Doctor Number 20: The Forth Doctor
As covered earlier it is during the era of the Forth Doctor that we got the Brain of Morbius episode which showed us the faces of eight previous incarnations of the Doctor. This is perhaps the biggest point of note during the reign of the Forth Doctor and but there is one other version of the Doctor to muddy the waters just slightly, but we won’t give them a direct number. This other version is…
Doctor Number 20A: The Watcher
As a precursor to the Forth Doctor’s regeneration into the Fifth, the Forth Doctor saw a mysterious figure dressed all in white and with an unusual unformed face. The Forth Doctor seemed to have an understanding of who the Watcher was and knew that this figure would be involved in his regeneration. As the regeneration began it was acknowledged that the Watcher was the Doctor all along, although how this makes sense has never particularly clear.
Unlike other interim Doctors that bridge the gaps between regenerations on this list, The Watcher is unique in that they appeared before the actual regeneration began. In this sense the Watcher serves a similar function to the Ood warning the Tenth Doctor of his impending regeneration, or as has been seen more recently with Time warning the Thirteenth Doctor. It could be said that figures often get a sense of the Doctor’s impending regenerations, but why only the Forth got a version of themselves is unknown.
Doctor Number 21: The Fifth Doctor
Now we’re getting into the easy streak of things here as again it’s plain sailing through to the Sixth Doctor. The Fifth Doctor did seem to have a brief moment as an evolved version of The Watcher where he looked to be dressed as a clown before taking his final form as the Fifth, but if anything this was just part of the transition from Forth through Watcher into Fifth and not another version.
Doctor Number 22: The Sixth Doctor
The journey of the Sixth Doctor is pretty straight forward without anything to dispute his position in the timeline of the Doctor. However…The Sixth Doctor does meet The Valeyard, who it turns out is an incarnation of The Doctor that exists between the Doctor’s Twelfth and final incarnations.
We’ll cover The Valeyard more later, but it is of note that we first meet the character in the era of the Sixth Doctor.
