Sixth Corsair

Sixth Corsair
Species:	Time Lord
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
First appearance:	Old Friends
Appearances:	COMIC: Alternating Current

Incarnations of the Corsair

The Sixth Corsair was an incarnation of the renegade Time Lord known as the Corsair who shared several out-of-sequence meetings with the Thirteenth Doctor and the rest of Team TARDIS.

Biography

The Corsair embraces the Thirteenth Doctor after deducing her identity. (COMIC: Old Friends)

This incarnation of the Corsair stole the Gem of Niag from the Devivians to return it to the people of Pppppppppppplun on the behalf of a third party who put out a Want Ad for her services, in actuality the Hoarder. She intentionally allowed the organ scan to detect her as an alien, in hopes of luring the Doctor. The Thirteenth Doctor was arrested instead of the Corsair because she had a similar binary vascular system and, along with her companions Graham, Yaz, and Ryan, tracked down the Corsair to a pub on another planet with her TARDIS.

At first, the Corsair didn't recognise the Doctor because of her new incarnation, and when the Doctor reminded the Corsair about one of their last encounters which saw them waking up drunk in a bank vault, the Corsair remarked that didn't narrow it down for her. After recognising the Doctor from her destroying the killgun of an alien, holding another at gunpoint, and fighting through a pub brawl with a sword, the Corsair explained her actions to the Doctor over tea, complimenting the Doctor's more heroic behavior as something she was aspiring to. She then confessed that she needed the Doctor's help with a heist of sorts. After taking time to think over it, the Doctor agreed and asked about the job. The Corsair briefed them, the team infiltrated Raddplina to rescue a star whale. Once the whale was placed in a stellar net attached to the Doctor's TARDIS, the Corsair insisted they left to escape guards, leaving the Doctor’s friends behind. They took the whale to the Hoarder, who revealed his true intent as a collector and had them inprisoned. The Corsair and the Doctor had a proper talk whilst in a cage, which the Doctor then revealed they could easily escape from using her sonic screwdriver. They returned to her TARDIS, with the Corsair taking care of some of Hoarder’s drones herself, and rescued the Doctor’s friends. The Doctor then contacted the Time Agency to arrest the Hoarder and free the whale, though the Corsair insisted her name was kept out of it as the Agency knew all about her. With the whale freed, the Doctor took the Corsair back to her TARDIS, advising her to find some friends to travel with. (COMIC: Old Friends)

The Corsair later reunited with Graham, Ryan and Yaz in 2020 whilst the Doctor had left them briefly to fix a problem in her timeline. She greeted the Doctor upon her return. (COMIC: Alternating Current)

Appearance

This incarnation was a dark-haired woman who wore pirate clothing and was proficient at sword fighting. Her Ouroboros tattoo was located on her left wrist. (COMIC: Old Friends)

Behind the scenes

The Corsair's Ouroboros tattoo on her left wrist. (COMIC: Old Friends)

The sixth incarnation of the Corsair, with her trademark tattoo on the left wrist, was one of those who did not previously appear in Eleven Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Corsair. Neil Gaiman confirmed on Tumblr that this incarnation was intended to be the Sixth Corsair, as confirmed by Jody Houser herself. Although this is not explicitly stated in Old Friend, it can be deduced from narrative clues:

• The Seventh Corsair remembers her meetings with the Thirteenth Doctor in One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes, placing Old Friends somewhere between the first and sixth incarnations of the Corsair;
• In Old Friends, the events during which the Doctor and the Corsair waking up in a bank vault and in jail are referenced as part of their past; Eleven Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Corsair stated that those were among the Doctor's adventures with the Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Corsairs, thus making it impossible for the Old Friends Corsair to be the First, Second or Third Corsair;
• Eleven Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Corsair gives tattoo placements other than the left wrist for the Fifth Corsair and Fourth Corsair, leaving only the Sixth Corsair as a possible identity for the Old Friends incarnation.

Artist Roberta Ingranata confirmed details from Eleven Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Corsair influenced her work on this new incarnation inOld Friends. The Corsair's pirate ship TARDIS, not travelling with companions, the drinking with the Doctor, and waking up in a bank vault were acknowledged in the comic story. The Sixth Corsair was inspired by the actress Julianna Margulies.