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The Corsair was a Time Lord, described by the the Eleventh Doctor as "one of the good ones". The Corsair took on different sexes throughout many incarnations. The Doctor noted that when the Corsair was female, "she was a bad girl." (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
Biography
The Fourth Doctor once said to Romana that he should meet up with the Corsair sometime. (PROSE: Shada)
The Corsair had the symbol of the Ouroboros tattooed on each of his or her incarnations and also imprinted on his hypercube. The final incarnation of the Corsair was described by Auntie, a composite humanoid servant of House, as "a strapping big bloke." She was a good authority on the matter; after all, she had the Corsair's left arm stitched on to her torso in place of her own, while the other composite humanoid slave, "Uncle" received "the spine and the kidneys." The loss of these organs was presumably lethal, and the Corsair went the way of House's numerous other Time Lord victims.
The Eleventh Doctor discovered the Corsair's fate after being contacted by a hypercube and following its psychically encoded distress message to House. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
During one adventure, while pushing a heavy crate, the Eleventh Doctor said that if he kept up this habit, he would develop big arms like the Corsair. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)
Behind the scenes
The Corsair was not the only Time Lord to bear a snake tattoo on his arm. Whereas the Corsair tattooed an ouroboros on each of his new bodies, the Doctor's third body came with a tattoo of a snake in the shape of a question-mark on his right arm. It was actor Jon Pertwee's own tattoo from his Royal Navy service during the Second World War. (TV: Spearhead From Space)
On his blog, The Doctor's Wife scriptwriter Neil Gaiman stated that before he began writing the first draft, he wanted to make sure the idea of the Corsair was okay with series show runner Steven Moffat before he became fixed in the story, so he sent him an email with a piece of dialogue between the Doctor and Amy in which the Doctor discussed the Corsair. In this draft, the Doctor explained that the Corsair did not have a name and used to travel, exploring the limits of time and space. The Doctor said that when he was twelve he had asked the Corsair if he could travel with him and act as his "assistant", but the Corsair had just laughed.
Steven Moffat replied that he wanted the Corsair to be less like the Doctor because the Doctor "does what he does for reasons too vast and terrible to relate".[1]
The Brilliant Book 2012
According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative information, the Ouroboros tattoo trademark of the Corsair — a snake eating its own tail, symbolising eternity — moved around the Corsair's body with each regeneration. The largest of these was during the third incarnation in which a multi-coloured variant covered a third of the Corsair's back; the smallest was no bigger than a ten-pence coin on the fifth incarnation's upper thigh.
Amongst their missions for the Time Lords, the Corsair stole the Callisto Pulse from the Callistan Kleptocracy.
Although she denied ever having fought the Daleks, she was spotted in her seventh incarnation on Clarkor Nine when the Dalek scout ship arrived. It is highly likely that she was involved in those Daleks having their suction cups and manipulator arms removed in the night and fused into a shape resembling a Skarosian profanity. The Daleks departed shortly afterward.
He visited Earth several times. He was worshipped as a god by the Assyrians until he became bored and departed with the sacred temple cat.
The Doctor and Corsair had many adventures together, getting drunk in the Corsair's fourth, fifth and eighth incarnations. Each time, the Doctor swore never to do it again. Twice they woke up in jail and the other time they woke up in the vaults of the Bank of England.
The Corsair was formally censured by the Time Lords after they may have been linked to the theft of the Portrait of Rassilon. This was overturned by Lady President Flavia, perhaps due to the Corsair's smile.
The Corsair's final adventure was when he was working on the Time Lords' Fourth Universal Survey. He was in his ninth incarnation when House killed him.
According to Russell T. Davies head canon, the Shopkeeper from Lost in Time is the Corsair.