Fifteenth Doctor

Benefiting from the rehab his preceding incarnation had undertaken, the Fifteenth Doctor was freed from the emotional baggage and deteriorating mental state of his predecessors, and journeyed the universe with reinvigorated optimism following a fabled bi-generation that saw him help the Fourteenth Doctor defeat the Toymaker, though not without the threat of the Toymaker's legions "coming". Charismatic, suave and adventurous, this incarnation of the Doctor would eagerly anticipate this new chapter in his life, even while knowing of the threats ahead.
Soon after bi-generation, the Doctor became acquainted with Ruby Sunday, and together they defeated the Goblins that were abducting and eating children, before she joined him on his further adventures.
== Biography ==
=== A day to come ===
When the Thirteenth Doctor encountered Time, Time restored the Doctor from being scattered across three bodies at once, declaring that she would be "reunified", but then questioned "how long" the Doctor would remain "unified." (TV: )
After they teamed up in a game against the Toymaker, the Fourteenth Doctor was told by his fifteenth incarnation that he would only find peace after settling down to heal from his traumas, quipping that they were "doing rehab out of order" by having the Fourteenth Doctor see how well adjusted his next incarnation was. The Fifteenth Doctor was also recognised by Donna Noble as being older than the fourteenth incarnation due to being from the future. (TV: )
=== Post-bi-generation ===
Atop the helipad attached to UNIT HQ in the City of London in late 2023, the Toymaker shot the Fourteenth Doctor with UNIT's Galvanic beam, due to his desire to play their next game with "the next Doctor", initiating a regeneration. However, as Donna Noble and Melanie Bush rushed to his side, the Doctor felt that he wasn't regenerating as he typically would and asked them to pull on his arms, causing the Fifteenth Doctor to split out of the Fourteenth Doctor in a bi-generation, a process previously believed to be a myth. Despite coming into being while the Fourteenth Doctor still existed, the Fifteenth Doctor was still older than his preceding incarnation, with Donna commenting it was "because [he] came after him", and the Fifteenth Doctor also had knowledge of events yet to come for the Fourteenth Doctor. 
After the Fifteenth Doctor cracked his new neck, and flirted with Mel, the Toymaker interrupted him, wanting to continue forcing the Doctors to bi-generate, but the two Doctors instead challenged him to a game of catch, and the Toymaker relented to accept the challenge. The game was then played, with the Fifteenth Doctor ultimately playing the winning throw after the Toymaker failed to catch the ball. As his prize, the Fourteenth Doctor chose to banish the Toymaker from existence, but he warned the Doctors that his legions were still "coming". The Fifteenth Doctor and Donna consoled the Fourteenth Doctor over the deaths caused by the Toymaker, with the Fifteenth Doctor giving his predecessor a reassuring hug, before walking back into the UNIT HQ. (TV: )
=== A fresh start ===
As he was given a tour of their TARDIS, the Fifteenth Doctor told the Fourteenth Doctor that he needed a break, with Donna agreeing that he was "running on fumes." As he convinced his fourteenth incarnation to settle down by listing their traumas, the Fourteenth Doctor confided that he couldn't leave the TARDIS behind while living on Earth. However, the Fifteenth Doctor realized that for a brief moment, the lingering powers of the Toymaker's domain were still in their reality. He used it to bring back a future TARDIS with a mallet. The Fifteenth Doctor entered the future TARDIS, with the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna following him in to say goodbye after he tried sneaking off. Giving them a fond farewell, the Fifteenth Doctor then left to travel the universe. (TV: )
Deciding that the attire of his previous incarnation "wo[uld]n't do" anymore, the Doctor chose his new clothing in the TARDIS, selecting sturdy boots and a new hat. (POEM: ) The Doctor then thought on how a new chapter in his life was beginning, as he had friends to make and adventures to go on, with new threats and enemies to face with "no idea what [they'd] let themselves in for." (PROSE: )
=== Meeting Ruby ===
On 22 December 2023, the Doctor found himself watching a band perform a gig at a pub in London, but their performance was stopped when the keyboardist, Ruby Sunday, had her keyboard unplugged by a Goblin. The next day, the Doctor was enjoying himself at a nightclub when he bumped into Ruby again, and realised she was being victimised by the Goblins after saving her drink from being spilled, and later interfered in the Goblins' attempt to drop an inflatable snowman on her taxi ride, after which he told the responding policeman that his girlfriend was bound to accept his marriage proposal.
On Christmas Eve, the Doctor caught up to Ruby while she was trying to save Lulubelle from being taken to the Goblin ship, and joined her in rescuing Lulubelle from being fed to the Goblin King whilst participating in the Goblins' song and escaped back to the Sundays' home using his intelligent gloves, where he met Ruby's adopted grandmother, Cherry, and then her adopted mother, Carla. While listening to Carla gush over Ruby to cheer her up after being told that Davina McCall was unable the find her biological family, the Doctor opened up to them about being a foundling himself, (TV: ) having felt emboldened by the Sundays' openness to be open himself, (PROSE: ) accidently invoking a set of a coincidences and allowing the Goblins to crack the timeline by stealing Ruby as a baby. The Doctor then went back in time to the day she was abandoned at the church on Ruby Road in 2004 to stop the Goblins from stealing her by using his intelligent gloves to force the Goblin ship into the church spire, killing the Goblin King and causing the ship to disappear, (TV: ) as though the Goblins had been erased from existence or pulled back into another world. (PROSE: ) The Doctor then returned to 2023 to make sure Ruby had been restored and, after a brief side-track to save Davina from a falling Christmas tree, waited for Ruby to joined him in the TARDIS. (TV: ) He then updated his diary to include his first two adventures. (PROSE: )
=== Travelling with Ruby ===
Arriving atop the Jason Orange Plaza in Mancopolis 2424, the Doctor and Ruby dodged being run over by a tram, only to be arrested by the Care Force for being "tram raiders". A weather orb, noticing they weren't smiling, began raining on them. After stopping the orb, the mayor of the city, Mary Mulberry, communicated to them via the windows of a tower which also functioned as screens, believing them to be auditors sent by the Galactic Central Exchange; she ordered Zhi, one of the Care Force, to bring them to her, and, on the journey to the Mancopolis City Hall, she explained to them how Mayor Mulberry saved the city and its population after the 2399 Event.
Entering the Mayor's office, the Mayor vocalised her belief that they had been a deliberate distraction to enable the Exchange to sneak an assault ship into the city, which she promptly had destroyed. She offered a negotiation, but, after realising they weren't non-humans since they weren't going shift into another form, she threatened to dismember one of them. As they tried to escape through a lift, she had the duo teleported to a dark space filled with "massive people-eating silkworms". (COMIC: )
=== Undated events ===
* At some point before 5 March 2005, the Fifteenth Doctor was photographed on Earth, with the photo eventually ending up in the possession of Clive Finch. (PROSE: )
==== Solo adventures ====
The Fifteenth Doctor arrived outside the Time Bubble containing Nora Wicker's home on 16 December 2033. The Eleventh Doctor had secured his help after deciding to free Nora following the forty-six years she spent inadvertently trapped inside, each day looping over and over, as the Eleventh Doctor miscalculated the size of the bubble when he erected it to contain the seed of the World Tree that had landed in her garden on 19 August 1987.
After exiting his TARDIS, the Fifteenth Doctor waved to Nora and the Eleventh Doctor, then readied himself to use his sonic screwdriver at the same time as the Eleventh Doctor to produce a precise frequency to create a crack in the bubble. However, at the last possible moment, Nora confided to the Eleventh Doctor that she wanted to remain in the bubble to look after the tree, distracting the Eleventh Doctor and causing the sync to fail. The Fifteenth Doctor lowered his screwdriver and returned to the TARDIS, planning to return the next day, but ultimately did not to respect Nora's wishes. (AUDIO: )
=== Other realities ===
==== The Daft Dimension ====
In the Daft Dimension, the "new Doctor", as mentioned by one fan, was among the exciting new developments of Doctor Who. (COMIC: ) This Doctor and his companion were on the front cover of an issue of Doctor Who Magazine. (COMIC: )
== Psychological profile ==
=== Personality ===
Enjoying the feel of being himself, the Fifteenth Doctor was charismatic and flirtatious, (TV: ) wearing his emotions openly and unafraid to react with visceral distraught in the face of tragedy. (TV: ) He sought to comfort those he knew were in distress, even offering himself as a shoulder to cry on for his fourteenth incarnation. (TV: ) However, in a moment of self-reflection, he hesitated to invite Ruby Sunday aboard the TARDIS, thinking he was "the bad luck". (TV: )
He displayed an optimistic and adventurous outlook towards the future, (PROSE: ) having been freed from the emotional baggage of his past, following the Fourteenth Doctor's rehab on Earth, allowing him to be accepting of his losses, while fondly remembering his past loved ones. He was overjoyed meeting his predecessor and had an excellent relationship with him. He was sympathetic about the Fourteenth Doctor's struggles and urged him to retire. Before the Doctors departed, they hugged each other and saluted at one another with affection.
The Fifteenth Doctor did not seem to suffer from embarrassment, striding confidently around without trousers after bi-generating, (TV: ) and ecstatically dancing to his own rhythm in a nightclub.
He liked to learn new things.
He had a macabre sense of humour when infiltrating the Goblin ship despite the open risk of the Goblins eating him. He was likewise so enthralled by the sight of the Goblin band he overlooked that Lulubelle was about to be eaten by the Goblin King. 
The Fifteenth Doctor took pride in his status as a time traveller, taking offence when Ruby called the Goblin's time travellers. He corrected her that their time-surfing capabilities were a mere "bimble" in comparison to "cool" time travellers like himself. (TV: )
While his immediate predecessors would dwell on lives lost in a crisis, the Fifteenth Doctor knew he "[couldn't] save everyone" and instead chose to move on. (TV: ) He also chose not to dwell on his tragedies, lightly telling Ruby Sunday he has no family left, and then quickly resuming the task at hand. However, he reflected sombrely on the abandonment and adoption of the Timeless Child when seeing Carla Sunday shower Ruby with affection. (TV: )
He could get caught up in his excitement to the point that he risked sabotaging his own efforts, (TV: ) and also fail to notice when he was in danger until it was in front of him. (COMIC: )
While he moved to protect bystanders from harm, he was not above criticising their choices or begrudging the circumstances he found himself in. 
Even though he was dismissive of the policeman that questioned him regarding an accident with an inflatable snowman, the Doctor stopped during his exit to reassure the man that his girlfriend would accept his marriage proposal, because his decision to buy an engagement ring before the sales was proof of character, and happily wished him a "Merry Christmas" before he left.
He agreed with his predecessor that being separated from his TARDIS would "hurt", and also apologised to his ship after he struck it with a mallet to divide it. 
He thought that children were "the most precious gift[s] of all", and made it his mission to protect the, breaking down in tears if he realised that a child had come to harm. (TV: )
=== Habits and quirks ===
The Fifteenth Doctor spoke with a unique Scottish-Rwandan accent, which meant that, unlike his predecessors, his accent did not originate solely from the British Isles. (TV: )
The Fifteenth Doctor also used "Hell" as an intensive and noteworthy example. (TV: , ) He also littered his vocabulary with flamboyant expressions, such as referring to people as "love", "honey" (TV: ) and "babes." (TV: )
He had a tendency to vocalise his actions, such as saying, "jump", when he leapt into a hug with his fourteenth incarnation (TV: ) and when he leap onto the rope ladder of the Goblin ship. He also whispered, "curtsey", to himself as he bowed to the Goblin King. (TV: )
He would quip, "If you don't mind", when he wanted to be left alone to continue his activities. (TV: , )
=== Skills ===
The Fifteenth Doctor had the athleticism to leap over chimneys while running over rooftops at the same pace as the Goblin ship while conversing with Ruby, (TV: ) and also had the reflexes to help the Fourteenth Doctor best the Toymaker in a game of catch, even making the winning throw. (TV: ) He was quick enough to go from a dance floor to standing next to Ruby without her noticing, and catch a falling drink as he did so. 
He also possessed the technical knowledge to create the Intelligent gloves. 
He was a convincing performer, able to sing and dance to distract the goblins. 
The Doctor could also learn "the language of rope" to deduce how to manoeuvre through the goblin's ship.
The Fifteenth Doctor displayed sharp deductive and reasoning skills, being able to interpret a reading from his sonic screwdriver which detected a 2 carat diamond ring in the pocket of a policeman and deduce that he intended to propose to his girlfriend. (TV: )
==Appearance==
The Fifteenth Doctor had dark skin, (TV: ) with a "nice" new face which fitted well into place, his hair being short and his nose being "just right". His legs were firm and his eyes were bright (POEM: ) and brown in colour. A thin black moustache rested on top his upper lip, and he had a faint scar around his right eye. (TV: )
Melanie Bush described the Fifteenth Doctor as looking "beautiful", (TV: ) and Cherry Sunday likewise found him attractive. (TV: )
=== Clothing===
==== Main attires====
The Fifteenth Doctor primarily wore a burnt orange double-breasted leather trenchcoat, complete with pockets and belted cuffs, but he also owned a black leather jacket. However, he would sometimes dispense with leather and instead don a plaid print coat with pleated checked jacquard trousers and an orange jumper.
Under his trenchcoat, the Doctor wore a series of zip-up polo-cardigans, with styles including one striped with shades of blue and orange vertically, a green one with horizontal stipes, (TV: ) and a yellow one with a simple orange stripe going down the middle. (COMIC: )
He also wore blue trousers, with long black socks under a pair of colourful trainers on his feet.
He consistently wore five rings, with two on his left hand's thumb and index finger and three on his right hand's thumb and index and middle fingers, as well as two silver necklaces. (TV: )
====Other costumes====
Upon emerging from the bi-generation, the Fifteenth Doctor retained the Fourteenth Doctor's dress shirt, tie, pants, socks and shoes. (TV: ) However, believing them to be "off-the-peg", he soon chose an outfit of his own after pondered on wearing a frilly shirt and a scarf. He settled on wearing sturdy boots, that he believed would be handy on the Moon, and a "nice" new hat (POEM: ) in the form of a bolero. (PROSE: )
While out at a nightclub, the Doctor wore his black leather jacket over a yellow tank top and also wore a blue tartan kilt, knee-high green socks and Grenson Fred boots. (TV: )
==Behind the scenes ==
===The Fourteenth Doctor? ===
The BBC announcement revealing Ncuti Gatwa's casting as the Doctor was worded ambiguously, with Gatwa's Doctor only described as "the new Doctor", without explicitly stating him to be the Fourteenth Doctor, or even the successor to Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor.Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor on doctorwho.tv via the Wayback MachineThe future is here! Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor. @bbc on twitter.com Nevertheless, numerous news outlets presumed that Gatwa's incarnation would be the Fourteenth Doctor and incorrectly reported as such.Doctor Who: Ncuti Gatwa to replace Jodie Whittaker, BBC announces on theguardian.com via the Wayback MachineNcuti Gatwa: who is new Doctor Who from Scotland on glasgowworld.comNcuti Gatwa's Edinburgh links as former high school praises new Doctor Who role on edinburghlive.co.ukDoctor... WHO? From homeless actor to the Fourteenth Time Lord, learn all about Ncuti Gatwa... on uk.style.yahoo.com
However, Whittaker's final episode, , depicted the Thirteenth Doctor regenerating into a new incarnation once again portrayed by Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant. After Power of the Doctors broadcast, Russell T Davies confirmed that Tennant's new incarnation was the Fourteenth Doctor, and that Gatwa's would follow as the Fifteenth.David Tennant is the Doctor! on doctorwho.tv via the Wayback Machine
Strangely, Gatwa was again incorrectly identified as the Fourteenth Doctor by the Channel 5 documentary Doctor Who: 60 Years of Secrets and Scandals which aired on 25 November 2023, shortly following the premiere of , the first full episode of Tennant's run as the Fourteenth Doctor.
===The first black Doctor?===
With the casting of Rwandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, the Fifteenth Doctor became the first "main" ordinal incarnation of the Doctor in the programme's history to be played by a black man.Sir Lenny Henry praises Russell T Davies for casting Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who on theindependent.co.uk via the Wayback Machine However, other black Doctors have previously appeared in the Doctor Who universe;
*Comedian Lenny Henry was the very first non-white actor to portray the Doctor, having portrayed a parodical Seventh Doctor in from an episode of The Lenny Henry Show broadcast on 3 October 1985. Upon Gatwa's casting in 2022, Henry praised the development, stating; "A lot of black fans have been looking at our watches for a while! More power to Russell T Davies."
*Russell T Davies's of , released on 5 April 2018, featured a photograph in conspiracy theorist Clive Finch's possession that showed a tall, bald, black female Doctor who wielded a flaming sword.
*The 2020 episode introduced the "Fugitive Doctor", a mysterious, previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor, portrayed by BAME actor Jo Martin. This previously unseen incarnation was a predecessor to the First Doctor, much like the eight other "pre-Hartnell" Doctors introduced in the 1976 serial .
*Within the same series as Fugitive, several of the Timeless Children — seven youthful incarnations of the Doctor — were played by BAME child actors, including most notably the first.
*At the time of production for and , Steven Moffat secretly intended Doctor Moon to be a future Doctor, meaning that Colin Salmon might have been the first BAME actor to portray a main ordinal Doctor, although it is unclear if this future incarnation would've been given an ordinal.
** In Showrunner Showdown in 2020, Moffat commented that he thought a version of this idea could still work and Russell T Davies revealed that he had always thought of the character as the Doctor as well while watching the episodes.
**As of 2024, this backstory has never been incorporated for the character in any later work of fiction.
*In addition, various "body swaps" have been depicted wherein the Doctor temporarily possesses the body of a BAME individual, such as Daniel Anthony's Clyde Langer being possessed by the Eleventh Doctor in , and Damian Lynch's Benjamin Chikoto, who the Third Doctor uses as a means to communicate in Ghost in the Machine.
=== A queer incarnation?===
Gatwa has the distinction of being the first openly queer actor to portray a mainline ordinal incarnation of the Doctor,ELLE Style Awards: Ncuti Gatwa Is The Modern Pioneer on elle.com though queer actor Mark Gatiss previously portrayed a non-ordinal Doctor in the parody skit The Web of Caves, while queer actor Geoffrey Bayldon portrayed an alternate universe Doctor in the Doctor Who Unbound audio series. 
Though it remains to be seen if the Fifteenth Doctor himself is queer, co-star Neil Patrick Harris has described Gatwa as "the first gay Doctor".Neil Patrick Harris on His First On-Camera Gay Sex Scene in ‘Uncoupled,’ Fake Penises and Joining ‘Doctor Who’ on variety.com The question of which incarnation constitutes the "first gay Doctor" is a matter of debate; the friendship between the Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan became romantically tinged towards the end of the Chris Chibnall era, though the pair never explicitly expressed their attraction to one another, while the Eighth Doctor was implied to be non-heterosexual in the Eighth Doctor Adventures series of novels, as was the Fourteenth Doctor just one episode prior to Gatwa's debut, who was surprised to discover that he found Isaac Newton "hot". Furthermore, many stories released in the 1990s and beyond reiterate that the Time Lords' concept of gender differs to that of humanity.
===Appearances prior to his first full television story ===
Continuing the trend set by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Doctors, the Fifteenth Doctor appeared multiple times in expanded media before his television debut. 
*Interestingly, the Fifteenth Doctor's first appearance can be interpreted to have occurred technically before the Thirteenth Doctor's television debut in ; in the 2017 poem , an ambiguous future Doctor with short hair appeared, who rummaged through a chest looking for a new costume, settling on a hat and boots. As revealed on the Official Doctor Who Twitter account, the Fifteenth Doctor does indeed have very short hair, wears a bolero,The Doctor 🤝 A nice big hat @bbcdoctorwho on twitter.com and boots.Introducing the Doctor and Ruby Sunday, played by Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson ❤️❤️➕🟦 @bbcdoctorwho on twitter.com via the Wayback Machine
*Also of note, whilst not strictly a story in itself, was the Fifteenth Doctor's brief appearance, partially dressed in the Fourteenth Doctor's attire and asking "someone [to] tell [him] what the hell [was] going on here", in the televised preview for the 2023 specials immediately following the broadcast of , which had ended with the Thirteenth Doctor's surprise regeneration into the Fourteenth Doctor. (The broadcast of The Giggle over a year later would reveal the context of this appearance as following the Fourteenth Doctor's bi-generation which took place at UNIT HQ, City of London, the appearance of which had been removed for the initial preview.)
* A definitely intentioned implicit appearance of the Fifteenth Doctor occurred in the audio drama . Whilst the text of the story was ambiguous as to which future Doctor appeared in it, Nick Slawicz, the story's author, confirmed that the intention was indeed that it was the Fifteenth Doctor who was the Doctor present in the conclusion of that story. Slawicz further explained that he didn't intend to make the future Doctor ambiguous, but needed to be vague on details as no costumes had been revealed for the Fifteenth Doctor at the time of the final draft of the story.@ellingtonelms on twitter.com
*The pink-painted TARDIS that appeared as part of with the 2023 film Barbie could be argued to be that of the Fifteenth Doctor, owing to the fact that Ncuti Gatwa also played a Ken in the film; Russell T Davies claimed the exhibit depicted genuine in-universe events.@russelltdavies63 on Instagram
*The first explicit appearance of the Fifteenth Doctor was in the short story , which depicted an obscured diary entry written by the Doctor shortly after his first adventure with Ruby Sunday.
* The Fifteenth Doctor's entry in the encyclopaedia was styled as an inner monologue of the Doctor, wherein he reflected on the new friends and foes in his life.
*Although not an appearance of the Fifteenth Doctor per se, Ncuti Gatwa appeared in-costume as the Doctor in a version of broadcast on BBC Four on 23 November 2023 as part of William Hartnell's (David Bradley) premonition of the future of Doctor Who, replacing Matt Smith's role from the original version broadcast in 2013.
*In the illustrated edition of of released on 23 November 2023, photographs of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors were added to Clive Finch's collection of photographs of the Doctor.
===Costume===
*Ncuti Gatwa had a role in the costume chosen for the Fifteenth Doctor.Ncuti Gatwa reveals he has a say in his "exciting" Doctor Who outfit on radiotimes.com via the Wayback Machine
*The Fifteenth Doctor's main outfit in has an overall retro appearance: his cardigan is Madcap England's "Capitol 60s Mod Stripe Zip Polo"Capitol 60s Mod Stripe Zip Polo on madcapengland.com and his trainers are Grenson's "Sneaker 51".Men's Sneaker 51 on grenson.com 
*In terms of accessories, the Fifteenth Doctor also sported two necklaces and 5 rings, custom made by Lydia Niziblian. He wore these along with unique nail tattoos that utilize Circular Gallifreyan.
===Merchandise===
*Titan Merchandise, for MCM Comic Con, released an exclusive t-shirt, sweatshirt, cup and coaster using a promotional picture of the Fifteenth Doctor. These were later sold by Forbidden Planet.
*A poster of the Fifteenth Doctor was included with Doctor Who Magazine #598.
*The Fifteenth Doctor received a card in the Secret Lair x Doctor Who: Regeneration set of Magic the Gatherings Universes Beyond: Doctor Who expansion.
===Other matters===
thumb|The Whoniverse ident.
*A clip of the Fifteenth Doctor was used in the Whoniverse ident released on 31 October 2023.
*A version of Lee Sullivan's The Usual Suspects? art piece including the Fifteenth Doctor was released on 21 October 2023 for the Adventures in Time and Space – 60 Years of Doctor Who Art Exhibition exhibition held at Weston Museum,The largest collection of original and digital Doctor Who art ever shown in one location. on westonmuseum.org although there is no indication that this version of the artwork is licensed, although versions released earlier were.
*Various pieces of fan art of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby were shared by the Official Doctor Who Twitter account under the #FanArtFriday and #DWFanArt hashtags.
==Footnotes==
===Notes===
===ReferencesJewellery on Dr Who | Lydia Niziblian===
 
Category:Incarnations of the Doctor
Category:Renegade Time Lords
Category:Individual Time Lords
Category:Survivors of the Last Great Time War
Category:Individual time travellers
Category:21st century individuals
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Category:Non-heterosexual individuals