War Doctor

This article is about the character in the British television series Doctor Who. For doctors in warfare, see Combat medic and Military medicine.

The Doctor

The War Doctor
Doctor Who character
File:War Doctor.jpg
First appearance	"The Name of the Doctor"
Last appearance	"The Day of the Doctor"
Portrayed by	John Hurt
Information
Appearances	3 stories (2 TV episodes + 1 mini-episode episodes)

The War Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme Doctor Who. He is portrayed by English actor John Hurt. Although he precedes Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor in the show's fictional chronology, his first onscreen appearance came eight years after Eccleston's; the War Doctor was retroactively created by showrunner Steven Moffat for productions celebrating the show's 50th anniversary.

Within the programme's narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body, but in doing so, gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. This plot device has allowed a number of actors to portray different incarnations of the Doctor over the show's long run. The War Doctor, not so named within the episodes in which he appears, is introduced as the incarnation of the Doctor who fought in the Time War of the show's modern-day backstory. He was created as a result of a conscious decision of the Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann, to take up arms and become a warrior; in accepting this duty, the War Doctor disowned the title of "Doctor," and after the war's end is viewed with disdain by his subsequent incarnations, who again go by the name "Doctor". In the anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", however, the incumbent Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith revises his opinion of this incarnation after revisiting the final moments of the war.

In his original conception of the show's anniversary special, Moffat had written the Ninth Doctor as having ended the Time War. However, he was "pretty certain" that Christopher Eccleston would decline to return to the role, which he ultimately did. As he also had reservations about making Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor the incarnation who had ended the war, he created a never-before-seen past incarnation of the Doctor, which allowed him "a freer hand" in writing the story, acknowledging that the success of doing this would be predicated on being able to cast an actor with a significant enough profile.

Costume

English actor John Hurt portrays the War Doctor

In "The Name of the Doctor", Hurt's character appears old and bedraggled, wearing a distressed leather overcoat over the Eighth Doctor's Victorian-style waistcoat. Costume designer Howard Burden said that Hurt's character is a "dark Doctor" existing between the Doctor's eighth and ninth incarnations. As shown immediately after his regeneration during the events of "The Night of the Doctor", it appears that this Doctor regenerated to a young age.

He is also seen to use a new sonic screwdriver with a red light, similar to the one belonging to the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 TV film.

Appearances

The War Doctor first appears at the conclusion of the series seven finale "The Name of the Doctor" where the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and companion Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) are trapped in the Doctor's timeline. Clara believes she has seen all the Doctor's faces, but does not recognise one figure (played by John Hurt). The Doctor (Smith) tells her that he is yet another version of himself, albeit one who has lost the right to the name of the Doctor. The War Doctor's origins are given in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor", set during the Time War referred to in the series. After the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) is killed by a spaceship crashing, he is temporarily resurrected and urged to take a stand and join the war. He is offered an elixir designed to trigger a life-saving regeneration into a form of his choice. Feeling the universe has no more need for a doctor, he requests to become a warrior. After regenerating into the War Doctor, he disowns the name of the Doctor.

In the 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", the War Doctor steals the superweapon known as "the Moment" with the intent of wiping out all combatants in the war along with his home world of Gallifrey. However, the Moment is sentient and sends the War Doctor into his future to meet the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (David Tennant and Matt Smith respectively) to understand the sadness and regret they endured while continuing the good he failed to accomplish. Aided by the Moment's interface which shows them a vision of horror and destruction, the Doctors ultimately conclude that the loss of life that would be caused by using the Moment is something they cannot accept. They instead pool their resources, and with the help of the Doctor's past and future incarnations, attempt to save Gallifrey by freezing it in a moment in time, creating the illusion of the planet's own destruction. The Daleks are effectively tricked into firing on each other, annihilating themselves. The War Doctor accepts that upon returning to his own timeframe, he will forget his own heroic actions and must live with the false knowledge that he killed his own people. Before leaving, he takes a moment to thank his future selves for helping him "become the Doctor" again. Once inside his TARDIS, he begins to regenerate.