Doctor Who Theory: There Are Five Separate 9th Doctors

Doctor Who fans, prepare to have your minds blown with this wibbly wobbly timey wimey exploration of the 9^th Doctor, as we will deep dive into how there are actually five separate versions of the 9^th incarnation of the Doctor!

First things first, let’s look at the most obvious iteration of the 9^th Doctor and that is…

Christopher Eccleston  

Well obviously. Yes we’re starting things easy here as everyone knows that Christopher Eccleston played the 9^th Doctor. He took over the role of the Doctor when the series was revived in 2005 and played the role for just one series on TV. He didn’t return for the 50^thAnniversary special, but more recently has returned to the role for the popular audio drama series.

But here’s the thing. Did you know that Christopher Eccleston wasn’t the first version of the 9^th Doctor? No, before him there was…

Richard E Grant

In 2003 the BBC announced that Richard E Grant was the official 9^th Doctor and would be playing the role in an animated adventure called Scream of the Shalka. Grant provided the voice over and the cartoon was made to look like Grant. Scream of the Shalka was a 6 part web series on the BBC website and was the official entry in the series to mark the shows 40^th Anniversary.

The return of the live action show was announced shortly before the animated series aired and that quickly lead to the BBC all but forgetting and ignoring Grant as the 9^th Doctor as they powered on with the revived TV series.

But here’s the thing. Did you know that Richard E Grant wasn’t the first version of the 9^th Doctor? No before him there was…

Rowan Atkinson

In 1999, just a few years after Paul McGann had been the last to play the role of the Doctor, the BBC brought Doctor Who back for a Comic Relief special. In this episode we don’t learn of what has happened to the 8^th Doctor, but we are introduced to a new Doctor who is played by Rowan Atkinson.

The episode was comical in tone, and is generally not considered canon to the rest of the series. However, a few things to note before we completely ignore this…

The episode was officially made by the BBC, and was the first Doctor Who story to be written by future show runner Steven Moffat. It should also be noted that there had been previous Comic Relief specials featuring multiple canon doctors, and when this was made it was done so with the intention of it being an official continuation of the series and not just a parody.

But here’s the thing. Did you know that Rowan Atkinson wasn’t the first version of the 9^th Doctor? No, before him was…

John Hurt

OK, so we’re changing up the formula of the article here a little. Where as Richard E Grant and Rowan Atkinson can both claim to have played the 9^th Doctor before Christopher Eccleston, John Hurt famously played the War Doctor for the 50^th Anniversary special which was filmed many years after all previous 9^th Doctors discussed above.

So how can John Hurt be the first 9^th Doctor? Well in this instance I mean that he was the first in that it was revealed that Paul McGann’s 8^th Doctor had actually regenerated into John Hurt’s Doctor and therefore is the true 9^th Doctor and the others are actually fighting it out to claim to be the actual 10^th Doctor!

For those who may not know, the idea of the War Doctor is that it was a secret and hidden version of the Doctor, who had fought in the Time War and caused the extinction of the Dalek and time Lord races. He did this to save the universe, and was so traumatic that the Doctor hid this version of his history from himself.

Of course, the real reason is that this was an added Doctor years after the others and hence given the name of War Doctor in an attempt to not mess up the numbering of the other Doctors.

So there you have it! Four versions of the 9^th Doctor…but wait a minute. Is there not something we are forgetting…

But here’s the thing. Did you know that John Hurt cannot even claim to be the true 9^th Doctor. No before him there was…

William Hartnell

OK so this now get’s totally crazy, but here me out!

We all know that William Hartnell played the 1st Doctor, but he actually could have been the 9^th. During the era of the 13^th Doctor played by Jodie Whitaker there was the revelation of the Timeless Child storyline. This story claimed that the Doctor herself was the origin of the Time Lord’s ability to regenerate and that they had gained it by experimenting on a child who could regenerate, and that that child would one day become the Doctor.

During this sequence where we see the child regenerating over and over we are shown seven children playing the role of the Timeless Child. Without knowing if there were any other generations of the Doctor either before or after this sequence of regenerations we can only take what we see and that is there are seven Doctors.

Add to this that we know that Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor pre-dates William Hartnell’s Doctor and that leaves us with eight full Doctors before William Hartnell would play what we can now consider the 9^th Doctor! Mind blown!

Anything else? Well if you think this is crazy wait until you hear how many 10^th Doctors there were! But that is a story for another article!

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