 Nearly
nine years after the TV movie, and almost sixteen years after the
last episode of the television series was aired, The Doctor finally
returned to our screens, with a new face, a new companion, a new
TARDIS console room, and an all-new backstory... if a bit of a confusing
one.
What
we still don't know about this Doctor encompasses a vast amount.
We don't know what happened to him between the Eighth
Doctor diving
into the Vore mountain to save the world in "The
Gallifrey Chronicles" and
when he met his companion Rose Tyler in "Rose", we don't
know the full story of the Time War that is often mentioned and how
it ties in with the Eighth Doctor's adventures... we don't even know
how he regenerated! (Although the fact that he looked at a mirror
and commented on his ears in "Rose" suggests that it happened
only shortly before he appeared for the first time) Many fans attribute
the 'Time War' mentioned in the series to this - an idea that is
further reinforced by the Tenth
Doctor’s implication that his
past incarnation was born ‘full of blood and anger and revenge’,
suggesting that he regenerated during or after a great battle before
he met his companion - although it has never been expressly confirmed.
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| The Doctor in "Rose" |
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Whatever
the reason for his regeneration, the end result is the same; The Doctor,
tracking his old foes the Nestene Consciousness, arrived on Earth in
London, 2005, and, while tracking the Nestene signal, met shop assistant
Rose Tyler as he checked out a department store where Nestene energy
had been detected ("Rose"). With Rose's help, The Doctor
was able to track the main Nestene Consciousness to its base under
the London Eye, where Rose was able to take it out with a sample of
antiplastic The Doctor had prepared earlier while The Doctor fought
with an Auton. Having defeated the Consciousness, The Doctor offered
Rose the chance to travel with him, Rose initially rejecting the offer
only to accept it when The Doctor mentioned that the TARDIS travelled
in time as well as space, subsequently joining the Ninth Doctor for
the trip of a lifetime with this newest of Doctors.
From
the beginning, it was obvious that this Doctor was, in many obvious
ways, far more human than the others, even if his means of expressing
it made it clear that he was still very alien. Throughout the series,
even in minor, subtle ways, it was apparent that he cared a great deal
for his companion Rose Tyler, holding hands with her on several occasions
and actually being jealous of her still-close friendship with her ex-boyfriend
Mickey Smith - who he commonly referred to as 'Ricky' to avoid admitting
that he didn't remember his name. Throughout his life, however, despite
his normal appearance of light-heartedness, he had a melancholy and
lonely personality, which he mainly concealed with the habit his past
selves had of making jokes in the face of danger, only letting his
'guard' down when he was alone. His loneliness could be attributed
to his guilt at being the last survivor of the Time War, all other
Time Lords having lost their lives in the conflict, leaving him to
deal with the guilt and knowledge that he had survived the destruction
of his entire race.
In
many ways, however, he combined some of the best qualities of his previous
selves; the frivolity and emotional availability of the Eighth Doctor,
the ingenuity of the
Third,
the apparent vulnerability of the Fifth,
the keen sense of humour of the Second (As
well as the early Seventh), the depth of feeling of the Sixth
Doctor,
the (occasional) irascibility
of the First,
and the quirkiness and refusal to be mistaken for a human of the Fourth.
On some occasions he also demonstrated a certain enthusiasm for his
travels, showing great excitement when he met Charles Dickens ("The
Unquiet Dead"), and occasionally philosophically musing about
various minor matters, such as when he commenting that humanity spent
so much time wondering about how they would die that they never considered
the possibility that they might survive ("The
End of the World")
or when he reflected that a flower Rose had found on her first trip
to an alien world could be the local equivalent of a daisy or the rarest
flower in the universe ("The
Monsters Inside"). He also displayed
his past selves' dislike of violence, although like many of them, he
wasn't afraid to use it if he had to,
taking up a gun in "Dalek" and
knocking out a guard in "Bad
Wolf/The Parting of the Ways". However, his temper was far
more apparent than in past lives; unlike the Fourth
Doctor,
who once said
'It may be irrational of me, but human beings are quite my favourite
species', the Ninth Doctor often referred to humans as 'stupid apes',
and showed less patience with them than he used to, sometimes seeming
unimpressed by their mental and observational qualities, yet at the
same time wanting to protect them and other species. Ironically, despite
his disdain for humans’ intellectual abilities, this Doctor occasionally
appeared less intelligent than other incarnations, requiring others
to save him by coming up with their own plans on at least three separate
occasions, and regularly displaying a certain lack of the ‘on-the-spot’ initiative
that had often characterised some of his previous selves, such as when
he locked himself and his companions in the conference room of 10 Downing
Street to escape The
Slitheen without considering how he would defeat
the invasion trapped inside the conference room ("Aliens
of London/World War Three") or gave himself the ‘alias’ of ‘Doctor
Table’ to rescue a Neanderthal from a hospital rather than come
up with something more original ("Only
Human").
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| The End of the World |
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This
Doctor is also noteworthy as, for the first time since the UNIT era,
The Doctor actually had regular contacts on his visits to Earth,
rather than just meeting up with someone already involved in the
crisis and enlisting their aid in sorting it out. Like the Third
Doctor, the Ninth commonly contacted the first people he had met
in this incarnation (As far as we know, at least); in this case,
Rose's mother, Jackie Tyler, and Rose's ex-boyfriend Mickey. Despite
his apparent dislike of the two of them, reflected on such occasions
as The Doctor being unwilling to even thank Mickey after his assistance
proved vital in saving innocent lives while battling the Quervils
in "Winner
Takes All" - to say nothing of occasionally calling Mickey ‘Ricky’ and
often referring to him as ‘the Idiot’ - it was evident
that he appreciated them in his own way; he respected Jackie's concerns
about her daughter travelling with him, and entrusted Mickey with
a virus that would wipe all information relating to The Doctor from
the internet, although Mickey never apparently used it.
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The
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The Best Doctor
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This
version of The Doctor also possessed a wider variety of gadgets than
before. While other Doctors were content with merely using the sonic
screwdriver to get out of awkward situations (Baring the brief period
when it was destroyed, for obvious reasons), the Ninth Doctor, while
using a modified sonic screwdriver with far more functions than his
old versions, was also known to use psychic paper, with which he
could show anyone looking at it whatever he wanted them to see, thus
providing himself with ready-made 'official documentation' whenever
he needed it. On their second adventure, The Doctor modified Rose's
mobile phone so that she could call home from wherever - or even
whenever - she was (As well as the more basic advantage of allowing
her to call home even if normal phones couldn't receive a signal
in her current location, such as when they were trapped in the Downing
Street cabinet room). The TARDIS itself had also changed - apparently
as a result of its interior being destroyed and reconstructed when
the Eighth Doctor was forced to use it to contain a cold fusion explosion
in "The Gallifrey Chronicles" - the console room now appearing
almost organic with its smooth orange ‘pillars’ and soft
green glow beneath the console, although the traditional roundels
in the walls remained.
We
eventually learned some more details about the Time War in "Dalek",
when The Doctor and Rose arrived in the alien collection of billionaire
Henry Van Statten and The Doctor was asked to look at Van Statten's
only live specimen - a Dalek (Specifically,
what The Doctor believed to be the last Dalek in the universe). In
the confrontation with
it, The Doctor showed a side of himself that had never been seen
before; the side that not only truly hated the Dalek, but actually
took delight in its pain and frustration, as well as its helplessness
due to a damaged gun. In the course of their argument, it was revealed
that the Daleks had been the villains in the Time War... and The
Doctor himself had been responsible for the destruction of the ten
million Dalek ships involved in the war. The Doctor was initially
angry at the Dalek claiming that the two were the same - both the
last of their kind - but then claimed that it had a point, as he
knew what it deserved. The Doctor then showed his vicious side in
the confrontation with the Dalek, sending massive electric shocks
through it and responding to its plea to have pity by saying 'Why
should I? You never did!' As the Dalek broke out of its cell and
began to advance out of the underground base, The Doctor ordered
it to die after establishing a video communication with it, to which
the Dalek replied that 'You [The Doctor] would make a good Dalek'.
When Rose was cornered by the Dalek, The Doctor took up an alien
gun to stop it, but, in the confrontation between him and the Dalek,
it took Rose to point out that the Dalek had changed... and The Doctor
realised that, if he continued what he was doing, he too would have
changed into what he'd always fought.
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| Aliens
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How
the Time War ties into Gallifrey's destruction in "The
Ancestor Cell" due to the attack of Grandfather Paradox is unknown. My
personal theory, when linked up to the Eighth Doctor novels and the
destruction of Gallifrey by Faction
Paradox in "The
Ancestor Cell" is
that, since that version of the Faction was erased from history when
The Doctor prevented Grandfather Paradox - his own corrupt future self
- from coming into existence, history had to insert someone else into
the timeline to take their place, and the Daleks were the only candidates.
As a result, it was the Daleks who attacked Gallifrey, and The Doctor
was forced to trigger Gallifrey's destruction in order to destroy the
Dalek fleet before they could conquer time - and, of course, having
figured out some way to restore his memories safely, the memory of
the new timeline overwrote his memory of the timeline with Faction
Paradox, becoming even more ingrained into his mind after his regeneration.
This
Doctor’s greater hostility was further explored during confrontations
with his own companions. During a trip to Satellite Five in the year
200 000, new companion Adam Mitchell attempted to transfer information
from the future back into his own time after having a chip planted
in his head, nearly resulting in a being called the Jagrafess gaining
access to the TARDIS, until another resident of the space station where
they'd landed managed to shut the Jagrafess down ("The
Long Game").
Despite the fact that no harm had been done, outraged at Adam’s
violation of his trust, The Doctor took him home and kicked him off
the TARDIS in a fit of rage, condemning him to a lifetime of non-importance
as merely going inside meant he ran the risk of the implant being discovered
and his head cut open by curious scientists. In the very next story,
he then almost left Rose behind when she changed history to prevent
her father dying, apparently only staying because the TARDIS had lost
its link to its interior dimensions due to the destabilisation of reality,
leaving The Doctor to battle the time-beasts known as the Reapers while
they fed on the 'scar tissue' of the tear in time caused by Rose's
actions.
In
the process, we also saw another side of The Doctor; when trapped in
a church and talking to a young couple about to get married, he told
them that even though he’d travelled to places and done things
they couldn’t imagine, he’d never had an ordinary life
like them... and, on some level, it was obvious that he wished he could
have had that chance, if the universe was only a kinder, safer place.
His continued compassion for humanity was reflected during a later
adventure in London in World War Two ("The
Empty Child"),
where The Doctor not only gained a new companion in the form of ex-Time
Agent Captain Jack Harkness but simultaneously saved the entire city
from an infection by renegade nanogenes that Jack had unintentionally
released on the city. Reprogramming the genes by discovering ‘Patient
Zero’ - a young boy who had been unintentionally ‘infected’ with
the genes and improperly repaired due to their lack of knowledge of
human anatomy - The Doctor not only demonstrated his glee at the knowledge
that he had managed to save everyone who had been altered by the nanogenes,
but also displayed his continued fondness for humanity, praising the
dedication of Doctor Constantine, who had continued to care for his
nanogene-infected patients even when he had lost his entire family
and had no idea what was wrong with the nanogene victims, and expressing
great glee at being able to reunite a mother with her child by curing
him of the ‘infection’, his optimism and general enthusiasm
given a significant boost as he managed to save everyone infected by
the nanogenes. The Doctor and Rose then departed, after picking up
Jack as their new companion from his soon-to-self-destruct spaceship.
Shortly
after this, The Doctor was transported back to Satellite Five ("Bad
Wolf/The Parting of the Ways"), where he found himself competing
in a futuristic Big Brother, while Jack was in a What
Not To Wear while Rose competed in The Weakest Link (Although
on Rose and The Doctor's games, losers were apparently killed, while
Jack's sometimes ended
in people getting new heads during their makeovers). Although The Doctor
and Jack were able to escape their shows, when they attempted to rescue
Rose from The Weakest Link, they only arrived in time to see Rose get
killed. However, examining scans made by the TARDIS, Jack learned two
unexpected details. Firstly, that Rose, like all other supposedly 'dead'
contestants, had actually been transmatted away to another location...
and, unfortunately, they had been transmatted to a fleet of Dalek spaceships,
consisting of nearly half a million Daleks.
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Having
saved Rose (And learned that the Daleks had been created by human DNA
extracted by the Emperor Dalek, another survivor of the Time War),
The Doctor then sent Rose and the TARDIS back to her home time out
of harm's way. Jack organised the humans remaining on Satellite Five
into a defence against the Daleks while The Doctor began construction
of a delta wave emitter, a device that would fry the brain of every
Dalek in the blast radius... and, unfortunately, every human on Earth
as well, since The Doctor wouldn't have time to refine the blast in
the hour or so before the Daleks arrived. As all the humans on Satellite
Five fell in a desperate attempt to buy time for The Doctor , he completed
construction of the delta wave emitter just as Dalek forces arrived
in the control room with him... but, even though Earth had already
been decimated by Dalek bombs, when faced with the chance to destroy
the Daleks at the cost of whatever life was left on Earth, The Doctor
refused, preferring to be a coward rather than commit genocide to vanquish
the Daleks for a second time. Gleefully, the Emperor ordered The Doctor
exterminated, but, at the last minute, Rose arrived, imbued with all
the power of the Time Vortex, and using it to turn the entire Dalek
fleet into dust. However, the vortex energy was so powerful that it
would have killed her, so The Doctor was forced to take the energy
into himself... along with all the damage Rose had already sustained.
As Rose recovered in the TARDIS, having apparently forgotten everything
about her brief reign as a god, The Doctor revealed that the energy
of the Time Vortex was destroying every cell in his body, and he would
soon regenerate, meaning that he wouldn't see her again 'with this
daft old face'. Rose begged him not to talk like that, but The Doctor
kept on talking, telling her 'Before I go, I just want to tell
you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know something?
So
was I".
And,
as the radiation of the Time Vortex burst from his sleeves and neck,
transforming him into his tenth incarnation as the cells in his body
died once and all, nobody watching could deny the truth of his last
words to the universe. Even though he had a short life compared to
any of his predecessors, the Ninth Doctor had made an incredible impact
on a new generation of viewers, bringing a modern-day legend back to
our screens, reminding children that sofas weren't just for sitting
on, and teaching a whole new generation that the police box was a widely-recognized
symbol of heroism in a world that needed heroes like never before...
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