Everything about The Ninth Doctor totally explained
The
Ninth Doctor refers to the ninth official
incarnation of the
fictional character known as the
Doctor, in the long-running
BBC television science-fiction series
Doctor Who.
"Unofficial" Ninth Doctors include the Ninth Doctor played by
Rowan Atkinson in the charity parody
Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and the Ninth Doctor voiced by
Richard E. Grant in the animated webcast
Scream of the Shalka (also known as the
Shalka Doctor by fans, to avoid confusion). This article is about the official Ninth Doctor, played by the actor
Christopher Eccleston, whose tenure as the Doctor made up
series 1 of the revived programme in
2005.
Overview
The original
Doctor Who television series ceased production in 1989 with the
Seventh Doctor.
Paul McGann, as the
Eighth Doctor, appeared in the role just once on screen in the
Doctor Who television movie in 1996. The appearance of the Ninth Doctor marked the regular return of the character to television screens after nearly sixteen years, and as a result for many young fans and new viewers he was the first Doctor they'd ever seen. He was introduced without any information on his recent past; though it's implied in "
Rose" that he
may have recently regenerated, the exact circumstances of that change, or what caused it, are unknown.
Biography
The Ninth Doctor is (to the best of his knowledge) the only survivor of the
Time War. It is unspecified whether it was this incarnation of the Doctor or the
previous incarnation who fought in the war, though popular continuity argues that it was the events of the Time War that caused the Eighth Doctor's regeneration into the Ninth.
After his regeneration (which hasn't yet been seen onscreen), he
helped save London from an invasion by the
Autons, living plastic
automatons animated by the Nestene Consciousness. He did this with the help of
Rose Tyler, a
teenager whom he subsequently invited to be a
companion in his travels. The Doctor showed Rose the
far future and
Victorian Britain (specifically Cardiff, where a space-time rift was revealed to be situated) before returning to Rose's own era, where they fought off an
attempt to destroy the Earth by the alien
Slitheen family. When they
journeyed to Utah in 2012, the Doctor found that a single
Dalek was being kept in a secret museum filled with alien artifacts. There, the first details of the
Time War fought by the
Time Lords and Daleks were revealed, and how it concluded with the mutual annihilation of both races, leaving the Doctor the last of the Time Lords. A young man named
Adam Mitchell travelled with them from
Utah.
The Doctor, Rose, and Adam
travelled to the future to
Satellite Five, where they discovered a plot by the
Jagrafess to manipulate Earth through its
mass media. When Adam tried to smuggle future knowledge back to his own time, he became the first companion to be deliberately expelled from the
TARDIS. After this, Rose persuaded the Doctor to
return to the day her father,
Pete Tyler, died, creating a temporal
paradox by saving him, which nearly led to disaster until Pete sacrificed himself to set time right once more.
Following a mysterious spaceship to wartime London in 1941, the Doctor and Rose met Captain
Jack Harkness, a
confidence trickster and former Time Agent from the 51st century. Jack's latest con nearly caused a deadly
nanotechnological plague to sweep through the
human race, but he helped the Doctor and Rose end it prior to joining the TARDIS crew.
Going
back to Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS from the rift, the Doctor, Rose and Jack found that one of the Slitheen had survived, posing as Margaret Blaine, the city's mayor. Blaine was exposed to the heart of the TARDIS, and was regressed into an egg. It was during this episode that the Doctor first noticed that he and Rose had kept coming across the words "
Bad Wolf".
At some point, the Ninth Doctor had at least three unchronicled adventures, involving the sinking of the
RMS Titanic, the
assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, and the eruption of
Krakatoa in the 19th Century. These are revealed in "
Rose", but their placement in the Ninth Doctor's chronology remains unknown. Many fans assume that they must occur after "Rose" — but necessarily before his regeneration at the end of the series — since the Doctor's comments about his appearance in that first episode suggest he's only recently regenerated (or at least not had an opportunity to look in a mirror since, although his evaluation of his appearance isn't particularly in-depth, either, suggesting prior awareness or a lack of interest). In "The Unquiet Dead", he also mentions that he "saw the fall of Troy. I fought in World War Five, I pushed boxes in the Boston Tea Party" It is unclear when this is in his personal timeline.
However, the first of these adventures may actually have taken place immediately after his regeneration, since he's shown in a photo (taken in Southampton in 1912) to be wearing period clothes (Eccleston was dressed and shot specially) which resemble those worn by the
Eighth Doctor. The Ninth Doctor refuses to make any concessions to contemporary fashion elsewhere in his travels (though he later insists that Rose dress appropriately for the Victorian era), being very precious about his look, which is deliberately most unlike that worn by any previous incarnations. Also, it's strongly implied that he saved the family pictured with him, by dissuading them from boarding the doomed ship — and, one episode later, he reveals that he himself was on board, and ended up clinging to an iceberg.
When the Doctor and his companions became caught in a
series of deadly versions of 20th Century gameshows, they found themselves at the mercy of the Bad Wolf Corporation, based on Satellite Five, but a full century after their last visit. However, the true enemy was soon revealed to be the Daleks. The Dalek Emperor had survived the Time War, and had rebuilt the Dalek race. The Doctor sent Rose back to her own time in the TARDIS, before attempting to destroy the Dalek army. In doing so, he'd have been forced to destroy a great part of the human race, which he ultimately finds himself incapable of doing. Meanwhile, after seeing more "Bad Wolf" graffiti, Rose realised it was somehow a message linking her to the events in the future.
Managing to open up the heart of the TARDIS, she absorbed the energies of the time vortex, and used it to destroy the Daleks. In order to save Rose from being consumed from within by those energies, the Doctor absorbed the fatal energy himself. However, the damage to his cells caused him to regenerate into the
Tenth Doctor. He regenerates while still standing, warning Rose to keep away. His last words are, "Rose, before I go I just wanna tell you — you were fantastic...absolutely fantastic...and d'you know what? So was I!!"
Companions
The Ninth Doctor had three on-screen companions during his tenure, the main one being
Rose Tyler, who appears in all 13 episodes of Series 1.
Adam Mitchell joined the Doctor on his travels at the conclusion of "
Dalek" after the Doctor indulged Rose's prodding to let Adam "see the stars" and was rejected by the Doctor after his actions in "
The Long Game".
Jack Harkness first appeared in "
The Empty Child" and joined the TARDIS crew in "
The Doctor Dances". In the last episode of the first season, "
The Parting of the Ways", Jack is killed by the Daleks and subsequently resurrected by the time-vortex empowered Rose, although the Doctor leaves without him after the battle. He later briefly rejoins the TARDIS crew in the
Tenth Doctor story "
Utopia" (in which the reasons for the Doctor abandoning him in
Parting of the Ways is revealed), and also starred in the spin-off series
Torchwood.
He invited two other companions to join him.
Mickey Smith declined when invited (though he'd later agree to travel with the Tenth Doctor). In
The Parting of the Ways, a woman named Lynda accepted the Doctor's invitation but was killed by Daleks before she could travel with him.
The Ninth Doctor's relationship with Rose verged on the romantic, with both of them clearly showing that they cared about each other deeply, although both always denied that they were a couple. On some level, the Doctor's sudden presence in her life fulfilled Rose's need for a strong male figure, having grown up without her father and boyfriend
Mickey Smith often proving inadequate in regards to his strength of character. In turn, the Doctor, having undergone the trials of the Time War and still affected by his many losses incurred during the war, found himself encouraged by Rose's resolve, curiosity and compassion. The lone Dalek in
Dalek, having absorbed Rose's
DNA, taunted the Doctor by referring to her as "the woman you [theDoctor] love", but the Doctor didn't respond. The Ninth Doctor did kiss Rose with some passion in
The Parting of the Ways, although it could be argued that this only was in order to draw out the lethal energy of the time vortex from her body. (See "
The Doctor and romance".)
Personality
As a character, the Ninth Doctor is less of a central heroic figure than an enabler, encouraging his companions and other people he meets to act upon their more positive impulses. Those he meets (in particular
Captain Jack Harkness) often credit him with making them better people (this is indirectly referenced in the penultimate episode of Series 3 when
the Master calls the Doctor "the man who makes people better"). He uses this quality alongside his intelligence and the information he gathers to inspire and allow others to act to end the dangers they face, rarely taking direct action himself (although he tended to find himself incapacitated in some manner at crucial moments, therefore requiring the interventions of others).
The Doctor's ninth incarnation was perhaps the most gritty,
working class and informal, masking a lonely, guilt-ridden and melancholic personality with a jovial, witty, forthright and almost manic exterior. Similar to the
Fourth Doctor, he'd often make jokes in the face of danger, but then become grim and serious when on his own. Like the
Sixth Doctor, he also tended to be fatalistic at times, to the point of near-panic when he and Rose were cornered in "The Unquiet Dead" and he realised that he was going to die (this despite the knowledge that he'd probably just regenerate). Despite being impatient with humans, whom he often referred to as "stupid apes" -- and Mickey receiving particular scorn and being dubbed "Mickey the Idiot" -- the Ninth Doctor was far more tactile with, and reliant upon, his human companions than previous incarnations. He was notably both sentimental and emotional, especially where his closest friend, Rose, was concerned, to the point of allowing her to view her parents' wedding and later, her father's last moments — this being just one example of his occasional lack of caution.
The Ninth Doctor was quite colloquial in his language and spoke with a distinctly
Northern accent. Although the Seventh and Eighth Doctor spoke with non-
Received Pronunciation accents, the Ninth's era was the first time this was commented on in the series. When Rose questioned him on why, if he was alien, he sounded like he was from the North, the Doctor retorted, "Lots of planets have a North!"
Much of the Ninth Doctor's melancholy, lack of patience, levels of inaction and hard-bitten edge could be attributed to feelings of
guilt at being the sole survivor of the Last Great Time War between the
Time Lords and the
Daleks, the conclusion of which apparently resulted from his own actions to end the Dalek threat, burning away 10 million of their ships and destroying
Gallifrey and his own race in the process. This darker side came to the fore when he encountered the lone Dalek in "Dalek", exhibiting an angry, merciless and vengeful streak which surprised even Rose and led to the Dalek commenting that the Doctor would make a good Dalek. Previously, echoing the ruthlessness of his
seventh self, he also impassively stood by as the villainous
Lady Cassandra exploded, viewing it a fitting end for her actions (it was left ambiguous as to whether he could have spared her). However, a more light-hearted enthusiasm would surface on occasion, sometimes finding manic delight in tense situations such as his meeting with
Charles Dickens (of whom he's a well-versed fan) whilst pursuing a kidnapped Rose. He also displayed a wide pop-cultural knowledge ranging from Dickens to 21st century celebrity gossip, while his joy on saving the victims of the nanogene attack in 1940s London, thus totally avoiding fatalities, restored some of his optimism and self-belief. Ultimately, the Doctor was able to put some of his demons to rest and seemed to find some peace through redemption towards the end of his incarnation. This redemption occurred shortly before his regeneration when he was given the opportunity to vanquish the Dalek fleet once more, this time at the cost of the human race, and decided not to do it. When the Dalek Emperor asks if he'd rather be a coward or killer, the Doctor merely responds, "Coward. Any day."
In contrast with his
successor and in common with his
third, fourth and sixth selves, the Ninth Doctor didn't shy away from using force in situations he'd deem necessary. In "
Dalek", he located an alien weapon for use on the last Dalek in existence; were it not for Rose's intervention, he'd have used it. In "
Bad Wolf", he and his companions escaped from the custody of the Gamestation's armed guards using physical force, with the Doctor throwing a guard against a wall. Later, as he proceeded to the station's control room, he wielded a heavy two-handed weapon, even deactivating the safety as if he was going to use it. However, as he speaks to the controller, he reveals that he'd no actual intention of shooting anybody. The Doctor also arranged for lethal weaponry to be used on the
Slitheen in
"World War Three", sending a missile to destroy the alien family before they could nuke the world.
On several occasions, the Doctor indicates that he's 900 years old, the same age as the Sixth Doctor claimed to be in
Revelation of the Daleks. This appears to contradict the original series in which the Seventh Doctor, following his regeneration in
Time and the Rani, claimed to be 953 years of age, and who was in turn followed by the
Eighth Doctor. To date this discrepancy has yet to be addressed on-screen. (See
The Doctor's age.)
The Ninth Doctor's catchphrase, used in a variety of manners, and sometimes ironically, was "Fantastic!" (In 2007, Eccleston joined the cast of the American series
Heroes; in the episode "
The Fix", Eccleston's character
Claude utters "Fantastic!" in the same occasionally ironic fashion as the Ninth Doctor.)
Appearance
As befitting his more rugged, moodier behaviour, the Ninth Doctor was more streetwise in his appearance than his former selves. In deliberate contrast to the more notable and occasionally eccentric costumes of previous Doctors, the Ninth Doctor dressed in a non-descript, informal fashion: a worn, plain black leather jacket with a dark jumper (the only item he regularly changed, although only the colour, not the cut), trousers and boots. Charles Dickens, on learning the Doctor's name, declared that he more closely resembled a
"navvy". Similarly, Jack Harkness, upon first meeting the Doctor and Rose, commented that they were definitely not dressed to blend into 1941 London, describing the Doctor's look as "
U-boat captain." Also, unlike other Doctors, he wore his hair close cropped.
Gadgets
The Ninth Doctor's era saw the introduction of a redesigned
sonic screwdriver which was more versatile than its earlier versions, with functions ranging from its usual door opening abilities to conducting medical scans, repairing
barbed wire and acting as a remote control for the
TARDIS. The TARDIS console room also underwent a radical redesign, with an amber and green motif and a more organic look to its components.
The Ninth Doctor was also in the habit of using "slightly"
psychic paper — that appeared to be a blank piece of card that had the ability to show the viewer anything that the user wanted them to see. The Doctor used this to fake various means of identification. Jack Harkness also used psychic paper in his capacity as a
con man.
The Ninth Doctor modified Rose's
mobile phone — which she dubbed the
"superphone" — to give it the ability not just to receive and transmit where ordinary signals wouldn't get through, but powerful enough to be able to make telephone calls to any point in time (even calibrating to the time period of the user).
Story style
Under producer
Russell T. Davies, the new series was aimed at a contemporary audience, and its stories had a faster pace than those of the classic series. Rather than four- to six-part serials of 25-minute episodes (the most common format of the original series), most of the Ninth Doctor's stories consisted of individual 45-minute episodes, with only three stories out of ten being two-parters. The thirteen episodes were, however, loosely connected in a series-long story arc which brought their disparate threads together in the series finale. Also, like the original series, stories often flowed directly into one another or were linked together in some way. Notably, in common only with seasons 7 and 26 of the original series, every story of the season took place on or near Earth. This fact is directly addressed in the
original novel The Monsters Inside, in which Rose and the Doctor joke about the fact that all their adventures to date have taken place on Earth or on neighbouring space stations.
The stories of Series 1 varied quite significantly in tone, with the production team showcasing the various genres inhabited by
Doctor Who over the years. Examples include the "pseudo-historical" story "
The Unquiet Dead"; the far-future
whodunnit of "
The End of the World"; Earthbound alien invasion stories in "
Rose" and "
Aliens of London"/"
World War Three"; "base under siege" in "
Dalek" and
horror in
The Empty Child. Even the
spin-off media were represented, with "Dalek" taking elements from writer
Rob Shearman's own audio play
Jubilee and the emotional content of
Paul Cornell's "
Father's Day" drawing on the tone of Cornell's novels in the
Virgin New Adventures line. Davies had asked both Shearman and Cornell to write their scripts with those respective styles in mind. The episode "
Boom Town" included a reference to the novel
The Monsters Inside, becoming the first episode to acknowledge (albeit in a subtle way) spin-off fiction.
Regeneration
As noted above, when television audiences first see the Ninth Doctor, it has been an unspecified time since his regeneration, making this one of the few Doctors (the others are the
First and
Third) whose "birth" hasn't been shown on screen. However, according to the essay "Flood Barriers" in the 2007
Panini Books reprint collection of
Eighth Doctor comic strips from
Doctor Who Magazine, strip editor Clayton Hickman reveals that Russell T. Davies had authorized the comic strip to depict the regeneration at the end of the story arc,
The Flood. The Eighth Doctor would be shown regenerating after being exposed to the Time Vortex and briefly receiving god-like powers in order to stop an invasion of Earth by the Cybermen (similar to Rose's exposure at the end of
Parting of the Ways to stop the Daleks). The regeneration would have been witnessed by the Eighth Doctor's companion,
Destrii, and Hickman writes that the intent was to continue with a
Ninth Doctor: Year One story arc with the Ninth Doctor and Destrii. However, when this arc was vetoed by both Russell T. Davies and series producer Julie Gardner, the creative team were unable to come up with another way of regenerating the Doctor without Destrii's presence, and so the decision was made not to depict the regeneration in the comic strip. The reprint collection includes a specially-drawn panel showing how the Ninth Doctor might have looked in the comic strip immediately after his regeneration, wearing the Eighth Doctor's costume and being tended to by Destrii.. The Flood concludes with a homage to the ending of
Survival, with the Eighth Doctor noting that there's more to explore in the universe with his companion, and muses on acquiring a leather jacket to replace the coat he's lost, implying that the Eighth Doctor eventually dons the Ninth's garb prior to the Time War.
The Ninth Doctor also appears on-screen as a sketch (alongside other incarnations) in the book
A Journal of Impossible Things by John Smith.
When the Ninth Doctor first goes into Rose Tyler's flat, he looks in the mirror and comments that his appearance 'could have been worse', suggesting a recent regeneration.
Spin-off appearances
Novels
The Ninth Doctor appears briefly in
The Tomorrow Windows by
Jonathan Morris (which was published before he actually appeared on television). He is mentioned, but not seen, in
The Gallifrey Chronicles by
Lance Parkin. In that novel, a Time Lord named Marnal points out that the Doctor appears to have three different ninth incarnations: the canonical Ninth Doctor (played by Eccleston), plus the versions from
The Curse of Fatal Death (Atkinson) and
Scream of the Shalka (Grant).
Comics
"The Love Invasion"
"Art Attack!"
"The Cruel Sea"
"A Groatsworth of Wit"
Doctor Who Annual 2006
"Mr Nobody"
Short stories
Doctor Who Annual 2006
"Doctor vs. Doctor" by Gareth Roberts
"The Masks of Makassar" by Paul Cornell
"Pitter-patter" by Robert Shearman
"What I did on my summer Holidays By Sally Sparrow" by Steven MoffatDoctor Who Magazine
"Voice From the Vortex" (DWM #364)Further Information
Get more info on 'Ninth Doctor'.
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