The Doctor's family
The Doctor's familial relations were numerous and paradoxical. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir) According to the Seventh Doctor, they would rather forget about him. (AUDIO: Master) The Doctor's brother, Irving Braxiatel, once stated the urge to leave the Time Lord homeworld of Gallifrey "[ran] in the family", as he, (AUDIO: Beyond) the Doctor, (TV: An Unearthly Child) their father Ulysses, (PROSE: Unnatural History) and Susan Foreman were all known to have done so. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
Official Celestial Intervention Agency briefings claimed that all of the Doctor's close family except for his granddaughter Susan had perished during the Prydonian Academy Revolution, the event that their records claimed had prompted the Doctor and Susan to run away from Gallifrey. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
Adopted family[[edit] | [edit source]]
Sarah Jane Smith once referred to the Doctor's companions as their family, telling the Tenth Doctor, "You act like such a lonely man, but you've got the biggest family on Earth!" (TV: Journey's End) The Doctor chose to think of the universe as their foster family, after their parents "decided to opt out of their responsibilities." (PROSE: Beltempest)
The Fourteenth Doctor was encouraged by both the Fifteenth Doctor and Donna Noble to settle down to live with her family. Among his new family the Fourteenth Doctor counted Donna, his best friend, Shaun Temple, his brother in-law, Sylvia Noble, his "evil stepmother", Melanie Bush, his "Mad Aunt", Rose Noble, his favourite niece, and granddad, Wilfred Mott. (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) When the Fifteenth Doctor reunited with Rose in 2024, he asked her how "[her] uncle" was doing. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Ancestors[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to one account, the Doctor was one of the forty-five cousins created by the Loom of the House of Lungbarrow on Gallifrey. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"], Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir (short story)"]) At other times, the Doctor stated that they had parents, including a Time Lord father, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"], PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"], Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)","Unnatural History"], Matrix [+]Loading...["Matrix (novel)"]) named Ulysses in one account, (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"]) and a human mother. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"], PROSE: Alien Bodies [+]Loading...["Alien Bodies (novel)"], The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"], Grimm Reality [+]Loading...["Grimm Reality (novel)"], Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"], The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"], Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir (short story)"]) Some accounts held that the Doctor's mother was the human Penelope Gate. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"], The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"])
Some time after his original encounters with Omega, the Sixth Doctor learnt from Gallifrey's Keeper of the Rolls that some evidence pointed to Omega having been a direct ancestor of his. (PROSE: Search for the Doctor [+]Loading...["Search for the Doctor (novel)"])
The Eighth Doctor recognised I.M. Foreman as "one of my ancestors", but then clarified that he meant Foreman preceded him as a pioneering Gallifreyan rebel, not necessarily a biological ancestor; the Doctor noted that, ironically, Susan had adopted Foreman's surname without realising their shared heritage. (PROSE: Interference - Book Two [+]Loading...["Interference - Book Two (novel)"])
By other accounts, the Doctor's mother was also a Time Lord, (COMIC: The Comfort of the Good [+]Loading...["The Comfort of the Good (comic story)"]) with Lady Peinforte claiming that the idea of the Doctor being half human via his mother was "much disregarded". She also came to believe Looms were "non-canonical" after reading articles on the TARDIS Wiki. (PROSE: Lady Peinforte [+]Loading...["Lady Peinforte (short story)"]) In a third account of the Doctor's origins, they were originally the mysterious Timeless Child, discovered and adopted by the Shobogan traveller Tecteun, who brought her child back with her to Gallifrey. (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"])
Patience taught the Doctor's grandfather, (PROSE: Cold Fusion [+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"]) and the Thirteenth Doctor spoke of several grandmothers. (TV: It Takes You Away [+]Loading...["It Takes You Away (TV story)"]) The Eleventh Doctor spoke of his godmother, (TV: Vincent and the Doctor [+]Loading...["Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)"]) and his great-aunt Inertia. (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Loading...["The Mazes of Time (video game)"]) The Doctor also had an aunt, Flavia, (AUDIO: Blue Boxes [+]Loading...["Blue Boxes (audio story)"]) who called herself "Loom Auntie Flavia", (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium [+]Loading...["Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)"]) and an uncle (TV: Time and the Rani [+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (TV story)"]) known simply as "the Uncle". (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Loading...["The Eternity Clock (video game)"]) The Seventh Doctor thought that he might have once had a giddy aunt, but he mused that she was "probably metaphorical". (AUDIO: Forever Fallen [+]Loading...["Forever Fallen (audio story)"])
The Eighth Doctor remembered coming from an "important" political family and growing up with all the privilege that entailed. (AUDIO: Must-See TV [+]Loading...["Must-See TV (audio story)"])
Siblings[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor had at least one brother, Irving Braxiatel, (PROSE: Tears of the Oracle, AUDIO: Disassembled, PROSE: ...Be Forgot, Big Bang Generation, Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir, TV: Smith and Jones) who became an associate of the Doctor's companion Bernice Summerfield. (PROSE: Tears of the Oracle) Braxiatel was a Cardinal of Gallifrey, (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice) and later became High Chancellor, though in exile. (AUDIO: Pandora) He was also the owner of the Braxiatel Collection, (PROSE: Tears of the Oracle) which the Doctor and Romana once compared to the Louvre in Paris. (TV: City of Death) The Doctor had one niece by Irving Braxiatel, Maggie Matsumoto. (AUDIO: The Empire State)
The Thirteenth Doctor recalled once having had sisters, (TV: Arachnids in the UK) though another account indicated the Doctor never had an older sister, at least. (PROSE: Dragonfire) Irving Braxiatel hinted that he had once lost a sister, or a daughter. (PROSE: Tears of the Oracle)
At the Eighth Doctor and Scarlette's wedding in the post-War universe, the Man with the Rosette sat at the table reserved for the Doctor's family. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
Descendants[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor had, in the Tenth Doctor's own words, been "a dad" (TV: Fear Her) and "a father". (TV: The Doctor's Daughter) The Eighth Doctor confirmed he had "at least one" child. (AUDIO: The Final Hour) These children were "sons or daughters, or both." (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger) The Twelfth Doctor claimed he had "dad skills". (TV: Listen) Clara Oswald also claimed the Doctor had once had "children". (TV: Death in Heaven)
Susan's father was a Cardinal on Gallifrey and had a wife, who some accounts stated died giving birth to Susan. (PROSE: Cold Fusion, Lungbarrow) It was unclear which of them was the descendant of the Doctor, or if either was. The Curator, though, did maintain Susan was the Doctor's granddaughter via natural means, meaning one of her parents was the Doctor's child. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) In another universe, it was specifically confirmed that the Doctor's daughter was Susan's mother. (AUDIO: Auld Mortality) It was implied by the Twelfth Doctor (TV: Hell Bent) and later outright claimed as truth by a Time Lord author that, at the time of the Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey, one of Susan's parents was the President of the High Council. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)
The Doctor also had several grandchildren, (TV: Death in Heaven) including Susan, (TV: An Unearthly Child, et al.) John, and Gillian Who. (COMIC: The Klepton Parasites, PROSE: Beware the Trods!, et al.) Some accounts referred to Susan as "the Other's" granddaughter. (PROSE: Lungbarrow) According to one account, Susan had a godfather who had a brother named Terry. (AUDIO: Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?)
At one point, the Doctor became the adoptive father to a female Time Lord named Miranda Dawkins, whom the Eighth Doctor reared until her mid-teens. (PROSE: Father Time) Miranda later gave birth to a daughter, Zezanne, and died while trying to protect the Doctor. (PROSE: Sometime Never...) Edward Grove considered himself a child of the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)
The Doctor also had a great-grandson named Alex, the son of Susan and David Campbell. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child) Alex went on several adventures with the Eighth Doctor and backpacked around the Earth with Lucie Miller before they were both killed by the Daleks. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller, To the Death) Susan and David also had adopted children, Barbara, Ian and David Junior. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
Genetic material from the Doctor in their tenth incarnation was used to create a daughter, Jenny, via progenation. The Doctor explained to Donna Noble and Martha Jones that due to the way his DNA was processed, he was Jenny's "biological mother and father". Although initially spurning her, he soon considered Jenny his daughter and invited her to travel with him in the TARDIS. Before she could join him, however, she was shot by General Cobb. The Doctor believed Jenny to have died, and departed. (TV: The Doctor's Daughter) Unbeknownst to him, she survived and set out on her own life of adventure, (TV: The Doctor's Daughter, AUDIO: Stolen Goods, et al.) even sharing one adventure with an earlier incarnation, the Fifth Doctor. (AUDIO: Relative Time)
When the Earth was relocated to the Medusa Cascade, an instantaneous biological meta-crisis was created; this Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor was later was exiled by the Tenth Doctor to a parallel universe. (TV: Journey's End) In this parallel universe, the Meta-Crisis Doctor entered into a relationship with Rose Tyler. The two had a child together, named Mia. (PROSE: Empire of the Wolf [+]Loading...["Empire of the Wolf (comic story)"])
Fate[[edit] | [edit source]]
Much of the Doctor's family died or went missing. The majority of the Doctor's Cousins from House Lungbarrow died during the 673 years they spent trapped under Mount Lung after the House buried itself in shame over the murder of its Kithriarch, Ordinal-General Quences. Dead Cousins included Housekeeper Satthralope, who was crushed by her own chair; Cousin Arkhew, who was strangled by Cousin Owis; Cousin Luton, who got stuck in a chimney, and Cousin Glospin, who was killed by Badger to protect the Seventh Doctor. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
On the eve of Susan's birth, in some prior lifetime to his generally-accepted first incarnation, the Doctor's first-born son faced down a squad of Chancellery Guard sent to purge the Doctor and Patience's children living at the House of Blyledge. Presumably only the Doctor, Patience and Susan survived the culling, rescued by a figure from Patience's relative future, the First Doctor. (PROSE: Cold Fusion) The Other later told Susan that her mother died during the birth and that her father was later sent to serve in the Vampire Wars whereupon he perished aboard a Bowship.[source needed] (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Curse of Fenric, AUDIO: To the Death, AUDIO: Cold Fusion, TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
When asked about his family by Victoria Waterfield, who guessed that he could not remember them, the Second Doctor confirmed he could. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing. You must get some sleep and let this poor old man stay awake.
Whilst travelling with Ace, the Seventh Doctor said that he did not know if he had any family when asked by Kathleen Dudman in 1943, and did not correct her when she assumed that it was due to the ongoing Second World War. (TV: The Curse of Fenric [+]Loading...["The Curse of Fenric (TV story)"]) One source made note of this and suggested that the Time War had already begun in some way by this point in the Doctor's lifetime. (GAME: The Curse of Fenric [+]Loading...["The Curse of Fenric (game)"])
After the last day of the Time War, the Ninth Doctor told Rose Tyler that his "whole family" had died as well as his "entire planet". Berating her for preventing the established death of her father Pete Tyler, the Doctor rhetorically asked her if she thought it never occurred to him to go back and save them. (TV: Father's Day) The Tenth Doctor told Martha Jones that his family and his friends were "all gone". (TV: Gridlock) Later, while telling Donna that he'd been a father before, he explained that he "lost all that a long time ago along with everything else." (TV: The Doctor's Daughter) The Eleventh Doctor involuntarily reacted to Corc's accusation that he had never lost a child. (PROSE: Dark Horizons) Even after the Doctor realised that Gallifrey and the Time Lords were not destroyed at the end of the Time War, the Doctor still believed their family, including the missing children and grandchildren, to be dead. (TV: Death in Heaven, The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
When asked about his family by Ruby Sunday, the Fifteenth Doctor told her that he had "no one". (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Affairs[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: The Doctor's spouses
The Tenth Doctor told Sally Sparrow that he was "rubbish at weddings, especially [his] own". (TV: Blink)
The First Doctor was accidentally engaged to Cameca in the 15th century when he drank cocoa with her. (TV: The Aztecs)
An earlier incarnation had been wed (PROSE: Cold Fusion) to Patience and they were said to have had a number of children and grandchildren. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
The Fourth Doctor and Romana II once displayed an interest in getting married. (TV: On Through the 80's!)
After Gallifrey was destroyed in the War in Heaven, the Eighth Doctor married Scarlette in order to ceremonially tie himself to the planet Earth. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
In one future stemming from the Eighth Doctor's life, (PROSE: The Tomorrow Window) the Ninth Doctor was engaged to be married to Emma, the only travelling companion he had ever "had". However, an incident which caused the Doctor to undergo four regenerations in quick succession resulted in Emma calling off her marriage to the female Thirteenth Doctor. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
The Tenth Doctor romanced and later married Elizabeth I. (TV: The End of Time, The Day of the Doctor, PROSE: Suspicious Minds) She later declared him an enemy after he failed to return as promised. (TV: The Shakespeare Code) The Tenth Doctor implied he had been married several times prior to Queen Elizabeth, as he remarked to Sally Sparrow about being "rubbish at weddings, especially [his] own". (TV: Blink) In his eleventh incarnation, the Doctor accidentally became engaged to Marilyn Monroe, and married her the same night in what he later claimed was not a real chapel. (TV: A Christmas Carol)
River Song often hinted that she and the Doctor had a physical relationship somewhere in her past and his future relative to the Eleventh Doctor's encounter with the Silence in Florida. (TV: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead, The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone, The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang, Day of the Moon) The Eleventh Doctor, operating a Teselecta shaped like himself, performed a "quick version" of a wedding ceremony with River because they were in the middle of a combat zone in an alternate reality. They repeatedly referred to each other as husband and wife after the ceremony. (WC: Asylum of the Daleks Prequel, TV: The Wedding of River Song, The Angels Take Manhattan, The Name of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor, The Husbands of River Song, AUDIO: The Boundless Sea, Five Twenty-Nine, The Eye of the Storm, PROSE: Suspicious Minds)
According to Clara Oswald, by the time of the Doctor's twelfth incarnation, he had been "married four times, all deceased". (TV: Death in Heaven)
Other references[[edit] | [edit source]]
Martha Jones had believed that the Master was the Doctor's "secret brother [or something]", to which the Tenth Doctor told her that she had "been watching too much TV." (TV: The Sound of Drums)
Ruby Sunday once considered that living as long as the Doctor did came at a cost, noting that she sometimes thought about "everything and everyone he's lost", including his home planet, best friends, and his family. (PROSE: Who's the Doctor? [+]Loading...{"page":"6","1":"Who's the Doctor? (short story)"})
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Martha's belief that the Master was the Doctor's "secret brother" was first floated as a revelation about the character back in the Jon Pertwee-era. The idea was reignited years later in the Peter Davison-era story Planet of Fire, with Anthony Ainley's version of the Master, before seemingly burning up, exclaiming "Won't you show mercy to your own…", never finishing the sentence. According to the DVD commentary, Fiona Cumming asked John Nathan-Turner how the line was to end, to which he replied, "brother". It was also used in several pitches for the Eighth Doctor TV projects which eventually ended up as the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie; there, the Master would have been Ulysses' son by his legitimate Gallifreyan spouse, while the Doctor was Ulysses' son with a human woman, making him and the Master half-brothers.
- David A. McIntee once pitched a Fifth Doctor novel which would instead have revealed the Doctor and the Master as former spouses, in a plotline allegedly inspired by War of the Roses. The pitch was refused with a "death-stare" from Gary Russell.[1]
- The DWM 386 edition of Space-Time Telegraph featured a parodic depiction of the Doctor's family tree, drawing from numerous non-televised stories.
- The Doctor's Family Tree was an illustration included in Who-ology: The Official Miscellany.
- Steven Moffat, in the Steven Moffat column of DWM 482, speculated that the Doctor's first spouse out of the four mentioned in the television story Death in Heaven was a woman who was married to the First Doctor for a long time on Gallifrey and bore the Doctor's children. He claimed "Mrs Who No 1" was never mentioned by the Doctor nor has he ever discussed her.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
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