Tenth Doctor

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference

Template:FAnom Template:Featured spotlight star

I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's gonna save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?The Tenth Doctor [Voyage of the Damned [src]]

Biography

chees is nice

Companions

he died

Personality

Like his predecessor, this Doctor was capable of boundless enthusiasm, though in his case often at inappropriate times. While many Doctors have intentionally flouted social conventions, the Tenth seems to be genuinely surprised when he is rude or uncouth. Charismatic and manic and with boundless energy, he retained and even exceeded his last incarnation's capacity for righteous anger, especially when Rose was threatened or at risk, as when the Wire stole her face. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern) When driven by anger or righteousness, he would act without hesitation to strike down those who opposed him; for example, he toppled the regime of Harriet Jones with just six well-chosen words after she committed what the Doctor considered mass murder (DW: The Christmas Invasion)

The Doctor also showed his anger when he gave each member of the Family of Blood an eternal punishment, fulfilling their wish for immortality in a twisted way. (DW: The Family of Blood) While he had resolved much of the survivor's guilt felt previously, he is beginning to feel his age and, behind the outward playfulness, he feels a deep loneliness. His keen sense of loss leads him to empathize with those who have also suffered.

There was an undeniable shadow cast over the jollity of the Doctor. He had a ruthlessness, bordering on arrogance that was almost eerie to behold. Beneath his youthful veneer, the Doctor is a very old man who has seen many terrible things; and in some matters, his patience and capability for mercy and compassion has worn out or diminished. His exuberant demeanour somewhat disappeared after the loss of Rose, and he became angrier and more sober. He was also never as open or caring towards Martha, being less inclined to hug her, however his jovial manner did return marginally towards Donna, but even then his actions still suggest that he never completely overcame his loss of Rose.

The Doctor has a very hard time accepting defeat or failure, for example when he was unable to save Astrid he kicked a teleport, screaming "I can do anything!". (DW: Voyage of the Damned) Arguably this may be because he has seen so much destruction he feels driven to try to prevent it where possible. River Song thought that if he lost this trait the universe would become a darker place. (DW: Forest of the Dead)

He frequently gets into trouble because of his vast and loose sense of superiority (DW:Midnight) and provides his name (his chosen name, not his birth name) as a threat, which only rarely works, despite his apparent expectations (perhaps because so few species know of his existence).

The Doctor frequently ignores reproach; when companions point out he's committing horrible acts, he ignores them or changes the subject. The Doctor is willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the historic timeline from being disrupted and/or protect innocent civilizations, even to the point of having to cause deaths (DW: The Fires of Pompeii, etc.). However, as time went on, he became more hesitant to kill, choosing often to give his enemies a chance to surrender without suffering any harm. This is a change he attributes to Rose Tyler, telling her she helped him overcome a time in his life that was "full of blood and anger", eventually making him a "better man". (DW Journey's End)

Habits and Quirks

The Doctor made frequent reference to twentieth century pop culture, including the Ghostbusters theme (DW: Army of Ghosts), the song "Circle of Life" from The Lion King (DW: The Christmas Invasion), and one of Kylie Minogue's songs, "Never Too Late". (DW: The Idiot's Lantern) He had also read the Harry Potter books, saying that he cried after reading the seventh book (DW: The Shakespeare Code) Even though he knows so much of pop culture he has been shown to not understand certain remarks, such as being called a "science geek". (DW:The Lazarus Experiment) He's fond of rock and roll, trying to take Rose to see concerts by both Elvis Presley (DW: The Idiot's Lantern) and Ian Dury (DW: Tooth and Claw), and dresses in the manner of an indie Brit-pop musician. He wore trainers and faux reading glasses — both deliberate homages to his fifth incarnation. (DW: Time Crash) He often remarks that exotic technology or life is "beautiful" and is genuinely enthralled by such discoveries, sometimes to the extent that he places himself or his companions in danger. When this Doctor is faced with an occurrence that dumbfounds him he says, "What?" repeatedly increasing the confused expression on his face each time (He has said this a total of 10 times) . While attempting to explain something he'll often interrupt himself with a "Well..." and further elaborate what it was he was talking about (see DW: Blink for an example).

Until they left his life, he continued his previous incarnation's habit of mildly abusing both Mickey and Jackie, though generally in a more obviously playful fashion.

The Doctor is also fond of the phrase "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry". He has said the phrase a total of 20 times. Another favoured phrase is "Allons-y!". He also often responds "I'm always all right" even when all evidence points to the contrary (a response which the Seventh Doctor also used to deflect the same question). He has also been known to often refer to things as "brilliant", a variation on his previous incarnation's favourite exclamation, "Fantastic!". Soon after his regeneration, the Doctor discovered that his physical changes - specifically the new teeth - made it difficult for him to utter the catchphrase, though he eventually managed to do so. (DW: The Christmas Invasion - deleted scene, although his successful utterance is in the broadcast version)

The Doctor has a stated fondness for "little shops", the gift stores usually found in hospitals and other public places. (DW: New Earth, Smith and Jones, Silence in the Library)

This incarnation of the Doctor relies heavily upon his sonic screwdriver, pushing it to limits not seen in previous incarnations and even chiding his fifth incarnation for going "hands free". (DW: Time Crash) Other tools he uses frequently include psychic paper (also used by his predecessor) and, incongruously since he is not a medical doctor, a stethoscope (although the Doctor's stethoscope appears to have additional abilities; for example he used it to assist his phone in receiving a signal from the relocated Earth. (DW: The Stolen Earth) Like previous incarnations, he appears to have the ability to carry a large and diverse number of objects in his pockets, stating once that they're bigger on the inside. (DW: The Runaway Bride) At one point he produces a wind-up mouse from a pocket. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter)

He had taken to carrying a GSM cell phone with him; the number can be used to contact him anywhere in space and time. (DW: The Sontaran Strategem, The Stolen Earth) Like his previous incarnation did with Rose Tyler's "superphone", this incarnation has also taken to "upgrading" the mobile phones of his later companions in order to facilitate communication with their families and with the Doctor: both Martha Jones and Donna Noble's phones were so modified and, like Rose's mother, their close relatives were aware that they could communicate through time and space as a result. (DW: The Stolen Earth) The phone he carries is Martha Jones' superphone, given to him by her so she could contact him if need be, apparently he can be called using any standard phone. (DW: The Sontaran Strategem The Stolen Earth)

He also follows the trend of his immediate successors in displaying increasing skill for using the TARDIS, on several occasions even using it in the form of a standard spaceship rather than simply dematerializing it every time. (DW: The Runaway Bride, Partners in Crime) He is told by a future companion that he will one day be able to command the TARDIS by a click of his fingers and initially believes this to be nonsense, but later finds out that he does possess such abilities. (DW: Forest of the Dead)

The Doctor also had the small quirk of intending to go to one destination, but walking in the opposite direction, leading to more than a few corrections from others (example: DW: Army of Ghosts). This was similar to his Sixth incarnation's habit of declaring to go one way but then going a different way; this was more of a personal quirk than a bad sense of direction, though.

Appearance

Body

This incarnation had brown eyes. He had a mole between his shoulder blades that he noticed post-regeneration that he was initially bothered by but quickly warmed to. (DW: Children in Need Special) On several occasions, Donna Noble remarked about his slender build. (DW: Partners in Crime, et al)

Grooming and hair

He was happy that he had hair unlike his previous incarnation, whose hair was very close-cut. The Doctor seemed disappointed that his tenth incarnation was not "ginger" (red-headed), but has worn his own dark brown hair in various ways throughout the series: unstyled (DW: The Christmas Invasion), a fifties-style quiff (DW: The Idiot's Lantern), and flattened forwards (DW: The Runaway Bride).

Clothes

This Doctor had several variations of dress.

He had been seen wearing a dark brown (with blue pinstripes) suit (DW: The Christmas Invasion through Doomsday), a blue (with red pinstripes) suit (DW: Smith and Jones through Journey's End) and on rare occasions, a tuxedo. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel, The Lazarus Experiment, Voyage of the Damned)

To go with his suits he usually wore a shirt and a tie (otherwise, open-shirted with a light grey t-shirt/vest) (DW: Tooth and Claw), (DW: Planet of the Ood), a red-hued t-shirt. (DW: 42) or a black t-shirt ((DW: Midnight). Both brown and blue suits are often accompanied by a light brown overcoat (which he claims was given to him by Janis Joplin). (Source?)

The blue suit was obtained by the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor upon his generation and was last seen being worn by this clone Doctor in Pete's World. (DW: Journey's End) However, there is an unconfirmed report that suggests the Doctor may own more than one of these suits. (DW: Music of the Spheres)

His choice of footwear was trainers (more specifically Converse All Stars), in colours ranging from cream (to go with his brown suit), black (for wearing with a tuxedo and on one occasion with his brown suit) or burgundy to go with the blue suit). Another part of the Doctor's attire was a pair of dark tortoise-shell rectangular frame glasses which he called "brainy specs". Although he has been seen to put them on numerous occasions, he once confessed that he didn't need them, they just made him look smarter. (DW: Time Crash)

Alternate timeline

  • In the parallel timeline known as Donna's World, this incarnation of the Doctor was the last, as he was killed as a result of his defeating the Empress of the Racnoss without the aid of Donna Noble (who in this timeline never met the Doctor). His former companion, Rose Tyler, along with the alternate timeline version of Donna, eventually restored the original timeline. (DW: Turn Left)

Key Life Events

Behind the Scenes

Casting

David Walliams was the second choice for the role of the Tenth Doctor but he had to turn it down because he was stuck in the tight scheduele of the third season of his show Little Britain. The original choice for the role of the Tenth Doctor was an unknown and (unnamed by the BBC) actor who spoke in a cockney accent, but he didn't get the role because he moved down to Australia with his wife and daughter, his name has never been revealed publicly to protect his privacy, however Tennant has stated in interviews he's been told who the original choice for the role was, knows who he is and greatly admires him, even calling that near casting decision a more perfect casting than him being cast.

Costuming

David Tennant described his costume "geek chic". According to an interview on Parkinson, David Tennant and Russell T. Davies got the idea for the Tenth Doctor's costume from an outfit Jamie Oliver had worn on Parkinson just after David had taken the role.

Retrieved from "https://tardis.wiki/w/index.php?title=Tenth_Doctor&oldid=202416"