Doctor Who – Doctors - TV Tropes

[the Doctor puts a glass of water on the floor and stares at it]
Amy: Why did you do that?
The Doctor: Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track.

• Doctors One (Edwardian academic garb), Two (long coat and bowtie), Three (smoking jacket, ascot, and ruffled shirt with lace cuffs), Five (cricketer's costume and Panama hat), Eight (frock coat, vest, and cravat), Eleven (tweed suit with leather elbow patches and a bowtie) and Thirteen (long coat and trousers with braces). Doctors Four, Six, and arguably Seven subverted this trope with bohemian outfits that were never in style. Nine, Ten, Twelve and Fourteen avert this with a leather jacket (Nine) and contemporary suits (Ten, Twelve, Fourteen) which become anachronistic to their surroundings.
• Even the Ninth Doctor, who outwardly appeared to be wearing the most modern outfit, was actually wearing a Kriegsmarine Captain's Jacket from World War II, a similar look to the War Doctor's brown leather overcoat.

  Captain Jack Harkness: Nice job at blending in with the local colour. Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain?!

• Five really mixed this up with his choice of an Edwardian-era cricketer's outfit combined with (at the time) modern-day sneakers.
• Fifteen typically averts this, preferring to dress as fits the period.

Twelfth Doctor: Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you still have to choose.

Madame Kovarian: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men...have too many rules.
The Doctor: (*slowly turns his head to face her*) Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.

• Lampshaded by Clara in "Deep Breath". The Doctor is suffering from his usual post-regeneration quirkiness and has apparently abandoned her. Clara predicts that if he really is the Doctor, he will turn up Just in Time to save her. And of course he does.
• All thirteen of them work together to save the day in "The Day of the Doctor".
• In general, whenever there's trouble, expect the Doctor to show up at the most dramatic moment possible.

The Master: A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.

• The regenerations from one Doctor to the next. The Doctor is going to be fine, but they'll never be the same.
• Very few partings with companions are not bittersweet. In "The Next Doctor", the Doctor stated that they ultimately break his heart. And both "School Reunion" and "The Girl Who Died" touch on the emotional toll losing a companion has on the Doctor.

• As a Gallifreyan Time Lord, the Doctor can do weird things like counteract cyanide poisoning given a bunch of weird ingredients, absorb radiation and expel it through their foot or forego the need to breathe for a few minutes, and can withstand massive amounts of electricity. Oh — and they have two hearts. Not to mention that when they are close to death they can avoid it by essentially reassembling their body and regenerating into a new one, which changes their personality, quirks, likes, and dislikes (and on occasion gender), though they essentially remain the same person.
• They're also a higher-dimension life form, a complex space-time event. It's not enough to make them a full Sufficiently Advanced Alien - they're still flesh and blood, still require technology for much of what they do - but it is enough that detonating them on a quantum level would take out half a planet, rather than just killing them, as it would a human.

• Impoverished Patrician: If the run-down state of the barn and its location in a wasteland where the people "don't matter" (according to Rassilon) are any indication.

• The Doctor is still registered as a full-time UNIT staff member, despite clocking in approximately once per decade and generally avoiding work like the plague.
• They've also been Lord President of Gallifrey at least three times and managed to skip out on that too.

• The Abel to the Master's Cain. It's never been confirmed on the show that the two are actual brothers, and the Doctor denies it in the revived series — although the Doctor isn't the most reliable source when it comes to their own past. Even if they're not biologically related, the series makes it clear that they were as close as brothers growing up, so it still counts.
• Inverted in one of their origin stories. In that story, a young Doctor and Master back on Gallifrey were being bullied and the Doctor snapped, killing one of the bullies. Death appeared and told the Doctor he would have to become her champion. The Doctor volunteered the Master instead, perhaps giving him his Start of Darkness.

• Despite frequently being accompanied by attractive companions, some of whom have an overt romantic crush on them, the Doctor's relationship with their companions remains platonic, despite occasional Ship Tease. This makes sense given that Time Lords are effectively immortal, and therefore have less need to procreate. However, they have had children and grandchildren, and eventually marry River Song in the New Series.
• The TV movie's and Revival era's decision to downplay this trope has annoyed Classic era fans since while the Doctor would occasionally get Ship Tease with other characters it was largely subtle and therefore easy to disregard.
• Individual regenerations' attitude towards sex and romantic relationships has varied between incarnations, with some being implied to at least be more comfortable with the idea while others lack any interest at all. As a result it's entirely possible for some incarnations to be seen as ace or demisexual.

Amy Pond: So is this how it works, Doctor? You "never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets"... unless there's children crying?
Eleventh Doctor: Yes.

• Clara's speech about how travelling can be an addiction could be pointing to this. The Doctor physically can't stop helping people.

• One was prone to making humourous (and rather weird) observations.
• Two was mostly a case of Obfuscating Stupidity, though he was genuinely a bit dotty at times.
• Three would frequently speak to the Master (a murderer who attempts to kill him and conquer the planet on a regular week-to-week basis) as though he were having a chat with a good friend, even during jail cell visits.
• Four was as manic as his hair, offered jelly babies to pretty much everyone, and tended towards behaving like he was on a sugar bender most of the time.
• Five wore a stick of celery on his lapel, and would often change his mind about where he wanted to go mid-stride and turn and dash in that direction without telling his companions.
• Six truly believed his coat was fashionable and was reality-defyingly blind about his own lack of tact and subtlety.
• Seven was daring and bold to the point that he casually walked between two men sword-fighting to the death, even tipping his hat as the two men stared at him in disbelief.
• Eight was prone to making non sequitur observations in the middle of serious conversations and could be ridiculously Literal-Minded.
• The War Doctor seized a weapon amidst the violence and mayhem of the Time War to write the words "No More" on a wall).
• Nine believed being a tourist meant doing all sorts of crazy stuff you can do, just for the hell of it, and had a habit of generally ignoring human customs.
• Ten would have random and over-the-top geeky fits over how wonderful humans are, sometimes randomly hugging them just for the hell of it.
• Eleven is obsessed with bow ties and fezzes, believing them to be fashionable, even after women have been willing to destroy the latter to prove otherwise. He'll also openly refer to himself as a madman.
• Twelve starts out treating people more like interesting research subjects than like sentient beings and flirts with a giant T-Rex (then denies that it was flirting). After mellowing out, he eats take out while breaking into a building and banters with his friends over sticking to a promise to settle down.
• Thirteen seems to be the loopiest incarnation so far, her attention bouncing all over the place.

• Most incarnations of the Doctor are the opposite of their previous incarnation in some large, glaring way (while other parts of the characterisation shift more subtly). Over the classic series:
  • The haughty and moody First Doctor was followed up by the Hoboish and easy-going Second, who was succeeded by the grumpy, elegant and noble Third, the childish, scruffy, and carefree Fourth, the responsible, kindly and vulnerable Fifth, the obnoxious, but passionate and unyielding Sixth, and the playful and Machiavellian, and at times, ice-cold Seventh. The Eighth Doctor was honest, romantic and optimistic, and even a bit scatter-brained, in contrast to Seven's solitary scheming.
  • Done peculiarly in the Fourth Doctor's first season — half of the creative team wanted to differentiate the new Doctor by making him lighten up and be wackier after such a serious previous Doctor, and the other half wanted to differentiate him by making him darker and more brutal after such a noble previous Doctor. It is a real testament to the ability of Tom Baker and Robert Holmes that they managed to pull off both, at the same time.
• Throughout the revival series:
  • The Ninth was less trusting and more conflicted compared to the Eighth. Ten was more chipper than Nine ever got, but also capable of far more ruthlessness when pushed. Ten and Eleven were both young and energetic, but while Ten was arguably more down-to-Earth and relatable to humanity than any other Doctor, Eleven was completely alien and out of touch with conventions of any kind.
  • The transition from Eleven to Twelve is fairly explicitly this — the light-hearted, confident, and somewhat goofy Eleventh Doctor, who was essentially an old professor in a young man's body, was replaced by the much grumpier and self-doubting Twelfth, who is best described as a brooding and rebellious teenager with the appearance of an older man.
  • The aloof, grumpy, introspective Twelfth is followed by the personable, cheerful, hands-on Thirteenth. This extends to their character development too: Twelve becomes a lot more open and actively heroic, while her Trauma Conga Line makes Thirteen more closed off and cold, albeit usually still more upbeat than her predecessor. In turn, Fourteen is more emotionally open than Thirteen ever manages, more comfortable in sharing his feelings, and finds it much easier to connect with others. And where Fourteen is cynical, tired, and worn down, Fifteen is revitalised with a thirst for life.
• While not confirmed, it's believed by many that the Doctor's subconscious decides what sort of Doctor they become next, often in response to the adventures their current incarnation had. The Second Doctor was more easy-going and childish since the First Doctor had slowly warmed up to humans and started to relax for example, while the Sixth Doctor was more aggressive and violent at times in response to how bleak the Fifth Doctor's adventures were. Their subconscious has been known to select their faces (Twelve, Fourteen), and Vastra suggests it shaped Twelve's personality (Eleven trusted Clara enough to show her the old man within), but whether it's done so for all of them is an open question.

• When you think about it from the perspective of a lot of the characters who only show up in one story, the Doctor themself is a Deus ex Machina. Think about it, these people are in the middle of a dangerous crisis, or in the early stages of one, and then out of nowhere, a strange blue box shows up. Then some weirdo and their companion(s) walk out and solve the whole damn problem.
• Subverted in "Midnight". Those guys thought he was the cause of it.

• With the exception of Six, no version of the Doctor has been exactly gun-happy — though some accepted them as a last resort, and they don't have a problem firing guns at inanimate non-sentient objects.
• One was seen with a gun once or twice, though he preferred to immediately give it back to whoever was trying to shove one into his hands. He did carry a gun during an adventure in the wild west (in the novelization he even shoots someone by accident), but that was more to be in character.
• Two held and handled guns quite a few times during his run, sometimes using them as convenient yet empty threats. He didn't evince any obvious distaste for guns in general, but he never did actually fire one. He also built a heat ray and used it to great effect against Ice Warriors.
• Three would much rather karate chop a poor sucker than shoot him, though he did sometimes kill with a ray gun.
• Four would pick up a gun if the situation called for it, and rather enjoyed himself with the things. (His aim, however, left much to be desired.)
• Five actually blew away a couple of enemies with a ray gun, though only if there was no other option left.
• Subverted by Six, who was more willing to pick up a gun than the others would a sonic screwdriver. The best example of this is in "Attack of the Cybermen" (again, though, it was a laser gun, not a bullet gun). Six generally wasn't averse to murder.
• Seven would never use a gun himself but didn't mind when others used similar weapons like rocket launchers or ballistic explosives if the situation demanded it.
• Eight used a gun several times. In his one televised adventure, he stole one from a police officer and used it to hold himself hostage (a rare occasion where a bullet-firing gun was used). Other times, he simply refuses to acknowledge them as guns, because "I don't use guns".
• Unexpectedly played straight with the War incarnation, about whom his being unarmed was reportedly the first thing you notice (and for many, also the last). The only time we see him fire a gun on-screen is when he is using one to write the words "No More" on a wall. Expanded Universe material shows that whereas every other TARDIS was armed to the teeth, the Doctor's TARDIS just used ramming.
• Nine held a gun twice: whether he would actually have shot is debatable. Then again, he also switched Jack Harkness' gun for a banana at one point. He also demanded information at gunpoint and, when his victim protested, said "I'm not gonna shoot you," and gave him the gun. Then continued demanding information, which the victim gave him.
• As far as Ten was concerned: Swords, explosives, pet robots with lasers, flooding rivers, taping over electronic villains, erupting volcanoes, electrocution through a piece of the TARDIS, Fates Worse Than Death, throwing entire planets into black holes, fatally accurate satsumas and death by church organ? Perfectly legitimate methods of combat. Guns? NEVER. When his cloned daughter appeared to have been shot to death, he picked up the gun that did it and appeared to be about to blow away the man who fired, but said he never could. However, Ten did pick up a gun on his last day, when he realized that the Time Lords were returning. And he pointed it at Rassilon. He ended up firing the gun, though not at a person.
• Eleven admits that he still "has a thing" against guns, but isn't quite as obsessed with avoiding them if using one can save lives. Early on, he used a gun to activate an anti-gravity thingy when being chased by Weeping Angels. He also admits that he likes using River as a backup gun wielder, since she doesn't share his hangups, and he realizes full well how hypocritical that is. When his Berserk Button gets pushed hard enough, he can go into a violent rage and become very willing to point a gun at someone's head — a fact that genuinely terrifies him.
• Twelve's opinion of guns is made clear when he tells a group of soldiers they don't have to be liked because they have the guns. However, he can be pushed far enough to pick one up: in the Series 9 opener, Clara's apparent extermination gets him angry enough to pick up a Dalek gun and aim it at Davros, although he ultimately decides to use it for something else, while in "Hell Bent", given the chance to rescue Clara from her imminent death, he actually fires a gun at someone (again, though, not a bullet gun, and the Doctor makes sure that the Time Lord in question has at least one regeneration left).
• Thirteen really seems to dislike guns, to the point that she gets pissed when Ryan tries to shoot the killer robots attacking them in the second episode of Series 11. (Granted, Ryan did end up making the situation worse due to his attempt at shooting at the robots.)

• This effect seems to be especially prevalent with the Daleks, who nearly destroyed the entire Time Lord race in the Last Great Time War. To put things into perspective: There are Daleks deemed — by their own race of hate-filled genocide fetishists — too insane to control; they're too awesomely hateful to kill, so they're put into an asylum. Then there are a few Daleks deemed too insane to share a room with those Daleks; they're put into an intensive care room. They are the few who survived a fight with the Doctor.
• Both Ten and Eleven weaponised the word "Run" and were able to turn entire armies around at the very mention of their name. This status comes back to bite Eleven hard in Series 6, where it's revealed that in the Gamma Forest, "Doctor" does not mean "Helper of the weak and sick" like on Earth, but "Warrior", due to his sheer badassery. The Doctor does not think this is a good thing, and the whole affair inspires him to wipe his "dreaded" status from the universe and start over again without all the baggage of being a known quantity feared and exalted in equal measure.
• The War Doctor. He comments on both the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors looking at him with nothing less than "utter dread".
• When the Twelfth Doctor finally returns to Gallifrey and returns to his childhood home, a gunship shows up to drag him off. When he takes a step forward, the gunship backs up. The Doctor then draws a line in the dirt with his foot, and no one will cross it.

• Four once managed to land just in time for a cliff to explode on top of him and his companion. Peri at one point complains that Six caused three electrical fires and a power failure, nearly collided with a storm of asteroids, got lost in the TARDIS corridors twice, wiped the memory banks of the flight computer, jettisoned three-quarters of the storage hold and burned her cold dinner. Ten outright admits he failed the TARDIS driving test. (You can tell.)
• In River Song's second appearance, she teases that the Doctor deliberately shuts off the TARDIS's stabilizers and drives with the parking brake on. Word of Moffat has it that she was just joking, though.
• However, the TARDIS is meant to have six pilots, which explains why the Doctor is always running round the console and fiddling with seemingly random parts. When we do see six people piloting the TARDIS at once, they're able to do it smoothly without any prior training.
• In addition to the lack of pilots, it doesn't particularly help that the Doctor refuses to follow the instruction manual either.
• It has been confirmed (by the TARDIS herself) in the revival that many of the times the TARDIS made an unexpected stop or landed at the wrong time and place are due to the TARDIS itself taking the Doctor to where they need to be.

• The Doctor isn't a Time Lord until "The War Games"; up until that point, they're Ambiguously Human (ranging the spectrum from human to made more than human by too much time travel to something disguised as human), with no readily apparent anatomical differences to set them apart. However, even though Third's confirmed as having an alien biology in "Spearhead from Space", he still waffles around whether or not he's human in "The Time Warrior", and it's only with Fourth that the Doctor becomes definitively alien, past incarnations included (except for the TV Movie).
• Regeneration as we know it doesn't stabilise until the Fifth to Sixth regeneration - the First Doctor's is a "renewal" that's part of the TARDIS, Second's is a "change of appearance" imposed by the Time Lords, Third's gets a push from Cho-Je (who himself had been a future incarnation awaiting his predecessor's regeneration), and Fourth's has the Watcher hanging around, finally merging with the Doctor upon regeneration. It's somehow appropriate that Fifth says "Feels different this time" as he's about to regenerate. (Retroactively, they're treated as if they're consistent with subsequent regenerations, working the same way.)

• Though sometimes they aren't, a fact explicitly pointed out in the former incident.

• Erratically, since they tend to hop around space and time and are not actually universally known — but happens on many occasions.
• It's later been revealed that, due to them, countless races across the universe do get the word "Doctor" intrinsically ingrained in their languages, denoting either a "Healer" or "Great Warrior".
• By "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and "The Angels Take Manhattan", the Eleventh Doctor has taken to removing all traces of his identity.

"Good men don't need rules. Now is not the time to find out why I have so many."

• However, sometimes they go through reverse Flanderization. The First Doctor became less stubborn and bad-tempered, and Six mellows out in Season 23, and more in Big Finish.

• Each Doctor, barring the First Doctor, has a more-indepth examination as to how their incarnation contrasts with their immediate predecessor on each of their character pages. However, there are some immediate differences that can be listed here:
  • The First Doctor was a haughty stubborn old man dressed in Edwardian clothing who severely needed lessons in humility, while the Second Doctor was a younger man who was slightly more in touch with contemporary 1960s values with an appearance best described as a discount Beatle reject.
  • As the First Doctor put it, the Second Doctor was a clown and the Third Doctor was a dandy. The Second Doctor was a free-spirited cosmic hobo, whereas the Third Doctor was a no-nonsense professional scientist.
  • The Third Doctor was exiled to Earth and limited to work for the Earth government organization UNIT, so the Fourth Doctor contrasted this with always being unable to sit still or take orders from authority.
  • The Fourth Doctor was quite the Large Ham. The Fifth Doctor was more quiet and gentle.
  • Where the Fifth Doctor was quiet and gentle, the Sixth Doctor was back to being, if possible, even more bombastic.
  • Where the Sixth Doctor walked about with a personality as loud as his coat, the Seventh Doctor was more quiet, scheming, and relatively more fashionable compared to his predecessor.
  • The Eighth Doctor was a free-spirited romantic who lived in the moment and flirted more openly, the Seventh Doctor was a manipulative chess-master with a paternal streak towards his most constant companion, Ace.
  • The War Doctor was by and far a soldier who sought to end a war he had no say in as quickly and ethically as possible, the Eighth Doctor willingly choose to become a warrior for a conflict he found himself slowly involved in.
  • The Ninth Doctor was trauma-ridden with guilt over his perceived worst-case scenario during the Time War, the War Doctor eventually lived knowing they avoided the worst-case scenario possible.
  • The Tenth Doctor was overtly idealistic while carrying a cold sense of cynicism deep within, along with a strong disdain for the military and government officials, as well as a preference for delivering personal justice against wrong-doers. The Ninth Doctor was an openly cynical individual hiding a warm sense of compassion, with a reasonable outlook towards military figures and government figures, who avoided personal confrontations with his enemies and preferred letting universal karma judge wrong-doers.
  • The Eleventh Doctor was, by his own admission, a mad man with a box and overall one of the more alien Doctors. The Tenth Doctor was more in-tune with human sensibilities.
  • The Twelfth Doctor had the physical appearance of an old man with the personality of a teenager, whereas the Eleventh Doctor had the physical appearance of a young man/older teenager with the personality of an old man.
  • The Thirteenth Doctor is a blonde-haired extrovert with a cheery personality and a preference for traveling in groups, while the Twelfth Doctor is a brunette-turned-white haired introvert with a gloomy personality and a preference for travelling with just one or two other people.
  • The Fourteenth Doctor is emotionally open and has no issue saying he loves people, while the Thirteenth Doctor is emotionally reticent and finds it extremely difficult to share her feelings with others.
  • The Fifteenth Doctor is energetic and loves life's pleasures, while the Fourteenth Doctor is visibly worn down and exhausted by everything his previous selves have been through.

Clara: How can you have a grave?
The Doctor: Because we all do, somewhere out there in the future, waiting for us.

• Seemingly subverted as of "The Time of the Doctor", though of course, time will tell.

• Missy claims to have known the Doctor "since he was a little girl", but this was one of three statements where Missy openly declared one of the three was a lie.
• Thirteen is their first female incarnation within the chronology of the show; we learn in the series Twelve finale that there are earlier forgotten incarnations, which appeared evenly split between male and female bodies.
• Most of the Doctor's incarnations are male. The first known incarnation of the Timeless Child, the Doctor's true identity, was a girl.

Ninth Doctor: Don't worship me, I'd make a very bad god. Wouldn't get a day off for starters.

"Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind."

• While Eighth says he's half-human on his mother's side, and Ashildr/Me independently proposes it as a theory to explain the Doctor being the Hybrid of Time Lord prophecy, the Doctor being the Timeless Child, a mysterious being from another universe, contradicts it, though the Doctor might have thought they were half-human before discovering the truth. (The Expanded Universe went both ways with Eighth's statement and its supporting evidence, some parts going along with it, other parts claiming he was faking out the Master.)
• "Journey's End" features the creation of a genuine half-human version of the Tenth Doctor.

Amy: You look human.
Eleven: No; you look Time Lord. We were first.

• "The Three Doctors" started this trend by having Two and Three often squabbling amongst themselves, with One occasionally reining them in and telling them to focus on the task.
• In relation to the point above, when it comes to infighting between incarnations, One has generally been the exception, especially in the expanded universe. Most of his successors who have interacted with him have seen him as a voice of reason, treated him with immense respect, and have always followed his advice.
• Averted in that Ten apparently really misses his time as Five, and is quite happy to get a chance to interact with him briefly. This is a case of Leaning on the Fourth Wall, as David Tennant is a huge fan of Peter Davison's performance as Five.
• Taken to its extreme with the War Doctor, whom the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh refused to admit even existed. The War Doctor, for his part, wasn't exactly impressed with Ten and Eleven either (at first).
• Meanwhile, when Ten and Eleven met they got along rather well, their squabbles being more akin to playful witty banter and the two sharing more than a few of their more expressive mannerisms.
• Twelve found One's old-fashioned mannerisms (particularly when it came to gender) to be humiliating, while One experienced Future Me Scares Me upon learning just how much blood would eventually be on his hands (and thought his sunglasses were ridiculous).
• The vestiges of One, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight expressed various degrees of satisfaction with Thirteen, particularly One and Five. Thirteen, on her part, doesn't really get a chance to express opinions of her predecessors.
  • Seven also took this opportunity to express mild annoyance with Eight.
• In a rare case of a post-regenerative Doctor praising their predecessor, Fourteen described Thirteen as having been "really brilliant".
• Fourteen and Fifteen got along very well, with Fifteen being able to show his predecessor understanding and comfort over everything he'd been through.

• In "The Star Beast" the Fourteenth Doctor tells the Noble family that he loved Wilfred Mott (who he believes has passed away). He's openly surprised at how easily he said it considering his long history of avoiding saying the word.

• "The Doctor's Wife" justifies this when the TARDIS itself reveals that it always takes the Doctor and their companions not where they want to go, but NEED to go.

"It's a bit dodgy, this process."

• Even Fourteen and Fifteen's bigeneration is no exception, despite appearances. While neither of them let on at first, and while it's not a "death" in quite the same way as normal regenerations, Fifteen later reveals it was extremely painful, feeling like he was being torn in two.
• An alternate view of the trope: as stated in "School Reunion", the Doctor is always cognizant that they will always outlive their companions, stating to Rose Tyler, "You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of my life with you. That's the curse of the Time Lords." To date, only three companions potentially could defy this, but the Doctor is unable to stay with them: Romana (a younger fellow Time Lord), Jack Harkness (after being rendered immortal by the Bad Wolf), and Clara Oswald (post-"Hell Bent"). They shot down the idea of Ashildr/Me ever becoming a Companion, telling her that as immortals, "We need the mayflies!"

• Played with in the Big Finish play "Davros", Six sleeps in on his first day to work for the MegaCorp simply to piss off the boss, then tells his new coworker Davros he only needs an hour a night.

Ten: No, I'm not really a cat person. Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, kind of takes the joy out of it.

• With the TARDIS. Because they totally are. And with other regenerations of themself: very few of them actually get along, and Two and Three in particular spend every moment bickering.
• The Doctor's relationship with some of their companions resemble this at times. Examples include Sarah Jane Smith, Romana (particularly the second Romana), Tegan, Peri, Donna, and Clara. The trope is also applied literally with regards to River Song.

• As a side note, the Fifth and Sixth Doctors did get to change their outfits once or twice during their run for an episode or two. For the Fifth, it was disguises and costuming. The Sixth had variations, including a light vest that almost didn't melt one's eyes. Still, their wardrobes mostly went unchanged during their tenure.
• The colour of the Eleventh Doctor's bowtie in series 5 changed depending if the story is set in the present or past (blue), or if it's in the future (red). Series six saw the blue change to a pair of custom ties, and once Clara came along we got a number of ties usually in purples. His braces/suspenders usually match his bowtie, as well.
• Due to cold weather while shooting episodes, Eleven ended up wearing a much longer and heavier jacket for a few episodes.
  • After changing companions Eleven swapped out the tweed jacket for a purple frock coat and waistcoat which he kept for the remainder of his tenure.
• Nine did make some very very very minor efforts to blend in but you'd not really notice.
• Ironically, the TARDIS has an absolutely huge wardrobe. Of course, the Doctor can be very slow to pick up hints they particularly don't want to get, so if this is one of her hints about their taste in fashion, they've probably been ignoring it like the notice on the door.

• Also began to be averted as the series introduced the notion of romance between the Doctor and the occasional companion. As the Tenth Doctor states in "School Reunion", his companions will grow old and die, but the Doctor will just keep on regenerating. This becomes an underlying theme of Series 9 as the Twelfth Doctor becomes fixated on the possibility of one day losing Clara, arguably one of his most beloved (literally and figuratively) companions.

• "The Three Doctors": First, Second, and Third.
• "The Five Doctors": First, Second, Third, Fourth (though he doesn't actually participate as Tom Baker refused to reprise his role) , and Fifth.
• "The Two Doctors": Second and Sixth.
• "Time Crash": Fifth and Tenth.
• "The Day of the Doctor": War, Tenth, and Eleventh.
• "Twice Upon a Time": First and Twelfth.
• "The Power of The Doctor": First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Thirteenth.^note 
• "The Giggle": Fourteenth and Fifteenth.

• We didn't learn the name of the Doctor's people until the end of Patrick Troughton's run and we didn't learn the name of their home planet until Jon Pertwee took the reins.
• We know they once had a family and even children, but "lost them long ago". Given how we never get any indication that (apart from Susan) they're still alive even before the Time War, it's possible this was one of the reasons the First Doctor so readily Jumped at the Call.
• Neil Gaiman toyed with providing an origin for the Doctor in "The Doctor's Wife". Moffat turned down the idea, explaining the Time Lord does what they do "for reasons too vast and terrible to relate".
• It is also never made clear exactly what made the Doctor want to steal a TARDIS and leave Gallifrey with their granddaughter, though possible explanations include disgust or dissatisfaction with Time Lord society, a desire to explore and help people out, or wanting to escape something they did or had happened to them on Gallifrey.
• Then there are the mysteries around the Doctor's forgotten incarnations, including who they were, what they got up to, how long they've actually been with the TARDIS, how long she's been a police box, and where they picked up the "Doctor" name in the first place. In this cycle, they met the TARDIS when their first incarnation left with Susan, and Ian started calling him "the Doctor" because he was known to Coal Hill School as a doctor, but it turns out they have a forgotten history with that name and that TARDIS.

• There seems to be some sort of cultural convention for renegade Time Lords to discard their birth names in favour of chosen titles (The Master, the Rani, the Monk, the Corsair...), but while Expanded Universe works featuring their pre-exile days will generally give their personal names, the Doctor doesn't seem to have used their birth name since childhood — their former classmates at the Academy knew them only as "Theta Sigma", a nickname they apparently found somewhat embarrassing.
• Steven Moffat believes there is "a terrible secret" behind why they never give their true name, to even those they love.
• River Song knows their name; she says she made them tell her, and it took a while.

  The Doctor: River, you know my name! You whispered my name in my ear. There's only one reason I would ever tell anyone my name. There's only one time I could!

• Made into a major plot point in the series finale of Series 6. It's resolved — but still not answered — in "The Time of the Doctor".

  The Doctor: Silence will fall when the Question is answered.
  Dorium: Silence must fall when the Question is answered.
  The Doctor: What is the Question?
  Dorium: The first question! The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. The question you've been running from all your life! Doctor who? Doctor who? Doc! Tor! WHO!?

• Ultimately, the Doctor ends up arguing that their chosen name of "the Doctor" is more important than their birth name since it represents a promise of the sort of person they want to be.
• Missy claims the Doctor's name actually is "Doctor Who" in "World Enough and Time", though the Doctor denies it. Given that both of them are Consummate Liars (and Missy is a complete Troll) there's no way to know who's telling the truth.
• Given what "The Timeless Children" reveals about their past, it's currently open whether their "birth name" is the Timeless Child's original name, or whether it was given to them when they became the First Doctor.

Runcible: –?? Oh, I say. Weren't you expelled or something? Some scandal?
Fourth Doctor: Oh, it's all been forgotten about now, old boy.
Runcible: Oh, really? Well, where've you been all these years?
Fourth Doctor: Oh, here and there, 'round and about.

• In "The Moonbase", Two claims he got a doctorate under Joseph Lister in Glasgow in 1888, although Lister left Glasgow long before that; Clara later asserts that he only graduated in the wrong century by mistake.

• "A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's..."
• The Fourth Doctor smiled weakly at his companions huddled around him, then gestured to his guardian angel, The Watcher.
• The War Doctor realised he'd finally reached the end of this life and accepted what was coming.
• The Ninth briefly held off his regeneration so he could comfort Rose and prepare her for what was going to happen to him.
• The Tenth Doctor willingly surrendered his life to save Donna's grandfather's, despite the old man's pleas. "Wilfred, it's my honour."
• Eleven's send-off was a pithy farewell to both Clara and the fans as well. "I will always remember when the Doctor was me."
• Twelve took the opportunity to remind his successor of what being the Doctor means before finally giving himself over. "Doctor... I let you go."
• Thirteen voiced her last wistful regret while looking out into the sunrise. "That's the only sad thing. I wanna know what happens next."

Whoever: ...Which is why I basically asked you not to do that!
The Doctor: Really?! Well, you should have said so sooner.
Whoever:

Thirteenth Doctor: You're a medic, I'm the Doctor.
Mabli: Doctor of medicine?
Thirteenth Doctor: Well, medicine, science, engineering, candy floss, LEGO, philosophy, music, problems, people, hope. Mostly hope.

• Just a sampling of the disciplines they have shown proficiency in: biology, anatomy, astrology, astrophysics, paleontology, paleoanthropology, recreational mathematics.
• Judging by statements from old classmates, their original degree/doctorate seems to have been in (astro?)physics and/or engineering (the Rani mentions qualifications in "thermodynamics", the Master "cosmic science"), but they've had a whole lot of time to acquire insane amounts of knowledge, and the curiosity to match.

• While they usually have the TARDIS to translate for them, they can speak several alien languages without it (come Fourteen's time, he claims he knows 57,000,000,205 languages). They even speak baby. And horse. And dinosaur.
• This is notably a skill they developed gradually over the series — they didn't speak French during their exile, and picked up the more "exotic" things like "baby" in the quadruple digits.^note 

River Song: I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.

• It turns out that they're actually the "nameless, terrible thing", soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. Ouch.
• The Doctor also encounters several such creatures and enemies.

• Also applies to his being President of Gallifrey, as he scarpers off to go back to wandering the cosmos at the first possible opportunity, ultimately resulting in his being impeached and removed from office in absentia for not doing the work.

• An ego of awesome — and very frequently justified — proportions. It's deconstructed on many occasions like "Midnight" or the Harriet Jones debacle because it leads them to think that they always know the correct answer and everyone else needs to shut up and listen, which sometimes leads to tragedy.
• Every Doctor feels the need to be the one in charge and give orders, not take them.

• The Doctor has some degree of psychic ability, though the details are fuzzy and mostly left up to the writers.
• What we've seen so far is touch-telepathy requiring they put their hands on either side of a person's head. Sometimes they also put their forehead against the other person's forehead. And in the case of the latter, sometimes they do it really hard.
• Plus, the Doctors are able to mind-meld with each other through "Contact!" (and, when necessary, with others via head-butt).
• Historically, their telepathic mojo has seen the most use when dealing with other Time Lords or other Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. They seem to have only become adept enough to mind-meld with ordinary humans and the like after the Time War. When encountering time-displaced versions of themself, they can do a mind-meld without physical contact.

• By the end of their Eleventh incarnation, they've bumped all the way up to two thousand years old.
• The First Doctor was 450 or thereabouts when he regenerated, the Fourth was 748 when he first started running, the Fifth was exactly 814 when he started, the Sixth was exactly 900, and the Seventh was 953 when he first appeared (The same age as the Rani). Of course, the Doctor started losing track of how old they were way back in their Fourth incarnation.

• Two is in pain for a while right after regenerating.
• Three spends an episode escaping from a hospital.
• Four spends an episode trying to convince everyone that he doesn't need to go to the hospital because he's fit as a fiddle, but instead convinces them that he's not particularly sane.
• Five removes random articles of clothing, forgets and remembers everything about himself at random intervals, temporarily reverts back to previous personalities, passes out multiple times, goes crazy, rides around in circles on a motorized wheelchair, floats in the air, spends an episode in a cabinet-coffin thing that Nyssa and Tegan have to carry him around in, and loads more ridiculous things. Needless to say, he had the most known problems thus far. This was true to the extent that the TARDIS thought it appropriate to drop medical supplies on his head at one point.
• Six becomes dangerously psychotic and suffers from violent mood swings, first convincing himself that Peri is a spy and trying to strangle her, then declaring that he needs to become a hermit for everyone's safety when he realizes what he almost did.
• Seven and Eight both lose their memories for a while (although for Seven that was more because he'd been drugged by the Rani). Eight had it particularly bad due to the regeneration taking longer than normal to kick in (he died in surgery and the anesthetic kept him dead "too long").
• Ten briefly becomes extremely erratic and irrational before collapsing into a dramatic coma which lasts for most of the episode, and at one point, thanks to being woken up too early, his brain almost collapses.
• Eleven has random fits of hitting himself, sometimes spasms painfully, has erratic and odd cravings for food, and walks into a tree. "Early days. Steering's a bit off."
• Twelve's first action is to complain about the colour of his kidneys, and from there on out he forgets how to fly the TARDIS, discovers to his horror and confusion that he has obtained some kind of face blindness, and struggles with episodes of delirium and amnesia. It takes him a good chunk of the following episode to get his bearings.
• Thirteen suffers partial amnesia, has a bout of disassociation causing her to think she's looking for a doctor rather than that she is the Doctor, and then once the initial crisis is done collapses into unconsciousness while her body heals.
• Fourteen seems to transition into Fifteen painlessly, sheer bizarreness of their regeneration's circumstances aside, but Fifteen later reveals it hurt a hell of a lot more than either let on at the time, and he honestly doesn't think he could go through it again.

• Two had a many-pocketed, unkempt coat to go with his "space hobo" look.
• Three wore velvet smoking jackets and frilly shirts that Jon Pertwee had worn precisely because they looked silly. He also wore a cape most of the time. And his hair, fluffed out with rollers because the actress playing his companion teased him about his bald spot, slowly increased in size as his tenure went on. He also had a tattoo (in the 1970s, before it was cool).
• Four's first season outfit is a horrible shabby mess — an ugly shirt, a corduroy jacket with patches on the elbows, a tacky brown and yellow argyle cardigan, a crumpled-up scarf used as a tie, scuffed shoes, and baggy trousers — the aim being to reflect how young he was compared to the previous Doctors, foregoing "mad professor" in favour of "starving student". And there's that scarf; a happy accident (they bought too much wool for the old lady who knitted it expecting her to only use what she needed to make a normal scarf, but instead she thought she was supposed to use it all up). As the Doctor's character developed it was decided he should begin to look bohemian and byronic — he grows his sideburns out longer, ditches the jacket for frock coats, swaps the cardigan for waistcoats, the scuffed shoes for boots with tall heels, and the tacky shirt for a plain ivory shirt with voluminous Victorian-style sleeves, themes he sticks to for the whole of the rest of his tenure. Having established a beautiful and romantic taste in fashion, he then goes on to bury it under huge hair, a big floppy hat and several layers of hideous and ill-matching scarf significantly longer than he is tall, with awesomely disastrous visual results. Certain stories exploit this by having him remove all the mismatched parts of his outfit in order to give him a few moments of looking actually good, usually when he's supposed to be dashing and romantic, or Darker and Edgier ("The Hand of Fear", "The Deadly Assassin", some scenes in "Image of the Fendahl", "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" and the punting scene in "Shada" come to mind). He tends to stick to browns with the occasional dash of dark red or purple - Word of God says the colour palette was inspired by the tendency to describe Tom Baker's distinctive voice as "dark brown". Early on he also has a habit of doing his buttons up wrong — he buttons up his cardigan so one side is longer than the other, buttons up his frock coat so the double-breast doesn't cross right, and (in "The Masque of Mandragora") does up his waistcoat all the way to the bottom, creating a weird bulge.
• Five's red-trimmed cricket outfit and decorative vegetable. Not many men can pull off a decorative vegetable.
• Six's ridiculous clown suit (to match his ego-inflated personality). At a who-con in Tampa, Colin Baker told the audience that he had chosen his garish coat specifically because he didn't have to look at it.
• Seven's question-mark sweater (with question mark-handled umbrella) which might just have gone too far.
• Subverted by Eight, who stole his outfit from the locker of someone who was going to a costume party. After rummaging through and apparently giving a certain amount of consideration to some really costume-y things, he settled on a rather peculiar but elegant Edwardian suit.
• Nine averts this: his dark pants, dark-coloured v-neck t-shirt, and a black leather coat coordinate nicely — though the coat may not be the best thing to be wearing in WWII England, as Captain Jack notes.
• Ten wears a brown pinstripe or blue suit (it varies) with an open collar shirt, a tie and... Converse trainers (in three varying colours). Not to mention the duster. Believe it or not, the whole thing works.
  • The trainers-with-suit looked odder when Ten's stint started than it does now since while it hasn't exactly become a trend, it definitely has its imitators.
• Eleven got most of his original outfit from what was lying around in a hospital while he was fighting two Starfish Aliens. The old professor outfit with a bowtie is actually one of the more "normal" ones.
  • For one brief, shining moment in the season finale, Eleven's outfit consisted of tight pants, button-down shirt, tweed jacket, suspenders, bowtie, and a fez. While holding a mop, for no particular reason.
  • And at the start of the next season, he has a stetson. However, River Song doesn't like him in hats and has an... unambiguous way of demonstrating this.
  • There's also his long johns which he wore for the majority of "The Crimson Horror". It Makes Sense in Context but especially on Matt Smith's lanky frame, the effect is more than a little silly.
  • Come "The Snowmen", he moved on to a rather stylish Victorian suit.
• Twelve's outfits tend to be minimalist, and he seems to put more effort into looking fashionable, but then there's the look he describes as "aiming for mysterious, but ended up as street magician", consisting of a black shirt dotted with white holes, hoodie, and his signature navy blue coat with red interior trim, sometimes with plaid trousers.
• Thirteen's look, comprising a top with rainbow stripes, short blue trousers with suspenders, and a long pale lilac coat, is described on her own page as having "raided the wardrobe of a 1980s' British kids' TV show". She got it from a charity shop, so this is the incarnation to play this trope most literally.
• Fourteen wears a blue duster, a brown and blue plaid suit without a jacket, and a pair of trainers.
• Fifteen is another aversion, generally being more fashion-conscious than his predecessors.

• By their Eleventh incarnation. An extended scene from "Flesh and Stone" has Eleven claim that he's probably not only been to every star in the universe but seen their beginning and end, too; the reason he needs to travel with companions is because of their wide-eyed reaction to the wonders of the universe, which he's begun to stop noticing.

  The Doctor: Make all of time and space your backyard and what do you get? A backyard.

• Ncuti Gatwa argues that this has its positive side, as the Doctor's many centuries of life have given them a greater understanding of other people's experiences.

• The Daleks are a notable example, with the similarities being more pronounced in the Revival Series than in the Classic Era. The Doctor is an individual who wants to help others who are in need of help, like crying children. The Daleks exist to exterminate all life-forms that are not Dalek, for they believe that Daleks are superior to all life-forms. Yet the Daleks can't help but find a strange fascination with the Doctor, for despite their best efforts to exterminate their greatest enemy, they find the Doctor's anger in their presence worthy of preserving. Overall, while the Doctor's anger towards those who have harmed or wish to harm the innocent is shown as a good thing, their anger has pushed them to commit morally dubious acts over the years. In many ways, the Doctor seeks to exterminate aliens who don't act in ways that are Doctor-like.
• The Cybermen are a more subtle example compared to the Daleks. The Cybermen are emotionless cybernetic beings that were once fully organic Humanoid Aliens who sole purpose is to "upgrade" the entire universe to be like them. This is similar to the Doctor's modus operandi in regards to their relationships with other aliens, particularly humans. Where the Cybermen seek to forcibly convert others across planets and universes into their own image and to live with their beliefs of assimilating others into Cybermen for their own benefit, the Doctor seeks to find humans to live lives similar to the Doctor's lifestyle by exploring the universe and spreading the Doctor's ideals of pacifism and communication first before embracing violence as the only option. However, it should be noted that the Doctor doesn't force their ideals onto everyone and greatly encourages their companions to accept their ideals. But given that the Doctor lives a very non-conventional lifestyle, the moment a companion steps into the TARDIS is the moment that they start to lose their planet's traditional values and start embracing the Doctor's values as said values are important for their survival during their travels across time and space.
• The Master is more or less a blatant example of a direct Shadow Archetype for the Doctor. Where the Doctor seeks to only see the universe, the Master seeks to control it. Where the Doctor travels with others, the Master usually travels alone, if only to temporarily forge alliances with others before inevitably backstabbing those he allies with. During the moments when the Doctor and the Master cross paths, the Doctor is usually the one to sacrifice themselves for their former friend/fellow Time Lord where the Master is obsessed with survival and control at any costs. But most times, it will end with the Master dying or facing a humiliating defeat and the Doctor walking away unscathed or without major injuries. However, the Doctor's darker side does reveal a personality similar to the Master, more visible when the Doctor travels alone for a long duration of time without a companion to travel with. And there are rare times where we see the Master adopt a personality more similar to the Doctor like in Utopia.
• The Sontarans are another subtle shadow archetype for the Doctor. The Sontarans are a clone race of aliens who find meaning in waging wars and fighting in wars. The Doctor is a self-proclaimed pacifist who avoids violence where possible. But where the Sontarans are the ones instigating conflicts or actively seeking conflicts to be involved in, the Doctor walks into conflicts on accident on their part, but deliberately engineered by the TARDIS as they take the Doctor to where they need to go.
• The Weeping Angels, surprisingly for an alien species that doesn't talk that much. But in principle, the Weeping Angels are an excellent shadow archetype to the Doctor. The Doctor is a Time-Lord, who obviously travels in time with non-Time Lord companions with their consent, mostly, and talks way too much at times. The Weeping Angels can't travel in time but they can send other non-Weeping Angel organic entities back in time without their consent, feeding off of their victims' lifetimes like parasites. The Doctor is hardly a parasite and wants to show their companions the wonders of the universe, yet finds themselves facing death almost wherever they go.

• Time Lords are also time-sensitive. The Tenth Doctor once describes it as being able to see everything that has happened, everything that can, and everything that must never, simultaneously.
• The Ninth also demonstrated that if he concentrated, he could discern the spinning of fast-moving fan blades, so that he could walk safely through them... with his eyes closed. He also claimed to be able to feel the Earth's movement through space.

• This may be increased shortly after a regeneration; Four was able to karate chop a brick in half at the beginning of his first serial, but couldn't repeat the trick by the end.

• When Four regenerates and Five is taking off Four's attire, particularly unravelling the massive scarf, you can see question marks on his collar, too.
• Twelve claims he wears question mark underwear.

• Even in their most open incarnations, the Doctor is not one to share their secrets; allude to them, yes, but reveal them, no, not even to the people they love, unless there's absolutely no other way. It's why so often in the revival it's seers and others who manage to enter their mind that end up discovering something about those secrets.
• It's likely also why the revival Doctors are so tight-lipped about the traumas they go through, but with those it's possible to get the Doctor to talk about it - possible, but not a given.
• Clara's respect for this is why she makes the argument that "the Doctor" is their name in "The Time of the Doctor".

• Every so often, the Doctor's pacifism sends them into this territory. While their desire to avoid death is understandable, any time the Doctor tries to save long-time enemies such as the Daleks and Cybermen just make people want to slap them. The Doctor themself admits that those species are bred to do nothing but hate and kill or painfully turn other people into them (respectively), yet the Doctor keeps walking up to them and yelling "Let me save you!", often while they're pointing a gun, laser, etc. at the Doctor's head, usually risking themself, their companion, and the world in the process.
• Once, when the Tenth Doctor is carrying out the typical "go towards something you should probably be going away from" version, River Song tells one of her crew to go with him and "pull him out when he's too stupid to live."

• Thanks to this trope, Jack, Martha, and River are the only companions who got to choose a relatively happy separation from the Doctor, in the entire run between the 8th, War, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Doctors.

Twelve: Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?

• Adam, a companion from the not-too-distant future in the first season of the revived series, became the first and, to date only, companion[[labelnote:*]]There is some debate among fans over whether Adam is considered a "full" companion. He appeared in "Dalek" as a tech expert working for the villain, cataloging and testing alien artifacts, and is offered a place by the Doctor only after Rose vouches for him when he was initially reluctant to bring him on board. He doesn't even make it through his first episode, "The Long Game", before falling to temptation. Russell T Davies has explicitly stated that Adam was introduced purely as an example of what a companion should not be, or at least as a companion who makes the wrong decisions. to be removed from the TARDIS strictly for bad behaviour. During a trip to the future, he tried to send his family back in his relative present information on the future to help them become rich.^* Once the Doctor finds out and solves the trouble caused by his recklessness, he drops the TARDIS back in Adam's present, erases the information, and sends him on his way. The Doctor can and does forgive disagreements, arguments, call-outs, and even straight-up defiance from companions, but when they take advantage of the Doctor, or misuse the opportunity they've been given, then it's the walking ticket.

• The Eleventh attempted to remove all traces of himself from history after getting "too big for the universe". However, according to River, all that has done is leave a big "Doctor-shaped hole" in history that makes their existence obvious to anyone looking close enough.
• They fully tried this on the War Doctor, to the point Clara only found out about him after entering the Doctor's timestream.

• The Doctor isn't reliable when it comes to providing information about themself. River says "The Doctor lies", but that's only part of the picture; what the Doctor says could be true, false, true but referring to something from their forgotten lives, true but only in one timeline, true but no longer happened, etc., and there's no way of telling which is which without supporting evidence.
• Also, is it something deeply personal/sensitive/significant? (e.g. their name, what happened to their family, why they really left Gallifrey) Then you're not going to get the truth out of them unless they have to reveal it, which can require very specific situations.

The Doctor: Ah, the security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them; it's impossible!
River Song: How impossible?
The Doctor: Two minutes.

• Eleven is shown as the type that is never patient, as he's forced to watch the Shakri cubes in "The Power of Three". Even when he's stuck on Trenzalore for several centuries in "The Time of the Doctor", he's still focused on defending it.
• Donna Noble calls out Fourteen about this in "The Giggle" as she is worried that he's worn out from what's happening. Fifteen tells Fourteen that he needs to settle down, as he knows that they've been running nonstop from at least as far back as "The Daleks' Master Plan".