The Doctor's family
Aboutthe Doctor
The Doctor'sfamilial relations were numerous and paradoxical. (PROSE:Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir) According to theSeventh Doctor, they would rather forget about him. (AUDIO:Master) The Doctor's brother,Irving Braxiatel, once stated the urge to leave theTime Lordhomeworld ofGallifrey "[ran] in the family", as he, (AUDIO:Beyond) the Doctor, (TV:An Unearthly Child) their fatherUlysses, (PROSE:Unnatural History) andSusan Foreman were all known to have done so. (TV:An Unearthly Child)
OfficialCelestial Intervention Agency briefings claimed that all of the Doctor's close family except forhis granddaughter Susan had perished during thePrydonian Academy Revolution, the event that their records claimed had prompted the Doctor and Susan to run away from Gallifrey. (PROSE:CIA File Extracts)
Adopted family[[edit] |[edit source]]
Sarah Jane Smith once referred to the Doctor'scompanions as their family, telling theTenth Doctor, "You act like such a lonely man, but you've got the biggest family onEarth!" (TV:Journey's End)Vicki Pallister reflected that, after theFirst Doctor had rescued her as a youngorphan, she had becomethe granddaughter he lost. (TV:The Time Meddler[+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (TotT TV story)"]) The Doctor chose to think of the universe as theirfoster family, after their parents "decided to opt out of their responsibilities." (PROSE:Beltempest)
TheFourteenth Doctor was encouraged by both theFifteenth Doctor andDonna Noble to settle down to live withher family. Among his new family the Fourteenth Doctor counted Donna, hisbest friend,Shaun Temple, hisbrotherin-law,Sylvia Noble, his "evilstepmother",Melanie Bush, his "MadAunt",Rose Noble, his favouriteniece, andgranddad,Wilfred Mott. (TV:The Giggle[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) When the Fifteenth Doctor reunited with Rose in2024, he asked her how "[her]uncle" was doing. (TV:The Legend of Ruby Sunday[+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Ancestors[[edit] |[edit source]]
According to one account, the Doctor was one of the forty-fivecousins created by theLoom of theHouse of Lungbarrow onGallifrey. (PROSE:Lungbarrow[+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"],Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir[+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir (short story)"]) At other times, the Doctor stated that they had parents, including aTime Lordfather, (TV:Doctor Who[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"],PROSE:The Infinity Doctors[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"],Unnatural History[+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)","Unnatural History"],Matrix[+]Loading...["Matrix (novel)"]) namedUlysses in one account, (PROSE:The Gallifrey Chronicles[+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"]) and ahumanmother. (TV:Doctor Who[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"],PROSE:Alien Bodies[+]Loading...["Alien Bodies (novel)"],The Infinity Doctors[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"],Grimm Reality[+]Loading...["Grimm Reality (novel)"],Unnatural History[+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"],The Shadows of Avalon[+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"],Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir[+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir (short story)"]) Some accounts held that the Doctor's mother was the humanPenelope Gate. (PROSE:The Infinity Doctors[+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"],The Gallifrey Chronicles[+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"])
Some time after his original encounters withOmega, theSixth Doctor learnt fromGallifrey'sKeeper of the Rolls that some evidence pointed to Omega having been a directancestor of his. (PROSE:Search for the Doctor[+]Loading...["Search for the Doctor (novel)"])
The Eighth Doctor recognisedI.M. Foreman as "one of my ancestors", but then clarified that he meant Foreman preceded him as a pioneering Gallifreyan rebel, not necessarily a biological ancestor; the Doctor noted that, ironically, Susan had adopted Foreman's surname without realising their shared heritage. (PROSE:Interference - Book Two[+]Loading...["Interference - Book Two (novel)"])
By other accounts, the Doctor's mother was also a Time Lord, (COMIC:The Comfort of the Good[+]Loading...["The Comfort of the Good (comic story)"]) withLadyPeinforte claiming that the idea of the Doctor being half human via his mother was "much disregarded". She also came to believe Looms were "non-canonical" after reading articles on theTARDIS Wiki. (PROSE:Lady Peinforte[+]Loading...["Lady Peinforte (short story)"]) In a third account of the Doctor's origins, they were originally the mysteriousTimeless Child, discovered and adopted by theShobogan travellerTecteun, who brought her child back with her to Gallifrey. (TV:The Timeless Children[+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"])
Patience taughtthe Doctor's grandfather, (PROSE:Cold Fusion[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"]) and theThirteenth Doctor spoke of severalgrandmothers. (TV:It Takes You Away[+]Loading...["It Takes You Away (TV story)"]) TheEleventh Doctor spoke ofhis godmother, (TV:Vincent and the Doctor[+]Loading...["Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)"]) and his great-auntInertia. (GAME:The Mazes of Time[+]Loading...["The Mazes of Time (video game)"]) The Doctor also had an aunt,Flavia, (AUDIO:Blue Boxes[+]Loading...["Blue Boxes (audio story)"]) who called herself "Loom Auntie Flavia", (PROSE:Apocrypha Bipedium[+]Loading...["Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)"]) and an uncle (TV:Time and the Rani[+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (TV story)"]) known simply as "the Uncle". (GAME:The Eternity Clock[+]Loading...["The Eternity Clock (video game)"]) TheSeventh Doctor thought that he might have once hada giddy aunt, but he mused that she was "probablymetaphorical". (AUDIO:Forever Fallen[+]Loading...["Forever Fallen (audio story)"])
TheEighth Doctor remembered coming from an "important"political family andgrowing up with all theprivilege that entailed. (AUDIO:Must-See TV[+]Loading...["Must-See TV (audio story)"])
Siblings[[edit] |[edit source]]
The Doctor had at least one brother,Irving Braxiatel, (PROSE:Tears of the Oracle,AUDIO:Disassembled,PROSE:...Be Forgot,Big Bang Generation,Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir,TV:Smith and Jones) who became an associate of the Doctor'scompanionBernice Summerfield. (PROSE:Tears of the Oracle) Braxiatel was aCardinal of Gallifrey, (AUDIO:Weapon of Choice) and later becameHigh Chancellor, though in exile. (AUDIO:Pandora) He was also the owner of theBraxiatel Collection, (PROSE:Tears of the Oracle) which the Doctor and Romana once compared to theLouvre inParis. (TV:City of Death) The Doctor had one niece by Irving Braxiatel,Maggie Matsumoto. (AUDIO:The Empire State)
TheThirteenth Doctor recalled once having hadsisters, (TV:Arachnids in the UK) though another account indicated the Doctor never had anolder sister, at least. (PROSE:Dragonfire) Irving Braxiatel hinted that he had once lost a sister, or a daughter. (PROSE:Tears of the Oracle)
At theEighth Doctor and Scarlette's wedding in thepost-War universe, theMan with the Rosette sat at the table reserved for the Doctor's family. (PROSE:The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
Descendants[[edit] |[edit source]]
The Doctor had, in the Tenth Doctor's own words, been "a dad" (TV:Fear Her) and "afather". (TV:The Doctor's Daughter) TheEighth Doctor confirmed he had "at least one" child. (AUDIO:The Final Hour) These children were "sons or daughters, or both." (PROSE:The Eleventh Tiger) TheTwelfth Doctor claimed he had "dad skills". (TV:Listen)Clara Oswald also claimed the Doctor had once had "children". (TV:Death in Heaven)
Susan's father was a Cardinal on Gallifrey and had awife, who some accounts stated died giving birth to Susan. (PROSE:Cold Fusion,Lungbarrow) It was unclear which of them was the descendant of the Doctor, or if either was.The Curator, though, did maintain Susan was the Doctor's granddaughter via natural means, meaning one of her parents was the Doctor's child. (PROSE:The Day of the Doctor) Inanother universe, it was specifically confirmed that the Doctor's daughter was Susan's mother. (AUDIO:Auld Mortality) It was implied by theTwelfth Doctor (TV:Hell Bent) and later outright claimed as truth by aTime Lord author that, at the time ofthe Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey, one of Susan's parents was thePresident of the High Council. (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords)
The Doctor also had severalgrandchildren, (TV:Death in Heaven) includingSusan, (TV:An Unearthly Child, et al.)John, andGillian Who. (COMIC:The Klepton Parasites,PROSE:Beware the Trods!, et al.) Some accounts referred to Susan as "the Other's" granddaughter. (PROSE:Lungbarrow) According to one account, Susan had agodfather who had abrother namedTerry. (AUDIO:Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?)
At one point, the Doctor became theadoptive father to a female Time Lord namedMiranda Dawkins, whom theEighth Doctor reared until her mid-teens. (PROSE:Father Time) Miranda later gave birth to a daughter,Zezanne, and died while trying to protect the Doctor. (PROSE:Sometime Never...)Edward Grove considered himself a child of the Doctor. (AUDIO:The Chimes of Midnight)
The Doctor also had a great-grandson namedAlex, the son of Susan andDavid Campbell. (AUDIO:An Earthly Child) Alex went on several adventures with the Eighth Doctor and backpacked around theEarth withLucie Miller before they were both killed by theDaleks. (AUDIO:Lucie Miller,To the Death) Susan and David also had adopted children,Barbara,Ian andDavid Junior. (PROSE:Legacy of the Daleks)
Genetic material from the Doctor in theirtenth incarnation was used to create a daughter,Jenny, viaprogenation. The Doctor explained to Donna Noble and Martha Jones that due to the way hisDNA was processed, he was Jenny's "biological mother and father". Although initially spurning her, he soon considered Jenny his daughter and invited her to travel with him in the TARDIS. Before she could join him, however, she was shot by GeneralCobb. The Doctor believed Jenny to have died, and departed. (TV:The Doctor's Daughter) Unbeknownst to him, she survived and set out on her own life of adventure, (TV:The Doctor's Daughter,AUDIO:Stolen Goods, et al.) even sharing one adventure with an earlier incarnation, theFifth Doctor. (AUDIO:Relative Time)
When the Earth was relocated to theMedusa Cascade, an instantaneous biological meta-crisis was created; thisMeta-Crisis Tenth Doctor was later was exiled by the Tenth Doctor toa parallel universe. (TV:Journey's End) In this parallel universe, the Meta-Crisis Doctor entered into a relationship withRose Tyler. The two hada child together, namedMia. (PROSE:Empire of the Wolf[+]Loading...["Empire of the Wolf (comic story)"])
Fate[[edit] |[edit source]]
Much of the Doctor'sfamily died or went missing. The majority of the Doctor's Cousins fromHouse Lungbarrow died during the 673 years they spent trapped underMount Lung after the House buried itself in shame over the murder of itsKithriarch,Ordinal-GeneralQuences. Dead Cousins includedHousekeeperSatthralope, who was crushed by her own chair; CousinArkhew, who was strangled by CousinOwis; CousinLuton, who got stuck in a chimney, and CousinGlospin, who was killed byBadger to protect theSeventh Doctor. (PROSE:Lungbarrow)
On the eve ofSusan's birth, insome prior lifetime to hisgenerally-accepted first incarnation, the Doctor'sfirst-born son faced down a squad ofChancellery Guard sent to purge the Doctor andPatience's children living at theHouse of Blyledge. Presumably only the Doctor, Patience and Susan survived the culling, rescued by a figure from Patience's relative future, theFirst Doctor. (PROSE:Cold Fusion)The Other later told Susan that her mother died during the birth and that her father was later sent to serve in theVampire Wars whereupon he perished aboard aBowship.[source needed] (TV:The Tomb of the Cybermen,The Curse of Fenric,AUDIO:To the Death,AUDIO:Cold Fusion,TV:The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
When asked about his family byVictoria Waterfield, who guessed that he could not remember them, theSecond Doctor confirmed he could. (TV:The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing. You must get some sleep and let this poor old man stay awake.The Second Doctor talks about remembering his family with Victoria[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story) [src]]
Whilst travelling withAce, theSeventh Doctor said that he did not know if he had any family when asked byKathleen Dudman in1943, and did not correct her when she assumed that it was due to the ongoingSecond World War. (TV:The Curse of Fenric[+]Loading...["The Curse of Fenric (TV story)"]) One source made note of this and suggested that theTime War had alreadybegun in some way by this point in the Doctor's lifetime. (GAME:The Curse of Fenric[+]Loading...["The Curse of Fenric (game)"])
After thelast day of the Time War, theNinth Doctor toldRose Tyler that his "whole family" had died as well as his "entire planet". Berating her for preventing the established death of her fatherPete Tyler, the Doctor rhetorically asked her if she thought it never occurred to him to go back and save them. (TV:Father's Day) The Tenth Doctor toldMartha Jones that his family and his friends were "all gone". (TV:Gridlock) Later, while tellingDonna that he'd been a father before, he explained that he "lost all that a long time ago along with everything else." (TV:The Doctor's Daughter) TheEleventh Doctor involuntarily reacted toCorc's accusation that he had never lost a child. (PROSE:Dark Horizons) Even after the Doctor realised thatGallifrey and the Time Lords were not destroyed at the end of the Time War, the Doctor still believed their family, including the missing children and grandchildren, to be dead. (TV:Death in Heaven,The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
When asked about his family byRuby Sunday, theFifteenth Doctor told her that he had "no one". (TV:The Church on Ruby Road[+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Affairs[[edit] |[edit source]]
- Main article:The Doctor's spouses
TheTenth Doctor toldSally Sparrow that he was "rubbish atweddings, especially [his] own". (TV:Blink)
TheFirst Doctor was accidentally engaged toCameca in the15th century when he drankcocoa with her. (TV:The Aztecs)
An earlier incarnation had been wed (PROSE:Cold Fusion) toPatience and they were said to have had a number of children and grandchildren. (PROSE:The Infinity Doctors)
TheFourth Doctor andRomana II once displayed an interest in getting married. (TV:On Through the 80's!)
After Gallifrey was destroyed in theWar in Heaven, theEighth Doctor marriedScarlette in order to ceremonially tie himself to the planetEarth. (PROSE:The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
Inone future stemming from the Eighth Doctor's life, (PROSE:The Tomorrow Window) theNinth Doctor was engaged to be married toEmma, the only travellingcompanion he had ever "had". However, anincident which caused the Doctor to undergo fourregenerations in quick succession resulted in Emma calling off her marriage to the femaleThirteenth Doctor. (TV:The Curse of Fatal Death)
TheTenth Doctor romanced and later marriedElizabeth I. (TV:The End of Time,The Day of the Doctor,PROSE:Suspicious Minds) She later declared him an enemy after he failed to return as promised. (TV:The Shakespeare Code) The Tenth Doctor implied he had been married several times prior to Queen Elizabeth, as he remarked toSally Sparrow about being "rubbish at weddings, especially [his] own". (TV:Blink) In hiseleventh incarnation, the Doctor accidentally became engaged toMarilyn Monroe, and married her the same night in what he later claimed was not a real chapel. (TV:A Christmas Carol)
River Song often hinted that she and the Doctor had aphysical relationship somewhere in her past and his future relative to the Eleventh Doctor's encounter withthe Silence inFlorida. (TV:Silence in the Library /Forest of the Dead,The Time of Angels /Flesh and Stone,The Pandorica Opens /The Big Bang,Day of the Moon) The Eleventh Doctor, operating aTeselecta shaped like himself, performed a "quick version" of awedding ceremony with River because they were in the middle of a combat zone in an alternate reality. They repeatedly referred to each other as husband and wife after the ceremony. (WC:Asylum of the Daleks Prequel,TV:The Wedding of River Song,The Angels Take Manhattan,The Name of the Doctor,The Time of the Doctor,The Husbands of River Song,AUDIO:The Boundless Sea,Five Twenty-Nine,The Eye of the Storm,PROSE:Suspicious Minds)
According toClara Oswald, by the time of the Doctor'stwelfth incarnation, he had been "married four times, all deceased". (TV:Death in Heaven)
Other references[[edit] |[edit source]]
Martha Jones had believed thatthe Master was the Doctor's "secretbrother [or something]", to which theTenth Doctor told her that she had "been watching too muchTV." (TV:The Sound of Drums)
Ruby Sunday once considered thatliving aslong asthe Doctor did came at acost, noting that she sometimesthought about "everything and everyone he'slost", including hishome planet,best friends, and his family. (PROSE:Who's the Doctor?[+]Loading...{"page":"6","1":"Who's the Doctor? (short story)"})
Behind the scenes[[edit] |[edit source]]
- Martha's belief that the Master was the Doctor's "secret brother" was first floated as a revelation about the character back in theJon Pertwee-era. The idea was reignited years later in thePeter Davison-era storyPlanet of Fire, withAnthony Ainley's version of the Master, before seemingly burning up, exclaiming "Won't you show mercy to your own…", never finishing the sentence. According to theDVD commentary,Fiona Cumming askedJohn Nathan-Turner how the line was to end, to which he replied, "brother". It was also used in several pitches for theEighth Doctor TV projects which eventually ended up as the1996Doctor Who TV movie; there, the Master would have beenUlysses' son by his legitimate Gallifreyan spouse, while the Doctor was Ulysses' son witha human woman, making him and the Master half-brothers.
- David A. McIntee once pitched aFifth Doctor novel which would instead have revealed the Doctor and the Master as former spouses, in a plotline allegedly inspired byWar of the Roses. The pitch was refused with a "death-stare" fromGary Russell.[1]
- TheDWM 386 edition ofSpace-Time Telegraph featured a parodic depiction of the Doctor's family tree, drawing from numerous non-televised stories.
- The Doctor's Family Tree was an illustration included inWho-ology: The Official Miscellany.
- Steven Moffat, in theSteven Moffat column ofDWM 482, speculated that the Doctor'sfirst spouse out of the four mentioned in the television storyDeath in Heaven was a woman who was married to theFirst Doctor for a long time on Gallifrey and borethe Doctor's children. He claimed "Mrs Who No 1" was never mentioned by the Doctor nor has he ever discussed her.
Footnotes[[edit] |[edit source]]
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