Fourteenth Doctor

Sentimental and compassionate, but with a cynical and self-reflective edge, the Fourteenth Doctor embraced the second chance he had in regenerating back into the body of his tenth incarnation, as he sought to respond to all the calls of adventure, racing from one adventure to the next as he fought against the idea that he was "running on fumes" and emotionally exhausted, going a full fifteen hours without stopping to rest, too distracted by the mystery as to why he had regenerated back into a familiar body.
== Biography ==
After a battle against psychoplasm Dalek constructs in the Dalek Dome (COMIC: ) and a crash landing on Skaro during the genesis of the Daleks, (TV: ) the Doctor found himself reunited with his old companion Donna Noble, whose memories of the Doctor had been erased by the Tenth Doctor at the end of their travels together in order to save her life. On the same night the Meep was on the run from the Wrarth Warriors, with only the release of the DoctorDonna from Donna's subconscious mind managed to save the day, but Donna was saved from having her mind overload when it was revealed that her daughter, Rose, had inherited the Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis and she and Donna were able to release the Meta-Crisis. (TV: )
Agreeing to travel with her one last time to visit Wilfred Mott, the Doctor and Donna got side-tracked after Donna accidentally spilled coffee on the TARDIS control console, leading to a conflict with the not-things at the edge of the universe, where the Doctor was forced to confront his emotional exhaustion, but chose to continue ignoring his pain, especially regarding the Flux. (TV: )
However, upon arriving back in London and finding its people driven mad by his old enemy, the Toymaker, the Doctor's trauma was brought back to the forefront. The Toymaker ended up shooting the Doctor with a galvanic beam, which triggered a bi-generation that split the Doctor, with the Fifteenth Doctor teaming up with his fourteenth incarnation to banish the Toymaker. Spurred on by Donna and his fifteenth incarnation, the Doctor decided to settle down on Earth with the Noble family to do "rehab out of order" and allow himself to heal to ensure his next incarnation would have his carefree attitude. (TV: )
== Other realities ==
In the Daft Dimension, the Fourteenth Doctor, referred to as an "old Doctor", was mentioned in announcements about Doctor Who, (COMIC: ) and later met his tenth incarnation at a birthday party. (COMIC: )
On Earth-33⅓, the Fourteenth Doctor went to a newsagent's and bought a newspaper, before returning to his house and smoking a pipe as he read the newspaper. He later pottered around his garden. (COMIC: )
== Psychological profile ==
=== Personality ===
While he was initially surprised to have the same appearance as the Tenth Doctor, (TV: ) the Fourteenth Doctor quickly adapted to having his old body, immediately looking to "respond to calls" of adventure. (COMIC: ) He opened his arms up to friendships of all sorts, (TV: ) offering a greeting as a show of friendliness, (COMIC: ) as he moved to help all those he found in trouble (PROSE: ) or dealing with a difficult task. (TV: ) While he tried to reason towards the good in the universe, (TV: ) hoping to give everyone the chance to make their case, (TV: ) the Doctor was openly cynical, and prone to introspection and self-doubt. (TV: , )
In contrast to his preceding incarnations, the Fourteenth Doctor was more open about his feelings and vulnerabilities, even being shocked at himself when he casually told Shirley Bingham how he had loved his friend Donna Noble, and later confident in Donna how much it had hurt him to wipe her memory. (TV: ) He was also more willing to show more intimate signs of affection to his friends, such as gently kissing Donna on the hand, and later on the top of her head, to comfort her when she was afraid. He was similarly quicker to express annoyance, such as when he engaged in argument when Donna snapped at him over the situation in the ship at the edge of creation, and more able to admit when he was troubled, though still reluctant to actually talk his issues out. (TV: ) He was also more open to taking on the ideas and suggestions of others than his tenth incarnation, such as quickly adapting to gender pronouns regarding the Meep when Rose Noble pointed out he was assuming the Meep was male presenting. (TV: )
He did, however, still hold some of the vanity of his tenth incarnation, asking for an applause from the audience at the Dalek Dome when they mistook his defeat of the Simulacra Daleks for a rehearsed performance, (COMIC: ) and becoming miffed when he thought Melanie Bush was calling him unattractive. (TV: ) He also rudely rebuffed the Dalek Dome staff when they refused his instructions to close the show down, and returned smugly when he thought they had called him back. (COMIC: ) 
He was quick to act when it came to saving people, hastily using himself as bait to draw the Daleks away from the crowd at Wembley Stadium, but could forget vital information when in the heat of the moment. (COMIC: ) Easily succumbing to his own curiosity, (TV: ) he could act carelessly, such as mentioning his two hearts and showing off his sonic screwdriver in front of Donna, even when he knew to keep her from remembering him. (TV: ) He later got separated from Donna in the Toymaker's domain when he closed a door behind him without checking that Donna had come through. (TV: )
When he set himself up with a challenging task, he would look to find ways of making his mission easier on himself, though he was unafraid to do things "the hard way" when dealing with uncooperative people, though he would prefer to "chat" to solve an issue. While he would not be intentionally offensive, he was unafraid to use risqué humour. He would also leave people who were in the midst of a breakdown to focus on dealing with larger and more immediate threats, (COMIC: ) but would ensure that the fallen were remembered and honoured once the current crisis was over. (TV: )
While he moved with a quiet confidence, and allowed himself to embrace joy more than his tenth incarnation, the Fourteenth Doctor would have explosive and violent outbursts on occasion, screaming when needing to restore Donna's memories (TV: ) and striking a wall with his hands in a screaming rage after being emotionally exposed by Donna's not-thing counterpart.
He retained the identity crisis his predecessor had developed over the revelations of the Timeless Child, and also held intense guilt over the fact that the Flux had "destroyed half the universe" as collateral damage in a plot to kill the Thirteenth Doctor. (TV: ) He was also visibly disturbed when the Toymaker claimed to have remade his past into a "jigsaw". The Doctor was also shown to retain his self-loathing, as he lambasted himself for his arrogance when confronted with the Toymaker once again, and almost lost his composure when the Toymaker taunted him with the deaths of his previous companions and the destruction caused by the Flux. The Fifteenth Doctor revealed that the Fourteenth Doctor was emotionally exhausted by everything that they had been through during their lives and everyone that they had lost along the way, which the Doctor had never stopped to deal with. At the suggestion of Donna and the Fifteenth Doctor, the Fourteenth Doctor decided to go into rehab on Earth to have the adventure of living a normal life so that he could "sort [himself] out". (TV: )
The Fourteenth Doctor professed a love for caves, (PROSE: ) time travel, (TV: ) and moles. (TV: ) He also liked to act, at one point pulling out a barrister's wig to conduct a mock trial against the Meep, (TV: ) and feigned death by poisoning to tease Donna. (TV: ) He held a hatred for the "cryptic". (TV: )
He didn't believe in destiny, (TV: ) but "[clung]" to the scientific laws of his universe. (TV: ) When trying to purchase a home on Earth, the Doctor seemed profoundly moved by a house in the countryside with its history of the people who lived there, and thought it looked "happy". He also liked that it had a corridor, but rejected the proposal of speaking to a mortgage adviser, as he claimed the word "mortgage" meant "death pledge". (PROSE: )
He once implied he would deem violence "fit and proper" in a given circumstance, (TV: ) and had an underlined darkness to him, threatening the Daleks with non-existence when it looked like they had destroyed Earth to prove a point, and smiling as he taunted the Golden Emperor's inability to escape destruction due to the size of his casing preventing him entering the TARDIS. (COMIC: )
He knew to be cautious when walking in the footsteps of history, doing his best to prevent the "timelines and canon [from] rupturing", (TV: ) but being nonchalant if he changed established history in minor ways. (TV: )
Looking down on himself for giving into his arrogance on being "clever", the Fourteenth Doctor saw himself only as good as the equipment at his disposal, not knowing who he was without his "toys". 
After the Doctor's bi-generation, he embraced his fifteenth incarnation with a hug, and then work in conjuncture with him in a game of catch against the Toymaker, and they manged to emerge victorious with their teamwork. When the Doctors departed, they shared a hug and smiled affectionately at one another before leaving with mutual salutes. (TV: )
The Fourteenth Doctor retained his tenth incarnation's fondness for Donna Noble and was anguished at the thought of his presence in her life causing the DoctorDonna to return and kill her, only restoring Donna's memories when there was no other choice with clear reluctance and anguish, although he was elated when Donna survived due to part of the meta-crisis having been passed down to Rose Noble. Donna later encouraged the Doctor to stick around more and spend time with her family, which the Doctor suggested that he might try, while confessing to her that he was glad to have her back, as it "killed [him]" to have to wipe her memory. (TV: ) He later took up her offer to join her family when he retired on Earth, adopting Donna as a sister, Rose as his niece and Shaun Temple as his brother-in-law. He teasingly called Sylvia Noble his new "evil stepmother", and also welcomed Mel Bush as "Mad Aunty Mel", as he came to enjoy having a family with him, telling Donna that he had "never been so happy in [his] life". (TV: )
The Fourteenth Doctor was also more outwardly expressive of his feelings towards his friends, frequently stating that he loved Donna, Wilfred Mott, (TV: ) and Sarah Jane Smith. (TV: ) He would also outwardly cry, notably becoming distressed upon thinking Wilf had passed away, reaffirming that he had "loved that man", (TV: ) and greeted him with an overjoyed hug while affectionately calling him "old soldier" when they reunited. (TV: ) When the Doctor joined the Noble family, he happily named Wilf his "grandad". (TV: )
When it was "the only thing [he had] left", the Doctor held his TARDIS with great affection, (TV: ) patting it while calling his ship a "good girl", (TV: ) gently caring for it while it was damaged, (TV: ) and also grew emotional when believing he might have to give up the TARDIS and retire so the Fifteenth Doctor could continue adventuring. 
While he knew they could be "clever and bright and brilliant", the Fourteenth Doctor knew that humanity was equally "savage and venal and relentless" with their "lies [and] righteousness", and were "poisoning the world" by constantly "using [their] intelligence to be stupid". (TV: ) He also thought that they could only give simple answers, and was tricked into thinking a not-thing was the real Donna when he accepted her simple answer to a question over Donna's overthought answer brought on by stress.
To his own surprise, the Doctor agreed with Donna's assertion that Isaac Newton was "hot". (TV: )
Continuing the blasé attitude his tenth incarnation showed towards them, the Fourteenth Doctor called the Daleks "nasty children in metal suits", and elevated himself as a "grown-up" in comparison to them. He tried to belittle the Supreme Dalek by calling it "Di Ross", and then took joy in its inability to shoot him. (COMIC: )
Because of the vast powers at his disposal, the Doctor feared the Toymaker, but lambasted him for being "so small" and noting using his powers to better the universe, even offering to play games with him throughout the cosmos to enable them both to become "celestial". (TV: )
Shirley Bingham described the Fourteenth Doctor as "jammy". (TV: ) Tiff the estate agent's first impression of the Doctor was that he looked a "bit tired", as if he had gone through "a break-up or a loss", but noted that he didn't seem "the type" to be a "dodgy student landlord". Though worried he was playing a prank on her when he asked for less than the house's worth, Tiff was moved by the "sad wildness" in his eyes. (PROSE: )
Unlike his tenth incarnation, the Fourteenth Doctor was more accepting of his incoming regeneration when it was triggered, and even directly rejected the Tenth Doctor's assertion that it felt like dying, reassuring Donna and Mel that it "[was] not dying", though he was still saddened at the prospect of regenerating. However, his sadness quickly changed to confusion when it turned out to be a bi-generation, though he was elevated with the results regardless. (TV: )
=== Habits and quirks ===
Along with his face, the Fourteenth Doctor inherited several of his tenth incarnation's quirks, such as proclaiming "What!?" repeatedly when vexed by a situation, (TV: , ) pulling at his face when thinking, (TV: , ) a need to excessively apologise, (TV: ) his affection for the word "allons-y", (TV: , ) swaggering around with his hands in his pockets, (TV: , , , ) sitting with his legs stretched out and crossed, (TV: ) tossing his coat aside when he didn't wish to wear it, (TV: , ) and describing developments as "brilliant". (TV: , ) He also wore glasses when inspecting gadgets (COMIC: ) or looking at information on a screen. (TV: , , )
He often explained his jokes and wordplay, and made a habit of assigning cheeky nicknames to others. (COMIC: ) He tended to repeat himself in triplicates, (TV: , , ) and would also express his adoration using the phrase, "I love...", whether in expression towards people, (TV: , ) places, (PROSE: ), concepts, (TV: ) or even animals. (TV: )
Unlike his past incarnations, the Fourteenth Doctor was a terrible cook, having caused a fire attempting to use a toaster, and then asked never to cook again by the firemen. (PROSE: )
=== Skills ===
The Fourteenth Doctor had the agility to outrun pursing Daleks while simultaneously avoiding their gunstick fire, (COMIC: ) and leap over the Toy Emporium's counter without difficulty. (TV: ) He was also fast enough to outpace the not-things use of controls to contain them in the ship's bridge while simultaneously speeding up the ship's self-destruction. (TV: ) He was nimble enough to sneak around unnoticed in Millson Wagner Steelworks, and climb the consoles of the Meep's ship to reach otherwise inaccessible controls. (TV: )
The Doctor possessed the swordsmanship skills needed to fight off the Queen of the Sycorax, (COMIC: ) and the speed necessary to catch up to his not-thing counterpart in spite of their head start. (TV: ) He was also particularly skilful in a game of catch, using quick reflexes to help defeat the Toymaker at the game, despite the Toymaker's attempt to catch him off-guard. (TV: )
The Doctor was able to bandage the Meep's cut paw with efficiency. (TV: )
He could determine the date by smelling the air, (COMIC: ) and once claimed his bones could sense if time in the local vicinity had somehow slowed down. (TV: ) He could also determine the properties of an object by taste, (TV: ) such as analysing blood, (COMIC: ) and focus all his senses to pinpoint the origin of a sound. (PROSE: )
He could drive taxi cab at speeds needed to escape danger, (TV: ) and also knew how to drive a hovercraft. (TV: )
Knowing fifty-seven-billion languages, (TV: ) the Doctor could speak German without the aid of the TARDIS's translation circuit. (COMIC: ) He could also decipher a language completely by studying the symbols for the language's version of the numbers. (TV: )
The Fourteenth Doctor had a soothing voice that was good for telling bedtime stories, (TV: ) and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the London roads. (TV: ) He was also able to calculate the distance between the edge of the universe and Earth by looking out into space. (TV: )
== Appearance ==
Looking above the age of 35-years-old, (TV: ) the Fourteenth Doctor resembled a slightly older version of his tenth incarnation, sharing his tall, slim frame, finely boned hands and face, and large, dark brown eyes, as well as his thick brown hair with sideburns, though with a slight copper tinge, (TV: ) the resemblance so strong that others mistook him for his former incarnation. (TV: ) He instantly recognised the similarity from running his tongue over his teeth (PROSE: ) and by the familiar feeling of his face, which also had a five-o'clock shadow of stubble. (TV: ) 
His kidneys remained their normal blue colour, (COMIC: ) but he had distinct braincells (PROSE: ) and blood to his other incarnations. (COMIC: )
Although initially in denial about returning to an old body, (PROSE: ) the Fourteenth Doctor was pleased to have regained the hands he "hadn't realised he had missed", familiar face, "fantastic" hair, "slightly quizzical left eyebrow", and "brilliant grin" by the time he wrote about himself in a letter. (PROSE: )
While not as passionately as she did for his successor, Melanie Bush agreed that the Fourteenth Doctor was "beautiful". (TV: )
The Fifteenth Doctor described the Fourteenth Doctor as "thin as a pin" and told him he was "running on fumes", with Donna Noble agreeing that he looked "worn out". (TV: )
=== Clothing ===
==== Main attires ====
As his clothes manifested with him from his predecessor's regeneration, the Fourteenth Doctor emerged wearing a navy blue trenchcoat over a white button-up shirt, with grey knitted tie, brown and turquoise checkered-tartan trousers and a matching waistcoat with lapels, and papyrus colored Converse shoes. (TV: ) He also wore a white undershirt, (TV: ) and owned a pair of tortoise shell glasses. (COMIC: )
After bi-generating, half of his clothes were taken by the Fifteenth Doctor, leaving him with just his undershirt, waistcoat, and trousers, though he was later shown to have replaced his shirt and shoes once he settled down with the Noble family, though he kept his shirt unbuttoned. (TV: )
== Behind the scenes ==
=== Casting ===
* Having previously portrayed the Tenth Doctor prior to his tenure as the fourteenth incarnation, David Tennant holds the distinction of being the first actor to have portrayed two different numbered incarnations of the Doctor in a mainline story of Doctor Who, excluding performers acting as doubles for other actors. Previously, Tom Baker and Colin Baker portrayed the Curator after playing the Fourth and Sixth Doctors respectively and Richard E Grant played both the Tenth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death and the Ninth Doctor in Scream of the Shalka.
** Three actors have also portrayed multiple incarnations of the Doctor via filling in for another actor not being present; Trevor Martin first played the third and fourth incarnations of the Doctor in the stage play , Sylvester McCoy then portrayed the Sixth Doctor during his regeneration scene into his main role of the Seventh Doctor during , and Eighth Doctor actor Paul McGann acted as a body double for the War Doctor in the closing moments of after the Doctor's regeneration into his war incarnation.
* The idea of the Doctor regenerating into a prior incarnation's likeness was previously proposed by series creator Sydney Newman during a 1986 meeting with BBC One controller Michael Grade, who asked Newman for ways to reformat the program after Colin Baker was dismissed from the role of the Sixth Doctor. According to the 1996 book Doctor Who – The Eighties, Newman specifically envisioned Patrick Troughton, who previously played the Second Doctor, portraying the Seventh Doctor for a single season before regenerating into a female eighth incarnation.
* Tennant portraying an incarnation separate from the one he originated was something that had been heavily discussed online following images from the 60th anniversary specials leaking on the internet, revealing not only Tennant and Catherine Tate's involvement with the specials but also images of Tennant shown wearing clothes the Tenth Doctor had never worn before. This fuelled online speculation and rumours that David Tennant was actually portraying an incarnation of the Doctor separate from his own, possibly even the Thirteenth Doctor's successor, who at that time was incorrectly reported to have been Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor. Tennant would make his debut at the end of 2022's The Power of the Doctor as the Fourteenth Doctor, confirming him to be playing the Thirteenth Doctor's immediate successor in the anniversary specials. 
=== Regeneration ===
* The Fourteenth Doctor is the first incarnation since the Second Doctor to emerge from their regeneration with a new outfit. This deviation from the usual norm of the newly-regenerated Doctor still donning the clothes worn by their predecessor led to some confusion among viewers until Russell T Davies clarified that "[he] was very certain that [he] didn't want David [Tennant] to appear in Jodie [Whittaker]'s costume", explaining that his reason for the Doctor's clothes changing during regeneration was to avoid stereotyping "the notion of men dressing in 'women's clothes', [and] the notion of drag", describing it as a "very delicate" matter, expressing that "it has to be done with immense thought and respect", and that the media would make it "look like mockery" of that culture, especially as David Tennant is taller than Jodie Whittaker.https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-david-tennant-regeneration-costume-twist-newsupdate/
* The Fourteenth Doctor is the first Doctor to have their immediate post-regeneration story be depicted in a medium other than television, in the form of the Doctor Who Magazine comic story, Liberation of the Daleks.
* The Fourteenth Doctor's regeneration is the first to not have the Doctor's appearance and body change into the next incarnation, instead of a regular regeneration the Fourteenth Doctor became the first incarnation to instead undergo a bi-generation that resulted in a split between him and his successor, the Fifteenth Doctor, and allowing both the previous and the next incarnations of the Doctor to exist co-currently. 
=== In popular culture ===
* Following the post-regeneration scene in , the Fourteenth Doctor appeared as a character-skin in the free multiplayer battle royale video game Fall Guys, released on 1 November 2022.
* Tennant portrayed a Doctor in the Fourteenth Doctor's clothing in the Red Nose Day sketch Comic Relief 2023, which saw Lenny Henry suddenly burst into a full on regeneration from stomach pains while preparing to host the Comic Relief live-show, and transform into Tennant, in a partial re-enactment of his scene in The Power of the Doctor, who runs off when he notices he has to host the show. However, Henry being listed as playing the 9.5th Doctor brings ambiguity on whether Tennant was meant to be playing the Fourteenth Doctor or his previous Tenth Doctor character.
=== Other matters ===
* The Fourteenth Doctor's numbered designation was officially confirmed by Russell T Davies in an article posted to the official Doctor Who website following the broadcast of .David Tennant is the Doctor! on doctorwho.tv via the Wayback Machine
== Footnotes ==
 
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:Incarnations of the Doctor who resembled other incarnations
fr:Quatorzième Docteur
Category:Dalek Dome visitors
Category:Non-heterosexual individuals