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The half-Human Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor was created as a result of an instantaneous biological meta crisis. Regenerative energies present within The Doctor's severed hand combined with the Human DNA of Donna Noble when she touched the hand's casing. The force of the reaction shattered the case allowing the energy to regenerate the entire missing body of the Doctor creating a Time Lord/Human hybrid, a hybrid that possessed one heart; aged as Humans do and with no regenerative ability to avoid death.
As a result of growing partially from Donna's DNA the new Doctor picked up parts of Donna's mannerisms but maintained that he possessed the same memories, thoughts and feelings of the original Doctor up to the point of his aborted regeneration essentially they were the same man with physiological differences. However, the original Doctor is quick to point out his new double was born in battle, full of blood, anger and revenge which enabled him to commit genocide against the Daleks; an act the original Doctor greatly condemns after the events of the Last Great Time War.
Feeling his new half-Human counterpart is too dangerous to be left to his own devices, the Doctor entrusts him to Rose Tyler taking the two of them back to Bad Wolf Bay in the parallel universe dubbed Pete's World. The Doctor tells Rose that his half-Human self needs her, as he is angry and vengeful like he himself once was when he met Rose as the Ninth Doctor.
He tells her that she made him better, and now she can do the same for his other half-Human self. She objects to this at first, insisting the new Doctor isn't really him, despite the Doctor's assurance that they are the same man, and the half-Human Doctor offering to spend the rest of his life with her.
Rose then asks both Doctors what the last thing they said to her was when they were originally standing on Bad Wolf Bay (DW: Doomsday). The Doctor is unable to give her a direct answer, only allowing himself to hint: "Does it really need saying?" At this point she turns to the half-Human Doctor and poses the same question, to which he steps forward and whispers the answer his other self could not say in her ear.
Seemingly overcome with the revelation of his answer, Rose grabs the lapels of the half-Human Doctor and pulls him into a passionate kiss, which he reciprocates. The Doctor looks on sadly, yet stoically, for a brief moment before returning with Donna to the TARDIS and leaving the parallel world. As the doors of the TARDIS slam shut, Rose and the half-Human Doctor break from their kiss, but it is too late to say goodbye. The half-Human Doctor takes Rose's hand as they watch the TARDIS dematerialise for, what would appear to be, the last time. (DW: Journey's End)
Family
The Meta-Crisis Doctor, being in most respects a copy of the original Doctor, can claim the same familial ties as the original, up to and including his most recent offspring, Jenny. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter); however the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor can also claim Donna Noble as a relation, given that he was created in part through the link with her. Whether the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor is destined to have offspring with Rose has yet to be revealed. Many have noticed that the Masters regenration energy may have gone into the hand as the Master had taken the hand into the TARDIS when he regenerated meaning that there may be some link to The Master (DW:Utopia)
Behind the scenes
- Although he has the same appearance, memories, and basic personality of the Tenth Doctor, the new Doctor also exhibits several personality changes, in particular based upon that of Donna Noble. It is left deliberately ambiguous as to whether the new Doctor is actually a new incarnation of the original Doctor (if not strictly speaking a new regeneration) or a copy.
- In the Doctor Who Confidential installment, "End of an Era", executive producer Julie Gardner confirms that the new Doctor does indeed say "I love you" when he whispers in Rose's ear.
- On screen, this character is only ever referred to as the Doctor. To avoid confusion, fans have taken to referring to him by names such as the Clone Doctor, New Doctor, Meta-Crisis Doctor, Doctor Two or Doctor 10.5, though none of these names are considered official, particularly references to him as the 11th Doctor, although David Tennant, in Doctor Who Confidential, acknowledges that this is expected to be a topic of much debate as time goes on.
- The mini-episode Music of the Spheres features the Doctor wearing the blue suit worn by the Meta-Crisis Doctor. Although considered a possible continuity error, or an indication that Music of the Spheres takes place before the events of The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, if the "growing TARDIS" scenario is canonical, it's also conceivable that Music of the Spheres could feature the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor at some point in the future, travelling in his own TARDIS. It could also indicate, that the Doctor has more than one similiar suits in the TARDIS' closet, since this Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver and arrives to our universe's proms.
- The clothes that the new Doctor chooses reflect the proposed outfit Tennant was to wear in Season Three opener Smith And Jones, with the Doctor wearing a red t-shirt under his blue suit as opposed to the light blue shirt/tie combo that was eventually used. (DW: Smith and Jones (commentary))
- The revelation that Time Lord/Human hybrids are incapable of regenerating and only have one heart has put to rest the long debate over the validity of the Eighth Doctor's claim of being half-human, although it is still suggested that the Doctor himself is more than a Time Lord as shown DW: Forest of the Dead when he discovers his abilities are evolving beyond what Time Lords are normally capable of; although it could be assumed that other Time Lords may also have such capabilities after extended ownership and interaction with their TARDIS, but was never shown.
- A number of fans have begun speculating as to whether or not this Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor is the figure that would eventually become the enigmatic figure known to the Sixth Doctor as the malevolent Valeyard. However, if the Meta-Crisis Doctor did succumb to his darker impulses, he still would not become the actual Time Lord Valeyard that the Sixth Doctor encountered; as the actors are different and the Meta-Crisis Doctor cannot regenerate into becoming the canonical Eleventh, or Twelfth Doctors, not to mention being trapped in a parallel reality with no canonical way of returning to the original Doctor's reality let alone time traveling to prosecute his Sixth self. In this case, he would merely be an angry and violent mostly human copy of the Tenth Doctor, who may or may not refer to himself as "the Valeyard". This theory would seem to have gained some ground due to the events of the comic book mini-series, IDW: The Forgotten, in which a character resembling a bearded Meta-Crisis Doctor appeared and was addressed as "Valeyard" by the Doctor; ultimately, however, this ended up being a form taken on by an insectoid creature that assumed his form inside the TARDIS matrix; the comic contains no dialogue or textual references connecting the Valeyard to the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor.
Grow Your Own TARDIS
In the original script the Doctor was meant to give a TARDIS coral to the half-Human Doctor under the assumption that a whole new TARDIS could be grown from it, but it was later cut. However, the canonicity of this event is somewhat ambiguous.
- This was mentioned in "The Doctor's Data" section of a Doctor Who Adventures magazine.
- It was mentioned in the original draft of the script available in Russell T. Davies' book 'The Writer's Tale'.
- It was mentioned in the Fact File for the episode on the official website, which stated that it was in the original script but later removed.
- In addition, if one looks carefully at the 4th cover of the August 2008 Doctor Who Magazine, featuring Rose, Mickey, Jackie, and the Meta-Crisis 10th Doctor, it appears that, although covered up by actors' names, that the duplicate Doctor seems to be holding something. This could possibly be a piece of TARDIS.
- Inside the magazine, there is an excerpt of script with a statement that this part of the scene made it all the way to the last cut, but the producers decided that it was just complicating the scene too much. However, the scene was filmed, and it will be included in the Series 4 Box Set, so, the magazine quotes Russell T. Davies, it is perfectly fine to assume that the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler have a piece of TARDIS coral, which they can use to grow their own TARDIS.
- In Russell T. Davies' book 'The Writer's Tale', the full original draft of the Bad Wolf Bay script has the Doctor stating that it takes 'thousands of years' to grow a TARDIS. However, Donna uses her newfound Time Lord knowledge enhanced by human intuition to overcome this problem by suggesting: "...if you shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabiliser to a foldback harmonic of 36.3, you accelerate growth by the power of 59!" Which would presumably enable a TARDIS to grow within a human lifetime.
- The scene is included as an bonus feature with the Season 4 DVD box set released in November 2008.