History Characters / DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor

'''Mel:''' I think you'd better get your mind ''off'' [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow "the job"]], heh! Sounds like you're having some sort of mid-regeneration crisis.

->'''Played by:''' Creator/SylvesterMcCoy (1987–89, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2021)

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: The manipulative and sneaky foil to the loud and straightforward Six. Beyond this, where Six was bombastic, loud and pompous, Seven is a lot quieter, friendlier and modest (for the Doctor, at least). And where Six was compassionate and empathic in his pursuit of justice, Seven could be incredibly cold and pragmatic when it came to ensuring the greater good.

* TrrrillingRrrs: [=McCoy=] was actually the first Doctor to not speak with a [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Received Pronunciation accent.]] He has a light Scottish accent that is not always obvious to people not familiar with British accents, although it is more obvious that he rolls his "r"s. A lot weaker than twelve's fairly strong Scottish accent.

* AmnesiacHero: His post-regeneration story opened with Seven as a dupe of the Rani - though this was the fault of her amnesia serum, not random happenstance.

* ArchEnemy: Fenric.

* NiceHat: He wore a battered cream colonial-styled Panama hat with an identical paisley handkerchief folded into a hatband and an upturned brim. He later replaced his battered hat with a newer one. The hat actually belonged to Creator/SylvesterMcCoy, who joked that he came with it.

* NiceHat: Still has his old Panama hat.

* AndtheAdventureContinues: Seven's last onscreen words clearly indicated this, although everyone knew deep down that the show was being cancelled.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Not full-on brainwashed, but while in Victorian London in ''[[RecapPastDoctorAdventuresMatrix Matrix]]'', the Doctor almost succumbs to the influence of a dark force that drives him to try and kill Ace.

* TheCoroner: Conducts an autopsy on a [[HumanoidAlien Cythosi]] in ''[[RecapPastDoctorAdventuresStormHarvest Storm Harvest]], and on [[spoiler: Ace's near-future corpse]] in ''[[Recap/PastDoctorAdventuresLovingTheAlien Loving the Alien]]''.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Not full-on brainwashed, but while in Victorian London in ''Matrix'', the Doctor almost succumbs to the influence of a dark force that drives him to try and kill Ace.

As Seven grew older, he became weary of the mental toll that manipulating others caused, and the misdeeds he had created. He retired from plotting and turned the TARDIS into an elegant study. One day, he was tasked with bringing the Master's remains post-execution on Skaro to Gallifrey, but his nemesis broke free and escaped. Unfortunately, Seven had a lapse in judgement and walked out into the fray of a gang war in San Francisco. At a local hospital, surgeons removed the bullets but screwed up with the Time Lord's unique biology, inadvertently killing him, and nearly for good.

[[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]]\\

* AdultFear: At his age there is little left to fear, which is why the Fearmonger comes at him through Ace. There's a growing suspicion that Ace is emulating Seven in all the wrong ways, overestimating her own cunning and recklessly toying with her mortality.

* AbortedArc: The so-called Cartmel Master Plan, whereby it would be revealed that Rassilon and Omega co-founded Time Lord society with a mysterious third individual known only as "The Other"; The Doctor would turn out to be the reincarnation of this person, in an attempt to return mystique to the character. Shades of this plan are seen in both "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Silver Nemesis," both of which show that he knows how to operate [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] from Gallifrey's ancient past, and there was a plan for the Master to accuse him of being more than just a Time Lord. The cancellation of the show scuppered all this. Bits of it made it into the webcast "Death Comes to Time," and the episodes that were never filmed were eventually recorded as audios by Creator/BigFinish (though so far without the Cartmel Master Plan). Parts of the Master Plan made it into [[Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures the New Adventures novels]], especially in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresCatsCradleTimesCrucible Time's Crucible]]'' and ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresLungbarrow Lungbarrow]]'', both written by Cartmel-era writer Marc Platt. It's debatable how much this arc actually was aborted, however; several of the people supposedly involved, including Andrew Cartmel himself, have repeatedly stated that the Master Plan never really got beyond a few ideas thrown back and forth between writers, and that most of what it ended up being was just fans and later writers blowing things out of proportion a bit.

* FunPersonified: Subverted. He was originally [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] into this character type as a LighterAndSofter reaction against just how much BloodierAndGorier the show had got during the Sixth Doctor's run. He spent the first season playing the spoons, doing magic tricks, being a [[TheWonka figure of delight and whimsy]] and battling {{Camp}}tacular comedy enemies with the loosest continuity yet. Script editor Andrew Cartmel was finally able to make his mark with his next season, introducing 'comedy' monsters but playing their effects in a dark and serious way (like the Kandyman and the Killer Clowns) and revealing the Doctor's apparent silliness was ObfuscatingStupidity, and Seven became one of the most alien, manipulative, and dark Doctors of the lot. When the series got cancelled the ExpandedUniverse picked him up and used him to codify all of the "Dark Doctor" tropes that the revival series later handled on-screen - like a serious examination of the OmniscientMoralityLicense, AngstWhatAngst and the psychological profile of someone who'd do that much DirtyBusiness. In the ''New Adventures'' books, there's even a line that he doesn't play the spoons any more because he's too busy toppling empires.

->''[[CassandraTruth “No..I am not human. I am not like you.”]]''

* TimeTravelersAreSpies: Visits World War [=II=] in ''[[Recap/PastDoctorAdventuresIllegalAlien Illegal Alien]]'' and gets arrested for being a Nazi spy after being caught with a Cyberman head.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Him causing Skaro to explode was one of the acts that started the Time War against the Daleks and Time Lords. Oops.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Eight would later look back on this as the trait as the most regretful part of having been Seven. As he put it, Seven eventually started to do "the maths" and would coldly opt for whatever solution would save the most lives, even it meant sacrificing others in the process.

* {{Bookends}}: Both the start and the end of the life of the Seventh Doctor were ''really'' ignoble: hitting his head on the TARDIS console[[note]]as was the official cause at the time[[/note]] and being killed by malpractice committed by the woman who would become his next companion.

* CharacterDevelopment: After so many years of his plots and schemes, Seven becomes so weary that he grows complacent and forgets to check his TARDIS scanner on the one night when a Chinese-American gang was raising hell in the San Francisco alleyways.
* DeathByIrony: Despite being TheChessmaster for most of his life, he meets his end due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. To add insult to injury, when he tries to talk his way out, the attending doctor just think him delirious from the pain, and up his anaesthetic dosage, rendering the Doctor unconscious and his regeneration process damaged.

* {{Determinator}}: He wakes up several times on the operating table, despite being ''heavily sedated'', in order to attempt to warn everyone of what's happening.

* FingerpokeOfDoom & TheParalyser: Like most Doctors, he held disdain for physical violence, but could mop the floor with you if push came to shove. A simple poke brought down a neighborhood watchman twice his twice. ("Survival")
* FunPersonified: Subverted. He was originally [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] into this character type as a LighterAndSofter reaction against just how much BloodierAndGorier the show had got during the Sixth Doctor's run. he spent the first season playing the spoons, doing magic tricks, being a [[TheWonka figure of delight and whimsy]] and battling {{Camp}}tacular comedy enemies with the loosest continuity yet. Script editor Andrew Cartmel was finally able to make his mark with his next season, introducing 'comedy' monsters but playing their effects in a dark and serious way (like the Kandyman and the Killer Clowns) and revealing the Doctor's apparent silliness was ObfuscatingStupidity, and Seven became one of the most alien, manipulative, and dark Doctors of the lot. When the series got cancelled the ExpandedUniverse picked him up and used him to codify all of the "Dark Doctor" tropes that the revival series later handled on-screen - like a serious examination of the OmniscientMoralityLicense, AngstWhatAngst and the psychological profile of someone who'd do that much DirtyBusiness. In the ''New Adventures'' books, there's even a line that he doesn't play the spoons any more because he's too busy toppling empires.

![[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]] | '''7''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]]]]

->''"I am not human, I am '''not''' like you.''"