The Doctor is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who . An extraterrestrial Time Lord , the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS , often with companions . Since the show's inception in 1963, the character has been portrayed by fourteen lead actors . The transition to each succeeding actor is explained within the show's narrative through the plot device of regeneration , a biological function of Time Lords that allows a change of cellular structure and appearance with recovery following a mortal injury.
214-569: The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor , the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . He is portrayed by Tom Baker . Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in the TARDIS , frequently with companions . At the end of life, the Doctor regenerates ; as
428-586: A scientist or an engineer . However, he does occasionally show medical knowledge and has stated on separate occasions that he studied under Joseph Lister and Joseph Bell . In The Moonbase (1967), the Second Doctor mentions that he studied for a medical degree in Glasgow during the 19th century. The Fourth Doctor was awarded an honorary degree from St. Cedd's College, Cambridge, in 1960. He has been mocked by his fellow Time Lords for adhering to such
642-608: A "doctor of time travel". The revived programme establishes that Time Lords invent their own names. In " The Sound of Drums " (2007), the Tenth Doctor remarks to the Master that they both chose their names, with the Master calling him sanctimonious for identifying himself as "the man who makes people better". The Eleventh Doctor , in " The Name of the Doctor ", elaborates that the name is a promise to be: "Never cruel or cowardly. Never giving up and never giving in." This statement
856-631: A "lowly" title as "Doctor", although in The Armageddon Factor (1979), Drax congratulates him on achieving his doctorate, indicating it was at least a somewhat respectable title. In " The Girl in the Fireplace " (2006), he draws an analogy between the title and Madame de Pompadour 's. In The Mutants (1972), an official asks the Third Doctor if he is, in fact, a doctor, to which the Doctor replies "I am, yes"; when asked what he
1070-682: A "time splinter" of future companion Clara Oswald using the name Oswin wipes all knowledge of the Doctor from the Daleks' collective memory. This knowledge is regained when the Daleks conquer the Church of the Silence in " The Time of the Doctor " (2013). The Doctor is not present on Solomon's database in " Dinosaurs on a Spaceship " and holds a conversation about his newfound anonymity in " The Angels Take Manhattan " with River Song. In " Nightmare in Silver ",
1284-471: A PhD in cheesemaking (" The God Complex "). In the first episode, the Doctor's granddaughter Susan goes by the surname "Foreman", and the junkyard in which Barbara and Ian find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". When addressed by Ian with this name, the Doctor responds, "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?" Ian realises that "Foreman" is not the Doctor's name, when Barbara addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman"; Ian asks Barbara, "That's not his name. Who
1498-670: A Time ", it is revealed that the Doctor also left to investigate the mystery of why good prevails in a universe where evil would seem to have so many advantages. It would be after his encounter with the Twelfth Doctor that the First Doctor realised that his actions made the difference in the balance between good and evil, with the Twelfth Doctor stating "The universe generally fails to be a fairy tale, but that's where we come in." In other media, more has been revealed of
1712-541: A Time Lord lady named Patience who was the widow of Omega , one of the founding-fathers of Gallifreyan society who fell into an anti-matter universe. Patience later met and married the Doctor and together they had thirteen children. Once their first-born son announced the arrival of a baby, the family was targeted by the Lord President, as the child was to be conceived naturally and only the Loom-born could inherit
1926-619: A battle with Zygons in Scotland, Harry (having just spent an entire season with the Doctor as they tried to get back to the TARDIS) decided that taking the train was safer than the TARDIS, which the Doctor and Sarah Jane chose to try to make an appointment in London. Instead they ended up on the planet Zeta Minor ( Planet of Evil ), located at the far edge of the known universe. From this point on,
2140-461: A best-selling author". Target, concerned that their regular authors would seek better terms, refused to increase their offer. Several years later, Target editor Nigel Robinson offered an advance of £4,000 – double what was the standard advance at the time – but Adams again declined. Adams was unwilling to allow another author to write the novelisation. However, after Adams' death his estate allowed Gareth Roberts to write an adaptation of
2354-571: A brother in " Smith and Jones ", and sisters in " Arachnids in the UK ". In " It Takes You Away ", the Thirteenth Doctor claims that she had seven grandmothers. Later in the same scene, she mentions that her favourite grandmother, Granny 5, alleged Granny 2 was "a secret agent for the Zygons ". Throughout the revival, the Doctor routinely attempts to change the topic when questioned about being
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#17327729322392568-472: A brown wide-brimmed felt fedora. The rest was often picked from his own clothes (like neckties, trousers and a waistcoat ). A wider, brighter-coloured scarf debuted with Baker's fourth season and a light brown coat was introduced late in his fifth season. Baker also appeared in a one-off Sherlock Holmes -inspired costume in The Talons of Weng-Chiang . According to both the creators of the show and Baker,
2782-600: A cover by Andrew Skilleter. It was re-issued in 2001. A DVD was released in 2005 with special features including commentary by actors Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon, as well as director Michael Hayes, and the behind-the-scenes documentary "Paris in the Springtime". It was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 37 on 2 June 2010. On 1 January 2013, AudioGO released a two-hour soundtrack of
2996-431: A demon in the 13th century, the residents of a convent called the Doctor the "sainted physician". This was proposed by Moffat on Usenet 16 years before "A Good Man Goes to War": Here's a particularly stupid theory. If we take "The Doctor" to be the Doctor's name — even if it is in the form of a title no doubt meaning something deep and Gallifreyan — perhaps our earthly use of the word "doctor" meaning healer or wise man
3210-545: A difficult shoot as the dates coincided with the May Day holiday period, which meant that many of the locations chosen for filming were closed, necessitating considerable improvisation on the part of the cast and crew. Model filming was conducted at Bray Studios between 8 May 1979 and 10 May 1979. These concentrated on the shots of the Jagaroth spacecraft taking off from the prehistoric Earth and were overseen by Ian Scoones,
3424-608: A dissident Time Lady, who opposed the Time Lord High Council's plan to escape the Time War. When she reveals her face to the Doctor, his reaction indicates that he recognises her. Julie Gardner, in the episode's commentary, states that while some have speculated that the Time Lady is the Doctor's mother, neither she nor Russell T. Davies is willing to comment on her identity. When later asked by Wilfred who she was,
3638-515: A few days, and there was the script". The revised script, now titled The Curse of the Sephiroth , was credited to "David Agnew", a standard pseudonym used by the BBC and which had been previously used on Doctor Who for the season fifteen serial The Invasion of Time . The serial was subsequently retitled City of Death on 8 May 1979. Adams would later reuse elements of City of Death , along with
3852-465: A fixed number of twelve regenerations, meaning that every Time Lord had a total of thirteen incarnations including the original. The plot of " The Time of the Doctor " involves the Doctor receiving a new cycle of regenerations from the Time Lords before his expected demise, triggering the regeneration into the Twelfth Doctor , played by Peter Capaldi . The origins of the programme were explored in
4066-579: A former classmate of his named Drax. Drax calls the Doctor "Theta Sigma", or "Thete" for short, an alias which is clarified as being the Doctor's nickname at the Prydon Academy on Gallifrey in The Happiness Patrol and is mentioned again in the 2010 episode " The Pandorica Opens ". In the 2015 episode " The Zygon Inversion ", The Doctor tells Osgood that his first name is "Basil". Doctor Who spin-off media have suggested that
4280-406: A glance into the eyes to put the subject under a trance. The Doctor can read an entire book cover to cover in a second by thumb-flipping the pages before his eyes ( City of Death , " Rose ", " The Time of Angels "). Though medical skills he shows early in the programme are rudimentary, by Remembrance of the Daleks he can perform sophisticated medical diagnoses merely by touching someone's ear. He
4494-468: A joke. Due to the retroactive creation of a numberless War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor's aborted regeneration in " The Stolen Earth "/" Journey's End ", the Eleventh Doctor was the final incarnation in his natural cycle. The Time Lords used a crack in the universe to give him a new cycle consisting of an unknown number of regenerations in " The Time of the Doctor ", triggering the regeneration into
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#17327729322394708-522: A last resort. According to the alien villain Chedaki in the episode The Android Invasion , "his entire history is one of opposition to conquest". As a time traveller, the Doctor has been present at, or directly involved in, countless major historical events on the planet Earth and elsewhere – sometimes more than once. In the 2005 series premiere, " Rose ", it is revealed that the Ninth Doctor
4922-571: A long scarf and having a fondness for Jelly Babies – made him an immediately recognisable figure and he quickly captivated the viewing public's imagination. The producer of Baker's early seasons, Philip Hinchcliffe , stated that the Fourth Doctor's bohemian appearance and anti-establishment style appealed to older, college-age students. The Fourth Doctor's time enjoyed a significant boost in viewing figures, averaging between 8 and 10 million viewers in just his first year (20–25 percent of
5136-505: A new body. It is stated in The Deadly Assassin that Time Lords can only regenerate a total of twelve times, giving a theoretical final total of thirteen incarnations. However, The Doctor has a natural ability to regenerate an infinite number of times. It is possible to exceed this limit: in "The Five Doctors" the Time Lords offer the Master, who is inhabiting a Trakenite body after exhausting his original twelve regenerations,
5350-484: A new direction for the series. Cartmel wished to restore the character's "awe, mystery and strength" and make him "once again more than a mere chump of a Time Lord" – an idea the media dubbed the " Cartmel Masterplan ". Under Cartmel, the show foreshadowed this concept; however, its 1989 cancellation meant that it was never realised onscreen. The proposed backstory was fully explored in Platt's 1997 novel Lungbarrow , where
5564-481: A new regeneration cycle as a reward for his help and cooperation, and at some point, during the Time War they resurrected him, with his new body having at least one regeneration of its own. Regeneration is apparently optional, as in " Last of the Time Lords " the Master refuses to regenerate despite the Tenth Doctor's pleading. In addition, there are ways of killing a Time Lord that do not permit regeneration; for example, more than once it has been implied that stopping both
5778-408: A parent or his family life, as in " Fear Her ", " The Beast Below " and " A Good Man Goes to War ". In " The Empty Child ", a hospital doctor named Dr. Constantine says to him, "Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I'm neither. But I'm still a doctor." The Ninth Doctor 's reply is, "Yeah. I know the feeling." In " The Doctor's Daughter ", when discussing the topic of parenthood,
5992-505: A planet called Alzerius ( Full Circle ), where they are joined by a young prodigy named Adric . It's in E-Space that the Doctor destroys the last of a race of giant Vampires who had once threatened all life in his universe. Eventually, the Doctor and his two companions find themselves in a white void with no coordinates, a sort of membrane between the two universes. A way out soon forms, but Romana and K-9 choose to remain behind to help free
6206-409: A race of enslaved creatures in E-Space ( Warriors' Gate ). The Doctor and Adric have only just made it back when they're asked to help the people of Traken from a creature known as "Melkur." On Traken, Adric and the Doctor are introduced to the aristocratic teen Nyssa of Traken . Both Nyssa and her father, Tremas, assist the Doctor in stopping Melkur, who is in fact revealed to be another TARDIS that
6420-457: A repair shop on Gallifrey. In later episodes, the Doctor mentions that he once took a driving test to pilot a TARDIS and failed, and that he threw the instruction manual in a supernova because he disagreed with it. In " The Doctor's Wife ", Idris (the TARDIS's living soul in a human body) mentions that the Doctor had been travelling with her for 700 years, which indicates that he would have been 200 years old when he first borrowed her. In " Twice Upon
6634-714: A result, the physical appearance and personality of the Doctor changes. Preceded in regeneration by the Third Doctor ( Jon Pertwee ), he is followed by the Fifth Doctor ( Peter Davison ). Baker portrays the Fourth Doctor as a whimsical and sometimes brooding individual whose enormous personal warmth is at times tempered by his capacity for righteous anger. His initial companions were the journalist Sarah Jane Smith ( Elisabeth Sladen ), who had travelled with his previous incarnation , and Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan ( Ian Marter ) of UNIT . His later companions were
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6848-438: A scene where the Doctor follows the computer's instruction to marry Romana. In 1997, Baker reprised the role once again in a spot for New Zealand's National Superannuation insurance company. Tom Baker also recorded narration, in character as the Fourth Doctor, for a 1976 audio release of Genesis of the Daleks , which was subsequently re-issued by the BBC on cassette and CD as a radio drama. Baker returned again to Doctor Who for
7062-548: A science fiction explanation, rather than the typical magic . The Hinchcliffe Era (1974–1977) is one of the most controversial in the classic series run, the increasing horror elements and depictions of violence attracted much criticism from Mary Whitehouse , who had previously attacked the Barry Letts era for serials like Terror of the Autons (1971). The controversy led BBC Director General to apologise to Whitehouse for
7276-532: A seven-year period, from 1974 to 1981. This makes him the longest-running on-screen Doctor of the series. He also appeared in the specials " The Five Doctors " (via footage from the incomplete Shada ), and made his final appearance as the Doctor in the charity special Dimensions in Time (aside from a series of television advertisements in New Zealand in 1997). This incarnation is generally regarded as one of
7490-540: A spy named Vansell, Millennia, Rallon and Jelpax. With this group, he learns about the Celestial Toymaker and travels to his realm in a type 18 TARDIS with Deca members Rallon and Millennia, who are killed. This leads to the Doctor's expulsion from the academy, condemned to five hundred years in Records and Traffic Control. In The Quantum Archangel , it is revealed the Doctor studied cosmic science alongside
7704-493: A strange old man and hear Susan's voice coming from inside what appears to be a police box. Pushing their way inside, the two find that the exterior is camouflage for the dimensionally transcendental interior of the TARDIS . The old man, whom Susan calls "Grandfather", kidnaps Barbara and Ian to prevent them from telling anyone about the existence of the TARDIS, taking them on an adventure in time and space. The first Doctor, says cultural scholar John Paul Green, "explicitly positioned
7918-490: A super-human level of stamina and the ability to absorb, withstand and expel large amounts of certain types of radiation (the Tenth Doctor stated they used to play with Röntgen bricks in the nursery, after absorbing the radiation from an x-ray of significantly magnified power). This ability would seem to have limitations which have yet to be fully explained, as the Doctor is harmed by radiation in The Daleks , Planet of
8132-473: A system to allow the Universe to continue on past its point of heat death . Nyssa shows up, explaining that she was brought to Logopolis by the same figure that the Doctor encountered. Logopolis soon falls under the Master's control, but the stasis field he is generating ends up releasing Entropy and eroding matter throughout the universe, threatening to destroy the entire universe. The Master agrees to help
8346-470: A veteran of Thunderbirds . Following rehearsals, production moved to BBC Television Centre where the remaining scenes were recorded in two blocks; the first between 21 May 1979 and 22 May 1979 and second between 3 June 1979 and 5 June 1979. Tom Baker found filming in Paris to be very different from what he was used to in the UK where crowds would gather to watch the filming and meet the stars. Doctor Who
8560-405: A white shirt , waistcoat , cravat , trousers , a frock coat (with pockets containing a seemingly endless array of apparently useless items that would nevertheless suit the Doctor's purposes when used), a fedora and, most famously, his impractically long, multi-coloured scarf, which was apparently knitted for him by Madame Nostradamus (whom he refers to as a "witty little knitter"). When it
8774-410: Is an excellent cricket player ( Black Orchid ) and in " The Lodger " he proves to be a prodigiously talented footballer despite unfamiliarity with some of the game's basic rules. Though reluctant to engage in combat against living opponents, this is not for lack of skill; the Doctor is conversant with both real and fictitious styles of unarmed combat (most obviously the "Venusian Aikido" practised by
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8988-417: Is controlled by the Master. The Master is narrowly defeated, but manages to take over Tremas' body, thus giving himself a new incarnation. The Doctor decides to travel to Earth to scan a real Police Box as part of a plan to repair the "Chameleon Circuit", the shape-changing mechanism in the TARDIS. However, the Doctor soon spots a mysterious ghostly figure looking at him in the distance. He eventually confronts
9202-529: Is damaged in The Ark in Space (1975), the Doctor declares with regret that it is "irreplaceable." According to Baker, the Doctor's scarf was the idea of costume designer James Acheson . Knowing little about knitting, Acheson procured large quantities of wool in various colours and commissioned Begonia Pope, a friend of his, to create a colourful design. She proceeded to use all of the wool provided, resulting in
9416-404: Is direct result of the Doctor's multiple interventions in our history as a healer and wise man. In other words, we got it from him. This is a very silly idea and I'm consequently rather proud of it. The anonymity of the Doctor is the theme of series 7 of the revived programme. After faking his death, the Doctor erases himself from the various databases of the universe. In " Asylum of the Daleks ",
9630-410: Is discovered in his alien form by his bodyguard Hermann, and they get into a fight which damages the equipment and sets the mansion on fire. Hermann escapes, but Scaroth burns to death. By the time the Doctor, Romana, and Duggan arrive, the original Mona Lisa and 5 of the 6 copies have been burned in the fire, but the last copy remains safe. Duggan argues that they've lost an invaluable piece of art, but
9844-657: Is disintegrated and later woven into the Doctor. The Timeless Child reveal partly took inspiration from this. The Doctor's adoptive mother Tecteun was a native to Gallifrey and an explorer of the Shobogans. She adopted the Doctor when she was the timeless child. She led the Division ;after the destruction of Gallifrey by the Spy Master. She was involved in the creation of the Flux ;and
10058-536: Is framed for the assassination of the President of the High Council of Time Lords and put on trial. To avoid execution, the Doctor invokes an obscure law and declares himself a candidate for the office, giving himself the time he needs to prove his innocence and expose the real culprit. This ultimately results in a climactic battle with the Master ( The Deadly Assassin ). The Doctor is seen to travel alone for
10272-524: Is happening in our world... with people just getting on with their business and two Time Lords walking through it. I don't think I've ever experienced that with Doctor Who up till now... it's the tiny touches of mundanity amid the fantastical that lift the story even higher". Charlie Jane Anders and Javier Grillo-Marxuach of io9 included it on their list of "10 TV Episodes that Changed Television", citing "the sharp dialogue and clever use of time travel [that] prefigure everything Steven Moffat has done with
10486-444: Is he? Doctor who?" In an ultimately unused idea from documents written at the programme's inception, Barbara and Ian would have subsequently referred to the Doctor as "Doctor Who", given their not knowing his name. Throughout both the classic and revived programme, a running joke is that when the Doctor is introduced as just the Doctor, characters reply "Doctor who?" Another variation is "Doctor what?" The story arc running throughout
10700-420: Is heavily implied to be him in the episode itself. Peter Davison , who played the fifth incarnation, also appears in the series as himself. In 1979 and 1980, Tom Baker played the Fourth Doctor (alongside Lalla Ward 's Romana) in a series of four television commercials for Prime Computer . Disliking the scripts he was given, Baker agreed to film the advertisements only if he could rewrite them himself, and added
10914-457: Is known of the Doctor: not even his name, the actual form of which remains a mystery. In the first serial, An Unearthly Child , two teachers from Coal Hill School in London, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton , become intrigued by one of their pupils, Susan Foreman , who exhibits high intelligence and unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, they encounter
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#173277293223911128-521: Is no longer [the Virgin Queen]...". The joke continues in " The Beast Below ", featuring future British monarch Queen Elizabeth X or Liz Ten, and the marriage is finally shown in "The Day of the Doctor" during an adventure with Zygons . In the 2010 Christmas special, " A Christmas Carol ", the Eleventh Doctor accidentally marries Marilyn Monroe but later questions the authenticity of the chapel in which they were married. Steven Moffat did not consider
11342-413: Is one of five Doctor Who serials from the series' original run (1963–1989) not to have been novelised by Target Books ; the others are The Pirate Planet , Shada , Resurrection of the Daleks , and Revelation of the Daleks . Target approached Douglas Adams to write a novelisation, offering their standard advance of £600; Adams replied, "I don't want to be embarrassing but I do have a tendency to be
11556-435: Is only honorary; the Tenth Doctor, however, considers the name to be his legitimate academic rank in " The Waters of Mars " (2009), describing his "name, rank and intention" as "The Doctor; doctor; fun." In an interview with The Age in 2003, Tom Baker mentioned that the Doctor is called so because he is "a doctor of time and relative dimension in space". Apart from being called a doctor of the TARDIS, he has been described as
11770-545: Is qualified in, the Doctor replies, "Practically everything." The Fourth Doctor states that his companion, Harry Sullivan , is a doctor of medicine, while he is "a doctor of many things" ( Revenge of the Cybermen , 1975). The Fifth Doctor claims to be a doctor "of everything" in Four to Doomsday (1982), and a message to the same effect is related from the Tenth Doctor in " Utopia " (2007). In " The Tsuranga Conundrum " (2018),
11984-450: Is really Scaroth, a member of the Jagaroth race. They had arrived on Earth 400 million years ago, but due to an explosion in their craft, all of the others died and his own body was fragmented across time. Collectively, the fragments of Scaroth have manipulated humanity so that by the 20th century, they will have technology that will enable him to go back in time to stop the explosion. Tancredi is currently employing Leonardo to create copies of
12198-625: Is repeated in the next episode, " The Day of the Doctor ", by the War Doctor , the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor collectively. By contrast, the Eleventh Doctor had earlier spoke of the War Doctor as being the man who broke that promise, being the one to fight in the Time War before learning the actual fate of the Time Lords. Since contradicted by the television series, the 2003 Telos novella Frayed by Tara Samms , set prior to
12412-567: Is revealed to be a time-jumping criminal from the Earth's distant future. Later, the Doctor and Leela visit the Bi-Al Foundation medical centre, where they acquire the robot dog K-9 ( The Invisible Enemy ). While K-9 is malfunctioning, a time distortion leads the TARDIS back to contemporary rural England. While investigating the distortion, he and Leela are confronted by an ancient being that feeds on death from Time Lord history, called
12626-504: Is used in the title of the serial Doctor Who and the Silurians , but this was a captioning error rather than an in-story mention. The only other time this occurs is in the title of episode five of The Chase , which is titled "The Death of Doctor Who". In " World Enough and Time " (2017), the Doctor's old friend and archenemy the Master (as Missy ) insists that the Doctor's real name is in fact Doctor Who and that he chose it himself;
12840-688: The Bernice Summerfield series of novels and audio dramas and in the Gallifrey series of audio dramas which starred Ward as Romana. Julian Glover was a well-established character actor who had previously appeared as Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade (1965). He was reluctant to don the Jagaroth mask as he felt the mask would impede his performance. As a result, he is doubled by Richard Sheekey in those scenes. Tom Chadbon
13054-500: The Encyclopedia Galactica will provide an erratum". Another viewer wrote that the atmosphere of the primordial Earth would have been poisonous to the Doctor and his companions; Douglas Adams responded to this criticism, citing artistic licence . City of Death was voted seventh in a 1998 poll of the readers of Doctor Who Magazine to find the best Doctor Who story; the magazine commented that it "represented
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#173277293223913268-475: The Mona Lisa to finance experiments in time travel in the hope of averting the accident that killed the remainder of his race four hundred million years previously , which began the existence of life on the planet as well. The original storyline devised by Fisher was heavily re-written by script editor Adams, aided by producer Williams. It was the first Doctor Who serial to film on location outside of
13482-629: The 1996 television movie and the 2013 Christmas special " The Time of the Doctor ". Visions of the Fourth Doctor appear in the Fifth Doctor serials Earthshock (1982), Mawdryn Undead (1983) and Resurrection of the Daleks (1984), and in the 21st century series in the episodes " The Next Doctor ", " The Eleventh Hour ", " The Lodger " and " Nightmare in Silver ". His voice is also used in " The Almost People ". The Fourth Doctor also appears in Sarah Jane's flashback in The Mad Woman in
13696-524: The Eighth Doctor remarks that he is half-human on his mother's side, and recalls watching a meteor storm with his father on Gallifrey. The revived series never addresses a human mother again and at times even contradicted this remark: The half-human clone of the Tenth Doctor is initially disgusted to be half-human ("Journey's End") and the Twelfth Doctor rejects that he could be a hybrid of human and Time Lord ("Hell Bent"). The Doctor mentions having had
13910-620: The Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Adventuress of Henrietta Street , the Doctor's second heart was surgically removed, resulting in the loss of his abilities to metabolise drugs and go without air; these are restored when he begins to grow a new heart after his old one 'dies' ( Camera Obscura ). In his final serial , the Second Doctor states that Time Lords can live forever, "barring accidents". When "accidents" do occur, Time Lords can usually regenerate into
14124-471: The Fifteenth Doctor since " The Giggle " (2023). Within the fictional narrative, the Doctor is a Time Lord who travels through time and space in a dimensionally transcendental – "bigger on the inside" – time machine : the TARDIS . This time machine, whose name is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space , takes the exterior form of a 1963 police telephone call box and retains
14338-688: The Louvre . The pair meet Inspector Duggan, who suspects the Countess to be involved in an ongoing art theft scheme with her husband, Count Scarlioni. Duggan joins the Doctor and Romana in investigating the Scarlioni mansion. There, they find equipment used by Dr. Kerensky to experiment in time, the source of the time distortions, as well as six exact copies of the Mona Lisa . The Doctor instructs Romana and Duggan to continue investigating while he returns to
14552-422: The Mona Lisa in order to finance Scarlioni's work. After Tancredi leaves, the Doctor knocks out his captor, marks the blank canvases with a felt-tip pen with the phrase, "This is a fake", and leaves a message to Leonardo to paint over his writing before returning to the present. The Doctor learns Scaroth threatens to destroy Paris if Romana does not continue the work. He tries to gain the Countess' help by showing
14766-521: The TARDIS to visit Leonardo, a good friend of his. After the Doctor leaves, the Count returns after successfully stealing the Mona Lisa and captures Romana and Duggan. Learning that Romana is familiar with time, he kills Dr. Kerensky and forces Romana to continue the tests. In the past, the Doctor arrives at Leonardo's home but is captured by Captain Tancredi, who is Count Scarlioni. Tancredi reveals he
14980-407: The TARDIS . On The Big Bang Theory , Stuart dresses as The Fourth Doctor at a party in the episode “The Justice League Recombination”. In the computer game Hugo II, Whodunit? , the player can save the Fourth Doctor from a Dalek in return for his sonic screwdriver . He is frequently impersonated by impressionist Jon Culshaw on the radio and television series Dead Ringers , who also voiced
15194-581: The Third Doctor makes his way back to UNIT headquarters in the TARDIS , where the Time Lord K'Anpo Rimpoche aids him in regenerating ( Planet of the Spiders ). In his new incarnation, the Doctor is eager to leave Earth in favour of exploration, thus drawing back from continuous involvement with UNIT (with which he had worked closely as the Third Doctor). He has also grown tired of working for
15408-510: The Thirteenth Doctor states that she is a doctor of "medicine, science, engineering, candyfloss, Lego, philosophy, music, problems, people, hope. Mostly hope." While talking with Harry in Robot (1974–1975), the Doctor says, "You may be a doctor, but I'm the Doctor. The definite article, you might say." In The Ark in Space (1975), aired later that year, the Doctor mentions that his doctorate
15622-601: The collective consciousness of the Cybermen informs the Doctor that he could be reconstructed from the "hole" — the missing records — that he has left behind, a mistake which the Doctor intends to rectify. Few individuals are said to know the Doctor's true name. River Song whispered something to the Tenth Doctor to make him trust her during " Silence in the Library "/" Forest of the Dead ", confirmed to have been his name towards
15836-487: The 1990s audio cassette releases of "lost" Doctor Who stories. For some of these stories, he is in character as the Doctor. For others, he merely provides descriptive narration. The Doctor (Doctor Who) A number of other actors have played the character in stage and audio plays, as well as in various film and television productions. The Doctor has also been featured in films and a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips. Ncuti Gatwa has portrayed
16050-410: The 20th anniversary special " The Five Doctors " (1983). A renegade Time Lord attempts to pull the first five incarnations of the Doctor out of time, inadvertently trapping the Fourth Doctor (and Romana) in a "time eddy" from which they are later freed. The Fourth Doctor also had a small cameo at the beginning of Dimensions in Time , warning his Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh incarnation to watch out for
16264-454: The 24th episode of the series Epic Rap Battles of History the Tenth Doctor is in a rap battle with Doc Brown from Back to the Future when he is shot by a Dalek and regenerates into the Fourth Doctor (played by George Watsky ). A background character appearing in one episode of Toast of London portrayed by Lewis MacLeod highly resembles the fourth incarnation of the Doctor, and
16478-418: The 50th anniversary special " The Day of the Doctor ". The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors explained that Hurt's regeneration was not the Doctor because his actions during the Time War were a betrayal of the promise that name symbolized. "The Day of the Doctor" revisited the last day of the Time War after "The End of Time" and revealed that the interference of the future Doctors and future companion Clara Oswald caused
16692-583: The Armageddon Factor , it is revealed that the Doctor scraped through the academy with 51% on his second attempt. In The Time Meddler , it is said that the Doctor was fifty years before the Meddling Monk . In Time and the Rani , the Doctor claims to have attended university alongside the Rani , specialising in thermodynamics. At the academy, he met his childhood friend the Master and
16906-531: The Attic , via footage taken from The Hand of Fear . Similar flashbacks appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor . In " The Name of the Doctor ," he is seen briefly by Clara Oswald wandering around the TARDIS (clip taken from The Invasion of Time ). He was also seen as an echo running past Clara inside the Eleventh Doctor's time stream in the end of "The Name of
17120-462: The BBC Christmas tape . City of Death director Michael Hayes had previously directed The Androids of Tara (1978) and The Armageddon Factor (1979). He also had experience filming in Paris, having worked there on adaptations of Maigret (1960–63) and other Georges Simenon stories for the BBC. Location filming took place in Paris between 30 April 1979 and 3 May 1979. It proved
17334-618: The Big Finish spin-off audio series Gallifrey and Bernice Summerfield . In the novel Father Time , the Eighth Doctor, during his hundred-year exile on Earth, found an orphaned Time Lord girl named Miranda whom he adopted and raised until she was 16. In the novel Sometime Never... , she returned to the Doctor with her daughter Zezanne. She was also the central character in a three-issue comic book series published by Comeuppance Comics in 2003. Author Lance Parkin, who devised
17548-442: The Count's true form, but he kills her. Romana completes the work and Scaroth uses it to travel to the past. The Doctor ushers Romana and Duggan into the TARDIS, fearing that the ship's explosion was the spark that started the development of life on Earth, and if Scaroth should prevent it, humanity would not exist. They arrive in time for Duggan to knock Scaroth out before he can reach the ship. Scaroth returns to present Earth, where he
17762-460: The Cybermen . The Doctor's standing in Time Lord society has waxed and waned over the years, from being a hunted man who was eventually punished with a forced regeneration and an exile sentence on Earth, to being appointed Lord President of the High Council. He does not assume the office for very long, fleeing Gallifrey after his appointment rather than accepting the limitations on his freedom that
17976-411: The Cybermen only had one story, Revenge of the Cybermen (1975). UNIT , which had featured in most of the Third Doctor's adventures, only appeared in four early Fourth Doctor stories, playing a minor role in its last appearance, season 13's The Seeds of Doom (1976) in which none of the regular UNIT staff appeared. At the same time, stories such as The Deadly Assassin (1976) established most of
18190-425: The Daleks , Susan and her husband David adopt three children whom they name David Campbell Jr, Ian and Barbara; named after David himself, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright , respectively. Irving Braxiatel , a character first introduced in the novel Theatre of War , was initially hinted at, and later confirmed to be, the Doctor's biological older brother. He has since become a recurring character, especially within
18404-567: The Doctor ", released as a prelude to the 50th anniversary special, featured Paul McGann reprising his role as the Eighth Doctor and was set during the Last Great Time War, albeit much earlier than during "The End of Time". The mini-episode presented him as a conscientious objector to the war who regenerated under controlled circumstances into the War Doctor ( John Hurt ), a previously unseen incarnation created retroactively by Steven Moffat , Davies' successor as head writer, for
18618-484: The Doctor ": "Never cruel nor cowardly. Never give up. Never give in." The episode " The Timeless Children " revised the Doctor's origins, revealing a scientist and space explorer named Tecteun who found a lone, mysterious child with a supernatural physiology – one not belonging to any other life form or species – and an immense intelligence. She adopted the child and studied her, successfully grafting her regeneration capacity (and possibly other traits) into her own species,
18832-411: The Doctor and Sarah Jane travelled alone. The Doctor's companionship with Sarah Jane came to an end when he received a telepathic summons to Gallifrey, as humans were not then allowed on the planet. The summons turns out to be part of a trap set by his enemy the Master . The renegade Time Lord has used up all his regenerations and has degenerated into little more than a withered skeletal husk. The Doctor
19046-410: The Doctor as grandfather to his companion Susan". He wore long white hair and Edwardian costume, reflecting, Green says, a "definite sense of Englishness". When Hartnell left the programme after three years due to ill health, the role was handed over to character actor Patrick Troughton . As of 25 December 2018 , official television productions have depicted fourteen distinct incarnations of
19260-562: The Doctor as one of 45 cousins grown from his house's genetic loom as an adult. By contrast, the TV programme has shown Time Lords as children and stated that Time Lords can have sexual relationships. The Doctor is assumed to be or to have been married to Susan's grandmother, including by head writer Steven Moffat . In " Blink ", the Doctor mentioned that he was rubbish at his own wedding. In The Virgin New Adventures novel Cold Fusion ,
19474-544: The Doctor assures him that the copy, still done by Leonardo's hand, will go unnoticed, and that art is worthless if its monetary value is all that matters. The Doctor and Romana say goodbye to Duggan at the Eiffel Tower . Writer David Fisher had contributed two scripts to Doctor Who ' s sixteenth season – The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – and was asked by producer Graham Williams for further story ideas. Fisher submitted two proposals;
19688-466: The Doctor begins frequently over-riding the machine, first travelling to Paris for a holiday, only to get caught up in an alien scheme to steal the Mona Lisa ( City of Death ). He eventually discards the device altogether, remarking that he's fed up with not knowing where he's going. Shortly after this, the Fourth Doctor and Romana are projected outside the known universe and into a universe of negative coordinates, known as Exo-Space. The TARDIS lands on
19902-468: The Doctor cures the computer, one of the Sevateem, Leela , joins him on his travels ( The Face of Evil ). The Doctor brings the intelligent but uneducated Leela to many locales in human history, teaching her about science and her own species' past. In Victorian London , the pair encounters the magician Li Hsien Chang and his master, the self-styled Weng-Chiang ( The Talons of Weng-Chiang ). Weng-Chiang
20116-400: The Doctor evades answering the question, making their connection unclear. In Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale – The Final Chapter , Russell T Davies states that the character was conceived as the Doctor's mother, but her identity was left ambiguous to allow viewers to make up their own minds. In spin-off media, several individuals related to the Doctor have made appearances, and do not appear in
20330-457: The Doctor for the Big Finish audio The Kingmaker . Archival footage of the Fourth Doctor's first title sequence was used in the Family Guy episode " Blue Harvest " to parody hyperspace from Star Wars . In American Dad! some Whovians were shown, with several of them dressed as the Fourth Doctor. As the narrator of Little Britain , Tom Baker has himself alluded to Doctor Who . In
20544-433: The Doctor in the seventh series, particularly in " The Angels Take Manhattan ", confirmed that they were married; in "The Name of the Doctor", the Doctor refers to her as his "wife" after seeing a grave stone with her name on it, after initially answering "yes" when Clara asks if she was an "ex". In " The End of Time ", the Tenth Doctor mentions marrying Queen Elizabeth I and implies that they had sex, stating: "her nickname
20758-517: The Doctor is revealed as " the Other ", a mysterious figure in Gallifreyan lore who co-founded Time Lord society with Rassilon and Omega . After a curse renders Gallifrey sterile, the Other devises biotechnological looms to "weave" new Time Lords; his granddaughter Susan is Gallifrey's last natural child. To escape a civil war with Rassilon, the Other throws himself into the loom system, where he
20972-524: The Doctor recalled his origins as a high-born Gallifreyan. In The Time Monster , the Doctor says he grew up in a house on a mountainside and talks about a hermit who lived under a tree behind the house and inspired the Doctor when he was depressed. He is later reunited with this former mentor, now on Earth posing as the abbot K'anpo Rimpoche, in Planet of the Spiders . In " The Girl in the Fireplace ", according to Madame de Pompadour who psychically linked with
21186-482: The Doctor reveals that he is able to perceive the fabric of time, discerning "fixed points" and "points in flux" – moments when history must remain as it was originally versus moments when he can change or influence the original course of events, as well as all past, present and possible future events. However, in " Kill the Moon ", the Twelfth Doctor claims that there are "grey areas", points in time for which he cannot see
21400-531: The Doctor stop the spread of Entropy by adapting the Pharos Project radio telescope on Earth so that they are able to reopen the CVEs. However, when the Master tries to take control of it, the Doctor runs out under the upturned radio dish to sever the cable linking the Master to the CVEs. The Master makes the dish start rotating so that the Doctor will fall to his death. Before he falls, he manages to tear out
21614-417: The Doctor tries to reassure his companion that Missy is joking, although later in the episode he self-identifies by that name. In " Twice Upon a Time ", before regeneration the Twelfth Doctor states that no one would ever understand his name except for children, saying: "If their hearts are in the right place and the stars are too, children can hear your name." Peter Capaldi offered his own theory regarding
21828-790: The Doctor's early life. In the Past Doctor Adventures novel Divided Loyalties , the Doctor recalls his Academy years in a dream induced by the Celestial Toymaker. According to this, he was a member of an organisation called the Deca, ten brilliant Academy students campaigning for increased Time Lord intervention, alongside Mortimus (the Meddling Monk) , Ushas (the Rani) , Koschei (the Master) , Magnus (the War Chief) , Drax ,
22042-498: The Doctor's hearts simultaneously would accomplish this (as demonstrated in the Eleventh Doctor story " The Impossible Astronaut "). The Chancellery Guard (Gallifrey's equivalent of a police force) are armed with stasers, weapons capable of suppressing regeneration. In Death of the Doctor , a serial from spin-off programme The Sarah Jane Adventures , the Eleventh Doctor flippantly responds to Clyde Langer that he can regenerate "507" times; writer Russell T. Davies intended this line as
22256-468: The Doctor's memories, the Doctor experienced a very lonely childhood. An elderly woman on Gallifrey died and was shrouded in veils and surrounded by flies, giving the Doctor recurring nightmares, which the confession dial in " Heaven Sent " would later visualise to torment him. In " Listen ", it is ambiguously revealed the Doctor as a child often slept alone in a barn in the Drylands (a desert region outside
22470-468: The Doctor's other families (adopted or not) are rare in the programme. In The Tomb of the Cybermen , when asked about his family, the Second Doctor says his memories of them are alive when he wants them to be; otherwise they sleep in his mind and he forgets. In The Curse of Fenric , when asked if he has family, the Seventh Doctor replies that he does not know. In the 1996 television movie ,
22684-461: The Doctor's real name, commenting: "I don't think human beings could even really say his name. But I think we might be able to hear it, at a certain frequency. If the stars are in the right place, and your heart's in the right place, you'll hear it." On occasion, the Doctor uses other aliases, such as "John Smith". In the Fourth Doctor serial The Armageddon Factor , the Doctor runs into
22898-431: The Doctor's surname as she believed was the intent of the dialogue. The 2011 mid-series finale " A Good Man Goes to War ", also written by Moffat, suggested through the character of River Song that the Doctor's travels had influenced the etymology of the word "doctor", perverting its meaning on some worlds from "wise man" or "healer" to "great warrior". In " The End of Time " (2009–2010) it is mentioned that after he smote
23112-428: The Doctor. The longest-lasting on-screen incarnation is the Fourth Doctor , played by Tom Baker for seven years. Within the narrative, these changes were explained as regeneration , a biological process which heals a Time Lord when their incarnation is about to die. Consequently, the Time Lord is given a wholly new body. In The Deadly Assassin , the concept of a regeneration limit is introduced, giving Time Lords
23326-530: The Doctor." Archival images were used for his appearance in " The Day of the Doctor ". During the special, Tom Baker portrays a mysterious museum curator who speaks with the Eleventh Doctor and hints to him that he may be a future version of the Doctor "revisiting" a favourite past incarnation. The Fourth Doctor is also seen briefly during Missy 's exposition of the Twelfth Doctor 's fighting android assassins (" The Witch's Familiar "). For audiences in
23540-399: The Eleventh Doctor remarks he would like to hold this job some day. He alludes to his resemblance to the Fourth Doctor by talking about revisiting "old favourite" faces and hints that he too might be or have been the Doctor. Imposingly tall, with eyes that seem to constantly boggle, a mass of curls for hair and prominently displayed teeth, the Doctor favours an outfit that usually consists of
23754-610: The Fendahl ( Image of the Fendahl ). Eventually, the Doctor returns to Gallifrey and declares himself Lord President, based on the election held during his previous visit. This is in fact a ploy to reveal and defeat a Vardan invasion plan, which led to the unexpected consequence of leaving Gallifrey open to attack by the Sontarans ( The Invasion of Time ). In the aftermath Leela and K9 decide to remain on Gallifrey. The Doctor comforts himself by producing K9 Mark II. Shortly afterward,
23968-507: The Fourth Doctor were characterised by a strong "Gothic Horror" theme. The duo of writer/script editor Robert Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe consciously tapped into horror icons like mummies ( Pyramids of Mars ) and Frankenstein ( The Brain of Morbius , Robot ), vampires ( State of Decay ) and Jekyll and Hyde ( Planet of Evil ), and even transformation ( The Ark in Space , The Seeds of Doom ) and various themes like alien abduction . In these stories, they were given
24182-405: The Fourth Doctor. Two early audio plays featuring Tom Baker voicing the Fourth Doctor date from Baker's television tenure as he had mainly declined to appear in any further audio plays since leaving the series. In 2009, however, it was announced that a new five-part series would be produced by BBC Audio (see below). After contracting radiation poisoning from the crystals of the planet Metebelis 3,
24396-509: The Homeworld/Gallifrey abandon their names to symbolise how they are leaving their culture. Similarly, the novel Lungbarrow reveals that the Doctor's name has been struck from the records of his family and therefore cannot be spoken. Quite apart from his name, why the Doctor uses the title "The Doctor" has never been fully explained on screen. The Doctor, at first, said that he was not a physician , often describing himself as
24610-569: The Legacy of Rassilon; as a result, the Doctor's children were systemically culled. The Doctor managed to help Patience escape through the use of the Machine, a prototype TARDIS, after assuring that her daughter-in-law had given birth to a girl named Susan and promised that he would keep the child safely away from Gallifrey. In " The Wedding of River Song ", the Doctor marries recurring companion and love interest River Song . Comments by both River and
24824-616: The Master, taught by Cardinal Sendok. In the Virgin Missing Adventures novel Goth Opera , it is said the Doctor was a frequent prankster while at the academy, introducing cats into Gallifrey's ecosystem with his friend Ruath and electrifying a "perigosto stick" belonging to his teacher, Borusa. Feeling that too much of the Doctor's backstory had been revealed by the Seventh Doctor 's era, writers Andrew Cartmel , Ben Aaronovitch and Marc Platt developed
25038-445: The Rani . Brief holographic clips of the Fourth Doctor appear in " The Next Doctor " (2008) and " The Eleventh Hour " (2010). In the fiftieth anniversary special, " The Day of the Doctor " (2013), the Fourth Doctor appears again in clips as past and future incarnations come together to assist in the saving of Gallifrey. Tom Baker also appears in the final scene of the episode, as a mysterious elderly museum curator who appears right after
25252-473: The Shobogans, and herself. This species, who would eventually become the Time Lords, was restricted to a limit of twelve regenerations by a later incarnation of Tecteun. Tecteun and their child were eventually inducted into a clandestine Time Lord organisation known as the Division. After an unknown amount of regenerations, Tecteun's child began calling themself "Doctor". The Fugitive Doctor , true to her title,
25466-516: The Spiders and " The End of Time ". The Doctor has withstood, with minimal damage, exposure to electricity deadly enough to kill a human ( Terror of the Zygons , Genesis of the Daleks , " Aliens of London ", " The Christmas Invasion ", " The Idiot's Lantern ", " Evolution of the Daleks " and spin-off audio Spare Parts ). Certain stories imply that the Time Lord is resistant to cold temperatures (" 42 "). To counter extreme trauma, such as exposure to
25680-497: The Tenth Doctor confirms that he had at one point been a father and that he lost his children "a long time ago", saying "When they died that part of me died with them"; the nature of their deaths, however, has never been explained, as it is suggested that whatever happened to his family is very painful for the Doctor to talk about. In " The Woman Who Fell to Earth " when the Thirteenth Doctor is questioned how she copes with
25894-526: The Third, Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors), has won several sword fights against skilled opponents, and is able to make extremely difficult shots with firearms and, in The Face of Evil , with a crossbow. Thanks to exposure to many of history's greatest experts, including those from the future, the Doctor is a talented boxer, musician, organist, scientist and singer (able to shatter windows with his voice), and has
26108-472: The Time Lords. Despite attempts to avoid them altogether, the Time Lords continue to send him on occasional missions, including an attempt to prevent the creation of the Daleks ( Genesis of the Daleks ), during which he also meets Davros . The Doctor travels with journalist Sarah Jane Smith , whom he had befriended prior to his regeneration, and, for a time, with UNIT Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan. After
26322-426: The Twelfth Doctor ( Peter Capaldi ). The Twelfth Doctor later claims to be uncertain he "won't keep regenerating forever" ("Kill the Moon"), and even Rassilon, the president of the Time Lords, expresses uncertainty about how many regenerations the Doctor has available to him. Other skills include his mental communication with other Time Lords, in some cases over a galaxy's distance. His skill with hypnosis requires only
26536-536: The United Kingdom; the production team worked in Paris during April and May 1979; studio work was completed in June. Broadcast during a strike that took ITV (the BBC's rival) off the air, City of Death scored high ratings. The fourth episode was watched by over sixteen million viewers, the highest UK television audience ever attained by an episode of Doctor Who . Although retrospectively regarded as one of
26750-567: The United States, who saw the show only in syndication (mostly on PBS ), Tom Baker was the incarnation of the Doctor who is the best known, since his episodes were the ones most frequently broadcast stateside. The first four seasons of these Time Life distributed stories added narration by Howard da Silva at the beginning and end of each episode. Also in Italy, where most of the classic series of Doctor Who were never broadcast on television,
26964-425: The War Doctor to change his plan at the last moment. Ultimately, Gallifrey was hidden in a parallel dimension and the Daleks destroyed themselves in the ensuing crossfire; to all observers, it appeared as though the two races had been annihilated together. The unsynchronized timestreams caused the War Doctor to forget the specifics of his actions at this time. The Doctor remembered committing the apparent genocide during
27178-500: The Wasp " (2008) he was able to sense the changes in his body's enzymes (i.e. cyanide poisoning) and expel the cyanide from his body by ingesting a concoction of ginger beer , protein foods and salts. The Doctor has shown a resistance to temporal effects and has demonstrated telepathic ability, both the ability to mentally connect to other incarnations of themselves they have encountered (" The Five Doctors "), and an ability to enter into
27392-434: The absurdly long, but iconic, accessory. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe had wardrobe create three distinct coats for Baker to wear depending on the type of story, the first being a rust safari jacket that he wore throughout all of his first season; the other two (full-length) coats were of dark brown velvet (for the darker horror stories) and taupe tweed (for more action-packed stories). The Wardrobe Department also provided
27606-529: The academy and his affiliation with the notoriously devious Prydonian chapter of Time Lords. In " The Sound of Drums ", the Doctor describes an academy initiation where, at the age of eight, Gallifreyan children were taken from their families and made to look into the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of reality, to view the Time Vortex. According to the Doctor, when regarding the effects of
27820-504: The alias "Dr. Bowman" in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie . City of Death City of Death is the second serial of the seventeenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor . It was produced by the BBC and first broadcast in four weekly parts between 29 September 1979 and 20 October 1979 on BBC1 . The serial
28034-409: The appearance throughout the programme. Human companions accompany the Doctor through their adventures and serve as audience surrogate characters to ask questions which allow the Doctor to provide relevant exposition. "Doctor" is a self-selected alias. In episodes specifically under showrunner Steven Moffat , the story arcs surrounding events in the Doctor's future implied serious consequences in
28248-588: The best serials from the series' classic run, initial reception was not as positive, with criticism of the humorous tone. In September 2009, it was ranked as readers' eighth favourite story (of 200-to-that-date) in Doctor Who Magazine issue 413. While in Paris, the Doctor and Romana sense a time distortion. They observe the Countess Scarlioni using an alien device to scan the security systems housing Leonardo da Vinci 's Mona Lisa at
28462-494: The cable, only to leave his companions watching as he clings to the cable. As his grip begins to slip, he sees visions of all the enemies he's faced over the years, then falls. Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan gather around the mortally wounded Doctor and call out his name. The Doctor begins seeing visions of all his companions and even the Brigadier calling his name. He then looks up at the three of them and utters his last words: "It's
28676-413: The cast and crew suffering from burnout and lack of resources, the season finale The Invasion of Time (1978) was completed largely by virtue of it having been written to make use of preexisting sets, props, and costumes. For their second season, Williams and Read had planned out an overarching storyline that would run through the whole of the season. With more editorial control, it was also decided that
28890-429: The character of Dr Who first begins appearing in existing documentation from May of that year. It is possible that series co-creator Donald Wilson may have named the character; in a 1971 interview Wilson claimed to have come up with the series' title, and when this claim was put to Newman he did not dispute it. The character was first portrayed by William Hartnell in 1963. At the programme's beginning, nothing at all
29104-412: The character of Miranda, has hinted that her real father is a future incarnation of the Doctor which, if so, would make Zezanne the Doctor's biological granddaughter as well. The Virgin New Adventures novel Lungbarrow presents an alternative take on the Doctor's origins, suggesting that Time Lords are "loomed" in large batches of "cousins" and not produced via sexual reproduction. Lungbarrow portrays
29318-480: The character uses "the Doctor" because his actual name is impossible for humans to pronounce. For instance, the novel Vanderdeken's Children relates that the Doctor has already told Sam his real name, which is entirely alien and virtually unpronounceable. This is repeated by companion Peri Brown in the radio serial Slipback . The Faction Paradox encyclopaedia The Book of the War states that all renegades from
29532-462: The character's look was originally based on paintings and posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of his friend, Aristide Bruant , a singer and nightclub owner whose trademark was a black cloak and long red scarf. When John Nathan-Turner became the show's producer in Baker's last year, the Fourth Doctor was the first to sport an item of clothing adorned with question marks as a motif, in this case, above
29746-492: The character's name, most frequently in the spin-off material of the 1960s and 1970s, but occasionally also in the TV series itself. For example, in The Gunfighters the Doctor assumes the name of Doctor Caligari and subsequently responds to the question "Doctor who?" with "yes, quite right." In the serial The War Machines , the computer WOTAN commands that "Doctor Who is required", and his human agents also use
29960-519: The city capital), was withdrawn from other children, and was cared for by guardian figures who privately doubted the child's ability as an eventual Time Lord. Through the dialogue, it is suggested that several Gallifreyan children were pressured into joining the army, a path which did not sit right with the Doctor's pacifist beliefs, and as a result he wished to enroll into the Time Lord Academy instead. The classic series refers to his time at
30174-556: The conclusion of the quest, Romana regenerates into a new form (portrayed then by Lalla Ward ) ( Destiny of the Daleks ). In an effort to evade the Black Guardian, the Doctor installs a "Randomiser" in the TARDIS so that not even the Black Guardian can anticipate where they go. Ironically, the first place the Randomiser sends them is the home planet of the Daleks, Skaro ( Destiny of the Daleks ). Perhaps because of this,
30388-437: The criticisms about the levels of comedy, that "it's precisely these things that make it seem so special". Reviewing the serial in 2011, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded it three stars out of five, stating he disliked the smug tone to the humour and Ward's "snooty" portrayal of Romana. Despite this, he noted that the serial had good production values and direction, as well as a few jokes that he enjoyed. City of Death
30602-480: The day the art gallery scenes were to be recorded, he persuaded them to make a cameo appearance in a short scene written for "two Englishmen". Cleese and Bron agreed on the condition that there be no pre-publicity regarding their appearance; Cleese wanted them to be credited as "Helen Swanetsky" and "Kim Bread" but the BBC declined. Cleese liked the name "Kim Bread" and used it in later projects. During recording, Cleese and Baker also recorded two short comedy skits for
30816-491: The docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time as part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who , which starred David Bradley as William Hartnell . Although Time Lords resemble humans, their physiology differs in key respects. Like other members of their race, the Doctor has two hearts (binary vascular system), a "respiratory bypass system" that allows the Doctor to go without air, an internal body temperature of 15–16 °C (60 °F) and occasionally exhibits
31030-416: The end of "Forest of the Dead". The events of " The Time of the Doctor " make it clear that his people, the Time Lords, know his true name, despite calling him by his chosen alias as "the Doctor" even in formal settings such as court. Despite the common belief amongst some areas of the fanbase that the Doctor should never be referred to by the name of the series, "Doctor Who" is actually fairly often used as
31244-462: The end-- but the moment has been prepared for..." He then motions to the white-clad figure of the Watcher, who begins approaching the Doctor. The Watcher, a manifestation of the Doctor's future incarnation, merges with the Doctor and triggers his regeneration. " He was the Doctor all the time," remarks Nyssa, as the three watch him transform into the Fifth Doctor . The Fourth Doctor appears again in
31458-400: The ending of one episode of The Seeds of Doom (1976). Hinchcliffe was moved on to police drama Target in 1977 at the conclusion of his third year. Graham Williams – who had been developing Target – was brought on to take over as producer for Baker's fourth season. Williams was given specific instructions to lighten the tone of the stories, thus playing to Baker's strengths. However,
31672-500: The entire viewing audience of Britain). By 1979, the figures averaged between 9 and 11 million, going as high as 16.1 million for the final episode of City of Death (though this was during the ITV technicians strike of 1979 which meant the BBC was the sole broadcaster on the air for several weeks). After succeeding Jon Pertwee 's Third Doctor , Baker's portrayal of the Fourth
31886-403: The event of the Doctor's true name being spoken, with the nature of these finally revealed in " The Time of the Doctor ". Spin-off media offer the explanation that the Doctor's true name is unpronounceable by humans. In " The Name of the Doctor ", the Eleventh Doctor tells companion Clara Oswald that the name "Doctor" is essentially a promise he made. The promise itself is revealed in " The Day of
32100-431: The events of past serials such as Genesis of the Daleks have been retroactively attributed to the Time War. It was never shown on-screen until " The End of Time ", which was both Davies' last story as head writer and producer and David Tennant 's last regular story as the Tenth Doctor. This episode featured brief views of Gallifrey and the Time Lords on the last day of the Time War. The 2013 mini-episode " The Night of
32314-412: The fifth story fell through. Robert Holmes consented to writing what would become The Power of Kroll (1978–79). Williams' third and final year on the show is considered a high point in terms of ratings and stories for the entire series. However it proved even more difficult for Williams behind the scenes, as he found Tom Baker increasingly hard to cope with. The most watched episode ever of Doctor Who
32528-399: The fifth story, Warriors' Gate . The story is notable for the Doctor's sombre mood and seeming death wish, as well as the surprisingly adult nature of the story. The surreal, even dream-like elements, such as time shifts and walking through mirrors, also earned the story some distinction. At John Nathan-Turner's insistence the Master was brought back. This was accomplished by Bidmead changing
32742-474: The figure, who warns him of future dangers. As the Doctor prepares to travel to the planet Logopolis to get the Chameleon Circuit fixed, Tegan Jovanka appears in the console room (having previously gotten lost in the corridors of the TARDIS). The conduit between E-Space and our own universe is revealed to be a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE) created by the mathematicians of Logopolis as part of
32956-557: The first of these became The Creature from the Pit while the other, The Gamble with Time , concerned a plot to rig the casinos in Las Vegas to finance time travel experiments. Williams asked Fisher to rework The Gamble With Time as a spoof of Bulldog Drummond , a fictional adventurer from the 1920s. Fisher's draft script centered around Scarlioni, a member of the Sephiroth race, who had accidentally become fractured in time. The script
33170-408: The first three stories (which were geared towards the previous style) had already been commissioned. Robert Holmes had agreed to stay on to edit them, but he ended up leaving after only doing the first two, Horror of Fang Rock (1977) and The Invisible Enemy (1977). The task of editing Image of the Fendahl (1977) fell to his successor Anthony Read . The season was only narrowly finished. With
33384-402: The first time, returning to a planet he had visited centuries before. During his previous visit, he had accidentally imprinted his own mind on a human colony ship's powerful computer, Xoanon, leaving it with multiple personalities . On his second visit the Doctor is now remembered as an evil god by the descendants of the colonists, some of whom had become a warrior tribe called the Sevateem. After
33598-403: The first two parts of City of Death were a respectable score of 64%. Radio Times published two letters from viewers regarding City of Death . Les Rogers of Hastings praised the serial's cast and the location filming; less impressed, however, was Paul R. Maskew of Exeter who felt the show was being played for laughs. Responding to similar criticisms from viewers, Douglas Adams wrote, "If
33812-493: The height of Doctor Who as popular light entertainment for all the family". In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine readers voted it in eighth place. In a more recent 2014 poll, the magazine's readers voted it fifth best Doctor Who story of all time. A 2008 article in The Daily Telegraph named City of Death one of the ten greatest episodes of Doctor Who . John Condor, writing in the fanzine DWB in 1991, hailed
34026-417: The humour-driven stories of the previous season. The only one he ended up using was The Leisure Hive (1980), though only after heavily editing it. Bidmead asked a pair of writing friends to come up with what would be the second story of the season, Meglos (1980), which ended up being regarded as one of the weakest shows in the series' history up to that point. Bidmead only began to gain some momentum by
34240-413: The initiation on participants: "Some would be inspired, some would run away and some would go mad (as he suggests happened to his nemesis, the Master )." When asked to which group he belonged, he replied, "Oh, the ones that ran away. I never stopped!" The Doctor was taught by future Lord President Borusa and Azmael , where he met Drax , with whom he attended a Tech course as part of the class of '92. In
34454-469: The lives of his ninth, tenth and eleventh incarnations up until the time of the Eleventh Doctor's present. The character of the Doctor was created by BBC Head of Drama, Sydney Newman . The first format document for the programme that was to become Doctor Who – then provisionally titled The Troubleshooters – was written in March 1963 by C. E. Webber , a staff writer who had been brought in to help develop
34668-491: The longest tenure of any actor to portray the lead, counting both the classic and new series. Baker's tenure as the Doctor is highly regarded among fans of the show and he is considered as one of the most iconic incarnations of the character. The Fourth Doctor appeared in 172 episodes (179, counting the regeneration in Part 6 of Planet of the Spiders and his untelevised appearances in the six-part aborted serial Shada ) over
34882-400: The loss of her family, she states that she carries the memories of them with her and thus makes them a part of who she is, saying "even though they're gone from the world ... they're never gone from me." In " The End of Time ", a mysterious individual, referred to in the episode credits as "The Woman", appears unexpectedly to Wilfred Mott throughout both episodes. She is later revealed to be
35096-415: The marriages to Elizabeth I and Marilyn Monroe to count when questioned on how many wives the Doctor had had, remarking that he was married to Susan's grandmother and River Song. An adventurous scientist, the Doctor usually solves problems with his wits rather than with force. With the exception of his sonic screwdriver (which cannot kill, wound or maim), the Doctor detests weapons and uses violence only as
35310-471: The memories of other individuals (" The Girl in the Fireplace "). The Doctor can apparently reverse this process, sharing their memory with another, as shown in " The Lodger ". Some humans can enter the Doctor's memories after the Doctor enters theirs, as demonstrated by Madame de Pompadour (much to the Doctor's surprise) in "The Girl in the Fireplace", when she explains, "A door, once opened, may be stepped through in either direction." In " The Fires of Pompeii ",
35524-490: The moon. This event had a massive impact on the Doctor, who theorized that he himself was possibly the Hybrid. This is one reason the Doctor has stated as to why he decided to leave Gallifrey – out of fear. He has given convoluted and contradictory reasons as to why he left, for many reasons such as because his life path was pre-determined from his hidden previous life. The Doctor stole a TARDIS with his granddaughter Susan from
35738-557: The most recognisable of the Doctors and one of the most popular, especially in the United States . In polls conducted by Doctor Who Magazine , Tom Baker has lost the "Best Doctor" category only three times: once to Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor ) in 1990, and twice to David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor ) in 2006 and 2009. The Fourth Doctor's eccentric style of dress and speech – particularly his trademark look of wearing
35952-460: The mythology surrounding the Time Lords and the Doctor's home planet Gallifrey and that would remain a key feature for the rest of the classic series and still be felt in the revived series. For example, it is established that Time Lords only have a limited number of regenerations, which is a driving plot point in the stories Mawdryn Undead , " The Five Doctors ", The Trial of a Time Lord ,
36166-696: The name of "Doctor von Wer" (a German approximation of "Doctor Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in The Underwater Menace . He similarly poses as "the Great Wizard Quiquaequod" in The Dæmons ( qui , quae and quod being, respectively, the masculine, feminine and neuter Latin translation of the nominative form of who ). The Master also utilised Latin translation in the same serial, posing as "Mr Magister". The Eighth Doctor 's companion Grace briefly refers to him by
36380-411: The name. The Third Doctor 's car, dubbed "Bessie", carried the plate WHO 1, the only ongoing reference to the "Doctor Who" enigma in the original programme. The Third Doctor later drove an outlandish vehicle called the "Whomobile" in publicity materials, but it is never referred to as such in the programme, being simply known as "the Doctor's car" (or "my car", as the Doctor puts it). The name "Doctor Who"
36594-402: The only episodes to be broadcast were those of the Fourth Doctor. The Fourth Doctor's distinctive appearance and manner have made him a target for affectionate parody. The character has appeared several times on The Simpsons and twice on Robot Chicken . He also had a cameo on Futurama emerging from the stomach of a space whale, and another episode, where he is briefly seen running into
36808-521: The outcome. Like many other alien species in the programme, the Doctor is able to sense when their own species is within proximity through an inherent telepathic connection. The Doctor exhibits some weaknesses uncommon to humans. For example, according to The Mind of Evil (1971), a tablet of aspirin could kill him. In " Cold Blood ", a process meant to decontaminate him of bacteria from the surface of Earth causes him intense pain, and he says it could have killed him if allowed to proceed to completion. In
37022-410: The pair grew up together. In " The End of Time ", the Master recollects their childhood together where they would run all day across his father's field, described as 'pastures of red grass stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition' and the boys would call up at the sky. In " World Enough and Time ", the Doctor claims that they both made a special pact where together they would visit every star in
37236-424: The points on his shirt collars. His overall costume was redesigned, changing the colour focus from brown to burgundy. Designer June Hudson later revealed in an interview that Nathan-Turner had even given her permission to remove the scarf altogether if she wanted to. Hudson opted to keep the scarf, as it was such an iconic part of the character, changing it to crimson with violet purple stripes. The early stories of
37450-521: The poisonous fungus in The Seeds of Death and after being shot in Spearhead from Space , the Doctor can go into a self-induced coma until they recover. The Doctor's hypersensitive body and senses enable them to detect anomalies humans cannot, such as identifying alien species, blood type or chemical composition by taste and determining location or time period by sniffing the air. In " The Unicorn and
37664-470: The powerful White Guardian assigns the Doctor the task of finding the six segments of the Key to Time , sending a young female Time Lord named Romana (as portrayed by Mary Tamm ) to assist him. The two Gallifreyans travel to a variety of planets, encountering strange and unusual allies and enemies, gathering the six segments and defeat the equally powerful Black Guardian , who sought the Key for himself. After
37878-471: The programme didn't move and take a few risks then it would have died of boredom years ago". Several viewers wrote to point out the discrepancy between the start of life on Earth of 4,000 million years ago and the date given in City of Death of 400 million years ago. Graham Williams replied, "The good Doctor makes the odd mistake or two but I think an error of 3,600 million years is pushing it! His next edition of
38092-400: The programme's first episode in 1963, presents the alternative explanation that the Doctor was given that name by medical staff on a foreign planet and liked it. To make up for his lack of a practical name, the Doctor often relies upon convenient pseudonyms. In The Gunfighters (1966), the First Doctor uses the alias Dr. Caligari . In The Highlanders (1966–67), the Second Doctor assumes
38306-542: The project. Webber's document contained a main character described as "The maturer man, 35–40, with some 'character twist'." Newman was not keen on this idea and – along with several other changes to Webber's initial format – created an alternative lead character named Dr Who, a crotchety older man piloting a stolen time machine, on the run from his own far-future world. No written record of Newman's conveyance of these ideas – believed to have taken place in April 1963 – exists, and
38520-430: The role harder and harder to maintain and the previous season had been particularly draining on him. Many of this season's stories also had an elegiac tone, with entropy and decay being a recurring theme. New script editor Christopher Bidmead found himself faced with a serious problem from the outset of his time on the show. He ultimately deemed many of the stories left to him by Adams to be unusable, being too close to
38734-491: The role of Romana, Ward clashed with costume designer Doreen James, rejecting the silver catsuit James had designed for her for the story. Ward came up with the idea for the schoolgirl costume she wore in conjunction with Baker, recalling, "I thought it would be fun to wear something that little girls probably hated wearing because it might cheer them up... I didn't bank on the fact that I'd also get loads of letters from their fathers saying 'Cor! School uniform!'". City of Death
38948-487: The role would place on him (" The Five Doctors "), and is eventually deposed in absentia ( The Trial of a Time Lord ). By the time of his twelfth incarnation, he is regarded by many Gallifreyans as a war hero, "the man who won the Time War" (" Hell Bent "). In the first series of the 2005 revival, writer Russell T Davies introduced the concept of the Time War to streamline the Doctor's backstory for new viewers of
39162-459: The ruins of Gallifrey, unravel the Web of Time and burn a billion hearts to heal its own. The Wraiths then revealed to him the secret passage leading to another side of the city. The last anyone heard from him was that he apparently stole the moon and the President's wife; however, this was revealed to have been a lie spread about by the Shobogans when in reality it was the President's daughter and he lost
39376-507: The script as the cost of bringing the robot dog and his operators to Paris was prohibitive. However, Fisher was going through a divorce, and his personal situation meant that he was unable to perform the rewrites. This meant that script editor Douglas Adams , aided by Graham Williams, had to perform a complete rewrite of the story over the course of a weekend. According to Adams, Graham Williams "took me back to his place, locked me in his study and hosed me down with whisky and black coffee for
39590-424: The series in recent years." The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn described City of Death as the "gem" of the seventeenth season, finding Adams' subtle comedy script "easily the funniest and most quotable the series ever achieved". While he praised Scarlioni's costume and the mask, he felt that more could have been done with using Paris as a filming location. However, Doctor Who fandom 's initial response
39804-452: The series' producer. He instituted a number of changes to the show, including toning down the humour and introducing more science fiction concepts. During this season the Fourth Doctor became very much subdued and, on occasion, melancholy. Baker began the season in poor health, though he eventually recovered. Both the actor and the character seemed noticeably older and tired, due to Baker's gaunt appearance and greying hair. Baker had been finding
40018-436: The show. It was a war across all of time and space which ended when the Doctor presumably destroyed both the Time Lords and the Daleks . The Doctor's remorse for his actions in his Ninth , Tenth and Eleventh incarnations is a key part of his characterisation throughout the revival. The Time War happened between the 1996 television movie and 2005 opening episode " Rose " according to the show's internal chronology, although
40232-467: The significance of the Doctor's name in his episodes since 2006's " The Girl in the Fireplace ", in which historical figure Madame de Pompadour reads the Doctor's mind and remarks, "Doctor who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it?" According to the in-vision commentary on the DVD release, David Tennant had to inform actress Sophia Myles (who played Madame de Pompadour) that she was not, in fact, revealing
40446-513: The sinking when tracking an alien entity in the novel The Left-Handed Hummingbird . The Doctor has also encountered many of Earth's historical figures. It is his tendency for becoming "involved" with the universe – in direct violation of official Time Lord policy – that has caused the Doctor to be labelled a renegade by the Time Lords as stated in The War Games . However, the Doctor's actions are largely tolerated as he saved Gallifrey and
40660-536: The stools of good pastiche and bad parody and making fairly unsatisfactory viewing". Vanessa Bishop countered that it was "the Doctor Who story it's alright to laugh at... we must now accept that City of Death is funny — because if we didn't the Crackerjack -style sleuths, scientists and all... would leave it knocking about near the bottom of all the Doctor Who story ranking polls" and, responding to
40874-488: The story as "the best blend of kitsch, surrealism, fantasy, and comedy-drama seen in our favourite Time Lord's annals". Vanessa Bishop , reviewing the serial's DVD release, described it as "imaginatively written, well-performed and beautifully made, City of Death is a story where pretty much everything works". Reacting to the serial, as part of Doctor Who Magazine ' s ongoing "Time Team" feature, Jacqueline Rayner said "you're suddenly, almost violently, made aware this
41088-469: The television series, such as his grandchildren John and Gillian , who appeared alongside the First and Second Doctors in comics and annuals. Two different, conflicting accounts exist on the descendants of Susan after leaving the Doctor. In the audio play " An Earthly Child ", it is revealed that Susan has had a half-human child, Alex Campbell, the Doctor's great-grandson. Alternatively, in the novel Legacy of
41302-421: The tenure of the Eleventh Doctor involved the oldest question in the universe, revealed in " The Wedding of River Song " to be "Doctor who?", giving the phrase in-universe significance. In " The Name of the Doctor ", the Doctor's real name was revealed to be the password used to enter the Doctor's tomb following his death on the planet Trenzalore. The story arc was resolved in " The Time of the Doctor ", wherein it
41516-546: The unfinished Doctor Who serial Shada (1979; 2003), in his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987). In Part One, Lalla Ward as Romana makes a throwaway reference to a great art gallery called the Braxiatel Collection; the Virgin New Adventures novel series would later expand on this, introducing the character Irving Braxiatel , a Time Lord . Braxiatel also appears in
41730-479: The unfinished serial Shada , which was published by BBC Books in 2012. In 2013, Roberts announced that he was working on a novelisation of City of Death , to be published on 21 May 2015. Roberts later announced that James Goss was working on the book instead. An abridged version was published as part of the Target Collection 5 April 2018. City of Death was released on VHS in April 1991 with
41944-493: The universe several times. The Time Lords are partial to sending him on missions when deniability or expendability is needed, implied to have begun after his capture during The War Games and witnessed further in later stories, the Time Lords directing the Doctor and/or the TARDIS to specific locations in Colony in Space , The Curse of Peladon , The Mutants , Genesis of the Daleks , The Brain of Morbius and Attack of
42158-468: The universe; however, the Master was 'too busy burning them'. In " Hell Bent ", one day at the academy, the Doctor found himself lost inside the Cloisters (an area located deep beneath the citadel) and spent four days inside. He was contacted by a Wraith who told him about the prophecy of a legendary creature known as 'the Hybrid', prophesied to have been crossbred from two warrior races that would stand in
42372-526: The villain in The Keeper of Traken (1981) into the Master. The overarching theme of decay reaches its conclusion in Baker's final story Logopolis (1981), which Bidmead personally wrote. The story is particularly sombre, even grim at times. Themes of decay and death are constant in the story, personified in the ghostly Watcher, effectively a harbinger of the Fourth Doctor's 'death'. The Fourth Doctor's stories saw fewer recurring (or returning) enemies than in previous eras. The Daleks only appeared twice and
42586-401: The warrior Leela ( Louise Jameson ), robotic dog K9 ( John Leeson and David Brierly ), female Time Lord Romana ( Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward ), teen mathematical genius Adric ( Matthew Waterhouse ), teen alien aristocrat Nyssa ( Sarah Sutton ), and Australian flight attendant Tegan Jovanka ( Janet Fielding ). Baker portrayed the character for seven consecutive seasons, which remains
42800-459: The writers would put more emphasis on elements of fantasy and humour. Holmes wrote the first story, The Ribos Operation (1978), and the writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin handled what would be the final story of the season, The Armageddon Factor (1979). Douglas Adams wrote the second story, The Pirate Planet (1978), while another newcomer, David Fisher , wrote the third and fourth stories. Again, difficulties began to arise when
43014-403: The year 1508, and prehistoric Earth. At this point, production unit manager John Nathan-Turner had worked out that the production team could afford to film on location in Paris with a stripped-down crew. This necessitated a rewrite to Fisher's scripts to move the action to Paris and, for cost reasons, to drop the 1920s setting. The Doctor's robotic dog companion K9 also had to be removed from
43228-425: Was "Part 4" of City of Death (by Fisher, Adams, and Williams) which drew 16.1 million viewers. Douglas Adams became script editor and his style can be seen in the dialogue and stories. For example, in Destiny of the Daleks (1979), Adams included a scene of the Doctor trapped under a boulder that resembles a similar scene in the second series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . His time as script editor
43442-422: Was beset by problems; Adams often ended up having to greatly edit and even rewrite stories. Once again, facing burnout and lack of funds, Adams eventually agreed to write the final story Shada . Production proved difficult and ended up being unfinished due to a strike at the BBC. Williams left the show, dissatisfied with having left on what he considered to be a low note. In Season 18, John Nathan-Turner became
43656-605: Was broadcast on BBC1 over four consecutive Saturdays beginning on 29 September 1979. At this time, industrial action had blacked out rival broadcaster ITV and as a result, the serial scored very high ratings, averaging 14.5 million viewers over the four episodes; 16.1 million watched the fourth episode, the largest audience ever recorded for an episode of Doctor Who . The story was repeated on BBC1 across four consecutive evenings from Tuesday to Friday, 12 – 15 August 1980, achieving viewing figures of 6.3, 5.5, 5.6 and 5.9 million viewers respectively. Audience appreciation ratings for
43870-426: Was cast as Duggan on account of his resemblance to the Franco-Belgian comics hero Tintin . Peter Halliday had previously appeared in several Doctor Who serials including The Invasion and Doctor Who and the Silurians . Douglas Adams knew John Cleese and Eleanor Bron through his connections with Monty Python and the Footlights . On learning that both would be working in BBC Television Centre on
44084-422: Was instrumental in preventing a family from boarding the Titanic prior to her fateful voyage. In " The End of the World ", the Doctor recalls having been on board and surviving the Titanic's sinking to find himself "clinging to an iceberg". The Fourth Doctor mentioned this event in Robot and The Invasion of Time , where he insists that the sinking was not his fault; the Seventh Doctor became involved in
44298-419: Was mainly set in the year 1928 with the Doctor and Romana, aided by Drummond-esque detective "Pug" Farquharson, on the trail of the stolen Mona Lisa, pursuing Scarlioni from Paris to Monte Carlo where his partner, the Baroness Heidi, is using time travel technology to cheat at roulette at the casino to fund Scarlioni's time travel experiments. Other settings included Paris in 1979, Leonardo da Vinci's studio in
44512-624: Was not initially received enthusiastically by all of the critics. One writer in the Daily Mail complained in early 1975 that, "Mr. Baker makes Doctor Who look like Harpo Marx let loose from Horse Feathers ." Baker himself responded by saying, "We are not playing Doctor Who for laughs. I am trying to stress his strangeness, that he is not of this world, not human, therefore his reactions will be different from ours. I take it all very seriously. He has to be genuinely lovable, not pleased by violence, and he must be honest. Humorous, but never comical." There are also novels and audio plays featuring
44726-440: Was not shown in France at the time and so the cast and crew were largely ignored. Lalla Ward found City of Death the most challenging Doctor Who serial she worked on but was pleased with the outcome, saying, "We had to film loads of scenes in the rain and cold... there was no glamour in it at all... it was different from the ordinary stories too and I like the finished result". Seeing her costumes as an important part in creating
44940-404: Was not so positive; John Peel , writing in the fanzine TARDIS in 1979, decried it as "total farce... I simply couldn't believe this was Doctor Who ... the continual buffoonery is getting on my nerves". A similar view was held by Gary Russell who, reviewing the VHS release in 1991, said, " City of Death , like most Douglas Adams material, is overrated and misses the mark for me, falling between
45154-408: Was on the run from the Division in a TARDIS disguised as a police box. The details of their life were also redacted from the Matrix – only snippets remaining, masked as the story of the Irish Garda Brendan. The true origins of the Time Lords remained hidden from themselves and from the Doctor. The First Doctor's subsequent childhood on Gallifrey has been little described in the series. In " Hell Bent "
45368-404: Was revealed that the question had been projected by the Time Lords across all of time and space through a "crack in the skin of the universe" as a means of contacting the Doctor and seeing whether it was safe to leave the parallel universe in which their planet, Gallifrey , had been left following the events of " The Day of the Doctor ". This arc was penned by Steven Moffat , who has been exploring
45582-448: Was the one to release Swarm from imprisonment as part of the Division's plan to destroy the universe. She was disintegrated by Swarm shortly after briefly confronting the Thirteenth Doctor after she found out her true origins as the timeless child. Other than Tecteun and Susan Foreman , his granddaughter with whom he travelled during the first two seasons and who has been mentioned occasionally since, references to
45796-404: Was written by " David Agnew " – a pseudonym for the combined work of David Fisher , Douglas Adams , and Graham Williams – and directed by Michael Hayes . City of Death features the Fourth Doctor ( Tom Baker ) and his companion Romana ( Lalla Ward ). Set mainly in Paris in 1979, the plot concerns a scheme by Count Scarlioni ( Julian Glover ), in reality an alien called Scaroth, to steal
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