Seventh Doctor

"Let me guess, my theories appall you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters, and you don't like my tie"

- The Doctor

Regeneration - Post-Regeneration
It has been suggested (mostly through journeys through the Doctor's psyche) that his sixth self forced a sixth regeneration into his seventh persona because he was too out of control, and was heading down the road to become the Valeyard. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation)

Regardless, when the TARDIS was attacked by the Rani, the Doctor hit his head on the console, and regenerated for a sixth time - allowing his seventh persona to come into being. Following his regeneration he had a slightly comic personality, due mostly to post-regenerative trauma. (DW: Time and the Rani)

Ace and Facing Fears
When the Doctor and Mel arrived on the planet Svartos the Doctor encountered Ace, a much more brash human and recognised something in her that would assist him in the future as Time's Champion. He used a mild form of hypnosis to persuade his current companion Melanie Bush into leaving him. (NA: Damaged Goods)

The Doctor led Ace through many challenges, leading her to face her fears, with the intent that she might take his place in the future.

Time's Champion
The Doctor became the eternal Champion of Time, assisting the universe and Time in the more complicated historical challenges. One such challenge involving the Hoothi was seen by Ace as an ultimate betrayal, leading her to leave his company during events on the planet Heaven. It also led Bernice Summerfield to join him. (NA: Love and War)

Death
The Seventh Doctor apparently "died" twice. The first death occurred at some point during his travels with Ace, although it is possible this occurred in an alternate universe/timeline (Death Comes to Time). Later, the Doctor was assigned to transport the remains of The Master from Skaro to Gallifrey, but due to interference from the Master the TARDIS arrived in late 1999 San Francisco. The Doctor walked into a gangland gunbattle and was shot twice. Although rendered unconscious and taken to hospital, it is determined that the bullets caused only minor injury. However when an X-ray reveals an abnormality (the apparent appearance of a second heart), specialist Dr. Grace Holloway undertakes exploratory surgery. Unfamiliar with Time Lord physiology, and not heeding the Doctor's warning, Holloway damages the Doctor's circulatory system with her probe, causing him to die on the operating table. Unlike previous regenerations, however, the change this time did not occur for several hours, a delay the Eighth Doctor later attributed to his being under anesthesia at the time of his "death". (''Doctor Who: The TV Movie)

Characteristics
The Seventh Doctor was a darker character, manipulative and frequently saw the 'bigger picture' rather than the world before him.

Personality
The personality of the seventh Doctor was originally much more light-hearted and prone to clownish behavior, which masked the Doctor's intellect and courage against evil. However, this was ultimately dropped during Sylvester McCoy's second season as the Doctor as the character took a much darker turn. This "darker" revamp would come to define the character, as the Seventh Doctor became a master manipulator who saw the battle between good and evil as a game of chess and everyone around him as pawns, to be manipulated in the pursuit of stopping evil. This was seen most notably in the "Virgin New Adventure" series, which went as far as to recast the Seventh Incarnation of the Doctor as "Time's Champion" and to move the Doctor into a much more more emotionally closed off figure.

Despite his manipulative actions (most notably his use of psychic powers to make Mel leave his side), the Seventh Doctor did care for his companions and had a paternal relationship with Ace, which ultimately soured when Ace found herself unable to deal with the Doctor's growing emotional coldness.

During the final two seasons of the original Doctor Who series, the Doctor often hinted that he was more that a normal Time Lord. This was done mainly by the writers, to try and interject a new level of mystery into the character via the implication that there was aspects to the Doctor that were not known to most. The plotline ultimately culminated in the revelation, in the 1996 Doctor Who tv movie, that the Doctor was half-human, on his mother's side. However, of the two times it is mentioned once is by the Master (hardly the most scrupulous of sources), and the other is by the Doctor while attempting to distract someone in order to steal his access key. DW: Journey's End does not firmly establish that the Doctor is not half-human, as it simply indicates that a Human/Time Lord metacrisis has never occured before. The very unusual circumstances under which the "second" Doctor is generated is out of a combination of his severed hand fused with Donna Noble's human DNA - a unique situation to say the least. It is still suggested that the Doctor is more than just a Time Lord, however, as he is shown evolving in terms of power in DW: Forest of the Dead.

Habits and Quirks
The Seventh Doctor was a consumate fan of the game of chess, to the point of treating his companions and enemies as pieces on a chess board. This is most notably seen in (DW: Silver Nemesis) and (DW: The Curse of Fenric)

He's also famous for his "rolling r's".

As the character was revamped during McCoy's second season as the Doctor to take on a much darker tone, aspects of his personality such as a tendency to spout mangled cliches (most notably "Time and tide melts the snowman") as well as his aptitude towards using spoons as percussion instruments were dropped. He was also the first and, to date, only Doctor to consistently wear a hat (the first, second, fourth and fifth Doctors were also known to wear hats on occasion, but not consistently).

Despite being known for his dark persona, the Seventh Doctor was known for his use of words to resolve problems as opposed to violence.

Mysteries and Discrepancies

 * The Doctor made a slip of the tongue when discussing the Hand of Omega with Ace in 1963, stating that 'we' had trouble with the prototype, rather than 'they' being early Time Lords. He may have been referring 'we' as a species not 'we' as a group.
 * Lady Peinforte claimed knowledge of the Doctor's actions during the 'Dark Times' of early Gallifrey, well before his assumed birth date, gathered from the Silver Nemesis statue. In addition, when Peinforte was told that the Doctor is a Time Lord, she is seen to shake her head, no, before replying (the reason for her physical response is unknown).
 * The Doctor once stated to Davros that he was 'far more than just another Time Lord'.

Key Life Events

 * The Doctor regenerates and experiences amnesia. He states that he is 953 years old at this point in his life. (DW: Time and the Rani)
 * Meets Ace for the first time (an event, the Doctor would discover later, was orchestrated by Fenric), and she joins him in his travels after Melanie Bush decides to travel with Sabalom Glitz instead. (DW: Dragonfire)
 * Returns to London in 1963, not long after the departure of his first incarnation, in order to complete some unfinished business involving the Hand of Omega. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor begins to show a darker side of his personality when he gives the Hand of Omega to Davros in order to ensure the destruction of the planet Skaro. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * Encounters Lady Peinforte and the Cybermen in another event orchestrated by Fenric. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * Reunites with The Brigadier, UNIT and Bessie and learns he may someday take on the identity of Merlin. (DW: Battlefield)
 * Final showdown with Fenric (DW: The Curse of Fenric)
 * The Doctor discovers the Master on the Cheetah World (DW: Survival'').
 * The Doctor battles the Timewyrm. (NA: Timewyrm: Genesys, et al)
 * The Doctor first meets Professor Bernice Summerfield, and Ace leaves him. (NA: Love and War)
 * Meets Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, a descendant of The Brigadier, for the first time. (NA: Transit)
 * An older and wiser Ace rejoins the Doctor. (NA: Deceit)
 * Loss of his TARDIS. He takes an alternative timeline TARDIS left by his third self who, in this universe, has died. (NA: Blood Heat)
 * The Doctor defeats Mortimus. (NA: No Future)
 * Ace departs a second time, becoming 'Time's Vigilante' in order to watch over Earth for him. (NA: Set Piece)
 * The Doctor changes into a Human. (NA: Human Nature)
 * As the events of the novel Human Nature were later adapted for a Tenth Doctor television episode, it is clear that this event is not canon.


 * Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej join the Doctor in his travels. (NA: Original Sin)
 * Reunites with Ace and Melanie Bush, and also encounters the Land of Fiction construct, Dr. Who. (NA: Head Games)
 * Meets Jason Kane. (NA: Death and Diplomacy)
 * Bernice Summerfield marries Jason Kane and leaves the Doctor. The Doctor is reunited with several past companions and friends, including Ace, The Brigadier, John Benton and Mike Yates. (NA: Happy Endings)
 * Reunites temporarily with Benny (NA: Return of the Living Dad)
 * Roz Forrester dies and the Doctor suffers a "one-sided" heart attack. (NA: So Vile a Sin)
 * Reunites with Peri Brown (NA: Bad Therapy)
 * Reunites with Benny and with Liz Shaw, who dies. The Doctor, in order to save Earth, causes the death of 600 million humans. (NA: Eternity Weeps)
 * Settling old family business, the Doctor returns to the House of Lungbarrow on Gallifrey. During the course of events, the Doctor is reunited with Romana, Ace, Leela and both K-9s. Chris Cwej leaves. (NA: Lungbarrow)
 * The Doctor is assigned to transport the remains of The Master from Skaro to Gallifrey but the Master causes the TARDIS to crash-land on Earth in 1999. The Doctor is shot in a gang shootout, and subsequently dies on the operating table during exploratory heart surgery conducted by Grace Holloway. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)
 * After a delay of several hours caused by the anesthetic, the Doctor regenerates into his eighth incarnation. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)