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- You may be looking for the Time Lord from which this duplicate was created.
The Meta-Crisis Doctor was a human-Time Lord hybrid of the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble who was created by an instantaneous biological metacrisis and was the final result of the Tenth Doctor's siphoned regeneration. However, he was born in a separate body than the original Doctor, existing as a separate person with DNA sampled from Donna, which left him possessing only one heart, a lifespan as long as an ordinary human, and no regenerative abilities.
After wiping out Davros' New Dalek Empire when Dalek Caan urged him to destroy the Crucible, the Meta-Crisis Doctor was "banished" to Pete's World to live out his life with Rose Tyler. According the conflicting accounts, after he settled down to start a new life with Rose, he adopted the name Corin, John Smith or simply continued to be addressed as the Doctor.
Biography[]
A day to come[]
Because he was a Complex Space-Time Event, the Meta-Crisis Doctor's existence "rippled back" down Donna Noble's timeline, causing her to hear his single heartbeat, (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) such as when she was at the Shadow Proclamation headquarters. (TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
Creation[]
- Main article: Tenth Doctor's siphoned regeneration
After having his hand cut off by the Sycorax leader, (TV: The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).) and returned to him by Jack Harkness, (TV: Utopia [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) the Tenth Doctor started leaving it in his TARDIS control room (TV: Last of the Time Lords [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) so that he could have a bio-matching receptacle nearby in the event he had to regenerate as part of a gambit to avoid the change of appearance and remain in his tenth incarnation. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
After he was grazed by the blast from a Dalek gunstick, the Doctor began to regenerate (TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) and managed to channel the excess energy into his hand, allowing him to heal but keep his appearance and personality. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) However, the Doctor still used up the same amount of regenerative energy as a full regeneration. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
Post-creation[]
The Meta-Crisis Doctor is created. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
Shortly after this aborted regeneration, the Daleks attempted to destroy the Doctor's TARDIS by throwing it into the Z-Neutrino core of the Crucible with Donna Noble still inside. As the control room fell apart around her, Donna touched the energised hand's container. The regenerative energies present within the hand combined with Donna's human DNA, causing an instantaneous biological metacrisis. The force of the reaction shattered the container, allowing the energy to regenerate the entire missing body of the Doctor. In this process, the "metacrisis Doctor" was created. He immediately dematerialised the TARDIS, saving it and Donna.
The Doctor sees the test of the reality bomb. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
After putting on a blue suit, the Doctor and Donna left the TARDIS and tried to attack Davros and the Daleks with a Z-Neutrino Biological Inversion Catalyser, but they were given an electric shock by Davros. However, this only awakened the Time Lord mind within Donna and turned her into the DoctorDonna. As she, the Meta-Crisis Doctor and the Tenth Doctor teamed up to return all but one of the planets to their rightful places, the Meta-Crisis Doctor was prompted by Dalek Caan to fulfil his prophecy by destroying the Daleks. He chose to do so and ignored pleas from both Davros and Donna. He proceeded to overload the Dalekanium power feeds, causing virtually the entire New Dalek Empire to explode, from individual Daleks to the Crucible itself, (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) though one ship was able to escape. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)
Exiled to Pete's world[]
Rose Tyler and the Meta-Crisis Doctor. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
Feeling his meta-crisis incarnation was too dangerous to be left to his own devices, the Tenth Doctor entrusted him to Rose Tyler, taking the two of them back to Dårlig Ulv Stranden in Pete's World. The Tenth Doctor told Rose that his meta-crisis incarnation needed her, that he was angry and vengeful as he himself had been when he first met Rose in his ninth incarnation after the Last Great Time War. He told her she had made him better, and now she had to do the same for his meta-crisis incarnation. Rose objected to this at first, insisting that the Meta-Crisis Doctor was not really him, despite the Tenth Doctor's assurance that they were the same man and the Meta-Crisis Doctor offering to spend the rest of his life with her. Rose asked both Doctors what the last thing they had said to her was when they were originally standing on Dårlig Ulv Stranden. The Tenth Doctor was unable to give her a direct answer, but the Meta-Crisis Doctor whispered it in her ear. Seemingly overcome with the revelation of his answer, Rose grabbed his lapels and pulled the Meta-Crisis Doctor into a kiss, which he reciprocated. The Tenth Doctor looked on sadly yet stoically for a moment before returning to the TARDIS with Donna and leaving Pete's World. As the doors of the TARDIS slammed shut, Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor broke from their kiss and watched the TARDIS dematerialise. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
Settling down with Rose[]
While he would continue to be addressed as "the Doctor" by others, (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018)., Flight Into Hull! [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).) some accounts say that the Doctor decided that he would personally go by a different name, by which Rose would also refer to him. By one account, he chose the name "Corin", a name that Rose considered to be "solid and true". (PROSE: The Turning of the Tide [+]Jenny T Colgan, The Target Storybook (2019).) Another account posited that he chose his usual alias of "John Smith". (COMIC: Empire of the Wolf [+]Jody Houser, Doctor Who (2020) (Titan Publishing Group, 2021-2022).)
Working with UNIT[]
The Doctor later joined the newly established UNIT, created when the Preachers were combined with Torchwood by President Harriet Jones, with Jackie, Pete and Rose also joining the organisation. The Doctor was given a lab at the top of UNIT's base at Big Ben, where he attempted to build a TARDIS. At one point, Brigadier Krista Lateef attempted to force him to use his time machine to change her personal history, but the Doctor and Jackie were able to affirm that the machine wasn't ready yet, even if the rules of time travel didn't forbid such an act. The Doctor subsequently reported Lateef's actions, much to Jackie's anger, as she had agreed to forgive Lateef for the deception. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
In an attempt to get the Doctor and Jackie to talk to each other after their disagreement, Rose and Pete tricked the Doctor into getting on a zeppelin with Jackie headed for Hull. During the flight, an alternate Jackie from a different universe appeared and threatened to shoot Jackie and take her place in Pete's World. The Doctor shot the zeppelin's flight controls, forcing the alternate Jackie to go back to her own universe to save her own life. The Doctor and Jackie then leapt from the zeppelin and into the water moments before the zeppelin crashed into the Humber Bridge. (AUDIO: Flight Into Hull! [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Starting a family[]
Needs more info from The Turning of the Tide [+]Jenny T Colgan, The Target Storybook (2019)..
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The Doctor and Rose in Canticum. (PROSE: The Turning of the Tide [+]Jenny T Colgan, The Target Storybook (2019).)
After two years together, the Doctor and Rose were expecting their first child, (PROSE: The Turning of the Tide [+]Jenny T Colgan, The Target Storybook (2019).) with Rose ultimately giving birth to a girl they named Mia Tyler.
The Doctor and his family. (COMIC: Empire of the Wolf [+]Jody Houser, Doctor Who (2020) (Titan Publishing Group, 2021-2022).)
During Mia's teenage years, Rose began experiencing visions of another life before one day vanishing. After nearly three hours of the Doctor trying to figure out what had happened, Rose suddenly returned and began telling her husband about the adventure she had just had with her counterpart from the Sea Devil Earth. (COMIC: Empire of the Wolf [+]Jody Houser, Doctor Who (2020) (Titan Publishing Group, 2021-2022).)
Psychological profile[]
The Meta-Crisis Doctor realises he has to destroy the New Dalek Empire. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
As a result of growing partially from Donna Noble's DNA, the Meta-Crisis Doctor inherited some of Donna's mannerisms. He claimed he had the same memories, thoughts and feelings of the Tenth Doctor up to the point of his aborted regeneration, making them essentially the same man with physiological differences. However, the Tenth Doctor was quick to point out that his meta-crisis incarnation was "born in battle, full of blood, anger and revenge", which left him more psychologically inclined to their ninth incarnation prior to meeting Rose Tyler. Regardless of their differences, the Tenth Doctor still firmly declared his meta-crisis incarnation was the Doctor, seeing he had a right to the title even if Donna wasn't so certain after he committed genocide against the Daleks. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
Though he had all the knowledge of his progenitor, the Meta-Crisis Doctor found it difficult to properly express his Time Lord knowledge via a human brain, (COMIC: Empire of the Wolf [+]Jody Houser, Doctor Who (2020) (Titan Publishing Group, 2021-2022).) and often got headaches, as sometimes all he could think about was fire and war. (AUDIO: Flight Into Hull! [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Doctor and Rose kiss. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
Having the opportunity to grow old, the Doctor started a relationship with Rose, (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) loving her unconditionally, (AUDIO: Flight Into Hull! [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).) and eventually raising a daughter with her. (COMIC: Empire of the Wolf [+]Jody Houser, Doctor Who (2020) (Titan Publishing Group, 2021-2022).)
The Doctor disdainfully calls his biology "Wizard". (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
As a result of Donna's influence, the Meta-Crisis Doctor found himself using the uncommon adjective, "Wizard", to describe something abnormal. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).; AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Jackie Tyler thought that the Meta-Crisis Doctor was "a lot less rational" than the Tenth Doctor, as he often rushed into things without thinking it through. She also felt that he was less willing to forgive than the Tenth Doctor, feeling that his decision to have Krista Lateef arrested after she was talked down from trying to force him to use a time machine to save her daughter was something his tenth incarnation would have let her off as having just made a mistake. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Behind the scenes[]
- In the Doctor Who Confidential episode End of an Era, executive producer Julie Gardner confirmed that the intention was that the Meta-Crisis Doctor did indeed say, "I love you", when he whispered in Rose's ear.
- The concept that a Doctor would grow from the Doctor's severed hand who would end up with Rose was planned since The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).. Russell T Davies stated on the commentary track for Journey's End that he had the idea in mind that just prior to the Tenth Doctor's regeneration, a scene would depict him growing a clone of himself from his severed hand, and sending him off to live his life with Rose. The concept was ultimately brought forward, and was developed into its own entire story arc, due to the "timing being perfect".
- For years, it was unknown if the aborted regeneration that resulted in the Meta-Crisis Doctor's existence had actually used up one of the Doctor's regenerations, considering the Tenth Doctor's appearance hadn't changed following him siphoning the regeneration energy that would have changed his appearance into the spare hand that would create the Meta-Crisis Doctor, while using the healing portion of the regeneration to fix the damage done by the Dalek blast. It wasn't until The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013). five years later that the Eleventh Doctor revealed that the aborted regeneration that created the Meta-Crisis Doctor did use up a regeneration. Therefore, the creation of the Meta-Crisis Doctor had used up the Doctor's penultimate regeneration in his first regeneration cycle.
Name[]
On-screen, the Meta-Crisis Doctor was only ever referred to as "the Doctor". To avoid confusion, fans used varying terms to address him but only "Meta-Crisis Doctor" received any official recognition from the showrunners. In the shooting script for the episode, he is simply named as "THE DOCTOR #2". David Tennant in Doctor Who Confidential acknowledged that the name of the Meta-Crisis Doctor was expected to be a topic of much debate as time went on.
- Since 17 April 2014, the video game Legacy uses "Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor".
- As recently as 28 March 2018, official social media accounts for Doctor Who have referred to him by the fandom name "Tentoo".[1]
- In the Target Storybook short story Citation Needed [+]Jacqueline Rayner, The Target Storybook (2019)., the Encyclopedia Gallifreya, a sentient encyclopaedia aboard the TARDIS that chronicles the Doctor's travels, has an entry about the Meta-Crisis Doctor's impact on the Doctor's timeline marked "Metacrisis, numerical confusion of", which it references each time it makes a statement about numbered incarnations.
- Another Target Storybook short story, The Turning of the Tide [+]Jenny T Colgan, The Target Storybook (2019)., also posited that the Meta-Crisis Doctor chose, shortly after the events of Journey's End, to go by the name Corin.
- Promoting the 60th anniversary celebrations, official Titan Merchandise from the "Diamond Collection", sold through Urban Planet, also prominently called him "The Meta-Crisis Doctor", as seen on a large print t-shirt.
A "Pete's World" TARDIS[]
In the original script, the Tenth Doctor was meant to give some TARDIS coral to the Meta-Crisis Doctor, on the assumption that a whole new TARDIS could be grown from it, but this was cut. Nevertheless, the idea has popped up in several places:
- "The Doctor's Data" section of a Doctor Who Adventures magazine.[which?]
- The Fact File for the episode on the official Doctor Who website, which stated that it was in the original script but later removed.
- Inside the magazine[which?], there is an excerpt of the script with a statement that this part of the scene made it all the way to the final cut, but that the producers decided that it just complicated the tone of the scene too much. However, the scene was filmed, and it was included in the Series 4 DVD box set, as a bonus feature. The magazine quoted Russell T Davies' opinion that the Meta-Crisis Doctor and[Rose do indeed have a piece of TARDIS coral, which they can use to grow their own TARDIS.
- In Russell T Davies' book The Writer's Tale, the full original draft of the Bad Wolf Bay script has the Doctor stating that it takes "thousands of years" to grow a TARDIS. However, Donna uses her newfound Time Lord knowledge enhanced by human intuition to overcome this problem by suggesting that "if [they] shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabiliser to a foldback harmonic of 36.3, [they could] accelerate growth by the power of 59".
- In AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018)., the Doctor is indeed growing a TARDIS in his UNIT lab.
- By contrast, COMIC: Empire of the Wolf [+]Jody Houser, Doctor Who (2020) (Titan Publishing Group, 2021-2022). has the Doctor explicitly mention that he and Rose do not have access to a TARDIS, though given the original deleted scene stated it would take time, it is possible he meant they simply lacked a TARDIS at that moment.
External links[]
Footnotes[]
- ↑ Doctor Who Tumblr - 16 faces, one Doctor. Our March Madness bracket is here! - 28 March 2018
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