Biography for
The Doctor (Character)
from "Doctor Who" (1963)

Materialising the first time on everyone's TV screens on Saturday 23rd November 1963 at 5.15pm, The Doctor is the main character of the cult British show Doctor Who (and following the original series' cancellation in 1989, a 1996 US TV movie and a revived series in 2005). Calling himself 'The Doctor' with no one knowing his real name, he is a time-traveling adventurer alien from the planet Gallifrey, who loves adventures and the danger of it all.

Contents [hideshow] 1. History 2. The Doctor's Incarnations

History

The Doctor is the last of an ancient, nearly God-like race called the Time Lords (from the planet Gallifrey). The Doctor fled his home world with his granddaughter, Susan, discontent with their policy of merely observing the events of time and space and not interfering for the better, to explore the universe, making him a criminal renegade to his people. (He was eventually caught, put on trial exiled, and finally pardoned.)

After centuries of exploration, the Doctor was caught up in the Time War, a war in which the Time Lord's battled against their evil, infamous enemies, the Daleks, a powerful race from the planet Skaro. The Time War concluded with Gallifrey destroyed and all the Time Lords dead, save one. The Doctor is now left a lonely alien wanderer in his ship, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), a space-time living ship, grown by the Time Lord race. His ship is supposed to disguise herself according to wherever he lands but is stuck in the form of a 1950s Police Call Box. The Doctor is over 900 years old, has two hearts, and a respiratory bypass system which allows him to go without air for a short while.

He has had many companions, people who traveled along with the Doctor in his TARDIS. Some have left him to lead their own lives and some have been tragically killed at the hands of his deadliest enemies. Adric, a young lad who The Doctor knew in the 1980s, in his fourth and fifth body, suffered the fate of the Cybermen when he was trapped on a ship that exploded above the Earth. The most recent tragedy to strike the only Time Lord left in existence was the departure of his most loved companion, Rose Tyler who was stranded on a parallel universe after the battle of Canary Wharf between the Cybermen and Daleks. The Doctor moved forward, meeting Martha Jones, as well as some older foes thought long, long dead.

The Doctor's Incarnations

As a Time Lord the Doctor has the power to "regenerate", a process which he can undertake when he is near death, causing him to randomly change the shape, look, size and personality of his body. The Doctor has the ability to regenerate only 12 times, giving him 13 lives in total. In the official Doctor Who canon, the incarnations of the Doctor are:

First Doctor (portrayed by William Hartnell; 1963 - 1966)

Second Doctor (portrayed by Patrick Troughton; 1966 - 1969)

Third Doctor (portrayed by Jon Pertwee; 1970 - 1974)

Fourth Doctor (portrayed by Tom Baker; 1974 - 1981)

Fifth Doctor (portrayed by Peter Davison; 1981 - 1984)

Sixth Doctor (portrayed by Colin Baker; 1984 - 1986)

Seventh Doctor (portrayed by Sylvester McCoy; 1987 - 1989, 1996)

Eighth Doctor (portrayed by Paul McGann; 1996)

Ninth Doctor (portrayed by Christopher Eccleston; 2005)

Tenth Doctor (portrayed by David Tennant; 2005 - present)

Due to the time-travel nature of the show past actors of the Doctor have gone on to reprise their incarnations in later episodes. 1973's The Three Doctors saw the First and Second Doctors join the Third Doctor, while 1983's The Five Doctors saw the First (now played by Richard Hurndall due to Hartnell's death in 1975), Second, Third join the Fifth Doctor with the Fourth Doctor also involved. 1985's The Two Doctors comprised with a meeting between the Second and Sixth Doctor while the recent 2007 mini-episode Time Crash had the Fifth Doctor meet his Tenth incarnation.