing hurriedly from Coal Hill, Shoreditch. However, he definitely hasn't heard of Davros until he meets him in Genesis of the Daleks. When captured by the Kaled scientist, the Doctor is forced to recount a number of Dalek defeats. One of these sounds similar to the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, or its movie version, whilst the others are all new to us. This doesn't necessarily mean the Doctor was present - he may simply have heard about them during the course of his travels. He is linked to a truth detector, but there is every reason to believe that someone who can fool a mind probe can also dupe a lie-detector.
The Doctor's knowledge of the Cyber-War could also be something he read about, or heard about. Once again the Doctor mentions having learned some rope tricks from Harry Houdini whilst captive on Nerva Beacon - having previously claimed to have met him in Planet of the Spiders.
We know the Doctor spent some time in Scotland when he studied for his medical degree, and this might be how he comes to know a specific piece of bagpipe music in Terror of the Zygons. That, or Jamie taught it to him. He claims to have learned the trick of going into a breathless trance from a Tibetan monk. This could have been during his first visit to Det-Sen Monastery, or it might be another reference to his old Time Lord guru K'anpo.
Planet of Evil sees the Doctor's first mention of having met Shakespeare, whom he will later claim to have met in The City of Death. On that later occasion, he says that it was he who wrote out the First Folio version of Hamlet, Shakespeare having strained his wrist writing sonnets. In The Shakespeare Code, the Bard definitely hasn't met the Doctor by this point in is life, so these other encounters must have come after that meeting. Oddly, though, the Tenth Doctor behaves as if he's meeting Shakespeare for the first time as well - so these Fourth Doctor references might all just be made up.
The Doctor is known to have a passion for the period of the French Revolution, so it comes as no surprise that his lock-pick once belonged to Marie Antoinette. Perhaps if she hadn't given it to the Doctor then she might have escaped prison and not gone to her death on the guillotine. The Doctor's comment about previously being blamed for the Great Fire of London definitely comes across as a joke.
The Android Invasion sees the Doctor name-drop both the Duke of Marlborough and Alexander Graham Bell. The latter he advised not to use wires for his new telephone invention. Presumably the Duke he is referring to is the first of that title - John Churchill (1650 - 1722), the hero of the Battle of Blenheim.
In The Seeds of Death, the Doctor claims to be the President of the Intergalactic Flora Society. If such a body does exist, it is difficult to know how the Doctor could hold down such a role. Again, this sounds like a joke to make Sir Colin take his credentials seriously.
In San Martino, the Doctor tells Sarah that he is looking forward to meeting Leonardo da Vinci - suggesting that he hasn't had that honour so far. The City of Death, again, posits that the two have definitely met by this time, though we again fail to see the two meet onscreen.
Also in The Masque of Mandragora, the Doctor claims that the best swordsman he ever saw was a captain in Cleopatra's bodyguard.
The Deadly Assassin doesn't give us any references to unseen stories - instead giving us some of the Doctor's backstory whilst still living on Gallifrey, especially his Academy days. He claims not to have ever met the outgoing President, and yet he implied that Morbius was around during his lifetime - and he might even have met him.
The Face of Evil specifically deals with the aftermath of an unseen adventure - one of the very few occasions this happens in the series. At some point, in this current incarnation, the Doctor had visited this primordial planet, just after the Mordee Expedition had landed. He had repaired their computer using part of his own personality, unaware that the machine was developing a personality of its own - inadvertently giving rise to the unbalanced Xoanon. Unless he's been travelling on his own for a very long time since leaving Gallifrey, this must have taken place when he was still with Sarah, though there aren't many gaps where the story might fit, and it's odd that he seems not to have remembered it so easily. One fan theory is that he slipped away from UNIT HQ whilst still suffering post-regenerative shock, fixed the computer, then slipped back again. This might explain why he made such a hash of the job, but doesn't fit with what we saw in Robot, where he only discovers the hiding place of the TARDIS key prior to joining the Brigadier's investigations. His stated age in Pyramids of Mars and stories after this one also go against a very long period of travel between The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil. This story also has the Doctor claim to have learned how to shoot a crossbow from William Tell. Like Robin Hood, he's a folk hero who probably never existed - and yet the Doctor would later encounter Robin Hood, never having believed him to be a real person.
The Doctor has seen vehicles similar to the Sandminer on Korlano Beta - specifically stating he has seen them rather than just knowing about them, so he has been to that planet at some point.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang mentions a few unseen adventures. The Doctor says he hasn't been to China for 400 years. That can't be a reference to Marco Polo, as he is a couple of centuries out. He seems to know a lot about Victorian Music Hall performers, suggesting a previous visit. The Doctor later informs Magnus Greel that he was with the Filipino Army during its final assault on Reykjavik, in the early 51st Century.