The Doctor

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He saves worlds, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures and runs a lot. Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved Donna Noble

The Doctor was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who, as a renegade, fought injustice where he found it; he only occasionally carried out missions for the Time Lords (DW: Genesis of the Daleks). Later, he was believed (or he believed himself) to be the only Time Lord to survive the Last Great Time War with the Daleks. Throughout his life, he had a particular association and affinity with the planet Earth and its Humans.

Biography

The Doctor is an extremely enigmatic individual; 'The Doctor' is, in fact, not his real name. For reasons that remain a mystery, he has never chosen to reveal it, except to a very select handful of people; to date the only two people known to have been told his true name are River Song (DW: Forest of the Dead) and Samantha Jones (EDA: Vanderdeken's Children); although Lady Peinforte also claimed that the statue of Nemesis had told her the Doctor's secrets, of who he was (DW: Silver Nemesis). In addressing River's knowledge of the name, the Doctor has stated there is only one circumstance under which he could tell someone his real name, but this circumstance is as yet unknown. Most of his companions have attempted to find out his name, but have been unsuccessful; one companion, Peri Brown, said the Doctor claimed she couldn't pronounce it (DW audio: Slipback). The Doctor's real name is hidden enough within his mind that even intrusions into his memory by Morbius (DW: The Brain of Morbius), Evelina (DW: The Fires of Pompeii), Madame de Pompadour (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace) and others have failed to reveal it. The Master has apparently known the Doctor since his Academy days (DW: Terror of the Autons, The Five Doctors) but there is no indication he knows the Doctor's true name, either, although he's well aware that it's false (DW: The Sound of Drums).

The name Theta Sigma has been attached to the Doctor on a few occasions (DW: The Invasion of Time, The Making of Doctor Who, et al), but he said this was a nickname (and the knowledge of the name by others, and the relative ease of pronounciation, is not consistent with established nature of the name). The Doctor has also used a number of titles/honorifics including: President Elect of the High Council of Time Lords, Protector of Gallifrey, Keeper of the Legacy of Rassilon and Defender of the Laws of Time (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks). The Doctor has also used many aliases, the most frequently used being John Smith (see Aliases of the Doctor). It is also believed that he may on occasion answer to the name "Doctor Who" (DW: The War Machines), and certainly has played with this concept from time to time, even to the extent of obtaining a licence plate for his vehicle, Bessie, labelled WHO 1 (DW: The Five Doctors, et al).

For further discussion of the Doctor's aliases, see Aliases of the Doctor.
The use of the name "Doctor Who" when referring to the Doctor is considered a franchise taboo, with the occasional exception such as its use by WOTAN in The War Machines considered an aberration. It is, however, commonly used in promotional materials, and also in the occasional novel, most notably Doctor Who and the Zarbi, and frequently on back cover blurbs on the Target Novelisation line.

The Doctor has had a profound influence on many worlds and been written into their history (DW: Forest of the Dead); as a result he has been the recipient of many honours including being made a noble of Draconia (DW: Frontier in Space) and a knight of the British Empire (DW: Tooth and Claw). This caused many on Gallifrey to regard the Doctor as a renegade and he was put on trial a number of times for transgressing the laws of time and Time Lord non interference directives (DW: The War Games), (DW: Trial of a Time Lord). After saving Gallifrey (for the first time) he seems to have been forgiven (DW: The Three Doctors) and allowed freedom (Genesis of the Daleks). He was subsequently offered the presidency of the High Council (DW: The Invasion of Time) (DW: The Five Doctors). The true extent of the Doctor's influence on Gallifrey and the time stream as a whole is as yet unclear but the Doctor has described himself as "so much more than just another Time Lord" (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks).

Understood in Gallifreyian society to be one of the forty-five cousins loomed to the House of Lungbarrow, the Doctor responded to their dis-ownership of him by claiming to have "other families" (NA: Lungbarrow).

These would somehow seem to include parents (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie), a spouse (DW:Blink, MA: Cold Fusion, PDA: The Infinity Doctors), at least two children (DW: Fear Her, The Doctor's Daughter) - with one of these, Jenny, having been recently cloned from his tenth incarnation - a granddaughter known as Susan Foreman (DW: An Unearthly Child), and a brother (DW:Smith and Jones, BNA:Tears of the Oracle ). All are believed lost by the Doctor, either killed during the Last Great Time War or having died long before it (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen). A possible exception is Susan, who travelled with the Doctor during his first incarnation and was left to live out her life on 22nd century earth (though some accounts suggest she later left the planet). (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) The Doctor believes Jenny to have been recently murdered, although unknown to him she underwent a partial regeneration and survived. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter) The actual nature of the Doctor's family remains ambiguous, as the accuracy of the House of Lungbarrow claims is disputed; if they are true, that may make Jenny his only actual confirmed offspring.

The House of Lungbarrow revelations are considered part of the so-called Cartmel Masterplan revision of the Doctor's backstory. It remains to be seen if any of this becomes incorporated as canon by the television series. In addition, in the early comic strips of the 1960s, the First Doctor travelled with John and Gillian, two children who were identified as grandchildren of the Doctor's. It is not known if they truly were his grandchildren, or if they, like the Lungbarrow revelations, have a place in mainstream continuity.

As a child the Doctor always wanted to drive a train. (DW: Black Orchid). Also as a "child of 90" he once visited the Medusa Cascade. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

The Doctor's stated age has fluctuated wildly, ranging from approximately 450, as stated not long after his first regeneration (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen), to 1,012 as stated by the Eighth Doctor (EDA: Vampire Science); the Third Doctor even stated on a couple of occasions that he was "thousands" of years old (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians, et al). For reasons unknown, the Ninth Doctor claims to be only 900 years old (DW: Aliens of London) and the Tenth Doctor gives his exact age at one point as 903 (DW: Voyage of the Damned).

Even if the novels are discounted, this would appear to contradict the Sixth Doctor claiming to be 900 years old in Revelation of the Daleks and the Seventh Doctor stating his exact age as 953 in Time and the Rani. The series has yet to explain why the Doctor shaved at least 50 years off his age (though likely more since the complete "lifetimes" of both the Seventh and Eighth Doctors must be taken into account). It is quite possible given the circumstances of his life that the Doctor has lost his own age, has began to count is age differently, or indeed does not have one - and therefore simply makes up ages. The Ribos Operation, however, establishes that Romana is aware of his exact age and catches him out lying about it; perhaps he lost track at a later point in his life.

Although the Doctor has visited hundreds if not thousands of planets in his lifetimes, the planet Earth remains the one for which he has the closest affinity, and this has been consistent throughout his incarnations. He has displayed immense knowledge and/or interest in Earth history and has been either an observer or an active participant in countless major events in human history. He is also known to have triggered numerous events in the planet's history, such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which resulted in the destruction of Pompeii in the 1st Century AD (DW: The Fires of Pompeii). During his third incarnation, he actually lived on Earth for several years as he was exiled there by the High Council, and there have been numerous occasions in which he has - by intent or by circumstance - spent extensive periods on Earth. Many of these occasions have taken place in Great Britain, which may explain why he has a particular affinity for that nation, to the point where he considered himself to be British soon after his regeneration into his eighth incarnation (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie); several of his incarnations have also adopted accents based upon different regions of the UK, most notably his seventh incarnation (who adopted a Scottish accent) and his ninth, whose accent resembled that of the north of England (though he tried to pass it off by claiming "lots of planets have a North!" (DW: Rose)) His tenth incarnation also adopted a convincing Scottish accent as part of a disguise once (DW: Tooth and Claw). The vast majority of the Doctor's known companions have been humans hailing from various points in the planet's history (most frequently the second half of the 20th century and first half of the 21st). His most recent ninth and tenth incarnations have additionally been continually drawn to the same time period on Earth, roughly 2005-2012, where he has developed a network of friends and former companions at one point referred to as The Doctor's Secret Army (DW: The Stolen Earth) and at another, the Children of Time (DW: Journey's End). In these incarnations, the Doctor has continued to shape the course of Earth history by shepherding it (while protecting it) through several major incidents that finally convinced the planet's populace of the existence of alien life. (DW: Aliens of London/World War Three; The Christmas Invasion, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday; The Runaway Bride; The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, et al) The Doctor also has an immense knowledge of Earth culture, admitting to being a fan of William Shakespeare (DW: City of Death, The Shakespeare Code), Leonardo DaVinci (DW: City of Death), Charles Dickens (DW: The Unquiet Dead), Agatha Christie (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp) and The Lion King (DW: The Christmas Invasion), to name just a few.

The Ten Doctors

The Third Doctor. (DW: The Time Monster)

Despite the fact that the Doctor was essentially the same person, he has through the Time Lord power of regeneration, changed personality and outer form. The Doctor continues to be a heroic figure, fighting the evils of the universe wherever he finds them, even if his values and motives are sometimes alien to Humankind.

  • The First Doctor was a somewhat unreadable, guarded figure, irascible, protective of young women who reminded him of his grand-daughter Susan, a brilliant but often short-tempered scientist and a keen strategist. Though far from invulnerable, he usually ran rings around lesser intellects.
  • The Second Doctor was warm and wise, a sort of "cosmic hobo," often as frightened of the alien menaces he faced as those around him. Often overtaken by events, he improvised his way out of trouble. But he also had a manipulative streak about him, too.
  • The Third Doctor cut more of a dashing figure than his predecessors, a dandy with a penchant for gadgets and martial arts, particularly Venusian aikido. His difficult relationship with the Brigadier softened to an easy mutual trust. He had a personal arch-enemy, the Master. Due to his exile by his own people, he spent most of his life on Earth.
  • The Fourth Doctor was something of a cross between Willy Wonka and the Mad Hatter, rarely without his signature scarf of incredible length. He was perhaps the most eccentric incarnation and progressed from bohemian vagabond to manic scatterbrain to a more mature and sombre figure.
  • The Fifth Doctor had a fondness for cricket. He was somewhat more nervous and less sure of himself than the two previous Doctors, though all the more heroic because of it. Like the Second Doctor, he often found himself backed into a corner and had to figure out way back once more.
  • The Sixth Doctor, grandiose and eloquent, sported a multi-hued wardrobe that looked as if designed by Christian Lacroix, had a manic personality and an acerbic wit which could shade into moral passion. He loved a good quote and rarely got caught off-guard by an enemy.
  • The Seventh Doctor, his voice touched by a Scottish burr, combined the vagabond nature of the Second and Fourth Doctors with the scientific brilliance of the First and Third incarnations. Armed with a keenly tactical mind, his personality deepened and darkened. He seemed, often, a demi-god walking amongst lesser beings, letting his companions know little, an avenging angel driven to eradicate evil at any cost.
  • The Eighth Doctor showed a romantic and sensitive side not evident in the previous Doctors. More morally flexible than his predecessor, this Doctor suffered bouts of amnesia, first after his initial regeneration and again after the first destruction of Gallifrey.
  • The Ninth Doctor displayed much of the playfulness of the Fourth and early Seventh Doctors, but also displayed a pragmatism which could at times appear callous. This Doctor also seemed very conscious of the effects his actions had on those around him. His attire was also considerably more conservative and less conspicuous than those of his predecessors and his accent and attitude more working class.
  • The Tenth Doctor's character is manic, that of an eccentric crackpot, a cross between the Fourth Doctor and the Ninth, with hints of the Seventh with the style of the fifth and a fondness for pop cultural reference. He has a serious side, but quite often his other wins out. He can occasionally appear quite ruthless. He has also been noted to be very good looking and unintentionally rude.

Other Doctors

Due to the fluid nature of the time-stream and the existence of parallel realities, other versions of the Doctor have come to light. Following are descriptions of some of those currently known to exist.

Past Doctors

This contradicts the many times the Doctor has stated that he had no incarnations before the first about which we had knowledge and also the knowledge that the number of a Time Lord's cycle of regenerations generally only runs to 13.
This also contradicts the Fifth Doctor claiming to be the fourth regeneration in The Five Doctors.
Much dispute exists as to the reality of these incarnations. Popular theories says that the Doctor lost the match. Another theory explains that these other faces belonged to Morbius rather than the Doctor, and another explains away these as incarnations of incarnations of the Other (see below).

The Watcher

The Valeyard

Merlin

Possibly the same incarnation as Muldwych.
The Fourth and Fifth incarnations of the Doctor met another Merrlin, a High Evolutionary working with Rassilon in the Matrix. We do not know of a connection, if any, to the other Merlin.

The Other

A Time Lord contemporary with Rassilon and Omega, the Other may have physically died but transferred his essence to the Doctor, living many centuries after him.

This would explain the earlier faces seen while the Doctor mind wrestled Morbius: these belonged to the Other, not the Doctor proper.

Muldwych

A future incarnation of the Doctor, Muldwych spent many hundreds of years stranded on Earth. (NA: Birthright, Happy Endings)

Possibly the same incarnation as Merlin.

Dr. Who (Land of Fiction)

The Doctor encountered Dr. Who in the Land of Fiction (NA: Head Games). The nature of Dr. Who seems somewhat unclear and contradictory except that Dr. Who seems to live in a more juvenile and morally simplistic world than the Doctor with villains to match. As the real Doctor has regenerated, so has his counterpart, Dr. Who.

DoctorDonna

Main article: DoctorDonna

DoctorDonna was the result of a Time Lord meta crisis, following human companion Donna Noble coming into contact with the Doctor's severed hand imbued with regenerative energy, resulting in portions of the Doctor's intelligence and knowledge being transfered to her. (DW: Journey's End)


Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor

Main article: Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor
  • Technically a clone of the Tenth Doctor, created as a result of the meta crisis that created the DoctorDonna, above. Unlike Tenth Doctor-prime, however, the Meta-Crisis Doctor was half-human, unable to regenerate, and had only one heart. (DW: Journey's End). He was left as a final parting present to Rose Tyler as the Doctor's Punishment to him for committing murder.

Alternative Doctors

First Doctor

Third Doctor

  • During his trial the Doctor was shown a series of portraits from which he might choose the form of his next regeneration before the Time Lords exiled him to Earth. None was to his liking, nor did any of them look like his third incarnation. (DW: The War Games)

Fourth Doctor

Eighth Doctor

  • The Doctor's awareness passed through various alternative visions of himself, ranging from Humans to a violent cyborg to talking cartoon cats. (DWM: The Glorious Dead)
Not strictly speaking, a version of the Doctor's eighth incarnation, this version nevertheless looked identical to him, except that he had short-cropped hair.

Ninth Doctor

Other Versions or Incarnations

As played by David Banks when he had to replace Jon Pertwee in the stage play at short notice. The play, a musical in which Pertwee and Colin Baker alternated playing their respective Doctors, is not considered canonical.
  • The Doctor and Ace met one of the Doctor's future selves, accompanied by a companion, Ria. (DWM: Party Animals). Later, the Eighth Doctor collapsed and seemingly regenerated (DWM: The Final Chapter) into this incarnation, however, it turned out that he had faked his regeneration in order to defeat the Threshold (DWM: Wormwood)
This association remains speculative. The fact that Grandfather Paradox has only one arm, once suffered exile by the Time Lords now hates them, provides a clue. While exiled on Earth, the Doctor had a serpent tattoo placed there to indicate his exile status. (NA: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
He may have cut off arm and begun a vendetta. Also, a Grandfather Paradox indicates a situation where a person uses time travel to kill one of their ancestors. In the Doctor's case, Faction Paradox saw to it that he would die in his third incarnation and never regenerate.
  • A Doctor who, while not really evil, is nonetheless far from heroic. This Doctor believes that the ends justify the means. (DWU: Full Fathom Five").
  • An Doctor who turns out to be the fantasy world alter ego of a mentally ill writer recollecting his script for a proposed television series about a science fiction television character tentatively called Doctor Who (DWU: Deadline).
The main timeline has a similar fictional television space-time traveller to the character of Doctor Who, known as Professor X.
  • An alcohol-addled female Doctor who has escaped punishment by the Time Lords (a variation of the canonical events of DW: The War Games) This story also features appearances by her past male Unbound incarnation. (DWU: Exile)
  • Grandfather Halfling. The Halfling in his title refers to his dual nature: half Human, half Gallifreyan. (FP: Of the City of the Saved)
Identity heavily implied, but not directly stated.

Similar individuals to the Doctor

  • The fictional character Professor X is similar to the Doctor.
  • The Wanderer is also similar to the Doctor.

Doctor-like characters outside the mainstream Doctor Who Universe

  • The BBV character The Stranger, played by Colin Baker, and partnered with "Miss Brown" played by Nicola Bryant, started off as thinly-veiled version of the Doctor in his sixth incarnation (with Miss Brown being an English-accented version of Peri). However, BBV decided with the fourth adventure to explain away the Stranger as a different character named Solomon, with a different past.
  • BBV also featured the adventures of the Professor (later called the Dominie, for legal reasons) played by Sylvester McCoy and Ace (played by Sophie Aldred) (later called Alice), an even more thinly veiled version of the Doctor in his seventh incarnation. Depending on your point of view, you could regard these either as true adventures of the Doctor using an alias or fan fiction using the original actors.

Companions

The Doctor likes traveling with an entourage. Sometimes they're human, sometimes they're aliens and sometimes they're tin dogs.Sarah Jane Smith. [School Reunion [src]]

Main article: Companion

Throughout much of his life, the Doctor has chosen (or been forced to) share his travels with an array of individuals, occasionally referred to in official terms as companions (DW: The Stolen Earth). Usually humanoid and female, these platonic relationships have provided the Doctor with company and, occasionally, a means to control his actions (DW: The Runaway Bride). On rare occasions the Doctor has developed a relationship with a companion that could be said to move away from platonic (Grace Holloway, Rose Tyler, River Song). At least one "family member", Susan Foreman, also travelled as a companion to the Doctor for a time.

Behind the Scenes

Origins of the Other Doctors

  • Inferno depicted a fascist alternative England as having a nameless leader who never appears in person, only on posters. The identification of this leader as the Doctor came much later, in part to explain why the Doctor did not seem to exist in that world.
  • The past incarnations of the Doctor (or the Other) started as a mischievous joke on the part of the production personnel of Doctor Who, to tweak with established continuity. When shooting The Brain of Morbius, dressed up in costumes to represent earlier versions of the Doctor before the supposed first. The character of the Other originated in a (even to this day) document explaining the Doctor's true origins written up by later script editor Andrew Cartmel with input from a few other Doctor Who writers, some of them fans and well aware of the enigmatic Doctors, who should not exist in established continuity. The Other character originated in the document and got a mention in the novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks. The Other remains a popular way to "repair" the contradict of Doctors before the first one. It should be noted, however, that the Other was specifically stated not to be able to regenerate. (NA: Lungbarrow)
  • The character of Dr. Who in the series existed as a way to reconcile the more adult world of the Doctor (especially in the novels and other media other than television) with the more light-hearted children's comics versions and with Peter Cushing's Dr. Who.
  • The "future Doctor" and Ria, who met the Seventh Doctor and Ace, both originated from Audio Visuals, fan audio plays produced by Nicholas Briggs and others, in which he played an original version of the Doctor. Later, he returned to Doctor Who Universe as the Doctor's next incarnation in a "stunt" intended to startle and shock fans and to bluff them into thinking they had really replaced the old Doctor for good. They later revealed this Doctor as not the real one. Nicholas Briggs late appeared in BBV audio plays as "Fred", a clear Doctor substitute encountering the "Cyberons" (Cybermen).

External Links

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