Peter Hutchings was a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and the husband of Emily Hutchings. They had met in Greenwich Park in 1976 when Peter, distracted by Ace's jacket, accidentally ran into Emily on his bicycle.
In 1992, Peter's wife had a miscarriage, and was informed by the doctors that she would never be able to bear another child. On 20 December of that year, they attended Reverend Ernest Trelaw's service at St Christopher's Church in Cheldon Bonniface, during which the Seventh Doctor handed Emily a baby. They and the church were transported to the Moon by the Timewyrm, where the Seventh Doctor gave them a temporal link before going inside his own mind to battle the Timewyrm. While they watched over the Doctor's and Ace's bodies, the Doctor sent a telepathic message to Saul which also activated the link, turning it into a doorway into the Time Vortex. Realising what was going on, Peter worked with Saul to calculate a passage to the Doctor's mind, enabling Emily to enter it and rescue the Doctor's consciousness. After the Timewyrm was defeated and the church returned to Earth, the Doctor and Ace spent the Christmas holiday with Peter, Emily, and their baby daughter, whom they named Ishtar. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)
Hutchings was a proficient seam bowler, who once easily retired the partnership of Irving Braxiatel and the Seventh Doctor. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
He, Emily and Ishtar were among the guests at Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding in Cheldon Bonniface on 24 April 2010. (PROSE: Happy Endings)