History Characters / DoctorWhoWarDoctor

* GrumpyBear: His disposition is sharp, serious, and short-tempered towards any kind of nonsense, and when he sees his counterparts acting silly and undignified, War snaps at them like a pitbull. However, he has a soft, witty, and warm side under all the layers of dismay he's been weighted down with. An aging Eleven looks back upon this incarnation as "Captain Grumpy".

* AffectionateNickname: The Eleventh later refers to him as "[[GrumpyOldMan Captain Grumpy]]".
* AllForNothing: Subverted. In hindsight, putting Gallifrey in a pocket dimension may seem like delaying the inevitable as the Master destroyed it much later in his lifespan. However, no one knows if the Gallifreyans and Time Lords were 100% eliminated, or if they just fled to another world, while some were left behind to become [=CyberMasters=]. At least the planet itself is intact, and civilization can be rebuilt, and he managed to still give those trapped during the Time War some more time to live, no matter how long it was.

* AwfulTruth: He's the one who ended the Time War, by murdering everyone involved. The Doctor has unsurprisingly hidden this incarnation's existence from all of space and time.

* BeardOfSorrow: His scruffy beard adds to his world-weary appearance. He is the only Doctor with a full-time beard.[[note]]Not counting the ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'' where he grew one in mourning for his lost TARDIS, or the 11th Doctor when he was imprisoned two different times in Series 6.[[/note]]
* BewareTheSillyOnes: This short, scruffy, oddly dressed old man... well, you know how future Doctors will be called the Oncoming Storm? That's ''after'' a few centuries of mellowing out from being this guy.

* BookEnds: "Doctor no more."/"Doctor again."
* {{Bowdlerise}}: He is also officially referred to as the "Other Doctor", presumably because they don't want "War" in big letters on the merchandise.

* CameBackStrong: The 8th Doctor chose to come back as TheUnfettered, who wouldn't run away from the Time War like he had been doing.
--> '''Eight:''' Make me a warrior now.

* CompositeCharacter: Has Eight's fob and waistcoat, Nine's leather duds, and Ten's faux-hawk hairstyle. His personality also evokes the spirit of the Classic Doctors, particularly the First Doctor, whose dialogue he borrows (his TARDIS even sports the classic "[[BuffySpeak round things]]"). Lastly, his advanced age can double as a reference to the 9-year hiatus between the TV movie and "Rose", encompassing all of the 'auxiliary' Doctors from print and audio.

* DarkIsNotEvil: The gruffest, least goofily clad incarnation of the Doctor, dressed in predominantly black, dark brown and dark green colours. On the inside, he's a compassionate, caring and at times downright sweet fellow, is absolutely sick of the Time War and all the suffering it has brought, and is quietly horrified at the thought that he might be forced to annihilate even his own people in order to end the war.

* DoomedMoralVictor: He eventually chooses to save Gallifrey rather than burn it. He, Nine and Ten don't get to remember they changed the past, though, and continue to live with their former guilt. Only Eleven and on know the truth.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: ''Clockwise War'' depicts him early in his life as he fought alongside his eighth self's ally, Fey Truscott-Sade, to protect the childlike Loshann from the attacking Morlontoa, but the Doctor's efforts resulted in the Loshann being mutated, Fey being lost, and the Doctor's efforts all for nothing, forcing him to recognise that the Time War wasn't just another challenge he could overcome.

* ArchEnemy: The Daleks, though this time it's treated more along the lines of them being the opposing faction of a war than the personal conflict it was previously.

* AudienceSurrogate: For Classic Who fans annoyed at the HotterAndSexier changes of New Who, the War Doctor openly shows his disdain for the frivolous antics of his successors. (see WhoWritesThisCrap).

* IconicItem: He wears a dark leather jacket on top of a worn down set of Victorian clothes similar to Eight's. He has a unique Sonic Screwdriver that glows an eerie ''[[RedEyesTakeWarning red]]''. His bandolier was the first item he picked up during his first moments of life, and is also similar to the satchel from Eight's new costume in "Dark Eyes".

His actor, Sir John Hurt, who became the first of the Doctors to be knighted, continued portraying the role of the War Doctor in a 12-episode line of audio stories that were clearly working toward [[HowWeGotHere the last act of the War Doctor's life]]. Sadly, he suffered a bout of recurrent pancreatic cancer that lasted for about two years and finally led to his [[ActorExistenceFailure passing]] right after his 77th birthday in 2017, leaving future plans for his Doctor in the air outside of printed works. Fortunately, this changed once a soundalike stepped into the role during a webcast special in 2020 called ''Lockdown'', Jonathon Carley. He was one of many voice actors impersonating every Doctor up to Thirteen to release a short but positive story during the UsefulNotes/COVID19 pandemic.

* FaceRevealingTurn: Our first sight of the War Doctor is in the Doctor's memories, standing with his back to the Doctor and Clara.

* GrumpyBear: His disposition is sharp, serious, and short-tempered towards any kind of nonsense, and when he sees his counterparts acting silly and undignified, War snaps at them like a pitbull. However, he has a soft, witty, and warm side under all the layers of dismay he's been weighted down with.

* MidLifeCrisis: Upon seeing Ten and Eleven for the first time and how young his ''older'' selves look to him, War worries that he's experiencing one of these.

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | '''Revival Series Companions''' ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong River Song]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoRevivalSeriesCompanions Revival Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong River Song]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoTeamTARDIS Team TARDIS]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

->''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time."]]''

* ResurrectionSickness: Largely averted, with him as one of the few Doctors to not have any kind of physical sickness, memory issues, or erratic mental behavior post regeneration. Even the occasional tendency of the Doctor to briefly act like their previous selves after regenerating is openly dismissed with him stating that [[FutureMeScaresMe all of his past incarnations are staying far away from him]]. Justified in that this regeneration was the byproduct of an elixir that used elevated Time Lord science on Karn, and designed to forcibly make him a warrior in all aspects, so the regeneration doesn't befuddle him like others yet to embrace and define their new self. However, the price is that it really hurt to regenerate.

* AllForNothing: In hindsight, protecting Gallifrey in a pocket dimension seemed like a waste of time as the Master destroyed it much later in his lifespan. However, no one knows if the Gallifreyans and Time Lords were 100% eliminated, or if they just fled to another world, while some were left behind to become Cybermasters. At least the planet itself is intact, and civilization can be rebuilt.

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JonathonCarley (2020)

In 2020, Big Finish announced they'd cast Jonathon Carley as a younger War Doctor, fresh off his regeneration, for a new 12-part series of audio stories, intended to explore the early stages of his role in the Time War.

![[center:'''[[Characters/DoctorWhoDoctors Index]]:''' Incarnations of the Doctor | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor 1]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | '''War''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]]]]

* ArchEnemy: The Dalek Time Strategist. This Dalek is particularly calculating
and turns even more evil as time goes on. Similarly, Cardinal Ollistra, for forcing the War Doctor to do her bidding even if it means enslaving him.

* IHatePastMe: Played with. Shortly after his regeneration he laments Eight's fate, but also calls him out as naïve and foolish for believing he could avoid the Time War forever.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: By far the Doctor with the least outings of them all in any medium, but the biggest weight to carry. This is the one Doctor who sets the guilt-laden tone for the rest up to Eleven. We can infer he's been around for an enormous length of time beyond what is visibly shown, but he's only made one full TV appearance, planted at the very end of his story. He doesn't spend his life running around the universe visiting planets at will. He involves himself in the Time War and keeps fighting until he's quite old and out of steam, but the door has been left wide open for others to fill in the gaps.

* ArchEnemy: The Dalek Time Strategist.

* SurvivorsGuilt: Moments after beginning his new life as a warrior, War did not want to see Cass Fermazzi being buried by the Sisterhood of Karn, because it was only going to cause him more agony that she was gone and he had to go on living to face the hellish atmosphere of the Time War.

* IHatePastMe: Played with. Shortly after his regeneration he laments Eight's fate, but calls the latter as naïve and foolish for believing he could avoid the Time War forever.

* ResurrectionSickness: Largely averted, with him as one of the few Doctors to not have any kind of physical sickness, memory issues, or erratic mental behavior post regeneration. Even the occasional tendency of the Doctor to briefly act like their previous selves after regenerating is openly dismissed with him stating that [[FutureMeScaresMe all of his past incarnations are staying far away from him]].

* FamousLastWords: [[{{Irony}} "I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time."]]

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: In the Forged in Fire series, "Light the Flame", the first story of The War Doctor Begins and first overall for the War Doctor, takes place immediately after "The Night of the Doctor", with the now nameless Doctor brushing away company, scaring the acolytes on Karn, and refusing to attend Cass Fermazzi's burial. He's brooding and eventually resolves to be "Doctor no more".

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: "Forged in Fire", the first story of The War Doctor Begins and first overall for the War Doctor, takes place immediately after "The Night of the Doctor", with the now nameless Doctor brushing away company, scaring the acolytes on Karn, and refusing to attend Cass Fermazzi's burial. He's brooding and eventually resolves to be "Doctor no more".