The Nine was the main alias of the ninth incarnation of the Multitude, a Time Lord who suffered from regenerative dissonance. This incarnation was notable for his kleptomania, a trait observed by both himself (AUDIO: Companion Piece) and the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons)
Straight after regenerating from the Eight, the Nine traveled to Gallifrey in the Doctor's TARDIS with Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair, both of whom believed he had regenerated from the Eighth Doctor. He raided the archives for artefacts and weapons before kidnapping Helen to the Crucible of Souls. Failing to use the Crucible to gain immortality, he fled in the Clocksmith's TARDIS.
An encounter with River Song inspired the Nine to collect companions of the Doctor. He kidnapped them from various points in time and stored them in individual cells in a bespoke prison. River allied with fellow Eighth Doctor companions Liv, Helen, Charlotte Pollard, and Bliss to free the other companions and imprison the Nine.
The Nine learned that his regenerative dissonance made him unappealing to the Ravenous. He attempted to exploit this to trap the Doctor, Liv, and Helen, but was overruled by the Eleven and sent to a random point in space and time. Free of his cell, he indulged his urges and faced off against the Fifth and Fourth Doctors.
Biography[]
The Crucible of Souls[]
After regenerating, the Nine initially claimed to be a new incarnation of the Doctor to Helen Sinclair and Liv Chenka. Rather than trying to be a "good man" like his predecessor, the Nine was motivated by kleptomanic greed. Helen and Liv helped him to rob the archive on Gallifrey, but he abandoned Liv when she became suspicious of his erratic and condescending behaviour. He took Helen hostage and brought her to the Crucible of Souls. He attempted to use the Crucible to gain immortality and exorcise his previous incarnations. After being thwarted by the Eighth Doctor, the Nine stole the Clocksmith's TARDIS and ran away. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
A collection of companions[]
While piloting the Clocksmith's TARDIS, the Nine ran into River Song, whom he kidnapped. He then decided to get a complete collection of the Doctor's companions, torturing River in order to find out their names and locations. After collecting them, they were placed in a prison. However, River was able to trick the Nine into gathering Liv, Helen, Charlotte Pollard, and Bliss in one cell, before she manipulated the Nine into trying to acquire Katarina's corpse after River's own past self retrieved Katarina's body, River knowing that it would take time for the Nine to retrieve Katarina while playing on his ego to convince him to acquire a "rare" specimen for his collection. Using Liv's experience of technology, Helen's experience with codes, Bliss' knowledge of computer science, and Charley's nature as a temporal paradox, they were able to take control of the Nine's drones and escape their prison. Although the Nine returned with Katarina's corpse and nearly recaptured the women, his attempt to psychically link with Katarina's corpse to ascertain her identity caused Katarina's remaining mental activity to disrupt the Nine's own mental focus, allowing the women to defeat him. While River took the other companions home, Liv and Helen remained to be rescued by the Doctor, leaving the Nine in one of the cells in the prison. (AUDIO: Companion Piece)
The Ravenous[]
Still stuck at his own prison, he was caught by the Ravenous. Upon learning that the Ravenous couldn't eat him as his condition made his regenerative energy unappealing, the Nine attempted to use this information to set a trap for the Eighth Doctor, Liv and Helen. However, this trap was rejected by the Eleven as a foolish idea, as he perceived the Nine as having wasted such a useful opportunity to exploit his immunity to the Ravenous for a more long-term agenda. He disposed of his younger self by slipping a vortex manipulator onto his wrist and then activating it, sending the Nine to a random location in space and time. (AUDIO: The Odds Against)
Apocalypse Deathwatch[]
Tracking the Apocalypse Deathwatch - a ship that transported rich villains across the universe to observe mass catastrophes - the Nine attempted to steal most of the items on board, but acquired an unexpected ally in Thana, the last of a race who could only die from natural causes, who shared his interest in the rare. The Nine contemplated making her his "partner", but found himself facing a problem when the Deathwatch became caught up in a complex temporal rupture caused by the destruction of an ancient TARDIS. The situation became even more complicated for the Nine when he learned that the Fifth Doctor was also on the ship, along with a young woman who claimed to be the Doctor's daughter from the future.
The Nine initially claimed to be willing to help the Doctor get the Deathwatch out of the temporal rupture, but changed his plans when he realised that he could use the temporal ruptures to create a complex temporal network that would allow him to access all of Earth's history, as the fractured temporal splinters were actually fragments of a destroyed Earth. However, the Doctor was able to severe the temporal links the Nine had used to link his TARDIS to Earth, and then forced the Nine to retreat by threatening to time ram his vault. (AUDIO: Relative Time)
Stealing Luxuriana[]
Having stolen various advanced technologies from other planets, the Nine's final stolen component was the dimensional control from the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS. With this new weapon, which included a device capable of adjusting the weight of any object, the Nine was not only able to steal the Museum of Modern Art from the planet Luxuriana, but subsequently managed to shrink and steal the planet itself. Fortunately, the Doctor was able to pursue the Nine to Luxuriana and escape the force field the Nine had erected around the planet. When the Nine attempted to steal the semi-telepathic God-Crystal, the crystal's mental powers nearly left the Nine in a catatonic state with the Doctor, Thana and others trapped in his mind until the Doctor provoked the Nine into releasing them. Faced with the threat of his collection being destroyed, the Nine agreed to return Luxuriana and the Doctor's dimensional control. However, despite knowing the risks of the Crystal's power, his obsession with possessing such a rare item became too great, and the Nine was last seen trying to follow the crystal into its native dimension even with no knowledge of what it would be like. (AUDIO: The Dreams of Avarice)
Legacy[]
As the Eleven escaped from Gallifrey, the Nine asserted control to express his desire to steal the artifacts of the Omega Vault. The Eleven angrily regained control and ordered the Nine to not jeopardise his plans for the sake of greed. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
Some time later, the Eleven arrived in New York City in 1970 to persuade the Weeping Angels to ally with the Doom Coalition instead of Cardinal Ollistra and her allies. The Nine took control to blame Commander Veklin, one of Ollistra's subordinates, for the loss of his "nice things". Veklin responded that she liked him better than the Eleven, a comment which pleased him. (AUDIO: The Side of the Angels)
The Nine emerged as the Eleven took a kidnapped Helen to a Battle TARDIS. He childishly begged the Eleven to steal it and stuck around to say hello to Helen. (AUDIO: Stop the Clock)
During the Time War, the Twelve used the Nine's expertise to break into a Dalek base. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons)
Psychological profile[]
Personality[]
The Nine was confident, charming, and a serious kleptomaniac with zero respect for others' personal property. One of his first actions upon regenerating was admiring the features of the Doctor's TARDIS which were now "his". His impulses were strong enough that he prioritised stealing artefacts from Gallifrey's archives instead of escaping the Chancellery Guard and forbid his previous selves from robbing him of his glory. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls) He retained his kleptomania as a figment of the Eleven's personality, taking control in the Omega Vault to smash a display case and express excitement at the things that could be stolen. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
The Nine was far less ethical than the Eight. He attempted to hack into an access terminal despite Liv's objections, left Liv behind to be arrested, moved to assault Helen before the Eight took control and stopped him, and used Helen as a human shield. On account of having no time for "petty human emotional imbalances", he treated the Doctor's companions with sneering contempt: snapping at them over perceived missteps, questioning Helen's reading comprehension, insulting Helen as a "stupid creature" who looked like "a constipated Sontaran," and coldly claiming possession over Helen.
Treating people like trinkets to be toyed with and thrown away, the Nine cared startlingly little for death. He lied to Helen that Liv had died, told her to move on with a casual "You win some, you lose some. Get over it," called her oversensitive after she became upset and ran off, and brushed off her subsequent requests to leave. He was similarly blasé about her assumption that he had killed the Doctor. He breezily killed workers on the Crucible of Souls and dismissed Padrac's threat to kill Liv, noting that it would make his TARDIS less crowded. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
The Eleven was particularly irritated by the Nine's moments of control. (AUDIO: The Eleven, et al.) Helen was enraged enough by the Nine's confirmation of lying about Liv's death to pick up a gun and threaten to shoot him. She vowed to stop him from causing pain and snarlingly called him a monster after he mused about shooting her. He retorted by remarking that he was something even worse: "a monster with a gun." (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
Skills[]
The Nine's overwhelming charisma helped him fool everyone but Padrac into thinking he was an incarnation of the Doctor struggling with post-regenerative amnesia. Helen was only clued into his true identity when the Eight managed to assert control.
Like the Eight, the Nine attempted to placate his previous selves by meditating. Unlike the Eight, the Nine was unable to effectively do so. He eventually gave up and resorted to trying to silence his previous selves with the Crucible of Souls. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
Appearance[]
The Nine stole clothes from the TARDIS wardrobe that Helen thought made him look like a "dandy pirate". He disagreed, claiming that his outfit had a certain elegance about it. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
Behind the scenes[]
- John Heffernan was credited as "The Imposter" for Doom Coalition 3.
- The script of Dark Universe describes the Nine as “greedy kleptomaniac, wants to steal everything and can't let anything go”.
