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183-673: The War Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor , the protagonist of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who . He was portrayed by the English actor John Hurt . Although he precedes Christopher Eccleston 's Ninth Doctor in the show's fictional chronology, his first onscreen appearance came eight years after Eccleston's; the War Doctor was retroactively created by showrunner Steven Moffat for productions celebrating

366-586: 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

549-608: 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

732-631: 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

915-463: 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 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

1098-682: 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 ",

1281-471: 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

1464-541: 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

1647-600: 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, 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

1830-596: A clearly insane man who has a time machine. That is your starting point with that character. What point in their life are they? What decisions have been made that leads them to respond positively to a travel request from a lunatic in a bow tie." Steven Moffat The BBC commissioned the fourteen-episode seventh series on 8 June 2011. "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" was executive produced by Steven Moffat , Piers Wenger and Caroline Skinner. Beth Willis left

2013-460: 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 is disintegrated and later woven into the Doctor. The Timeless Child reveal partly took inspiration from this. The Doctor's adoptive mother Tecteun

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2196-431: 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

2379-538: A double-breasted trenchcoat of chocolate brown leather with peaked lapels , similar to the Ninth Doctor 's black leather peacoat as well as a double-breasted waistcoat of maroon moleskin with a bronze fob watch , dark tan trousers , army green leather gaiters , and ebony black combat boots similar to ones worn by the Eighth Doctor . Costume designer Howard Burden said that Hurt's character

2562-528: 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

2745-579: 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

2928-406: 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

3111-468: 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

3294-462: 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

3477-476: A life-saving regeneration into a form of his choice. Feeling the universe has no more need for a doctor, he requests to become a warrior. After regenerating into the War Doctor, he disowns the name of the Doctor, with his new incarnation's first words being "Doctor no more". In the 50th anniversary special " The Day of the Doctor ", having fought in the Time War for many years, the greatly aged War Doctor steals

3660-505: 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,

3843-481: 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

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4026-534: A prequel series — The War Doctor Begins — with actor and impressionist Jonathon Carley taking over the title role. The first volume was released in June 2021 and the series came to an end with its sixth volume in December 2023. In March 2024, a sequel series was announced, The War Doctor Rises , with Carley returning as the War Doctor. Carley also portrayed the War Doctor for the final episode of Once and Future -

4209-641: A promotional image were first made available online in the morning of 2 August. "Asylum of the Daleks" was screened at BFI Southbank on 14 August, and at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival during 23–25 August. On 25 August it was also screened in New York City. Following the BFI screening, around twenty high-resolution images from the first five episodes were released on

4392-424: A series marking the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who . In the main plot, an unspecified incarnation of the Doctor is attacked with a weapon that causes them to switch randomly between past and future incarnations. The War Doctor is revealed midway through The Union , confirming that he was the incarnation on whom the weapon was originally used. The Doctor (Doctor Who) A number of other actors have played

4575-598: 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

4758-490: 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

4941-529: 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, 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

5124-534: A weapon that could erase Gallifrey from history. The War Doctor appears alongside the other incarnations of the Doctor in the 2014 collection The Shakespeare Notebooks . The War Doctor's segment is titled "A Prologue", and purports to be a fictionalised account of the Time War written by William Shakespeare . A further prose story titled "The Stranger" was released in 2015 as part of the Heroes and Monsters Collection , while another George Mann story, "Decoy", appears in

5307-408: 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 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

5490-410: 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

5673-404: 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 ",

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5856-444: 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

6039-510: 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

6222-576: Is later revealed to be 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,

6405-449: Is learned that the peace talks orchestrated by himself and his future incarnations resulted in 20 million Zygons taking up residence on Earth disguised as humans as part of an uneasy truce. The War Doctor is not seen but is mentioned during " Hell Bent ", upon the Twelfth Doctor 's return to Gallifrey. A Time Lord soldier recalls that he served with the War Doctor during the battle of Skull Moon. He observes "the first thing you notice about

6588-573: Is lighting the fire so that better Doctors can be forged, only for the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors to travel back to activate the Moment with him, the later Doctors declaring that they now recognise the War Doctor as having been "the Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right". However, aided by the Moment's interface which shows them a vision of the horror and destruction wrought in the Fall of Arcadia,

6771-521: 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

6954-435: 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

7137-545: 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),

7320-566: 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

7503-582: 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 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

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7686-504: 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;

7869-549: The Eighth Doctor ( Paul McGann ) is killed in a spaceship crash while trying to save an innocent woman, who rejected his efforts because she regards the Time Lords and the Daleks as equally monstrous for the collateral damage inflicted in the war, he is temporarily resurrected by the Sisterhood of Karn (last seen in The Brain of Morbius ) and urged to take a stand and join the war. He is offered an elixir designed to trigger

8052-620: 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

8235-570: The Fourth Doctor ( Tom Baker ), who did not wear exactly the same clothes but retained a common "look". Murray Gold composed the soundtrack to this series, with orchestration by Ben Foster . The seventh series began shooting on 20 February 2012. Episodes 2 and 3 were the first to enter production, directed by Saul Metzstein . Much of the Wild West episode was filmed in March 2012 in

8418-587: The Ninth Doctor ( Christopher Eccleston ), realising that his body is "wearing a bit thin", echoing the First Doctor 's utterances in The Tenth Planet . The War Doctor appears in archive footage in the 2014 episode " Listen ". The episode reveals that the barn to which the War Doctor travelled, in order to activate the Moment, was part of the Doctor's childhood home. Through similar footage he also appeared in " The Zygon Invasion ", during which it

8601-629: 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

8784-495: The Zygons ". Throughout the revival, the Doctor routinely attempts to change the topic when questioned about being 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

8967-601: 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

9150-467: The 100th episode produced since the series returned in 2005, although " The Crimson Horror " was the 100th aired. Scenes for " Nightmare in Silver " were filmed in early November 2012, showing a new design for the Cybermen. Production blocks were arranged as follows: Smith, Gillan, Darvill, Moffat, and Skinner all promoted the series at the official Doctor Who convention in Cardiff in March 2012. At

9333-424: The 2019 collection Doctor Who The Target Storybook , in which the War Doctor stands up to Rassilon to save General Artarix and a Time Lord fleet from a suicide mission. In May 2015, it was announced by Titan Books that the War Doctor would be the fourth incarnation joining the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors in their Four Doctors crossover mini-series. This is the War Doctor's second appearance in comics,

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9516-418: 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

9699-627: The BBC and stepped down as executive producer after series 6 and Wenger also departed following the Christmas special, leaving Moffat and Skinner as executive producers for series 7. Marcus Wilson remained as series producer, with Denise Paul producing "The Bells of Saint John", "The Rings of Akhaten", "Nightmare in Silver" and "The Name of the Doctor". Production of Doctor Who relocated to the new Roath Lock studios in Cardiff midway through production of

9882-406: The BBC released more poster-style artwork for episodes 11–13. On 19 April 2013, the title and poster for "The Name of the Doctor" were released. The prologue to the finale, "She Said, He Said" was released on 11 May 2013  ( 2013-05-11 ) on BBC Red Button and on-line. Viewers using Red Button were able to access the prologue between 7:40 and midnight every evening, until "The Name of

10065-427: The BBC's Doctor Who website. A teaser trailer for "Asylum of the Daleks" was released on 18 August 2012, with a longer version released on 25 August. On 29 August at midnight, the BBC released poster-style artwork for episodes 2–5. A trailer for the second half of the series first appeared at the end of "The Snowmen". The second was released 16 March 2013. A first picture and the title of "The Bells of Saint John"

10248-618: 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

10431-465: The Christmas specials "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" and "The Snowmen" was released on 24 September 2013 in Region 1 and 28 October 2013 in Region 2. The series received a strong Appreciation Index , with all episodes aside from "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe", "The Rings of Akhaten", "Cold War" and "Nightmare in Silver" in the "excellent" category of a score of 85 or more. "Asylum of

10614-521: 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

10797-425: 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

10980-402: The Daleks" told more than some of the four-parters in the classic series. In keeping with the blockbuster theme, the title sequence for the first part of the series (up to and including "The Snowmen") featured a different look to the titles and logo in the title sequence to reflect the concept of the episode. The Time Vortex in the title sequence was also tinted blue and green. The interior of

11163-423: The Daleks", "The Angels Take Manhattan" and "The Name of The Doctor" reached 89, 88, and 88, respectively, with "Asylum of the Daleks"'s score being higher than any of the last season and "The Name of The Doctor" higher than the series finale of the last season. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the series holds a 100% approval rating based on 8 critic reviews, and an average score of 8.82/10. Reviewing

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11346-589: The Doctor ", however, the Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith revises his opinion of this incarnation after revisiting the final moments of the war. In his original conception of the show's anniversary special, Moffat had written the Ninth Doctor as having ended the Time War. However, he was "pretty certain" that Christopher Eccleston would decline to return to the role, which he did. As he also had reservations about making Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor

11529-567: 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

11712-405: 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 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

11895-410: 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

12078-562: 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 ,

12261-547: 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 the initiation on participants: "Some would be inspired, some would run away and some would go mad (as he suggests happened to his nemesis,

12444-400: 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

12627-487: 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 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

12810-433: 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

12993-410: The Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body, but in doing so, gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. This plot device has allowed a number of actors to portray different incarnations of the Doctor over the show's long run. The War Doctor, not so named within the episodes in which he appears, is introduced as the incarnation of the Doctor who fought in

13176-418: The Doctor of War is that he's unarmed, for many it's also the last." His likeness is seen in " Twice Upon a Time " when Testimony show the First Doctor the man he will become. Testimony uses the titles "Doctor of War" and "Butcher of Skull Moon" as some of the names he will be known by, both previously used to refer to the War Doctor during " Hell Bent ". Later, after the Twelfth Doctor saves two soldiers on

13359-472: 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 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

13542-482: 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

13725-468: The Doctor to prove his identity as a Time Lord to Rogue. The War Doctor appears in the BBC Books novel Engines of War by George Mann . The novel details the events leading to the Doctor's decision to detonate the Moment, as seen in "The Day of the Doctor", including his decision to act against the resurrected Rassilon and the death of a temporary companion as he acts to stop a Dalek plot to develop

13908-417: 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

14091-524: 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 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

14274-453: The Doctor would want to fly away in the TARDIS with. The Doctor is quite picky. He doesn’t like everybody. He’s a difficult man to deal with. It’s not just anybody that he actually forms a proper friendship with. And what sort of person would run through those blue doors? An awful lot of people would run the other direction, probably including me, to be honest. So, you have to imagine somebody who’s ready to say, “Yes!,” to running away with

14457-462: The Doctor" aired on 18 May 2013  ( 2013-05-18 ) . The Doctor Who official Twitter account announced in March 2012 that it was planned that six episodes would be shown in 2012, including a Christmas Special, to be followed by eight in 2013. In July 2012, Smith stated that it would start in August, but Moffat later confirmed it was September. Part of the reason the show was moved to

14640-578: 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 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

14823-498: 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

15006-399: 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

15189-431: 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

15372-428: 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

15555-509: 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

15738-569: 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

15921-487: 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 the Armageddon Factor , it is revealed that the Doctor scraped through the academy with 51% on his second attempt. In The Time Meddler , it

16104-509: The Ponds respectively, as well as "Hide", "The Journey to the Center of the TARDIS" and "The Crimson Horror". Selected pieces of score from this series (from "Asylum of the Daleks" to "The Name of the Doctor", excluding "The Snowmen"), as composed by Murray Gold , were released on 9 September 2013 by Silva Screen Records. The music from "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" and "The Snowmen"

16287-486: The Seventh Doctor replies that he does not know. In the 1996 television movie , 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

16470-516: 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

16653-403: The TARDIS was redesigned starting with the Christmas special, which also featured a new title sequence that, for the first time since the end of Season 26 in 1989, showed the Doctor's face, together with a new orchestration of the theme tune . Moffat had noticed that the TARDIS' design was getting "progressively whimsical" and resembled more of a "magical place" rather than a machine. The set

16836-526: 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

17019-499: The Thirteenth Doctor is questioned how she copes with 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

17202-399: 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 " 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

17385-437: The Time War of the show's modern-day backstory . He was created as a result of a conscious decision of the Eighth Doctor , played by Paul McGann , to take up arms and become a warrior; in accepting this duty, the War Doctor disowned the title of "Doctor", and after the war's end is viewed with disdain by his subsequent incarnations, who reclaim the title that the character is known by. In the 50th anniversary special " The Day of

17568-552: The Time War. It was announced in October 2015 that John Hurt would reprise his role as the War Doctor for a series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions starting in December of that year. The War Doctor ran for twelve episodes over four box sets. The range concluded with Casualties of War in February 2017, a month after Hurt's death, and saw the Doctor reunite with Leela ( Louise Jameson ). In 2020, Big Finish announced

17751-490: 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

17934-454: The Twelfth Doctor rejects that he could be a hybrid of human and Time Lord ("Hell Bent"). The Doctor mentions having had 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

18117-740: The United States, and on Space in Canada. Within minutes of the first episode's UK ending, it was released onto the ABC iview service at 5:10   am on 2 September 2012. It premiered 8 September 2012 on ABC1 in Australia, and on 13 September 2012 in New Zealand on Prime TV . "The Snowmen" aired on 25 December 2012 on BBC America in the US, and the same date on Space in Canada. It aired

18300-451: The War Doctor into his future to meet the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors ( David Tennant and Matt Smith respectively) to understand the sadness and regret they endured while continuing the good he failed to accomplish. Having witnessed his future selves prevent a Zygon conquest of Earth and the destruction of London, the War Doctor concludes that he must destroy Gallifrey, reflecting that he

18483-425: 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

18666-500: 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

18849-450: The Widow and the Wardrobe" was released singly onto DVD and Blu-ray on 12 January 2012, episodes 1–5 (dubbed as 'Series 7: Part 1') followed on 29 October 2012 in Region 2 and 13 November 2012 in Region 1. The second part was released on 27 May 2013 containing the remaining episodes plus the 2012 Christmas special "The Snowmen". The remaining eight episodes plus "The Snowmen" were released onto DVD and Blu-ray on 27 May 2013 in Region 2, while

19032-466: The Wild West-themed third episode, stated that each episode would have more of a specific genre, and his was developed from a one-line pitch from Moffat. The stand-alone nature meant that there were no two-part episodes or series-long story arcs. According to Dan Martin of The Guardian , Moffat stated that the goal of the series was "compressed storytelling"; Martin remarked that "Asylum of

19215-691: The alias "Dr. Bowman" in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie . Doctor Who (series 7) The seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who was broadcast concurrently on BBC One in the United Kingdom, and was split into two parts as the previous series had been. Following its premiere on 1 September 2012, the series aired weekly with five episodes until 29 September. The remaining eight episodes were broadcast between 30 March and 18 May 2013. The 2012 Christmas special, " The Snowmen ", aired separately from

19398-513: The battlefield, the First Doctor remarks "that's what it means to be a Doctor of War." In " The Husbands of River Song ", it is shown that River Song ( Alex Kingston ) has photos of all the Doctor's faces including the War Doctor. The War Doctor appeared in a sequence along with all the other incarnations of the Doctor, when the Thirteenth Doctor broke out of the Matrix in " The Timeless Children ". Similarly, his likeness would appear once more in " Rogue ", shown alongside previous incarnations of

19581-492: The character Oswin Oswald, a secret which was kept from the public before transmission. Coleman was originally given the role of a Victorian governess named Jasmine, and then for the second audition she was given both the characters of Oswin and Clara. She originally thought that the producers were looking for the right character, but later realised it was part of Moffat's "soft mystery" plan of having multiple iterations of Clara in

19764-500: 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 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

19947-429: 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

20130-412: 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

20313-480: 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

20496-492: 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

20679-400: The conclusion of the series seven finale " The Name of the Doctor " when the Eleventh Doctor ( Matt Smith ) and companion Clara Oswald ( Jenna-Louise Coleman ) are trapped in the Doctor's timeline. Clara believes she has seen all the Doctor's faces, but does not recognise one figure. The Doctor (Smith) tells her that he is yet another version of himself, albeit one who has lost the right to

20862-486: The convention the first trailer for the series premiered. Three promotional images of Smith and Coleman were released on 8 June, 11 June, and 13 June. New footage was shown at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con on 15 July, consisting of clips from the second and third episodes. The second trailer for the series aired on the BBC on 2 August, as part of the coverage of the London Olympics . The 90-second trailer and

21045-693: The desert area of Almería , Spain, an area which contains Wild-West style streets that have been used in the making of many Western-set films. Filming the episode in Spain was cheaper than constructing a set in the UK. The fifth episode, Amy and Rory's last, was filmed in Central Park in New York City in April 2012, as well as at Cardiff University and a cemetery in Llanelli . The fourth episode

21228-473: 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 the academy and his affiliation with the notoriously devious Prydonian chapter of Time Lords. In " The Sound of Drums ",

21411-543: 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 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

21594-491: 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

21777-416: 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

21960-532: The episode "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" which she describes as one of her "least favorite episodes of the series". SFX called the second part of the series "the creakiest run of episodes since 1988" but noted that there was "plenty to enjoy", ending the review with "Thankfully 'The Name of the Doctor' is everything we could have hoped for from an overture to the 50th anniversary special: a wonderful, spectacular-looking, twisty-turny nostalgia-fest. The show's still got it." Patrick Kavanagh-Sproull of Cultfix described

22143-791: The events of " The Name of the Doctor ". Guest stars include David Gyasi in episode 1, Rupert Graves , David Bradley , Riann Steele, and the voices of David Mitchell and Robert Webb in episode 2, Ben Browder , Adrian Scarborough , and Garrick Hagon in episode 3, Steven Berkoff , Ruthie Henshall , and Jemma Redgrave in episode 4, Mike McShane in episode 5, Celia Imrie in episode 7, David Warner , Tobias Menzies , James Norton , and Liam Cunningham in episode 8, Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine in episode 9, Ashley Walters in episode 10, Rachael Stirling and her mother Dame Diana Rigg in episode 11, and Warwick Davis and Tamzin Outhwaite in episode 12. Mark Williams appears in

22326-431: 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

22509-459: The feeling." In " The Doctor's Daughter ", when discussing the topic of parenthood, 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

22692-526: The first half, SFX gave it 4/5 stars, describing it as "gloriously gorgeous and indomitably imaginative" with praise to the writing, although it did find "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" to be "a raggedy underachiever" and found the Daleks ' appearance in the opener to be unthreatening. Sherry Lipp of Cinema Lowdown wrote that "The first half of this series was somewhat of a disappointment, with more weak-to-average episodes than quality ones" with particular note to

22875-558: The first time in the show's history, each episode of this series is a standalone story with no multi-parters. Prologue videos to selected episodes were released via various online outlets and the Children in Need 2012 appeal. The seventh series marked Matt Smith 's third and final full series as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor . Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill , who portray Amy Pond and Rory Williams respectively, departed

23058-475: The former was released as two separate publications in Region 1 on 28 May 2013. On 12 May 2013, the box set of Series 7 Part 2 was erroneously dispatched to customers who pre-ordered it through the BBC America online store before the series had been fully aired, prompting a plea from show-runner Steven Moffat to keep the final episode "a secret" until broadcast. A 5-disc box set containing all 13 episodes plus

23241-476: The forthcoming TV event of the semi-century". Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews rated it 3.5/4, and wrote that "In the penultimate batch of episodes before Doctor Who ' s jubilee year, executive producer Steven Moffat continues to marvel with his ability to keep the time-and-space-travelling Doctor in ever-so-complicated trouble." He also praised the cast who were "very much on top of their collective game", and "The Impossible Girl" story arc. In his review of

23424-463: The illusion of the planet's own destruction. The Daleks are effectively tricked into firing on each other, annihilating themselves. The War Doctor accepts that upon returning to his own timeframe, he will forget his own heroic actions and must live with the false belief that he killed his own people. Before leaving, he takes a moment to thank his future selves for helping him "become the Doctor" again. Once inside his TARDIS , he begins to regenerate into

23607-570: The incarnation having previously featured in a non-speaking cameo in IDW 's Dead Man's Hand . The War Doctor appears in the first issue, in a flashback. The War Doctor — along with his companion, the Squire — also appears in a number of flashbacks in the second year of Titan's Eleventh Doctor comic series, which involves the Doctor being put on trial for a crime he is believed to have committed in his earlier incarnation. The War Doctor essentially takes over as

23790-430: The incarnation who had ended the war, he created a never-before-seen past incarnation of the Doctor, which allowed him "a freer hand" in writing the story, acknowledging that the success of doing this would be predicated on being able to cast an actor with a significant enough profile. In " The Name of the Doctor ", Hurt wore a burgundy and ivory herringbone scarf and a bone white pinstripe shirt . He also wore

23973-442: 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 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"

24156-461: The last battle in which the War Doctor fought, and Clara's plea to remember the vow they made in taking their name, the Doctors ultimately conclude that the loss of life that would be caused by using the Moment is something they cannot accept. They instead pool their resources, and with the help of the Doctor's various incarnations, attempt to save Gallifrey by freezing it in a moment in time, creating

24339-443: The lead incarnation in the stories The Organ Grinder and Kill God , with the Eleventh Doctor being largely absent from both stories, while his current companion Alice travels back to the Time War to help set up the events that the Eleventh Doctor is experiencing in the 'present', the crisis ending with Alice returning to her era and the War Doctor's memory of his time with her scrambled to preserve history. The War Doctor, along with

24522-417: 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

24705-400: The main series and introduced a new TARDIS interior, title sequence, theme tune, and outfit for the Doctor. Doctor Who ' s seventh series was the show's third and final series to feature Matt Smith , Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill . They reprised their roles of the Eleventh Doctor , Amy Pond and Rory Williams , respectively, from the previous series. Gillan and Darvill departed

24888-415: 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

25071-517: 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 the Doctor is revealed as " the Other ", a mysterious figure in Gallifreyan lore who co-founded Time Lord society with Rassilon and Omega . After

25254-471: 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 ",

25437-604: 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 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

25620-696: 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

25803-458: The name of the Doctor; when the figure declares that he did what he did "without choice [...] in the name of peace and sanity", the Doctor, before he and Clara return to the universe, states that the figure did not make his choice in the name of the Doctor. The War Doctor's origins are given in the mini-episode " The Night of the Doctor ", set during the Time War referred to in the series. After

25986-411: 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"

26169-473: The next day on ABC in Australia, and Prime in New Zealand. The first episode of the second half of the series, "The Bells of Saint John", was broadcast on 30 March 2013 on BBC America in the US, and on Space in Canada, and the following day in Australia on ABC1 and in South Africa on BBC Entertainment. Prime TV began airing the remainder of the series in New Zealand on 11 April 2013. "The Doctor,

26352-581: The original voice of the Great Intelligence . Grant later returned in the mid-series premiere and the series finale , portraying the Great Intelligence. "When you start with who’s going to be the one who goes on board the TARDIS, you can’t think of the word “companion.” You can’t think that they know they’re the supporting character on a TV show. You have to think that this is somebody who would fly away in that TARDIS, and that

26535-474: The other twelve incarnations, appears in the 2015 video game Lego Dimensions , voiced using clips of John Hurt's dialogue from his episodes. The War Doctor also appears as a playable character in the mobile game Doctor Who Legacy . A younger War Doctor appears in a flashback sequence in a Twelfth Doctor comic, which sees the Twelfth Doctor reflect on the events that led to the apparent death of his old acquaintance Fey Truscott-Sade and his own darker view on

26718-521: 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

26901-521: 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

27084-409: The programme in the fifth episode. The decision to write the pair out of the series was a mutual decision from Gillan and showrunner Steven Moffat . The actress previously stated that she did not want to make return cameos to the show. On 21 March 2012, it was announced that Jenna Coleman would replace Gillan and Darvill as the next companion. She auditioned for the role in secrecy, pretending it

27267-400: 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

27450-490: 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

27633-467: The purple colour scheme, which Smith described as "a bit Artful Dodger meets the Doctor". Moffat described the new outfit as a "progression" as the Doctor was in "a different phase of his life now" and felt more "grown-up" and fatherlike. In the second half of the series, Moffat intended to show the Doctor not dressing exactly the same way each time, similar to the Third Doctor ( Jon Pertwee ) and

27816-418: The recurring appearance of the Doctor's enemy, The Great Intelligence , who is later revealed to be trying to gain the Doctor's true name for his own purposes. Smith stayed for one year longer than Gillan and Darvill, and departed after the 2013 specials, with his final appearance being in the 2013 Christmas special " The Time of the Doctor ". As with Series 6 , this series was again split into two parts. For

27999-432: 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

28182-578: The same time, and it was reported that the manor location was also for that episode, and that Moffat was still writing the Christmas special. " Cold War " and " The Crimson Horror " were filmed in June and July 2012. " The Christmas special began filming the week of 6 August. " Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS " finished filming in September 2012. " The Bells of Saint John " was filmed in London from 8–16 October 2012. " The Rings of Akhaten " became

28365-413: The second and fourth episodes as Rory's father. Alex Kingston returned to the series as her character River Song for Amy and Rory's final episode and the series finale . Richard E. Grant and Tom Ward were cast in the 2012 Christmas special, together with young actor Cameron Strefford playing a younger version of Grant's character. Ian McKellen also appears in the Christmas special, providing

28548-632: The second part as a "return to form" concluding that "Apart from a few slightly faulty episodes, Series Seven was brilliant". Reviewing the whole series for IGN , Mark Snow rated it 7.9/10 and wrote that the series was "a tumultuous one". He felt that although "the concepts were almost universally strong, cramming an entire movie's worth of ideas into a self-contained 50 minute episode inevitably left plot-threads dangling". However, he thought that it "succeeded where it really counted – with strong character work, sporadically genius story concepts, and some show-altering twists that ensure we're as jazzed as ever for

28731-438: The series in the fifth episode, " The Angels Take Manhattan ", after which a new companion named Clara Oswald joined the Doctor, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman , remaining with the series for its second half. The main story arc of the series focused on the significance of the character of Clara, whom the Doctor had encountered twice before as Oswin in " Asylum of the Daleks " and as a governess in " The Snowmen ". It also features

28914-478: The series on 12 March 2012; the first episode to be filmed there was the Christmas special in Block Four, with the debut of Coleman's character; however it was reported that a later episode written by Neil Cross was the first Coleman filmed. Moffat has stated that the introduction of the new companion will "[reboot] the show a little bit" and "make you look at the Doctor differently". Moffat has stated that

29097-429: The seventh series would be the opposite of the arc-driven nature of the sixth, consisting of mainly stand-alone stories. This was inspired by fan reactions to the title of " Let's Kill Hitler " when it was revealed at the end of " A Good Man Goes to War " with no plot details; he told the writers of the seventh series to "slut it up" with "big, huge, mad ideas" and "write it like a movie poster". Toby Whithouse , writer of

29280-474: The seventh series' home media release, Mark Redfern of Under the Radar commented that the seventh series "features its share of hits and misses", but "mostly finds Doctor Who still in fine form". He listed the episodes "The Bells of Saint John" and "Nightmare in Silver" as "underwhelming", but praised the episodes "Asylum of the Daleks" and "The Angels Take Manhattan" for the introduction of Clara and departure of

29463-427: The show's 50th anniversary. Hurt would reprise the role in the 2015 audio drama series The War Doctor until his death in 2017, with actor Jonathon Carley taking over the role from 2020 onward. Within the programme's narrative, the Doctor is an alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey , who is hundreds if not thousands of years old and travels in time and space in his TARDIS , frequently with companions . When

29646-436: 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

29829-467: 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

30012-513: 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

30195-485: 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 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

30378-409: The start of the year was because Moffat felt the darker nights suited the atmosphere of the programme, as well as the classic series originally airing in the start of the year. He stated that the decision to split the series up originally came from the BBC, but he was open to anything that "shakes [the series] up" and making the audience wait would make it seem like an "event piece". The first episode

30561-423: The superweapon known as "the Moment" with the intent of wiping out all combatants in the war along with his home world of Gallifrey . However, the Moment is sentient, possessing a conscience that requires the user to morally justify his use of it, and interacts with him in the shape of his future companion Rose Tyler ( Billie Piper ). Although acknowledging that she can do what the Doctor asks of her, she then sends

30744-469: 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

30927-421: 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

31110-516: 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 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,

31293-493: 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

31476-439: Was a "dark Doctor" existing between the Doctor's eighth and ninth incarnations. He was also seen to use a new sonic screwdriver with a scarlet light, closely matching the prop used by the Third and Fourth Doctors. He kept it in a bandolier originally worn by Cass, played by Emma Campbell-Jones, a young pilot and engineer who dies after refusing the Doctor's help due to him being a Time Lord. The War Doctor first appears at

31659-746: 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 , 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

31842-703: 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 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

32025-438: Was broadcast on 1 September 2012 on BBC One in the United Kingdom, with the fifth episode airing on 29 September 2012. The Christmas episode was broadcast on 25 December 2012 on BBC One in the United Kingdom, and the first episode of the second half of the series was broadcast on 30 March 2013. The series finale, "The Name Of The Doctor", was broadcast on 18 May 2013. The series premiered on 1 September 2012 on BBC America in

32208-470: 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 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

32391-421: Was designed by series production designer Michael Pickwoad, who stated that the new interior was also supposed to be "darker and moodier" and provide an easier access to the "gallery" of the ship when shooting. The new design allowed the entrance to be more central, and also returned the console to the look of the designs in the classic series. In the Christmas special the Doctor sported a new costume, tying into

32574-558: Was filmed next, the only episode in the third block of production. Doctor Who Magazine reported that the Christmas special would be produced by itself in Block Four. In late May 2012, Coleman was spotted at a manor in the Vale of Glamorgan , filming what was reported to be the Christmas special. However, Neil Cross's episode, reportedly the first Coleman shot, was partially filmed in Margam Country Park , South Wales, around

32757-409: Was for something called Men on Waves , an anagram for "Woman Seven". Moffat chose her for the role because she worked the best alongside Smith and could talk faster than him. He stated that her character will be different from previous companions, though he attempted to keep the details of her character a secret until she debuted in the Christmas special. In "Asylum of the Daleks", Coleman appears as

32940-581: 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

33123-418: Was pre-determined from his hidden previous life. The Doctor stole a TARDIS with his granddaughter Susan from 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

33306-415: Was released by the BBC on 1 March 2013. "The Bells of Saint John" was first screened to the press on 15 March, though the press was not allowed to release information until 18 March. On 18 March, the BBC released poster-style artwork for episodes 7–10. The prologue and trailer for "The Bells of Saint John" were released on 23 March 2013, and another picture was released on 26 March 2013. On 18 April 2013,

33489-404: 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

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