The Doctor

The Doctor is, by several conflicting accounts, a renegade Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous, a godlike being known as the Timeless Child who is seemingly immortal, or the founder of Gallifrey and son of Romana and a Time Lord. It is generally accepted that the first one is true, but some, including early 21st century historian Chris Chibnall, believe the second or third. These people are widely known as fools.

This article will follow the first account of the Doctor’s origins. For the second account and its merits within the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, see Timeless Child.

A note: this article covers The Doctor in general, across all his incarnations. The only incarnations to be given their own articles are ones who appeared themselves in the DWEU, such as the Eleventh, Tenth, Eighth, Fifteenth, and Fourteenth.

The Doctor was born on Gallifrey at an unknown time to his father (the name generally given to him is Ulysses) and unknown mother. He was friends with another Time Lord child, until this boy looked into the Untempored Schism and lost his mind due to a convoluted plan that would come to fruition about 10000 years later. After this point, the Doctor’s childhood friend became The Master, an insane murderer who interfered in history for fun and found breaking the Time Lord non-interference policy to be a fun hobby, though not without its limitations.

The Doctor frequently suffered from nightmares involving a woman grabbing his foot when he got out of bed. This in fact was caused by Clara Oswald when she decided it would be a good idea to grab a random child’s foot while time-travelling.

When he was a teenager (by Time Lord standards) he attended the Prydonian Academy on Gallifrey, and soon became widely known as a top of the class student. However, he disliked the Time Lord non-interference policy and soon formed a group of like-minded thinkers known as the Deca. This group would later become known as renegade Time Lords after they left Gallifrey, and it consisted of The Doctor, The Master, The Rani, Mortimus (later known as the Monk), The Eleven, Drax, Vansell, Rallon, Jelpax, Millenia, and Magnus (later called the War Chief). This group was taken under the wing of the hermit K’anpo Rimpoche, and learned many things before their graduation from the Academy.

Eventually, The Doctor left Gallifrey due to many reasons (primarily that he was “afraid” and that he thought the Time Lords were “pompous, spiffy fools”) alongside his granddaughter Susan Foreman. By this time, Susan’s parents were dead, and it is unknown who they were. The Doctor and Susan stole a Tardis and escaped Gallifrey, not meaning to stay in one place too long as it would risk being captured. During this time The Doctor came to the planet Earth several times. He would later take a liking to it and decide it was ripe with youngsters for kidnapping.

Eventually the two renegades stopped on Earth in the 1960’s for repairs to the Tardis, which was currently in the form of a police box to blend in with the scenery at the junkyard on Totter’s Lane where they landed. Susan was enrolled at Coal Hill School (later renovated as Coal Hill Academy and home to the Coal Hill Rift and a branch of Faction Paradox) while the Doctor did his best to fix the Tardis.

One night, Susan was followed from the school by her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, and they eventually found out the truth about the renegades. Angered by the humans’ meddling, The Doctor decided it was a good idea to kidnap them and force them to go on fun adventures across time and space with him. At first the two schoolteachers objected to this, but they grew to like the cranky Time Lord and his quirky granddaughter.

On a visit to the planet Skaro, The Doctor encountered the Daleks for the first time. These war machines became his nemesis in his many future travels, and he later said that facing the Daleks on Skaro was what led him to accepting the title of “Doctor” and deciding to save the universe a bunch, if he was in the mood that particular day.

The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara traveled for a long time together, before they visited Earth in the 22nd century. On this visit, they faced the Daleks once more, who, inspired by their conflict with The Doctor, had created a space-time machine themselves and had decided it would be fun to conquer and/or destroy the universe.

Upon the defeat of the Daleks, Susan decided to stay on Earth and marry a guy she’d met a few hours ago, but was convinced was the perfect man. The Doctor allowed her to do so, and they reunited on later occasions, but he never traveled with her properly again.

The Doctor traveled with many humans during his many incarnations, so I will only list the notable ones from here on out. After the departure of both Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, The first incarnation of the Doctor took on Vicki Pallister and Steven Taylor, a handmaiden from ancient Troy named Katarina who promptly died upon joining the Tardis team (Hate it when they do that), Dodo Chaplet, Ben Jackson, and Polly Wright. Many of these were very forgettable and some only lasted a few trips before The Doctor realized his mistake and kicked them out and/or got them killed.

The First Doctor once encountered Mortimus, his old Deca schoolmate, who had now taken to meddling with time to fit his own ends. The two would later meet many times over the course of their lifetimes, but now as enemies instead of friends.

Other notable events when The Doctor was in his first incarnation were his meetings with the Eternals, beings from the pre-universe before our own, and his frequent battles with the Daleks, who now considered him their nemesis.

Towards the end of The Doctor’s first life, he met the Cybermen for the first time. This particular group was the Mondasian Cybermen, who would like nothing better than to populate Earth with Cybermen. Understandably, the Doctor didn’t find this idea entirely appealing, so he got rid of them before falling over and promptly dying.

To his companions’ confusion, he then got up as a much younger man who then played recorder incessantly for several decades. This wasn’t entirely explained until the Doctor was in his third incarnation, and many of his companions were increasingly baffled by their friend’s tendency to change his entire personality every few years.

Now in his second incarnation, The Doctor continued to encounter the Daleks and Cybermen on a pretty much weekly basis, as well as the new arrivals the Ice Warriors. Companion turnover was still high - in this time of his life, the Doctor traveled with Ben and Polly, Victoria Waterfield, the fan favorite Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot.

The Doctor met the extra-dimensional being the Great Intelligence for the first time in his second incarnation— the Intelligence would later return to plague him and eventually unravel his entire timeline in his eleventh incarnation.

With increased alien incursions occurring on Earth in London, the British government set up a task force called UNIT, led by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, a military friend of the Doctor. The Doctor would remain on good terms with UNIT for many decades, well into its destruction in the mid-21st century.

On a mission to apprehend former Deca colleague Magnus (The War Chief), the Time Lords finally caught up with The Doctor. They put him on trial for interfering with history, saving several worlds, and doing other things that generally sounded like good-guy stuff, and eventually decided to brainwash his companions, smack him into regenerating, and leave him on Earth to think about what he’d done.

The Third Doctor spent most of his time on Earth, yes, but he didn’t exactly think about what he’d done; instead he joined UNIT and battled alien incursions with them in the ‘70s, which itself was interfering with history.

In this new incarnation, the Doctor first took on Liz Shaw as his companion, working with her alongside the Brigadier, John Benton, and Mike Yates of UNIT. Together they halted the first full-scale invasion of the planet by the Nestene Consciousness in mid-1970.

Later, when The Doctor was working with Jo Grant, he was forced to face the return of his childhood friend The Master, who had decided he missed the Doctor’s company and went to Earth to tick him off by messing with Earth events and generally being annoying. The Master would continue to plague The Doctor for many centuries, well into his second regeneration cycle.

Eventually, while very embarrassed to admit it, the Time Lords started to miss the Doctor’s antics, and so came up with a convoluted plot to get him back to Gallifrey and take him out of exile. However, this accidentally ended up releasing Omega, the revenge-bent, insane founder of Gallifrey, from his prison, and then the Time Lords had to bring the Doctor in for real. However, the Time Lords were very stupid, so they ended up getting all three incarnations of the Time Lord. Together, the three Doctors took down Omega and he never hurt anyone again. Probably.

With his exile lifted, The Doctor and Jo Grant took to exploring the universe once more, facing Daleks, Cybermen, big slugs, The Master, and other enemies on their travels, before Jo left the Tardis team.

Later, The Doctor met Sarah Jane Smith, a journalist. The two traveled together for a long time, before Sarah Jane promptly spun off into K9 & Company, a badly received television special, and then was never seen again until the Doctor was in his tenth incarnation. After this she spun off again into Sarah Jane Adventures, a show that arguably exists.

The Third Doctor died while facing a bunch of crystal-obsessed giant spiders. He regenerated into his fourth incarnation, which the fans liked so much they forced him to go for a ludicrous amount of seasons and then some audio dramas too.

In his fourth incarnation, The Doctor traveled with Sarah Jane, Leela, a crazy savage Tarzan lady from outer space who later became a successful politician on Gallifrey, a robotic dog called K-9, and a Time Lady named Romana who also later became a Gallifreyan politician. He continued to face Daleks, Cybermen, and his old enemy the Master across time and space, as well as new enemies the Sontarans.

Later in the Fourth Doctor’s tenure, he faced his greatest enemy yet, science fiction writer Douglas Adams, who wrote a few stories for the era and somehow managed to imply that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was canon to the DWU. This confused many people who eventually just decided it would be best to forget about it and never bring it up again.

Regenerating into his fifth incarnation, he traveled with Nyssa of Traken, Tegan Jovanka, Adric, a robot named Kamelion, Turlough (also known as “Draco Malfoy in space” by YoshiDinoX’s older sister, a learned whovian) and Peri Brown. In this incarnation, The Doctor came face to face with Omega once more, and also managed to defeat him.

The Doctor, in all five incarnations, was taken to Gallifrey by the Time Lord government and forced to travel through the trials of the Death Zone to uncover the tomb of Rassilon, former president of Gallifrey who would later be resurrected a pretty nice amount of times.

Later, The Doctor regenerated into his sixth incarnation and promptly tried to strangle current companion Peri Brown. To show his sorrow for this happening, he decided to become a hermit forever. Peri, disturbed by this new Doctor, led him into danger to make sure he was the Doctor, and, he eventually showed himself as capable enough, I guess. However, due to this new Doctor’s vain, self-obsessed, annoying personality, *Doctor Who* was set on the path that led to its extinction and rebirth.

The Doctor, with his companion Peri Brown and new friend Melanie Bush, was put on trial by a mysterious Time Lord who claimed he had done wrong. It was later found that this man was an evil, possible future incarnation of the Doctor called the Valeyard, who was attempting to destroy the Doctor, and the Doctor won the trial.

While celebrating the trial, the Doctor fell over and promptly regenerated. It is unknown what caused this, other than the general assumption that the Doctor tried to exercise and perished because of it.

In his new, seventh incarnation, the Doctor showed a more manipulative side that eventually led to the third interpretation of the Doctor’s origin being widely regarded as the truth.

The Doctor, in this incarnation, met his other old Deca schoolmate, the Rani, who on several occasions tried to murder him. At this point, none other than the Doctor and Vansell of the original Deca had *not* in fact turned to evil or insanity. This shows how most Time Lords of the Doctor’s age are—many grow insane and power-hungry through the many centuries they live.

While traveling with his new companion Ace, the Doctor lost his standing with the BBC and *Doctor Who* was canceled. However, the Doctor continued his adventures in novels.

While traveling with Ace, the Doctor met Bernice Summerfield, a space archaeologist who became a long-standing colleague of his, and Chris Cwej, who would also become a very long-running companion of his. In their travels together, the three encountered the Timewyrm, a mysterious being from Time Lord folklore, and foiled its plan.

Eventually, the Doctor parted ways with Benny and Chris both, and was soon alone in the Tardis. Around this point, conflicts between the Time Lords and the Daleks began to intensify, and the Doctor was forced to attend a trial for the Master by both species. At the end of the trial, it was decided that the Master would be blown up by the Daleks and the Doctor would take his ashes back to Gallifrey.

However, this itself was a plan by the Master. He reconstituted himself, breaking the laws of regeneration itself, and caused the Tardis to crash on Earth in San Francisco, December 29. There the Doctor got shot in the middle of a gang war. One of the gang members, Chang Lee, took the Doctor to the hospital, where Grace Holloway, a nurse, accidentally killed him. He regenerated in the morgue into his eighth incarnation. He then teamed up with Grace to defeat the Master, who had manipulated Chang Lee into joining him. After his defeat, the Doctor met Sam Jones and takes her on as a companion.

The Doctor and Sam Jones were frequently embroiled into the War in Heaven, a war the Time Lords would face many centuries later. This would also happen to the Doctor in his Fifteenth incarnation, wherein he would become a major player in this War.

Eventually the Doctor found out that Sam herself was created by Faction Paradox (a major player in the future War) for their schemes, and the two were pretty infuriated by that, as you’d expect.

The Doctor also became an enemy to Sabbath Dei, an ex-member of the British secret service that was now aligned with the Celestial Intervention Agency and Faction Paradox. Sabbath and his employers, the Council of Eight, were a frequent enemy to the Doctor in this incarnation.

After these events, the Doctor traveled with Fitz Kreiner, Anji Kapoor, Trix MacMillan, Iris Wildthyme, Charlotte Pollard, Lucie Miller, Molly O’Sullivan, Tamsin Drew, Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair, Tania Bell, and Andy Davison.

Several things happened while the Doctor was in his eighth incarnation, which are detailed in the Eighth Doctor RP and thus are spoilers at this point in time prior to its creation.

Near the end of the Doctor’s eighth life, he became embroiled in the Last Great Time War along with his companion Bliss. They helped out when they could, but refused to take part in the War itself until Bliss died and the Eighth Doctor was sent to his extremes, heading to Karn to force himself to regenerate into a warrior.

At Karn, the Doctor took the Elixir of Life (later described by Ohila as actually “a mixture of lemonade and dry ice that smelled bad”) and regenerated into his ninth incarnation, the War Doctor. He promptly disowned the name Doctor and left the planet to join the Time War.

In the Time War, the Doctor fought many battles, destroyed many Daleks, and was sent on countless secret missions. For a complete account of the Doctor in the Time War, see the Tardis Wiki article for Last Great Time War.

Towards the end of the Time War, the Doctor heard of his granddaughter Susan Foreman’s death at the hands of the Volatix Cabal, a secret council of Daleks. This drove the Doctor to rob the Omega Arsenal in Arcadia and steal the Moment, which he used to destroy Gallifrey itself.

Or so it was thought until the Doctor, in his eleventh incarnation, went back and helped the War Doctor, alongside his tenth incarnation, to instead seal Gallifrey in a pocket universe. This succeeded, although the Doctor lost his memories of this event afterwards.

After this event, the Doctor regenerated into his tenth incarnation, which we will refer to as his ninth incarnation for simplicity. He traveled for many centuries after, refusing to look in a mirror due to how ashamed he was of what he’d done. This led to an increased arrogance that eventually blossomed into his tenth incarnation.

The Ninth Doctor prevented a Nestene invasion in 2005, and in doing so met Rose Tyler. This girl would become his first true companion after the Time War, and they would become good friends (totally nothing else).

The Doctor and Rose witnessed the return of the Daleks at Satellite Five in Earth’s distant future, with the Doctor being forced to absorb the Time Vortex after their defeat. This caused his regeneration into his tenth incarnation.

The Tenth Doctor and Rose traveled through space and time (and parallel universes) for a long time before Rose was eventually stranded in Pete’s World after the Battle of Canary Wharf. This led the Doctor to sulking for about five minutes before Donna Noble appeared in his Tardis, screaming bloody murder and threatening to sue him. The Doctor found this very comforting and took Donna on as a temporary companion until he eventually told her that her fiancé was evil and fraternizing with spiders. This horrified Donna, and the two defeated the spiders by killing them all (Note: Setting fire to the house is not an appropriate way of removing arachnids from a space. Do not try this at home. I repeat, **do not try this at home. )**.

If Donna had not stopped him from standing in the flames and looking dramatic, the universe would have ended. No, seriously. I’m not joking.

The Doctor offered to take Donna on as a full-time companion, but she declined, while she did tell the Doctor to find someone to travel with. So he promptly decided to stalk Martha Jones in her workplace at Royal Hope Hospital. In a shocking coincidence, this hospital was teleported to the moon by the Shadow Proclamation and put under lockdown. The two escaped by smooching. Still not joking.

The lovestruck Martha Jones had no choice but to force the Doctor to let her travel with him. The Doctor took her on several adventures, during most of which something horrible happened to him and she had to support him. She had to work at a shop and at a school, get stuck in a traffic jam that had lasted 1000 years, and fight witches, but, the witches weren’t that bad, really.

Then, the Doctor faced his greatest fear. He found out that he was in fact not the last of the Time Lords, and that the Master had survived the Time War. The two had a large conflict that spanned the year 2008 on Earth, which ended with the Doctor turning into a goblin, t-posing, and flying towards the Master while everyone on Earth said the word “Doctor”. This gave the Doctor magical god powers, but it was in fact entirely a coincidence; a random physician got the desired effect and soon became famous for having a cure-all for about five minutes before they stopped chanting “Doctor”.

The Master was then shot by his wife at the time, Lucy Saxon, and died. The Doctor was sad about this, because he only meant to assert his dominance over his fellow Time Lord by T-posing.

Traumatized by the experience, Martha Jones left the Doctor to help her family and join Torchwood, and later, UNIT. Soon after, the Doctor met Donna Noble once more, and she became a full-time companion. During their travels, they discovered that a strange amount of planets had gone missing from space and time.

Also that the bees were disappearing. But no one cares.

Eventually it was discovered that the Daleks were taking planets from space and time for their Medusa Cascade rave, where they would unfortunately destroy the universe with them. The Doctor saved Earth from becoming the last planet to be taken to the Medusa Cascade Party with the help of all his Earth friends, except anyone from before the year 2005, because for some reason none of them felt the need to help with the alien invasion. After this event, the Doctor decided to travel alone, seeing as all the companions he’d had lately had been seriously messed up by their travels with him.

Eventually, without the help of someone to tone him down, the Doctor decided that the laws of time were his and that they’d should obey him. This led to him becoming Time Lord Victorious and attempting to destroy death itself, before he was stopped by the Eighth and Ninth Doctors.

The Doctor then encountered a resurrected Master, and the two of them fought off an attempt by Rassilon and the High Council to blow up the universe and then ascend to some sort of Gallifreyan Elysium. This ended with the Tenth Doctor’s death and subsequent regeneration into his final incarnation of the regeneration cycle.