| “ | Tenth Doctor: All those years, burying you in my memory. Eleventh Doctor: Pretending you didn't exist. Keeping you a secret, even from myself. Tenth Doctor: Pretending you weren't the Doctor, when you were the Doctor more than anybody else. Eleventh Doctor: You were the Doctor on the day when it wasn't possible to get it right. |
„ |
| ~ The Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor's praise to the War Doctor. |
| “ | I don't suppose we'll ever know if we actually succeeded, but at worst we failed doing the right thing as opposed to succeeding at doing the wrong. | „ |
| ~ The War Doctor after he and his other incarnations pull off a plan to rescue Gallifrey. |
| “ | At least in this moment, right now, I am the Doctor again. | „ |
| ~ The War Doctor has some peace after his life of war |
The War Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor between his Eighth and Ninth incarnations. He serves as a supporting character in the revived series of Doctor Who, serving as the overarching protagonist of Series 1 and 7, a minor character in the 2013 TV short, The Night of The Doctor and one of the main protagonists of the 2013 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.
He was portrayed by the late John Hurt, who would later voice him for Big Finish. His younger self is voiced by Jonathan Carley.
Biography[]
The War Doctor came to be when the Eighth Doctor chose to drink an elixir from the Sisterhood of Karn that would cause him to regenerate into a "warrior" so he could enter the Time War and put an end to it. In doing so, the Doctor renounced the name of "the Doctor" as he felt he no longer deserved it now that he had become a warrior. He was, however, regarded as a hero by the Time Lord military. During his long life, as seen in Big Finish's audio dramas, the War Doctor faced the Daleks, especially the Dalek Time Strategist, on many occasions, and in spite of his vow and self perception as a monster, would attempt to find some way to end the Time War without total destruction of both sides.
Eventually, the events of the novel Engines of War would push him to find a solution to the War by destroying both sides. When the Dalek fleet eventually laid siege to Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, the War Doctor reluctantly sought out the only superweapon in the Time Lord vault that the Time Lords had not used, a "galaxy eater" named "the Moment." The War Doctor retrieved the Moment and brought it back to his childhood home to prepare to use it. However, sensing doubt within the War Doctor, the Moment's AI (taking the form of his future companion, Rose Tyler) created a portal to the future for the Doctor to meet his tenth and eleventh incarnations.
After helping the two put an end to a Zygon invasion, the War Doctor and his future incarnations went back to Gallifrey to decide whether or not to use the Moment. Deciding not to use it, the three instead devised a plan to rescue Gallifrey by summoning their ten past incarnations, plus their next incarnation and positioning their TARDISes around Gallifrey before teleporting it to another dimension right before the Dalek fleet fired upon it simultaneously, causing the ships to destroy each other instead and give the impression that the Doctor had used the Moment.
After bidding farewell to his future counterparts, the War Doctor returned to his time, beginning his regeneration into the Ninth Doctor due to his body's age, but losing his memories of saving Gallifrey, and coming to believe he did in fact use the Moment to destroy both sides.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- He is the first incarnation to be what the Doctor wanted out of a regeneration; having specifically asked Ohilia for an elixir to make him a warrior.
- The Day of the Doctor novelisation would later have Ohilia state the elixir was just lemonade and dry ice; having tricked the Eighth Doctor into willingly regenerating into his chosen persona.
- While he was annoyed with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors acted childish, the War Doctor was given some peace when they forgave him and told him that they truly looked at him as the version of "the Doctor" who fought to to embody their oath the hardest he could.
- The War Doctor was created to compensate for the inability to use the Ninth Doctor as the one who ended the Time War.
- Christopher Eccleston refused to reprise his role. If he had, it would have been the first one screen adventure with every Doctor since the Revival began.
- The image used for the newly regenerated War Doctor first seen at the end of The Night of the Doctor is taken from the 1979 BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment, where Hurt played Rodion Raskolnikov.
- The War Doctor lost his memory of everything from when he met the Bad Wolf avatar of the Moment till being in his TARDIS regenerating.
- Strax notably likes the War Doctor, stating he has the greatest potential.
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 Heroes
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The Doctor The Doctor's companions UNIT Torchwood Institute Bannerman Road Gang Investigators of Infernal Incidents Paternoster Gang Coal Hill defenders Other Allies | ||
