The Doctor

The Doctor is a half-human Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who wanders through time and space in his ship, the TARDIS. 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 fellow Time Lords, for his penchant of getting "involved" with the affairs of other worlds, 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.

Changing faces
To date, the Doctor has gone through nine of his allotted twelve regenerations, and so is currently in his tenth incarnation. Most of his regenerations have been the result of some mortal injury, although his second was forced upon him prior to his exile to 20th century Earth by the Time Lords. His first was due to old age, although radiation from an Earth weapon known as the Z-Bomb may have also played a factor.

Despite the fact that the Doctor is essentially the same person throughout his regenerations, each one has been imbued with his own distinct quirks and characteristics. 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.

The Ten Doctors

 * The First Doctor was an irascible, grandfatherly type, a brilliant but often short-tempered scientist.


 * The Second Doctor was a sort of "cosmic hobo," often frightened of the alien menaces he faced, whose solutions were sometimes of a hit-or-miss nature.


 * The Third Doctor cut more of a dashing figure than his predecessors, a dandy with a penchant for gadgets and martial arts, particularly Venusian aikido.


 * The Fourth Doctor was something of a cross between Willy Wonka and the Mad Hatter, rarely without his signature scarf of incredible length. He was perhaps the most eccentric incarnation.


 * The Fifth Doctor had a fondness for cricket. He was somewhat more nervous and less sure of himself than the two previous Doctors, though no less heroic.


 * The Sixth Doctor, sporting a multi-hued wardrobe that looked as if designed by Christian Lacroix, had a manic personality and an acerbic wit. He had lost the


 * The Seventh Doctor, his voice touched by a Scottish burr, combined the vagabond nature of the Second and Fourth Doctors with the scientific brilliance of the First and Third incarnations. His personality deepend and darkened. He seemed, often, a demi-god walking amongst Humans and other mere mortals, letting his companions know little and driven to eradicate evil at any cost.


 * The Eighth Doctor showed a romantic and sensitive side not evident in the previous Doctors. This Doctor suffered bouts of amnesia, first after his initial regeneration and again after the destruction of Gallifrey.)


 * The Ninth Doctor displayed much of the playfulness of the Fourth and Seventh Doctors, but also displayed a pragmatism which can at times appear callous. This Doctor also seemed more consciously aware of the effects his actions had on those around him. His attire was also considerably more conservative and less conspicuous than those of his predecessors and his accent ant attitude more working class.


 * The Tenth Doctor's character is manic, that of an eccentric crackpot, a cross between the Fourth Doctor and the Ninth, with hints of the Seventh and a fondness for pop culural reference. He has a serious side, but quite often his other wins out. He occasionally has more ruthless to his character.

Other Doctors
Due to the fluid nature of the time-stream and the existence of parallel realities, other versions of the Doctor have come to light. Following are descriptions of some of those currently known to exist.

Past Doctors

 * During a mindwrestling between the Doctor and Morbius a visual display, showing the previous incarnations of the two Time Lords, seemd to show that the Doctor had at least eight incarnations prior to the first incarnation known to us. (DW: The Brain of Morbius)


 * ''This contradicts the many times the Doctor has stated that he had no incarnations before the first about which we had knowledge and also the knowledge that the number of a Time Lord's cyle of regenerations only runs to twelve.


 * Much dispute exists as to the reality of these incarnations. Popular theories says that the Doctor lost the match. Another theory explains that these other faces belonged to Morbius rather thae Doctor. and another explains awy these as incarnations of incarnations of the Other (see below).

The Watcher

 * Towards the end of his fourth incarnation, the Doctor, was assisted by a mysterious whiteclad Watcher, a version of himself in between his fourth and fifth imcarnations. (DW: Logopolis).

The Valeyard

 * The Doctors enemy, the Valeyard was revealed to be a potential future Doctor, existing somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnations and embodying the evil of Doctor's dark side. (DW: The Trial of a Time Lord).

Merlin

 * The Doctor discovered evidence of Merlin, a future or alternative version of himself known to Ancelyn and Morgaine. (DW: Battlefield)


 * The fourth and fifth incarnations of the Doctor met another Merrlin, a High Evolutionary working with Rassilon in the Matrix. We do not know of a connection, if any, to the other Merlin.

The Other
A Time Lord contemporary with Rassilon and Omega, the Other may have physically died but transferred his essence to the Doctor, living many centuries after him.

This would explain the earlier faces seen whle the Doctor mindwrestled Omega: these belonged to the Other, not the Doctor proper.

Dr. Who
The Doctor encountered Dr. Who in the Land of Fiction (DW: Head Games). The nature of Dr. Who seems somewhat unclear and contradictory except that Dr. Who seems to live in a more juvenile and morally simplistic world than the Doctor with villains to match. As the real Doctor has regenrated, so has his counterpart, Dr. Who.

Third Doctor

 * During his trial the Doctor was shown a series of portraits from which he might choose the form of his next regeneration before the Time Lords exiled him to Earth. None was to his liking, nor did any of them look like his third incarnation. (DW: The War Games)


 * One of these potential third incarnations took over Britain, as a fascist military dictator. Though not known at the time when the Doctor visited, there (DW: Interno), this was later revealed. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, Face of the Enemy'').


 * An Unbound Third Doctor who never joined UNIT as its scientific advisor, but instead met and befriended the Brigadier long after his UNIT heyday, is also known to exist. (DWU: Sympathy for the Devil).


 * The machinations of Faction Paradox created an earlier death on the planet Dust for the Third Doctor than had occurred in the Doctor's established timeline. He still regenerated into the same Fourth Doctor, and almost everything else remained the same, but it created a paradox which left the Eighth Doctor susceptible to Faction Paradox's plans (EDA/PDA:[Interference: Book One, Interference: Book Two).

Fourth Doctor

 * An alternative fourth incarnation, who, having just regenerated, the and his new companions Jenny and Jimmy prevented the Daleks from gaining the Crystal of All Power. (Doctor Who and the Daleks and the Seven Keys to Doomsday)

Ninth Doctor

 * A melancholic Ninth Doctor, at first reluctantly, fought the Shalka on Earth, and in so doing acquiring a new travelling companion, Alison Cheney ( Scream of the Shalka).

Other Versions or Incarnations

 * A 1980s-style "contemporary" Doctor, in a Greenpeace t-shirt. (Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure).


 * The Doctor and Ace met one of the Doctor's future selves, accompanied by a companion, Ria. (DWM: Party Animals). Later, the Eighth Doctor collapsed and seemingly regenerated (DWM: Fire and Brimstone) into this incarnation, however, it turned out that he had faked his regeneration in order to defeat the Threshold (DW: Wormwood)


 * A Doctor who never left Gallifrey. (DWU: Auld Mortality) and then, deciding to do so, changed Earth history, with disastrous results "(DWU: A Storm of Angels).


 * A Doctor who, while not really evil, is nonetheless far from heroic. This Doctor believes that the ends justify the means. "(Full Fathom Five)".


 * An alternate reality version of the Valeyard who won his battle with the Doctor (DWI: He Jests at Scars...).


 * An Doctor who turns out to be the fantasy world alter ego of a mentally ill writer recollecting his script for a proposed television series about a science fiction television character tentatively called "Doctor Who" (DWU: Deadline).


 * The main timeline has a similar fictional space-time travller, called Professor X.


 * An Unbound boozy female Doctor who has escaped punishment by the Time Lords ("The War Games"). This story also features appearances by her past male Unbound incarnation. ("Exile".)

Similar indviduals to the Doctor

 * The fictional character Professor X is similar to the Doctor.


 * The Wanderer is similar.

Orgins of the Other Doctors

 * The past incarnations of the Doctor (or the Other) started as a mischevious joke on the part of the production personnel of Doctor Who, to tweak with established continuity. When shooting The Brain of Morbius, dressed up in costumes to represent earlier versions of the Doctor before the supposed first. The character of the Other originated in a (even to this day) document explaining the Doctor's true origins written up by later script editor Andrew Cartmel with input from a few other Doctor Who writers, some of them fans and well aware of the enigmatic Doctors, who should not exist in established continuity. The Other character originated in the document and got a mention in the novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks. The Other remains a popular way to "repair" the contradict of Doctors before the first one.


 * The character of Dr. Who in the series existed as a way to reconicle the more adult world of the Doctor (especially in the novels and other media other than television) with the more lighthearted children's comics versions and with Peter Cushing's Doctor Who.


 * The "future Doctor" and Ria, who met the Seventh Doctor and Ace, both originated from Audio Visuals, fan audio plays produced by Nicholas Briggs and others, in which he played an original version of the Doctor. Later, he returned to Doctor Who Universe as the Doctor's next incarnation in a "stunt" intended to startle and shock fans and to bluff them into thinking they had really replaced the old Doctor for good. They later revealed this Doctor as not the real one. Nicholas Briggs late appeared in BBV Productions audio plays as "Fred", a clear Doctor substitute encountering the "Cyberons" (Cybermen).

Other characters outside the mainstream Doctor Who Universe

 * The BBV character The Stranger, played by Colin Baker, and partnered with "Miss Brown" played by Nicola Bryant and clearly Peri, started off as thinly-veiled version of the Doctor in his sixth incarnation. However, BBV decided with the fourth adventure to explain away the Stranger as a different character with a different past.


 * BBV also featured the adventures of the Professor (later called the Dominie, for legal reasons) played by Sylvester McCoy and Ace (played by Sophie Aldred) (later called Alice), an even more thinly veiled version of the Doctor in his seventh incarnation. Depending on your point of view, you could regard these either as true adventures of the Doctor using an alias or fan fiction using the original actors.