Thirteenth Doctor
The Thirteenth Doctor was the first female incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor and the second incarnation of the Doctor's second regeneration cycle granted by the Time Lords during the Siege of Trenzalore.
After being separated from her TARDIS during her post-regenerative trauma, the Doctor was assisted in her recovery by Graham and Grace O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair, and Yasmin Khan. Following a battle with the Stenza she dubbed Tim Shaw, that resulted in Grace's death, the Doctor inadvertently brought Graham, Ryan and Yasmin with her in her search for her TARDIS.
After finding the TARDIS, the Doctor initially planned to take Graham, Ryan and Yaz back home, making several accidental trips along the way. After briefly returning to Sheffield, Graham, Ryan, and Yaz officially joined the Doctor in her travels; they shared a close, family-like bond, calling themselves Team TARDIS.
Biography
A day to come
When encountering the "Vortex Butterfly", the Tenth Doctor was cryptically told that he would not be "limited" to "thirteen lives". (COMIC: Vortex Butterflies)
When the Twelfth Doctor broke his toe, Clara Oswald suggested that he regenerate to heal the injury, but he berated the idea as a waste. (PROSE: The Blood Cell)
When threatened by Captain Lundvik, the Twelfth Doctor told her she would have to shoot him, Clara Oswald and Courtney Woods, but warned that she would "have to spend a lot of time shooting [him] because [he would] keep on regenerating." Clara, during a falling out with the Doctor, later threatened to "smack [him] so hard [he would] regenerate". (TV: Kill the Moon)
While suffering from the common cold, the Twelfth Doctor, overreacting to the illness, considered the possibility of needing to regenerate. (COMIC: The Day at the Doctors)
When the Twelfth Doctor confronted Rassilon in Gallifrey's Drylands after escaping from his confession dial, Rassilon contemplated using his gauntlet to force the Doctor to regenerate as a method of torture, rhetorically wondering how many regenerations the Doctor had been granted, but was interrupted before he could attack the Doctor with the gauntlet. (TV: Hell Bent)
After the Monk invasion, the Twelfth Doctor needed to know if his companion, Bill Potts, was under the control of the Monks, and deceived her into shooting him in a rage to see if she had succumbed to the mind control, secretly putting blanks in all the guns, and faking his regeneration to complete the illusion. He made it look like the process had started, but emerged as himself to show her that he had deceived her. (TV: The Lie of the Land)
After the Twelfth Doctor was captured by the Saxon Master and Missy on a Mondasian colony ship, they debated throwing him off a hospital roof to kill him, but decided against it when they realised their uncertainty on how many regenerations he had remaining, believing they "could have been up and down the stairs all night." (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Regeneration
After the Twelfth Doctor was gravely wounded by the Cybermen on the Mondasian colony ship, the regenerative process began. However, tired of "being someone else", the Doctor delayed the change for several weeks, (TV: The Doctor Falls) until an encounter with his first incarnation, Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, and the Testimony caused the Doctor to concede that another regeneration wouldn't "kill anyone". After taking a final look at the universe and providing advice to his next incarnation, the Doctor regenerated inside his TARDIS in an explosive fashion. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
As they regenerated, the Doctor relived memories from each of their past lives while the Twelfth Doctor's personality continued to give advice. They remembered the magnificence of their TARDIS; (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) their first human friends, Ian and Barbara, and a time the First Doctor visited a Pathicol spiritual site with Ian, Barbara, and Susan; (COMIC: The Path of Skulls) the strangeness of some of their adventures, including one the Second Doctor had with Jamie, Ben, and Polly involving living playing cards; (COMIC: Card Conundrum) their love for London, and how the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane saved the city from the Dahensa; (COMIC: Invasion of the Scorpion Men) and their love for parts of Earth outside the UK, such as New York City, where the Fourth Doctor and Romana II retrieved a psychic sales voucher for two Ra'ra'vis. (COMIC: Time Lady of Means)
As she continued the recollections, the Doctor settled into a new body. (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) She next remembered Gallifrey and the regeneration limit, and how the Fifth Doctor journeyed into the Cloisters with Nyssa, Tegan, and Turlough and worked with Ophiuchus to break the limit; (COMIC: Ophiuchus) how the Sixth Doctor and Peri saved the Triumvirs from the Haxeen; (COMIC: Virtually Indestructible) the Master, and how the Seventh Doctor and Ace once stopped him from murdering Julius Caesar; (COMIC: Crossing the Rubicon) how things weren't always as they appeared, as evidenced during the Eighth Doctor and Josie's rescue of an Omsonii; (COMIC: The Time Ball) and the Last Great Time War, in particular when the War Doctor and Dorium Maldovar destroyed the weapons factories of Villengard. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas)
As the regeneration finished, the Doctor noticed that her clothes no longer fitted and felt "there was something different about this body". (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time) After the Twelfth Doctor's ring fell off her finger, (TV: Twice Upon a Time) the Doctor remembered how the Ninth Doctor had to relearn to be "the Doctor", and once, with Rose and Jack, saved a Volsci; (COMIC: Return of the Volsci) how the Tenth Doctor, Gabby, and Cindy helped Elizabeth Garrett Anderson become the first female doctor in England; (COMIC: Nurse Who?) her wife River Song and the time the Eleventh Doctor and Alice saved River from Shoalies; (COMIC: Without A Paddle) and, finally, the Daleks, and the Twelfth Doctor and Bill's encounter with a Kaled harvester ship. (COMIC: Harvest of the Daleks)
With the new incarnation becoming a certainty instead of a possibility, her actualised potential sent postcards with pictures of herself in baggy black clothing to various friends, including V. M. McCrimmon and Grandfather Halfling in the City of the Saved, as a sort of "hello to the world". McCrimmon had letters from two other potential versions of the new incarnation, which were made narratively unstable and destroyed by the postcard. (PROSE: Postscript)
Post-regeneration
Still hearing her predecessor in her head, (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) the Doctor staggered to the console in a daze. Examining her face in a reflection, the Doctor saw that she had regenerated into a woman, and felt that the change was "brilliant". After she pressed a button on the console, the TARDIS suddenly spiralled into chaos, caused in part by the explosive regeneration. Subsequently, she was thrown out through the TARDIS doors in the confusion after the time rotor exploded, with the TARDIS itself vanishing without the Doctor as she fell towards Earth. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
Crashing through the ceiling of a train that was being besieged by an alien energy coil, the Doctor took charge of the situation and met Yasmin Khan, Ryan Sinclair, Graham and Grace O'Brien. Still uneasy after her change, the Doctor soon pulled herself together long enough to defeat Tim Shaw, a Stenza who was controlling the coil and had gone hunting for a human to take back to his planet as a trophy. Unfortunately, although she was able to force Tzim-Sha to abandon his hunt by tricking him into downloading the DNA bombs he had tried to plant in her and her new friends into himself, Grace was killed when she was thrown off a crane while trying to overload the energy coil. Out of respect, the Doctor went to Grace's funeral, where she comforted Ryan. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
Due to falling out of the TARDIS, (TV: Twice Upon a Time) the Doctor lost everything in her pockets including her sonic screwdriver, forcing her to make a new one using a crystal from Tzim-Sha's transport pod and scrap metal. After the funeral, she went to a charity store and chose a new outfit. She also lost her TARDIS key. Rigging up Tzim-Sha's transport pod, the Doctor transported herself to where she traced the TARDIS, accidentally bringing Graham, Yaz and Ryan with her. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
Winding up on a spaceship crash landing on the planet known only as Desolation, the Doctor and her companions accompanied a duo of space racers, Epzo and Angstrom, in search of the "Ghost Monument", her TARDIS. (TV: The Ghost Monument) While on Desolation, the Doctor overlooked the ocean as she considered her uncertainty about her future, knowing only that it would be "amazing". (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) Managing to survive the deserts and SniperBots hidden throughout the ruins, the Doctor uncovered a sabotaged science experiment conducted by another alien race subjugated by the Stenza, who had forced them to create weapons that would eventually poison the planet and reduce it to a barren wasteland. Cornered by their Remnants, who attempted to read her mind, the Doctor destroyed them by igniting the gas in the air. After the space racers left the planet, the TARDIS returned to the Doctor and she was elated by the redecorating of her beloved ship, before taking off to return the others home. (TV: The Ghost Monument) However, the Doctor had some trouble piloting the TARDIS with the new controls. (TV: Rosa)
Returning to Sheffield
The Doctor tried to pilot the TARDIS back to Sheffield but made several accidental stops along the way. (TV: Rosa) Some of these included a singing waterfall made of pink crystals, a unicorn sanctuary on a lost moon and the Big Bang. (PROSE: The Good Doctor)
After fourteen attempts to return to Sheffield, the Doctor accidentally took them to Montgomery, 30 November 1955. Wandering around searching for the source of the artron energy that forced them there, they encountered a racist serial killer from the 79th century named Krasko who had used a vortex manipulator to travel into the past to prevent Rosa Parks from initiating the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the hope that doing so would prevent equality between races. However, the Doctor destroyed Krasko's manipulator and Ryan used the displacement gun to send Krasko far into the past, where he couldn't hurt anyone else. The Doctor then helped undo all of Krasko's meddling, ensuring Rosa went on to do as history intended. (TV: Rosa)
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The Doctor eventually got the trio back to Sheffield, deciding to stick around for tea at Yaz's flat. She met Yaz's family, but soon discovered the threat of giant spiders. The Doctor's investigation revealed that the spiders had come from an old mine underneath a hotel by Jack Robertson, an entrepreneur whose waste disposal company carelessly used the mine as a disposal site; a specimen from a lab trying to safely enlarge spiders had been thought dead and left in the waste. However, it was alive and mutated, birthing several hostile spiders. The Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz, working with Robertson, Yaz's mother Najia Khan, and Doctor Jade McIntyre (one of the scientists working on the spiders), were able to trap the entire brood in Robertson's panic room. Robertson killed the spider mother, much to the Doctor's outrage.
Later that night, as the Doctor prepared to depart, Yaz, Ryan and Graham returned to the TARDIS, explaining that they had all chosen to stay; Graham decided that he would cope better with the grief of Grace's death by seeing more of the universe in the TARDIS rather than staying in the house with so many memories of her, Ryan couldn't take staying in the warehouse where he worked, when travelling in the TARDIS was available as an alternative, and Yaz felt that she wanted more of the universe than being driven insane by her family. The Doctor asked them to consider this, as once she pulled the lever she was never sure where the ship would go and couldn't guarantee their safety, but they all accepted this risk, pulling the dematerialisation lever together to continue their journeys. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
Team TARDIS
The Doctor took her friends to the upward tropics of Kinstarno for rain bathing. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum) The Doctor outwitted carnivorous chessmen on Proxima Ceti,, defused a temporal anomaly bomb on a derelict space station and escaped from 200 evil cyborg clones of Harry Houdini in a subway in New York City in 1904. (PROSE: The Secret in Vault 13) After team TARDIS encountered the Death Eye Turtle Army, the Doctor found herself having to "profusely" apologise to Graham for taking a risk he disagreed with. (TV: Demons of the Punjab)
Hoping to stock up on spare parts for the TARDIS, the Doctor went to a junk galaxy to scavenge. While there, Graham accidentally set off a sonic mine that knocked them out. They ended up on a medical ship (the Tsuranga) for treatment, though they had little clue about human or Time Lord biology as they lacked Medtags. To the Doctor's annoyance, it would take them several days to get back to the TARDIS due to the rescue craft being on a preprogrammed route. A Pting had gotten on board and was eating the ship. The Doctor stunned it by making the Pting eat a device that overloaded it with energy and ejected it into space. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
The Doctor took her friends to see the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, where she photobombed the picture of the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. She then saw that Eva De Vil, who had been sent to assassinate her, was leaving the scene, but her attempt to interfere resulted in a lizard creature being taken by De Vil by mistake. Tracking De Vil, the Doctor landed the TARDIS on the Phasmatodea Cartel representative who hired De Vil and was able to retrieve the lizard creature. (COMIC: Where's the Doctor?)
The Doctor was tasked with preventing the Genesis Seed stored in the secret Vault 13 within the Galactic Seed Vault from falling into the hands of Nightshade. (PROSE: The Secret in Vault 13)
At Yaz's urging, the Doctor took her back to 1947 during the Partition of India, so Yaz could learn more about her grandmother's life before she moved to Sheffield as she refused to talk about that time of her life. The Doctor discovered Thijarians, a species of known assassins, near the body of a recently deceased holy man and assumed they were responsible for his death. However, the Thijarians revealed that they no longer killed, but instead had taken the role of witnesses to watch over the dying as they could not do this for their own people. At the request of Umbreen, the Doctor officiated her marriage with Prem. However, Prem's brother Manish ended up killing him for marrying a woman of a different religion. (TV: Demons of the Punjab)
While travelling in the time vortex, the TARDIS was boarded by a Kerb!am Man to deliver a package to the Doctor containing a fez, something the Eleventh Doctor had loved. On the packing slip, the team found a message begging for help. The Doctor took the team to Kerb!am to find the source of the distress call and they began investigating the mysterious disappearances of workers. The Doctor eventually determined that the Kerb!am AI itself had sent the distress call in response to the disappearance of so many people. It was eventually revealed that Charlie Duffy planned to have an army of Kerb!am Men deliver packages with bombs in the bubble wrap to kill Kerb!am customers and prevent automation from completely replacing a human workforce. The Doctor was able to reprogram the robots to open their own packages and detonate the explosives within, destroying the army and killing Charlie who refused to escape. Afterwards, the Doctor agreed to take Yaz to see the daughter of Daniel Cooper, a man who had saved Yaz's life at Kerb!am. (TV: Kerblam!)
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The Doctor attempted to take her friends to see the coronation of Elizabeth I; however, the TARDIS instead took them to Bilehurst Cragg in the 17th century. Disgusted to see witch trials killing innocents, the Doctor intervened and tried getting landowner Becka Savage to see that there was no supernatural evil in her village. The arrival of King James I made things worse, as he mistook the Doctor for a witch and failed to drown her. The attempt of her life allowed the Doctor to discover an alien race called the Morax had accidentally been unleashed by Becka, who chopped down what she believed was a tree, but was, in fact, a lock keeping the Morax DNA imprisoned. The Morax Queen had possessed Becka and planned to turn James into a vessel for her husband. However, the Doctor was able to reactivate the prison to suck the Morax back in. Unfortunately, as the queen resisted, King James burned her with a torch, causing her to dissolve. Disgusted with the king, the Doctor taunted him upon departure about how he would never be able to distinguish advanced technology from magic. (TV: The Witchfinders)
After halting a war on the planet Lobos between the Loba and the human colonists, the Doctor and her companions departed in the TARDIS. When they attempted to return to retrieve Ryan’s mobile phone, the TARDIS slipped almost six hundred years into the future, where the planet was now ruled by human zealots, served by slave Loba, whose religion was largely based on a misinterpreted throwaway joke made by Graham, who was worshipped by them as "The Good Doctor". First relegated to the background and having to do things through Graham's god-like authority, the Doctor inevitably came into conflict with the ruling Temple of Tordos. She had to fight an artificially enhanced Loba Tromos to the death. In the end, the Doctor succeeded in uncovering the lie of the zealots, setting the record straight and brokering a lasting peace between humans and Loba. (PROSE: The Good Doctor)
Team TARDIS landed in Norway, 2018. There, the Doctor learned that her grandmother's old bedtime stories about the Solitract were real. The Solitract was a consciousness that had been banished from N-Space during the birth of the universe, as its existence kept the laws of reality from working. Rather than being malicious, the Solitract was, in fact, lonely and only wanted company; the Doctor compared it to a kid with "nuclear" chicken pox. It attempted to ease its loneliness by altering its realm into a copy of the surrounding area and taking on the form of dead loved ones for visitors. The Doctor convinced the Solitract that its existence was threatened by them, objects foreign to its universe. It reluctantly let them go. The Doctor was saddened, as the Solitract's loneliness reminded her of herself. (TV: It Takes You Away)
The Doctor and her friends visited Adamantine, where the entire civilisation lived inside the hollowed shell underneath the planet's exterior. They soon befriended Ash, one of the native silicon-based life forms and the daughter of Basalt, essentially the planet's first scientist. The Doctor soon determined that the civilisation was under threat as the exterior of the planet began to crack and let in water which threatened to cool the lava that Basalt's people needed to survive. While Graham and Yaz tried to calm the people, the Doctor and Ryan travelled up to the surface with Ash, learning that the cracks were caused by a mining expedition that had been 'abandoned' after the original team was killed by an exploding gas pocket while leaving their equipment running. (PROSE: Molten Heart)
The TARDIS team landed in Gaul in 451 AD after the ship passed through an energy anomaly. Graham and Ryan were separated from the others during an attack, while the Doctor and Yaz were 'captured' by Attila the Hun to serve as his new 'combat witches' against the power of the mysterious Tenctrama. The Doctor eventually determined that the Tencrama were survivors of a catastrophe on a distant planet who now sought to gain power from the psychic energies generated by the deaths in the wars they were escalating on Earth. (PROSE: Combat Magicks)
The Doctor took interest in the fact that nine separate distress signals were coming from the same location on the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos in 5425, but everyone kept ignoring them. Investigating, the Doctor learned Tim Shaw had not been returned to the Stenza Homeworld when she activated his teleport, due to the DNA bombs, and instead arrived on Ranskoor Av Kolos near death. To her disgust, the Doctor learned Tim Shaw had taken advantage of the naive Ux, who had healed him and extended his life after mistaking him for their god. The Ux were capable of dimensional engineering through pure thought and had created a weapon in the form of a temple that could miniaturise planets, killing the inhabitants in the process; Tim Shaw used this power to take revenge on worlds that had opposed the Stenza. However, the Doctor was able to get the Ux to see their mistake and return the planets to their original places.
In the meantime, Graham was determined to kill Tim Shaw to avenge Grace even if it meant being booted off Team TARDIS for breaking the Doctor's most sacred rule. However, thanks to encouragement from her and Ryan to be the better man, Graham decided instead to punish Tim Shaw by trapping him inside one of his own trophy cases; the Doctor approved of the punishment as Tim Shaw would be tormented by the fact they had defeated him again for all eternity. As extra security, the Ux sealed Tim Shaw's temple, ensuring no-one would be able to free him. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
Undated events
Alone
The Doctor once posed as a museum curator in Venice. Missy visited her to ask for the location of items that had been stolen from her in the 14th century. Missy took an old map from her and left. Later, the Doctor saved Antonia from being left behind in 14th century Venice, returning her to the present. She left Antonia with a note chastising Missy for her actions and that she would have to try harder next time. She then cleared out her office and told her assistant to tell anyone who asked that "the Doctor doesn't work here anymore." (PROSE: The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone)
At some point, the Doctor met Cass Fermazzi and gave her a bandolier. While sitting on a bench in Henry VIII's third-favourite garden, the Doctor thought about the lesson the Moment had wanted to impart. The Moment then joined her on the bench, and when the Doctor asked her why she had helped him the day he saved Gallifrey, she said it was because she did not want to be used. About a year later, when the Doctor stood in a fountain at the heart of the Villengard banana groves, the Moment appeared again, continuing their conversation. The Moment told her that she helped because the universe had a need for the Doctor, and at that point, they were in danger of stopping. Pleased that she finally had an answer, the Doctor went back to the TARDIS with a renewed vigour. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)
The Doctor once offered to babysit a young Judoon refugee from a "big fight" on a world far from Earth, but was prevented from doing so by other Judoon. She went to 1966 Dublin after the young Judoon landed there, but found it was already in the care of Patricia. After the Judoon returned to its people, the Doctor gave a few encouraging words to Patricia. (PROSE: The Rhino of Twenty-Three Strand Street)
While on an unnamed planet, the Doctor received a phone call from Santa Claus, telling her he needed her help with an emergency. She headed straight to Lapland to meet with him. Upon her arrival, Santa told the Doctor that his sleigh had lost its magical flying power. The Doctor lent him her TARDIS to substitute the sleigh, on the condition that he return it once he was finished. (WC: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas)
With Team TARDIS
The Doctor and her companions travelled to the planet Gatan, arriving in the City of Radiant Stone in the midst of war. As the group split into twos to help a lost girl called Tondi find her mother, the Doctor and Yaz were attacked by a looter called Gorny, after the former asked him for directions. The Doctor was able to subdue the looter, but before he could divulge to the Doctor why the city was in such a state, they both got caught in the crossfire between two enemy warriors called Tumat and Kraytos. The Doctor later discovered that the two of them had been fighting for months, causing the destruction of the entire city, but upon attempting to confront them, she was grabbed by a robotic reporter called Sandola Dell and was teleported to her boss, Berakka Dogbolter. Berakka revealed the history of the warriors to the Doctor and how she was using enterprise to profit off of their fighting, and proceeded to attempt to kill the Doctor to protect her plans. (COMIC: The Warmonger)
Stopping to watch the Sentient Nebulae on Blecplam Two and a Half in 3912, the Doctor and her friends encountered a rip in time from which a humanoid hand emerged from a figure asking for someone to "grab on" as they "can't hold...". The Doctor recognised the rip as the very same anomaly she'd briefly encountered before in her tenth and twelfth incarnations. The rip quickly vanished as before, but the crew were able to track it down again to an unnamed planet, where they successfully saved the man trapped inside. After the group were suddenly surrounded and imprisoned by the Grand Army of the Just, the enigmatic time traveller, who identified himself as Doctor Leon Perkins, explained that he'd become stuck in a time-loop when he and his superior activated the prototypes of their "wearable time travel tech", only for his to malfunction. Using her sonic screwdriver, which she managed to sneak past the grand army, the Doctor opened their containment cell and escaped with her friends. After a detour that saw them find a war room containing statues of a presumed diety called "The Judge" and what appeared to be war plans, the group finally made it back to the TARDIS safely. Suddenly, Perkins brandished a gun at them, saying that he needed their ship. (COMIC: A New Beginning)
To help her friends throw a surprise birthday party for Yaz, the Doctor went in her TARDIS to look for a cake, balloons, and birthday candles. At a bakery on Sontar, she bought a Sontaran Frosted Boom Cake, she obtained some “enormous balloons” from London during The Blitz, and some candles in Paris. When the party began, the cake exploded and covered the team in pink Chocolate, but Yaz was happy nonetheless. (PROSE: Dr. Thirteenth)
Miscellaneous
- The Doctor had an encounter with Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart that was recorded on video. (PROSE: Avatars of the Intelligence) She also visited him shortly before his death in 2011. (PROSE: Acceptance, and then Understanding)
- At some point before 5 March 2005, the Doctor was photographed "running away from a giant frog in front of Buckingham Palace". (PROSE: Rose)
Psychological profile
Personality
Influenced by the final words of the Twelfth Doctor, (TV: Twice Upon a Time) the Thirteenth Doctor was a kind hearted individual, though was aware that this was also a flaw of hers. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) A livewire full of energy, the Doctor fizzed with excitement and strived to be a warm and passionate person, willing to take great risks protecting innocent lives, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Witchfinders, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) and proud that she would never refuse anyone help if they needed it, and would be short-tempered with those that only sought their own needs and wants. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument)
A self-proclaimed "nutter", (TV: It Takes You Away) the Thirteenth Doctor was a chatty individual who defended talking as "brilliant", (TV: The Witchfinders) often going off on tangents, frequently rambling to distract herself or others from her worries. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, Arachnids in the UK, Demons of the Punjab, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) However, when facing an adversary by herself, the Doctor would appear as a confident and direct speaker. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Rosa, Demons of the Punjab, Kerblam!, The Witchfinders, It Takes You Away, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) She could also be passive aggressive when talking to a foe, antagonising them into exposing their shortcomings. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Rosa, The Witchfinders)
She implored those around her to ask questions about a situation, and showed no irritation on how off topic the questions got, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) even showing excitement when the right questions were asked, (TV: Rosa) but would clarify when "the wrong question" to a situation was being posed. (TV: Arachnids in the UK) However, she showed displeasure in handling multiple questions simultaneously, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) and would refuse to answer questions asked of her if the person did not answer any questions she asked first. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
The Thirteenth Doctor had a tendency to make immediate assumptions, sometimes only to discover that her judgements were misplaced, though she would own up to her mistakes, once pointed out to her. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Demons of the Punjab, Kerblam!) On one occasion, in the heat of the moment, she acted selfishly, disregarding others and putting her own need to find her TARDIS first. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum) She also disliked not being in charge, still assuming to know better than someone else better equipped to be in charge of the situation at hand. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam!)
She had a bit of an ego, stating her plans would be a success due to her "not [being] an amateur", (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) boasting about her intelligence, (TV: The Ghost Monument, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) and describing her chapter in the Book of the Celebrants as being "more of a volume". (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum) She claimed to have an understanding of "pretty much everything". (COMIC: A New Beginning)
The Doctor claimed that she enjoyed making "trip[s] into the past" for research purposes, but knew to be cautious when making such trips, even writing a note to chastise Missy for her lack of caution in that regard. (PROSE: The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone) She took her devotion to the preservation of history so seriously that she described herself and her companions as its guardians. (TV: Rosa) Despite her usual unwillingness to tamper with time, the Doctor found herself willing take her companions to visit their own family history, with some persuasion, though warned her friend to "tread softly" on their own history. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) At some times, the Doctor's sense of justice got the better of her, making her intervene in past events if she believed them to be minuscule enough to not impact history. (TV: The Witchfinders) She would still show signs of distress if preserving history meant letting injustices stand and go unpunished. (TV: Rosa, Demons of the Punjab)
She retained the absent-mindedness of her previous incarnation, tending to forget how many times she did something, (TV: Rosa) lacking social awareness, (TV: Arachnids in the UK) and forgetting whether she was awarding points or gold stars to her companions. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) She also retained his veneration of the dead. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) As a result, the Doctor held respect for all living beings even if they caused harm due to their nature. (TV: Arachnids in the UK ,The Tsuranga Conundrum)
She liked holograms, "big locked doors", (TV: The Ghost Monument) the number 51, the musical Hamilton, (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum) apple bobbing, (TV: The Witchfinders) and Wellington boots. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) She retained her eleventh incarnation's fondness for fezzes. (TV: Kerblam!)
The Doctor enjoyed biscuits, (TV: Demons of the Punjab) with custard creams being a particular favourite, (TV: The Ghost Monument), fried egg sandwiches, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) and tea, (TV: Arachnids in the UK) with Yorkshire Tea being her preference. (PROSE: The Good Doctor) For breakfast, she liked to have cereal or croissants. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
While she once claimed to "love a conspiracy", (TV: Arachnids in the UK) she disliked ones that resulted in information being purposely withheld from her. (TV: Kerblam!) She also heavily disliked having empty pockets, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) as well as olives, (PROSE: The Good Doctor) bullies, and people in danger. (TV: Kerblam!)
The Thirteenth Doctor was passionately against murder, trying her best to subdue her opponents in a non-lethal fashion. (TV: Arachnids in the UK, The Witchfinders, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) She also expressed distaste for the act even when committed by her allies, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) and was deeply disturbed when she was forced to indirectly be responsible for the loss of life. (TV: Kerblam!)
Similar to the Tenth Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor disliked weaponry, opting instead to use her intellect and environment to her advantage, (TV: The Ghost Monument, Arachnids in the UK) though admitted it was a "flexible creed", as she thought that anything that could be rebuilt was "fair game" to be destroyed. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) Specifically, the Doctor believed guns "made things worse", as they only agitated attackers, (TV: The Ghost Monument) and that only "idiots" carried knives. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
The Thirteenth Doctor stated that love was her "religion", believing it to be the better source of belief. (TV: Demons of the Punjab, The Witchfinders) Like her early incarnations, the Thirteenth Doctor was not interested in romance, (TV: Arachnids in the UK) but retained a respect for it. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) She was also a strong believer in hope. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
Much like her eleventh incarnation, the Thirteenth Doctor would run into a situation without a strategy in mind, hoping to come up with a plan in the heat of the moment, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) claiming to be "good in a tight spot", (TV: The Ghost Monument) but would take precautions when she knew how dangerous a situation was. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
She used humour to defuse tension, (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum) demonstrating a playful sense of humour. She labelled the Moment's interface "a Christmas cracker", and responded to Cass Fermazzi's mention of having needed childhood therapy with a dry "didn't we all". (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)
She retained the guilt demonstrated in her prior incarnations over the events of the Last Great Time War. Visiting Cass prior to her death, the Doctor expressed her regret over Cass' fate and noted that saving Cass was impossible as "[Cass] was too wrapped up in [her] timeline", demonstrating her continued respect for the Laws of Time. She was unwilling to alter her own personal timeline. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) Like her immediate predecessor, she believed that "no one ever wins at war". (PROSE: The Good Doctor)
The Thirteenth Doctor was not above being secretive and cryptic, handing Missy an annotated map of 14th century Venice, without explaining it and leaving Missy to discover for herself what the annotations meant, while also not divulging her true identity to Missy. (PROSE: The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone)
Even when asserting her authority, the Doctor would reassure others' safety in a careful, but direct, manner, (TV: The Ghost Monument, The Tsuranga Conundrum) but was willing to withhold information if it meant appeasing someone who was particularly stubborn. (TV: It Takes You Away)
She was upfront and honest with her feelings, letting people know when she was afraid or no longer feeling a certain way. (TV: Demons of the Punjab, The Witchfinders, It Takes You Away) She was particularly displeased to be reminded of being an outcast, (TV: The Ghost Monument) and tried to hide her fear of loneliness with the company she kept, becoming upset at the prospect of bidding her companions a farewell. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Arachnids in the UK)
The Thirteenth Doctor stood against racism and prejudice, and showed her disgust with gentle comments of acceptance. (TV: Rosa)
The Thirteenth Doctor also had a much gentler and friendly approach to Santa Claus than her immediate predecessor, even allowing him to borrow her TARDIS for an emergency, (WC: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas) in spite of her dislike of being separated from her ship. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
Habits and quirks
Early in her life, the Thirteenth Doctor had some trouble adjusting to her new gender, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument) having trouble getting used to people calling her "Ma'am". (TV: Rosa) She openly enjoyed getting opportunities she never had when she used to be a man. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) However, she would later become frustrated when she faced judgment because of her new form. (TV: The Witchfinders) Much like the Eighth Doctor, she did not consider herself to be a man or a woman "in the way that [humans] understand it". (PROSE: The Good Doctor)
Like her ninth incarnation, the Thirteenth Doctor spoke with a northern accent. She also used "Oi" to get someone's attention, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Rosa, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) or when beginning a counter-argument. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum, Demons of the Punjab)
Similar to her tenth incarnation, she would consider good things and ideas to be "brilliant", (TV: Twice Upon a Time, Rosa, Kerblam!, The Witchfinders, It Takes You Away) but would also use the word in a sarcastic sense, (TV: The Ghost Monument) and to describe how someone performed in a crisis. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
Also like the Tenth Doctor, she was quick to apologise for her own actions and others' circumstances. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, Arachnids in the UK, The Tsuranga Conundrum, Demons of the Punjab, The Witchfinders, It Takes You Away, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
When making a statement, the Doctor would say "right" before elaborating on her statement. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, It Takes You Away) She would say things were going to be "fine" to reassure people, usually when all evidence pointed to the contrary. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument) When pressing someone to move or act quickly, she would say "chop-chop", (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Kerblam!) or, "get a shift on". (TV: The Ghost Monument, The Tsuranga Conundrum) When explaining her intended actions, the Doctor would utter, "but not right now", to show that she was preoccupied with a different situation than the one she was explaining. (TV: The Ghost Monument, The Tsuranga Conundrum) When the Doctor came to a new realisation, she would slowly utter "oh..." as the idea dawned on her. (TV: The Ghost Monument, Rosa, Arachnids in the UK, Demons of the Punjab)
When surprised, the Doctor tended to give a yelp. (TV: The Ghost Monument, The Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam!)
She often boasted about meeting historical figures, usually with an accompanying tale that shed new light on the character of said figure. (TV: The Ghost Monument, Rosa, Arachnids in the UK, Demons of the Punjab, Kerblam!, The Witchfinders)
The Doctor would state a feeling she was having, but then backtrack on that feeling and claim to be feeling the opposite of what she initially felt. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) She would also state one thing before backtracking to elaborate on her statement. (TV: The Ghost Monument, Kerblam!)
The Thirteenth Doctor would lean her face forward, with her eyebrows lowered and her upper lip stretched upwards, when she was feeling annoyed, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Demons of the Punjab) giving an unbelievable explanation, (TV: The Ghost Monument) or when thinking intensely. (TV: Arachnids in the UK, The Tsuranga Conundrum) She would likewise scrunch her face up when annoyed, (TV: Rosa, The Witchfinders) trying to hide her hurt feelings, (TV: Arachnids in the UK) in pain, (TV: Demons of the Punjab) or observing. (TV: It Takes You Away)
She would sometimes flick a half-smile. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Arachnids in the UK, The Tsuranga Conundrum, Demons of the Punjab, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
When pleased, the Doctor would beam a wide smile. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, Arachnids in the UK, Demons of the Punjab)
She often stood with her hands on her hips, (TV: The Ghost Monument, Rosa, Arachnids in the UK, The Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam!) or behind her back. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam!, The Witchfinders)
As with previous incarnations, she would also stand with her hands in her pockets, flicking her coat back as she did so. (TV: Demons of the Punjab, It Takes You Away)
When giving a speech, proclaiming instructions or vocally analysing her situation, the Doctor would move her hands upwards, with her hands facing her head and with her fingers curled. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, The Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam!, The Witchfinders, It Takes You Away)
When drawing it from her coat, she would flourish her sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, Arachnids in the UK, Kerblam!)
The Doctor used a point system to grade her companions to mark how well they performed. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum, Demons of the Punjab, It Takes You Away)
Skills
Much like her third incarnation, the Thirteenth Doctor was a skilled mechanic, being able to craft new contraptions from raw material she found, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Demons of the Punjab) or alter technology at her disposal to suit a new purpose of her choosing. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) She was also able to quickly reformat Ryan's phone into a tracker to find the Gathering coil, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) and reactivate Twirly to be plugged into the Kerb!am System. (TV: Kerblam!)
The Doctor demonstrated astute detective skills, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Arachnids in the UK, It Takes You Away) and could deduce a person's thought pattern through eye contact. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) She was also able to tell when she was talking to a bad liar. (TV: Rosa, The Tsuranga Conundrum)
With the aid of Venusian aikido, the Doctor could use her pinkie finger to paralyse someone without harming them by pressing on their throat, (TV: The Ghost Monument, Kerblam!) and could throw someone over her shoulder with little difficulty. She was also swift and nimble, able to avoid being struck by a fist with ease. (COMIC: The Warmonger)
She could also analyse her environment by tasting the ground. (TV: It Takes You Away )
Without the aid of a translation circuit, the Doctor could read the language of the Creators of Death. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
She could quickly calculate the length of time it would take her to do something, and act with quick succession. (COMIC: The Warmonger)
Like her predecessors, the Thirteenth Doctor was an escape artist, crediting it to the teachings of Harry Houdini. (TV: The Witchfinders)
Appearance
The Thirteenth Doctor resembled a woman in her mid-thirties, possessing jaw-length blonde hair with dark roots, and hazel-coloured eyes. (TV: Twice Upon a Time) To her annoyance, she was shorter than her predecessor. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
In preparation for Umbreen's wedding to Prem, the Doctor had henna tattoos temporarily applied to her arms by Hasna. (TV: Demons of the Punjab)
Lucy Wilson described her as a "beautiful woman", (PROSE: Avatars of the Intelligence) with James I also commenting on her "alluring form". (TV: The Witchfinders) Patricia thought that the Doctor's face conveyed a constant, unashamed amazement. (PROSE: The Rhino of Twenty-Three Strand Street)
Clothing
After going clothes shopping at a charity shop with Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) the Thirteenth Doctor took to wearing a hooded, lilac-blue trench coat with dark blue interim and a rainbow pattern along the edges of it. (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) She was very prideful of her coat, (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos) and would try to avoid the coat getting damaged due to her fondness of it, (TV: The Witchfinders) though she had to rip part of it to help history go undisturbed from Krasko's meddling, but had the tear repaired by seamstress Rosa Parks. (TV: Rosa) Her protectiveness of the coat extended to not wearing it during TARDIS maintenance. (TV: Demons of the Punjab)
Under her coat, the Doctor wore a T-shirt with rainbow stripes running across the chest, with the colouring coming in dark purple, (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth) and burgundy. (TV: Rosa) Under her shirt, she wore a white, long-sleeved jumper. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Rosa)
On her legs, she wore a pair of high-waisted teal blue capri trousers, (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) kept up by mustard yellow braces. (PROSE: Rose) For footwear, she wore blue striped socks with brown, laced-up boots. (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who) She sometimes wore a bum bag around her waist to carry her sonic screwdriver and psychic paper. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
She also wore golden-ringed ear cuffs at the top and at the lobe of her left ear. The top cuff was a series of eight joint stars, and the bottom cuff was in the shape of two hands holding each other. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
On occasion, she could be seen wearing a multi-coloured scarf around her neck. It was first seen whilst she, along with Team TARDIS, watched various New Year celebrations across the universe. (TV: Resolution)
Behind the scenes
First female Doctor
The Thirteenth Doctor is the first and, as of 2018[update], only incarnation of the Doctor in the programme's history to be played by a woman. Before Jodie Whittaker, though, the idea of a woman Doctor had been explored.
The idea that a female actor could take the role of the Doctor was first publicly introduced by John Nathan-Turner and Tom Baker in 1980. By Baker's suggestion, he told the press, "I certainly wish my successor luck, whoever he—or she—might be."[1][2] Peter Davison was cast as the Fifth Doctor, but the idea remained alive, as in a Daily Star article from 29 July 1983, headlined as AFTER Dr WHO... Dr HER?, talking about Davison bowing out, Nathan-Turner said; "the hunt for a new doctor starts today and it's quite feasible it will be a woman". Colin Baker was eventually cast as the Sixth Doctor.
In 1986, creator Sydney Newman suggested that "at a later stage Doctor Who should be metamorphosed into a woman", offering Joanna Lumley as the potential candidate for the Seventh Doctor. Frances de la Tour and Dawn French were also mentioned.[3] Eventually, Sylvester McCoy was cast in 1987.
By the time Whittaker was announced as the actor to follow Peter Capaldi, it was well-established, to viewers and within the Doctor Who universe, that the Doctor could be played by a woman.
Though a parody, The Curse of Fatal Death (1999) by Steven Moffat introduced another Thirteenth Doctor, played by Joanna Lumley. This Doctor, upon regenerating, immediately noted that she had "etheric beam locators" (calling back to an earlier gag where etheric beam locators had been confused for breasts). When Emma tells her that those are actual breasts, the Doctor says that she "always wanted to get [her] hands on one of these". At the end, she suddenly finds the Master attractive, and they walk off together, arms around each other's waists.
In 1999's Interference - Book Two, a BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, I.M. Foreman is twice stated to have a female tenth incarnation, who calls herself Queen Nitocris.
In 2002, the Big Finish audio Seasons of Fear features the Eighth Doctor telling his future/past enemy Sebastian Grayle, in his own first encounter with that character, that the Doctor is "not a glamorous woman at the moment", hinting that he could become such a thing in the future.
The Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound story Exile (2003), though not set in the prime Doctor Who universe, starred a female Third Doctor, played by Arabella Weir. The story tried to establish that, in this universe, suicide was necessary for a "sex-change regeneration", which was also considered a crime by the Time Lords. Later stories, particularly in the Steven Moffat era, would contradict the idea that changing gender during regeneration was anything out of the ordinary.
Prior to the massive comeback of the TV series in 2005, Jane Tranter wanted the Ninth Doctor to be the first female incarnation, played by Judi Dench.[4][3]
A cut line in The Unquiet Dead would have had Sneed remark to the Ninth Doctor, "I thought you'd be a woman," to which the Doctor would respond, "No, not yet."
In 2007, when David Tennant announced his intention to leave, the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) wanted the next Doctor to be female, issuing a statement saying: "There is a distinct lack of role models of female scientists in the media and recent research shows that this contributes to the under-representation of women in the field. The UKRC believes that making a high profile sci-fi character with a following like Doctor Who female would help to raise the profile of women in science and bring the issue of the important contribution women can and should make to science in the public domain."[3]
In 2010, The End of Time: Part Two had the Eleventh Doctor briefly think he had regenerated into a woman, immediately post-regeneration. He quickly realised that he was mistaken, on finding his Adam's apple.
In 2011, Neil Gaiman's The Doctor's Wife was the first television story to make direct reference to a Time Lord changing gender through regeneration. The Doctor talks of the Corsair, a "fantastic bloke", who was also a "bad girl" in a couple of their incarnations.
In 2013, The Night of the Doctor had the Sisterhood of Karn offer the Eighth Doctor the choice of "man or woman", for his approaching regeneration. However, the novelisation of The Day of the Doctor revealed that the elixir given to the Doctor was just lemonade and dry ice, so the offer is almost rendered a moot point.
That year, the idea of a female Twelfth Doctor gained a media presence. The Guardian offered up their own suggestions for the role.[5]
In 2014, Steven Moffat introduced audiences to Missy, revealed in Dark Water to be the first female incarnation of the Master. Missy was a recurring character in series 8, 9, and 10.
In 2015, Hell Bent showed audiences the regeneration of the General, from a male to a female incarnation. While not the first such regeneration depicted, it was the first to take place on-screen. Just eighteen days before the episode aired, Big Finish audio story The Black Hole had its own male-to-female regeneration scene.
Also in 2015, Liz White voiced Genesta in The Brink of Death, an audio story by Big Finish. As Genesta was a disguise of the Valeyard, White played him and by extension, the Doctor. This made her the first woman to portray the Doctor in a valid production.
In 2016, Enemy Lines, another Big Finish audio, showed the first female-to-male regeneration.
2017's World Enough and Time included a rooftop conversation, between the Twelfth Doctor and Bill, in which the Doctor is only "fairly sure" that his first incarnation was a man, as it was a long time ago. The Doctor here claims that Time Lords are "beyond [the] petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes".
The same year, the audio story The Conscript included a conversation between the Eighth Doctor and a Time Lord soldier, where the Doctor stated that he was a "he, for now at least".
Appearances prior to her first full story
The Thirteenth Doctor is unique amongst her previous incarnations by having appeared multiple times in the expanded media before her official television debut in The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
- Like most incarnations of the BBC Wales series, she appeared in some specially-made teasers in the run-up to series 11.
- She was featured in the narrative poem The Death List from the collection Now We Are Six Hundred, with an illustration by Russell T Davies.
- Postcards from the Thirteenth Doctor to Doctor Who spinoff characters were discussed and depicted in the Lethbridge-Stewart short story When Times Change... (printed with The Two Brigadiers); the Iris Wildthyme short story A Lady Doctor?; and the City of the Saved short story Postscript in Stranger Tales of the City.
- She was mentioned as appearing with her other incarnations in archive footage during Avatars of Intelligence and Rose.
- She made an extended speaking cameo in The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone, though her identity was only revealed at the end of the story.
- She made a surprise appearance in Chapter 13 of The Day of the Doctor.
- Her costume made its debut in the invalid comic story And Introducing....
- The first official trailer featuring this incarnation was put forward as a part of the major press debut of the series 11 team at San Diego Comic-Con 2018.
Footnotes
- ↑ Cooray Smith, James (17 July 2017). Uncomfortable with a female Doctor Who? It's time to admit your real motives. Prospect Magazine. Retrieved on 27 December 2017.
- ↑ John Nathan-Turner. The Telegraph (7 May 2002). Retrieved on 27 December 2017.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://m.digitaljournal.com/article/298752
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130709015042/http://www.kasterborous.com/2013/07/bbc-wanted-tom-baker-or-judi-dench-for-doctor-who/
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2013/jun/03/doctor-who-first-female-choice
