Eleventh Doctor

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The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. He is currently 907 years old. He was sporadic and very alien compared to his previous incarnation, yet retained his youthful vigour for defending the Earth.

Biography

Regeneration

The Eleventh Doctor moments after his regeneration. (DW: The End of Time)

The Doctor's tenth incarnation regenerated after absorbing a vast amount of radiation. After this, he released a massive amount of energy during regeneration, causing severe damage to his TARDIS. Despite the destruction going on around him inside the TARDIS, the new incarnation's first priority was to do a personal inventory of his body to make sure all the proper parts were in place; in fact, his first words were "Legs! I've still got legs! Good!" after which he kissed one of his knees in relief. He next counted his fingers. The new incarnation was momentarily worried that he had regenerated as female due to having longer hair, until he confirmed the presence of an Adam's apple. He then mentioned "I've had worse" when it came to his nose, seemed unsettled by his chin, and again bemoaned the fact that he was still not ginger; something his previous incarnation had also wanted to be. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)

Slightly addled by the regeneration, the new Doctor did not immediately realize the TARDIS was on fire and about to crash. Once he did, he actually seemed to enjoy the thrill of the moment, gleefully calling out "Geronimo!" as his TARDIS plummeted to Earth. (DW: The End of Time)

Unlike most of his recent regenerations, the Doctor was not rendered unconscious or otherwise greatly incapacitated after the change. Aside from developing an odd taste in food (see below), the only apparent ill effects included a temporary "steering problem" with his body (he walked into a tree at one point), and the occasional spasm. He also endured being knocked unconscious by a cricket bat. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Meeting Amy and saving the world

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The Doctor and Amelia have dinner. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

While the TARDIS is falling and blowing up, the Doctor holds onto the edge of the TARDIS and tries to get back in. When he does, another explosion causes the TARDIS to crash in Amelia Pond's garden and the Doctor falls all the way down into the library, along with the pool. The Doctor emerges and asks for an apple. After drying off, the Doctor discovers most of the foods he likes he hates now due to his regeneration changing his taste. The only food he likes is fish fingers dipped in custard. After discovering that the crack in Amelia's bedroom wall is a crack in time and a prison and also noticing a perception filtered door, the Doctor hears the Cloister Bell and runs to the TARDIS to stabilize its engines by making a quick jump into the future. He promises young Amelia that he'll return in five minutes. 12 years later,

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The Doctor and Amy Pond as they take off for the first time (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

the Doctor materilises the TARDIS and enters Amelia's house and knows where Prisoner Zero is. When he calls for Amelia he gets hit with a cricket bat and is cuffed to a radiator. He wakes and discovers a police officer (Amy) and she enters the perception filtered room and retrieves the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver and encounters Prisoner Zero. After escaping the house, the Doctor discovers the police officer is Amelia (now called Amy) and that the Atraxi will incinerate Earth in 20 minutes. With his sonic screwdriver destroyed, the Doctor figures out a new strategy to save Earth. He uses Jeff's laptop to communicate with Patrick Moore, NASA and many other people and creates a computer virus from Rory's Blackberry Storm which he uses to attract the Atraxi to the hospital where Prisoner Zero is. After calling back the Atraxi and convincing them never to return, the TARDIS key glows and the Doctor races to the TARDIS to check out what it looks like. He then makes a quick trip to the moon to "run in" the TARDIS, and comes back for Amy, two years later, and (unbeknownst to him) the night before her wedding. He offers to take her anytime and anywhere in the Universe and they set off. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Adventures with Amy Pond

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The Doctor and Amy share a hug. (DW: The Beast Below)

For their first trip, the Doctor takes Amy Pond to the late 32nd century, a time when all the humans have evacuated Earth due to solar flares roasting the planet in the 29th century. They land on Starship UK, which houses the entirity of the UK like the name suggests. There, the Doctor discovers the ship is running without an engine and is baffled by this. He and Amy discover that the whole ship is transported by the last Star Whale which is driven through torture methods. The Doctor is then faced with an impossible choice: let the Star Whale continue being tortured or release it thus killing everyone aboard the ship. In the end the Doctor decides to lobotize the Star Whale, thus killing it as painlessly as possible and allowing the ship to still be intact. Amy soon notices the similarities between The Doctor and the Star Whale (the kindness and being the last of their kind) and realises that the whale is there of its own accord and frees it from the pain. As they leave the ship, Amy was about to tell the Doctor her wedding was to be tomorrow before being interrupted by a phone call from Winston Churchill, who informs the Doctor that he's in need of his help. The Doctor tells them they're on their way and the two head off for World War II London. (DW: The Beast Below).

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The Doctor witness the restoration of the Daleks. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)

Arriving in 1941, the Doctor and Amy find Churchill, who has previously met the Doctor (PDA: Players, The Shadow in the Glass). The TARDIS has arrived a month after the Doctor recieved Winston's call. The reason he called in the first place, was to show him one of his 'Ironsides', which are, in fact, subservient Daleks. They arrived in World War II because after the War in the Medusa Cascade, one of the flagships fell through time, nearly destroyed; only three Daleks survived. They then created an android, who claims to have created the Daleks. From there, they try to find the Doctor, so his testimony can activate the Progenitor. Once the Doctor is on the ship, the current leader of the Daleks, a standard bronze Dalek, manages to use the machine to create a league of five new Daleks. They are the Supreme (White), the Strategist (Blue), the Eternal (Yellow), the Scientist (Orange), and the Drone (Red). The new five Daleks destroy the 'inferior' Daleks, and begin to destroy Earth using the android as a bomb. The Doctor manages to deactivate the bomb, but the Daleks escape, planning their next strategem (DW: Victory of the Daleks).

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The Doctor is surprised to see River Song. (DW: The Time of Angels)

After arriving in the Delirium Archive in the 171st century, he finds a Home Box with the message, "Hello Sweetie" inscribed on it in Old High Gallifreyan, he realizes someone on a spaceship 12,000 years ago is trying to attract his attention so he steals the Home Box. Watching the video recorded on the Home Box he finds River Song was the one trying to contact him, she tells him the coordinates and that she needs an air corridor. After picking her up in space they chase the Starliner Byzantium to the planet it crashed on, Alfava Metraxis the seventh planet of the Dundra system. River Song reveals that on board that ship was a Weeping Angel, among the most deadly forms of life evolution has ever produced. Inside the Aplan's Temple catacombs the Doctor discovers that this maze of the dead is filled with what seems to be statues and dead bodies in the walls. After they travel much farther inside up toward the crashed Byzantium the Doctor and River Song notice the perception filter on the statues, weak and starving Weeping Angels all around them.

As the statues begin to awaken due to the Starliner's radiation, the group retreats, ending up beaneath the Byzantium. After a Weeping Angel used the voice of one of the dead clerics to taunt him, the Doctor borrows Octavian's gun and shot the gravity globe. The gravity updraft brings the group to the underside of the Byzantium, where they manage to climb inside and briefly elude the Angels. Contacted by Angel Bob, the Doctor realises that there is a crack in the wall of the Byzantium, which he calls "extremely very not good". Cornered by the Angels, he manages to escape by telling them that the Crack's energy would consume them. Reunited with Amy, he discovers that an Angel has invaded the vision centres of her brain, slowly killing her. Instructing her to keep her eyes shut, and leaving her with a number of clerics, the Doctor goes with River and Octavian to the flight deck. As River finds a way in, Octavian is ambushed by a Weeping Angel.

The Doctor, unable to make the Angel release him without turning away, is forced to let it kill Octavian. Once inside the flight deck, the Doctor postulates that the only way to stop the Crack from feeding was to feed it a complicated space-time event such as himself. In the end, however, he allows the Angels to drain all the ship's power, resulting in the loss of the artificial gravity, causing the Angels to fall into the crack and be erased from existence, at the same time curing Amy. After bidding River farewell, the Doctor is asked by Amy to bring her home, where she reveals to him that she was getting married, and attempts to seduce him. Resisting her advances, the Doctor, having learned earlier that the explosion that caused the cracks was going to happen on her wedding day, realises that sorting her out might be the most important thing in the universe. (DW: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone)

Collecting Amy's fiance, Rory, the Doctor takes them on a romantic trip to Venice, calling it a "wedding present". However, once there, the group discover a group of fish-like aliens masquerading as vampires who were attempting to take over the city. Learning from their matriarch, Rosanna, that their world had been destroyed by another crack, and that they had ran from the silence, the Doctor stops their plans to flood Venice. However, he was unable to stop Rosanna from committing suicide, after she asked him if his conscience could bear the weight of another dead species, and told him to dream of them. As the group departs for the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rory notice that silence has fallen all around them. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

While traveling with Amy and Rory the Doctor falls into the traps of the Dream Lord, a mysterious entity, who antagonises the three, by giving them a choice between the current world and a world set in 2015, where Amy and Rory are married and settled down in the quiet town of Upper Leadworth, Rory is the local doctor and Amy is pregnant. After discovering the

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The Doctor sees the Dream Lord's reflection in the TARDIS console. (DW: Amy's Choice)

murder of a group of schoolchildren in the Leadworth scenario and realizing the TARDIS is on a collision course with a cold sun in the other scenario, the Doctor confronts the Dream Lord, telling him he knows who he is and claiming, "There's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do". As the crew gets colder in the TARDIS, they come under threat from body-snatching Eknodine in Leadworth. The Eknodine manage to kill Rory, who dies in front of Amy and the helpless Doctor. Amy realizes she has been romanticizing the Doctor while she cannot live without Rory, and she crashes a van into her house, killing herself and the Doctor. All three time-travelers awake in the TARDIS, which the Doctor proceeds to overload and destroy, claiming the Dream Lord has no influence over reality. Once the Dream Lord has been thwarted, the Doctor reveals who he was: the Doctor himself. Psychic pollen had caused the Doctor's negative, dark side to manifest as the Dream Lord, a smug, manipulative man who has a tremendous hatred for the Doctor, reveling in insulting him (bearing several similarities to the Valeyard). As the Doctor starts the TARDIS up he looks at the panel and briefly sees the Dream Lord's smirking face, a reminder that he is still inside him somewhere. (DW: Amy's Choice)

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The Doctor tries to pull Amy out of the ground. (DW: The Hungry Earth)


Although the Doctor plans to take Amy and Rory to Rio de Janeiro in the year 2020, the TARDIS takes them almost 6,000 miles off-course, depositing them in Cwmtaff, Wales. The Doctor decides they should stay and investigate strange patches of blue grass growing in the village and the disappearance of a worker from the drilling station nearby, but within minutes of their arrival, Amy is dragged underground by an unknown menace helping to save geologist Tony Mack from the same fate. Although he is badly shaken at Amy's disappearance, the Doctor quickly surmises that whatever took her must want her alive. When a scan of the crust around Cwmtaff reveals a network of tunnels leading up from deep below 21 kilometers, where the drill has penetrated in head geologist Nasreen Chaudhry's attempt to solve the mystery of the blue grass, and an energy barrier blocks the village off from the outside world, he realizes

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The Doctor and Nasreen discover the Silurian colony. (DW: The Hungry Earth)

something is coming to the surface. Recruiting Nasreen, Tony, and Tony's daughter Ambrose Northover and grandson Elliot Northover, the Doctor attempts to marshal a defense, but is unable to prevent the attackers from abducting Elliot. He and Rory do succeed in taking a hostage of their own, the warrior Alaya of the long-dormant Silurian race. Although Alaya informs him during interrogation that she plans to wipe the human species from the planet for the offense of taking over the Earth's surface and inadvertently reawakening her people from dormancy with Chaudhry's drill, the Doctor explains to Nasreen, Ambrose, Tony, and Rory that the Silurians are not a bad species and tells them he plans to travel underground and negotiate the exchange of Alaya for Amy, Elliot, and Elliot's father Mo. He warns that they must demonstrate their decency as ambassadors of the human race and refrain from hurting or killing their antagonistic hostage. Nasreen elects to join the Doctor in the TARDIS, which is pulled underground into a subterranean cavern deep in the Earth's crust. After Nasreen happens upon a sprawling Silurian city, the Doctor is shocked that Alaya's tribe appears so vast and apparently intact after hundreds of millions of years spent dormant below the surface. (DW: The Hungry Earth)

Personality

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A serious side of the Doctor rages. (DW: The Beast Below)

At first glance, the Eleventh Doctor is highly energetic and very lively, much like his predecessors with additional liveliness coming from his post-regenerative period. He is extremely brash and unafraid to show his eccentricities, appearing to act alien. He is also easily agitated when people or objects do not do as he wishes them to, and will resort to physical confrontation and somewhat reckless behavior to achieve his goals. He has, like a number of his other incarnations, fantastic leadership qualities. Much like his ninth and tenth incarnations, he also has a large amount of knowledge of Earth slang and colloquialism as he is aware of Facebook, Twitter and Bebo. He appears to have remembered a few of his predecessor's catchphrases, such as "Fantastic!", "There's been some cowboys in here", and repetition of the word "What!". He is extremely resourceful and quick thinking, able to spin things to his point of view, and can find positive outlooks in negative situations. He is somewhat more melodramatic in his brilliance, going so far as to prove Fermat's last theorem, Faster-than-light travel and why electrons have mass just to prove he could be trusted. He also said how he saved the world "For about the millionth time".(DW:The Eleventh Hour).

Much like the Second Doctor, this Doctor shows a childlike recklessness but always has a grander scheme behind his actions. Also similar to his second incarnation, the Eleventh has a knack for acting smug, occasionally boasting about his feats, knowledge, and reputation.

This Doctor also has a more serious side to his character. He shows little tolerance for dire mistakes and being belittled by others; he likely does not give second chances. He often takes his frustrations out on others by exploding with anger and coldness. (DW: The Beast Below, Flesh and Stone, Amy's Choice) He even threatened to leave Amy back at her home after one mistake. (DW: The Beast Below) He is also more prone to violent actions and sometimes uses them as his first option to achieve his goals: he repeatedly attacked a Dalek with a spanner in order to provoke it into showing its true nature and immediately struck Dr. Bracewell in order to incapacitate his detonation. (DW: Victory of the Daleks) This Doctor also possessed a sense of arrogance, stating to Amy that "time is not the boss of me" (DW: The Time of Angels) and "You don't ever decide what I need to know". (DW: The Beast Below)

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The Doctor uses a poor choice of words when informing Rory about Amy trying to seduce him. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

The Eleventh Doctor shares many (but much milder) traits of the Sixth Doctor such as the solemn nature of this Doctor when not being taken seriously and the belittling of humans. Also reminiscent of the Sixth Doctor, this Doctor seems to be less interested in his companions than his previous incarnation was, even ignoring them when busy with his work. He also largely prefers his companions to follow his instructions but usually falls back to his previous incarnation's habit of letting his companions try their own plans. He scolded Amy for her initial refusal to go back to the TARDIS with Rory while he tries to stop the Saturnynian's plan. (DW: The Vampires of Venice) Unlike his previous incarnation, this Doctor seems slightly annoyed with River Song instead of enjoying her company. He is also mildly callous like his sixth and ninth incarnations, he doesn't believe in using white lies nor does he dabble around with the truth like what his tenth incarnation did. He is straight to the point and does not beat around the bush no matter how bad the situation is. He held up an awestruck Rory by his collar in order to stop him from babbling and get information out of him quickly (DW: The Eleventh Hour), calmly told Amy that they might plunge to their death if things go awry (DW: Flesh and Stone), and casually explained that even if the TARDIS fell into a threatening cold star, it wouldn't matter because everyone inside would have already frozen to death. (DW: Amy's Choice) Also like his sixth incarnation, this Doctor occasionally badly misjudges people. Similar to how the Sixth Doctor misjudged Lytton, The Eleventh Doctor stated he wished he'd known Father Octavian better right before he is killed by a Weeping Angel. (DW: Flesh and Stone)

The Eleventh Doctor's more extreme emotional moments seem linked to making hard choices and the potential that innocents may suffer and die as a result of them. When it appears he must lobotomise the Star Whale in order to save it more pain, he seems disgusted with the situation and himself. He remarks that he will have to change his name "Because I won't be the Doctor anymore" (DW:The Beast Below)

Much like his fourth, sixth, and ninth incarnation, this Doctor was much more outwardly alien and wasn't as in touch with humanity as his fifth, eighth and previous incarnation were. The Eleventh believes that a human's ability to feel pain and suffering defines their humanity. (DW: Victory of the Daleks) The Eleventh is also aware of the flaws humans have and reminds them of those flaws, a trait his ninth incarnation had. He seems to suggest that he sees humans as beneath him. When speaking with Father Octavian about Alfava Metraxis he compares humans to rabbits and claims he'll "never get done saving you." (DW: The Time of Angels) When Amy suddenly forces herself upon the Doctor and kisses him he immediately responds with "But you're human!". (DW: Flesh and Stone) The Eleventh Doctor still shows a deep respect for humanity, calling them an "extraordinary species" and telling Alaya that it dangerous to understimate them. (DW:The Hungry Earth)

The Eleventh Doctor has shown a dislike of war and the use of weaponry, at least for violent means. He fired a gun to detonate a gravity globe and expressed no displeasure against weapons being used on the Weeping Angels, though this could have been because the weapons clearly had no effect on them. (DW:The Time of Angels) However, he became almost threatening when Ambrose Northover suggested they use weapons against the Silurians, claiming "It's not how I do things" then as she protested telling her firmly with a small smile "You're better than this, I'm asking nicely, put them away." Later he tells Alaya that there is a "peace to be brokered" and that he won't let her provoke a war. (DW:The Hungry Earth)

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Aboard the Byzantium, a stricken Doctor comforts Amy Pond. (DW: Flesh and Stone)

The Eleventh Doctor has also shown a tendency to refer to Amy by her surname, much as his first incarnation did with Ian Chesterton. Also similar to his first incarnation, this Doctor wasn't keen on hiding his emotions, usually making his anger obvious through violent actions and tone of speech. However, unlike his previous incarnation, he seemed unable to respond well in a romantic situation with Amy Pond. (DW: Flesh and Stone) Despite this awkwardness in response to an attempted seduction, the Eleventh Doctor does show an ability to be affectionate and comforting with Amy, such as when he kisses her on the forehead (DW:Flesh and Stone) and holds her hand (DW:Amy's Choice)

Habits and Quirks

This Doctor can tell how old something is by taste which was a trademark of the Fifth and Tenth Doctors. He is often late, for example arriving twelve years later than he intended (DW: The Eleventh Hour), like his fifth, ninth and tenth incarnations. He also appears to have incredibly good eyesight as well as an eidetic memory, and is able to scan an entire scene and pick up little details. He implores others to observe every detail in an area and make brilliant deductions from doing so.

He also has shown a penchant for talking with his hands, being able to calculate a situation with hand gestures. While trying to understand The Cracks appearing in the Byzantium and what it could mean, he made a circular gesture as if he was forming a clock then erasing it. (DW: Flesh and Stone) He also shapes out a large nose with his hands when referring to Rory Williams, whom he has a habit of patting chummily on the face.

Like his tenth incarnation's fondness for bananas and little gift shops, this Doctor is fond of bow ties.

Much like his tenth persona, this Doctor has horrible social skills. Even going into detail about his encounter with Amy at Rory's Bachelor party (DW: The Vampires of Venice), and often interrupting himself (and others) to tell someone to "shut up!" Also, this Doctor is frequently out-done verbally by Amy, to the point of becoming flustered at some of her wittier remarks. He also has a habit of making various subtle lighthearted innuendos with Rory (DW: The Vampires of Venice, Amy's Choice) but ends up clueless when Amy tries to flirt with him. (DW: Flesh and Stone)

He also has a habit of rambling, making rapid amendments to his speech, to the point where it seems like he is talking nonsense. (DW: The Time of Angels, The Vampires of Venice)

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The Doctor samples some of the blue grass growing in Cwmtaff, Wales, circa 2020. (DW: The Hungry Earth)

A habit that seemed to mildly disturb the Doctor when Amy pointed it out to him was his propensity for tasting things in order to determine their chemical and mineral composition. This ability recalled one he displayed in the early days of his tenth life. (DW: The Christmas Invasion,The Idiot's Lantern, Tooth and Claw) Once, when Amy asked him if he'd always done that, he replied, "No, that's... recent." (DW: The Hungry Earth)

Frequently, this Doctor has asked his companions and others to trust him before he begins any plan. This Doctor has also frequently hushed others while he tries to think.

This Doctor has displayed a penchant for unexpectedly pulling miscellaneous objects out of his jacket when needed (perhaps from a dimensionally transcendent pocket, see section on clothing below). These items have included:

Clothes

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The Eleventh Doctor's outfit (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

For most of his first adventure, the Doctor wore the tattered clothes of his previous incarnation from just before he regenerated. Like his third and eighth incarnations, (DW: Spearhead from Space, Doctor Who) he stole his clothing from the staff room of a hospital. Unlike the previous occasions, however, this particular theft, was at least meekly protested by one of that hospital's staff.

The Doctor's primary outfit consisted of a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, a fashionable shirt, a bow tie, red braces, a gold wrist watch, rolled up trousers and black boots. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) He would later vary the colour of the shirt and the bow tie from maroon to teal. The tweed jacket seems to have pockets which are bigger on the inside, as the Doctor was able to produce a large UV lamp from his inside pocket. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

He lost his first jacket in Flesh and Stone, but it was replaced with a new one in The Vampires of Venice. At one point in Flesh and Stone, he was seen to be wearing this new jacket before he actually obtained it, as well as wearing a black wristwatch instead of his gold one. This has lead to the theory that this was the Doctor from the future who came back in time to talk to Amy.

  • Matt Smith has made several public statements — as on The Jonathan Ross Show and in the question-and-answer session following the New York theatrical premiere of The Eleventh Hour — taking credit for the tweed jacket, braces and bow tie that his Doctor eventually wore. He has also relayed that there was some reluctance from Steven Moffat and other top executives to the bow tie in particular, but that it nevertheless "sat right" with his performance. Smith's influence — according to CON: "Call Me the Doctor" and a mid-April 2010 appearance on Fox Broadcasting Company's Strategy Room — was the character of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., as he was most often clothed on the campus of Barnett College.
  • When queried about the exact nature of the bow tie, Karen Gillan told the audience of the 2nd April 2010 edition of the CBBC programme, Laugh Out Loud, that Smith's bow tie wasn't a "proper" bow tie, but instead a pre-tied dicky bow. This can be confirmed by carefully watching him put on the tie The Eleventh Hour, although the action is somewhat obscured by the Atraxi projection.

TARDIS

As a result of the damage caused by his tenth regeneration, the Doctor's TARDIS seemed to regenerate itself. While its interior radically changed, the exterior was also slightly affected. Most noticably, the right exterior door was again emblazoned with a St. John Ambulance symbol, as it had been on his initial incarnation's TARDIS. The light on the roof also once again resembles a fresnel navigation lamp, the blue is brighter and the windows have changed to include white borders around the glass panels and alternating frosting on the bottom panes. The exterior configuration is similar to the TARDIS the First Doctor used.

At some point before taking on Amy Pond as a full-time companion, the Doctor threw his much-abused TARDIS manual into a supernova. He later justified the move by saying he "disagreed with it". (DW: Amy's Choice)

Key Life Events

Behind the Scenes

Footnotes