Magic Magic was a framework for understanding and altering reality based on ritual , words and will . Cosmological status . Magic formed part of the fundamental " operating system " of both the universe which existed before the Doctor ' s own and the universe which would follow it . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) Some universes which existed " sideways in time " were also magic - based . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) Magic was initially a strong force in the Doctor ' s universe , back in the time of the Pythia , but as the Time Lord s rose to shape that universe , its principles were replaced by those of science to underpin reality . ( PROSE : " " , " Christmas on a Rational Planet " ) Had the Ferutu , rather than the Gallifreyans , become the Lords of Time , the universe would have continued along magical principles . ( PROSE : " Cold Fusion " ) Within a rational universe . The Doctor claimed not to believe in magic ( TV : " The Dæmons " , PROSE : " The Sorcerer ' s Apprentice " ) and endorsed Clarke ' s Law . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) Indeed , most instances of the supernatural encountered by the Doctor ' s first nine incarnations eventually stood revealed as the effects of alien science , be they the psychic powers and technology used by the Dæmon , Azal ( TV : " The Dæmons " ) , or the nanotechnology of Elbyon . ( PROSE : " The Sorcerer ' s Apprentice " ) Yet the Seventh Doctor was not entirely inflexible on the matter , as evidenced by the corollary he added to Clarke ' s Law stating that any sufficiently advanced form of magic was indistinguishable from technology . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) The Twelfth Doctor noted " real " wrestling used magic spell s . ( TV : " Thin Ice " ) Leela told Adelaide Lessage , " I too used to believe in magic , but the Doctor has taught me about science . It is better to believe in science . " ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) Psionic s was originally a form of magic , but survived the rationalisation of the universe through being sufficiently grounded in science . Monitoring the network of connections that psionic abilities established across time allowed the Time Lords to possess an " early warning system " against outbursts of wilder magics breaking through into their ordered cosmos . ( PROSE : " So Vile a Sin " ) After Gallifrey . Following the first destruction of Gallifrey , ( PROSE : " The Ancestor Cell " ) the Time Lord s ' exorcism of the irrational from the universe was revoked and magic regained its potency . ( PROSE : " The City of the Dead " , " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " ) Following the second destruction of Gallifrey in the Last Great Time War , the Tenth Doctor was initially prepared to consider the linguistic - science of the Carrionite s to be witchcraft . ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) Elsewhere , Clarke ' s Law continued to be the order of the day . The Sycorax ' form of blood control was understood by both Daniel Llewellyn and by the Sycorax themselves to be supernatural . The Tenth Doctor ' s regenerative abilities were also taken for witchcraft . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) On a number of occasions the Doctor appeared to have suggested that a magical and a scientific understanding of the same phenomenon were now interchangeable . ( TV : " The Girl in the Fireplace " , " Tooth and Claw " ) Others made the connection too , Elton Pope noting that the sonic screwdriver was essentially a " magic wand " . ( TV : " Love & Monsters " ) The Tenth Doctor listed spells , rituals and incantations among those things in which he personally did not believe , but remained prepared to consider that they might nevertheless be real . ( TV : " The Satan Pit " ) Jack Harkness considered some phenomena , such as fairies , to exist outside the bounds of scientific inquiry . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) In dreams . In a shared dream , Santa Claus claimed to Shona McCullough that his flying reindeer were a " scientific impossibility " , and as a result , he fed them " magic carrot s " so they could fly . ( TV : " Last Christmas " )