History Characters / DoctorWhoWarDoctor

* CatchPhrase: "No more," or maybe, in the end, "Gallifrey Stands!"
** Lampshaded by the Moment (appearing as a Bad Wolf facsimile), who struts around parroting this line until the War Doc loses his temper at her for stepping on his gravitas.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Despite being TheDreaded to his other incarnations, the Time Lords and half the Dalek Empire, this Doctor still spends all of "The Day of the Doctor" trading petty insults with his future selves, engaging in deadpan snarkery, and even grants himself a CatchPhrase. Given that the only thing on his to-do list for the day was "Destroy my home planet and everyone on it," escaping into a wacky side adventure was probably a hell of a mood lifter.

->''"Planets die and species fall. Creation blinks once, billions of lives gone! You see it often enough, you start to understand. The greatest god-like power is useless, ''defenceless'' against it. All you can do, all you can ''ever'' do, in a million and one ways, in variation upon variation, is to ''improvise!'' Like a mad musician, unable to stop hammering at the keys of a broken instrument. '''THAT'S ME''' "''

->''"I'm the stuff of nightmares! I'm a murderer, a warrior, a demon let loose in the Time Stream! A man who's lost his conscience, his friends, even his name."''

After eight years of narrative stalemate in the revival era series, the time finally was right to address the problem, with the prestigious fiftieth anniversary of the show practically begging for the Time War to be at its central focus. Unfortunately, Creator/ChristopherEccleston chose not to return, and then-showrunner Creator/StevenMoffat claimed to have a hard time believing the Eighth Doctor had been the one who ended the Time War. The Doctor's existence as we knew it had been linear, but Moffat hatched a revolutionary plan: [[LoopholeAbuse retroactively create an incarnation played by a very famous celebrity]] (an honor presented to a very enthusiastic Creator/JohnHurt) and incorporate them into the missing link between Doctors Eight and Nine, [[TakeAThirdOption invalidating both as possibilities for direct involvement in the Time War]], create the {{retcon}} twist of the War Doctor as the true battler of the Time War and go in with a blank slate, and bring Creator/PaulMcGann back for the regeneration. When the War Doctor was conceived, it solidified the issue at hand and opened the gates to the uncharted wilderness that is the Time War itself. However, factoring in both the War Doctor and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor from ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]'', it meant the Doctor's regeneration cycle limit would have to be handled much sooner… fix one leak, and another one springs. Even so, this creates even more opportunities to plan creative plot twists.

The biggest issue stalling progress in the Time War canon was that no one outside the TV series received the final authority to confirm if it was the Eighth or Ninth Doctor or a combination of the two who participated in the Time War, only compounded with the lack of a filmed connecting regeneration sequence to sort everything out and finish the bridge from the classic era to the revival era. The general conclusion was that both of those Doctors had seen so much CharacterDevelopment and behaved so enthusiastically (Eight)/reinvigorated (Nine) that writers were incapable of seeing either Doctor fit the intensely gritty and hope-starved characterization the Time War called for. Despite the Eighth Doctor's turn towards a darker character as heard in the Big Finish audios, he remained a conscientious objector until the war became unavoidable, and the only feasible outcome was that he had to abandon his whole identity to steel himself for combat and become someone else with the capacity to defy his own taboos.

->'''Voiced by:''' [[Creator/JohnHurt Sir John Hurt]] (2015-2017); Creator/JonathonCarley (2020-)

-> '''Voiced by:''' Sir Creator/JohnHurt (2015–2017); Jonathon Carley (2021-2022)

* IWorkAlone: He explicitly does not take on companions since he's got a war to fight. Not that it doesn't stop from befriending young men and women he meets on his adventures anyway, mind you.

* NoodleIncident: What finally drove him over the edge to use the Moment goes unexplained -- and since John Hurt passed away we probably never will -- at least not without the help of a soundalike. [[note]] Whether "Engines of War" is canon in Big Finish is up to debate. [[/note]]

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

* TokenEvilTeammate: If regarding the Doctors as a 'team' rather than one man with many faces, this incarnation was regarded as such by at least his next three selves, the Eleventh willing to acknowledge that the War Doctor did what had to be done but it wasn't done "in the name of the Doctor".

* OddNameOut: He's the one non-Doctor among the Doctor's many lives. "Doctor no more" are literally his first words after regenerating. Even when his Doctor-ness is restored at the end of "The Day of the Doctor," he doesn't get a numbered name like his fellow Doctors do, and is instead referred to as "The War Doctor." (Creator/StevenMoffat has stated that the numbers stay in place as they were, and that the Doctor themself doesn't usually use numbers to refer to their incarnations anyway.)

* RememberTheNewGuy: He only exists because Creator/ChristopherEccleston didn't want to reprise his role as the Ninth Doctor, so a new Doctor was written in between Eight and Nine.

* NecessarilyEvil: Turned himself into a warrior who killed billions "in the name of peace and sanity". His later incarnations deeply regret he chose to walk down this path.

%%!! Tropes associated with the Target novelisations

* DownerEnding: His existence lets us know [[BreakTheCutie just how well]] the story of the Eighth Doctor ended.

* 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 into nightmarish monsters by paradox bombs, Fey being lost in reality when the battle goes pear-shaped, and the Doctor's efforts all for nothing, forcing him to recognise that the Time War wasn't just another challenge he could overcome.

* 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 in battle, and the Doctor's efforts all for nothing, forcing him to recognise that the Time War wasn't just another challenge he could overcome.

->''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor “Doctor no more.”]]''

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: In "Casualties of War" he asks the Enigma to wipe out both the Daleks and the Time Lords to make sure there can never be another Time War. However they refuse since they know that deep down below the Doctor doesn't want it. Of course, he'll eventually try it himself when he gets his hands on the Moment.]]

[[folder:TV Series Tropes]]

The [[KnightInSourArmor world-weary]] and at times [[BornInTheWrongCentury anachronistic]] knight -- the Doctor's greatest secret. The War Doctor was a "lost" incarnation of the Doctor who existed between his Eighth and Ninth previously known incarnations. He was the incarnation who fought in the Last Great Time War, and lost his right to be called "the Doctor" for it, choosing to assume the identity of a warrior. He renounced the promises behind his name and spent an enormous period of his life in battle, doing the exact opposite of a healer's work. He evidently knew how to survive the war quite well, since he aged to the point he went from a young, fiery warrior, to an exhausted and curmudgeonly old man, complete with a scruffy beard.

His tenure is, bar none, ''the'' [[DarkestHour darkest chapter]] of the Doctor's entire life. On top of that, his introduction to the story was a cover-all solution to a problem writers faced that kept them from chronicling the Time War beyond a surface probing of its enormity, because no writer would dare touch the subject due to not knowing which incarnation was the one who dutifully lived out the war to the bitter end, and not wanting to risk contradicting each others' narratives. This is where the War Doctor came into play, as a surprise addition to the family.

After eight years of narrative stalemate in the revival era series, the time finally was right to address the problem, with the prestigious fiftieth anniversary of the show practically begging for the Time War to be at its central focus. Unfortunately, Creator/ChristopherEccleston chose not to return, and then-showrunner Creator/StevenMoffat claimed to have a hard time believing the Eighth Doctor had been the one who ended the Time War. The Doctor's existence as we knew it had been linear, but Moffat hatched a revolutionary plan: [[LoopholeAbuse create an incarnation played by a very famous celebrity]] (an honor presented to a very enthusiastic Creator/JohnHurt) and incorporate them into the missing link between Doctors Eight and Nine, [[TakeAThirdOption invalidating both as possibilities for direct involvement in the Time War]], create the retcon twist of the War Doctor as the true battler of the Time War and go in with a blank slate, and bring Creator/PaulMcGann back for the regeneration. When the War Doctor was conceived, it solidified the issue at hand and opened the gates to the uncharted wilderness that is the Time War itself. However, factoring in both the War Doctor and the Metacrisis 10th Doctor from ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]'', it meant the Doctor's regeneration cycle limit would have to be handled much sooner... fix one leak, and another one springs. Even so, this creates even more opportunities to plan creative plot twists.

After wearing himself out to the absolute limit of his lifespan, the War Doctor underwent a peaceful and contented regeneration, enjoying the brief time he knew that Gallifrey was saved before it slipped away from his memories. Later incarnations of the Doctor gained respect from other Time War survivors, and were influenced to follow his example of peaceful temperament, because they knew the Doctor could be a savage punisher when angered.

->''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "Oh, yes... of course, suppose it makes sense. Wearing a bit thin... I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time..."]]''

* IHatePastMe: Played with. Shortly after his regeneration he laments Eight's fate, and expresses something resembling nostalgia for having been the eternally hopeful and optimistic Eight, but he also calls him out as naïve and foolish for believing he could avoid the Time War forever.

After eight years of narrative stalemate in the revival era series, the time finally was right to address the problem, with the prestigious fiftieth anniversary of the show practically begging for the Time War to be at its central focus. Unfortunately, Creator/ChristopherEccleston chose not to return, and then-showrunner Creator/StevenMoffat claimed to have a hard time believing the Eighth Doctor had been the one who ended the Time War. The Doctor's existence as we knew it had been linear, but Moffat hatched a revolutionary plan: [[LoopholeAbuse create an incarnation played by a very famous celebrity]] (an honor presented to a very enthusiastic Creator/JohnHurt) and incorporate them into the missing link between Doctors Eight and Nine, [[TakeAThirdOption invalidate both as possibilities for direct involvement in the Time War]], create the retcon twist of the War Doctor as the true battler of the Time War and go in with a blank slate, and Creator/PaulMcGann was brought back for the regeneration. When the War Doctor was conceived, it solidified the issue at hand and opened the gates to the uncharted wilderness that is the Time War itself. However, factoring in both the War Doctor and the Metacrisis 10th Doctor from ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]'', it meant the Doctor's regeneration cycle limit would have to be handled much sooner... fix one leak, and another one springs. Even so, this creates even more opportunities to plan creative plot twists.