Doctor Who/Characters/Classic Series Doctors

First Doctor

One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

Played by: William Hartnell (1963-66, 1972-73); Richard Hurndall (1983); David Bradley (2017-)

An eccentric, grumpy old professor-type with an air of mystery about him. Soon became a warmer, more avuncular character to his companions, but remained an authority figure. As he was never intended to be the "first" (or plural) Doctor, there is novelty in watching him develop into the Doctor as he's known today.

• Abusive Parents: It's frequently implied that his caretakers were not kind to him. Even his teachers said that he'd never amount to anything.
• Badass Grandpa: About as much as any other Doctor. Perhaps the only one to fight a Roman Centurion with just a cane. And giggle throughout.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As his status as a Grumpy Old Man slowly faded away, this trope slowly replaced it in some situations. In particular, the Doctor's fight against the Celestial Toymaker is a major representation of this trope as the Doctor literally talks the world surrounding the TARDIS into oblivion with just three words and a number (Go to move 1,023!).
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Was blond, or at least dirty blond, in his youth and was sort of a jerk back then.
• Brilliant but Lazy: Part of the reason that his tutors hated him so much. He could have been so much more but he was content to coast through life. It's even said that he only passed his final exams on his second attempt and with the lowest possible grade (51%) but his adventures clearly show how capable he is.
• The Bus Came Back: In the 2017 stories, "The Doctor Falls" and "Twice Upon a Time."
• Character Development: The first time we ever see the Doctor, he is an arrogant, selfish coward, not unlike his old friend, the Master. His evolution over the first handful of serials is an important point in the script.
• Cool Old Guy
• Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: This Doctor memorably lit up a calabash in "An Unearthly Child", kicking off the first adventure.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Well "Anti-Hero Cannot Comprehend Good". He left Gallifrey partly to study the conflict between Good and Evil because he believes that Being Good Sucks and that evil should always win. As Bill lampshades, he doesn't realize that he's the reason good always wins.
• Famed in Story: If the companions could choose to meet one of the Doctor's past selves, there's only one choice.
• Flanderization: His chauvinistic attitude is very much played up in "Twice Upon a Time." The novelization suggests that he's playing it up to annoy the Twelfth Doctor.
• Future Me Scares Me: After claiming he has no idea who the Twelfth Doctor is, he's shown a montage of his future and how feared he'll become utterly terrifying him. Throughout the episode, he's holding back his regeneration because he fears what the change will bring.
• Grumpy Old Man: Began with this trope firmly in mind, but slowly became more of a grumpy Badass Grandpa, depending on the adventure. This was certainly the case in "The Five Doctors".
• High-Class Glass: All the better to peer at aliens with.
• Honor Before Reason: He maintains that he has the right to live as himself, even holding back his regeneration preferring to die as he is.
• Iconic Item:
  • His prized ring which fell off when he regenerated.
  • Arguably, also his cane.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shows up more in his later stories.
• Jerkass Realization: Barbara gives him an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech which can be basically summarized as her calling the Doctor an awful person with no redeeming qualities who deserves a horrendously painful death. His Stunned Silence after the speech says it all and he takes the time to personally apologize to her. Eleven later says that this was a turning point for him.
• Kavorka Man: He's not ugly but more distinguished than conventionally attractive. To hear some of the characters talk, however, he's a Memetic Sex God that rivals Jack Harkness, possessing a stunning handsomeness that no one could resist.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: His successors often comment that, for how much One touted himself as an endless source of cosmic knowledge, he often knew as much as his human friends or had simply memorized the most basic information about where and when they were, often just before stepping out of the TARDIS.
• Nice Hat: Wore one on a few occasions, including his very first adventure.
• Noodle Incident:
  • While at the Academy, he found his way into the Matrix, spoke to the Cloister Wraiths, and emerged, four days later, in a different part of the city. The experience left him totally mad.
  • He encountered the Master when they were young adults. Whatever happened, the Doctor thought that his old friend was dead by the end of the experience.
• The Other Darrin: Mentioned above, replaced post-mortem by the late Richard Hurndall for the 20th Anniversary special and by David Bradley for the 2017 Christmas Special.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Compared to his predecessors, he has more than a few moments of classism and clearly believed in gender roles to some degree. As Steven Moffat so aptly summarized One, he's an aristocrat trying to be a man of the people. Every now and then, his prejudices and expectations leak out.
• Replacement Goldfish: Was frequently implied to be one to a family member that Vicki lost.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: For a given value of all three terms but whenever the Doctor is aged in some way (see Ten and Eleven's stints as old men in particular), they tend to look like One did in his later years. Aspects of his outfit also tend to pop up in Doctors who have been around for a while In-Universe.
• Show the Forehead: The tidiest hairstyle he would wear for quite some time.
• Superior Species: The Doctor is a Time Lord. The oldest and most mighty race in the universe. And Rassilon above does he know it.
• Too Much Alike: He and Vicki certainly weren't as close as Twelve and Clara but they had shades of this, alternatively bringing out the worst and best in the other.
• Troll: Any opportunity to annoy people.
• Took a Level In Kindness: Takes a massive amount over the course of his first three adventures.
• Unscrupulous Hero: He's devoted to his granddaughter and is disgusted by villains like the Daleks but aside from that his morals are loose at best, with his flaws ranging from pride, paranoia to outright moral cowardice in trying to abandon Barbara to die on Skaro rather than risk further exposure to radiation. By the conclusion of the first three stories he gets over this.
• Verbal Tic: "Hmmm?" and "eh?". This came about because Hartnell suffered from arteriosclerosis, which affected his ability to remember lines, and this allowed the producers to use lines where Hartnell got his lines wrong (re-shooting and dubbing dialogue was not usually an option).

Second Doctor

There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things that act against everything we believe in. They must be fought!

Played by: Patrick Troughton (1966-69, 1972-73, 1983, 1985)

The Buster Keaton-ish clown with a Beatles mop-top haircut; he liked to play the recorder (the musical instrument), and he carried a massive number of useful things in the pockets of his coat. (The Tenth Doctor would confirm that, as many fans had long suspected, the Doctor's pockets are Bigger on the Inside.) A more maverick and anti-authority figure than his predecessor, he has arguably had the most lasting influence on later Doctors.

As The AV Club have pointed out, many later Doctors have been influenced by him, partly because he was more fun.

• Beware the Nice Ones: Not as much as Five or Ten, but still capable of steering an enemy's space fleet into the sun or sparking a massive Dalek civil war when he deemed it necessary.
• Bow Ties Are Cool
• Catch Phrase:
  • "When I say run, run."
  • "Oh my word!"
  • "Oh my giddy aunt."
  • Coined the iconic phrase: "You've redecorated. I don't like it."
• Crazy Prepared: Always seemed to have some sort of situation-suitable item in those pockets of his.
• Everyone Has Standards: Was prepared to give up his freedom to the Time Lords. Being forced to regenerate shocked him to his core.
• Failed a Spot Check: He does this quite often. Notably in "The Dominators", when he clearly pointed out that the newly formed volcano was erupting, but didn't notice that the volcano was erupting.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gave up his freedom so that the Time Lords would return the War Lords that the humans had abducted back to their proper times and places.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: The Doctor and Jamie were together for all but one serial and for more episodes than any other companion. The Tenth Doctor later outright says that he and Jamie were best friends.
• Hobo: More like a WHO-bo.
• Iconic Item: His recorder (the musical instrument).
• Identical Stranger: Ramón Salamander was his. Even more impressive considering that they weren't of the same species and the mechanics of regeneration.
• Idiot Hair: There's always this one bit of his hair that loves to stick up.
• Master of Disguise: The Second Doctor had an interesting fondness for disguises and clever identity lies, which he usually backed up with some persona-appropriate accent.
  • Dressing as the Enemy
  • Herr Doktor: Or as he liked to call himself, Doktor von Wer.
  • Harmless Lady Disguise: Harmless lady with a gun concealed in her robes.
  • Master Actor: The main selling point of his identity tricks is his ability to act like the person he is trying to portray, arousing little to no suspicion of a fallacy even without a donned disguise. Helps that Troughton himself was a Master Actor.
  • Trojan Prisoner
  • Wig, Dress, Accent
• The Needs of the Many:
  • In "Evil of the Daleks", he makes it clear he's willing to sacrifice all their lives if it means saving the Earth from the Daleks.
  • In "The War Games", he sacrifices his freedom to call in the Time Lords so they'll stop the War Lords.
• Nice Hat: In addition to wearing some interesting hats from time to time, the Doctor would sometimes note when he saw an interesting piece of headgear, "I'd quite like a hat like that."
• No Sense of Personal Space: Usually when he's frightened at something.
  • Security Cling: Given and received.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Two is a goofball but that doesn't mean he's lost his mighty intellect.
• Rummage Sale Reject: His clothes were perpetually crumpled up to boot.
• Parental Substitute: To Victoria.
• Shot At Dawn: In "The War Games". Don't worry, he was saved.
• Stealth Hi Bye: He was so good at this that he successfully did it to himself in "The Three Doctors".
• Took a Level In Kindness: His regeneration did wonders for his demeanour.
• Trope Codifier: Having defined most of the Doctor's chief characteristics, Second's role influenced several of the later Doctors, especially the Eleventh.
• The World Is Just Awesome: As he confirms in his last appearance, the sheer diversity of the galaxy just called to him and he had to go out and see it himself.

Third Doctor

You know, Jo, I sometimes think that military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

Played by: Jon Pertwee (1970-74, 1983, 1993)

The suave Edwardian gentleman. Spent a great deal of time stuck on Earth in the 20th Century, as he'd been exiled from Gallifrey (and his TARDIS rendered inoperative), and often got into adventures with his friends at UNIT, especially The Brigadier. A more action-oriented Doctor, known for his "Venusian Karate/Aikido" and his fast cars, Bessie and the Whomobile. The sonic screwdriver was to be his enduring legacy, along with his chest x-ray (the heart's fine... hang on, what's this shape over here?) and being the first Doctor to be broadcasted in color. As this Doctor's tenure was confined to present-day London, he also inaugurated the grand old Doctor Who tradition of everyday objects tying to kill you.

• Action Hero: Villain holding his companion at gunpoint? No problem! Karate-CHOP!
• Actor Appeal: The Third Doctor stories have a lot of car chases, because the writers enjoyed indulging Pertwee's love of fast cars and odd vehicles. In his final story, by way of a send-off, there's a completely gratuitous chase that lasts twenty minutes and involves several cars, a flying machine, and a hovercraft.
  • Terrance Dicks, script editor at the time of Jon Pertwee's run, has actually said that he often asked Pertwee if the actor desired anything in his tales beyond the story being fun. Being given this massive potential of a request, all that Pertwee asked for was "a moment or two of charm."
• Badass: One of the most physically oriented Action Hero versions of the Doctor, to the point his tenure was basically one long action movie.
• Badass Cape: Had a velvet cloak he wore on a few occasions.
• Badass Grandpa
• Badass in Distress: See Distressed Dude.
• Bow Ties Are Cool: Wasn't as flagrant about it as Eleven, nor did he wear one as often as Two, but he would on occasion wear a spiffy bowtie.
• Break the Haughty: The more he condescends at UNIT personnel, and gets dragged through the most crippling ordeals for his trouble, the more you start to suspect the Time Lords exiled him as a lesson.
• The Dandy: For his choice of clothes and awesome hair. Lampshaded during "The Three Doctors" when the First Doctor actually called him this.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Did Not Get the Girl: Watched his beloved Jo Grant get married to Clifford Jones, whom she described as a younger version of him. Little wonder he drove off in sadness.
• Distressed Dude: Let's face it, the Third Doctor is the KING of this trope.
  • With My Hands Tied: He's also equally good at breaking free and escaping from capture.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Subverted, actually. While the Doctor doesn't have any tattoos before or after this incarnation, the Third Doctor has a dragon tattoo on his arm that can be seen quite plainly during the events of "Spearhead from Space". The producers hand-wave this by claiming the Doctor never had a tattoo and we're all seeing things, so it's more of an awkward moment for them than the Doctor (or Pertwee).
  • Part of the Expanded Universe claims it's a prison tattoo, which he bears during his exile to Earth. Another Time Lord, Grandfather Paradox, ended up with the dragon tattoo put on his arm by the Time Lords when he was branded a criminal; unlike the Doctor, Paradox cut the arm off.
• Expy: Think James Bond as a Time Lord. What makes it so great? Well Jon Pertwee might have the been the inspiration for Bond!
• Freaking Awesome Old Guy
• Freudian Excuse: A few have suspected that his more pronounced distaste for the Time Lords comes from them forcing him to regenerate and waste one of his lives.
• Famous Last Words: "A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don’t cry. While there’s life, there’s.."
• Fish Out of Water: The Doctor is more overtly 'alien' these days (two hearts, a dumb alias, magic gizmos) as the result of being plucked out of a fantastical environment wherein his human-like qualities would be dominant.
• Gentleman Snarker
• Good Is Not Nice: During his first two seasons he would be incredibly rude to people for no good reason, then become the picture of politeness soon thereafter.
• Grandpa What Massive Hotness You Have: Don't believe me? Behold!
• Harmless Lady Disguise
• Heroic BSOD: A rarity for this Doctor, but he was actually sent into a coma during the events of "Inferno" from what he experienced. Then again, he had just seen an alternate world filled with familiar faces and redeemable people utterly destroyed by lava and proto-human zombies. This state lasted for almost an entire episode.
  • It can also be argued that the events of Inferno wound up giving the Doctor a Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? level of attitude towards the world going up in fire and destruction, as we see in The Mind of Evil.
• "I Am" Song: That's right, Jon Pertwee (singing as the Third Doctor) wound up recording a song that rivals most villain songs for just being pure awesome. Just try not to jam out to I am... The Doctor!
• I Hate Past Me: He and Two really rubbed each other raw.
• I Know Venusian Aikido: Hai!
• Iconic Item: Bessie and the Whomobile. This Doctor loved his gadgets and cars. He was also the best dressed Doctor, famous for his frilly shirts, opera cape and smoking jacket.
  • He's also the first Doctor to make extensive use of the sonic screwdriver.
• Insufferable Genius: He was smarter than all of UNIT put together, and would frequently make this obvious, even belittling the slowness of others when he was feeling particularly Jerkass. However, most of UNIT put up with it because he really was that brilliant. However, Liz Shaw, his first companion in this incarnation and a skilled scientist herself, eventually had enough and walked, arranging Jo Grant to replace her with the indirect comment that all the Doctor needed was "Someone to pass you your test tubes, and to tell you how brilliant you are."
• Power Loss Makes You Strong: A madman without a box is just a madman. A Time Lord without knowledge of time is just someone calling himself lord. No wonder he's so irritable.
• Playing Against Type: Then-known for his comedic talents and funny voices, Pertwee subverted his own screen persona with this no-nonsense performance.
• Reverse the Polarity: Trope Namer. The Twelfth Doctor eventually reveals that it's just something he says when he needs to rush through the Techno Babble.
• Silver Fox
• Stockholm Syndrome: This is when the Doctor grew to love Earth and came to consider it his adopted home.
• Sword Fight: Not shocking for this action hero, quite frankly, but the Doctor is able to out-fight the Master in "The Sea Devils" in a fencing duel. He then eats a sandwich while holding the Master at swordpoint. A sandwich that happened to be the Master's lunch.
• Tap on the Head: The neck-pinching variant.

Fourth Doctor

You may be a doctor, but I'm the Doctor. The definite article, you might say.

Played by: Tom Baker (1974-81, 1983, 1993)

The Bohemian, famous for a very, very long scarf. Somewhat crazy-eyed and alien. Probably the best known of all the Doctor's incarnations. If you don't know who Tom Baker is, close your eyes and think of Doctor Who. That's him. (Unless you're under 30; then that was probably David Tennant or Peter Capaldi.)

• AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle: He tended to draw out his vowels a fair bit.
• Action Hero: In his earlier adventures, Four would have little problem leaping into action, such as in "The Sontaran Experiment", but nearly all of his later adventures feature the Doctor more willing to give the monster-of-the-week a jelly baby than engage in fisticuffs. Keeping in mind that he was in the role for seven years, going from being forty to almost fifty during this time, this gradual slowing down does begin to make a bit more sense.
• Adorkable
• Badass Baritone: Has the deepest voice of any Doctor.
• Badass Longcoat
• Beware the Nice Ones: The friendly and childlike Fourth Doctor is also the Doctor who took place in the longest and most brutal fight in the show's history, when he spent an episode and a half playing cat-and-mouse with his opponent in "The Deadly Assassin".
  • "The Pirate Planet" is notable for featuring the Fourth exploding into a rage far more violently than he ever had before or after, and perhaps even more so than any other Doctor. If you even manage to piss Four off, you're seriously screwed.
• Beware the Silly Ones: One a few occasions, its even acknowledged he is Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Blue Eyes
• Bourgeois Bohemian: Perhaps as a reaction to his previous self being mired on Earth, Four is hell-bent on hitting the dusty trail.
• Brilliant but Lazy: Loves to put up his feet, draw his hat over his eyes and doze off. Especially while UNIT is talking to him.
  • His old teacher Borusa doesn't remember him very fondly, either.
• Catch Phrase: "Would you like a jelly baby?"
• Compelling Voice
• Depending on the Writer: Cloudcuckoolander? Byronic Hero? Obfuscating Stupidity? Invincible Hero? It really depended on that week's script.
  • This is actually addressed in A Brief History of Time Lords where the author admits that he often he has no idea what guided this incarnation.
• Distressed Dude: Seriously, HOW MANY times has this Doctor been captured, kidnapped, tied up, locked up, drugged, knocked out, imprisoned, tortured, etc.? Sometimes it happens to him more often than his own companions! The Fourth Doctor is just as bad as the Third.
• Einstein Hair
• Famous Last Words: "It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for."
• Fedora of Asskicking: Although not worn as often as his scarf.
• Finger-Poke of Doom: All it takes is an alien nerve-pinching the Fourth Doctor into oblivion, and he's down for the count. Amusingly, this is exact opposite of Venusian akido.
• Genius' Sweet Tooth
• He Who Fights Monsters: Famously struggled with this in Genesis of the Daleks.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Plummeted off a satellite tower after saving most of the universe from The Master.
• Hotblooded Sideburns
• Iconic Item: The scarf. Always the scarf. And Jelly Babies.
  • To a lesser extent, his Nice Fedora plays a part, especially when combined with his iconic curly hair.
• It Amused Me: His reason for doing anything.
• Large Ham: Even his eyes are hammy.
• Man Child: Willing to go anywhere, do anything to avoid taking orders again.
• May-December Romance: Nothing was ever made explicit but many of his interactions with Romana suggested this.
• Motor Mouth
• My Greatest Failure: Failing to Ret-Gone the Daleks. He regretted it within twenty minutes and would carry that regret for the rest of his lives.
• Narcissist: The man will not miss even one opportunity to remind you how much better he is than you.
• Nice Hat
• No Indoor Voice
• Obfuscating Stupidity: "No one could be as stupid as he seems."
• Our Presidents Are Different: Through a twist of fate, he finds himself elected President of Gallefrey — and promptly turns into a President Evil. (Actually, it's part of The Infiltration to fool some Sontaran marauders.)
• Rebellious Spirit: Moreso than any other Doctor, he chafes at following orders, whether they be from his fellow Time Lords or the White Guardian.
• Scarf of Asskicking
• Seen It All
• Trademark Favorite Food: Jelly Babies, of course. Ginger Beer was his favorite drink, but it didn't come up nearly as often.

Fifth Doctor

Fifth Doctor: When was the last time you smelt a flower, watched a sunset, ate a well-prepared meal? Cyberleader: These things are irrelevant. Fifth Doctor: For some people, small, beautiful events is what life is all about!

Played by: Peter Davison (1981-84, 1993, 2007)

The Edwardian cricketer; vulnerable but highly noble, especially in his Heroic Sacrifice. Though somewhat young (29 when he was cast; he'd be the youngest Doctor until Matt Smith), Davison was already a well-known actor, having played a vet on All Creatures Great and Small. Ironically enough for this gentle and non-combative Doctor, his stories tended to have high body counts.

• Action Survivor: By comparison with the other Doctors, anyway.
• Adorkable: Especially just after his regeneration, when he first tries on his cricketer's outfit and mimes with a cricket bat.
• Badass Longcoat
• Beware the Nice Ones: Looking at the Fifth Doctor, you wouldn't suspect it, would you? Well, the Fifth is also the Doctor who whipped out a gun and shot a dying Cyberman in the chest. Repeatedly. He's also the one who stood there and watched the Master burn to death.
• Captain Obvious
• Catch Phrase: "Brave heart, (insert character name)." (Especially Tegan, though other companions are similarly cheered up.)
• Covert Pervert: As the EU reveals, he spent a lot of time staring at Peri when she wasn't looking.
• Distressed Dude: He's captured somehow at least once an adventure. Some days, he's Brainwashed. Other days, he's chained up and shot at. On a particularly bizarre occasion, Five was nearly mindwiped and replaced with an Evil Knockoff. Man, this Doctor just did not know how to stay out of trouble.
  • A whole lot of cliffhangers from this era often have the Fifth Doctor in some sort of danger — this occurs so often, these cliffhangers are called "the Davison Cliffhangers".
• Dull Surprise: Sadly, this Doctor has a tendency to stare, slack-jawed at things and events a lot. Perhaps directly related to his tendency to have Heroic BSODs.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: His regeneration was easily the most spectacular from the original series.
• Face Death with Dignity
• Famous Last Words: A sad broken "...Adric?"
• Future Me Scares Me: Was horrified by the Seventh Doctor when they met.
• Gentleman Snarker
• Grumpy Old Man: Davison attempted to do "old man in a young man's body" at times, but the scripts didn't let him.
• Heroic BSOD: Suffered from more than his fair share, compared to the other Doctors. Particularly when Adric died.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He wasn't even sure that he'd regenerate but he gave all the bat's milk to Peri.
• Hot Scientist
• Humble Hero: By far and away the humblest of the Doctors.
• I Reject Your Reality: Whether optimistic or delusional, he will always never accept that he lives in an Ungovernable Galaxy.
• Iconic Item: The lapel-mounted celery and Purely Aesthetic Glasses. The latter, however, is not used nearly as often… The roll-up hat can count as well, depending on the fan you ask.
  • Some still will insist that it's his sneakers that really complete the outfit, being a modern piece of clothing in an otherwise period costume.
  • Really his entire ensemble is this, to the point where even the Tenth Doctor refers to it as his "Crickety Cricket stuff".
    • Although the Tenth does note they stole the "Brainy Specs" and trainers look from him.
• Kill'Em All: This trope seemed to follow the Fifth like the plague — at least a third of his stories ended with a massive body count. His last story had two survivors, and neither was him. He got better, of course.
• Magnetic Hero: For his three years in the role, he sure had a lot of companions.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Feminine Boy to Tegan's Masculine Girl.
• Never Live It Down: In-universe, his "Brainy Specs". He doesn't even need them, he just thinks they make him look clever.
• Nice Guy: Which makes it all the more heartbreaking given all the crap he faced. The very concept of hating someone seemed alien to poor Five.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: This is definitely one of the more chaste and hands-off Doctors, by decree from above. Peter Davison is on-record as saying this was a stupid idea and in the EU, Five is heavily attracted to Peri.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Occasionally. Peter Davison actually admitted he stopped wearing what were later called the "brainy specs" after a while because of ribbing from certain members of the cast. He put them back on for the "Time Crash" mini-episode with David Tennant.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: His TARDIS team.
• Undying Loyalty: To Peri, makes more sense after one consumes their EU adventures.

Sixth Doctor

This is a situation that requires tact and finesse. Fortunately, I am blessed with both.

Played by: Colin Baker (1984-86, 1993); Sylvester McCoy (1987)

A darker and grittier (and certainly more unstable) Doctor, his default emotions were righteous indignation or smug self-satisfaction. Wore a multicoloured coat. Wasn't averse to fisticuffs to get out of a desperate fix. During his first season, the show got in trouble for being too violent. The only actor to be fired from the role, thanks to Executive Meddling; the fallout was so acrimonious that he refused to reprise the role simply for a regeneration, so they Dropped a Bridge on Him. However, the actor is considered by everyone involved to be a wonderful guy.

• Eighties Hair
• Aborted Arc: A multi-year arc was planned in which the Sixth Doctor would mellow out, but politics at the BBC intervened. This was later taken up (after a fashion) by the Big Finish audios.
• Bond One-Liner: There's a particularly grim one in "Vengeance on Varos", and it began to attract executive mumblings about whether Doctor Who was going too far. After two guards end up in an acid bath "Forgive me if I don't join you."
• Broken Pedestal: The Time Lords finally become this to him. He condemns them in his trial and never returns home for the rest of the classic series.
• Can't Argue with Elves: The Sixth Doctor isn't quite this bad, but he is articulate and abrasive. Do not argue with him. You will lose.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: He does one in his opening credits.
• Doctor Jerk
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Now, what exactly caused his regeneration again?
• Future Me Scares Me: The Valeyard. So much so that he even risked crossing his own timeline to try and get answers as to what the hell the Valeyard was. The Virgin New Adventures even suggest that Six somehow 'willed' himself into regenerating to prevent that outcome while some other stories suggest he's starting to think the Valeyard isn't his future but just a ruse by another Time Lord.
• Grumpy Old Man: The actor may not have visually fit the role, but the Sixth Doctor himself easily fits the role in personality.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gave up his life and made himself vulnerable to the Rani in his audio line to defeat the Valeyard and save the Time Lords.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms: Especially when frustrated or angry. In the Big Finish story "The One Doctor", one character remarks that talking to him is "like arguing with a bloody thesaurus!"
• Hypocritical Humor: This Doctor is much more of a "do as I say, not as I do" sort of fellow. Played up much more in the Expanded Universe's Big Finish branch.
• I Hate Past Me: Towards Five and Two.
• Iconic Item: That technicolor nightmare coat and the cat badge; the latter detail was retained in the Big Finish audios.
• Identical Stranger: Colin Baker appeared in "Arc of Infinity" as a different Time Lord (a chief of security named Maxil) before he was cast as the Doctor.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Famously. It's like a clown vomited in his closet. In the Big Finish audios, he either claims that it's the height of fashion in some far off, distant civilization, or starts wearing a dark blue version of the outfit.
• Insufferable Genius: Oh, boy. Described by many as a "raging egotist"… but he really was as good as he described himself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The genuine heart of gold still existed in this Doctor… it was just buried under a whole lot of ego. And bluster. But mostly ego. Ironically, the Sixth Doctor may well have had the largest heart of gold of any of them, hidden way deep down underneath the ego.
• Jerkass Facade: By this point in his life, it seems that the Doctor is getting very tired of losing people.
• Knight Errant: Self-described in "The Twin Dilemma."
• Not So Different: As the audio line had a lot of fun with, he is very similar to Davros.
• The Other Darrin: Done for a grand total of 3 seconds during the regeneration process, as Colin Baker refused to return and portray the Doctor for a fraction of an episode. The Sixth Doctor's Dick Sargent to Colin Baker's Dick York was Sylvester McCoy, who simply wore a curly blond wig. It didn't work.
• Promoted Fanboy: Colin Baker had been a fan of the franchise since the first episode was aired (and apparently continuing to do so into the 21st century) and leapt at the chance to even be in the story, much less portray the Doctor himself.
• Regeneration By Falling Over: And there have been many attempts made to explain why.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Depending on the writer, the Sixth Doctor tends to go from "being smart" to "sounding like he not only swallowed a thesaurus, but all of the grammar teachers in England." This is also played up in some of his Expanded Universe appearances as well.
• Tsundere: The harsh version.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: His relationship with Peri at first; It does take them a few episodes to get along without unleashing a hurricane of insults on each other.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Only used against the Sixth Doctor in terms of his attitude rather than his actions or history.
• Xanatos Speed Chess Player: Once Six actually figures out what the hell is going on, his quick thinking and planning is pretty much this in curly blond hair and a multicoloured coat. That does, of course, depend on the Sixth Doctor actually being involved enough in the main story to realize what's going on — one example left him clueless until the final 20 minutes of the story.
• You Already Changed the Past: He and Peri once landed in the 22nd century a year before the First Doctor overthrew their invasion of Earth.

Seventh Doctor

You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies.

Played by: Sylvester McCoy: (1987-89, 1993, 1996)

Began as a sort of bumbling goof, but became a more mysterious and enigmatic figure after the show got a little Darker and Edgier (after back-pedalling away from it) in its last two seasons. He turned into a borderline Knight Templar, fond of Xanatos Gambits, and a bit of a Knight Templar Parent to his companion Ace. These qualities came even more to the fore in the Expanded Universe New Adventures novels.

• Aborted Arc: The Cartmel Masterplan.
• Batman Gambit: Often directly related to his status as Chessmaster.
  • During the few rare times the Batman Gambit has failed in the Expanded Universe, Seven also shows off that he's quite experienced with the Indy Ploy.
• Beware the Silly Ones: This silly old man is the most cunning individual you will ever meet.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Which did him in the end. The human doctors operating on him were so confused by his insides that their exploratory surgery killed him.
• Book Ends: Both the start and the end of the life of the Seventh Doctor were really ignoble: hitting his head on the TARDIS console and being killed by malpractice committed by the woman who would become his next companion.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: It always looks like he's up to something.
• The Chessmaster: With varying success, often requiring the liberal use of Xanatos Speed Chess when things go awry. In the Virgin New Adventures, Seven's abilities are given real room to flex and are usually far more impressive.
  • He's also a literal Chessmaster in "The Curse of Fenric".
• The Determinator: In the 1996 movie, he wakes up several times on the operating table, despite being heavily sedated in order to attempt to warn everyone of what's happening.
• Iconic Item: His straw hat, question mark handled umbrella, and question mark covered sweater-vest.
• Large Ham: "UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING!"
• Malaproper: In his first few stories.
• My Card: Handed out in "Remembrance of the Daleks"...out of thin air, at that.
• Nice Hat
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Nothing about his appearance or demeanor suggests that he is a threat.
• Papa Wolf: When it comes to Ace, he's got this trope down pat. Particularly in the Expanded Universe.
• Parental Substitute: To Ace.
• Slapstick: Especially in his early stories.
• Strapped to An Operating Table: And trying to explain to nice Dr. Grace that he's not human and could she please take that camera out of his arteries. She doesn't listen, and he dies.
• Take That Me: The Big Finish branch of the Expanded Universe has given the Seventh Doctor a few unintentional (on the Doctor's part) jabs at his rather lackluster death in the TV Movie. The best jab, by far, was "I refuse to die to elevator music!" when trying to escape a depressurizing airlock playing opera at him. Guess what he died to.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Seven loves doing this. It's in a good half of his stories, by god.
• Talking Your Way Out: Seven's great love — his words are far and away more effective than any physical threat.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Though a Fate Worse Than Death is fair game for him.
• Trickster Mentor: Became this in his second season, as focus shifted to his companion Ace. As a result, Ace became the most fleshed-out companion, whilst the Doctor became ever more mysterious.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: McCoy was actually the first Doctor to not speak with a Received Pronunciation accent.
• Unflinching Walk: He calmly walked out of a building that then promptly exploded and appeared not to notice.
• Weapon of Choice: His brain (and, technically, words). This is the only Doctor to talk at a Dalek and make him self-destruct.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Seven tends to keep his eye on the big picture, and while he won't directly kill anyone, he's been known to leave - or nearly leave - psychological scars. He gets called on it.
• Worst Aid: Bullets? Not a problem. Paramedics mistaking your alien heart rates for fibrillation? That's another matter.

Eighth Doctor

I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren't there.

Played by: Paul McGann (1996, 2013)

From the Made-For-TV Movie. From the little we saw of him, the Eighth Doctor was a romantic, a passionate figure who reveled in life and living and — uniquely among the Doctors — seemed to enjoy giving people hints about their futures. Notably, he was the Doctor who shattered the No Hugging, No Kissing policy forever, happily snogging his companions just because he wants to. He also claimed to be half-human for no reason, which was subsequently ignored entirely in the main Whoniverse canon because it was much too silly. Got fleshed out in the Expanded Universe. You can see his EDA-specific character tropes here. Returned in 2013, as part of the buildup to the 50th anniversary, for his regeneration into John Hurt's War Doctor.

• Always Save the Girl: What ultimately end up doing him in. He just would not abandon Cass.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Four minutes to live? Well he'll need some books, a television, a chess game, and some knitting.
• Back for the Dead: After the 1996 Movie, his return to filmed Doctor Who is so his regeneration can be triggered. He's even brought Back From the Dead for it.
• Bi the Way: Happily kisses his male companion Fitz in the novels, years before one Jack Harkness ever joined the cast.
• Break the Cutie: The Eighth Doctor did his very best to stay out of the Time War but seeing someone choose to die rather than accept the help of a Time Lord was the catalyst to make him regenerate into the War Doctor and start fighting. By his tone, it's clear that he doesn't even care if the regeneration is actually triggered or not.
  • Interestingly, the Eighth Doctor regenerated after a human tried her best to save his life. One has to wonder if that had a big impact on this particular regeneration.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's a bit loopy even by Doctor standards, though it doesn't stop him getting the job done.
• Despair Event Horizon: He's utterly broken when he regenerates, totally indifferent as to whether or not he'll actually die, and has no choice but to join the fight.
• Determinator
• Distressed Dude: Courtesy of the Master, who's trying to steal the rest of his regenerations.
• Famous Last Words: "Physician heal thyself."
• Heroes Want Redheads: Though they ultimately decide to part ways, the first person he meets who fills the traditional role of companion is the redheaded Dr. Grace Holloway. As soon as he gets over his regeneration trauma, he snogs her a few times out of sheer joy. (She's also the only companion ever in canon to directly inadvertently kill him, thus forcing him to regenerate from Seven to Eight.)
• Heroic Bystander: Initially refused to get involved in the Time War.
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: Gets a a few shirtless scenes right off the bat, while still very confused and amnesiac.
• Kirk Summation: "You want dominion over the living, but all you do is kill!"
• Large Ham: Though he calms down a good deal in the audio adventures, save a few rare examples. Big Finish Doctor Who's Zagreus immediately comes to mind.
• Medical Horror: Wakes up in a morgue in the middle of amnesia-inducing regeneration trauma. Finds a few feet of camera probe coming out of his chest. His first day was a bit scary.
• No Indoor Voice: When excited or upset, he tends to go wild with the volume.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Something he shares with a few other Doctors. While his Trauma-Induced Amnesia eventually gets better, his sense of personal space definitely does not.
• Phrase Catcher: People calling him a "ponce" quickly became a running gag, both in and out of universe.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: After seeing his reflection for the first time after regeneration, whilst wandering about the hospital: "WHO! AM! I?!"
• Retroactive Precognition
• Sadistic Choice: Between being Killed Off for Real or regenerate into a warrior, he chose the latter.
• Sharp-Dressed Man
  • Waistcoat of Style
• Stop or I Shoot Myself: The gun that Eight pulls on himself was actually the policeman's. He's great at sleight of hand, isn't he?
• Strapped to An Operating Table: How he becomes Eight in the first place.
• Take My Hand: To the Master, who refused and let himself be dragged into the Eye of Harmony.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Regenerating several hours after his death and under the influence of surgical-grade anesthetics apparently constitutes less-than-ideal circumstances.