The Doctor

1st incarnation – The 1st Doctor

First Appearance: An Unearthly Child (1963)
Played by: William Hartnell (1963-1966)
Companions: Susan, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Steven, Katarina, Dodo, Polly, Ben

2nd incarnation – The 2nd Doctor

First Appearance: The Tenth Planet (1966)
First Full Story: The Power of the Daleks (1966)
Played by: Patrick Troughton (1966-1969)
Companions: Polly, Ben, Jamie, Victoria, Zoe

3rd incarnation – The 3rd Doctor

First Appearance: Spearhead from Space (1970)
Played by: Jon Pertwee (1970-1974)
Companions: Liz, Sergeant Benton, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Mike, Jo, Sarah-Jane

4th incarnation – The 4th Doctor

First Appearance: Planet of the Spiders (1974)
First Full Story: Robot (1975)
Played by: Tom Baker (1974-1981)
Companions: Sarah-Jane, Harry, Leela, K9, Romana, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

5th incarnation – The 5th Doctor

First Appearance: Logopolis (1981)
First Full Story: Castrovalva (1982)
Played by: Peter Davison (1981-1984)
Companions: Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion, Peri

6th incarnation – The 6th Doctor

First Appearance: The Caves of Androzani (1984)
First Full Story: The Twin Dilemma (1984)
Played by: Colin Baker (1984-1986)
Companions: Peri, Mel

7th incarnation – The 7th Doctor

First Appearance: Time and the Rani (1987)
Played by: Sylvester McCoy (1987-1989 and 1996)
Companions: Mel, Ace

8th incarnation – The 8th Doctor

First Appearance: The TV Movie (1996)
Played by: Paul McGann (1996 and 2013)
Companions: Grace

9th incarnation – The War Doctor

First Appearance: The Name of the Doctor / The Night of the Doctor (2013)
First Full Story: The Day of the Doctor (2013)
Played by: John Hurt (2013)
Companions: –

10th incarnation – The 9th Doctor

First Appearance: Rose (2005)
Played by: Christopher Eccleston (2005)
Companions: Rose, Adam, Jack

11th incarnation – The 10th Doctor

First Appearance: The Parting of the Ways (2005)
First Full Story: The Christmas Invasion (2005)
Played by: David Tennant (2005-2010)
Companions: Rose, Mickey, Martha, Jack, Donna

12th incarnation – The 10th Doctor

First Appearance: Journey’s End (2008)
Played by: David Tennant (2005-2010)
Companions: –

13th incarnation – The 11th Doctor

First Appearance: The End of Time (2010)
First Full Story: The Eleventh Hour (2010)
Played by: Matt Smith (2010 – 2013)
Companions: Amy, Rory, River, Clara

A New Regeneration Cycle

In the anniversary year it was revealed that Matt Smith was the 13th and final incarnation.

John Hurt was introduced as the War Doctor, the forgotten 9th incarnation. Bumping up the numbers David Tennant took the 11th and 12th incarnations having regenerated in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. This made Matt Smith the 13th incarnation.

The Doctor was granted a new regeneration cycle from the Time Lords in The Time of the Doctor allowing the Doctor to regenerate again.

14th incarnation – The 12th Doctor

First Appearance: The Day of the Doctor / The Time of the Doctor (2013)
First Full Story: Deep Breath (2014)
Played by: Peter Capaldi (2013 – 2017)
Companions: Clara, Nardole, Bill

15th incarnation – The 13th Doctor

First Appearance: Twice Upon a Time (2017)
Played by: Jodie Whittaker
Companions: Yaz, Graham, Ryan and Dan

16th incarnation – The 14th Doctor

First Appearance: The Power of the Doctor (2022)
First Full Story: The Star Beast (2023)
Played by: David Tennant
Companions: Donna

17th incarnation – The 15th Doctor

First Appearance: The Giggle (2023)
First Full Story: The Church on Ruby Road (2023)
Played by: Ncuti Gatwa
Companions: Ruby, Belinda

Other Versions of the Doctor

Throughout the shows history, several mysterious incarnations of the Doctor have emerged, ranging from the mysterious Watcher to the villainous Valeyard and the controversial Timeless Child.

The Brain of Morbius

In The Brain of Morbius, the Doctor engages in a “mind-bending” battle with Morbius. During this battle, the machine forces the Doctor’s mind back beyond his known lives, displaying eight previously unseen faces on screen.

George Gallaccio
Robert Holmes
Graeme Harper
Douglas Camfield
Philip Hinchcliffe
Christopher Baker
Robert Banks Stewart
Christopher Barry

The Watcher

In Logopolis, the mysterious Watcher was revealed to be a form of the Fifth Doctor, an emanation of the next incarnation that guided the Fourth Doctor to his regeneration

The Valyard

The Valyard first appeared as the court prosecutor during the Sixth Doctor’s trial on Gallifrey. A darker side of the Doctor, somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnation.

There is some evil in all of us, Doctor, even you. The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation. The Master

The Curator

The Curator implies that he is a version of the Doctor from the very distant future who has taken a job looking after the National Gallery in London, which contains a painting from Gallifrey and the Time War.

Oh, it’s entirely up to you. Your choice, eh? I can only tell you what I would do if I were you. Oh, if I were you. Oh, perhaps I was you, of course. Or perhaps you are me. Congratulations. The Curator

Younger First Doctor

The TARDIS (guided by Clara’s telepathic link) landed in a dry, dusty barn, the same barn where the War Doctor later goes to activate “The Moment” during the 50th Anniversary (The Day of the Doctor).

Clara finds the Doctor when he was a child. The barn was the Doctor’s safe place throughout his life.

The Fugitive Doctor

The Fugitive Doctor was introduced in the episode Fugitive of the Judoon, she is an incarnation of the Doctor that existed long before the “First” Doctor we knew.

The Fugitive Doctor worked as a high-level operative for The Division. She was a spy who did some undercover work that the Time Lords didn’t want to admit to.

Brendan

Brendan was a young Irish man whose life story served as a “visual filter” or metaphor for the secret history of the Timeless Child.

His story was discovered as a series of “redacted” files hidden within the Matrix. While the footage appeared to show a 20th-century human life, it was actually a coded version of the Doctor’s original life before the memories were wiped.

The Timeless Child

The Timeless Child revealed that the Doctor is not actually a native Time Lord from Gallifrey. Instead, the Doctor is an unknown species being found by a Shobogan explorer named Tecteun at a gateway to another universe. Tecteun discovered a child with the unique ability to regenerate their body upon death—a power the child used multiple times before Tecteun eventually mapped their genetic code.

There was an explorer, and her name was Tecteun, from a little-regarded, sparsely populated planet called Gallifrey. Tecteun was the first of Gallifrey’s indigenous race, the Shobogans, to develop space travel. The Master

Tecteun
The Timeless Child
The Timeless Child
The Timeless Child
The Timeless Child
The Timeless Child
The Timeless Child
The Timeless Child

Alternative Ninth Doctor, Scream of the Shalka

In 2003, BBCi (BBC Online) celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who by releasing a special six-part animated adventure. This series introduced a brand-new Ninth Doctor, voiced by Richard E. Grant.

At the time, this was intended to be the official continuation of the Doctor Who. However, with the announcement of the 2005 live-action revival happening almost simultaneously, this version of the Time Lord was eventually sidelined. In 2024, Richard E. Grant appeared on-screen in the episode “Rogue,” officially acknowledged more as a past face of the Doctor.