William Hartnell was the first actor to leadDoctor Whowhen the show began in 1963, but it took Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor to bring back one of the character’s most underutilized character traits. As the first ofall the actors to play the Doctor,Hartnell helped kickstart the Time Lord’s now-vast lore, including the ability to regenerate, which was introduced at the end of One’s reign. By the time Smith was cast, the franchise canon was bursting at the seams, but that didn’t stop showrunner Steven Moffat from reminding the audience about a key fact of the Doctor’s character.
The early stages ofDoctor Who’s classic erawere incredibly improvisational. While the show’s post-revival form has decades of lore to lean upon when telling its stories, the franchise’s formative years had to make steady additions to the canon for the show’s universe and its main character. Of course, worldbuilding still happens inDoctor Who’s modern era, but as with anything, it’s all started to slow down a little and settle into a bit of a groove. Whileit’s important to always keepDoctor Whomoving forward, Moffat also understood the importance of the saga’s storied history.
Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor Was The First To Live For Centuries Since William Hartnell’s
Moffat restored the Doctor’s potential for a very long life
The First Doctor fully lived up to his alien nature by hugely bypassing the average human lifespan. Although there is quite a lot of debate about exactly how long the Doctor spent in his first form, it’s widely accepted that Hartnell’s Doctor lived for hundreds of years. In fact,One was already over 200 years old when he stole his TARDISand ran away from Gallifrey, and he traveled with Hartnell’s face for even longer than that. After Patrick Troughton took over as the Second Doctor, this element of the character fell by the wayside.
In between Hartnell and Smith, every other actor to that point had only played Doctors who had remained in their respective forms for a handful of decades.
It wasn’t until Steven Moffat took over as the showrunner and installed Matt Smith as Eleven in 2010 that the show started to plant the seeds of a Doctor with such incredible longevity. In between Hartnell and Smith, every other actor to that point had only played Doctors who had remained in their respective forms for a handful of decades, and some even shorter than that. For instance, Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor regenerated roughly a year after transitioning from his Eighth form (Paul McGann). Similarly,David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor’s timelineended after just six in-universe years.
Doctor Who: William Hartnell Was Never Considered The First Doctor
William Hartnell’s version of the Doctor may be labeled as the first, but a classic episode of Doctor Who suggests that’s not entirely true.
Moffat removed the rule of one season of modernDoctor Whomeaning the Doctor aged by one year, and started to include larger and larger time jumps for Eleven. Ten claims he was 906 years old in his final episode, and by 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor,” Smith’s version of the Time Lord claims to be 1,200 years old. Even if he’s off by a decade or three, this is still a far longer life than any of the Doctors since Hartnell. He then spends another few centuries defending a town called Christmas before regenerating.
Doctor Who’s Other Moffat-Era Doctors Also Lived For A Very Long Time
Steven Moffat loved making full use of the Doctor’s alien biology. Although Smith could arguably have been a standout Doctor after living for so very long, the showrunner extended the trend to include the other two Doctors he introduced. Firstly, John Hurt’s War Doctor, while only ever appearing in one episode, was revealed to have also stayed in the same form for hundreds of years as the Time War raged. Although created as a character after Eleven in the real world,the War Doctor actually canonically came just before Nine, technically making Hurt’s iteration the one to revive One’s achievement.
The War Doctor was created to account for Eccleston’s refusal to returnfor “The Day of the Doctor.” So, if Nine had featured, he would likely have been retroactively given a far longer life than the one year he got. Moffat also recalled McGann to play an older Eight, in a short setting up the War Doctor’s arc.
Peter Capaldi replaced Smith in 2013, andthe Twelfth Doctor was also afforded the opportunity to travel for hundreds of years. Even without taking Twelve’s timey-wimey story in “Heaven Sent” into account, he was still one of the longest-living versions of the Doctor. When Moffat and Capaldi both decided to leave, showrunner Chris Chibnall adopted Moffat’s renewal of the Doctor’s long lifespan by having Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor also experience a centuries-long existence. It’s still too early to tell whether Russell T. Davies intends to give Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor such a long run, or even Tennant’s Fourteenth.
Why Most Of The Doctor’s Regenerations Don’t Last Very Long
The Doctor is often at risk when saving the day
The Doctor never really lives safely, and if a certain regeneration does have a period of low activity, it’s either for a very specific reason or it never lasts very long. The various versions of the Doctor are pretty much always, by their very nature, right in the middle of the action. They all thrive when they’re helping people and those who need said help are quite often found in dangerous scenarios. So, wherever the TARDIS lands, death/regeneration is always seemingly a possibility for the Doctorduring or after the adventure. Sometimes, the Doctor can’t avoid that danger.
The Doctor Who Scene That Proved Matt Smith’s Eleven Is Low-Key The Most Heroic Doctor Ever
Bravery is a vital part of the Doctor’s personality, but Matt Smith’s version of the Time Lord demonstrably has the most courage of them all.
While there’s some debate about whether regeneration is akin to dying, the Tenth Doctor openly confirms in “The End of Time” that he believes the two processes are identical. This may not be a view that’s shared by every version of the Time Lord, but it would make sense if it was.This reinforces just how selfless a Doctor iseach time they sacrifice themselves in order to save lives. Although functionally immortal, each Doctor likely views themselves as a separate entity, and many decide to give up what could’ve been a very long existence in the same of heroism.
Why It’s Better When The Doctor Has A Longer Lifespan
The Doctor’s alien origin means the character should spend longer in each form
Although there are some advantages to watching a Doctor’s life unfold in relative real-time, it’s almost always more rewarding when a version of the Time Lord lives for an incredibly long period. That way, it drives home the fact that the Doctor is an alien, which can be easy to forget at times due to their human appearance. Plus,it makes the Doctor seem even more god-likethan they often already do.
A longer-living Doctor means even more unseenDoctor Whostories, as the show can only show so much, but the Doctor continues to have even more hidden experiences.
In addition, centuries-long lifespans can help explain a vital component of the Doctor’s character. Every version is incredibly knowledgeable about almost everything, butit doesn’t always seem to make sense how the Doctor could know so much, despite being so old. I’ve always assumed that most of the Doctor’s adventures happen offscreen, even for versions that don’t live very long - like Eccleston’s Ninth. However, a longer-living Doctor means even more unseenDoctor Whostories, as the show can only show so much, but the Doctor continues to have even more hidden experiences.
Doctor Who
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Doctor Who: Doctor Who is a British sci-fi television series debuting in 1963, following The Doctor, a time-traveling alien Time Lord. The Doctor explores the universe in the TARDIS, accompanied by companions, confronting various adversaries and striving to save civilizations while addressing injustices.
An alien from the planet Gallifrey travels through time and space to explore, solve problems and fight injustice while also making friends with human beings. His spaceship, called TARDIS, resembles a police box, but it is much more than it appears to be.
