Doctor Who/Characters/Doctors

Splendid fellows -- all of you. —The Brigadier, "The Five Doctors"

A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, the Doctor (not his real name) is the main character of this long-running show. Like all Time Lords, he has a life span measured in centuries, some degree of psychic ability, and the ability to regenerate when near death. Unlike other Time Lords, he became terrified by the Gallifreyan way of life when he was young, stole an antique TARDIS, skipped town and "never stopped running".

The Doctor remains the same person throughout his lives, but different incarnations have different personalities. Showrunners tend to cast each Doctor as a subversion of the previous one. Hence, lushly-dressed aristo Jon Pertwee becomes shabby bohemian Tom Baker; mild-mannered Peter Davison becomes loud Colin Baker; moody Chris Eccleston becomes bouncy David Tennant, etc.

For the incarnations of the Doctor in the Classic Series, see here. Those from 2005 onward can be found here.

All Doctors

• Admiring the Abomination: Many Doctors do this at least once in a while, but it's a particular specialty of Ten's.
• Always Save The Companion: Three regenerations (Five, Nine, and Ten) have been the Doctor trading his life for his companion's.
• Anti-Hero
• Badass: All regenerations of the Doctor are this, mostly gravitating towards the Badass Bookworm subtype.
• Badass Pacifist: To an extent. The Doctor usually tries not to resort to violence in any case, but instead prefers to use his wits to solve his problems.
• Bavarian Fire Drill (in the New Series the Impersonation Gambit is used more often, thanks to the Doctor's psychic paper).
• Berserk Button: DON'T hurt or kidnap his companions.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Doctor can do things like counteract cyanide poisoning given a bunch of weird ingredients, and absorb radiation and expel it through his foot. Oh -- and he has two hearts.
  • He also can survive exposure to hard-vacuum for several minutes with no ill effects and can make use of a respiratory bypass to forgo the need to breathe for just as long.
• Born Lucky
• A Time Lord and his TARDIS
• Bunny Ears Lawyer
• Catch Phrase: "Of COURSE!"; "I'll explain...later." and of course, "Run!"
• The Chessmaster: Constantly. As Twelve lampshades, if the Doctor is in the room and you think you're winning, you've missed something.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Distress signals always get the Doctor's attention.
• Cloudcuckoolander: All the incarnations of Doctor will at the very least have shades of this.
  • One was prone to making some humorous (and rather weird) observations.
  • Four was as manic as his hair, offered jelly babies to to pretty much everyone, and tended towards behaving like he was on a sugar bender most of the time.
  • Six truly believed his coat was fashionable and was reality defying blind about his own lack of tact and subtlety.
  • Eight was prone to making non sequitur observations in the middle of serious conversations and could be ridiculously Literal Minded.
  • Nine actually believed being a tourist meant doing all sorts of crazy stuff you can do, just for the hell of it.
  • Ten would have random and over the top geeky fits over how wonderful humans are.
  • Eleven is obsessed with bow ties and fezzes, believing them to be fashionable, even after women have been willing to destroy the latter to prove otherwise.
• Cool Old Guy: Strictly speaking, all of them are chronologically, but some regenerations don't even resemble the part. However, some of the younger looking regenerations like Eleven do embrace the concept.
• Dissonant Serenity / Tranquil Fury: When sufficiently angered, the Doctor is quite capable of raining fire down on their enemies with a look of utmost calm.
• Distressed Dude: He gets tied up / handcuffed / etc almost as often as the companions, if not more.
• Doesn't Like Guns: No version of the Doctor has been exactly gun-happy, though some accepted them as a last resort.
  • One was seen with a gun once or twice.
  • Two has held and handled guns quite a few times during his run, sometimes using them as convenient yet empty threats. He didn't evince any obvious distaste for guns in general, but he never did actually fire one. He also built a heat ray and used it to great effect against Ice Warriors.
  • Three would much rather karate chop a poor sucker than shoot him.
  • Four would pick up a gun if the situation called for it.
  • Five actually blew away an enemy or two.
  • Subverted by Six, who was more willing to pick up a gun than the others would a Sonic Screwdriver. The best example of this is in Attack of the Cybermen.
  • Seven would never use a gun himself, but didn't mind when others used similar weapons like rocket launchers or ballistic explosives if the situation demanded it.
  • Eight used a gun several times. In his one televised adventure, it was at himself. Other times, the Doctor simply refuses to acknowledge them as guns, because "I don't use guns."
  • Nine held a gun twice: whether he would actually have shot is debatable. Then again, he also switched Jack Harkness' gun for a banana at one point ...
  • As far as Ten was concerned: Swords, explosives, pet robots with lasers, flooding rivers, taping over electronic villains, erupting volcanoes, electrocution through a piece of the TARDIS, Fates Worse Than Death, throwing entire planets into black holes, fatally accurate satsumas and death by church organ? Perfectly legitimate methods of combat. Guns? NEVER.
    • Do note, however, Ten did pick up a gun when he realized that the Time Lords were returning and pointed one at Rassilon. He ended up firing the gun, though not at a person.
  • Eleven fired a gun as well, though, like Ten, not at a person (he even used it to save lives, not take one).
  • Twelve grabbed a gun and fired it at point-blank rage.
• The Dreaded: As the series progressed, it has became the norm that any villain who actually recognizes who this strange individual calling himself "Doctor" actually was, immediately browns their trousers. A number of times the Doctor himself calls attention to his identity for that effect.
  • This effect seems to be especially prevalent with the Daleks, who are supposed to be physically incapable of feeling any emotion, fear included.
  • Both Ten and Eleven managed to weaponise the word "Run", and were able to turn entire armies around at the very mention of their name. This status comes back to bite Eleven hard in Series 6, where it's revealed that in the Gamma Forest, "Doctor" does not mean "Helper of the weak and sick" like on Earth, but "Warrior", due to his sheer badassery.
• Drives Like Crazy: The introduction of one River Song reveals that he deliberately shuts off the TARDIS's stabilizers and drives with the parking brake on.
• Eccentric Mentor
• Eternal Hero: He's always there to save the day, anywhere and anywhen he is needed.
• Expy: When the show began, the Doctor hovered somewhere between Anti-Hero and Anti-Villain, and Steven Moffat described the first Doctor as a senile old man. At some point, the first story editor David Whitaker realized that since he has to carry the show, he needs to be more of a cut and dry hero. Who did they turn to? Sherlock Holmes. It becomes clear with the Moffat penned versions of Doctor Who and Sherlock, since both come across as Insufferable Geniuses who both tend to say "Shut up, I'm thinking." Companions in general tend to fit the Watson role pretty well.
• Famed in Story: Erratically, since he tends to hop around space and time and is not actually universally known -- but happens on many occasions.
  • It's later been revealed that countless races across the universe do get the word "Doctor" intrinsically ingrained in their languages due to him, denoting either a "Healer" or "Great Warrior."
  • This eventually evolves into Shrouded in Myth because he keeps removing himself from the internet and other databases. Though as the Cybermen point out, the Doctor shaped hole he keeps leaving behind allows people to reconstruct him.
• Fan of the Past: The Doctor is rather fond of Earth history.
• The Fettered: Despite being a self-proclaimed "madman with a box" who thinks keep-out-signs are for other people, he is very much this. Bad things happen when he starts breaking his personal rules.
• Gentleman Adventurer: Even once he starts to think of fighting the bad guys as a job, his main objective has always been to see as much of the universe as he can.
• Go to Alias: "John Smith."
• Guile Hero: Almost every incarnation of the Doctor prefers to use brains over brawn.
• The Gump: He's met nearly every famous historical character, often multiple times, was there at nearly every important event in history and generally has an anecdote or two about them. Churchill has his phone number.
• The Hero: Only lacking trait is that he's not the Jack of All Stats.
• Heroes Love Dogs: K-9. That is all.
• Human Aliens: Though Ten and Eleven have argued humans are Time Lord aliens.
• I Hate Past Me: It's a running gag that every Doctor hates their immediate predecessor. The Twelfth Doctor in particular isn't very fond of any of his past selves.
• Hypocrite: Regeneration is just a natural part of Time Lord biology and not equivalent to death in any way so please stop applying your outdated human morals to it. Unless of course, the Doctor is the one who's regenerating. Then it's arguably worse than death.
• Iconic Item: The Sonic Screwdriver and the TARDIS, of course. The new series adds Psychic Paper to the Doctor's toolbox.
  • The screwdriver is so iconic that the Doctor can use it to quickly demonstrate who he is. For example, the Daleks fought by the Fourth Doctor exist at some point in the 24^th/25^th century while the ones fought by the Twelfth Doctor are from some point after the 54^th. When confronted by the earlier Daleks, all Twelve has to do is show them his screwdriver and they'll go berserk immediately identifying him.
• Immortal Immaturity: There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes.
• Indy Ploy: Combines with Xanatos Speed Chess.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Personified.
• In Harm's Way: Nothing keeps the Doctor from adventure.
• Jumped At the Call: He didn't just jump, he stole a TARDIS and went looking for it. Or did she steal him?
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: A few incarnations of the Doctor have shown a fondness for cats, particularly Six, Nine, and Ten (though Ten was initially wary of them).
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: The Doctor loves a Spot of Tea and (depending on the incarnation) sweets like jelly babies or jammy dodgers.
• Knight Errant
• Knight in Sour Armour
• Large Ham: At least on occasion.
• Limited Wardrobe: The first four and Seventh Doctors usually based their outfits around variations on a theme, though the Fifth and Sixth Doctors all played the trope straight with completely unchanging apparel. The Eighth Doctor only had one adventure, so the wardrobe was limited to that story. The Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors of the new series return to the original method, with certain items (the leather jacket, long brown coat and tweed jacket with bowtie respectively) typically remaining in place.
  • As a side-note, the Fifth and Sixth Doctors did get to change their outfits once or twice during their run for an episode or two. For the Fifth, it was disguises and costuming. The Sixth had variations, including a neat vest that didn't melt one's eyes. Still, their wardrobes mostly went unchanged during their tenure.
  • The colour of the Eleventh Doctor's bowtie has been noted to change depending if the story is set in the present or past (blue), or if it's in the future (red).
    • It's also been dark gray or purple before. His braces/suspenders always match his bowtie, as well.
    • In Series 7, he gets a shoulder length coat that comes in either grey or purple.
  • Twelve averts this completely in Series 9 and 10.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: The classic Doctors very much enjoy their incredibly long life span. One, for instance, stole the TARDIS because he wanted to see everything and knew he would have the time to do so. Then the Last Great Time War happened: The Doctor was never the same again and this trope became part of a Stepford Smiler mask.
• Loss of Identity: Every regeneration must deal with this and discover his new persona. How much it affects him seems to vary: the Seventh Doctor called it a "purely perceptual" change, while the Third and Tenth considered it death. It also tends to vary depending on which side of the regeneration he is; the Third and Tenth Doctors expressed these sentiments just before regenerating, while the Seventh expressed his sentiment after.
• Magnetic Hero
• Master of Unlocking: And locking, at that, thanks to the sonic screwdriver.
• Mr. Exposition
• Mr. Fixit: Even once jokingly called himself "the maintenance man of the universe."
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Grew bored of the Time Lord lifestyle, stole a TARDIS and ran off into the galaxy, never looking back.
• Mysterious Past: The franchise has been around for almost fifty years and we still do not know the Doctor's real name or why he no longer uses it.
  • We didn't learn the name of the Doctor's species until the end of Patrick Troughton's run and we didn't learn the name of his home planet until Jon Pertwee took the reins.
  • We know he once had a family and even children, but "lost them long ago". Given how we never get any indication that (apart from Susan) they're still alive even before the Time War, it's possible this was one of the reasons the First Doctor so readily Jumped At the Call.
  • The Timeless Child only raises more questions.
• Never My Fault: For all that he denounces the corruption of the Time Lords, he's never done anything to correct it despite having held the office of Lord President a few times.
• Noodle Incident: Was once stalked by fifty android assassins over a teleport that he stole from them, but managed to escape by using the energy of their weapons to charge the teleport. He then fell into a nest of vampire monkeys.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: And quite justified too.
• Obfuscating Stupidity / Obfuscating Insanity: He can go from a Cloudcuckoolander to an Anti-Hero in the snap of a finger.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The Doctor does have a name, but it's never been revealed -- although it has been noted that it's unpronounceable by humans. Though, River Song could either say it or come close enough for the Doctor to accept it. Clara also knows it suggesting that a human can say it.
  • Steven Moffat believes there is "a terrible secret" behind why he never gives his true name, to even those he loves. The secret is eventually revealed to be the Time Lords themselves. Needing to confirm that they can return to the universe, they asked "Doctor who?" and truthfully answering the question means it's safe to return. Trouble is, if Eleven speaks his name, then the Time War will start up again because everyone hates the Time Lords.
  • According to Missy, the Doctor's real name is "Doctor Who" which Twelve never outright denies.
• Papa Wolf: Towards both his companions individually and the entire human race.
• Psychic Powers: The Doctor has some degree of psychic ability, though the details are fuzzy and mostly left up to the writers.
  • What we've seen so far is touch-telepathy requiring he put his hands on either side of a person's head. Sometimes he also puts his forehead against their foreheads. And in the case of the latter, sometimes he does it really hard.
  • Plus, the Second and Third Doctors were able to mind-meld.
  • Historically, his telepathic mojo has seen the most use when dealing with other Time Lords or other Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. He seems to have only recently become adept enough to mind-meld with ordinary humans and the like. When encountering time-displaced versions of himself, he can do a mind meld without physical contact. "Contact!"

• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Claims to be 1103 as of a 200-year timeskip in series 6, though this doesn't square with the dates established in the classic series, where the Seventh Doctor claimed to be 953. It's theorized that the Doctor's having a sort of a mid-life crisis and is deliberately deflating his age. What matters is that he's old. Very old. Word of God is that the Doctor has more or less forgotten his actual age by the Tenth incarnation. Apparently, he has a fondness for the number 900 so he's simply decided to tick years off from that, seeing as how it shouldn't be TOO far off from his actual age.
  • Romana once called Four out on lying about his age directly, in The Ribos Operation.
  • According to the TARDIS, he's been pushing rather than pulling the TARDIS police box doors open for 700 years, which contradicts the Ninth Doctor's earlier comment of "900 years of phone box travel" (as in, when the TARDIS' chameleon circuit broke) - then again, note above about the Doctor forgetting his age.
  • His Eleventh incarnation is confirmed to be 1200 years old by Series 7 (though he fully admits that he's not even 100% sure if he's not lying) and he later regenerates at 2100 years old. From that point on, the Doctor just says he's over 2000 years old.
  • If the Master was telling the truth about the Timeless Child, then the Doctor is conceivably more than ten million years old.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Even the ones in suits succumb to this.
• Science Hero: The Doctors often use their scientific knowledge to save the day.
• Shrouded in Myth: Occasionally deletes himself from historical databases across the galaxy. As the Cybermen point out however, all this does is confirm that he exists given the gigantic Doctor-shaped hole that this leaves behind.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: All over it.
• Smug Super: Not as bad as some cases, but not exactly quiet about his brilliance, either.
• Spell My Name with a "The"
• Super Senses: All Time Lord senses are supposedly vastly superior to human senses; in practice, though, this is largely plot-driven.
  • Time Lords are also time-sensitive. The Tenth Doctor once describes it as being able to see everything that has happened, everything that can, and everything that must never, simultaneously.
  • The Ninth also demonstrated that if he concentrated, he could discern the spinning of fast moving fan blades, so that he could walk safely through them... with his eyes closed. He also claimed to be able to feel the Earth's movement through space.
  • Ten and Eleven have also displayed the ability to seemingly view the people on the other side of a security camera.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: The Doctor began wearing question marks when John Nathan-Turner took over as showrunner. It progressed from Five and Six's collars, and finally a pullover vest and umbrella for Seven.
• Technical Pacifist: The Doctor really puts the "Technical" in Technical Pacifist. Although he has used firearms on occasions, for the most part he is just very good at engineering situations which result in the destruction of his current adversary (sometimes on a genocidal scale) if they fail to heed his warnings.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Who or what is the Timeless Child? If the Master is to be believed, then you are Doctor. You are the Timeless Child.
• Trickster Archetype: Manifested one way or another in every incarnation.
• Vague Age: As said under "Really Seven Hundred Years Old", his age is up for debate. Some sources even suggest that Four through Eight was only fifty years.
• Walking Disaster Area: As Martha Jones lampshaded.
• We Do the Impossible: The Doctor flies in a time machine that can go anywhere and anywhen in the universe, has saved the Earth more times than he can count, saved the universe and all of reality itself repeatedly. He defeats intergalactic races of pure evil on a daily basis, thinks crippling dictatorships is a rather average outing, and can do all of this with a kettle, a piece of string, and a screwdriver.
• The Wonka: The Captain of a spaceship who gives strange orders and does strange things but usually tend to work.

Other Doctors

 The Valeyard

There is nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality.

Played by: Michael Jayston (1986)

Oh, boy. Where to begin? Well, his first appearance suggests that the Valeyard is merely another Time Lord, and a particularly antagonistic one at that. As The Trial of a Time Lord (featuring the man in a starring role) progressed, things slowly started to change. As it was eventually revealed in Part 13, the Valeyard is really the Doctor. Or, rather, a future version of the Doctor from between his 12th and final regenerations, a concentrated being of all the Doctor's evil and malice that he never expressed. The Valeyard only showed up in the main series for that serial, presumed dead and alive at the same time, but so long as the series continues...

• Aborted Arc: Steven Moffat didn't use him in the 50th anniversary stories that dealt with the Doctor getting a new regeneration cycle. Though the Valeyard was name dropped a few times, suggesting that the arc may simply be delayed. Though with the truth of the Timeless Child, it's possible that the whole thing was dealt with eons ago.
• As Long as There Is One Man: Subverted entirely from the Valeyard's origin alone.
• Bad Future: A literal representation of it!
• Evil Counterpart: Played literally straight for this one.
• Evil Feels Good: Considering who he comes from...
• Evil Gloating
• Evil Is Hammy: And reveling in it. Not that anyone's complaining...
• Evil Knockoff
• Face Heel Turn
• Future Me Scares Me: It's been argued that the Doctor is petrified of him returning, in any form. The Expanded Universe went further on this, to the point that an entire incarnation's personality was locked away for a time because of that fear.
  • Hell, even the Master fears him.
• Hanging Judge
• Literal Split Personality: Allgeadly.
• Meaningful Name: The name Valeyard is said to mean "Doctor of Law" (although good luck finding it in any dictionary).
• Mysterious Past: Over the course of the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, the Doctors find a wealth of contradictory information on the Valeyard. While the Sixth Doctor found information that suggested he might become, or create the Valeyard, Seven found information suggesting that the Valeyard is simply a clone grown in a lab that couldn't regenerate. Ten thinks that the Valeyard might show up one day but Thirteen thinks that she'll never see him again and he was probably some amoral Time Lord pulled off the street and promised new regenerations for his help.
• The Plan: The Valeyard is arguably the best at this entire concept in the franchise, as his whole plan revolves around setting up a trial to frame the Doctor for the illegal actions of the Time Lord High Council, which he uses to try and steal the Sixth Doctor's remaining regenerations for himself -- so that he can become a full being once again. However, on top of this, the Valeyard also uses the setup of the trial to jack into the computer that records all of time, warp the records, and setup a death trap to kill off the entire Time Lord leadership in one blow! Oh, and this was all set up to begin a coup d'état of the entire Time Lord society! Yeah, he's good.
  • All of that, while pretending to be The Dragon for everyone but the Doctor, and everyone but the Doctor being powerless to stop him once they realize his intent.
• Put on a Bus: It's been over 20 years since the Valeyard last appeared in his "am I dead or not" ending.
• Unreliable Narrator: With regards to his Mysterious Past. Six knows that there is a grain of truth in there somewhere but can't figure out what it is.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: See Put on a Bus, above.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Ties in directly with his Evil Is Hammy status. And, wow, it's fun to watch.

Meta-Crisis Doctor

Played by: David Tennant (2008)

A bizarre half-human clone of the Doctor, and the product of his eleventh regeneration, who went off to live in a parallel universe with Rose Tyler.

• Cloning Blues: Averted hard. He knows he's a clone but doesn't let that darken his day.
• Composite Character: In the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, Jackie notes that while he looks like Ten, he acts more like Nine.
• Doppelganger Replacement Love Interest: Not only does he look like Pretty Boy Ten, he has all his memories and a human lifespan, making him perfect for Rose.
• Half-Human Hybrid
• Happily Married: To Rose Tyler.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Blowing up the Dalek fleet.
• Love Confession: The audience doesn't hear it, but this is the Doctor that finally confesses his love to Rose Tyler.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Doctor Who Expanded Universe gave him the name "Corin."
• The Unfettered: Didn't bat an eye as he destroyed the New Dalek Empire much to Ten's concern. He's left Rose partly so that she can turn him into The Fettered.
• We Are as Mayflies: Why he can say "I love you" and Ten can't. Ten knows that he'll outlive Rose and thinks it's better that she leaves him. This Doctor has a human lifespan.

 The Dream Lord

So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's fake. And just to make it more interesting, you're going to face in both worlds a deadly danger, but only one of the dangers is real. Tweet, tweet. Time to sleep.

Played by: Toby Jones (2010)

The Dream Lord is a malevolent personification of all the Doctor's darkest, most depraved and most self-loathing qualities and thoughts. When specks of psychic pollen enters the TARDIS, the Dream Lord manifests and gives the Doctor, Amy and Rory a dangerous and literally nightmarish game.

• Armor-Piercing Question: Asks a rather powerful one to Amy. If Amy is the special girl whom the Doctor trusts above all else, "What's his name?"
• Card-Carrying Villain: To the extent that he basically wears his monstrous nature on his illusionary sleeve.
• Deadpan Snarker: Oh so much.
  • When letting a mob of murderous aliens into a butcher's shop: "Come in, we've got lots at steak here! Get it, lots at stake!"
• The Dreaded: The Doctor describes him as the only man who could hate the Doctor more than he hates himself.
• Dirty Old Man: The Doctor has no romantic interest in Amy, true. But he has noticed her...
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kind of. He admits defeat and appears to leave the trio alone when they seem to come out of his game alive.
• Evil Counterpart: Of the Doctor. He's basically a much nastier version of the Eleventh Doctor in particular!
  • His dress sense, short stature, and love of "games", brings to mind the Second Doctor a bit.
• Fridge Horror: Encapsulates his entire character, when you really think about it. The Doctor, a Time Lord who has lived so many lives, has the personification of his inner darkness put into one being that taunts him with its very existence. Not only that, but as a part of the Doctor himself that ultimately no-one else can see, the Dream Lord can never truly die, and will potentially taunt the Doctor in his head for the rest of his life.
• Jerkass: To everyone.
• Kick the Dog: Practically everything he says to Rory.
• Monster of the Week: One of the scariest in the show, depending on who you ask.
  • Considering, technically, that this monster of the week was a piece of the Doctor himself!
• One-Shot Character: He's played by Toby Jones, in his and his character's one and only appearance in the series.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives a series of these to the Doctor and Rory.
• Soft Spoken Sadist: Very much so, as he constantly presents himself with a serene, casual but bitingly cynical demeanour, even when observing people being killed.
• Staying Alive: It is eerily implied that the Dream Lord still very much manifests himself in the Doctor, as he's seen grinning malevolently up at him at the end of the episode.
• Tranquil Fury: Whenever he's facing the Doctor, he exudes a simmering anger and resentment towards him.
• Wicked Cultured: He looks pretty fine in a suit, but claims to be unimpressed - especially by the bowtie!
• You Cannot Kill an Idea: Pretty much the most unsettling thing about this guy. He's implied to still be a sentient part of the Doctor after the ordeal he puts them through, smiling at him when nobody else is looking.

The Curator

Played by: Tom Baker (2013)

The curator of the National Gallery, heavily and not very subtly implied, though never outright confirmed, to be a future incarnation of the Doctor, with the Titan comics suggesting that he's the Doctor's last incarnation.

• Cool Old Guy
• Cryptic Conversation: Never confirms that he's the Doctor's future self but the evidence that he is is pretty strong.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After so much pain and loss, the Doctor gets to settle down in a quiet museum, writing books, playing board games with the Brigadier, and having tea with Clara.
• Identical Grandson: Of a fashion. He claims his looking like the Fourth Doctor is "revisiting the old favourites."
• Noodle Incident: He acquired the "Gallifrey Falls No More" painting under "remarkable circumstances."
• Out of Continues: Implied a few times.
• Retired Badass: As Eleven said, he could one day retire and become a curator.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He seems to enjoy a lemon sherbet.
• Wham! Line: Not because of what he says but because he says it in Tom Baker's distinctive Badass Baritone.

The Fugitive

Played by: Jo Martin (2020)

A mysterious incarnation of the Doctor who was living in 2020 Gloucester as "Ruth Clayton" until an encounter with the Judoon and the Thirteenth Doctor brought her memories back.

• Hero of Another Story: Ultimately the simplest answer to her. She is the Doctor but where she fits into the timeline isn't very clear (Thirteen suspects that she's a past version but no definite answer is given) but does it really matter? Would that change anything?
• Humanity Ensues: Hid under a Chameleon Arch.
• Race Lift: The first non-white Doctor.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Worked for the Time Lords in a role that she didn't want but can't leave.
• Unperson: The Time Lords erased all traces of her from their history and the Doctor's own mind.
• Walking Spoiler: Hard to talk about "Fugitive of the Judoon" without giving away who she is.

The Timeless Child

Ostensibly the very first incarnation of the Doctor. Found in the era before the Time Lords, the Child came from another plane of existence with the ability to regenerate indefinitely. Brought back to Gallifrey, the child's powers were reverse engineered by the Time Lords.

• Gender Bender: The child had both male and female incarnations.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Regenerated to live beyond falling off a cliff. Tecteun reverse-engineered this ability for the Time Lords to use.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Child grew up, lived thirteen lives, and was mind-wiped. Rinse and repeat until one day, they regenerated into the First Doctor.
• Monster Progenitor: The being from which the Time Lords owe their hearty biology to. The Master lampshades this when he says that the CyberMasters were born from the Doctor.
• Mysterious Past: According to the Master, the Child was deposited in the Whoniverse via a wormhole. Where they came from, and if more like them exist, is unknown.
• No Name Given: The child's true name, if it even had one, was never revealed.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The forsaken child in question from which all Time Lord regeneration is derived from.
• Race Lift: Was originally black and then regenerated into an East Asian.
• Unperson: They only survive as a myth in Gallifreyan society and their story was covered up by a tale about an Irish Garda.