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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. 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.
Profile
The Doctor's incarnations
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. To date, the Doctor has had 10 incarnations:
- 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. Of all the Doctors, he had arguably the most complex personality.
- 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 following the the War with the Enemy.
- The Ninth Doctor, now a survivor of the Last Great Time War, 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 was 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 Human pop culture reference. He had a serious side, but quite often his other wins out. He can act with inhuman ruthlessness. He was also noted to be very good looking, skinny and unintentionally rude.
- The actor playing the Tenth Doctor David Tennant announced his departure from the series in 2009, a new Doctor the Eleventh Doctor is expected to be introduced either in the final "gap year" special scheduled for broadcast in late 2009-early 2010, or at the start of the 5th full series in 2010. The actor who will play the Eleventh Doctor was announced by the BBC on 3 January 2009 as 26-year-old Matt Smith.
It is known that Time Lords professed to have a fixed cycle of regenerations, namely twelve - or thirteen incarnations in total (DW: The Deadly Assassin, Mawdryn Undead, Doctor Who: The TV Movie). This limit makes the Doctor's future after his thirteenth incarnation (should he survive so long) unclear. It is not known whether this limit still exists following the destruction of Gallifrey in the Last Great Time War (DW: The End of the World, et al). Preliminary information about an eleventh incarnation is beginning to emerge, but very little is at present known.
Personal information
The Doctor's name
The Doctor was an extremely enigmatic individual. Befitting this, his true name remains unknown to all but a very few individuals (of which only one, River Song, has been confirmed (DW: Forest of the Dead)). Apparently his real name is not even known by the Time Lords (DW: The War Games, The Trial of a Time Lord).
- For a longer discussion of the mystery of the Doctor's true name and of his other aliases, see Aliases of the Doctor.
The Doctor's age
- See separate article.
Connections with Earth
Although the Doctor visited many worlds, the planet Earth remains the one for which he had the closest affinity. He displayed immense knowledge and/or interest in Earth history and was either an observer or an active participant in countless major events in that history. As noted previously, he found himself exiled to Earth during his third incarnation, very much against his wishes.
However he also had, at times, an affinity for the place, and specifically for Great Britain. When Angus Goodman asked him if he was British, he replied that he wasn't, but thanked Gus for the compliment. (DWM: 4-Dimensional Vistas) He considered himself to be British soon after his regeneration into his eighth incarnation (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie).
His incarnations have adopted accents based upon different regions of the UK, most notably his seventh incarnation (who had 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. His ninth and tenth incarnations developed a network of friends and former companions at one point referred to as the Doctor's secret Army or the Children of Time (DW: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End).
Family
On Gallifrey
On Gallifrey, the Doctor was one of the forty-five cousins created by a Loom to the House of Lungbarrow. When the House disowned, he replied that he had "other families" (NA: Lungbarrow).
These would somehow seem to include parents (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie) and a spouse (DW: Blink, MA: Cold Fusion), probably Patience (PDA: The Infinity Doctors) and at least one child (DW: Fear Her). He had an (adopted) grand-daughter, Susan Foreman. 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). When one person asked him what had happened to his family, he replied, with seemingly real lack of knowledge that he didn't know. (DW: The Curse of Fenric)
- He had not, however, at that point, returned to the House of Lungbarrow. As far as the Doctor's adoption of Susan, contradictory statements describe the circumstances under which he adopted her, though both identify her as originally a native of Gallifrey. Her later fate, unless she died in the Last Great Time War, remains unknown.
He had at least one brother (DW: Smith and Jones, possibly the Time Lord Irving Braxiatel (BNA: Tears of the Oracle)
After the Last Great Time War
Genetic material from the Doctor in his tenth incarnation did create a child of sorts, Jenny. The Doctor believed Jenny to have been recently murdered; although unknown to him she underwent a partial regeneration and survived. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter)
During the event in which the Earth was relocated to the Medusa Cascade, a clone of the Doctor was created; this clone later was exiled by the Doctor to Pete's World; technically, however, the clone can be considered a relative of the Doctor's, after a fashion. (DW: Journey's End)
Influence
The Doctor belonged to the Prydonian Chapter, the most important chapter of Time Lord society (DW: The Deadly Assassin). He 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 and a knight of the British Empire (DW:Frontier in Space, Tooth and Claw).
Having broken the Time Lord's non-interference policy, in his second incarnation, he was put on trial as a renegade (DW: The War Games). Subsequently, for a time, he acted as agent of the Time Lord's Celestial Intervention Agency before the beginning of his sentence on 20th century Earth (PDA: Players, World Game). Folllowing his defeat of Omega, which saved Gallifrey he was given a pardon and granted freedom (DW: The Three Doctors).
In his fourth incarnation, as part of a ploy to outwit invaders to Gallifrey, he applied for the position of Lord President of the High Council (DW: The Invasion of Time). In his fifth incarnation, he was put on trial again for recklessness (DWM: The Stockbridge Horror). He was later given the title of Lord President again by Councillor Flavia, against his wishes. He pretended to accept the office but ran away in the TARDIS. (DW: The Five Doctors). Prior to the Doctor's trial during his sixth incarnation, he was deposed in absentia and put on trial for breaking the non-interference policy and, later in the same trial, for genocide, although the validity of the trial was called into question when it was discovered that it had been orchestrated by an evil future manifestation of the Doctor, the Valeyard (DW: The Trial of a Time Lord).
Languages
No bo ho so ko ro toe so. Bo-ko-do-zo-go-bo-fo-po-jo! Ma ho.
The Doctor is apparently fluent in 5 billion languages including being very fluent in Judoon (DW:The Parting of the Ways, The Stolen Earth).
Other Doctors
Other versions of the Doctor have come to light. Following are descriptions of some of those currently known to exist.
The Watcher
- Towards the end of his fourth incarnation, the Doctor, was assisted by a mysterious whiteclad Watcher, a version of himself in between his fourth and fifth incarnations. (DW: Logopolis).
The Valeyard
- The Doctor's enemy, the Valeyard was revealed to be a potential future Doctor, existing somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnations and embodying the evil of the Doctor's dark side. (DW: The Trial of a Time Lord).
Merlin
- The Doctor discovered evidence of Merlin, a future or alternative version of himself known to Ancelyn and Morgaine. (DW: Battlefield)
- This is possibly the same incarnation as Muldwych.
- The Fourth and Fifth incarnations of the Doctor met another Merlin, 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.
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
The Doctor encountered Dr. Who in the Land of Fiction (NA: Head Games).
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 transferred to her. (DW: Journey's End)
Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor
- Main article: Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor
- Technically a clone of the Doctor, created as a result of the meta crisis that created the DoctorDonna, above. Unlike the Doctor himself, this clone was half-Human, could not regenerate, and had only one heart. (DW: Journey's End).
Jackson Lake
Lake was a human from mid-19th Century Earth who absorbed data relating to the Doctor up until the Tenth Incarnation. After losing his wife and son to the Cybermen, he lost his mind and proceeded to live as if he was the Doctor, fighting the Cybermen, gaining a companion, and creating his own form of TARDIS, before the real Doctor helps him regain his original memories. (DW: The Next Doctor).
Alternative Doctors
First Doctor
- In a reality created by the Black Guardian, the Doctor occupies the position of puppet Lord President of Gallifrey, serving the Dalek Empire and sitting idly by as armies of alien invaders squabble over Earth. (DWM: Time & Time Again)
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)
- One of these potential third incarnations took over Britain as a fascist military dictator. Though not known at the time when the Doctor visited there (DW: Inferno), this was later revealed. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, The Face of the Enemy)
- An an alternative who never joined UNIT as its scientific advisor, but instead met and befriended the Brigadier long after his UNIT heyday, is also known to exist. (DWU: Sympathy for the Devil, The Masters of War))
- The machinations of Faction Paradox created an earlier death on the planet Dust for the Third Doctor than had occurred in the Doctor's established timeline. He still regenerated into the same fourth incarnation, and almost everything else remained the same, but it created a paradox which left his eighth incarnation susceptible to Faction Paradox's plans. (EDA/PDA: Interference: Book One, Interference: Book Two)
Fourth Doctor
- An alternative fourth incarnation, who, having just regenerated, and his new companions Jenny and Jimmy prevented the Daleks from gaining the Crystal of All Power. (Doctor Who and the Daleks and the Seven Keys to Doomsday)
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)
- A version of the Doctor living on Gallifrey, (PDA: The Infinity Doctors).
- 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
- A melancholic Ninth Doctor, haunted by some unexplained recent event and inexplicably travelling with an android recreation of The Master, reluctantly fought the Shalka on Earth, and in so doing acquired a new travelling companion, Alison Cheney (Scream of the Shalka, EDA: The Tomorrow Windows).
Other Versions or Incarnations
- Apparations of various alternative possibilities from his first through his eighth incarnations appeared to the Seventh Doctor and his companions. (NA: So Vile a Sin).
- A 1980s-style "contemporary" Doctor, in a Greenpeace t-shirt. (Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure).
- 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)
- Grandfather Paradox, the patriarch of Faction Paradox, may have his origins as a warped-timeline version of the Doctor. (NA: Christmas on a Rational Planet onwards).
- This association remains speculative.
- A Doctor who never left Gallifrey. (DWU: Auld Mortality) and then, deciding to do so, changed Earth history, with disastrous results (DWU: A Storm of Angels").
- 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 alternate reality version of the Valeyard who won his battle with the Doctor (DWU: He Jests at Scars...).
- 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.
- A ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelvth and finally a thirteenth and female incarnation. (DW: The Curse of Fatal Death)
Companions
The Doctor likes traveling with an entourage. Sometimes they're human, sometimes they're aliens and sometimes they're tin dogs.
- 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
"Doctor Who"
The use of the name "Doctor Who" when referring to the Doctor is disapproved of by most fans. Despite this, the ending credits for the series usually have given his name as "Doctor" or "Dr. Who", until Producer John Nathan-Turner changed the policy, making his name in the end credits now the "the Doctor". Executive Producer Russell T Davies also preferred "Doctor Who", but Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant asked him to change it back to "the Doctor".
In the series, only one character, WOTAN in 1966's The War Machines has ever directly referred to him by this name, a scene fans. Other media, 1960s and early 1970s Doctor Who Annual, comics and Target Books (most notably the Doctor Who and the Zarbi, not technically a Target Books novelisation, but reprinted by them) have called the Doctor "Doctor Who". Even then, dialogue between characters usually referred to him as "the Doctor".
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 "Greenpeace Doctor" appeared when his understudy, David Banks, had to fill in for Jon Pertwee when he felt too ill to perform the main role in the stage play Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure.
- 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.
- See The Doctor (AudioVisuals) for details on this Doctor in the mainstream Doctor Who Universe.
Analogous characters in spin-off media
- 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.
- McCoy also played a parody of the Seventh Doctor, in the BBV comedy Do You Have a Licence to Save This Planet?