History TheNthDoctor / DoctorWho

* Creator/PaulMcGann (Eighth Doctor, 1996 TV Movie and 2013 Anniversary short) (regenerated when a spaceship he was on crashed onto the planet Karn in "Night of the Doctor")
* Creator/JohnHurt (War Doctor, 2013; untroduced in "The Name of the Doctor", retroactively debuted in "The Night of the Doctor", and appeared in "The Day of the Doctor"; regenerated into the Ninth Doctor at the end of the latter episode after dying of apparent old age. This incarnation did not use the name "Doctor" until the end of his life, thus he was an honorary "Doctor".)

* Creator/PatrickTroughton (Second Doctor, 1966-1969) (regenerated offscreen as a Time Lord punishment between "The War Games" and "Spearhead from Space")

* Adrian Gibbs as the Watcher, a ghostly manifestation of the regeneration halfway completed from the Fourth to Fifth Doctors in the 1981 story "Logopolis".

* Michael Jayston as the Valeyard in 1986's "The Trial of a Time Lord" season 23 of ''Doctor Who'' and some spin-off Big Finish media.

* Creator/RowanAtkinson as an alternate Ninth Doctor in the BBC [[UsefulNotes/ComicRelief RedNoseDay]] special of 1999, ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoTheCurseOfFatalDeath The Curse of Fatal Death]]''.

* Edmund Warwick as a "Robot Dr. Who" in the 1965 story "The Chase".

* Creator/TomBaker (Fourth Doctor, 1974-1981) (regenerated after suffering a long drop off a massive structure in "Logopolis"; Also portrayed the Curator in "The Day of the Doctor" in 2013, an ambiguous figure who might be the Doctor.

* Creator/DavidTennant (Tenth Doctor, 2005-2010) (regenerated after being hit by a Dalek blast in "The Stolen Earth", then again after accepting a massive dose of radiation in Wilf's stead in "The End of Time")

* Though he's been shown to explicitly regenerate only once onscreen (two other times, he's just stolen bodies of other people), eight people have played the Master so far -- Roger Delgado, Peter Pratt, Geoffrey Beevers, Anthony Ainley, Gordon Tipple, Eric Roberts, Sir Creator/DerekJacobi and Creator/JohnSimm. (The first three actors listed played the same regeneration in different stories, making the Master a rare case of a character to have been both Nth Doctor and [[TheOtherDarrin Other Darrin]]. This was made possible by heavy make-up, as when Pratt and Beevers played the role the Master was supposedly close to the end of his final life and had degenerated into a visibly decaying near-zombie. In addition, many fans discount Tipple or consider him to be the same incarnation of the Ainley Master, though this would invalidate a SignificantAnagram in series 3 of [=NuWho=].)

* Adrian Gibbs as the Watcher, a ghostly manifestation of the regeneration halfway completed from the Fourth to Fifth Doctors in "Logopolis".
* Richard Hurndall (cast as the First Doctor in ''The Five Doctors'', as William Hartnell had died by this point)
* Edmund Warwick as a "Robot Dr. Who" in "The Chase".
* Michael Jayston as the Valeyard in 1986's "The Trial of a Time Lord" and some spin-off Big Finish media.
* Toby Jones as the Dream Lord, a psychic evil manifestation of the Doctor in "Amy's Choice."
* Creator/DavidBradley (portrayed William Hartnell and Hartnell in-character as the First Doctor) in the docudrama ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime''.
* Creator/RowanAtkinson as the ninth incarnation of "The Doctor" in an AlternateUniverse for the BBC [[UsefulNotes/ComicRelief RedNoseDay]] special ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoTheCurseOfFatalDeath The Curse of Fatal Death]]''.
** Followed in very rapid succession by Creator/RichardEGrant, Jim Broadbent, Creator/HughGrant, and Creator/JoannaLumley, regenerating for humorous and rather absurd reasons.
* Creator/RichardEGrant again as the Shalka Doctor for ''WebAnimation/ScreamOfTheShalka'', who was {{Retcon}}ned as the official Ninth Doctor following the BBC Wales-produced revival of the series with Christopher Eccleston.

** Creator/DavidWarner as an alternate Third Doctor

* Jon Culshaw as a stand-in for Tom Baker, due to his uncanny impersonation of the actor's voice. Periodically cast in Big Finish audios.
* Tony Garner as the "Second-and-a-Half" Doctor in the fan-production ''[[http://www.doctorwho-devious.com/ Devious]]''. Created when the Second Doctor's regeneration is delayed and later completes his transformation into the Third Doctor. The production has gone upwards of [[DevelopmentHell 19 years]] but did star Jon Pertwee in one of his final filmed roles.

* Creator/TomBaker (Fourth Doctor, 1974-1981) (regenerated after suffering a long drop off a massive structure in "Logopolis"); also portrayed the Curator in "The Day of the Doctor" in 2013, an ambiguous figure who might be the Doctor.

* Creator/JohnHurt (War Doctor, 2013; untroduced in "The Name of the Doctor", retroactively debuted in "The Night of the Doctor", and appeared in "The Day of the Doctor"; regenerated into the Ninth Doctor at the end of the latter episode after dying of apparent old age.)

In addition, the following actors have been cast as "The Doctor", but have not actually portrayed the role as the original Doctor, either [[TheOtherDarrin as a stand-in for an unavailable or deceased actor]], an AffectionateParody, a DocuDrama, or an alternate version of the Doctor altogether:

So far, the Doctor has been played (as the lead role, see notes below) by twelve actors. Note that the canonical "numbering" of the Doctors does not match up with the number of times the Doctor has regenerated, as the War Doctor existed between Eight and Nine, and David Tennant portrayed two regenerations as Ten regenerated into himself on one occasion.

* Creator/JonCulshaw as a stand-in for Tom Baker, due to his uncanny impersonation of the actor's voice. Periodically cast in Big Finish audios.

In addition, the following actors have been cast as "The Doctor", but have not actually portrayed the role as the original Doctor, either [[TheOtherDarrin as a stand-in for an unavailable or deceased actor]], an AffectionateParody, a DocumentaryDrama or an alternate version of the Doctor altogether:

* Creator/TomBaker (Fourth Doctor, 1974-1981) (regenerated after suffering a long drop off a massive structure in "Logopolis"); also portrayed the Curator in "The Day of the Doctor", an ambiguous figure who might be the Doctor.

* Creator/TomBaker (Fourth Doctor, 1974-1981) (regenerated after suffering a long drop off a massive structure in "Logopolis")

In addition, the following actors have been cast as "The Doctor", but have not actually portrayed the role as the original Doctor, either [[TheOtherDarrin as a stand-in for an unavailable or deceased actor]], an AffectionateParody, or an alternate version of the Doctor altogether:

* Creator/DavidBradley (portrayed William Hartnell and Hartnell in-character as the First Doctor) in Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime

In addition, the following actors have been cast as "The Doctor", but have not actually portrayed the role as the original Doctor, either [[TheOtherDarrin as a stand-in for an unavailable or deceased actor]], an AffectonateParody, or an alternate version of the Doctor altogether:

In addition, the following actors have been cast as "The Doctor", but have not portrayed the role for a full series:

* Creator/JohnHurt (cast as the War Doctor in "The Name of the Doctor" and ''The Day of the Doctor''; regenerated into the Ninth Doctor at the end of the latter episode after dying of apparent old age.)

* Creator/PaulMcGann (Eighth Doctor, 1996 TV Movie and 2012 Anniversary short) (regenerated when a spaceship he was on crashed onto the planet Karn in "Night of the Doctor")

* The case of the Doctor is further complicated by the existence of versions of the Doctor that aren't "official" versions, most famously, the Valeyard from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet "Trial of the Time Lord"]], who claimed to be an evil EnemyWithout of the Doctor from his own future. Also the Dream Lord from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E07AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]], who was a psychic reflection of the Doctor's self-loathing... or something. In the Valeyard's case, the writers used ExactWords related to the regeneration limit, while the Dream Lord is explicitly not a regeneration.
* K9's voice actor changed in season seventeen from John Leeson, the person most associated with the role (he's still voicing K9 to this day), to David Brierley. This was explained on-screen by K9 having "robot laryngitis" during the first story of season seventeen (and thus not having to speak or take part) and the Doctor not quite repairing him correctly until the next season.
** In-verse, the Doctor left K-9 with companions who were parting company with him on a couple of occasions, unpacking a new copy of the robot dog for himself each time. (Presumably he downloaded the previous K-9's memories and personality into the new housing to ensure it remained "his" dog.) A heavily-modified version of K-9 also featured in the spinoff ''Series/{{K9}}''.

* Creator/PatrickTroughton (Second Doctor, 1966-1969) (regenerated offscreen as a Time Lord punishment between "The War Games" and "Spearhead from Space)

* Creator/DavidTennant (Tenth Doctor, 2005-2010) (regenerated after accepting a massive dose of radiation in Wilf's stead in "The End of Time")

* Creator/JohnHurt (cast as the War Doctor in "The Name of the Doctor" and ''The Day of the Doctor''; regenerated into the Ninth Doctor at the end of the latter episode.)

* Creator/JohnHurt (cast as the War Doctor in ''The Name of the Doctor'' and ''The Day of the Doctor'')

* Yet another Time-Lord ([[HalfHumanHybrid or a part-Time-Lord, at least]]) has been shown to have the ability- [[spoiler: River Song, aka Mels, aka Melody Pond, daughter of Amy and Rory]]. This example of regeneration is particularly interesting for a number of reasons. 1) It's the first time that we meet a Time Lord's regenerations out of order (we begin with [[spoiler: seeing River Song, then we see her first body as a child, and ''then'' that body as a baby, and then her second body from childhood to being a young adult]]. 2) [[spoiler:She proved that the energy used in the regeneration can be used to heal others (a favour that the Doctor later reciprocated), so by the time of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]] her third body was already decidedly her final one.]]
* The case of the Doctor is further complicated by the existence of versions of the Doctor that aren't "official" versions, most famously, the Valeyard from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet "Trial of the Time Lord"]], who claimed to be a part of the Doctor from his own future. Also the Dream Lord from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E07AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]], who was a psychic reflection of the Doctor's self-loathing... or something. In the Valeyard's case, the writers used ExactWords related to the regeneration limit, while the Dream Lord is explicitly not a regeneration.

* Yet another Time-Lord ([[HalfHumanHybrid or a part-Time-Lord, at least]]) has been shown to have the ability- [[spoiler: River Song, aka Mels, aka Melody Pond, daughter of Amy and Rory]]. This example of regeneration is particularly interesting for a number of reasons. 1) It's the first time that we meet a Time Lord's regenerations out of order (we begin with [[spoiler: seeing River Song, then we see her first body as a child, and ''then'' that body as a baby, and then her second body from childhood to being a young adult]]. 2) [[spoiler: She proved that the energy used in the regeneration can be used to heal others (a favour that the Doctor later reciprocated), so by the time of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead Forest Of The Dead]]'' her third body was already decidedly her final one.]]
* The case of the Doctor is further complicated by the existence of versions of the Doctor that aren't "official" versions, most famously, the Valeyard from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet Trial of the Time Lord]], who claimed to be a part of the Doctor from his own future. Also the Dream Lord from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E07AmysChoice Amy's Choice]], who was a psychic reflection of the Doctor's self-loathing...or something. In the Valeyard's case, the writers used ExactWords related to the regeneration limit, while the Dream Lord is explicitly not a regeneration.

* Creator/WilliamHartnell (First Doctor, 1963-1966)
* Creator/PatrickTroughton (Second Doctor, 1966-1969)
* Creator/JonPertwee (Third Doctor, 1970-1974)
* Creator/TomBaker (Fourth Doctor, 1974-1981)
* Creator/PeterDavison (Fifth Doctor, 1981-1984)
* Creator/ColinBaker (Sixth Doctor, 1984-1986)
* Creator/SylvesterMcCoy (Seventh Doctor, 1987-1989 and 1996 TV Movie)
* Creator/PaulMcGann (Eighth Doctor, 1996 TV Movie)
* Creator/ChristopherEccleston (Ninth Doctor, 2005)
* Creator/DavidTennant (Tenth Doctor, 2005-2010)
* Creator/MattSmith (Eleventh Doctor, 2010-2013)

* Spoofed in the ''Doctor Who'' 50th anniversary Google Doodle, a simple game about negotiating territory and running away from Daleks. Every time the player died, they regenerated into the next Doctor.