Seventh Doctor

The Seventh Doctor was the seventh incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Although originally an eccentric, light-hearted character, the seventh incarnation's jolly persona eventually darkened into that of a mysterious, cunning manipulator.

Unfortunately, his schemes often strained the relationships with his companions, resulting in them losing their trust in him on several occasions. By the end of his life, this Doctor seemed to have become at ease with the universe, with his manipulative nature having somewhat mellowed.

The Doctor was forced to regenerate after Grace Holloway performed exploratory surgery on him, thinking him Human. His regeneration was delayed due to the effects of anaesthesia, taking place several hours later instead of instantly.

Post-Regeneration
The origin of the seventh incarnation is somewhat steeped in mystery. It is known that his sixth incarnation regenerated immediately after his TARDIS was forced to land on Lakertya by the Rani. (DW: Time and the Rani)

Exactly how the Doctor was able to injure himself so severely during the attack was never revealed. However it had been suggested that the regeneration may have been intentional, in order to prevent the chain of events which could lead to the creation of the Doctor's evil future incarnation, the Valeyard. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation) It was also suggested that the regeneration was a result of the Doctor being weak from the events that led to the destruction of the Lampreys. (PDA: Spiral Scratch) Another possibility was that he deliberately ended the sixth incarnation so that a champion for Time could be born. (NA: Love and War)

Regardless of the cause, the Doctor's regeneration was followed by the expected period of post-regenerative trauma, which resulted in a somewhat chaotic, almost comic personality emerging, as well as amnesia which caused the Doctor to briefly mistake the Rani for his companion, Mel. Soon after his regeneration, he indicated that he was exactly 953 years old at this time, the only Doctor to date, other than the eleventh incarnation, for whom a specific age was given soon after regeneration.
 * This number has been called into question a number of times. See Separate article.

While still under the Rani's influence, the Doctor chose a new look for his persona, shedding the chaotic, clown-like attire of his predecessor for a more subtle suit and hat, noting to the Rani that his new incarnation had regained a sense of haute couture. It is not known if the Rani actually had any influence on the Doctor's new look. (DW: Time and the Rani)

Travels with Mel
After regaining his memory and defeating the Rani, the new Doctor continued his travels with Mel at his side. One of their first visits was to Paradise Towers, (DW: Paradise Towers) followed by a visit to a Welsh holiday camp in the 1950s, where they encountered the Bannermen. (DW: Delta and the Bannermen)

After a final adventure on Iceworld, Mel chose to leave the Doctor and instead travel with Sabalom Glitz, a con man she felt could be turned to the side of right with her help. On Iceworld, the Doctor met Ace, a troubled teenager from 1980s Earth who had somehow been transported to the planet. After Mel's departure, Ace agreed to travel with the Doctor. (DW: Dragonfire)

Travels with Ace
One of the Doctor's first trips with Ace took him back to Coal Hill School in 1963, only a few days after he had left Earth with Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. (DW: An Unearthly Child) He returned in order to take care of unfinished business left behind by his first incarnation, the retrieval of the Hand of Omega. This mission was disrupted by the arrival of two groups of Daleks and Davros. In defeating the Daleks, the seventh incarnation displayed a growing darkness of character when he used the Hand to apparently destroy the Dalek homeworld, Skaro. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Afterwards, the Doctor and Ace continued their travels together. Notably, they encountered the Cybermen and Lady Peinforte, a woman who displayed distubing knowledge of the Doctor's true character, near 20th Century Windsor. (DW: Silver Nemesis) He also found himself reuniting with an old friend, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in an adventure that also reunited him with UNIT. During this event certain parties also claimed that the Doctor had once lived in the time of King Arthur and was known as Merlin. (DW: Battlefield)

During his travels with Ace, the Doctor worked to heal his troubled companion, who displayed discomfort at certain memories of her earlier life, such as a fire she had started (DW: Ghost Light) and a fear of clowns. (DW: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) He even, inadvertently, caused her to meet and interact with an ancestor. (DW: The Curse of Fenric) During the last event, the Doctor learned that the arrival of Ace, and several other intervening adventures, were arranged by Fenric, an evil entity the Doctor had encountered before.

Soon after, the Doctor once again met his arch-nemesis, the Master, and defeated him. During this event, he returned Ace to her home in Perivale and offered her the chance to stay on Earth. Ace, however, now considered the TARDIS her home, and they left in search of new adventures. (DW: Survival)

Time's Champion
In the years that followed, the Doctor continued to travel extensively, gaining and losing companions as he went. Ace left to fight in a war, but later returned, older and wiser. (NA: Deceit) The Doctor also gained a valued companion in Dr. Bernice Summerfield, who was herself a fellow adventurer, (NA: Love and War) and who remained with him for quite some time, long enough that the Doctor in his eighth incarnation later claimed she was his longest-serving companion. (NA: The Dying Days)

The seventh incarnation's travels saw him reuniting with many past friends, not always in a positive fashion, including Peri Brown, (NA: Bad Therapy) Romana, (NA: Lungbarrow) Liz Shaw, (NA: Eternity Weeps) and some of his former UNIT colleagues, (NA: Happy Endings) among others.

At one point, the Doctor physically changed himself into a Human called John Smith and lived for a time as such, even falling in love with a Human woman called Joan Redfern. (NA: Human Nature)
 * The tenth incarnation also experienced these events. (DW: Human Nature, Family of Blood) Whether they are separate events which are similar, or the same event is unknown. Most likely this event is now considered apocryphal, if it was ever canon in the first place due to the uncertain nature of spin-off material.

Near the end of his life, the seventh incarnation returned to the House of Lungbarrow on Gallifrey. During his time on Gallifrey, President Romana assigned him to collect the Master's remains from Skaro. (NA: Lungbarrow)

Death
There have been two different accounts of the seventh incarnation's death:

One is said to have occurred at some point during his travels with Ace, although it is possible this occurred in an alternate universe/timeline, or was part of a larger, unchronicled scheme. (WC: Death Comes to Time)

Another is that at some point following his family-related visit to Gallifrey, (NA: Lungbarrow) 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 gun battle and was shot once straight through the shoulder and twice in the leg. Although rendered unconscious and taken to hospital, it was determined that the bullets had caused only minor injury. However, when an X-ray revealed an abnormality, caused by the Doctor's second heart, specialist Dr. Grace Holloway undertook exploratory surgery. Unfamiliar with Time Lord physiology, and not heeding the Doctor's warning, Holloway damaged 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 incarnation later attributed to his being under anaesthesia at the time of his "death". (DW: Doctor Who)
 * For a list of Seventh Doctor stories in the order in which he experienced them, see Seventh Doctor - Timeline.

Personality
The personality of the seventh incarnation was originally much more light-hearted and prone to clownish behaviour, which masked the Doctor's intellect and courage against evil. However, as he matured, he took a much darker turn. This "darker" side would come to define him, as the seventh incarnation 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. Frequently, he would only see the "bigger picture" rather than the world before him. Often, he would not sufficiently explain this bigger picture to his companions. An example of this occurred when the Doctor emotionally devastated Ace by labelling her, among other things, an "emotional cripple" during his battle with Fenric. This was necessary in order for her to briefly abandon her belief in him, weakening Fenric's power, a fact that he did not explain until later. (DW: The Curse of Fenric)

Despite his manipulative actions, such as using psychic powers to make Mel leave, (NA: Head Games) the seventh incarnation 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.

The seventh incarnation was not all doom and gloom, however. He maintained a light-hearted nature well into his manipulative days, and particularly seemed to relish his game against Light. (DW: Ghost Light) He was also not totally unfeeling when it came to the "bigger picture"; he appeared greatly apprehensive about his decision to destroy Skaro, and was agonised when he had to convince Ace that he did not care about her. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, The Curse of Fenric)

Appearance
At the beginning of his seventh incarnation, the Doctor wore an off-white safari-styled jacket. He wore a red paisley scarf under the lapels and had a matching handkerchief in the left pocket. Like many of his previous incarnations, he wore a fob watch as part of his clothing. He wore a yellow pullover with turquoise zigzag lines and red question marks. Under the pullover he wore a white shirt with red tie. For trousers, he wore sand-coloured tweed plaid trousers with white and brown brogued spectator shoes. He also wore a white colonial-styled Panama hat. The hat had a paisley hat band and an upturned brim, similar to the hat he wore in his fifth incarnation. He carried an umbrella which had a red, question mark shaped handle. (DW: Delta and the Bannermen et al)

When the Doctor's personality began to change, his outfit changed alongside it. His jacket, hat band, handkerchief, scarf and tie became darker, varying between shades of burgundy and brown. (DW: Ghost Light et al)

By the end of this incarnation, his outfit had altered again. He wore a light brown tweed jacket, with a red waistcoat and a black and brown, zigzag patterned tie. The Doctor still retained his Panama hat. (DW: Doctor Who)

Habits and Quirks
The seventh incarnation was a consummate fan of the game of chess, to the point of treating his companions and enemies as pieces on a chess board. (DW: Silver Nemesis, The Curse of Fenric) Despite being known for his dark personality, the seventh incarnation was known for his use of words to resolve problems instead of violence.

He also rolled his Rs, due to the fact that this incarnation spoke with a Scottish accent.

He liked to carry around a question mark umbrella, often using it for practical purposes unrelated to keeping the rain away. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

A habit occasionally displayed was a tendency to mangle and combine earth idioms, such as "Time and tide melt the snowman" and "A stitch in time... takes up space".

Also, early into this incarnation, the Doctor showed a knack for playing the spoons as a musical instrument, though this was seen less as he matured.

Casting
Actors considered for the role of the seventh incarnation before McCoy was cast included Rowan Atkinson, who later played the ninth incarnation in The Curse of Fatal Death, McCoy's mentor Ken Campbell, Chris Jury, Tony Robinson and Alexei Sayle.

Cartmel Masterplan
Season 25 and 26 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.
 * For further discussion, see Cartmel Masterplan.

Parodies and pastiches

 * After the original series ended, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred went on to play a character called the Professor and Ace, respectively, in a series of audio adventures produced by BBV Productions. Initially the stories were clearly based upon Doctor Who, but these connections decreased when the character was renamed the Dominie and Aldred's character Alice.
 * McCoy also parodied his version of the Doctor in the BBV production, Do You Have a Licence to Save This Planet? in which he played the Foot Doctor. Although the film featured several monsters from Doctor Who, this production is not considered canonical in any way.
 * In the BBC series, Doctors, Sylvester guest-starred as Graham Capelli, an actor who had played the title role in The Amazing Lollipop Man, a cult 1980s children's television series of the same name. The Lollipop Man had many similarities to the Doctor.
 * An Easter Egg referencing the Seventh Doctor appears in the seventh episode of the first season (The Tale of the Captured Souls) of the Nickelodean children's horror series, Are You Afraid of the Dark. The Seventh Doctor's hat and coat can be seen hanging from a hatstand at two points in the episode.