Seventh Doctor

## More ambiguous

Originally a man with the demeanour of an eccentric, light-hearted buffoon, the **Seventh Doctor** darkened into a mysterious, cunning manipulator to combat Fenric's return.

Though he delighted in humorous reverie, it was only the surface layer of his true nature. Beneath, he was a Machiavellian and somber genius of frightful calibre who could tactfully use his mind to manipulate almost any situation into reaching his favoured outcome. Despite this, every action he did "for the greater good", as this incarnation actively sought out evil to vanquish. He could also show profound warmth and affection to his companions, and built a strong bond with many of them.

Initially, the Seventh Doctor travelled with his predecessor's final companion, Melanie Bush. After several adventures with the new Doctor, she left to travel with Sabalom Glitz, prompting him to begin travelling with Ace, a troubled teenager from Earth in the 1980s. Treating her both as a protégé and initially as a pawn in Fenric's game, he did his best to help heal Ace's psychological wounds by helping her come to terms with her past misdeeds and fears, aiding her in maturing and supporting her in moments of difficulty. Although he initially planned to take Ace home, they ultimately travelled together for several years, only for their strong bond to grow increasingly strained as secrets and death tore them apart.

After many years of schemes and manipulation, the Doctor regenerated into his next incarnation on Alixion when trying to stop The Abbot from gaining massive amounts of power by feeding him to the beetles of Alixion for a magic elixir.

## Biography

### Post-Regeneration

It is unknown what happened to the Sixth Doctor's incarnation, just that he and Mel were unconscious on the TARDIS floor while encountering The Rani's laser bombardment.

After the laser attack, the TARDIS was caught in the Rani's tractor beam, and forced to make a landing on Lakertya's surface, where the Rani and her Tetrap servant, Urak, boarded the TARDIS and abducted the Doctor as his regeneration concluded, taking him to the Rani's laboratory. Awakening in the Rani's lab, the Doctor immediately recognised her, but was knocked out by Urak and injected with an amnesia-inducing drug, which allowed the Rani to trick him into assisting her with her project by pretending to be Mel. Upon regaining consciousness again, the partially amnesiac Doctor first decided to choose a new look, before returning to work on the Rani's machine, having been convinced by "Mel" that he had been working on it before an accident caused him to regenerate.

However, as the Doctor found what was wrong with it, the real Mel snuck into the lab and the two convinced each other of their identities, exposing the Rani's lies. Escaping, the Doctor discovered that several other geniuses from throughout time, including Albert Einstein and Hypatia, had been captured to act as components of the Rani's "time brain". Forced to become the final component, the Doctor's still recovering mind caused it to spout nonsense, though he also inadvertently provided the brain with the means to determine the needed substance: Loyhargil. The Lakertyan leader, Beyus, then sacrificed his life to destroy the brain and delay the launch long enough for the rocket to miss the asteroid. Rescuing the captives, the Doctor took them back to their own times. (TV: *Time and the Rani*)

## Stories

### Season 24 (1987)

* *Time and the Rani*
* *Paradise Towers*
* *Delta and the Bannermen*
* *Dragonfire*

### Season 25 (1988)

* *Remembrance of the Daleks*
* *The Happiness Patrol*
* *Silver Nemesis*
* *The Greatest Show in the Galaxy*

### Season 26 (1989)

* *Battlefield*
* *Ghost Light*
* *The Curse of Fenric*
* *Survival*

### Season 27 (1990)

* *Thin Ice*
* *Action At A Distance*
* *Bad Destination*
* *A School For Glory*
* *Alixion*

## Behind the scenes

### Casting

Actors considered for the role of the seventh incarnation before Sylvester McCoy was cast included Rowan Atkinson (who later played the Eighth incarnation of Doctor Who from 1991 to 1994), McCoy's mentor Ken Campbell, Chris Jury, Tony Robinson, and Alexei Sayle. Sayle had previously played the DJ in TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*. Furthermore, Andrew Sachs and Dermot Crowley auditioned for the role.

### Cartmel Masterplan

Season 25, 26, and 27 had broad hints that the Doctor was not simply a Time Lord, as previously shown and stated. This overarching plot, conceived by Script Editor Andrew Cartmel and referred to by fans as the Cartmel Masterplan, was designed to restore an element of mystery in the Doctor and his true nature as in the stories of the first and second incarnations. The story *Ghost Light* was intended to be *Lungbarrow* which never came into fruition, and this would've detailed The Doctor's origins. However, John Nathan-Turner didn't like what was being planned so it was restructured into *Ghost Light*. Ben Aaronovitch tried to have *Lungbarrow* be the season finale of Season 28 but Gary Downie had similar feelings to Nathan-Turner and cancelled it as well, with the Cartmel Masterplan remaining forever unfinished. Robert Shearman would later reference *Lungbarrow* and use some of its elements in the Thirteenth Doctor story *The Haunting of Barrow House*.