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142-659: The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor , the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . He is portrayed by Colin Baker . Although his televisual time on the series was comparatively brief and turbulent, Baker has continued as the Sixth Doctor in Big Finish 's range of original Doctor Who audio adventures. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor

284-574: 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

426-598: 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

568-611: 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

710-456: 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

852-665: 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 ",

994-471: 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

1136-529: 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

1278-506: A cat badge to the ensemble. During Baker's run in the stage play Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure , the original frock coat was replaced by a similar one with a scarlet, blue and purple colour scheme. More recently, a royal blue version of the original costume has been used in spin-off media. First used in the webcast Real Time , due to the limited availability of colours in the type of animation used, it has appeared subsequently on covers of audio dramas from Big Finish Productions . In

1420-582: 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

1562-456: 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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1704-431: 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

1846-515: 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

1988-563: 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

2130-406: 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

2272-461: 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

2414-511: 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

2556-496: 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,

2698-423: A new companion was introduced - Dr. Evelyn Smythe , a middle-aged history lecturer on the verge of compulsory retirement whose sharp tongue and unwillingness to tolerate the Doctor's attitude steadily taught him to rein in his more unkind tendencies. Due to this influence, the Sixth Doctor evolved into a more compassionate and likable character. In addition, beginning with the webcast Real Time (2003), his costume

2840-532: 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

2982-802: A series of audio adventures featuring the Fifth Doctor , Sixth Doctor and Seventh Doctor . For 22 years these stories continued collectively known as Big Finish's Main Range . In May 2020, Big Finish announced the main range would conclude in March 2021 and subsequently replaced with regular releases of each Doctor's adventures continuing in their own respective ranges. Several previously released special titles were retroactively reallocated into these new ranges by Big Finish. This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least one season. On 30 June 2023, two boxsets were scheduled for 2024. The first

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3124-590: 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

3266-484: 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

3408-524: 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

3550-456: A vital appearance for the character. Jones stated that it was only in Baker's second series that the Doctor began to display his "wealth of potential". Ultimately, Jones suggested that it was the producer's "poor handling" of the Sixth Doctor's character that resulted in the series' decline in popularity and eventual axing in 1989. The Doctor (Doctor Who) A number of other actors have played

3692-512: Is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in the TARDIS , frequently with companions . At the end of life, the Doctor regenerates ; as a result, the physical appearance and personality of the Doctor changes. Baker portrays the sixth such incarnation: an arrogant and flamboyant character in brightly coloured, mismatched clothes whose brash and often patronising personality set him apart from all his previous incarnations. Preceded in regeneration by

3834-408: 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

3976-410: 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

4118-404: 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 ",

4260-444: 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

4402-502: 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

Sixth Doctor - Misplaced Pages Continue

4544-561: 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,

4686-515: 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

4828-435: 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

4970-536: 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),

5112-607: 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

5254-551: Is rescued by the Sixth as part of a temporal paradox), supermarket check-out girl Flip Jackson , and WREN code-breaker Constance Clarke. The novel The Shadow in the Glass also depicts the Doctor working with his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to thwart a conspiracy to unleash a Fourth Reich led by the secret son of Adolf Hitler , at a point when the Doctor was travelling alone. The Doctor eventually encounters Mel accidentally during

5396-571: 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

5538-524: Is scheduled for March 2024. Big Finish's Senior Producer John Ainsworth teased that it would follow "the Sixth Doctor celebrates his 40th anniversary by encountering some old acquaintances". On 23 May 2024, Big Finish announced their slate of boxsets for 2025. Senior Producer John Ainsworth said “The Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors will feature in two box sets each, as in previous years. I shan't give too much away but expect companions old and new, some classic series monsters that haven't featured on audio for

5680-499: 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;

5822-603: 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

Sixth Doctor - Misplaced Pages Continue

5964-460: The Fifth Doctor ( Peter Davison ), he is followed by the Seventh Doctor ( Sylvester McCoy ). The Sixth Doctor appeared in three seasons. His appearance in the first of these was at the end of the final episode of The Caves of Androzani which featured the regeneration from the Fifth Doctor and thereafter in the following serial The Twin Dilemma , the end of that season. The Sixth Doctor's era

6106-670: The Master , Daleks , Cybermen and Sontarans , and even shared an adventure with his own second incarnation in The Two Doctors . He also faced a renegade female Time Lord scientist, the Rani , who was conducting experiments on humans using the Luddite riots as a cover. Later, the Doctor and Peri landed on the devastated planet Ravolox, which they discovered was actually Earth, moved across space with devastating consequences. Before they could discover

6248-609: 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

6390-491: 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

6532-587: 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

6674-661: The 14-episode story arc The Trial of a Time Lord . The Sixth Doctor also appeared in the special Dimensions in Time . There are also novels and audio plays featuring the Sixth Doctor, and the character has been visually referenced several times in the revived 2000s production of the show. More so than any other canonical incarnation, aside from the Eighth Doctor , the Sixth Doctor has been heavily expanded upon in expanded universe media, most notably in audio stories produced by Big Finish Productions . In The Marian Conspiracy (2000),

6816-418: 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

6958-555: The Big Finish audio Criss-Cross , the Doctor is depicted on the cover as wearing a brown-and-scarlet tweed jacket and waistcoat with a blue-and-white striped shirt, along with a navy blue bow tie with crimson spots, while acting undercover in Bletchley Park in 1944 after the TARDIS is rendered inoperable by a strange signal. The Doctor dons this attire again, referring to it as his 'Bletchley Tweeds', when visiting Russia in 1947 in

7100-552: 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

7242-510: 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

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7384-425: 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

7526-558: 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

7668-405: 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

7810-410: 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

7952-552: 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 ,

8094-533: 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,

8236-400: 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

8378-481: 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

8520-433: 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

8662-467: 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

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8804-478: 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

8946-417: 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

9088-515: 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

9230-562: 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

9372-498: 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

9514-454: 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

9656-431: 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

9798-428: 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

9940-500: 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

10082-560: 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

10224-479: 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

10366-483: The Matrix recordings of the Doctor's travels; in reality Peri had survived events on Thoros Beta. The events of the trial tangled the Doctor's timeline slightly, as he left in the company of Mel , whom he technically had not yet met. When the TARDIS is attacked by the Rani, the Sixth Doctor was somehow injured and regenerated into the Seventh Doctor ; the exact cause of the regeneration, however, has never been revealed on-screen. An aged Sixth Doctor appeared as one of

10508-479: 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

10650-555: The Sixth, because he could not become the masterplanner and manipulator that his next incarnation became, due to his fear of becoming the Valeyard. The BBC Books Past Doctor Adventures novel Spiral Scratch proposes that the Sixth Doctor died as a result of his chronal energy being drained in a confrontation with a powerful pan-dimensional entity before being snared by the Rani's beam. The unofficial, for-charity-published, novel Time's Champion by Craig Hinton and Chris McKeon consigns

10792-512: 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

10934-517: 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

11076-491: 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

11218-399: 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

11360-483: 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

11502-451: 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

11644-422: The Valeyard. He was lured back into travelling by the Time Lords, and recruited Grant Markham as a companion. Although now travelling again, he attempted to avoid meeting Mel and recruited other companions. The audios in particular depict a range of people joining the Doctor's travels, including history lecturer Evelyn Smythe , "Edwardian adventuress" Charley Pollard (a former companion of the Eighth Doctor who

11786-425: 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

11928-496: 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

12070-437: The actor's talents and the character's potential". He believed that "neither Baker nor the Sixth Doctor ever really got the proper treatment they deserved" in the series, Baker having been the only actor to portray the Doctor to be fired from the role. Jones noted that the Sixth Doctor's first onscreen appearance in " The Twin Dilemma ", showcasing his brash and aggressive demeanour, made it difficult for audiences to warm to him in

12212-465: The alias "Dr. Bowman" in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie . Real Time (Doctor Who) The Sixth Doctor Adventures is a Big Finish Productions audio play series based on the television series Doctor Who . It sees the return of Colin Baker reprising his role as the Sixth Doctor . In 1999, beginning with the story The Sirens of Time , Big Finish Productions began producing

12354-648: The audio Quicksilver . In 2008, an unofficial Doctor Who novel Time's Champion was published, written by Chris McKeon and the late Craig Hinton . All proceeds went to the British Heart Foundation . Penguin Fiftieth Anniversary eBook novellas The Sixth Doctor was featured in a number of acclaimed comic strips drawn by John Ridgway . These featured visuals and storylines of a whimsical fantasy nature, similar to Alice in Wonderland. The Sixth Doctor

12496-492: 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

12638-429: 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

12780-412: 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

12922-477: 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

13064-485: 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

13206-423: The course of his life, trapping the last fragments of the Doctor's personality in the Matrix. Faced with the prospect that the Valeyard, who has already replaced the Doctor's timeline so that even Mel believes he has always been the Doctor, will go on to do the same thing to every other Time Lord in history, the Sixth Doctor sends a message from the Matrix to his own past self, diverting the younger Doctor to travel to

13348-465: 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 ",

13490-525: 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

13632-491: 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

13774-416: 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

13916-410: The events leading up to the Sixth Doctor's death and regeneration. According to this account, after a series of encounters with the Valeyard over the course of his life depicting the Valeyard regaining his energy after their last battle, the Sixth Doctor is essentially 'replaced' by the Valeyard, who had planted parasitic creatures in the TARDIS's telepathic circuits that formed a link with the Doctor over

14058-520: The events of Spiral Scratch to an alternate timeline, and makes the Sixth Doctor the eponymous Time's Champion, to save Mel from the clutches of the Time Lord God, Death. In these events, the Doctor, through the TARDIS' telepathic circuits, forces his own regeneration and then travels towards Lakertya, setting up the events of Time and the Rani . In 2015, Big Finish Productions released The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure , an audio drama depicting

14200-444: The events of Time and the Rani . Colin Baker wished to dress his Doctor in black velvet, to reflect his character's darker personality. Producer John Nathan-Turner , however, opted for a deliberately "totally tasteless" costume with clashing colours. Designer Pat Godfrey made several attempts which were considered not tasteless enough before Nathan-Turner finally accepted the last one as sufficiently garish. Colin Baker later described

14342-431: 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

14484-547: The events of the BBC Books novel Business Unusual and accepts his fate once she stows away in the TARDIS. Pip and Jane Baker's novelisation of Time and the Rani provides the first relatively brief attempt to explain the Doctor's regeneration (specifically, that it was triggered by "tumultuous buffeting" as the Rani attacked the TARDIS). The Virgin New Adventures series suggests that the Seventh Doctor somehow deliberately killed

14626-459: 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

14768-442: 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"

14910-417: 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

15052-415: 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

15194-507: 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

15336-471: 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 ",

15478-595: 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

15620-671: 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

15762-411: 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"

15904-521: 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

16046-441: The outfit as "an explosion in a rainbow factory". The Sixth Doctor wears a scarlet plaid frock coat , with green patchwork, and yellow and pink lapels over a white shirt with crimson question marks embroidered in the collar (a feature of the programme since 1980), a waistcoat with a fob watch , a large tie, yellow trousers with black stripes, and emerald green ankle boots with royal orange spats . There were many variants on

16188-408: The planet Lakertya shortly before the Valeyard originally took over his timeline. As a result, the younger Doctor is exposed to radiation that is deadly to Time Lords, with his death and subsequent regeneration into the Seventh Doctor killing the parasites, stopping the Valeyard from succeeding with his plan as the regeneration 'kills' the link the parasites had created to the Doctor, but also setting up

16330-511: 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

16472-525: The previous actor Peter Davison had left after only three years. Due to his decidedly short screen time, the Sixth Doctor appeared with only two companions, most notably the American college student Peri Brown ( Nicola Bryant ), who had travelled with his previous incarnation , before being briefly joined by Mel Bush ( Bonnie Langford ), a computer technician from his future who he had yet to actually meet during his trial. Prior to its postponement, season 23

16614-400: 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

16756-538: 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

16898-465: The purposes of transitioning to a new Doctor when the series resumed with Time and the Rani and there were other unresolved questions, such as when and how the Doctor and Mel actually met. Attempts have been made by various authors to fill in these narrative gaps. The Virgin Missing Adventures novel Time of Your Life states that the Doctor went into a self-imposed exile to avoid becoming

17040-452: The reason for this disaster, the TARDIS landed on Thoros Beta. What actually happened here is unclear, but initial accounts suggest that Peri was killed after being cruelly used as a test subject in brain transplant experiments and the Doctor was pulled out of time to a Time Lord space station where he was put on trial for the second time by his own race, the Time Lords . In reality the trial

17182-482: 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

17324-484: 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

17466-464: 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

17608-506: 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

17750-480: 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

17892-465: 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

18034-478: 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

18176-516: 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,

18318-489: 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

18460-460: The waistcoat and tie, the earliest being the knitted brown waistcoat and turquoise cravat . The waistcoat was changed to burgundy check, and in the following story a new crimson cravat with cream polka dots appeared. The "future" version of the Sixth Doctor seen aboard the Hyperion III ( The Trial of a Time Lord ) wore a stripey waistcoat and a yellow cravat, speckled with black stars. Baker added

18602-535: The “Guardians of the Edge” in an afterlife, inside the Doctor’s mind in the final Thirteenth Doctor special, " The Power of the Doctor ." Doctor Who was put on hiatus for 18 months following The Trial of a Time Lord , and Colin Baker was asked to return for a single story which would have led to an event precipitating the Doctor's regeneration. As he declined to do so, there were limits as to what could be done on screen for

18744-488: Was a cover-up organised by the High Council. A race from Andromeda had stolen Time Lord secrets and hidden on Earth, so to protect themselves the Time Lords had moved Earth through space, burning the surface in a massive fireball and leaving it as Ravolox. The prosecutor at that trial, the Valeyard , turned out to be a possible future evil incarnation of the Doctor himself who was out to steal his remaining lives. He had also edited

18886-722: 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

19028-685: 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

19170-467: 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

19312-567: 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

19454-472: Was marked by the decision of the BBC controller Michael Grade to put the series on an 18-month "hiatus" between seasons 22 and 23, with only one new Doctor Who story, Slipback , made on radio during the hiatus, broadcast as 6 parts (at 10 minutes each) on BBC Radio 4 from 25 July to 8 August 1985, as part of a children's magazine show called Pirate Radio Four . Colin Baker had been signed up for four years, as

19596-418: 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

19738-404: 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

19880-488: Was revised into a monochromatic blue variant, displayed on many audio stories' covers since then. The Sixth Doctor's regeneration was initially unstable, and he nearly strangled Peri before he came to his senses. Realising what he had nearly done, he initially considered going into a hermit-like existence on the planet Titan 3, only to be caught up in events on the planet Jocanda, after which he resumed his travels ( The Twin Dilemma ). He encountered many old foes including

20022-457: Was somewhat calmer and more restrained than on television. All of these comic strips appeared in Doctor Who magazine in the 1980s. Colin Baker himself wrote a comic book special called The Age of Chaos in which the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher visit an older version of Peri. In 2024, Callum Jones of Screen Rant wrote that Colin Baker 's tenure as the Sixth Doctor was "very much a waste of both

20164-414: Was well advanced with episodes already drafted and in at least one case distributed to cast and production. Alongside "The Nightmare Fair", "The Ultimate Evil", "Mission to Magnus", "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It", the remaining stories were still under development in a 25-minute episode format after the season was postponed. These were all dropped with the reconception of the season in mid 1985 in favour of

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