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John Smith, born circa 1880, was the son of Sydney Smith, a watchmaker, and Verity Smith, a nurse. He was raised in the Radford Parade district of Nottingham, on Broadmarsh Street. The Smith family retained a maid, Martha Jones, who continued to serve John after the deaths of his parents.
- This article is specifically about the human incarnation of the Doctor created by the Chameleon Arch. For information on the name as an alias, see Aliases of the Doctor.
John received an excellent classical education--probably in a school similar to the one he taught at in 1913, as he seemed familiar with the customs--and became a schoolteacher himself. A talented artist, he studied art in "Gallifrey", presumably in Ireland.
John took a new job in the fall of 1913: history teacher at the Farringham School for Boys, in Farringham, England. Not long after arriving, he began having strange and vivid dreams: that his maid Martha was in fact a medical student from 2007, and that he himself was an adventurer in time and space known only as "the Doctor".
Fascinated by the intensity and strangeness of his dreams, John began to keep a notebook of them; a journal of his adventures as the alien Doctor, insofar as he could remember them, illustrated with rough sketches.
By November of 1913, John had begun telling others about his dreams: first his maid Martha; then the school's nurse, Matron Joan Redfern--with whom he was surprised to find himself falling in love. Though in his mid-30s, John had never before been in a romantic relationship.
His courtship of Joan, however, was interrupted by an increasingly bizarre series of events centered around himself, and it became increasingly evident to John that, deny it though he would, he was not entirely human. His dreaming-self, the Doctor, was the true self; he was, as he put it, "just a story".
"Just a Story"
He was, in fact, formed from the Doctor when he used a Chameleon Arch to disguise himself from the Family of Blood. The name "John Smith" was actually one of the Doctor's many aliases.
Though wholly human, Smith displayed some skills unusual for a human, such as his intuition that a cricket ball, correctly thrown, would start a chain reaction of events that would save a woman and her baby from being crushed by a falling piano.
Smith's humanity made him far more emotional than the Doctor, whose actions often seemed cold or ruthless. He was aghast at Martha's revelation that the Doctor was indifferent towards or perhaps incapable of love; terrified of Tim Latimer's description of the Doctor's alienness; and, finally, shattered that becoming the Doctor meant that his own life as a separate entity would end.
Eventually, Smith decides that he must become the Doctor again, even if it means that "he" will die.
At one point Smith envisions a possible future in which he and Joan marry, have children, grow old, and Smith ultimately passes away from old age--secure in the knowledge that everyone he loves is safe.
Behind the Scenes
- His parents Sydney and Verity were references to Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert, the creators of the early Doctor Who.
- In his video diary (released with the Series 3 DVD set), David Tennant remarks that the makeup used to make him look elderly (in the "alternate future" sequence) made him look uncannily like his real-life father.