Theory:Timeline - The Doctor

This page lists the various incarnations and other versions of the Doctor in order. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories.

By most accounts, the existence and relative placements of the numbered Doctors are all but undisputed. However, there exist unnumbered Doctors that exist in potential futures, or even in the past prior to the First Doctor. As well as that, several stories are not so clear as to what version of the Doctor featured in their events.

As a Time Lord, the Doctor was initially limited to a regeneration cycle of thirteen lives. However, the Doctor was enabled to regenerate further as a result of additional regeneration energy provided by his fellow Time Lords. Noting his uncertainty as to how many times he could now regenerate, the first incarnation of the new cycle speculated that he could potentially "keep on regenerating forever."

Unless specified otherwise, all incarnations of the Doctor are male.

Timeline

 * See also: The Doctor's Age

Before the Original

 * The Doctor.
 * Eight incarnations prior to the First Doctor, at least one of them was Patience's husband. May have been the Other.

All Thirteen

 * First Doctor (William Hartnell)
 * By his own word, the "original" Doctor. (TV: The Five Doctors, Time Upon a Time)
 * In an alternate timeline, he died on Grace Alone. (AUDIO: The First Wave)
 * The Doctor (The Five O'Clock Shadow)
 * Alternately: The Doctor (Auld Mortality)


 * Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
 * Clone: Second Doctor (clone)
 * Alternately: Previous Doctor (Exile) (Nicholas Briggs), Second Doctor (Inferno Earth)


 * Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
 * Alternately: The Doctor (Sympathy for the Devil) (David Warner), Third Doctor (Inferno Earth) (Jack Kine), The Doctor (Who's Who? Earth) (Jon Pertwee)


 * Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
 * Clone: Fourth Doctor (clone)
 * Encountered and merged with the Watcher just prior to his regeneration. (TV: Logopolis)


 * Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
 * Clone: Fifth Doctor (Dalek duplicate)
 * Alternately: Lord of the Manor


 * Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
 * The Doctor (The Colour of Monsters)
 * Clone: Sixth Doctor (Dalek duplicate), Sixth Doctor (clone)
 * Alternately: Burner Doctor, Theta Sigma (Forever)


 * Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
 * Briefly became the human John Smith.


 * Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
 * Alternately: Eighth Doctor (Grace Holloway's husband), Eighth Doctor (cyborg), Doc Gallifrey, Joe Smith, Tardis Tails, Quiquaequod, Johann Schmidt (Paul McGann), Eighth Doctor (Obverse)


 * War Doctor (John Hurt)
 * The ninth incarnation notably fought in the Last Great Time War while abandoning the title of "doctor". Rejected by his succeeding incarnations before being accepted by the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)


 * Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)
 * Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
 * Briefly became the human John Smith.
 * The father of Jenny. (TV: The Doctor's Daughter)
 * Died in Donna's World. (TV: Turn Left)
 * Once regenerated and kept the same face, an act which also produced the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor and the DoctorDonna. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)


 * Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
 * The last incarnation of the Doctor's original regeneration cycle, it was in this form that the Doctor was originally destined to die permanently, on the planet Trenzalore. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
 * Duplicate: Eleventh Doctor (Ganger)
 * Traveling back to ancient Gallifrey, assumed the role of the figure known as the Other. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension)
 * Briefly held the identity of John Smith.
 * On the brink of dying of old age, the Doctor's life was saved when Clara Oswald convinced the Time Lords to provide him with additional regeneration energy, granting him a "whole new regeneration cycle" (TV: The Time of the Doctor) with an indeterminate amount of regenerations. (TV: Kill the Moon, Hell Bent, The Doctor Falls)

A new cycle

 * Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi)
 * The product of "regeneration number thirteen." (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Alternately: Twelfth Doctor (Four Doctors)
 * Duplicate: Twelfth Doctor (Shadow World)


 * Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker)
 * The first female incarnation.

The Future

 * 42nd Doctor (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)
 * The Curator (Tom Baker)
 * Resembling an elderly version of the Fourth Doctor, this incarnation serves as curator of the National Gallery, having retired from his adventurous ways.

Unplaced

 * The Doctor (Battlefield)
 * The Doctor (From Eternity)
 * The Doctor (Party Animals)
 * From the future relative to the Seventh Doctor, this incarnation is based on the Doctor portrayed by Nicholas Briggs in the Audio Visuals fan productions.


 * The Doctor (Reunion)
 * Previous Doctor (Seven Keys to Doomsday) (Nicholas Briggs)
 * The Doctor (Seven Keys to Doomsday) (Trevor Martin)
 * The Doctor (The Blue Angel)
 * Previous Doctor (The Cabinet of Light)
 * The Doctor (The Cabinet of Light)
 * The Doctor (The Giant's Heart)
 * The Doctor (The Tomorrow Windows)
 * After the Eighth Doctor, this incarnation is an allusion to the Ninth Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) from NOTVALID: The Curse of Fatal Death.


 * The Doctor (The Dalek Factor)
 * The Doctor (Time, Love and TARDIS)
 * The Doctor (We are the Daleks!)
 * The Doctor 1
 * A potential Doctor recorded by Clive Finch, this incarnation is described as a tall, bald black woman wielding a flaming sword. (PROSE: Rose)


 * The Doctor 2
 * A potential Doctor recorded by Clive Finch, this incarnation is described as a young girl or boy in a hi-tech wheelchair with a robot dog at their side. (PROSE: Rose)


 * The Emperor
 * An incarnation of the Doctor from the far future and father of Miranda Dawkins. Was assassinated by rebels on the night of his daughter's birth. (COMIC: Miranda)


 * The Doctor (Alien Bodies)
 * The final incarnation of the Doctor died during the War in Heaven. His corpse became the Relic. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)

Alternate universes

 * The Doctor (Full Fathom Five) (David Collings)
 * New Doctor (Full Fathom Five) (Ian Brooker)
 * The Doctor (False Negative)

More ambiguous

 * The Valeyard
 * A possible future version of the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse) Primarily an adversary of the Sixth Doctor, the Valeyard is, according to, an amalgamation of the Doctor's darker sides from between his twelfth and final incarnations. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) According to the Valeyard himself, he was created as a result of experiments conducted by the final incarnation of the Doctor as he attempted to break the regeneration cycle's limit of thirteen lives. (AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard)


 * The Other
 * Merlin
 * Dr. Who
 * A human time traveller and inventor of TARDIS, this character was adapted from the First Doctor. A potentially unreliable account suggests that Dr. Who is the Other. (PROSE: Human Nature) According to a theory by Peter Cushing, Dr. Who is a future incarnation of the Doctor who was forced to relive his earlier adventures by the Celestial Toymaker.