Like the Eighth Doctor before him, the Earth-loving Ninth never had a televised story set on an alien world.
Full Name: David John McDonald
Born: 18 April 1971
First Screen Appearance: Dramarama: The Secret of Croft more (TV, 1988)
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Parting of the Ways (2005)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The End of Time, Part Two (2010)
When he grew up, young David McDonald told his parents, he wanted to be an actor because he was a big fan of Doctor Who. Over 30 years later, not only would he have achieved his dream and become an actor – he would also be the Doctor!
At the age of 16, Tennant would be one of the youngest students to be accepted by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Following graduation, he appeared in several productions for the 7:84 Theatre Company, and appeared in TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt in 1993. Tennant’s first major TV role was as manic depressive Campbell in Takin’ Over the Asylum (1994) with Ken Stott, and he would continue to work steadily throughout the 1990s, combining TV and theatre work.
Film roles included Jude (with Christopher Eccleston) in 1996 and Bright Young Things (2003), while television took in Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), People Like Us and Blackpool. In 2005 he was cast as the young Casanova in a major BBC production, written by Russell T Davies, who was also working on the first series of Doctor Who. When Christopher Eccleston left the series, Davies immediately turned to his Casanova and offered Tennant the chance to play the Tenth Doctor. Tennant’s reaction was to laugh – then ask if he could have a long coat.
Tennant’s time aboard the TARDIS would see Doctor Who as popular as ever with audiences, and he claimed it was a difficult decision to leave the programme after four years – a decision he announced to a live TV audience during the interval while performing Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Tennant has worked on both sides of the Atlantic since leaving Doctor Who, starring in St Trinians 2 (2009), Fright Night (2011) and Nativity 2 (2012), and on television in Single Father, United and Broadchurch. In 2011, Tennant married Georgia Moffett, who had guest-starred in the episode The Doctor’s Daughter. Moffett is the daughter of Peter Davison, making the Fifth Doctor the Tenth Doctor’s father-in-law!
The Tenth Doctor has a surprising claim to fame. This incarnation boasts the most stories set in the future. But hang on, what about all those stories set on present-day Earth? Well, thanks to the events of Aliens of London, they all take place about 12 months in the future.
Full Name: Matthew Robert Smith
Born: 28 October 1982, Northampton
First Screen Appearance: The Ruby in the Smoke (TV, 2006)
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The End of Time, Part Two (2010)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: Who knows?
Matt Smith wanted to be a professional footballer, but a back injury forced him to rethink his career choice. He was encouraged by his drama teacher to attend the National Youth Theatre, where he was seen performing by former Doctor Who companion Wendy Padbury – at that time a theatrical agent. She was impressed by Smith’s natural ability, and sent him for an audition at the Royal Court theatre, an audition in which he was successful.
His first TV work had another Doctor Who connection when he played Jim Taylor alongside former companion Billie Piper in The Ruby in the Smoke (2006). More stage work followed, and Smith received an Olivier Award nomination for his celebrated performance in That Face, once again at the Royal Court. He worked with Billie Piper again in an episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and 2007 saw Smith take on his biggest TV role as Danny Foster in Party Animals.
On 3 January 2009, Matt Smith was revealed to the nation as the new Doctor in a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential. It would be nearly a year before he made his brief Doctor Who debut on 1 January 2010, and another three months before the Eleventh Doctor would declare that bow ties are cool in The Eleventh Hour.
Even with Doctor Who taking up much of the year to film, Smith has managed to take on other projects between series, for example filming the dramas Christopher and His Kind in 2011 and Bert and Dickie in 2012.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
According to Dorium Maldovar, the question that must never be answered is ‘Doctor Who?’ While we’ve never learnt the Doctor’s real name in 50 years, he’s adopted a lot of monikers, both on TV and beyond.
NAMES THE DOCTOR CALLS HIMSELF
The Caretaker – an alias he adopted while looking after the Arwell Family in 1947. (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardobe)
Doctor Caligari – the alias the First Doctor used while visiting Tombstone, USA in 1881. (The Gunfighters)
Get Off This Planet – a name the Doctor claims he’s often called, although he instantly acknowledges that it probably isn’t a name, strictly speaking. (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue – when talking to the hologram of a crashed time ship in Colchester. (The Lodger)
Doctor James Macrimmon – how the Doctor introduced himself to Queen Victoria in 1879. (Tooth and Claw)
The King of Okay – A title the Doctor soon dismissed as rubbish. (The Impossible Astronaut)
Bad Penny – apparently the Doctor’s middle name. (The God Complex)
Maximus Pettulian – the Doctor assumed the identity of a murdered lute player while visiting the court of Emperor Nero. (The Romans)
Merlin – an identity yet to be adopted by a future incarnation of the Doctor. (Battlefield)
Doctor Noble of the Noble Corporation – while investigating suspicious goings on at Ood Industries. (Planet of the Ood)
John Smith – various (see ‘John Who?’)
Spartacus – the Doctor called himself Spartacus while visiting Pompeii in AD 79, as did Donna in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 1960 film of the same name. (Fires of Pompeii)
Doctor Vile of the Mantasphid – the Doctor pretends to be a Pirate Master to try and avoid a war between humans and a race of insectoid aliens. (The Infinite Quest)
Doctor von Wer – the name the Doctor adopted in 1746 during a visit to Inverness, Scotland. Translated from German it means ‘Doctor of Who’. (The Highlanders)
NAMES OTHER PEOPLE HAVE GIVEN THE DOCTOR
Sir Doctor of TARDIS – by Royal Appointment of her Majesty, Queen Victoria. (Tooth and Claw)
Doctor Bowman – an alias adopted to get access to Professor Wagg’s Atomic Clock on 31 December 1999. (Doctor Who)
Caesar – by a Roman, but only because he was under the thrall of River Song’s Hallucinogenic lipstick. (The Pandorica Opens)
The Evil One – used by the Tribe of the Sevateem, unaware that the terrible god they worshipped was a supercomputer which had taken the Doctor’s face. Identity theft taken to the extreme, that. (Face of Evil)