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Doctor Who – Character Bios

The Doctor

The Doctor is a Time Lord, an alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time and space in his space ship called the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space). The TARDIS is most oftenly portrayed as the iconic Blue 1960s British Police Box. The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords, an advanced alien species that perceived time in a non-linear fashion though the Time Vortex. Through the use of their technology they became observers of the universe as well as guardians of the universe. In the revival of the series the Time Lords no longer exist because the Doctor destroyed them during the Last Great Time War. The Time Lords had been at war with the Daleks and in order to save the universe the Doctor sacrificed his own people.

The Doctor is many things, he is a lonely man, a genius, and very empathetic towards others. He is constantly trying to save the innocent and the universe. Therefore, he is a force to be reckoned with. Many fear him and many adore him, but he usually ends up in places and times that need his help. The Doctor is especially fond of human beings and often finds companions from Earth to travel with him.

One of the rather interesting things about the Doctor is that he has the ability to regenerate. As a Time Lord, whenever his body is close to death, he can will himself to regenerate into a new body. Since the beginning of the show there have been 11 incarnations of the Doctor. Although he is the same character through his regenerations, The Doctor’s personality changes with each new incarnation. However, his basic traits remain the same. Throughout all his incarnations the Doctor’s deep sense of right and wrong is always the same. He has a deep moral code and always intervenes when he sees injustices occurring. This is the main reason why he is so different than his non- intervening Time Lord race and it is why he values humans so thoroughly. He values their deep sense of love, courage and bravery.

At the end of the 6th season the Doctor was believed to be well over 900 years old. However, there still remain great mysteries as to his life on Gallifrey, his family, and even his real name. “Doctor Who?” is the oldest question in the Universe, one that seems to be the basis of the upcoming 7th season.

Rose Tyler

Rose Tyler is the first companion the Doctor has in the 2005 revival of the series. Rose meets the Doctor in the first episode of the series “Rose” (2005) where she helps him defeat the Nestene Consciousness. After her experience with the Doctor, Rose decides to go with him on his travels. She leaves her mom and boyfriend behind to do so. Over the course of the 1st season the Doctor and Rose are followed by the phrase “Bad Wolf.” At the end of the 1st Season the Dalek army has resurfaced and threatens to destroy the universe. Rose stares into the heart of the TARDIS and consumes the Time Vortex giving her God like powers. It is revealed that with her power Rose sent herself the “Bad Wolf” message to lead her to this point in time.

The Doctor is able to drain Rose of the Time Vortex and makes her human again. In the 2nd season Rose travels with the Doctor again but ends up tragically being stuck in an alternate reality at the end of the season, a loss which deeply affects the Doctor all of season three. Rose mysteriously returns in season four unbeknown to the the Doctor. At first she is only seen by Donna Nobel, the Doctor’s new companion, but soon it is revealed that Rose is back to help the Doctor stop all of reality from crumbling in on itself. Rose helps the Doctor save reality and at the end she goes back to her alternate reality with a human clone of the Doctor where she will presumably live the rest of her life out with him.

Rose is the only companion in the revival series to travel with two incarnations of the Doctor. She traveled with the Ninth and the Tenth Doctor. Rose is a departure from other Companions in that she falls in love with the Doctor and he with her. Although their relationship is never consummated, they share a deep love that ends tragically in the 2nd season when she is trapped in an alternate reality without the Doctor.

Martha Jones

Martha is the second companion to travel with the Doctor in the revival series. Martha is first introduced in the 3rd season and later comes back in a supporting role in the 4th season. Martha is a doctor by profession; this allows her to be both strong and empathetic in stressful situations. The Doctor meets Maratha in the season two episode “Smith & Jones” (2007) when the hospital she worked in is teleported to the moon by the Judoon, a rhinoceros-like alien police force. Unlike the Doctor’s other companions, Martha is quick to deal with the aliens and the whole abduction. She shows extraordinary strength and bravery and Martha helps the Doctor beat the Judoon who then teleport the hospital back to earth. The Doctor invites Martha to come with him on his travels, be it temporarily, but soon Martha becomes a full time companion.

Like Rose, Martha develops romantic feelings for the Doctor but is frustrated when they are not reciprocated. It is clear that the Doctor does not have feelings past his friendship with her. As season two comes to an end, The Master, another Time Lord, captures the Doctor and Martha is forced to save him along with her family and Captain Jack Harkness. Martha spends a year on the run all over the world and eventually helps the Doctor defeat the Master, reversing time and undoing the Master’s paradox. Martha decides to leave the Doctor and his adventures for the time being. Martha returns to the show during the fourth season and it is revealed that she is working for a government organization called UNIT that fight aliens who threaten to harm the Earth. She helps the Doctor save the Earth once again during the 4th season. In “The End of Time,” the last episode to feature the Tenth incarnation of the Doctor, Martha has married Mickey Smith, Rose Tyler’s former boyfriend and fights with along side him against aliens who threaten the Earth.

Donna Noble

Donna is the third of the Doctors full time companions during the fourth season of the show. Donna is first introduced in the 2006 Christmas special “The Runaway Bride,” and only referred to as The Bride. In this Christmas special Donna is transported aboard the TARDIS as she is walking down the isle about to be married. The Doctor makes it his goal to get her back to her wedding, thinking this was just a terrible mishap within the TARDIS. However soon he discovers that Donna works for HC Clements which is a security firm and a front for Torchwood. Donna discovers that her fiancé is working with an alien, the Empress, who wants to take over the Earth. She helps the Doctor stop the Empress but not before her fiancé is killed. Donna refuses to go with the Doctor when he invites her along on his travels, wanting to have a normal life on Earth.

Donna does not appear again until the first episode of season four, “Partners in Crime” (2007). There she helps the Doctor stop an alien race working within Adipose Industries. Donna confesses she has grown tired of her normal life and decides to go with the Doctor on his adventures. Unlike both Rose and Martha, Donna makes it clear her relationship with the Doctor is one of friendship and not romance.

Donna spends season four traveling with the Doctor and acts as a buffer for the Doctor’s rage. She shows him that he can save people and she adds a comedic element to the show. At the end of season four Donna must help the Doctor take down Davaros, creator of the Dalek’s. Donna absorbs the Doctor’s Time Lord knowledge and is able to use the TARDIS and destroy Davaros. However, she is human and because of that her mind cannot handle the knowledge of a Time Lord so the Doctor must erase her memory of him and their adventures. Her brain becomes so delicate that one memory of him and it would “burn up.” Donna makes her final appearance in “The End of Time” (2009), the last episode to feature the Ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Here is it revealed that she is getting married again and has no memory of The Doctor. In the last moments of the episode The Doctor gives her family a winning lottery ticket, ensuring her financial security.

Amy Pond

Amelia ”Amy” Pond is first companion to travel with the Eleventh incarnation of the Doctor. Amy first meets the Doctor when she is 7 years old and his TARDIS crashes in her back yard in the “The Eleventh Hour” (2010). Amy is the first person the new Doctor meets when she asks him to investigate a crack in her wall. The Doctor assures Amy he will take care of everything as soon as he can fix his TARDIS. He promises her he will be back in 5 minutes but unfortunately it took him 12 years to return. The Doctor saves her and her boyfriend Rory from Prisoner Zero, a fugitive alien living in her house.

After this the Doctor takes Amy with him. He doesn’t know that she is getting married to Rory the next morning. Amy travels with the Doctor believing that she loves him. In fact, she realizes she doesn’t have romantic feeling for the Doctor, and that she loves Rory. After that, Amy considers the Doctor her best friend and eventually marries Rory. They travel with the Doctor during the 5th and 6th seasons. In season 6, Amy becomes pregnant while in the TARDIS and it is revealed that her and Rory’s daughter Melody Pond is indeed River Song, a human with Time Lord abilities. Amy and Rory continue to follow the Doctor until he takes them back to Earth so they can try and live a normal life. It has been confirmed that Amy and Rory will leave the show during the upcoming 7th season.

Rory Williams

Rory is first introduced as Amy Pond’s boyfriend and later husband. Rory, like Mickey before him, fills the role of “the boyfriend” but soon emerges as his own character and a fitting companion to the Doctor. Rory is introduced in “The Eleventh Hour” (2010) but subsequently is missing from most of season 5 until “The Vampires of Venice” (2010) when the Doctor takes Rory and Amy to Italy for a romantic vacation. Rory is initially wary of the Doctor because he believes Amy is in love with him, but soon comes to realize that she loves him, not the Doctor, and the Doctor is only her friend.

In the middle of season five Rory is shot and subsequently absorbed by a crack in time and space and forgotten by Amy, thought he returns as a plastic replica of a Roman Soldier in the series finale. When Amy is killed and stuck in the Pandorica Box Rory guards her body for 2000 years until the Doctor can bring her back to life. At the end of season 5, the Doctor is able to fix the crack in time and space and Rory is made human again. In the 6th season Rory is made a full time companion and he learns that his daughter with Amy is actually River Song. River ends up marrying the Doctor at the end of season 6, making Rory the Doctor’s father in law. It has been confirmed that Amy and Rory will leave the show during the upcoming 7th season.

Captain Jack Harkness

Captain Jack first appears in season one of the series in the two parter “The Empty Child” (2005) and “The Doctor Dances.” (2005) Captain Jack is a time traveler and former con man from the 51st Century. He accidentally exposes London to a plague in the midst of the 1941 Blitz. Captain Jack redeems himself by saving London from a bomb that gone off yet and then follows the Doctor and Rose for the rest of season one. He sacrifices himself during the end of season one to stop the Dalek army from taking over the universe. When Rose absorbs the Time Vortex she brings Captain Jack back to life, unknowingly making him a fixed point in time and immortal, however, thinking he is dead the Doctor and Rose leave him behind on Satellite 5.

Captain Jack is the title character in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. He leads the Torchwood team–a government agency that protects the Earth from various alien threats. He makes a return to Doctor Who in season three during “Utopia” (2007) where he is reunited with the Tenth Doctor and Martha. Captain Jack explains that he cannot die and that he returned from Satellite 5 by travelling to 1869 via vortex manipulator, and lived through the 20th century waiting for The Doctor. He helps the Doctor stop the evil Time Lord The Master and returns back to his work on Torchwood.

Captain Jack’s sexuality became a big part of his character. As he is from the 51st century he grew up in a socially different culture. He therefore has relationships with men and woman on both Doctor Who and Torchwood. It is also implied that since Captain Jack is indeed immortal, he will presumably live for thousands of years. At the end of season three, Captain Jack tells the Doctor and Martha that in his early days back in the 51st century on the Boeshane Peninsula, he was referred to as “The Face of Boe.” The face of Boe is a recurring character on the show who the Doctor meets in the 1st season and later watches die in the 3rd season. It is therefore implied that Captain Jack will one day end up The Face of Boe, an alien being with whom the Doctor interacts in the future.

River Song

River is introduced in season four of the show in the two-part episodes of “Silence in the Library” (2008) and “Forest of the Dead” (2008). River and the Doctor’s meeting is peculiar because it is the first time the Doctor has met River but for River it would be the last time she sees him. River is a Time Traveler like the Doctor and every time they meet, they meet at different points in their lives. River is going back through time and meeting the Doctor at different points, and the Doctor is generally going forward in time. Every time they meet they must sync up their experiences on their respective time lines. In the season four two-parter River sacrifices herself to save her friends and the Doctor from an alien threat. The Doctor is able to save the last of her consciousness and saves her by uploading her consciousness in a virtual reality. However, this is in fact the last time River meets the Doctor, so the Doctor must keep meeting a younger version of River in his future travels. The Doctor knows that her journey will always lead her to her death in “Forest of the Dead.”

River is only introduced in the 4th season but she is one of the only main characters to jump to be featured in the 4th season with the Tenth Doctor and then 5th and 6th season with the Eleventh Doctor. River holds a PhD and is a Professor of Archaeology by profession. Though their encounters are strange and confusing, it is not until the 6th season that it is revealed that River is in fact Amy and Rory’s daughter. River was taken by Madame Kovarian and trained to kill the Doctor, a crime she is later imprisoned for. However, at the end of season 6, River and the Doctor arrive back in Utah where River has to kill the Doctor in his timeline. River refuses as she has fallen in love with the Doctor and all of reality converges on itself. The Doctor marries River with the blessing of Amy and Rory and convinces his new wife to kill him and save the world. The Doctor fakes his death, allowing River to be imprisoned.

Since River was conceived in the TARDIS, she had Time Lord like abilities and she could regenerate like The Doctor, among other things. River gives up her ability to regenerate in order to save the Doctor’s life in “Let’s Kill Hitler” (2011) and is rendered human once more. It is unclear if River will return in the 7th Season.

The Master

The Master is a Time Lord like the Doctor, and he is generally considered to be the Doctor’s arch nemesis. The Master is one of the few main characters to cross over from the Classic Doctor Who series where he made his first appearance on the show in 1971. In the revival series, the Master is introduced in season 3 in “Utopia” (2007). The Master steals the Doctor’s TARDIS and uses it to travel back to 2008 where he becomes Prime Minister. The Master uses the TARDIS to hold together a Time Paradox in order to take over the world. He uses humans from the future as his soldiers against the present day humans. The Master captures the Doctor but eventually is bested by the Doctor with help from his companion Martha Jones. The Master is shot by his wife and refuses to regenerate into a new body. He dies, once again leaving the Doctor by himself as the last Time Lord in the universe.

The Master returns in ‘The End of Time” (2009) after he is brought back to life. His new plan is to turn every human on Earth into a version of himself, essentially creating a “Master Race.” At the same time the Time Lords who were trapped in the Time Lock at the end of The Time War emerge threatening to destroy all of existence. The Master learns that the beating drum in his head was put there by the Time Lords as a link to bring them out of the Time Lock. Refusing to be a pawn for them, the Master sends the Time Lords and himself back into the Time Lock and saves the Universe.

Jackie Tyler

Jackie Tyler is Rose Tyler’s mother and is featured in the first four seasons of the revival series. Jackie is introduced in the series premiere of “Rose” (2005) She is a widowed single mother whom Rose lives with. At first Jackie is weary of the Doctor, she does not want Rose to travel with him and is initially very much resistant to him and his adventures. The Doctor tries to appease Jackie by giving Rose a Cell phone she can use to call her mother, no matter where or when she is. In the second season the Doctor, Mickey and Rose end up in an alternative universe where Rose’s father, Peter Tyler, is still alive and his is married to Jackie. In this universe Jackie is eventually captured and turned into a Cyberman while Peter escapes. At the end of season two Peter returns from the alternate universe and reunited with the present Jackie. They return to the alternate universe to live with Rose and Mickey sans the Doctor. Jackie reveals she is pregnant with a child.

Jackie returns in the season four finale “Journey’s End” (2008) where she helps Rose and the Doctor stop the Daleks from destroying reality. Jackie kills a Dalek and saves former companion Sarah Jane Smith. Jackie returns with Rose and a cloned human copy of the Doctor to the alternate reality where she lives with her husband Peter, their son and Rose and the clone Doctor. She is one of the few characters who gets her family back and a happy ending.
 

Mickey Smith

Mickey Smith is Rose Tyler’s boyfriend and is featured in the first four seasons of the show. Mickey has an interesting storyline because though he knows about Rose and the Doctor he does not immediately join in on their adventures. Mickey is at first distressed over finding out about the existence of aliens, he is even more distressed over the fact that Rose runs off with the Doctor on his adventures, he distrusts the Doctor and is jealous of their relationship. It is clear from the first season that any romantic future between Rose and Mickey is over as soon as Rose meets the Doctor, whom she falls in love with. In the second season Mickey joins Rose and the Doctor as a companion is his own right. In the two parter “Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel” (2006) the trio end up in a parallel version of Earth where Rose’s father is alive and she was never born. Mickey helps the Doctor destroy the Cybermen who plague this reality but decides to stay behind in the parallel Earth and begin a new life.

Mickey does not appear again until “Journey’s End” (2008) where he helps the Doctor stop the Daleks from destroying all of reality. This time he does not return to the parallel reality with Rose and her family but stays to help fight aliens in his original reality. Mickey makes his last appearance on the show briefly in “The End of Time” (2010) when the Tenth Doctor visits Mickey and Martha (his second companion) who are now freelance alien hunters and married, he saves from a Sontaran sniper before he regenerates into a new body. There is no mention of how Mickey and Martha got together but the brief scene shows they both seem in love and happy with their jobs.

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