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The Doctor is the only known name of the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and also featured in a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series.
This article is specifically about the character of the Doctor. For a more general overview of the series, please see the main Doctor Who article. For more about the production history of the show, please see History of Doctor Who.
Who is The Doctor?
The title screen of the first episode of Doctor Who. "The Doctor" is a Time Lord, an extraterrestrial from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in a time machine called the TARDIS - Time And Relative Dimensions (or Dimension) In Space - that allows him to reach any point in time and space. For the most part, and usually because the vessel's navigation system is old and unreliable, he explores the universe at random and uses his extensive knowledge of science and advanced technology to heroically avert the crises that he encounters. The Doctor has, at various times, been accompanied by companions who have chosen to travel with him for a variety of reasons.
The Doctor is considered a renegade by his people, the Time Lords, for his penchant of getting "involved" with the universe, in direct violation of official Time Lord policy. However, most of the time his actions are tolerated, especially when he has saved not just Gallifrey, but the universe, several times over. His standing in Time Lord society has waxed and waned over the years, from being a hunted man to even being appointed Lord President of the High Council (an office he did not assume for very long and eventually was removed from in his absence). In the end, though, he has always seemed quite content to remain a renegade and an exile.
The character was first portrayed by William Hartnell in 1963, who played him as an irascible, grandfatherly figure. When Hartnell left the series, the role was taken over by Patrick Troughton in 1966. To date, eight actors have played the Doctor on television, with perhaps the most enduring incarnation being the fourth, played by Tom Baker. Christopher Eccleston will play the Ninth Doctor in a new series to debut in 2005.
When the series begins, nothing is known of the Doctor at all, not even his name. In the very first serial, 100,000 BC, two teachers from the Coal Hill School in London, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, become intrigued by one of their students, Susan Foreman, who exhibits high intelligence and unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, they see her enter what appears to be a police box. Following her inside, the two not only discover the police box's exterior is camouflage for the TARDIS, but encounter an elderly gentleman whom Susan calls "Grandfather". He introduces himself simply as the Doctor, and subsequently whisks them all away for an adventure in time and space.
"Doctor who?"
In the first episode, Barbara addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman," as the junkyard in which they find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". The Time Lord responds, "Eh? Doctor who?" Although referred to in the on-screen credits for nearly twenty years as "Doctor Who", the Doctor is never really referred to by that name, except in the tongue-in-cheek manner of the first episode. For example, in the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors, in response to "The Doctor is here...", another character replies "Who?".
The only serious exception has been a computer in the serial, The War Machines, which commanded that "Doctor Who is required." Although it is often asserted that "Doctor Who" is not the character's name, there is nothing in the series itself that actually confirms this. On at least one occasion the Doctor is about to give a name after the title "Doctor..." but is interrupted.
In The Highlanders he adopts the alias "Doctor von Wer" (a German approximation of "Doctor Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in The Underwater Menace. When pressed, he sometimes gives the name "Dr. John Smith". In the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor is asked to sign a document, which he does by using a question mark. The recently regenerated Doctor briefly used the alias "Dr. Bowman" in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, known informally as Enemy Within.
In The Armageddon Factor, the Time Lord Drax addresses him as "Thete", short for "Theta Sigma", apparently a University nickname. He has also been mocked by his fellow Time Lords for adhering to such a "lowly" title as "Doctor".
In many spin-off comic strips, books, films and other media, the character is often called "Doctor Who" (or just "Dr. Who") as a matter of course, though this has declined in more recent years. From the first story through to Logopolis (the last story of the 18th season and also of the Tom Baker era), the lead character was listed as "Doctor Who". Starting from Peter Davison's first story, Castrovalva (the first story of the series' 19th season), the lead character is credited simply as "The Doctor". Some fans have speculated, taking off from the fact that the full name of the Time Lady Romana is Romanadvoratrelundar, that the first syllable of the Doctor's true name is "Who".
Discontinuities
A common contention is that a large part of the Doctor's appeal comes from his mysterious and alien origins. While over the decades several revelations have been made about his background - that he is a Time Lord, that he is from Gallifrey, among others - the writers have often strived to retain some sense of mystery and to preserve the eternal question, "Doctor who?" This backstory was not rigidly planned from the beginning, but developed gradually (and somewhat haphazardly) over the years, the result of the work of many writers and producers.
Understandably, this has led to continuity problems. Characters such as the Meddling Monk were retroactively classified as Time Lords, early histories of races such as the Daleks were rewritten, and so on. The creation of a detailed backstory has also led to the criticism that too much being known about the Doctor limits both creative possibilities and the sense of mystery. Some of the stories during the Seventh Doctor's tenure, part of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", were intended to deal with this issue by suggesting that much of what was believed about the Doctor was wrong and that he is a far more powerful and mysterious figure than previously thought. In both an untelevised scene in Remembrance of the Daleks and the subsequent Silver Nemesis it is implied that the Doctor is more than "just" a Time Lord. The suspension of the series in 1989, however, meant that none of these hints were ever resolved.
The 1996 television movie created even more uncertainty about the character, revealing (among other things) that his mother was human. Fans, however, seemed to be more upset about the fact that the Doctor was shown kissing Dr. Grace Holloway, breaking the series' longstanding taboo against the Doctor having any romantic involvement with his companions.
While some fans regard discontinuities as a problem, others regard it as a source of interest or humour (an attitude taken in the book The Discontinuity Guide). A common fan explanation is that a universe with time travellers is likely to have many historical inconsistencies. There has also been much fan speculation centred on exactly which aspects of the television series, books, radio dramatisations, and other sources will be considered canon in the new series to be broadcast in 2005.
Changing faces
The nine faces of the Doctor Eight actors (with a ninth to follow) have officially played the Doctor on television. The changing of actors playing the part of the Doctor is explained within the series by the Time Lords' ability to regenerate after suffering mortal injury, illness, or old age. The process repairs and rejuvenates all damage, but as a side-effect it changes the Time Lord's physical appearance and personality semi-randomly. This process was not developed until producers had to find a way to replace the elderly William Hartnell with Patrick Troughton and was not explicitly called "regeneration" until Jon Pertwee's transformation to Tom Baker at the climax of Planet of the Spiders. On screen, the transformation from Hartnell to Troughton was called a "rejuvenation" and from Troughton to Pertwee a "change of appearance".
The actors who played the Doctor in the series, and the dates of their first and last television appearances, are:
- First Doctor - William Hartnell: (November 23, 1963 - October 29, 1966)
- Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton: (November 5, 1966 - June 21, 1969)
- Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee: (January 3, 1970 - June 8, 1974)
- Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker: (December 28, 1974 - March 21, 1981)
- Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison: (March 21, 1981 - March 16, 1984)
- Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker: (March 22, 1984 - December 6, 1986)
- Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy: (September 7, 1987 - December 6, 1989)
- Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann: (May 27, 1996) - in the Doctor Who television movie
- Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston: - the Ninth Doctor as announced by BBC on March 19, 2004 for the series revival in 2005.
Despite the fact that the Doctor is supposed to be the same person throughout his regenerations, each actor to play the Doctor has purposely imbued their incarnation with distinct quirks and characteristics. These distinguish one incarnation from the other, not just in physical appearance but personality as well. For example, the Second Doctor was a superficially clownish figure while the Third was an action-oriented adventurer and the Fourth more bohemian in his manner. The Fifth Doctor was a human, vulnerable figure, while the Sixth was bombastic, the Seventh darker and more manipulative and the Eighth possessed of an infectious enthusiasm about the universe. At his core, however, the Doctor continues to be a heroic figure, fighting the evils of the universe wherever he finds them, even if his values and motives are sometimes alien. It remains to be seen what personality traits the Ninth Doctor will exhibit.
Following is a list of how each Doctor has regenerated, thus far. With two exceptions (Patrick Troughton to Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker to Sylvester McCoy) it has been traditional for the previous Doctor to be seen regenerating into the next in a symbolic handing over of the role.
- First Doctor: apparently succumbs to old age, steadily growing weaker throughout The Tenth Planet and collapsing at the serial's end.
- Second Doctor: a forced regeneration and exile to Earth by the Time Lords in the closing moments of The War Games.1
- Third Doctor: radiation posioning from the Great One's cave of crystals at the end of Planet of the Spiders.
- Fourth Doctor: falls from the the Pharos Project radio telescope in Logopolis.
- Fifth Doctor: spectrox toxaemia, contracted near the start of The Caves of Androzani.
- Sixth Doctor: injured as The Rani attacks the TARDIS at the start of Time and the Rani.2
- Seventh Doctor: Dies on the operating table while undergoing surget for gunshot wounds.
It is not yet known how the Eighth Doctor regenerates into the Ninth.
Regenerations
It was established in The Deadly Assassin that a Time Lord can regenerate twelve times before permanently dying, though as with most such "rules" there were occasionally exceptions. For more on this see the Time Lord article.
In The Brain of Morbius (produced shortly before Assassin), it was implied through visual images displayed during a mental battle between the Doctor and Morbius that the Doctor had at least eight incarnations prior to the First Doctor. However, multiple dialogue references throughout the series (particularly in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors) contradict this, as well as the fact that the Doctor has regenerated thrice since Peter Davison. Explanations by fans have included theories that the images were of Morbius's previous incarnations or that they were false images induced by the Doctor.
The Doctor's regenerations are usually as a result of his previous incarnation sustaining mortal injury or (in one case) having the regeneration forced on him by the Time Lords. Other Time Lord regenerations, like Romana's, have not been as dramatic or painful.
In the Sixth Doctor serial The Trial of a Time Lord, a Time Lord with the title of the Valeyard (played by Michael Jayston) was revealed to be a potential future Doctor, existing somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnations and embodying all the evil and malevolence of the Doctor's dark side. The Valeyard was defeated in his attempt to actualize himself by stealing the Sixth Doctor's remaining regenerations, however, and so may never actually come to exist.
The idea of an "in-between" version of the Doctor has its precedents. In Planet of the Spiders, a Time Lord's future self (described as a "distillation" of the future incarnation) was shown to exist as a corporeal projection that assisted his then-current incarnation. In Logopolis, a mysterious white-cloaked figure known as the Watcher assisted in the transition between the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. Nyssa commented that the Watcher "was the Doctor all the time," but there is no real evidence to back up this assertion and the actual nature of the character has never been made clear.
The relevation in the 1996 television movie that the Doctor was half-human proved controversial among fans, and some have speculated that only the Eighth Doctor was half-human due to the particularly traumatic circumstances of his regeneration, rather than the Doctor having been half-human all along. This implied Time Lord ability to change species during regeneration is referenced by the Eighth Doctor in relation to the Master in the television movie, and is supported by Romana's regeneration scene in the 1979 serial Destiny of the Daleks.
Reprising the role
On a few occasions, previous Doctors have returned to the role, guest-starring with the incumbent:
- Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton with William Hartnell in a minor role in The Three Doctors.
- Troughton, Pertwee with Davison in The Five Doctors, the twentieth anniversary special, with another actor, Richard Hurndall, standing in for the late William Hartnell. The story began with a clip featuring Hartnell. Tom Baker declined to appear and the narrative was reworked to use clips from Shada, an intended six-part story from the Fourth Doctor's era that was never completed due to industrial action. A dummy of Baker was used in the publicity photographs.
- Patrick Troughton with Colin Baker in The Two Doctors.
- Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Colin Baker, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy - with rubber dummy heads standing in for William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton - in Dimensions in Time, a charity special in aid of Children in Need in 1993, the programme's 30th anniversary year.
Other actors have portrayed the character of the Doctor outside of the television series. For details on this see under Adaptations and other appearances in the main article and Doctor Who spin-offs.
Notes
- We do not see Patrick Troughton turn into Jon Pertwee's Doctor. The War Games has Troughton spinning away into nothingness as the serial ends and the next time we see the Doctor in Spearhead from Space it is Jon Pertwee who stumbles out of the TARDIS. This leaves a possible gap between War Games and Spearhead which some have inserted a hypothetical "Season 6B" for the Second Doctor as an agent of the Time Lords (see The Two Doctors).
- Colin Baker did not actually appear in the regeneration scene from Time and the Rani, as he declined to participate. Instead, Sylvester McCoy is seen briefly from behind in a blond wig before he regenerates into the Seventh Doctor.
References
- Howe, David J; Stammers, Mark & Walker, Stephen James (1996). Doctor Who: The Eighties (1st ed.). London: Virgin Publishing. ISBN 1-85227-680-0.
- Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (1998). Doctor Who: The Television Companion (1st ed.). London: BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-40588-0.
- Parkin, Lance (1996). Doctor Who: A History of the Universe - From Before The Dawn of Time and Beyond The End of Eternity. London: Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-426-20471-9.
See also
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