LONGER VERSION The story of the Doctor…through my eyes. WHO is the DOCTOR?
If you do not know the Doctor, my condolences.
Fortunately, I have been alive long enough to remember "reading" about the first Doctor...and the second as reading was all that was available in the States until PBS-TV started picking up episodes and eventually full seasons of the mysterious character and show DOCTOR WHO. First airing in November of 1963, it was expected to get one or two seasons. Now 50 years later it is still thriving.
The Doctor is an alien, to us anyway, from the distant planet of Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasteroborous. The inhabitants of this planet are Time Lords and are an ancient race. Though in their earlier times they were quite savage, through the wisdom of an ancient ruler, Rassilon, they overcame these tendencies. Rassilon also, according to Gallifreyan legend as written in The Book of the Old Time, was the very first Time Lord and journeyed into a black hole, captured and stabilized its energy within the Eye of Harmony to make it the power source of Gallifrey and the key to time travel. Though these Dark Times are not to be forgotten. And to this end the DEATH ZONE of Gallifrey is maintained as a reminder to future generations to not allow their great power again corrupt them or their world. In the center of the DEATH ZONE stands the DARK TOWER, the final resting place of the mighty Lord Rassilon.
While most time lords are content to simply observe other races from afar, never to interfere, some, and we count the Doctor in this group, prefer a more “hands-on” approach. He, and a select few, abandoned the passive lifestyle of their contemporaries and left Gallifrey. The Doctor “borrowed” his type 40 TARDIS while it was in for repair to travel the universe of Time and Space. Even though it is extremely old and outdated it serves his purpose to travel and learn.
We first meet the Doctor in his first incarnation traveling with his granddaughter, Susan. Eventually leaving her with her new love on the newly freed planet earth after defeating a Dalek invasion, he eventually regenerated for the first time in Evil of the Daleks, becoming a much younger but equally eccentric individual. Though entirely different on the outside, he was still the Doctor on the inside with all his past wisdom and knowledge intact.
At the end of The War Games we actually learn more about the Doctor as we meet for the first time his race…The Time Lords. Though he has done great things in the cause of good and justice, they forgive him his crimes of stealing a TARDIS and, knowing they may need to call on his help in the future, or the past, they exile him to earth…his favorite planet. But not before forcing regeneration into a much taller, curly white haired version of himself. They feel that they can keep a distant eye on him and his activities there.
After a time in exile, and doing a few errands for the High Council of the Time Lords, he was fully forgiven and released from his exile on earth. Now with all of time and space to travel through, he still chose to stay on earth for a period with an odd jaunt here and there and when.
Eventually the over exposure of radiation on the Planet of the Spiders starts to destroy every cell in his body forcing a regeneration. This time in front of the Brigadier, one of his oldest friends on earth.
Now in his forth incarnation, the tall, brown curly haired Doctor again traveled to the far reaches of time and space and still managed to save the earth as well as the universe on several occasions. Even going toe to toe with the Black Guardian.
But a fatal fall from a radar dish tower brought on the next regeneration into a slightly more reserved incarnation. This Doctor fancied dressing as though he were the bowler of a cricket team.
But this reserved Doctor still had his principles and sacrificed himself to save his dieing companion Peri, Perpugilliam Brown. Yes, an earthling. American, actually.
Our next Doctor was by far the most outrageous. In fashion sense and temperament as he nearly kills poor Peri in the first few moments following his regeneration.
Though his temperament improves, his fashion sense does not but he manages to pull it off when you are that sure of yourself. After surviving his own trial by the Time Lords for allegedly causing the death of Miss Peri, which he did not… (she is alive and well and living as a queen on a distant planet) as well as committing genocide, victoriously, he was allowed to go on his way. Soon after this his TARDIS is soon hit by an energy beam controlled by the rouge Time Lord, the Rani, and forced to crash on the planet Lakertya forcing yet another regeneration.
This quirky little fellow soon sets thing right on this planet, dealing with the Rani’s evil plan and returning many of the universes great minds back to their appropriate times and locations. Including Albert Einstein.
The Doctor’s timing was VERY off as he ended up accidentally being gunned down in New York City by a gang settling a score with another.
Becoming a very proper Edwardian version of the Doctor endeared him to an earth doctor, no, not THAT kind of doctor. The surgical kind. She, in her ignorance, killed the gunshot Doctor on the operating table causing him to regenerate in the morgue. Though she did not follow him off into unimaginable adventures, he truly cared for her and she him.
Why this Doctor regenerated remains a mystery, as are any adventures he had aside from the one in New York.
Enter the ninth Doctor. Tall with short hair and a black leather jacket, he was once accused of dressing like a U-boat captain by a former time agent. He again chose to sacrifice himself to save his latest traveling companion, Rose Tyler.
Rose stood back and watched as the process unveiled itself before her and the Doctor regenerated before her eyes. This regeneration was the first where he stood up through the whole process bathing the TARDIS interior in the golden glow.
Now, shorter and with a lot more hair, the 10th Doctor had renewed energy and continued to do a lot of running. Smartly dressed, aside from the red sneakers…then blue sneakers, he continued to fight the good fight. And even came across a former companion from six and seven regenerations ago, Sarah Jane Smith. A feisty, freelance journalist who had gotten on with her life only to meet the Doctor again by chance after 30 years.
This Doctor yet again sacrificed his life to save the lovable old granddad, named Wilfred Mott, of his companion, Donna Noble. Before he regenerates, he is determined to revisit many of his past companions barely making it back into the TARDIS, with the help of an OOD, a selfless and kind race of aliens, before regenerating into our latest Doctor who is as wild and eccentric as his second self. Complete with bowtie. It is at this time, the Doctor meets Amy Pod.