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The Doctor is the only known name of the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and also featured in a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series. For a more general overview of the programme itself, see the main Doctor Who article.
"The Doctor" is a Time Lord, an extraterrestrial from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in a time machine called the TARDIS - Time And Relative Dimensions (or Dimension) In Space - that allows him to reach any point in time and space. For the most part, and usually because the vessel's navigation system is old and unreliable, he explores the universe at random and uses his extensive knowledge of science and advanced technology to heroically avert the crises that he encounters. The Doctor has, at various times, been accompanied by companions who have chosen to travel with him for a variety of reasons.
The Doctor is considered a renegade by his people for his penchant of getting "involved" with the universe, in direct violation of official Time Lord policy. However, most of the time his actions are tolerated, especially when he has saved not just Gallifrey, but the universe, several times over. His standing in Time Lord society has waxed and waned over the years, from being a hunted man to even being appointed Lord President of the High Council (an office he did not assume for very long and eventually was removed from in his absence). In the end, though, he has always seemed quite content to remain a renegade and an exile.
The character was first portrayed by William Hartnell, who played him as an irascible, grandfatherly figure. When Hartnell left the series, the role was taken over by Patrick Troughton. To date, eight actors have played the Doctor on television, with perhaps the most enduring incarnation being the fourth, played by Tom Baker.
When the series begins, nothing is known of the Doctor at all, not even his name. In the very first serial, 100,000 BC, two teachers from the Coal Hill School in London, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, become intrigued by one of their students, Susan Foreman, who exhibits high intelligence and unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, they see her enter what appears to be a police box. Following her inside, the two not only discover the police box's exterior is camouflage for the TARDIS, but encounter an elderly gentleman whom Susan calls "Grandfather". He introduces himself simply as the Doctor, and subsequently whisks them all away for an adventure in time and space.
In the first episode, Barbara addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman," as the junkyard in which they find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". The Time Lord responds, "Eh? Doctor who?" Although referred to in the on-screen credits for nearly twenty years as "Doctor Who", the Doctor is never really referred to by that name, except in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The only exception has been a computer in the serial, The War Machines, which commanded that "Doctor Who is required." Although it is often asserted that "Doctor Who" is not the character's name, there is nothing in the series itself that actually confirms this. On at least one occasion the Doctor is about to give a name after the title "Doctor..." but is interrupted.
In The Highlanders he adopts the alias "Doctor von Wer" (a German approximation of "Doctor Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in The Underwater Menace. When pressed, he sometimes gives the name "Dr John Smith". On occasion he is referred to as "Theta Sigma", apparently a University nickname. In the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor is asked to sign a document, which he does so by using a question mark. He has been mocked by his own people for adhering to such a "lowly" title as "Doctor".
In many spin-off comic strips, books, films and other media, the character is often called "Doctor Who" (or just "Dr. Who") as a matter of course, though this has declined in more recent years. From the first story through to Logopolis (the last story of the 18th season and also of the Tom Baker era), the lead character was listed as "Doctor Who". Starting from Peter Davison's first story, Castrovalva (the first story of the series' 19th season), the lead character is credited simply as "The Doctor".
A large part of the Doctor's appeal comes from his mysterious and alien origins. While over the decades several revelations have been made about his background - that he is a Time Lord, that he is from Gallifrey, and so on - the writers have often strived to retain some sense of mystery and to preserve the eternal question, "Doctor who?" This backstory was not rigidly planned from the beginning, but developed gradually (and somewhat haphazardly) over the years, the result of the work of many writers and producers.
Understandably, this has led to continuity problems. Characters such as the Meddling Monk were retroactively classified as Time Lords, early histories of races such as the Daleks were rewritten, and so on. The creation of a detailed backstory has also led to the criticism that too much being known about the Doctor limits both creative possibilities and the sense of mystery. Some of the stories during the Seventh Doctor's tenure, part of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", were intended to deal with this issue by suggesting that much of what was believed about the Doctor was wrong and that he is a far more powerful and mysterious figure than previously thought. An example of this occurs in the episode "Silver Nemesis" in which a villain is shown shaking her head and smiling when another character says The Doctor is a Time-Lord.
The 1996 made-for-TV movie, known informally as Enemy Within created even more uncertainty about the character, revealing (among other things) that his mother was human, although fans seemed to be more upset about the fact that The Doctor is shown breaking his longstanding taboo against romantic involvement with his companions. Reportedly, this taboo may be broken again in the new 2005 series.
While some fans regard discontinuities as a problem, others regard it as a source of interest or humour (an attitude taken by in the book The Discontinuity Guide). A common fan explanation is that a universe with time travellers is likely to have many historical inconsistencies. There has also been much fan speculation centred on exactly which aspects of the television series, books, radio dramatisations, and other sources will be considered canon in the new series to be broadcast in 2005.
Seven actors played the Doctor on television in the original series:
In 1996 there was a one-off television movie in which Sylvester McCoy's Doctor regenerated into:
On March 19, 2004, the BBC announced the name of the Ninth Doctor for the new series in 2005:
The changing of actors is explained within the series by the Time Lords' ability to "regenerate" after suffering mortal injury, illness, or old age. The process repairs and rejuvenates all damage, but as a side-effect it changes the Time Lord's physical appearance and personality semi-randomly. This explanation was not developed until producers had to find a way to replace the elderly William Hartnell with Patrick Troughton. It was later established that a Time Lord can regenerate 12 times before permanently dying, though as with most such "rules" there were occasionally exceptional cases, such as when a renegade Time Lord, the Master, at the end of his regeneration cycle possessed the body of another person to continue living. The episode "The Five Doctors" established that the High Council of the Time-Lords has the power to "reboot" a Time-Lord's regeneration cycle from the beginning, implying that the race has the potential to be immortal.
In the Sixth Doctor story The Trial of a Time Lord, a Time Lord with the title of the Valeyard (played by Michael Jayston) is revealed to be a potential future Doctor, existing somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnations and embodying all the evil and malevolence of the Doctor's dark side. The Valeyard was defeated in his attempt to actualize himself by stealing the Sixth Doctor's remaining regenerations, however, and so may never actually come to exist.
The idea of an "in-between" version of the Doctor has its precedents. In Planet of the Spiders, a Time Lord's future self (described as a "distillation" of the future incarnation) is shown to exist as a corporeal projection that assists his current incarnation. In Logopolis, a mysterious white-cloaked figure known as The Watcher assists in the transition between the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton with William Hartnell in a minor role in The Three Doctors.
Other actors have portrayed the character of the Doctor outside of the television series. For details on this see Other appearances in the main article and Doctor Who spin-offs.
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