The Doctor's species: Difference between revisions

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Time Lord[[Category:The Doctor]]
Much like [[the Doctor's age|their age]] and [[the Doctor's early life|their early life]], '''[[the Doctor]]'s species''' was a matter of much contention due in part to shifting timelines. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir (short story)|Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir]]'')
 
The vast majority of sources agreed that the Doctor was a [[Gallifreyan]] and a [[Time Lord]], ([[TV]]: ''[[The War Games (TV story)|The War Games]]'', et al.) but a few suggested that they had different origins. Various accounts identified the Doctor as being fully or partially [[human]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Daleks (short story)|Doctor Who and the Daleks]]'', [[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'', et al.) having once been the [[Timeless Child]] from an [[Timeless Child's species|unknown species]]<!-- in another [[dimension]]-->, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'') or as the product of still stranger origins. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Death of Art (novel)|The Death of Art]]'', ''[[Sometime Never... (novel)|Sometime Never...]]'', et al.)
 
== Time Lord ==
Although [[human]]-like in appearance and broad mannerisms, the Doctor was by most accounts not human; ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Who is Dr Who? (short story)|Who is Dr Who?]]'') the Doctor usually identified themselves as a [[Time Lord]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The War Games (TV story)|The War Games]]'', ''[[Pyramids of Mars (TV story)|Pyramids of Mars]]'', ''[[The Night of the Doctor (TV story)|The Night of the Doctor]]'', et al.) from the [[planet]] [[Gallifrey]] in the [[constellation]] of [[Kasterborous]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'')
 
=== A previous life, a previous race ===
According to one account, however, the Doctor's childhood on Gallifrey with [[the Master]] was a result of their having been regressed into a child, and their memories redacted, after a large number of regenerations; they were originally the [[Timeless Child]], a being of [[Timeless Child's species|an unknown species]] whom the [[Shobogan (species)|Shobogan]] explorer [[Tecteun]] adopted and brought back to [[Gallifrey]], harnessing the Child's [[regeneration|regenerative abilities]] to turn her people into the Time Lords. Though she sequenced her adopted child's entire [[DNA]], Tecteun was still no closer to discovering the true origins of the Doctor. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'')
 
In a similar but distinct account, the [[First Doctor]] was indeed the first incarnation of [[the Doctor]] as such, but was the reincarnation of [[the Other]], one of the [[Founders of Gallifrey]], whose mind and genetic structure had been redistributed into the [[Loom]] which created the Doctor many millennia later. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'') According to ''[[The Thousand and Second Night]]'', a highly figurative account of early [[Gallifreyan history]], the Other was "neither an [[Time Lord|angel]] nor a [[Yssgaroth|djinn]]". ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Head of State (novel)|Head of State]]'')
 
=== Half-human? ===
The [[Eighth Doctor]] had vivid memories of his childhood on Gallifrey, but he also claimed that [[the Doctor's mother|his mother]] was [[human]]; {{Roberts}}{{'}}s analysis of the Doctor's [[retina]]l structure seemingly confirmed that he was half-human, ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'') although the Eighth Doctor would later claim that he had ''tricked'' "his greatest enemy" into thinking him to be half-human using a "half-broken [[Chameleon Arch]]". ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Forgotten (comic story)|The Forgotten]]'') While the Eighth Doctor was on [[Dreamstone Moon]], [[Isabella Cleomides]] reported that his retinal structure instead denoted [[Partriscisnad]] origins. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Dreamstone Moon (novel)|Dreamstone Moon]]'')
 
The Eighth Doctor, when being interrogated about his origins, also once claimed that he was from [[Andromeda (constellation)|Andromeda]], [[the Doctor's mother|his mother]] having been "abducted by little green men". ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Seeing I (novel)|Seeing I]]'')
 
== Human ==
By other accounts, the [[First Doctor]] and the [[Second Doctor]] were [[human]] beings ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Daleks (short story)|Doctor Who and the Daleks]]'') whose powers of [[regeneration|renewal]] were a function of the [[TARDIS]] they piloted. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Power of the Daleks (TV story)|The Power of the Daleks]]'') The [[Dalek]]s believed that it was as a result of his many travels through Time that the Doctor had become "more than human". ([[TV]]: ''[[The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)|The Evil of the Daleks]]'')
 
One account referred to the Doctor as the greatest [[human]] [[mathematician]], whose [[equation]]s had at long last united [[Space]] and [[Time]] fully into the inextricable concept of the [[Idea of the Living Matter]]. This had allowed him to construct [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]], a machine which could withstand and travel through [[Eternity]] and [[Infinity]] in a [[microsecond]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Equations of Dr Who (short story)|The Equations of Dr Who]]'')
 
== Other possibilities ==
In the [[post-War universe]] where the Time Lords never existed, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)|The Adventuress of Henrietta Street]]'') the Doctor was originally a member of the [[Council of Eight]] named [[Soul (Sometime Never...)|Soul]], who [[amnesia|lost his memory]] following a confrontation with the [[Eighth Doctor]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Sometime Never... (novel)|Somtime Never...]]'')
 
The Doctor occasionally appeared to his [[companion]]s as something [[god]]like or [[monster|monstrous]]. [[Bernice Summerfield]] saw the [[Seventh Doctor]] as a transdimensional monster "crammed down into a parody of human flesh." ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Transit (novel)|Transit]]'') [[Roz Forrester]] suggested that he matched the description of [[Nyarlathotep]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Death of Art (novel)|The Death of Art]]'') the darkest and greatest of the [[Great Old Ones|Old Ones]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'')
 
== Later developments ==
The [[Fifth Doctor]] allowed himself to become a [[vampire]] so he could stop [[Ruath]]'s plan to resurrect [[Yarven]]. Following this, he changed himself back to normal. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Goth Opera (novel)|Goth Opera]]'')
[[Category:The Doctor]]

Revision as of 11:50, 6 April 2020

Time Lord