The Different Doctors In a Nutshell
Sunday, December 2, 2007 at 02:07AM 
The Tenth Doctor's sketches of his former lives.
The Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Like anyone else in the universe, Time Lords get older and can eventually die of old age. They can be hurt, they can get sick and they can be killed.
But trying to kill them through outside factors isn't that easy. If there isn't too much damage to their form and if death isn't instantaneous, a Time Lord can "regenerate", creating an entirely new body from scratch. The same person, instantly reborn.
Naturally, such a drastic traumatic shift of the body causes the brain cells to shift. Although memories remain intact (thus keeping the nurture part of the personality), the basic idiosyncrasies, physical quirks and other traits such as temper, attention span and impulsiveness all change as a result of the new body chemistry. Now possessing new attitudes, the Time Lord can re-introduce himself to many familiar things almost as if for the first time. Time Lords can regenerate a maximum of twelve times, allowing them thirteen possible incarnations.
Here then is a run down of each of the Doctor's incarnations, as we've seen so far.
FIRST DOCTOR – William Hartnell
"Back when I first started at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important. Like you do when you're young."
- The Tenth Doctor, Time Crash
CLICK HERE to read the full history of the First Doctor.
Or feel free to check out the First Doctor Chronology.
When we first met the Doctor, he was already nearing the end of his first incarnation. He was crotchety, short-tempered and extremely open with his rather cynical opinions of everyone around him. However, once you got to know him, you found that there was a caring grandfather-type beneath the gruff exterior, a man who desperately wanted to keep his friends safe and who hated to see innocent lives be victimized.
In his first few adventures, the Doctor still acted very much like a Time Lord, willing to injure and trick people if he saw them as obstacles between him and his goals. But after he began traveling with human companions, he quickly eased up and became less confrontational and more openly sensitive to others.
The First Doctor died when the Cybermen used a weapon meant to drain the life-force of Earth, a weapon which affected the Time Lord as well. The Doctor was so weakened that he apparently needed the aid of the TARDIS to regenerate. Just before his "death", the First Doctor told his companions Ben and Polly: "It's all over. That's what you said … but it isn't … It's FAR from being all over!"
SECOND DOCTOR – Patrick Troughton
CLICK HERE to read the full history of the Second Doctor.
Or feel free to check out the Second Doctor Chronology.
The Second Doctor saw himself a little bit like a “cosmic hobo.” He was an effervescent man who showed great joy at discovering new things. The Second Doctor often played a recorder to help him think and often acted as an idiot or a coward in order to get his enemies to underestimate him or to manipulate others into doing what he needed. It was the Second Doctor who began using the alias of "John Smith" and who created the now-famous sonic screwdriver.
During his second incarnation, the Doctor first met Col. Alastair Gordon Lethbrige-Stewart, who was later promoted to Brigadier and helped form U.N.I.T. (U.N. Intelligence Task force), a global organization that the public believed to be a mere intelligence network but was actually intended to protect the world from extra-normal threats.
It was during his second life that the Doctor was finally captured and put on trial by the Time Lords. Though he had interfered with many different races in the universe, he was able to argue his way out of a death sentence by explaining he had helped more 
often than hurt and pointing out that he had fought time-traveling races such as the Daleks, who would otherwise be a great threat to the universe as a whole.
The High Council of Time Lords agreed to suspend the sentence of death, but still wished to punish the Doctor. First, he was forced to perform several missions of the Time Lords' black ops organization, the Celestial Intervention Agency. After these missions, the Doctor was sentenced to Earth in exile as punishment for his previous crimes.
As with all Time Lords who are sent into exile, he was forced to regenerate by the High Council as part of his punishment, thus ending his second life prematurely.
THIRD DOCTOR – Jon Pertwee
CLICK HERE to read the full history of the Third Doctor.
Or feel free to check out the Third Doctor Chronology.
Known sometimes as "the dandy Doctor" due to his very flamboyant dress sense, the Third Doctor was a no-nonsense scientist who wanted nothing more than to be left alone to pursue his research and explorations. He was very snappish and sarcastic, often tossing out smart remarks to people. Much of this insensitivity was due to his anger at being stranded in one place and time and once he regained his freedom he began to lighten up again.
The Third Doctor was more physically aggressive than some of the others, at times preferring to solve arguments through the use of Venusian martial arts. He enjoyed tinkering with gadgets whenever he had spare time. He also loved driving around in his customized jalopy, which he called Bessy.
It was during his exile that the Doctor became a Scientific Adviser to U.N.I.T. In exchange for his expertise, the Doctor was given free reign of the labs so that he could attempt to repair his TARDIS and escape his exile. Only a few U.N.I.T. employees and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart were aware that the mysterious "Dr. John Smith" was actually an alien being.
After he helped to save his homeworld Gallifrey from certain destruction, the Third Doctor was freed from his exile and given the freedom to travel through space and time once more. However, he would still be required to perform occasional missions for the Time Lords whenever they saw fit. Despite this, the Third Doctor became generally more genial now that he knew he was free to travel again.
When he fought the Giant Spiders of the planet Metebilis Three, the Doctor was exposed to lethal doses of radiation. He began to die very slowly and painfully in the TARDIS, so much so that he was lost in the space-time vortex for a long time. Finally, the TARDIS brought him back to U.N.I.T. headquarters in England where he died in front of his friends Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and journalist Sarah Jane Smith.
Looking up at Sarah Jane, the Third Doctor's last words were: "Now don’t cry. Where there’s life's, there's …"
FOURTH DOCTOR – Tom Baker
Known for wearing scarves that were anywhere between 15 to 20 feet in length, the Fourth Doctor was a laid-back bohemian who at times was possessed with manic energy. He was scatter-brained and sometimes so absorbed in his thoughts that he would speak his inner monologue aloud, completely forgeting that there were people around him. He took pride in occasionally being childish and who loved to charge into new situations even if he hadn’t assessed the possible risks. His love of adventure was such that he was instantly annoyed by anyone who seemed close-minded or conservative to him. And if you threatened innocent lives, he would let loose with righteous anger.
During a time travel trip to the early days of the Dalek race, the Fourth Doctor had a chance to end the Daleks before they even began but decided he couldn't commit genocide for crimes that hadn't even been committed yet, nor could he change history so drastically when the Daleks had affected so many and when certain races had actually become peaceful allies due to a common hatred of the monsters. This decision to spare the Daleks would haunt him in his ninth life and the fact that he nearly wiped them out before they were fully born caused the Dalek race to begin waging attacks against the Time Lords themselves.
After many years of adventuring, the Fourth Doctor died when he sacrificed his life to prevent the Master from holding the entire universe hostage. After falling several hundred feet, he lay on the ground, surrounded by his then companions. Despite the pain he must have been experienced, he smiled to them and whispered: "It's the end … But the moment has been prepared for …"
FIFTH DOCTOR – Peter Davison
In his fifth incarnation, the Doctor's personality settled down again. Although he looked like an open-faced man in his thirties, the Fifth Doctor displayed the manner of a much older man and took on the role of teacher and father-figure to his companions. He enjoyed peaceful afternoons, sporting events and the company of others. In facing enemies, he was very serious and forthright and would chastise and mock many villains to their face.
The Fifth Doctor had the unusual habit of wearing celery on his lapel and explained once that in this incarnation he was highly allergic to certain gases. If these gases came into contact with the vegetable, it would turn it purple, thus warning him in time.
After the death of his companion Adric, the Doctor became a bit more cynical and sarcastic towards those around him. He also felt the weight of his age more, wondering how much good he'd really done in his life and how many enemies he would have to keep fighting before it was all over.
When he and his companion Peri Brown were both poisoned, the Doctor had only enough antidote to save one of them. He gave it to Peri and then succumbed to the poison. In his mind, he saw the Master laughing over him and telling him to die. In the audio play Circular Time, it was said that the Master had actually attacked the Doctor telepathically when he was poisoned, hoping to prevent the heroic Time Lord from regenerating. The attack failed and just before the Fifth Doctor regenerated, he wondered aloud "Is this death ...? Feels different this time ..."
SIXTH DOCTOR – Colin Baker
The Sixth Doctor was a loud, boisterous man who enjoyed announcing his presence and showing off his knowledge. A mad scientist in a patchwork coat that he once claimed was specifically intended to annoy conservative people, the Sixth Doctor was a man of passion who would occasionally dismiss his friends as less impressive than he since they were "only human." At the same time, he would be filled with incredible sadness over the plight of perfect strangers or over a life that was needlessly wasted.
Although not very popular during his TV run due to some poor stories, 
Colin Baker later proved he could be very entertaining and heroic as the Sixth Doctor through various audio plays and has become very popular to listeners. In some of these audio stories, the Sixth Doctor adopted a dark blue version of his outfit. He explained this was actually his "mourning" outfit, as blue, rather than black, is the color of death on many worlds.
In the novel Spiral Scratch by Gary Russell, it was revealed that the Sixth Doctor's final adventure involved him being exposed to lethal levels of time energies during an effort to save the multiverse. Sensing he was about to die (and not sure he would regenerate due to the amount of damage), he told his companion Mel "Don't cry, Mel. It was my time. Well, maybe not, but it was my time to give. To donate. I've had a good innings you know, seen and done a lot. Can't complain this time. Don't feel cheated."
Moments later, the renegade Time Lord known as the Rani shot down the Doctor’s TARDIS, forcing it to crash land. During the fall, the Doctor fell against the ship's control console, evidently causing a head wound that jump-started his regeneration.
SEVENTH DOCTOR – Sylvester McCoy
Initially, the Seventh Doctor was the same aloof, oddly behaving adventurer that had been seen in many previous incarnations. After a few adventures though, he became concerned that he'd been wrong to only be reactive in fighting evil and decided that he would now be proactive, hunting down specific villains and setting up complex schemes to bring them down for good.
As he became more and more involved in manipulations and master plans, he came to be darker and colder towards his friends and companions, sometimes forcing himself to look at them as pawns in his "big picture." Even his protégé Ace wasn’t always sure she could trust him to be honest about his plans and intentions. At the same time, the Seventh Doctor was noticeably sad by how much he’d lost his fun-loving nature and was prone to deep contemplations.
The Seventh Doctor’s adventures were continued in various novels and audio plays, some of which revealed that he now considered himself to be "Time's Champion." In several adventures, he fought an Eternal (a race of cosmic beings) who called herself Death and considered the Doctor to be a hated enemy. After many years, the Seventh Doctor realized he'd become too cold and too emotionally removed from those he'd been protecting. He tried to remember be more like the man he had once been.
When he crash-landed on Earth in the year 1999, the Doctor was caught in the crossfire of a gang war. He was taken to a hospital and his wounds treated, but the surgeons didn't understand his alien physiology and accidentally killed him on the table. His last words were a plea that he needed to stop the Master, who was on the loose again on Earth.
EIGHTH DOCTOR – Paul McGann
Click here to learn the full history of the Eighth Doctor.
Whereas the Seventh Doctor had been very somber and morose, the Eighth was a man who with a great lust for life, taking great joy in simple things such as comfortable shoes and sporting events. Whereas the Seventh Doctor was all about precision and making sure his TARDIS went exactly when and where he wanted, the Eighth deliberately set his TARDIS to be more random in its travels, believing it was more fun not knowing where you would end up.
The Eighth Doctor was said to be half-human, which is not unheard of since it was shown and stated before that Time Lords can alter their species during regeneration. This may have been part of the reason why the Eighth Doctor was the most human-like (emotionally speaking) of his incarnations. A later comic book story implied this was actually a complex deception on his part and that he was always completely Gallifreyan.
The Eighth Doctor loved telling stories where he could name-drop and enjoyed meeting new people wherever 
he went, no matter who they were. He was a great fan of Earth pop culture and, like the Fourth Doctor, had a habit of speaking his thoughts aloud.
In the audio plays, the Doctor became extremely close to a companion named Charlotte "Charley" Pollard and may have even grown romantic feelings towards her. Eventually, circumstances beyond the Doctor's control led to Charley leaving his company and he was somewhat harsher afterward, colder and more cynical. Later one, he found friendship again in the company of Lucie Miller. Lucie's adventures with the Doctor continue to be broadcast on the digital radio station BBC7.
How the Eighth Doctor died exactly is not known. What is known is that he died at the end of the Last Great Time War. When asked about it afterward, the Doctor said that his survival by regeneration was "not by choice" and that his survival had partly been due to "fighting on the front lines."
NINTH DOCTOR - Christopher Eccleston
Having literally been born in the wake of a great war, the Ninth Doctor was a hard-edged man focused on survival and who believed that harsh solutions were necessary to fight evil. He was quick to anger and seemed to think that showing too much mercy to an enemy was a weakness he couldn't afford, though this attitude began to soften the more time he spent around a human companion again.
A conflicted soul, the Ninth Doctor very much wanted to rediscover the simple joy of losing himself in fun and adventure, meeting new friends and seeing new wonders. Yet he was also incredibly guarded against allowing himself to become too attached to people, often refusing to engage in idle personal questions or familiar gatherings. Much of his issues seemed to stem from survivor's guilt from his experiences in the Last Great Time War. If something seemed to go wrong with a plan or endanger his friends, he would immediately cry that it was his fault and it would take him a moment or two to get his head on straight and work on finding a solution.
I could tell you more about the Ninth incarnation and what followed, but why should I? Go enjoy it for yourselves! Go out there and get the DVDs and start watching!
Until next time, cheers!
Reader Comments (4)
P.S.--
Nice history on Wonder Woman.
I hear what you're saying about the 10th Doctor. My own feeling is that since he has yet to end his incarnation, it is difficult to look at the 10th Doctor as a whole. His journey, metaphorical and otherwise, is not yet completed. When the next Doctor takes over, I will write a brief entry on 10.
Thanks for the kind words concerning the Wonder Woman piece.
My favourites are the "historicals." I am so sad that these were dropped later on as there is still potentially a huge wealth of stories to be mined.