Ninth Doctor

"Everybody lives Rose! Just this once! Everybody lives!"

- The Doctor

The Ninth Doctor was the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Outwardly manic and energetic, he harboured deep survivor's guilt over the Last Great Time War.

Biography

 * It is not specifically known how the Doctor regenerated. In Rose, he looks in a mirror and comments on his new face, which suggests that he has not had a chance to look in a mirror since his regeneration. The most commonly accepted explanation for the existence of the Ninth Doctor is that the Eighth Doctor was killed in the Time War.

After the conclusion of the Time War, of which the Doctor was the sole survivor, the Eighth Doctor regenerated for an eighth time. His ninth incarnation travelled to Earth, where he rescued a young human woman, Rose Tyler, from several Autons and confronted the Nestene Consciousness that was controlling them. Although the Doctor tried to persuade the Consciousness to leave Earth, it refused and attempted to take him prisoner. With Rose's help, however, the Ninth Doctor defeated the Nestene Consciousness and thwarted its plans of world domination. Appreciative of Rose's assistance, the Doctor subsequently invited her to travel with him on his journeys through space and time inside his TARDIS. Rose accepted, and consequently became his companion. (DW: Rose)

The TARDIS harboured three different companions during his lifespan - most notably Rose Tyler, a shop assistant from early 21st-century Earth. He also met Adam Mitchell following his experience with the 'last' Dalek in 2012 Utah (DW: Dalek), but expelled him from the TARDIS for his selfish conduct (DW: The Long Game). The Doctor's third assistant was ex-Time Agent, conman, and sometime Captain Jack Harkness, whom the Doctor and Rose met on a visit to London during the World War II Blitz (DW: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances).

The Doctor regenerated due to cellular degeneration caused by absorbing the energies of the Time Vortex from Rose, who had absorbed them from the TARDIS (DW: The Parting of the Ways).

Appearance
In stark contrast to the extravagant dress of most of his predecessors, the Doctor wore a plain leather jacket (mistaken in World War II for that of a German U-boat commander; DW: The Empty Child), red, green or black jumper (which Charles Dickens thought made him look like a navvy; DW: The Unquiet Dead) and dark trousers. Unlike previous Doctors, the Ninth Doctor wore his hair close cropped.

Personality
This incarnation was a study in contrasts. On the one hand, he shared many characteristics with his predecessors. One moment he was full of manic energy and a sharp, offbeat wit; the next he was removed and reserved, keenly aware of the divide between himself and the humans he encountered. But the Time War of which the Doctor was the sole survivor had clearly affected him deeply indeed. This was a sadder and angrier Doctor; the weight of his having seemingly destroyed both the Time Lords and the Daleks preyed upon him greatly. But consequently, this was also a Doctor who harboured a new appreciation for the wonders of the universe and who, more keenly than ever, burned with a desire to keep the universe safe from harm.

While his previous incarnations were rarely heard uttering minor curse words like "hell" and "damn", the Ninth Doctor tended to use these phrases more freely. The Tenth Doctor implied that the Ninth Doctor was more angry and pained due to being "born from war" as he compared the Meta-Crisis Doctor to him. (DW: Journey's End)

Habits and Quirks
He also spoke with a Northern accent, and was critical of his own large ears. (DW: Rose).

He also has a fondness for saying "Fantastic" whenever he sees something of interest - particulary something dangerous.

He nicknames Mickey Smith "Mickey the idiot" or simply "Ricky".

This Doctor called humans "stupid apes" and seemed very alien. He carried an air of mystery around him, and sometimes argued with Rose. However, he "does not do domestic", as he put it, which could lead to some tension in his interactions with Jackie Tyler. He also has been revealed to have a fondness for bananas (DW: The Doctor Dances).

This Doctor would noticeably become emotionally exhausted and would seemingly reach moments where he would breakdown whenever faced with pain, suffering, or death. In DW: The Doctor Dances this problem takes centre stage when the Doctor expresses his exhaustion several times, which ultimately results in a brief moment of relief and happiness when he realizes he can for once reverse all of the pain and suffering he has encountered.

Mysteries and Discrepancies

 * We do not know if the Doctor had really just regenerated when he met Rose. (DW: Rose)


 * For reasons unknown, this incarnation of the Doctor gives his age as 900, (DW: Aliens of London, et al) even though his Seventh incarnation stated he was 953 at the start of his life (DW: Time and the Rani) and the Eighth claimed a much older age of 1,012 (EDA: Vampire Science). The Doctor's tenth incarnation stated approximately two years into his life that he was 903.
 * The reasons for this have yet to be addressed, though it's possible it may have had something to do with the Time War. Also it is possible that given he is so old he has begun to count his age another way, "900 hundred years of telephone box travel", for simplicity's sake. It is also probable that it is merely a writing error, as the general jist was that he was a 900 year old Time Lord, so when the series began they simply took this on board.


 * In Rose, Clive shows Rose Tyler some photos of the Ninth Doctor, present at the assassination of President Kennedy, and the Titanic amongst other photos. Also in this episode, the Doctor views his physical appearance, meaning he had not previously seen himself in the mirror before in his ninth incarnation, also meaning he regenerated shortly before this episode. This means that in the photos shown to Rose, the Doctor must be older than he was in this episode, which would also mean that Rose was present at these historic events (with the photographs). This is because the episode is, going on evidence, set just after the Doctor's regeneration, and he spent the whole of his time as this incarnation with Rose, so she must have been present, possibly with Captain Jack. However, The Doctor may have visited these places during the brief time when he left Rose at the end of the first episode.


 * The Doctor eventually states he somehow ended the Time War, screaming to a captured Dalek "I made it happen!" Exactly how he did so, however, is unknown. A plausible theory would be that the Doctor absorbed the Time Vortex, becoming a "vengeful god", but was unable to control it and wiped out his own people and the Daleks. This would clear up how the Dalek Emperor fell through time, sent through the Vortex.

Undocumented adventures

 * The Time War and the Doctor's role in it remain unclear.


 * Clive Finch possessed several images of this incarnation at well-known historical events. One in Dallas at the moment of John F. Kennedy's assassination, in Southampton just before the launch of the Titanic, and in Indonesia on the day of Krakatoa's eruption.


 * If the Doctor had visited these points in history before he met Rose, why does he react to his reflection in a mirror in her flat in a way which indicates he has recently regenerated? If these visits were after Rose joined him, where was she when these images were collected? (Then again, why would she need to be in them?) Perhaps the Doctor made these trips after initially leaving Mickey and Rose, following their Auton adventure in 2005, only to return just seconds later to invite Rose aboard? Or maybe he wandered a bit after his second encounter with Rose, having retrieved the Auton arm from her council flat? It's also possible that, having seen the images, Rose knew to stay out of them when the time came.


 * Captain Jack states that just prior to arriving at the Gamestation, the Doctor, Rose and himself had just escaped from an adventure in Kyoto, Japan. (DW: Bad Wolf)


 * Rose mentions an adventure on the prison planet Justicia (DW: Boom Town). The adventure in question is chronicled in the novel The Monsters Inside, and marks the first time that events in spin-off media have been referenced in broadcast continuity.

Other information

 * Although the exact lifetime length of each of the Doctor's incarnations is ambiguous (an exception being the first incarnation, who is known to have lived for a little less than 450 years (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen)), it can be surmised that the ninth incarnation of the Doctor may well be the Doctor's shortest-lived incarnation to date. He appears to be newly regenerated when he first meets Rose Tyler (or at least new enough in his body that he hasn't had a chance to examine his appearance closely) (DW: Rose), and it is implied that Rose's travels with him take place over the course of less than a year as she is still referred to as being 19 years old when the Doctor believes her to have been killed on Satellite 5 (DW: Bad Wolf), only hours before his regeneration occurs. This assumes that in the continuity of the TV series the Eighth Doctor did indeed live on for more than a century as established in spin-off fiction and didn't go straight into the Last Great Time War and regenerate soon after the events of Doctor Who: The TV Movie.

Key Life Events

 * The Doctor regenerates from causes unknown.


 * Rose Tyler and the Doctor meet and she accepts joining him in his travels (DW: Rose)


 * Sees the end of the World. (DW: The End of the World)


 * Works with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to track down a surviving Slitheen at 10 Downing Street. (Personal Correspondence)


 * The Doctor meets the supposed last surviving Dalek. (DW: Dalek)


 * Adam Mitchell becomes a companion (DW: Dalek) but the Doctor soon evicts him for taking advantage of his privileged position (DW: The Long Game).


 * The Doctor and Rose meet Captain Jack, who joins the TARDIS crew. (DW: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)


 * The Doctor, Rose and Jack attempt to take Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen back to her homeworld to be punished for her crimes and accidentally allow her to cause the expansion of the Cardiff rift. (DW: Boom Town)


 * Re-encounters the Daleks. As Bad Wolf Rose resurrects Jack and ends the Time War, Jack ends up marooned and the Doctor regenerates as a result of saving Rose's life. (DW: Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways)

Companions

 * Rose Tyler
 * Adam Mitchell
 * Jack Harkness

Although not considered companions, this incarnation of the Doctor also had recurring encounters with Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith during his lifetime, sharing at least two adventures with the latter. (DW: Boom Town and NDA: Winner Takes All) It is not yet known whether this incarnation had any companions during the unknown interval between his regeneration and meeting Rose. There is an uncomfirmed report that the Doctor might have at some point travelled with a woman called Sally Sparrow (who may have been an alternate timeline version of the Sally Sparrow later encountered by his Tenth incarnation, or someone with the same name). (Short story: "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow") The canonicity of this story is unclear considering author Steven Moffat later reused the Sparrow character in Blink, in which the Tenth Doctor showed no recognition of the name, which he would have done had he travelled with that Sally Sparrow or anyone else by that name in his Ninth incarnation.

Behind the scenes

 * The Ninth Doctor, as of 2008, is the only past Doctor who has not appeared in the Big Finish Short Trips series of short story collections.
 * The Ninth Doctor era, due to its short tenure, stands as the only Doctor era to be completely released to DVD in both North America and the UK. The single film that made up the Eighth Doctor TV era is not available in North America. All other Doctors still have serials that remain to be released to DVD, either worldwide or at all (with the First and Second Doctor's unlikely to ever be completely represented due to many of their serials being lost).