Wild Bill Hickok was a historical figure from Earth. He was shot in the back during a poker game in Deadwood; his hand, a pair of aces and a pair of eights, became known as the "Dead Man's Hand". (PROSE: Too Rich for My Blood) After his death, he was briefly artificially resurrected as part of a scheme by Es'Cartrss to see revenge on the Eleventh Doctor and planet Earth. He ultimately sacrificed his resurrected life to help foil those plans. (COMIC: Dead Man's Hand)
After Charles Gaskell pulls a gun on him, McQuaid compares him to "Wild Bill Hickok". (PROSE: The Baby Farmers)
Peri Brown referred to Kevin as "Wild Bill Hickok" for his wild shooting. (PROSE: The Nightmare Fair)
Ted, an orderly in a San Francisco hospital, was going to go to a New Year's Eve party in 1999 dressed as Hickok, until the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor stole the costume from Ted's locker and adopted it as his regular outfit, though he left the costume's gunbelt behind, seeing no use for it. (TV: Doctor Who)
The Eighth Doctor continued to wear the costume or similar ones. Julius Otago thought that he was trying for a Lord Byron look which he said would be tragic if it didn't impress the ladies. After correcting him, the Doctor informed Julius that he hadn't had any complaints. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution)
In an alternative timeline created by the Master, the Fourth Doctor correctly identified the Eighth Doctor's clothes as a Wild Bill Hickok outfit. The Eighth Doctor commented that people often mistook it for a Lord Byron costume. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
The Eighth Doctor continued to wear variations of the Hickok outfit until changing to other styles of clothes later in his life. (AUDIO: The Great War; TV: The Night of the Doctor)
Although the Eleventh Doctor later encountered the resurrected Hickok, no reference was made to the costume; ironically, however, when temporary companion Oscar Wilde found himself in need of clothes, the Doctor gave him his Hickok outfit. (COMIC: Dead Man's Hand)
Behind the scenes[]
- The musical Calamity Jane dramatises a love-affair between Hickok and Calamity Jane that she claimed but which has never been substantiated. The IDW comic story, Dead Man's Hand incorporates the romance.
- His last name is misspelled as "Hickock" in The Nightmare Fair, Children of the Revolution and Too Rich for My Blood.