Patience

Patience
Main aliases:	The Patient
Species:	Time Lord
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
Children:	Susan Foreman's father
Grandchildren:	Susan Foreman
Spouses:	Omega, the Doctor
First mentioned in:	The Tides of Time
First appearance:	Cold Fusion
Appearances:	PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"] AUDIO: Cold Fusion [+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (audio story)","Cold Fusion"]
Main voice actor:	Christine Kavanagh

You may be looking for the card game "patience" or Zoe Heriot.

The Doctor's wife before leaving Gallifrey, and Susan Foreman's grandmother, was an immortal Gallifreyan woman. After spending millennia in stasis and being found by human colonists on an ice planet, she was code-named "the Patient", a name which Tegan Jovanka then altered to "Patience"; suffering temporary amnesia after the Doctor helped her to regenerate, she had been unable to tell them her true name. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"])

Long before marrying the Doctor, Patience had also been the wife, and subsequently the widow, of Omega. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"])

Biography

First incarnation

Origins on Ancient Gallifrey

Patience was born in the House of Blyledge on Gallifrey during the reign of the Pythia (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"]) and was a young woman during Pythia's Curse, (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"]) when "time was but a tributary" by Mount Perdition. (AUDIO: Patience ^[+]Loading...["Patience (audio story)","Patience"]) Like all non-loomed Gallifreyan Elders, she was "immortal, barring accidents", (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"], The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"]) but believed herself to be unable to regenerate, though she would later discover that she had spontaneously evolved the ability (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"]) when telepathically prompted to regenerate by the Fifth Doctor. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"]) She was married to Omega and became widowed when he disappeared after causing Qqaba to go supernova. However, Omega would later express uncertainty as to whether she had ever really loved him. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"])

Marriage to the Doctor

Eventually, the woman later known as Patience married some version of the Doctor, and wound up bearing his children, with the eldest later becoming Susan Foreman's father. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"], Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"])

Marriage in ancient times

Some accounts suggested that Susan was originally the granddaughter of the Other, (PROSE: Lungbarrow ^[+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"]) and in the first account to document Patience as the Doctor's former wife and Susan's grandmother, the Fifth Doctor seemed to have no clear memories of her; this account also suggested, in a stream of corrupted memories of the Doctor's and Patience's, that she was native to a very early era of Gallifreyan history, with her possibly-Doctor husband being renowned as one of the first explorers to venture into the Time Vortex after it was discovered. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"])

Marriage in modern times

However, Patience's husband was identified as one of the incarnations of the Doctor before the first, (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"]) who were, in related accounts, depicted as simply regenerations of the Doctor on Gallifrey whom the later Doctors remembered. (PROSE: The Dying Days ^[+]Loading...["The Dying Days (novel)"]) Indeed, a later account more clearly established that millions of years separated Patience's birth and marriage to Omega from her acquaintance with the Doctor, and that an incarnation of the Doctor who might have been the First Doctor or the Eighth Doctor was fully aware of her existence and his past marriage to her.

As clarified in this account, although the womb-born were ordered to be culled by Rassilon, the woman later known as Patience and several other of the original, immortal Gallifreyans survived through millions of years, hiding themselves away under false identities. Now millions of years old, Patience tutored the Doctor's grandfather and the Doctor's father, then, eventually, the Doctor himself, or at least some version thereof: she "nursed him, taught him", but eventually fell in love with him around the time she taught the young man to dance. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"])

Children and married life

According to a legend retold by the Eighth Doctor, despite the Pythia's Curse, Patience wanted to have a child. She sought out experts all around the Capitol, but none could help her except the Stranger on Mount Perdition, who handed her an empty sack to fill with water, instructing her to draw from the Sea of Life. She emptied all the Sea of Life in her attempt, though the sack bore a hole. When all of time had soaked up on the shore, she found a child there. She had broken the Curse. (AUDIO: Patience ^[+]Loading...["Patience (audio story)","Patience"])

Together, Patience and the Doctor had thirteen children. Their eldest child together would become Susan Foreman's father. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"])

At one point, Patience gifted the Paradoxica to the Doctor. The Eighth Doctor later recounted her story whilst using the cards. (AUDIO: Patience ^[+]Loading...["Patience (audio story)","Patience"])

When Susan was soon to be born, their family was targeted by the Lord President's guards, as the child was being born from a womb and only the Loom-born could inherit the Legacy of Rassilon. An old man with white hair whom Patience was surprised to recognise as a new form of her husband helped her to escape in an ancient prototype-TARDIS, later known as the Machine. He also informed her that her pregnant daughter-in-law had safely given birth and he would see to it that the baby would be kept safely away from Gallifrey. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"])

As the Patient

The Machine crashed on an ice planet, where it was eventually found in the 26th century by human colonist. Patience had placed herself in stasis, her body withering away until it was a nearly-dead, leathery ruin resembling the Decayed Master. For a year, she was kept in the human authorities' care, being code-named "the Patient" and kept suspended in a life-support cryo-tube. After Fifth Doctor stumbled upon the planet, he realised that she was a Gallifreyan and initiated telepathic contact. This awoke Patience's mind and, breaking out of the tube, she triggered her first-ever regeneration into a youthful, blond-haired incarnation. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"]) A version of the Doctor who remembered her clearly would later express surprise that she had regenerated; Patience herself was astonished. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"])

It came as a surprise to me, too. I was born a Gallifreyan, but I've lived long enough that I may just have evolved beyond that.Patience (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Second incarnation

Post-regeneration and apparent death

Due to the shock, the newly-regenerated Patience was partially amnesiac, and initially unable to speak. She gradually improved as the Doctor worked together with his companions and his future self to stop both the humans and the Ferutu from taking advantage of the Machine, but Provost-General Tertullian Medford shot her in the head and destroyed her brain, believing the Time Lords were hostile aliens who planned to conquer the Earth Empire.

Patience's body vanished; the Doctor believed her to have simply died, (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"]) but in actuality, Omega had used his control of history to take her into his anti-matter universe. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"])

In the anti-matter universe

The Ferutu told the Fifth Doctor that "it's not the first time you've met her, nor will it be the last". (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"]) Indeed, Patience had been pulled to safety by her former husband Omega using the Effect. Though also motivated to save her, Omega had chosen to pull her into his anti-matter universe — rather than simply rewrite time to prevent her from getting shot — because he hoped that he could persuade her to take mental control of the anti-matter universe, which would finally allow him to escape it. Because the anti-matter universe was sustained by its prisoners' thoughts alone, it was impossible for all the denizens to leave at once; one always had to stay behind, lest the final straggler cease to exist before they could exit.

Patience agreed, but the two realised that this was insufficient, as Omega still needed a receptive Time Lord body to enter on the other side. They lived together in the anti-matter universe for thousands of years, but didn't renew their former romantic relationship, simply spending their time talking, with Patience telling Omega about her life since losing him. Omega created a beautiful garden for her to spend her days tending to when she wasn't in conversation with him. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"])

Reunion with the Doctor and death

In a version of reality of ambiguous relationship to the conventionally-documented Eighth Doctor's, the Doctor returned to living on Gallifrey after a long time spent travelling the universe as a renegade. His rooms in the Capitol included a shrine to Patience, for whom he continued to grieve; it was a hidden chamber, its entrance concealed behind a portrait of Patience's original incarnation, containing one ever-burning candle for each year which had passed since her supposed death.

After travelling to the Needle to investigate the Effect,the Doctor entered the anti-matter universe through the Needle, and was shocked to be reunited with Patience rather than confronted at once with Omega. The Doctor's way of entering the anti-matter universe had involved leaving a dormant duplicate of his original body behind, and after he and Patience had explained their predicament to the Doctor, Omega entered the vacant body after passing control of the anti-matter universe to the Doctor.

Although Omega had not left the Doctor a choice, he was initially happy with his lot, spending an indeterminate amount of time in "paradise" with Patience. However, reflecting on his memories of his life before becoming god of the anti-matter universe, the Doctor grew restless, anxious about losing his grasp on reality. Knowing Omega's ability to rewrite history more cleanly than the Time Lords had ever thought possible, he even began to doubt the reality of his memories of Patience. As the idyllic landscape of the anti-matter universe shifted into a boiling thunderstorm, Patience, seeing that the Doctor was struggling with the choice between eternal happiness with his wife in a fictional world or returning to stop Omega, Patience encouraged him to leave and help others. His departure from Omega's universe caused the world to collapse, taking Patience with it, as they had both known would occur; before leaving, he had shared one last kiss with her. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"])

Everything ends. You know that, you know that it's how it's meant to be.Patience's last words, encouraging the Doctor to sacrifice her to return to the primary universe and stop Omega. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Legacy

The Doctor once replied "Yes" to Valerie Lockwood's question of whether "[all of his wives] wanted to kill him". (WC: The Eleventh Doctor Returns ^[+]Loading...["The Eleventh Doctor Returns (webcast)","The Eleventh Doctor Returns"])

When the First Doctor fled from Gallifrey, Maris was hired to look into the renegade but found many contradictory accounts of the man's life up to that point. "Sometimes" the accounts said the Doctor had been married to "a wife". (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir ^[+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir (short story)","Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir"])

Before meeting Patience on the ice planet, (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"]) the Fifth Doctor briefly interacted with an illusory young woman inside Melanicus' temporal aberration, "the Maelstrom", (COMIC: The Tides of Time ^[+]Loading...["The Tides of Time (comic story)","The Tides of Time"]) who resembled the incarnation of Patience who lived on Gallifrey. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"]) The Doctor recognised her face but could not quite put his finger on who she was. He tried to speak to her, but she darted out of sight. (COMIC: The Tides of Time ^[+]Loading...["The Tides of Time (comic story)","The Tides of Time"])

The Eighth Doctor thought only of Patience while he made use of the Paradoxica, which she had given him. (AUDIO: Patience ^[+]Loading...["Patience (audio story)","Patience"])

In the alternate timeline, the Infinity Doctor kept a picture of her on the wall of his rooms on Gallifrey. The caption read, "Death is but a door." (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"])

Physical appearance

In her original body, as glimpsed by the Fifth Doctor in Melanicus' Maelstrom, who greatly resembled the Doctor's companion Zoe Heriot, (TV: The Wheel in Space ^[+]Loading...["The Wheel in Space (TV story)","The Wheel in Space"]) Patience was slender with short black bobbed hair and vivid green eyes. (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"], COMIC: The Tides of Time ^[+]Loading...["The Tides of Time (comic story)","The Tides of Time"], PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"])) She had freckled shoulders and a birthmark on her ankle, and was said to look "almost feline". In the Doctor's painting of her, she was wearing a flowing, golden gown which left her shoulders bare, in an archaic style. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"])

After regenerating, she was thinner than before, and sported long blonde hair and blue eyes, (PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"], The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"]) with very pale skin; she was described as being almost unreal-looking in her physical perfection. When the Doctor was reunited with her in the anti-matter universe, she was wearing "a loose‐flowing gown in ivory silk and lace, with bare shoulders, gathered at the waist by a wide belt", as well as a "necklace of white flower". She went barefoot and, although "her long blonde hair was held up by a gold clasp", it still "swept down to the small of her back". This body was approximately the same height as the Doctor, perhaps slightly taller. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"])

Behind the scenes

The mysterious woman (REF: The Tides of Time ^[+]Loading...["The Tides of Time (comic story)"])

• The Doctor's wife was first alluded to in a series format document written by Sydney Newman and CE Webber circa 1963. It included various potential story ideas, one of which was to reveal that Dr. Who was the husband of Cinderella's fairy godmother, who was chasing him through time.
• "Patience" being the name of the Doctor's wife is a pun based on the word "patient".
• The woman glimpsed in The Tides of Time ^[+]Loading...["The Tides of Time (comic story)","The Tides of Time"], whom Lance Parkin used as a reference when establishing the appearance of the early incarnation of Patience who lived on Gallifrey, was likely originally intended to be, and is often interpreted as, Zoe Heriot. In AHistory's entry on The Tides of Time, Parkin acknowledged the common assumption but reasserted that the woman better resembled Patience's first incarnation from the flashbacks in Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)","Cold Fusion"].
• A DWM Jamie Lenman illustration of Patience appeared in DWM 509.

The picture of Joanna Lumley used by Lance Parkin on social media to illustrate the incarnation of Patience seen in PROSE: The Infinity Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"].

• In 2024, Lance Parkin made a post on social media in which he used a picture of Joanna Lumley (ironically in her role as the Thirteenth Doctor from The Curse of Fatal Death ^[+]Loading...["The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story)"]) to illustrate "Patience, the Doctor's wife".