The Doctor (fictional character)

"The Doctor" - also known as "Dr. Who" and "Doctor Who" - was the eponymous, fictional depiction of the Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who. Their species was depicted as a Time Lord. (PROSE: A Letter from the Doctor 464, The Terror of the Umpty Ums) The real Doctor knew that the fictional version of themself was based on their real life. The Doctor considered the actors who portrayed them to be some of the greatest actors on Earth, (WC: Peter Capaldi and Simon the Shy Cyberman Invite You to Breakfast with 7 Doctors) and some accounts stated that the real Doctor himself starred in the television series. (COMIC: TV Terrors, PROSE: Extracts from the Doctor's 500 Year Diary)

According to the Dalek Survival Guide, Doctor Who was a documentary series, first broadcast in 1963, which was devised to alert the general public to the various alien dangers they faced, while at the same time serving as a dramatised biography of the central character, the Doctor. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)

"The Doctor", however, was not the only fictional depiction of his namesake in Earth's popular culture, with similar characters such as Doctor Who (PROSE: Salvation) and Dr. Who existing in theatrical motion pictures. Coincidentally, both of these separate characters were portrayed by veteran actor Peter Cushing. (PROSE: Salvation, A Visit to the Cinema, The Day of the Doctor, et al.) Accordng to Penelope Creighton-Ward, Peter Cushing's portrayal of Dr. Who was in lieu of William Hartnell's portrayal from the series, as he wasn't able to return due to a busy schedule. (COMIC: Lady Penelope Investigates the stars of the Sensational new film Dr. Who and the Daleks!) Other notably similar characters included Professor X, (PROSE: No Future, et al.) Doctor X, (PROSE: In Search of Doctor X, et al.) and The Time Surgeon. (COMIC: Invasion of the Mindmorphs)

The Doctor was portrayed by many English actors, including William Hartnell, (COMIC: Lady Penelope Investigates the stars of the Sensational new film Dr. Who and the Daleks!) Tom Baker, (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion, The Story of Fester Cat) Peter Davison, (WC: Peter Capaldi and Simon the Shy Cyberman Invite You to Breakfast with 7 Doctors) Colin Baker, (WC: Peter Capaldi and Simon the Shy Cyberman Invite You to Breakfast with 7 Doctors, The Trial) Paul McGann, (PROSE: Hospitality, WC: Peter Capaldi and Simon the Shy Cyberman Invite You to Breakfast with 7 Doctors) David Tennant, (WC: Peter Capaldi and Simon the Shy Cyberman Invite You to Breakfast with 7 Doctors) Matt Smith, (TV: The Doctor Appears, The Doctor Drops In, et al) and Peter Capaldi. (PROSE: A Letter from the Doctor 464, WC: The Zygon Isolation, et al.)

Name
Whilst originally referred to as "Dr. Who" and "Doctor Who" interchangably, (COMIC: TV Terrors, Lady Penelope Investigates the stars of the Sensational new film Dr. Who and the Daleks!, PROSE: Hospitality, The Story of Fester Cat, et al.) with the name even being used on certain merchandise, (PROSE: Party Like it's 1979) the character was more commonly referred to as the Doctor. (WC: The Zygon Isolation, TV: The Doctor Appears, et al.) Despite this, the version of the Doctor that existed inside David Karpagnon's imagination claimed that she was not allowed to refer to herself as "Doctor Who". David also knew some of the aliases of the Doctor, such as "the Ka Faraq Gatri", "the Oncoming Storm", "the Bringer of Darkness", and "the Imp of the Pandorica", and "the Final Victor of the Time War". (PROSE: The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

History
In the early 1960s, Winston Churchill contacted a friend of his, Mr Newman, to propose the idea of a television series based off Churchill's old friend, the Doctor. (PROSE: Stop, Thief!)

In the late 1990s, an older man and a boy commented at a film studio in London that Paul McGann was sexy and that they wanted to shag him. (PROSE: Hospitality)

In 2008, Paul Magrs worked on several scripts for Doctor Who CDs, which, once completed, would require Paul to travel to London and help with the production, where he got to meet Tom Baker. (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat) Peter Capaldi was cast as the Twelfth Doctor in 2013, where he attended a meeting with Steven Moffat. Capaldi prepared for this meeting by reading issues of DWM. Later, he wrote a letter to the readers of DWM, writing about his more than positive opinions of the magazine. (PROSE: A Letter from the Doctor 464, A Letter from the Doctor 500, TV: In the Forest of the Night, et al.)

Undated events
John Lucarotti was once visited by the First Doctor while he was dining in France. John believed the Doctor wasn't real, and that the version of the Doctor that was present was just a figment of his imagination. (PROSE: The Meeting)

Dr. Who
Originally, Dr. Who himself apparently starred in the television series.

After seeing Dr. Who's adventures on television, Monica, Buttons, and Cuthbert arrived at the studio to attempt to receive his autograph, but their plan went awry when the guard chased them into Dr. Who's TARDIS. (COMIC: TV Terrors)

Third Doctor
In 1974, Planet of the Spiders was broadcast, portraying the regeneration of Third Doctor into his next incarnation, the Fourth Doctor. (PROSE: Fanboys)

Fourth Doctor
Prior to 1981, the character of the Fourth Doctor regenerated into the Fifth Doctor, who was set to return in the upcoming season. (PROSE: Fanboys)

Sixth Doctor
The lockscreen of Colin Baker's iPad showed a picture of the Sixth Doctor and Peri. (WC: The Trial)

Eighth Doctor
In the late 1990s, an unspecified incarnation of the character was portrayed by Paul McGann in the Doctor Who TV movie. (PROSE: Hospitality)

Tenth Doctor
An episode of Doctor Who featured another unspecified incarnation of the Doctor who told his female companion that the bell meant "Bad Wolf". He elaborated by saying it was the "end of the universe". (WC: U.N.I.T. On Call)

Eleventh Doctor
An unspecified incarnation of the Doctor was portrayed by Matt Smith in Doctor Who, and appeared in at least one episode of the show, which appeared on a screen during Red Nose Day 2013 when the Eleventh Doctor appeared on-stage. (TV: The Doctor Appears)

Twelfth Doctor
Around late 2015, Doctor Who series nine was broadcast, (WC: The Zygon Isolation) and the Twelfth Doctor, as portrayed by Peter Capaldi, (PROSE: A Letter from the Doctor 464) starred in the series along with characters such as Clara, Petronella Osgood, Kate Stewart, and Missy. In the New Series Prologue, the Doctor seemingly ran away from a fireball. In the story The Magician's Apprentice, something happened to the sky. In The Witch's Familiar, the Doctor was trapped on a "terrifying planet" with Daleks. In Under the Lake, the Doctor and Clara tried to help an underwater base. In Before the Flood, the Doctor encountered a fearsome alien warlord who set in motion a "twisted" plan. In The Girl Who Died, the Doctor, Clara, and a character who resembled Ashildr protected a Viking village. In the following episode, The Woman Who Lived, the character who resembled Ashildr was going by the name "the Knightmare". In The Zygon Invasion and The Zygon Inversion, the Doctor, Clara, and UNIT had to set Osgood free from a group of Zygons, but then UNIT was neutralised, leaving only the Doctor to save the day. Sleep No More contained footage recovered from the wreckage of Le Verrier. Face the Raven saw the Doctor and Clara in an "alien world", and finally, in Heaven Sent, the Doctor was trapped in a world unlike any other. (WC: The Zygon Isolation)

Thirteenth Doctor
By 2020, the Doctor changed into a woman. She appeared in at least the twelfth series of Doctor Who along with an older male co-star, and was featured in the preview for an episode in what appeared to be the TARDIS. (WC: The Zygon Isolation) By this time, she was known to many as the greatest warrior in the universe and had earned the titles "the Oncoming Storm, the Bringer of Darkness, the Imp of the Pandorica and the final victor of the Time War. She had also fought Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Sontarans, and Slitheen.

David Karpagnon, an orphan with dissociative personality disorder, watched the show around this time. A version of the Doctor inside his head managed to convince him that he was not a DeathBorg 400 but a resident of a children's home that he was otherwise going to destroy. (PROSE: The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

Meta-fiction universes
Whilst existing in the Doctor's universe, fictional depictions of the Doctor were also common in "meta-fiction universes". (COMIC: TV Action!, The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who, AUDIO: Deadline, PROSE: All Our Christmases, The Thief of Sherwood)

Other information
Justin Richards wrote fictional stories about the Doctor, (PROSE: Summer Falls and Other Stories) as did Paul Magrs, (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion, The Story of Fester Cat, et al.) among others.

Behind the scenes
Patrick Troughton and John Hurt exist in the Doctor's universe, however no valid source has identified them playing the Doctor in-universe.

Information from invalid sources
In the unproduced television story The Doomsday Contract, the Fourth Doctor, Romana II (as played by Lalla Ward), and K9 Mark II (as played by John Leeson) had to defend Earth from the Cosmegalon Corporation. Further details, however, were prohibited due to spoilers. (NOTVALID: Tom Baker stars in John Lloyd's lost Doctor Who adventure, The Doomsday Contract)

Three fans once mused about the meaning of the Twelfth Doctor's expression after he pushed the Half-Face Man in an episode. (NOTVALID: The Daft Dimension 484) At Christmas, a young girl cuddled her mum as she watched a scary scene of Heaven Sent that showed the Twelfth Doctor being attacked. (NOTVALID: 2016 BBC Christmas ident)

The Thirteenth Doctor, seemingly now playing herself in the television series, wished her audience "love and luck" for 2021. (NOTVALID: A New Year's message from the Doctor...)