War Doctor

Biography

Gallery

Appearances

Talk

A day to come[]

Whilst sleeping in a barn on Gallifrey as a child, the First Doctor was comforted by a woman who told him that he would one day come back to the barn when he was very afraid, but that the fear would make him kind. (TV: Listen ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) The Doctor would occasionally have premonitions of his future incarnations as he grew up. (PROSE: A Big Hand for the Doctor ^[+]Eoin Colfer, Puffin eshort (Puffin Books, 2013).)

After the First Doctor was diverted from the South Pole, (AUDIO: The Bonfires of the Vanities ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) he learned from the Player that "forces from the future" were interfering with his history to stop him from becoming an incarnation that would play a key role in a future conflict. (AUDIO: The Plague of Dreams ^[+]Guy Adams, The First Doctor: Volume Two (The Companion Chronicles, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)

The First Doctor was referred to as "the Doctor of War" by the Testimony, who also showed him footage of the War Doctor, as well as his ten other successors when he expressed doubt over the Twelfth Doctor's identity. (TV: Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).)

When he met the Tenth Doctor at the Cathedral of Contemplation, the Fourth Doctor noted the implication that his tenth incarnation also represented all the lives he would live until the the Tenth Doctor arrived at the Cathedral. (AUDIO: Out of Time ^[+]Matt Fitton, Out of Time (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)

Mawdryn attempted to force the Fifth Doctor to use up his eight remaining regenerations to end his follower's cycle of perpetual rebirth, but this was rendered unnecessary when Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart made physical contact with his younger self and a discharge of temporal energy was released that allowed Mawdryn and his followers to die. (TV: Mawdryn Undead ^[+]Peter Grimwade, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983).)

After losing his body to the Time Lords, the Tremas Master made a failed attempt to steal a regeneration from the Fifth Doctor. (PROSE: The Velvet Dark ^[+]Stewart Sheargold, Short Trips: Farewells (Short Trips short stories, 2006).)

After the TARDIS became "stalled in the equivalent of a galactic lay-by", the Sixth Doctor had a worried thought of Peri Brown growing old and dying in the TARDIS, while he would "go on regenerating until all [his] lives [were] spent." (TV: Vengeance on Varos ^[+]Philip Martin, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)

When the Tremas Master exposed the Valeyard's alliance with High Council to the Sixth Doctor at his trial, he revealed that the Valeyard was acting as the prosecutor for the trial in exchange for the Doctor's remaining regenerations. (TV: The Ultimate Foe ^[+]Robert Holmes and Pip & Jane Baker, Doctor Who season 23 (BBC1, 1986).)

When Ace was sent into the Seventh Doctor's mind, she discovered a room with thirteen cubicles, seven of them empty, while the other six contained shadowy white figures, representing the Doctor's future incarnations. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation ^[+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Total Eclipse, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1991).)

After sealing Gallifrey away in a pocket universe, (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) the Seventh Doctor was able to recall teaming up with his other twelve incarnations to save Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Cold Fusion ^[+]Lance Parkin, adapted from Cold Fusion (Lance Parkin), Novel Adaptations (Big Finish Productions, 2016).)

After using a Deathworm Morphant to possess a human body, the Bruce Master tried to use the Eye of Harmony to steal the Eighth Doctor's remaining regenerations to heal himself, but his plans were foiled when Grace Holloway sent the TARDIS' into a temporal orbit. (TV: Doctor Who ^[+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).)

While being shot at by Cybermen, the Eighth Doctor quipped that he "[didn't] want a new [head] yet", as he had "only just begun getting used to [his own] head". (COMIC: Dreadnought ^[+]Gary Russell, Radio Times comic stories (BBC Magazines, 1996).)

Prior to his arranged execution on Tor-Ka-Nom, the Eighth Doctor told the attending priest that he believed in reincarnation, but that he had "a nasty feeling it [was] not going to apply this time." The execution was successfully avoided due to Izzy Sinclair's intervention. (COMIC: By Hook or By Crook ^[+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics UK, 1997).)

After the Eighth Doctor was stabbed in the chest by the Master, Izzy implored him to regenerate, but the Doctor told her that the Master had used a certain energy that inhibited the regeneration. The Doctor was healed by Kroton when he became the controller of the Glory. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead ^[+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2000).)

The Cybermen planned to make the Eighth Doctor regenerate when he connected with the Time Vortex aboard their ship. The Doctor instead merged with the Vortex, avoiding regeneration entirely. (COMIC: The Flood ^[+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2004-2005).)

The Eighth Doctor nearly regenerated after being wounded by the explosion in the Mukabi laboratory, the associated chemical release eradicating the Fear in his system. (PROSE: Fear Itself ^[+]Nick Wallace, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).)

After his chest was crushed by sandbags, the Eighth Doctor experienced a coma fantasy where he was walking through a series of corridors, troubled by the sensation that his body was a coat that he had taken off and he would find another one around a corner. However, his connection to Sabbath Dei prevented the Doctor from regenerating due to his second heart beating in Sabbath's chest keeping the Doctor alive as well. (PROSE: Camera Obscura ^[+]Lloyd Rose, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2002).)

After being wounded in a duel with Sebastian Grayle, the Eighth Doctor initially asked Charley Pollard if he had "changed", but was assured that he looked no different. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear ^[+]Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).)

When Charley stabbed the Eighth Doctor when he was under the influence of Zagreus, the Doctor resisted the regeneration due to his desire to die. After talking with manifestations of his three immediate predecessors, the Doctor was able to undo his death by surrendering to the forces of Anti-time that empowered Zagreus. (AUDIO: Zagreus ^[+]Alan Barnes and Gary Russell, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2003).)

When talking about his future, the Eighth Doctor noted he would "die again", and that one day he would "run out of deaths". (AUDIO: The Gift ^[+]Marc Platt, Doom Coalition 2 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)

In an attempt to force Artron to operate a machine that would transfer the energy of the Kolstani into him, the Bruce Master mortally wounded the Eighth Doctor by shooting him in one of his hearts, warning the Doctor that he would take out the other heart if he attempted to regenerate. However, Artron used the equipment built by the Master to absorb the Kolstani energy into himself, using his new power to heal the Doctor. (AUDIO: Day of the Master ^[+]John Dorney, Ravenous 4 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Ravenous, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)

When his memory began to fail, the Eighth Doctor thought it was a sign that he would soon regenerate. (PROSE: The End ^[+]Alexander Leithes, Short Trips: Life Science (Short Trips short stories, 2004).)

Before the Last Great Time War, the Eighth Doctor knew he would regenerate again. (PROSE: Museum Peace ^[+]James Swallow, Short Trips: Dalek Empire (Short Trips short stories, 2006).) During the Battle of Tenacity, Cardinal Ollistra threatened to shoot him on a Gallifreyan Military Moon Base, believing she would have better luck convincing his next incarnation to fight in the Time War. (AUDIO: The Conscript ^[+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)

Post-regeneration[]

Main article: Eighth Doctor's regeneration

When the Last Great Time War erupted, the Eighth Doctor refused to fight in the conflict, instead helping out its victims wherever he could. (TV: The Night of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC Red Button, 2013).) In the Fifth Segment of the War, (PROSE: The Stranger ^[+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).) he discovered a woman named Cass Fermazzi trapped aboard an out-of-control starship, inbound for the planet Karn. He attempted to rescue her from the vessel, but Cass rejected his offer due to him being a Time Lord. He refused to leave her, letting himself die with her as the ship smashed into Karn's surface.

However, he was revived by the Sisterhood of Karn, who offered him the ability to control his regeneration and become the person he needed to be in order to end the Time War. Initially, he refused, but after seeing Cass' corpse, on top of the many other tragedies of the Time War, the Doctor's spirit finally broke. Accepting their help, he drank a specially-made formula of the Elixir of Life and regenerated into the warrior the Time War needed. (TV: The Night of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC Red Button, 2013).) After quickly adjusting to the changes made to his new body, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) the new incarnation promptly rejected his name, (TV: The Night of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC Red Button, 2013).) renaming himself "the Warrior" for a time. (PROSE: The Stranger ^[+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).)

Beginnings[]

The Doctor initially refused to attend Cass's funeral, but did attend her grave after the ceremony. He searched Karn's wreckages for weapons, guided by Lithea who used Matrix windows to show him the war front which was approaching Karn, and initially refused to meet the Time Lords who had arrived on Karn. He eventually returned to his TARDIS where he met Cardinal Rasmus and refused to allow the installation of weapons on his ship, reasoning that he shouldn't force her to change as he had. Learning Commander Sanmar had gone to the heart of Karn with Lithea, he took Rasmus and Ohila down in his TARDIS, arriving just after Sanmar had killed Lithea. He was appalled at Sanmar's plan to extract the heart of Karn to the Capitol and demanded to speak with her superior, who turned out to be Commodore Tamasan. Tamasan disavowed Sanmar and the Doctor let her be taken by the forces of Karn. He threatened to use the equipment to destroy Karn to take out the war front, now under a Dalek control, with his threat forcing Tamasan to pledge to use a time lock to protect Karn. Ohila truly believed he would do the threat, and conceded he had become what he needed to be. The Doctor departed alone, taking a moment to set to rest trapped souls amidst the Time War wreckage on Karn. After witnessing Karn's disappearance, the Doctor communicated with Rasmus, telling him he would find his own ways to contribute to the war effort. (AUDIO: Light the Flame ^[+]Matt Fitton, Forged in Fire (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Answering a distress signal from Lady Valetta, the Doctor worked with her to rescue a group of Tharils being held by Vultarans in a bunker. They joined the mission of second-lieutenant Lorinus who was only aware of Biroc, Valetta's brother who had been working as a Time Lord spy, being held there. The Doctor arranged events so it appeared he killed the other Tharils as a mercy, secretly using a hacked Vultaran mechasuit to cover their escape whilst he, Valetta, Lorinus and Biroc returned to the Time Lord front lines. He and Valetta got the Tharils aboard his TARDIS and waited for Biroc. He encountered Lorinus, who had just told Tamasan what she thought he'd done, and explained his subterfuge was to protect the Tharils, as now they were believed dead they were not in danger from either side. (AUDIO: Lion Hearts ^[+]Lou Morgan, Forged in Fire (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

The Doctor traced a signal from the Dalek Time Strategist to Atherea and decided to assassinate it, encountering Commodore Tamasan who was on a mission of her own to the planet. After Tamasan's contact was erased from history, they completed her orders by making contact with a squad of Gallifreyan special forces who had been raised in secret on the planet to fight the Dalek presence there, which was using a time eradicator to assassinate soldiers vital to Dalek losses, turning the tide of recent battles. The Doctor used himself as a distraction to enable the squad to find the Dalek base and discovered the eradicator was one of the Strategist's engineers, now existing as part of the Vortex and able to see possible timelines. As the squad took the base following the Doctor's lead, Tamasan made herself crucial to their victory by destroying the Time Strategist so the eradicator Dalek travelled back to assassinate her earlier in the mission. The Doctor and the squad's commander followed it and foiled the assassination. The Doctor ripped off the eradicator's Vortex anchor, causing it to be pulled fully into the Vortex and erased from history, undoing the Daleks' recent assassinations. In doing so the Doctor also negated the recent battle on Atherea, restoring the Strategist which he resolved to try to kill again when Tamasan arrived with word from Rasmus to congratulate him on undoing the assassinations. (AUDIO: The Shadow Squad ^[+]Andrew Smith, Forged in Fire (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Working as a free agent[]

Though becoming involved in the Time War, the Doctor initially remained a free agent, materialising where he pleased and having no direct contact with Rassilon and the Generals of the Time Lords. (COMIC: Ambush ^[+]George Mann, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, 2017).) Instead, he recruited Fey Truscott-Sade from World War II to join him in the conflict, thinking it merely a challenge he had to overcome.

On the "worst day of the Time War", the Doctor, Fey and the Sisterhood of Karn fought the Morlontoa of the Seventh Sky on the Dorian Nexus. The Doctor constructed a machine that would fire pulses of pure reason at the creature to defeat it. While this was happening, Fey ordered Time Lord Captain Dolios to get the childlike inhabitants of the planet, the Loshann, to a TARDIS. The Sisterhood was then struck by a stream of pure chaos, leading the Loshann to be hit by the spores of the Morlontoa. They were quickly inverted, turned into monsters and attacked. To save themselves and other Loshann on the planet, the Doctor ordered Fey to shoot each of the Loshann. After she did so, the Doctor's machine failed, and the planet would fall anyway, rendering Fey's killing of the Loshann meaningless.

While the planet was saturated by the spores, the Doctor ordered his allies back to his TARDIS. However, Fey instead went to save a child in the wreckage and was touched by the spores before she could return to the TARDIS. Unable to save her or the child, the Doctor could only watch from the TARDIS as Fey melted away. Ohila attempted to comfort him by telling him that he did all that he could, but the Doctor only responded in anger at being addressed as "the Doctor". (COMIC: The Clockwise War ^[+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2018).)

Based on secret intel, the Doctor and Petrella arrived at a location where they expected to find many Dalek flying saucers. They found them already engaging Voltrix's Battle TARDISes, with the Doctor concluding Voltrix must have received the same intel and ordered an attack. However, as soon as the Daleks detected the presence of the "Predator", the Dalek Supreme ordered the materialisation of new weapons which made short work of the conventional Gallifreyan forces, and instead focused the fleet's attention on the Doctor's TARDIS.

Realising the entire battle had been planned out by the Daleks as a lure to try to get at him, the Doctor decided he had no choice but to enter the war in earnest, telling Petrella to set a course for Gallifrey so he could have "a little chat" with Rassilon and begin making a stand with the Time Lords. (COMIC: Ambush ^[+]George Mann, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, 2017).)

Tracing a distress signal to the Scaveline system during the first year of the Time War, the Doctor found himself and a Time Lord platoon lead by a Commander at the Gates of Elysium, where the source of the distress call, a Dalek saucer commanded by Davros, was under attack. When a huge swarm of particles indiscriminately destroyed Daleks and Time Lords alike, Davros revealed that he had created a Nightmare Child inspired by the Doctor, and had lured in the Doctor to watch him sacrifice himself, with the Doctor powerless to save him after the Time Lord Commander held his TARDIS back when the gates closed behind Davros and the Nightmare Child. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man ^[+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) The Nightmare Child managed to survive, (TV: The End of Time ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) so the Doctor made arrangements for it "to never arise and [to] forever be aware of its non-existence". (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Twice Upon a Time (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

Fighting for Gallifrey[]

Sontarans told legends of the Doctor leading the Time Lords into battle, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem ^[+]Helen Raynor, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) with soldiers like Gastron serving with "the Doctor of War" at Skull Moon, (TV: Hell Bent ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) where the Doctor took command of the slaughter, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) and became known as the "Butcher of Skull Moon", (TV: Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) while also leading "the bloodiest campaign in the history of the known universe, partly known universe, and unknown universe." Rumours spread that, while he grieved for everyone he killed, he refused to stop, having decided he needed to be a soldier until his fighting had put a stop to the Time War, with his fury became the final wonder his billions of enemies ever got to see. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) Likewise, the Daleks became frightened of his mere presence in the war, (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) and referred to him as "the Predator". (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)

The Doctor discovered a Dalek plot on Amperica Nova to use nanobots in the entire adult population to make a mirror Gallifrey. He foiled them by using a virus to wipe out the adults, orphaning an entire population. (AUDIO: Consequences ^[+]Timothy X Atack, Warbringer (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Defeating the Dalek harvesters[]

Now accompanied by Time Lord agent Veklin, who forced him to use a Battle TARDIS instead of his own TARDIS to make him more controllable, the Doctor rescued an Australian soldier named Albert Brown from the Gallipoli campaign due to his skills being useful to him. The trio went to Carter Baross whose population the Daleks had harvested to make cyborgs. Moments before the Time Lords destroyed the planet they rescued a failed conversion, whose Dalek conditioning was incomplete, Case, as the Doctor believed she could be of use as a weapon.

Immediately after escaping the planet, the Doctor picked up a distress signal he suspected was from a disguised Dalek harvester on a collision course with an inhabited planet, Tharius. He pretended to fall for the trick, connecting the Battle TARDIS to the ship to provide power as the Daleks wanted so they could land on and harvest Thatius, and then used Case to reach the flight deck to set the self-destruct. The Supreme Dalek aboard called his bluff by accelerating the ship's storm drive so its destruction would also wipe out the entire solar system and threatened to kill Veklin and Albert if he didn't stand down. The Doctor briefly stopped his hearts to trigger the Battle TARDIS's self-destruct, which destroyed the storm drive, and had Case stop the self-destruct. With the ship now doomed to crash on Tharius, he devised a plan to use the time drive to take an escape pod back in time a day to evacuate the planet's population first, however Albert was exterminated on the way to the pod and Case was incapacitated by the Daleks. (AUDIO: Saviour ^[+]Jonathan Morris, Warbringer (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Crashing a day prior to the collision with Veklin and an amnesiac Case, the Doctor discovered Tharius was in a constant state of warfare and decided to pose as their legendary Warbringer to get the attention of their leaders for an evacuation, much to Veklin's annoyance as she believed they should simply abandon the planet to its fate. After freezing a battle in time using an Artron generator, the Doctor was taken to the leaders of the two factions. They began to doubt him after he refused to kill them to fulfill the Warbringer scripture, (AUDIO: Consequences ^[+]Timothy X Atack, Warbringer (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) however they let him use the generator to temporarily halt the falling harvester ship. Veklin however knocked him unconscious and drove him away from the city, abandoning Case, where Commodore Tamasan arrived in a Battle TARDIS to take him away. Their ensuing argument was interrupted by sudden appearance of Daleks, who knocked the Doctor unconscious so Tamasan carried him into the TARDIS whilst Veklin held them off.

On a carrier ship, Tamasan had him locked on the medical bay. The Doctor escaped and made for Tharius again, arriving back at the Artron generator as Veklin was about to deactivate it. Case arrived with Daleks, having been turned back to her conditioning, and he helped her overcome their control and destroy them. With more Daleks imminently arriving on Tharius, the Doctor reluctantly conceded that whilst he could have saved the people earlier it was not possible now, and deactivated the generator and escaped the devastation in the TARDIS with Veklin and Case. (AUDIO: Destroyer ^[+]Andrew Smith, Warbringer (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) Afterwards he explained to Case how he had rescued her and why they had crashed on Tharius. (AUDIO: Saviour ^[+]Jonathan Morris, Warbringer (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) He eventually left Case behind, intending to give her the choice of what to do now, though she viewed this as him abandoning her. (AUDIO: A Mother's Love ^[+]Noga Flaishon, Comrades-in-Arms (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

Solo battles[]

After some years of searching, the Doctor was able to return Cass's body to the remains of her family. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

The Doctor was sent by Commodore Tamasan to a research base over a gas giant, where he fell into a dream state due to a chemical weapon being developed there. He forced himself to awake from the dream, in which he'd been the Doctor again travelling alongside Laya Bridge, and was contacted by Tamasan who explained this had served a test for the weapon. Furious at what he'd been put through, and believing the weapon would serve little purpose anyway as Time Lords' imagination made them more susceptible to it than the Daleks, he saw to the base's destruction, ignoring Tamasan's protests. (AUDIO: The Keeper of Light ^[+]Phil Mulryne, Battlegrounds (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)

The Doctor helped design a new state of the art warship for the Time Lords to give to the Thals, believing it could be the first of a fleet of such ships capable of infiltrating Dalek space, which he named the Temmosus after a figure in Thal history. Discovering the ship's captain, Dylon, was making a deal with the Daleks, he attempted to stop the vessel leaving Time Lord space by deactivating its defences, however the Thal crew pushed on until the Doctor revealed recordings of Dylon's communications with the Daleks. He convinced officer Soolal to mutiny, however crew loyal to Dylon fixed the ship on its course to where he'd arranged to rendezvous with the Daleks. At the location the Doctor discovered the Time Lords had anticipated the treachery by rigging a bomb to the Temmosus, as it was boarded by Daleks, who had new orders from the Time Strategist to seize the vessel by force. The Doctor used his TARDIS to transport the ship back to Time Lord space where he negotiated with Tamasan to give the Thals more representation on the War Council. Afterwards he took the remorseful Dylon home to New Davius. (AUDIO: Temmosus ^[+]Rossa McPhillips, Battlegrounds (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)

The Doctor attempted to defend Lacuna from a raid of Berserker Daleks but arrived too late to stop the invasion so used his TARDIS to create a time loop of the last day before the planet was devastated. After hundreds of repeats as he tried in vain to find an outcome which would succeed, he was finally convinced to end the loop by Ignis Abel, though he promised to try and find a way to return and save them in the seconds remaining if he could. (AUDIO: Rewind ^[+]Timothy X Atack, Battlegrounds (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)

When the Void began to attack and devour the universe, the War Doctor became trapped with his first seven incarnations after the escape of the Eighth Doctor. He was followed shortly by his ninth, tenth and twelfth incarnations, who ventured into the Type 1 TARDIS responsible for the disturbance. Forming a plan with the trapped Eleventh Doctor, the Doctors joined their TARDISes to pacify the Type 1 into a peaceful state and return the universe to normal. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension ^[+]George Mann, et al., Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2017).)

After a Rutan attack on a Time Lord outpost led to Cardinal Blaxill rallying Time Lord forces for an assault on Ruta III, the Doctor investigated, as he was sceptical of the apparently random attack. Tracing the attacker to Sontar, he sought the aid of a Sontaran veteran from Taxodon he had met in his sixth incarnation named Skole, and they discovered the existence of Sontaran-Rutan hybrids, who had infiltrated Gallifrey and replaced Blaxill, and deduced the scheme by Sontaran command was to manipulate the Time Lords into winning the Rutan-Sontaran War for the Sontarans. As they travelled to Ruta III to avert the Time Lord assault, the Doctor deduced the hybrids were part of a bigger paradox linked to events he had experienced in his eighth and third incarnations, which would overload the Time Lords' anomaly cage that they had planned to contain the paradox of erasing the Rutans. As they arrived at Ruta III, they found the assault had begun and time was already disturbed by the paradoxes. Though Blaxill turned the Time Lord fleet against them, the Doctor and Skole were able to board the flagship and fought through the hybrids to destroy the ship and stop the assault, with Skole being killed by Blaxill in the process. Prior to the destruction, the Doctor retrieved the anomaly cage which preserved the paradox of his previous encounters with the hybrids, even though the event scattering them back in time had been averted. (AUDIO: In Name Only ^[+]John Dorney, Sontarans vs Rutans (Big Finish Productions, 2024).)

Mission against the Barber-Surgeon[]

The Doctor became embroiled in the Barber-Surgeon's campaign, witnessing Peladon being "consumed" which proved to him just how dark the war could get. After he brought down a creation of the Barber-Surgeon during a Dalek attack on Gallifrey, during which he was forced to leave behind a Time Lord crew and, at her request, allowed Ensign Rodion to die by cutting off the bubble event looping her final moments, the Doctor was brought before the "inner circle" of the War Council by the Eleventh General and was tasked with the assassination of the Barber-Surgeon. He accepted and was transported by a Time Lord supply ship to Kembel, the site of a recent attack.

Finding decimated Daleks, the Doctor located a survivor who told him of the Barber-Surgeon's attack and that the Daleks' knowledge of him could be found in the imperial datacore. Fleeing a Dalek Hunter-Killer, whose forces dispatched the other Time Lords accompanying him, (AUDIO: The Mission ^[+]Robert Valentine, He Who Fights With Monsters (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) the Doctor made for Skaro in his TARDIS, arriving in the midst of an attack by the Barber-Surgeon's creatures. Landing in Kaalann, he was swiftly captured by Spider Daleks and taken before the Dalek Time Strategist. The Strategist chose to let the Doctor escape with his information, claiming he was the best chance of dealing with their mutual enemy, and he returned to his TARDIS. As he left Skaro the Doctor was intercepted by Time Lord commander Narthex who revealed he'd been sent by Leela to aid the Doctor and showed him a recorded message from Leela. Reluctantly accepting Narthex's help, the Doctor used the information from Time Lords and Daleks to deduce the entrance to the Barber-Surgeon's factory lay on Earth in 100000 BC.

The TARDIS was ambushed by an abomination as they arrived, resulting in the ship crash landing and perishing. Solemnly abandoning his vessel, the Doctor and Narthex searched the area and found the body of the War Master, killed by the Barber-Surgeon on a previous assassination mission. Shedding a tear for his old enemy, the Doctor worked out his corpse had been arranged as a clue, pointing to a cave where they found a portal to another dimension.

There he and Narthex were ambushed by the Hunter-Killer, who killed Narthex. The Doctor tricked the Hunter-Killer into triggering a defence of the portal, immobilising it, however upon reaching the portal Dalek reinforcements appeared. Surrounded, the Doctor furiously goaded them into exterminating him, (AUDIO: The Abyss ^[+]Robert Valentine, He Who Fights With Monsters (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) however awoke to find he'd only been taken captive instead. Escaping the Daleks after numerous interrogation sessions, he encountered the Constable and the Companion, deducing he was actually in the Barber-Surgeon's dimension. The Barber-Surgeon finally met him in person, revealing the Dalek captivity and encounters had served as a test of whether he was still the Doctor at heart, as the Barber-Surgeon was dying and knew he could not end the Time War himself anymore. Content the Doctor would do what it took to end the war, the Barber-Surgeon gave him a time ring to escape his dimension as he activated his unfinished doomsday weapon to erase himself and his factory from history. With the Barber-Surgeon's campaign undone, the Doctor was subsequently reunited with his restored TARDIS by the General. (AUDIO: The Horror ^[+]Robert Valentine, He Who Fights With Monsters (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)

Reunion with Case[]

The Doctor answered a distress signal to Haven but when he arrived found the station unharmed and the Medbay Operation Mainframe managing the facility working fine, though it's caretaker had seemingly depleted leaving their daughter, Runa, behind. His visit was interrupted by the arrival of Veklin and Case, fleeing a Dalek attack which had left Veklin injured. Whilst Veklin was treated he caught up with Case, until M.O.M. insisted on containing her. He and Veklin began investigating the facility after she found herself unable to contact Gallifrey, discovering M.O.M. had actually frozen all her patients and her caretaker when he'd tried to stop her. Realising Battle TARDISes were in their way to destroy the facility due to it not checking in, the Doctor ignored Veklin's demands to simply flee and convinced Runa to help reset M.O.M. Afterwards Case refused to return with Veklin and stayed with him. (AUDIO: A Mother's Love ^[+]Noga Flaishon, Comrades-in-Arms (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

Under the guise of a Dalek killer and her squire, the Doctor and Case joined a mission on Sunspire where it's people were working to retrieve their gene bank from a bunker where a Berserker Dalek was trapped, in truth so he could freeze and study the Berserker himself as well as help Case with her unstable Dalek conditioning that was harming her. The mission went awry and Case was furious at after discovering his true agenda. The Doctor helped the last survivor of the mission reach the gene bank and then found Case had become fused with the Berseker when it tried to reconstruct itself using her. (AUDIO: Berserker ^[+]Timothy X Atack, Comrades-in-Arms (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

The Doctor took Case to Memnos, a facility run by two Time Lord conscientious objectors to document the victims of the Time War, nominally so she could recover, though in truth he hoped she might be able to safely awaken a temporarily frozen harvester ship with more cyborgs like her aboard. He donated his memories of Lacuna to Memnos in return for his visit and then discovered the Dalek Time Strategist had infiltrated Case's experience telepathically. He connected to her and tried to help her resist the Time Strategist's attempts to reassert their control, prompting the Daleks to invade in person. They fled to the frozen harvester, exposing his true agenda. In response to Case's anger at being used, the Doctor saw to the destruction of the harvester as the Daleks closed in and was rescued via teleport by the surviving objector. (AUDIO: Memnos ^[+]Phil Mulryne, Comrades-in-Arms (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

Degeneration crisis[]

On one excursion, the War Doctor discovered and landed aboard the Diamond Array, freeing the Monk from imprisonment, and attempting to guide him back to his TARDIS when they were confronted by the Union. Defiantly confronting her, he was struck by her weapon and began feeling the immediate effects of degeneration. The Monk stopped the Union with a makeshift "temporal stink bomb" and, aware of what was happening due to events in his relative past, adjusted the Doctor's TARDIS to help him reach the nearest Time Lord field hospital while imploring him to "find the Monk". (AUDIO: The Union ^[+]Matt Fitton, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).) At the hospital, the Doctor began rapidly degenerating into his past incarnations, shrugging off the field medics as he returned to his TARIDS. With his memories of the attack, and even his most recent incarnation, scrambled by his current state, he could only recall needing to "find the Monk", and thus as he stabilized in his fourth incarnation, began his quest by seeking the renegade Time Lord out, his condition allowing him to bypass the various time locks surrounding the War.

After a long confrontation diffusing his latest scheme, the Monk ultimately could not help the Doctor (having not yet experienced the earlier encounter), but did point him in the direction of his future "daughter". (AUDIO: Past Lives ^[+]Robert Valentine, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).) As his fifth incarnation, the Doctor found Jenny near the end of the universe, alongside the Curator, with his time alongside them and solving the mystery of the latter's destructive art career bringing him further stability and strength to continue on. (AUDIO: The Artist at the End of Time ^[+]James Goss, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).) Following this, he was diverted via time scoop to assist the Time Lords in the supposed defection of Davros from the Daleks, ultimately foiling his plans as his seventh incarnation, refocusing his mind. (AUDIO: A Genius for War ^[+]Jonathan Morris, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).) On Earth in 2006, the Doctor was then led by an unseen benefactor to discover a plot by the Two to sabotage his TARDIS in Shoreditch, 1963. Foiling the plot as his sixth incarnation, the Two's personality of the One advised the Doctor to investigate the Karpellian system. (AUDIO: Two's Company ^[+]Lisa McMullin, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).) Upon landing on Planetoid 50 in the system he found the Master was also degenerating, and had found the soil there to have been part of the means of the weapon that had induced it. Her experiments with the soil ultimately caused both Time Lords to degenerate forwards into future selves; the Master into Missy, and the Doctor his tenth incarnation. Before parting, Missy was also able to remind the Doctor that the culprit of their conditions was the Union. (AUDIO: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 ^[+]Jonathan Barnes, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

As his condition escalated to endanger the multiverse, the Doctor, slipping into his future ninth self, was forced to work together with a Doctor of a parallel universe, the Master (who had degenerated to the Lumiat), and Liv Chenka to summon the Time Lord Immemorial to repair reality. During this, the Doctor was still unsure of what the Union was, and the Lumiat had to correct him that they were an individual, not a group. Following this crisis, he received a distress call from Susan, directing him to find her at the Diamond Array. (AUDIO: Time Lord Immemorial ^[+]Lisa McMullin, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

Despite rapidly increasing degenerations, the Doctor returned to the Array, saved Susan with the aid of River Song, and undid the Union's efforts to condense solar systems into decorative diamonds. With further future-degenerations to his twelfth incarnation, he critically sabotaged the Array before confronting the Union, who he now recognized as the Renegade's final incarnation. Though asserting his superiority as a union of all his own selves, the Union challenged the Doctor with the knowledge of his War incarnation, and how the other Doctors feared and dreaded him. Reasserting himself, the War Doctor emerged, remembering how he had been the one to have been shot by her degeneration gun. He refuted the Union in that despite everything, he still carried the Doctor's spirit within himself, and ultimately respected his other selves, letting his eighth incarnation retake control to finish the confrontation. With the Array's destruction, the War Doctor fully restabilized as himself, with a renewed sense of hope and reflection on his lives, as he dropped off Susan and River on Gallifrey before returning to the war. (AUDIO: The Union ^[+]Matt Fitton, Once and Future (Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

An old warrior[]

As the war continued, the Doctor slowly aged into an old man as he fought the Horde of Travesties, the Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, and the Skaro Degradations and their standard Dalek kin. (PROSE: A Prologue ^[+]The Shakespeare Notebooks (2014).) Surveying the aftermath of a great battle, the Doctor found that a Dormouse had survived, and he invited it to join him in the TARDIS. (POEM: The Red and the Blue ^[+]James Goss, Now We Are Six Hundred (Harper Design, 2017).)

Learning that Rassilon had made an alliance with the Nestene Consciousness, the Doctor convinced the Nestene to bargain with him instead of Rassilon. After agreeing to fight for the Nestene in the future, the Doctor learnt that Rassilon had asked for an Auton to be made with the Doctor's likeness in order to have his soldiers more susceptible to his manipulations, such as General Artarix. Given control of the Auton by the Nestene, as well as a second Auton to distract Rassilon, the Doctor stole a handful of proximity mines from the Panopticon, and used them to save Artarix's fleet from a Dalek ambush. With his Auton duplicates having self-destructed, the Doctor left it to Artarix to confront Rassilon. (PROSE: Decoy ^[+]George Mann, The Target Storybook (2019).)

The War Doctor arrived late to the temporal meta-collision started by the Fourth Doctor to organise his other incarnations against a pandimensional entity that was trying to use the TARDIS to invade the Earth. The War Doctor realised that the cat photos his sixth incarnation was sharing were encoded location vectors pinpointing where the entity was going to invade first and materialised his TARDIS at all the planned arrival points to stop its invasion before it began, just as the Sixth Doctor installed a way to expel the entity from the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS. With the crisis over, the War Doctor went off to continue fighting in the Time War. (WC: Doctors Assemble! ^[+]James Goss, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020).)

Dealing with the Volatix Cabal[]

The Doctor took on the Squire as a companion, showing her the prose of Marcel Proust during their travels. (COMIC: The Then and the Now ^[+]Si Spurrier and Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015).}}) With the Squire, the Doctor led a Shrikefleet against a Plasma-Wheel armada on Vexa, held the line against six Barrage-Leks and routed the exotic plunder at the chronofracture on Borun, and threw down the Heisenberg mutations on Kether Prime. (COMIC: Pull to Open ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015).)

After it was rumoured that the Daleks had recruited the Cyclors before the Time Lords could, the War Doctor was sent to deal with the situation. (COMIC: Pull to Open ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015).) He formed a pact with the Master, (COMIC: The Organ Grinder ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) and the duo went to Veestrax, where they found a wall with the phrase "Exterminhate" on it. Though he originally planned to blow the planet up, the Doctor instead transported part of Veestrax to another part of the universe in order to wipe out three Dalek assault battalions. (COMIC: Outrun ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015).)

The Doctor, the Master and the Squire landed on the Overcast homeworld, Golgauth, where the Doctor planned to neutralise the Cyclors. (COMIC: The Then and the Now ^[+]Si Spurrier and Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015)., The One ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016)., The Organ Grinder ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) The Doctor and the Master soon encountered the Volatix Cabal, killing one of its members together. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) After defeating one of the groups, the Doctor was then shocked to see the Master's TARDIS crash land near him, piloted by Alice Obiefune, a woman who claimed to have time travelled from after the War had ended. Alice was captured by mechanic tentacles, which brought her underground to a base of the Dalek mutants. (COMIC: First Rule ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) The Doctor sent the Squire to save Alice and afterwards the team left in the TARDIS to an Overcaste rebel base.

Using the psychic paper as a test, they succeeded in uncovering a Volatix spy within the group, but were too late in stopping him from summoning a Cyclor to their location. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) They ran from the Cyclors, and the Doctor soon realised that Alice had stolen the Psilent songbox from him as she fled from the scene. The Doctor and his companions caught up with Alice, who refused to hand over the Songbox, instead using it to banish the Cyclors to a higher dimension. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, the Master had attempted to flee in the version of his TARDIS that Alice brought from the future, creating a paradox that reacted with the Songbox, which in turn began to collapse timelines, resulting in a chronal meltdown. (COMIC: Kill God ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).)

The Doctor used the temporal dart that had been inside Alice to reverse its origins, creating the Then and the Now. He placed Alice inside the creature and sent her back to her own time, and then stamped on the Songbox to end the madness. (COMIC: Fast Asleep ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) The paradox caused the Doctor to forget everything about Alice, his time with the Master, the Cyclors, and what had happened in the month he had been sent to investigate them. (COMIC: Pull to Open ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015)., Fast Asleep ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).)

The Doctor was later fighting the Volatix Cabal when the Then and the Now reappeared, bringing with it Abslom Daak, who had been sent by the Eleventh Doctor to fight in the Time War. (COMIC: Physician, Heal Thyself ^[+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).)

The Keska incident[]

The Doctor dematerialised his TARDIS at Omega One as Bennus and Arverton were about to detonate the Time Destructor on the Dalek Fleet. Believing he had a higher chance of surviving the ordeal, the Doctor ordered the two Time Lords to return to Gallifrey and detonated the device himself. (AUDIO: The Innocent ^[+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) Surviving through pure luck, (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds ^[+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) the Doctor crash-landed his TARDIS on the planet Keska, where he entered a healing coma that lasted for one hundred days, during which he was nursed to health by a native Keskan named Rejoice. Upon regaining consciousness, the Doctor helped the Keskans stop the Taalyens from wiping them out in their war, constructing a force field to protect Keska. Remaining on Keska for one-hundred-and-thirty-four days to recover from the effects of the Time Destructor and have some peace and quiet from the Time War, the Doctor struck up an unintentional friendship with Rejoice, who would visit him despite his insistence on being left alone.

When a Time Lord operative named Veklin arrived to collect the Doctor for Cardinal Ollistra, he dismissed the summons in favour of going boating with Rejoice, where he informed her of his feelings and history with the war. After a burst of anger from him caused Rejoice to abandon ship to swim to the shore, the Doctor and Rejoice were dragged back to Gallifrey in the TARDIS by the powers of the Eye of Harmony under Ollistra's command. After Rejoice was returned to Keska, (AUDIO: The Innocent ^[+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) the Doctor was assigned the mission to locate Seratrix in the Null Zone with Veklin, Bennus and Arverton.

However, the Doctor summoned his TARDIS to him with his sonic screwdriver and decided to enter the Null Zone on his own. He landed on Keska again and discovered that the Daleks had helped the Taalyens bypass the force field. Meeting up with Rejoice again, though many years later from her perspective, the Doctor discovered that Seratrix had made an alliance with the Daleks to stop the Time War and ensure peace by allowing them dominion over the Null Zone, at the cost of the thousand worlds within it, which were to be destroyed in the Daleks' final assault on Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds ^[+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)

The Doctor and Rejoice tried to convince Seratrix of the Daleks' deception, only to discover that Seratrix, Bennus and Arverton were part of a Time Lord conspiracy sect that was trying to form a peaceful truce with the Daleks. After Seratrix, Bennus and Arverton were killed by the Daleks after being convinced of the Daleks' treachery, the Doctor allied himself with the leading Taalyen to destroy the Daleks by deafening them and had his Keskan allies detonating the drill early to stop the Daleks' scheme. However, the Doctor was betrayed by Taalyens, and Rejoice was apparently killed. With their mission complete, the Doctor and Veklin were collected by Ollistra, who revealed the entire incident was her attempt to purge out Seratrix's conspiracy. (AUDIO: The Heart of the Battle ^[+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)

The Neverwhen gambit[]

Travelling to Vildar to destroy the Annihilator, the Doctor was assisted by a reluctant soldier named Collis, but she was killed protecting him from a Varga plant. Knocked unconscious by the destruction of the Annihilator, the Doctor was deemed dead and taken to Aldriss, the planet of the Technomancers that had been reviving dead Time Lords, such as Collis. Discovering that the Valdarians were being sacrificed to revive the dead, and that a small part of the Technomancer's masters, the Horned Ones, were being placed in the revived Time Lords, the Doctor and Collis ran to the Crypt of Non-Time, where the Annihilator resided after the Doctor had used it to wipe itself from time. After Collis died at the hands of the Technomancer leader, Shadovar, the Doctor set the Annihilator off, wiping the Technomacers and the Horned Ones from time.

Escaping Aldriss with co-ordinator Jared, the Doctor was apprehended by Ollistra, who informed the Doctor that he was to be arrested as a war criminal. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost ^[+]John Dorney, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) The Doctor was placed in an Artron leash, and tasked with discovering the purpose of the anima device on Asteroid Theta 12 with Ollistra, Jarad and Captain Solex. After losing Jared, they discovered that the Daleks were retro-engineering themselves back into Kaleds in order to gain a new insight into war. After Solex sacrificed himself to save him, the Doctor allowed Ollistra to use the anima device for their escape and then freed himself from the Artron leash to leave in his TARDIS. (AUDIO: A Thing of Guile ^[+]Phil Mulryne, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) However, Ollistra had programmed the TARDIS to travel into the explosion of the anima device; the Neverwhen. There, the Doctor initially helped a set of soldiers against an aggressor, until the time phasing revealed he had been assisting retro-evolved Kaleds battle primitive Time Lords.

Once Ollistra caught up with him, and told him to dismantle the Neverwhen so that she can use it in conjunction with the anima device to destroy Skaro, the Doctor instead stopped it from working in the first place, attempting to use it to create a state of peace where both Daleks and Time Lords were farmers. However, the conflict was so ingrained that the residents of the new timeline still ended up fighting. When Ollistra insisted on resuming her initial plan, the Doctor modified the Neverwhen so that the experiment would be deemed a failure, as he felt that there was no way to predict the side-effects of Ollistra's plan on the wider universe. (AUDIO: The Neverwhen ^[+]Matt Fitton, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).')

Warfare escapades[]

The Doctor was present with the General at the Hellion Blaze, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man ^[+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) led the final charge at the slopes of the Never Vault, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) and arranged for the Advent of Woe to close. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Twice Upon a Time (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

During the year A10%? on the planet Marinus, the Doctor assisted the Voord in setting up a chronic tripwire against the Daleks. After a Dalek flying saucer fell into the trap, and the Daleks on board turned to dust, the Doctor and the Voords went in to investigate, but not before the leader's paradox shield failed and he passed on his leadership and liquid-metallic bodysuit in his last moment. Inside the downed saucer, the Doctor talked with a Voord named Siatak about how the Time War had caused the Voord to become more formidable beings, and Siatak's fears of the Time Lords reverting the Voords' development in the event they won the war. As his relationship with the High Council was complicated, and due to his inability to make grand promises in wartime, all the Doctor could do was to offer to act as an intermediary for the Voord if the Time Lords were still prepared to listen to him after the war, though this did not stop Siatak from fearing the future. (COMIC: Four Doctors ^[+]Paul Cornell, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2015).)

Opposing the Dalek Time Strategist[]

The Doctor was sent to Earth by Ollistra to stop the Dalek Agent Lara Zannis from operating the Shadow Vortex in 1961 Berlin, but they were both captured by the Stasi in East Berlin and interrogated by Kruger. After Zannis escaped, the Doctor convinced Kruger to release him, and they made their way to West Berlin to stop her, only to arrive too late. In order to stop the Dalek invasion, the Doctor materialised around Zannis and the Shadow Vortex, took them back in time by a few minutes, and landed on top of Zannis's past self, separating the two timelines and trapping Zannis in an alternate timeline.

Returning to the Time War, the Doctor was informed by Heleyna that Ollistra had been kidnapped. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex ^[+]David Llewellyn, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) He devised a plan to get onto Rovidia to rescue Ollistra from the Sontarans, who were also ransoming the Dalek Time Strategist to the Daleks. Using a stealth ship, the Doctor and Heleyna led a platoon of Time Lords with Muren arrived on Rovidia and, with the help of Kalan, they got to the citadel where the Sontarans were holding Ollistra. While experiencing a psychic pain, the Doctor came to realise that the Sontarans were aiming to become a third front in the war and that their hostages were bait for a trap.

Stopping the Sontarans from using the Eternity Cage with the aid of Vassarian, the dying Time Lord powering the cage, the Doctor managed to escape in Vassarian's Battle TARDIS with Ollistra, Kalan and Heleyna, only for Ollistra to expose Heleyna as a traitor. Heleyna tried to kill the Doctor by ejecting him from the TARDIS, (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage ^[+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) but Ollistra used the TARDIS' transmat to bring him back on the ship after Heleyna was dealt with. However, Heleyna was able to escape into the ship with Ollistra, leaving the Doctor and Kalan to avoiding her traps as they searched for them.

The Doctor and Kalan eventually located them at the Eye of Harmony chamber, just as the Dalek Time Assault Squad arrived in the ship. He used Heleyna's idea of manipulating the reconfiguration system and destroyed the chamber to stop the Daleks, stranding the TARDIS in the Vortex. With Kalan fatally wounded, the Doctor convinced Heleyna to detonate a Dalek Dark Matter bomb to give the TARDIS enough energy to materialise into real-time, at the cost of her life. (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony ^[+]Ken Bentley, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) Escaping the Time Vortex to a space station, (AUDIO: Pretty Lies ^[+]Guy Adams, Casualties of War (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) Kalan died from his injuries as the Daleks arrived after them. (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony ^[+]Ken Bentley, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) The Doctor and Ollistra were then captured and sent to the Daleks as a peace offering, but the Doctor managed to avoid capture by flying the capsule to Beltox.

Crashing on the planet, the Doctor and Ollistra were met by journalist Schandel, who wanted to interview the Doctor as a war hero, much to his irritation. After Schandel let slip that the Daleks were due to arrive on Beltox, the Doctor alerted the locals in the city of Fergil, and helped to defend them by augmenting their climate control system to become a shield. When Schandel offered his assistance, the Doctor realised he could trick the Daleks into thinking that he had tremendous firepower by editing a message to them, securing his victory. After Schandel was killed by a Dalek straggler, the Doctor and Ollistra took Schandel's time ship to its next destination in the hopes they could contact Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Pretty Lies ^[+]Guy Adams, Casualties of War (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)

Learning of someone called the "Lady of Obsidian" from Schandel's files, the Doctor asked Rosata Laxter to help him locate her while Ollistra remained on Grend to contact the Time Lords. Arriving at the Obsidian Nebula, the Doctor discovered that the Lady was really Leela, who had been struck by a Disruptor Dalek early in the War and displaced from time and space until she reformed with her memories altered to include all of her possible timelines. The Doctor was able to convince Leela of their shared history and friendship and helped her close a breach that caused the Unlived to get into the universe, though at the cost of Rosata's life.

With Ollistra having contacted the Time Lords, the Doctor was reunited with his TARDIS, and took Ollistra and Leela back to Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Lady of Obsidian ^[+]Andrew Smith, Casualties of War (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) When Leela began feeling a sadness and seeing Dalek shadows on Gallifrey, the Doctor and Ollistra found a force from another universe called the Enigma was communicating with them through Leela, before it erased the Time Lords from history on the orders of the Dalek Time Strategist.

Escaping the onslaught in his TARDIS, the Doctor, Ollistra and Leela ventured into the Enigma's dimension, where the Doctor learned that the Enigma was being forced to the Daleks bidding and was using emotions to communicate with Leela, and had given the Doctor a warning due to Leela's trust in him. While Ollistra wanted to use the Enigma to restore the Time Lords and wipe out the Daleks, the Doctor instead chose to ask it to bring an end to both races to truly end the Time War. However, the Enigma chose to do neither, restoring the Time Lords after the Daleks and the TARDIS were ejected from its dimension. (AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension ^[+]Nicholas Briggs, Casualties of War (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)

Final fights[]

The Doctor travelled back to Gallifrey during the First Segment of the War to stop the Daleks from wiping out Gallifreyan children. He went to the munition factory inside the Mountain of Serenity and saved Rojan, Gahnna and several other children from a Dalek attack, but Senior Tahl chose to sacrifice himself to save the children from the Daleks. Entrusting Rojan with the children's safety, the Doctor left in his TARDIS. (PROSE: The Stranger ^[+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).)

The Doctor opposed Ollistra's idea to recruit the Great Vampires into the Time War. To this end, he travelled to Space Station Zenobia II to prevent Councillor Voltrix from opening a rift into the Vampires' universe, but his protests fell on deaf ears (COMIC: The Bidding War ^[+]Cavan Scott, Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor (Titan Comics, 2017).) and he was left to pick up the pieces the Yssgaroth left behind. (PROSE: Preternatural Nights ^[+]James Hornby, Out of the Shadows (P.R.O.B.E., Arcbeatle Press, 2021).)

Late in the War, the Doctor was ordered by Lord President Rassilon to find the War Master, who had fled from the War, but the Doctor couldn't find any trace of his old enemy. (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)

The Doctor enlisted the help of Dorium Maldovar to help him destroy the thirteen weapons factories of Villengard before the Dalek Fleet arrived to take control of them. Using a molecular fruit bomb, the Doctor transformed the factories into palm trees, creating a banana grove. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas ^[+]Richard Dinnick, The Many Lives of Doctor Who (Titan Publishing Group, 2018).)

Events in the Tantalus Eye[]

Leading a flotilla of Battle TARDISes to the Tantalus Eye to engage the Daleks, the Doctor crashed on Moldox after evading his TARDIS out of the way of a Dalek stealth ships ambush that wiped out the flotilla. On Moldox, the Doctor met Cinder, and used her help in investigating a Dalek base, where he found Temporal Weapon Daleks, a new breed of Dalek that possessed weaponry capable of removing living creatures from existence, and discovered that the Eternity Circle of Daleks were building a De-mat weapon in a plan to wipe Gallifrey from history so they could win the Time War. The Doctor took Cinder to Gallifrey in order to warn the Time Lords of the Daleks' plan. The Doctor told Rassilon and the High Council of the Daleks' plan, and Rassilon decided to use to Tear of Isha to wipe the Dalek presence from the Eye, killing all other life in the area in the process. The Doctor was against this plan, so Rassilon had him and Cinder thrown into a prison cell, (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) in preparation for their exile from Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Whoniverse ^[+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)

With Cinder's help, the Doctor broke free of the prison. Picking up Karlax, who was now was on the verge of regenerating after ambushing the TARDIS, the Doctor and Cinder escaped to the Death Zone in order to find Borusa, whom Rassilon was using as a possibility engine to predict the outcome of battles in the War. After leaving Karlax to recover in the Zero Room, the Doctor and Cinder travelled to confront the Daleks near the Tantalus Eye after disposing of the Tear in the distant future. The Dalek leaders attempted to forcibly convert the Doctor into the prototype of the new Predator Dalek, but they were saved when Karlax recovered from his regeneration and tried to escape in the TARDIS, which responded to a program that the Doctor had added that would cause it to home in on a tracking signal implanted in Cinder by the Time Lords. Outraged, Karlax attempted to kill the Doctor, but Cinder jumped in the way of the blast to protect him. In revenge, the Doctor set the TARDIS to leave Karlax behind as it dematerialised, leaving him to be exterminated on board a Dalek command station. Bleeding to death, Cinder died on the floor of the TARDIS. The Doctor had the opportunity to use Borusa's possibility engine to create an alternate timeline where Cinder survived, but knew she would have preferred that he ensure the Eternity Circle of Daleks never existed. The Doctor took Borusa to the Tantalus Eye, the proximity of which gave Borusa the ability to change the timelines to his preference. The Doctor used Borusa to wipe out the Dalek presence from the Eye, thus ending the Dalek plan, but at the price of Borusa's death.

The Doctor then journeyed to Moldox after going around searching for information about how to find the cadavers of Cinder's deceased family, who were all murdered by Daleks and left to rot in the ruins of their own home. The Doctor buried the skeletal remains of Cinder's mother, father and brother along with Cinder's body, and erected a wooden grave marker that bore her real name. After paying his respects to the fallen family, he stood and looked defiantly at the Tantalus Eye. In honour of Cinder's death, the Doctor vowed to put an end to the War once and for all, promising "no more". (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)

Rogue soldier[]

Last day of the War[]

After fighting the Time War for "a very long time", (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) the Doctor learnt of Rassilon's plan to rupture the Time Vortex and destroy the universe and took it upon himself to end the war. (TV: The End of Time ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) After using a stolen gunship to burn "NO MORE" into the Dalek City on Skaro, destroying most of the Dalek Emperor's fleet in the process, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) the Doctor appeared at the fall of Arcadia, (TV: Doomsday ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) in the midst of an attack by the combined Dalek Fleet of about ten million ships (TV: Dalek ^[+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) with a "billion, billion Daleks" descending on Gallifrey. (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) During the battle, he was sighted by a Dalek drone that fired aimlessly at him in fear, bur missing entirely. (PROSE: Dalek ^[+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Dalek (Robert Shearman), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2021).) His presence also baited several Daleks away from innocent Gallifreyan refugees fleeing the ravaged city, as he used a soldier's gun to inscribe the words "NO MORE" onto a wall as a message to the Time Lords. He then destroyed the group of Daleks with his TARDIS as he left. With the Time Lords distracted by his message, the Doctor was able to breach the Omega Arsenal, a repository of forbidden weapons, and took the Moment, a weapon of ultimate destruction which had developed a sentience and conscience of its own. (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) The Doctor then disappeared into the Drylands of Gallifrey, (TV: Hell Bent ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) far from Time Lord observation, (TV: The End of Time ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) leaving only a warning to the Time Lords and the Daleks that the war had carried on "for too long" and he would end the war that day. (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) He also made arrangements for Axton to deliver a wayfinder to Leela so that she could escape the Time War. (WC: The Final Battle ^[+]Pete McTighe, The Collection (BBC Studios, YouTube, 2024).)

Choosing to activate the Moment far away from his TARDIS so that it would not witness the terrible act he was about to commit, (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) and acting on a dream he had had in his childhood, the Doctor retreated to the barn he slept in as a child, (TV: Listen ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) where the Moment's interface manifested into the form of Rose Tyler, a future companion of his, to challenge his use of the weapon and warning him that he would one day count the innocent children on Gallifrey that would be among those killed if he used the weapon. Upon realising that the Doctor saw no other way to end the Time War than by using it, the Moment created a time fissure that sent him into his future, in order to witness the effects that making such a choice would have upon him. He met with his tenth and eleventh incarnations in 1562 England and ended up thrown in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth I, posing as a Zygon the Tenth Doctor had been tracking.

Not realising that she left their cell door unlocked, the War Doctor placed the calculation to disintegrate the structure of the prison door as a permanent subroutine in the sonic screwdriver, which was completed by the Eleventh Doctor's time. Before they could put the calculations to use, the Eleventh Doctor's companion, Clara Oswald, opened the unlocked door, freeing them, but they were unable to escape from the Queen. Elizabeth, revealing her masquerade, showed the Doctors that the Zygons were placing themselves inside stasis cubes so that they could awaken when Earth became a more advanced place to invade. After the Tenth Doctor married the Queen, the War Doctor joined his future incarnations in traveling to stop the Zygons in 2013, with Clara revealing they had infiltrated UNIT and taken over the Black Archive.

With the Black Achieve impenetrable from the TARDIS, the War Doctor deduced a way in, which involved the Eleventh Doctor ordering UNIT scientist McGillop to place the stasis cube, Gallifrey Falls No More, inside the Archive before the Zygon attack. The three Doctors and Clara froze themselves inside the cube, where they fought a Dalek and blasted their way into the Black Archive. The Doctors wiped the minds of Kate Stewart, Petronella Osgood, McGillop, and the Zygons impersonating them, forcing them to cancel the detonation of a nuclear weapon beneath the Archive and begin peace talks between the humans and Zygons, as neither side knew which group they belonged to.

Feeling that the regret his future selves felt for destroying Gallifrey had led them to save many worlds, the War Doctor, after speaking with Clara, decided to activate the Moment. However, the tenth and eleventh incarnations joined him to press the button, finally forgiving him and themselves for destroying Gallifrey, until Clara insisted that they find another way. After the Moment showed them a projection of the suffering of the Time War, the Eleventh Doctor decided not to use the Moment and came up with a plan that involved saving Gallifrey. Informing the General of their plan, the Doctors were joined by their nine other incarnations, as well as a future incarnation, to freeze Gallifrey in a pocket universe. Working together, the thirteen Doctors managed to move Gallifrey and the Daleks were destroyed in the crossfire.

Meeting up at the National Gallery, the War Doctor voiced his uncertainty of their success to his tenth and eleventh incarnations, but took solace in the fact they may have "failed at the doing the right thing, as opposed to succeeding in doing the wrong". While he was pleased that he could call himself "the Doctor" once again, he also reminded himself that he would forget his attempt to save Gallifrey due to the timelines being out of sync, and bade farewell to Clara and his future selves and left in his TARDIS, (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) feeling the regeneration he had been fighting off for "years" was about to begin. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

Death[]

Main article: War Doctor's regeneration

As soon as he set the TARDIS for flight, the Doctor noticed that his regenerative process had triggered automatically. Commenting on how his body was "wearing a bit thin", the Doctor mused how he hoped his next incarnation's ears would be "a bit less conspicuous", as he regenerated with a peaceful smile on his face. (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)

His successor would once again use the name "Doctor" after he regenerated, (TV: Rose ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) but, due to the timelines being "out of synch," he lost all memory of what had happened at the end of the Time War, (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) believing that he had destroyed Gallifrey, and that he was the last of the Time Lords, (TV: The End of the World ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Dalek ^[+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) leaving him and his two successors with an intense hatred of their war incarnation, (TV: The Name of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) while the Time Lords hailed him as a war hero. (TV: Hell Bent ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)

Post-mortem[]

While the Doctor made no secret of his part or actions in the Time War, (TV: Rose ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Dalek ^[+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Doomsday ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., The Sound of Drums ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007)., The Doctor's Wife ^[+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) he instead chose to reject who he was during the war, considering the war incarnation to be "the one who broke the promise" of his chosen name as "the Doctor". (TV: The Name of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) However, despite his attempts to forget, the Doctor occasionally thought about his war incarnation, (PROSE: Nothing O'Clock ^[+]Neil Gaiman, Puffin eshort (Puffin Books, 2013).) and even confided his existence to River Song, (TV: The Husbands of River Song ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2015 (BBC One, 2015).) though they did not "remember much" of the War Doctor's experiences, at least by their thirteenth incarnation. (PROSE: A Short History of Everyone ^[+]Craig Donaghy and Justin Richards, Official Guides (BBC Books, 2022).)

When the Ninth Doctor's Sin-Eater became conscious due to the Doctor's telepathic nature, it mutated to show the War Doctor's face, among other incarnations, straining against its body. (COMIC: Sin-Eaters ^[+]Cavan Scott, Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor (Titan Publishing Group, 2017).)

John Smith's A Journal of Impossible Things featured a partial drawing of the War Doctor, "as if his face had been burnt from the page". The text alongside stated that the two following pages "ha[d] been glued together", "not through accident". (PROSE: Extract from "A Journal of Impossible Things" ^[+]James Goss and Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2013).)

During many failed attempts to duplicate the Tenth Doctor, defective copies of all his past incarnations, including the War Doctor, were created instead. (COMIC: Breakfast at Tyranny's ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

When the Eleventh Doctor first examined his new face in a mirror, he heard the voice of his war incarnation challenge his claim of only having eleven faces. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

When the Then and the Now attempted to ingest the Eleventh Doctor's timeline, the Doctor briefly retro-regenerated back into the War Doctor. Being an "X-rated" period of his life that the Doctor resisted, this halted the ingestion. (COMIC: Outrun ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015).)

The Eleventh Doctor briefly turned back into his war incarnation when his TARDIS was caught in a time loop caused by Alice escaping the Time War inside the Then and the Now. (COMIC: Fast Asleep ^[+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).)

When the Eleventh Doctor entered into the T'keyn Nexus in order to defend himself, Matrix projections of his previous incarnations appeared inside it to defend themselves as well, though the War Doctor decided not to defend himself, leaving it to the Eighth Doctor to defend his actions in the Time War. When the Eleventh Doctor began to deduce Sondrah's true identity, the past Doctors faded away as Oscar Wilde interfered with the Nexus. (COMIC: Dead Man's Hand ^[+]Tony Lee, Doctor Who (2012) (IDW Publishing, 2013).)

When the Eleventh Doctor entered his time stream to save Clara Oswald, he encountered his war incarnation, who he described as "[his] secret". The War Doctor reminded his future self that the action he took was in the name of peace and sanity; though not in the name of "the Doctor". As the Doctor carried an unconscious Clara away, the War Doctor turned around and watched them with a sombre stare. (TV: The Name of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)

Ultimately, the Doctor remembered the true result of the Time War. When the Eleventh Doctor dreamed about his search for Gallifrey, he included his war incarnation alongside his ten other predecessors in the dream, further showing his acceptance of the War Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)

While the Twelfth Doctor was on the planet Eed'n, he became infected with pollen from the plants and possessed by the entity that controlled all of Eedin's plants, but he was able to fight off the possession by summoning the memories of his past incarnations, such as the War Doctor. (COMIC: Petals ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

When he was exposed to energy from a time storm, the Twelfth Doctor degenerated through all of his previous incarnations, including the War Doctor. (AUDIO: The Lost Magic ^[+]Cavan Scott, New Series Adventures Audio (BBC Worldwide, 2017).)