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Changes: The Doctor (Earth-5556)

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| Powers = '''Near-immortality:''' As a Time Lord, The Doctor has a radically slowed aging process and can potentially live for hundreds or even thousands of years before needing to regenerate into a new body. The Doctor's age in the most current accounts is in the range of 1,200 years but he may be considerably older. Despite this, he (usually) has the appearance and physical ability of a man in his prime. The Doctor can live indefinitely but has noted he will not always be immune to the effects of aging if he does so.
  
| Powers = '''Near-immortality:''' As a Time Lord, The Doctor has a radically slowed aging process and can potentially live for hundreds or even thousands of years before needing to regenerate into a new body. The Doctor's age in the most current accounts is in the range of 1,200 years but he may be considerably older. Despite this, he (usually) has the appearance and physical ability of a man in his prime. The Doctor can live indefinitely but has noted he will not always be immune to the effects of aging if he does so.
   
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'''Regeneration:''' The Doctor's most famous power is his ability to regenerate into a new body upon sustaining a mortal injury or reaching advanced age. While the physical appearance and personality is changed completely, his memories remain mostly (but not completely) intact. This allows The Doctor to live almost indefinitely. The standard number of regeneration cycles a Time lord can use is twelve although that can be changed and it is not known whether it still applies following the events of the Last Great Time War. The early stages of Regeneration also allow Time Lords to regrow severed limbs.
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'''Regeneration:''' The Doctor's most famous power is his ability to regenerate into a new body upon sustaining a mortal injury or reaching advanced age. While the physical appearance and personality is changed completely, his memories remain mostly (but not completely) intact. This allows The Doctor to live almost indefinitely. The standard number of regeneration cycles a Time lord can use is twelve although that can be changed and it is not known whether it still applies following the events of the Last Great Time War. The early stages of Regeneration also allow Time Lords to regrow severed limbs. Regeneration also allows Time Lord's to use powerful energy as a concussive force capable of incapacitating multiple foes though The Doctor has never done this.
   
 
'''Accelerated Healing Factor:''' The Doctor often shows impressive healing abilities. While not on par with someone like Wolverine, Time Lords can heal from broken bones in a few days, nonlethal bullet wounds in a day, survive falls from great heights and even regrow one of Their hearts in a few months. As noted, a Time Lord soon after regeneration is able to regrow severed limbs or even survive otherwise-lethal gunshot wounds.
  
'''Accelerated Healing Factor:''' The Doctor often shows impressive healing abilities. While not on par with someone like Wolverine, Time Lords can heal from broken bones in a few days, nonlethal bullet wounds in a day, survive falls from great heights and even regrow one of Their hearts in a few months. As noted, a Time Lord soon after regeneration is able to regrow severed limbs or even survive otherwise-lethal gunshot wounds.
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'''Telepathy:''' The Doctor possesses limited Telepathic abilities and is a skilled hypnotist. This is a trait shared by all Time Lords and which allows Them to communicate and rapidly share information and The Doctor is also able to confer this ability to humans temporarily as well as share information quickly. The Doctor is also capable of wiping out memories and slightly relieving the effects of mental illness. The level of hypnotic ability varies. The Master, for instance, was able to hypnotise an entire country into accepting him as Their elected leader.
   
 
'''Alien Physiology:''' His enchanced physiology allows The Doctor to survive on less oxygen than a human needs, have an increased resistance to poisons and toxins, and possess radically enchanced senses compared to humans. He can even briefly endure the hard vacuum of space.
  
'''Alien Physiology:''' His enchanced physiology allows The Doctor to survive on less oxygen than a human needs, have an increased resistance to poisons and toxins, and possess radically enchanced senses compared to humans. He can even briefly endure the hard vacuum of space.

Revision as of 01:39, 17 November 2013

History

The Doctor was born on the planet Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous, home of the Time Lords. Details of his early life are unknown, but he attended the Time Lord Academy, where his best friend was the man who was destined to become his nemesis, the Master. The Doctor eventually stole an obsolete type 40 TARDIS and fled Gallifrey in it, apparently accompanied by his granddaughter (who took the name Susan Foreman on Earth) in order to experience the universe for himself. Over the years he traveled the universe with numerous companions including Susan, K9, Sarah Jane Smith, Sharon and Ace, meeting allies like the shadow man Shayde, Death's Head, Kroton, Ivan Asimoff, the Free-Fall Warriors, Max Edison and Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer, and battling monsters and villains such as the Daleks, Cybermen, the Master, Beep the Meep, the Time Witch, the Malevilus, the demon Melanicus and countless others. Although he was eventually captured by the Time Lords and exiled to Earth in the 20th Century for a time, where he found employment with the paramilitary organization UNIT, he was later given his freedom by the Time Lords after assisting them against their insane former hero, Omega.

The Doctor has extensive knowledge and experience in the fields of temporal mechanics, cybernetics, robotics, starship engineering, medicine, history and alien biology. He knows how to hypnotize normal humans and has limited telepathic ability.

Attributes

Powers

Near-immortality: As a Time Lord, The Doctor has a radically slowed aging process and can potentially live for hundreds or even thousands of years before needing to regenerate into a new body. The Doctor's age in the most current accounts is in the range of 1,200 years but he may be considerably older. Despite this, he (usually) has the appearance and physical ability of a man in his prime. The Doctor can live indefinitely but has noted he will not always be immune to the effects of aging if he does so.

Regeneration: The Doctor's most famous power is his ability to regenerate into a new body upon sustaining a mortal injury or reaching advanced age. While the physical appearance and personality is changed completely, his memories remain mostly (but not completely) intact. This allows The Doctor to live almost indefinitely. The standard number of regeneration cycles a Time lord can use is twelve although that can be changed and it is not known whether it still applies following the events of the Last Great Time War. The early stages of Regeneration also allow Time Lords to regrow severed limbs. Regeneration also allows Time Lord's to use powerful energy as a concussive force capable of incapacitating multiple foes though The Doctor has never done this.

Accelerated Healing Factor: The Doctor often shows impressive healing abilities. While not on par with someone like Wolverine, Time Lords can heal from broken bones in a few days, nonlethal bullet wounds in a day, survive falls from great heights and even regrow one of Their hearts in a few months. As noted, a Time Lord soon after regeneration is able to regrow severed limbs or even survive otherwise-lethal gunshot wounds.

Telepathy: The Doctor possesses limited Telepathic abilities and is a skilled hypnotist. This is a trait shared by all Time Lords and which allows Them to communicate and rapidly share information and The Doctor is also able to confer this ability to humans temporarily as well as share information quickly. The Doctor is also capable of wiping out memories and slightly relieving the effects of mental illness. The level of hypnotic ability varies. The Master, for instance, was able to hypnotise an entire country into accepting him as Their elected leader.

Alien Physiology: His enchanced physiology allows The Doctor to survive on less oxygen than a human needs, have an increased resistance to poisons and toxins, and possess radically enchanced senses compared to humans. He can even briefly endure the hard vacuum of space.

Genius-Level Intellect: Time Lords are among the smartest species in the Galaxy and The Doctor shows knowledge of areas such as human and alien Sciences, Technology, History, Medicine, mechanics, and engineering far beyond what humans and other aliens are capable of. The Doctor is also an excellent tactician and has taken down many enemies using his cunning.

Weaknesses

The Doctor once claimed Aspirin could kill him. However, various events have triggered the Doctor's regenerations - radiation, Dalek weaponry, falling from great heights, and botched exploratory heart surgery are all examples. It can be assumed that when the Doctor reaches his final life, any of these examples and others would be able to kill him for good. It has also been established that the Doctor can be killed permanently if a mortal injury is inflicted upon him while in the midst of regenerating, or if both his hearts are destroyed at the same time. Regeneration is an unpredictable process that could fail, or render the Doctor with an unsustainable body (i.e. he stated once that he could potentially regenerate with no head).

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Sonic Screwdriver. This innocent-looking device is the Doctor's favorite tool. He can reprogram it to manipulate sound and matter in nearly infinite combinations. Plus, it doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. But it is very good at opening doors (as long as they aren't made of wood).

Weapons

None . The Doctor prefers using brain instead of brawn, but he is an expert swordsman, crossbowman, and wrestler. When in his third incarnation, the Doctor stated he practiced Venusian Aikido. He has only been witnessed using guns on exceedingly rare occasions.

Companions

The Doctor rarely travels alone, preferring to share his adventures with the company of others. In his long life, he has travelled with family members (including his granddaughter, one of his wives, and his parents-in-law), humans who have joined him at various points in his travels, the occasional alien (including fellow Time Lords and, at one point, a shape-shifting alien who preferred the form of an earth penguin), and even androids and a robot dog.

Transportation

Type 40 TARDIS. Short for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, TARDIS refers to several models of space-time vessels, capable of travelling to any place or time. The interior is an extradimensional space that can be much larger than the exterior, usually with cabins, recreational areas, and a control room. It often has a chameleon circuit, which allows the user to change its outward appearance to blend in with the scenery (in keeping with the Time Lords' nonintervention policy). The Doctor's TARDIS, for instance, took on the appearance of a London police call box when he visited Earth in the 1960s, but when the chameleon circuit malfunctioned, it remained in that shape permanently, only ever changing slightly. The TARDIS is controlled by a sentient artificial intelligence that holds stated affection for the Doctor. While on Earth, the Doctor has also been known to drive an antique roadster automobile dubbed "Bessie" and also designed a flying car.

Notes

  • Although the title of the series is Doctor Who, the lead character is never known as anything but "The Doctor."
  • Marvel Comics ceased to hold the license for the Doctor's comic book adventures in 1999, and consequently some of the information on this page (specifically, anything relating to Doctors introduced from 2005 onwards) was not revealed until after he ceased to be a Marvel character. It is included here purely for the sake of completeness but may not necessarily be relevant to the Doctor of Earth-5556, whose history does not always precisely match that of the original Doctor and whose position in relation to the canon of the television series is debatable. The image on this main page depicts the eighth Doctor, the last to appear in titles carrying the Marvel UK banner on the cover. Marvel, in one form or another, depicted the adventures of the first eight Doctors in the Doctor Who Weekly/Doctor Who Monthly/Doctor Who Magazine comic strip; stories featuring the Fourth and Fifth Doctors were also reprinted in a monthly Doctor Who title published in North America in the early 1980s. The comic strip established by Marvel in October 1979 continues to be published as of 2013 by current license holder Panini, who published on behalf of Marvel between 1996 and 1999.
  • The Doctor first appeared on BBC Television in 1963; the original series ran until 1989, was followed by an American made-for-TV film in 1996, and then the series was revived in 2005 and continues to air as of 2012; it will mark its 50th anniversary in 2013. All three productions are considered part of the same continuity.
  • So far, eleven different actors have played the Doctor on an ongoing basis in Doctor Who: William Hartnell (1963-66); Patrick Troughton (1966-69); Jon Pertwee (1970-74); Tom Baker (1974-81); Peter Davison (1981-84); Colin Baker (1984-86); Sylvester McCoy (1987-89 and the 1996 TV movie); Paul McGann (1996 TV movie and later audio adventures); Christopher Eccleston (2005); David Tennant (2005-2010) and Matt Smith (2010-13). Additionally, Peter Cushing played a reimagined version of the character, Dr. Who, in two 1960s-era films (one of which, Dr. Who and the Daleks, was adapted as a comic book by Dell Comics) which are not considered canon. In 2013, two additional actors were unveiled as playing incarnations of the Doctor: John Hurt, introduced as a previously unknown incarnation, and Peter Capaldi, who will take over the role of the Doctor from Smith in December 2013.
  • Much of the character background detailed above comes from varied sources of uncertain canonicity with relation to the television series. The BBC, owners of the franchise, have never made a firm statement as to what is considered canon, therefore all spin-offs including Marvel Comics stories, are considered a "grey area".
  • Two spin-off TV series have been produced by the BBC: Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures; as well as the non-BBC spin-off, K9. No spin-offs have as yet been adapted as full-length comic books by Marvel, although Torchwood was adapted as a comic strip by Titan Publishing for Torchwood Magazine, which later was reprinted by Titan in a monthly comic title for North American distribution.
  • The Doctor's exact age is unclear. In the 1963-89 TV series his stated age ranged from 450 in the late 1960s to 953 in the 1987 story "Time and the Rani". The 2005-present revival reset his age to 900 for reasons unknown, and he is now estimated to be approximately 1,100 years of age. In the novels, however, the Doctor was already well past his 1,000th year by the end of the eighth Doctor era. Current show runner Steven Moffat has stated that the Doctor simply doesn't know his age anymore and that he lies about it constantly which accounts for the wildly different and contradicting ages he's given throughout the years.
  • Before the current tv series, the Doctor became involved in the last great Time War, in which he was apparently responsible for the destruction of both his own race and the Dalek race. He has "regenerated" ten times so far; a process in which a Time Lord can change his physical appearance and cheat death. It was once said that Time Lords can only regenerate a maximum of 12 times, but it is unclear whether this is actually the case, with the Doctor once claiming to be able to regenerate 507 times.

Recommended Readings

  • About Time, volumes 1-6, by Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood, Mad Norwegian Press
  • I, Who: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who Novels and Audios, volumes 1-3, by Lars Pearson, Mad Norwegian Press
  • AHistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe 2nd Edition , by Lance Parkin with additional material by Lars Pearson, Mad Norwegian Press
  • The Comic Strip Companion 1964-79 by Paul Scoones

Trivia

  • The Doctor was exiled at least once.
  • 97 episodes of the TV series are missing from the BBC archives, existing only in the form of soundtracks and sometimes short clips.

See Also

Links and References

References

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