Reality Shifted App & Permission Meme
Player Name: Kristin
Player LJ: justspies
Email and/or AIM: thisgray@gmail.com / AIM: the music lasts
Timezone: Pacific
Other Characters: None
Character: The Doctor (Seventh)
Series/Fandom: Doctor Who
Deviance: In this divergence, the Seventh Doctor and Ace have been traveling together for well over a decade, as suggested by the Big Finish Audios. Taking the Big Finish Audios as part of the Doctor's canon in this deviance, both the Doctor and Ace were also traveling with Hex for some time in the past. However, at the current time in this deviance, the Doctor and Ace would have dropped Hex off back home roughly one year-one and a half years ago, at which time, they would have been traveling alone together again from then on. This deviance is being played with aces_are_rare. What makes this deviant from canon is the assumption that Ace is at the Time Academy. Though this had been suggested as a possible storyline for Ace down the line, it's not collectively accepted/assumed as canon, hence the deviation.
Age: WELL! This is hard to pinpoint exactly since the Doctor is frequently evasive about his real age. However, in "Time and the Rani," the Seventh Doctor states his age as being "exactly" 953 years old, which...is later contradicted many times, but a rough ballpark would put Seven at between 900-1000 years old. If you didn't know he was a Time Lord, the Seventh Doctor appears to be in his mid-40s in human years.
Gender: Male. In this incarnation, anyway.
Species: Gallifreyan/Time Lord
Canon Used: Seasons 24-26 of the Doctor Who TV show would comprise much of the canon used. As well, I will be referencing the Big Finish Audios as canon; for the purposes of his deviance in Reality Shifted, I infer that the Big Finish Audios which have Seven travelling solo, specifically "Master," "Death Collectors/Spider's Shadow" & "Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake" are Seven's adventures in the interlude between the time he drops Ace off at the Academy on Gallifrey, and ultimately returns. For the purposes of canon, the "Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake" audios will be the events most recently preceding his reunion with Ace on Gallifrey. Due to time being relative, six months will have passed for Ace since she parted with Seven, but the Doctor (being the Doctor...) will have no concept of how much time has passed since they parted. I do not take the New Adventures books as being canon.
Appearance: After a decade or two, settling a bit more comfortably into this incarnation, the Seventh Doctor has realized (albeit a bit belatedly, but at least he realized it) that a question-mark pullover really is not haute couture. This is what he likes to say, anyway, because it's better than the alternative: Ace and the TARDIS conspired against him to engineer a laundry mishap, suggesting he looked much better in the ruby red brocade waistcoat (which he is seen wearing in the Doctor Who TV movie) he had to wear in the question mark jumper's absence. And since the Doctor cannot resist when his ego is being stroked, he decided to continue wearing this new outfit. So, this picture essentially displays how the Seventh Doctor would look to everyone, with one amendment being that his hair is not that long and rather, the same length it was during the TV show: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v17/amsterdam/dvd031-.jpg
Psychology: There are a few characteristics that the Seventh Doctor shares with his former incarnations; I would go so far as to say these are the relatively immutable characteristics, constant despite regenerations: a rather inflated ego (what he would be inclined to refer to as simply a healthy amount of self-confidence, no doubt), a passion for knowledge, and a need to do what is right/manipulate things so the right thing occurs (NOTE: to the chagrin of other species, notably humans, at least some of the time this can cause a bit of tension because the "right thing" to the Doctor is not necessarily the right thing from a human perspective. I will elaborate on this in another paragraph.
Onto the characteristics unique to the Seventh Doctor; when he first regenerates and transitions into his new incarnation, he is rather clownish, hearkening back somewhat to his Second incarnation. His buffoonish tendencies manifest in things like pratfalls and the way he mixes metaphors such as when he says, "Time and tide melt the snowman." It would not be out of the realm of possibility, for instance, for him to speak to a rock as nonchalantly and normally as he would approach a human being. So, early in this incarnation, his outward persona is one of a kind yet endearingly bumbling strange old alien. As he ages in this incarnation, he never stops being kind. In fact, he has a lot of inherent kindness, tenderness, and an earnest need to fix the wrongs he observes in the universe. However, concurrent with the Doctor's aging in this regeneration is a staggered descent into darkness. The "darker" nature he begins to espouse is displayed outwardly when he wears a darker coat, beginning in Season 26 with the serial "Battlefield." I would stress that even though the Seventh Doctor is slightly more likely to allow tendrils of his inner darkness to whisper against his mind, and despite the fact that this penchant for darkness displays more frequently in this incarnation, he is nowhere near being what one could call a nefarious, evil, or immoral being. The dichotomy between his light and dark sides, however, is not quite as easy to distinguish as in other regenerations. He would be the incarnation most likely to "turn to the Dark Side," though (if you'll forgive the geeky reference to another fandom). Also important to note is that the Seventh Doctor is not some petulant child prone to irritation and bouts of anger that have the potential to progress to something more sinister; rather, he is very much an aged, benevolent traveler with a temperament that, for the most part, remains on an even keel, with a few fluctuations here and there. He can get irritated and tetchy for brief periods of time with his companions, when they cannot keep up with his mercurial mind, and even with his own TARDIS. But as I said, these are brief periods and he can flutter around, getting grumpy and flustered and trapped in his own mind without ever being even close to full-fledged anger. In different situations, there will obviously be equally different catalysts for bringing out his full wrath, but there are a few constant catalysts, as I call them; borrowing from his own line of dialog, he loathes injustice, cruelty, and tyranny, and depending on how any of those manifest in various scenarios, he will be one very displeased Time Lord. Regarding other constant catalysts: even the mere threat of harm coming to Ace incites the Doctor's wrath (example: in "Battlefield," the Doctor presses a sword against Mordred's neck, threatening to decapitate him if anything happens to Ace), so actual harm befalling her is likely to elicit a rage equivalent in severity & magnitude to a supernova. This goes equally for the TARDIS, whom the Doctor is ultimately closer to than any human companion. So, to summarize the darker side of his nature, the Seventh Doctor is known for having a more apparent streak of ruthlessness than his other incarnations.
I referenced earlier that the "right thing" to the Doctor is not always the right thing from a human perspective, and this is especially true and relevant for the Seventh Doctor. One of the best examples I can point to for this is when he has to betray Ace at the end of "Curse of Fenric" in order to save her. Ultimately, the Doctor and Ace come to a tentative resolution after the acrimony and bitterness fade, but Ace is stunned to the core by the way the Doctor chose to handle that situation. Trust is one of the biggest issues when it comes to Ace, and since the Doctor was the first person since Manisha to get under her defenses and grow close to her, it hurt even more when he betrayed that. From the time he brought Ace onboard the TARDIS, the Doctor had been observing and analyzing her personality, molding her, training her, teaching her; he knew more than anyone exactly how to make it hurt the most, and he did just that when it came to Fenric. Humans would have been more conflicted, would not have been able to make the decision quite as easily or quickly: make your best friend think your entire relationship has been a lie & you don't care if they live or die, or assure your best friend that their life is important, even at the risk of it being extinguished. For the split second that he had to make the decision, it was easy for the Doctor, and he chose the latter. It was easy in that brief moment because it was more important that Ace live, even if she could not forgive him. The consequences after the decision had been made were another matter, and he was obviously anguished in the ensuing time, as he actually apologizes to her, his amends almost mournful. But even though he appears to regret the way things had to unfold, it is equally clear that he does not regret his decision, and would have made the same decision again if necessary.
More often than not--and it's so subtle as to go relatively unnoticed--there is a complex sort of anguish within the Seventh Doctor, influencing much of what he does. The brilliance of it, and the intrigue, come from not quite knowing what has caused that anguish. I believe it to be a culmination of many things from his past: his relationship with the Master, losing Susan, his various losses of companions, all the decisions he's had to make and live through. My personal canon also has the Seventh Doctor receiving pre-cognitive glimpses of the Time War. He knows and understands snippets of what is to come, but would not consider preventing it somehow. Yet, there is a frequent internal struggle over that decision, even if the conclusion remains the same.
The Doctor loves to learn, he thrives on it. He's fascinated by other species, particularly humans, which is quite obviously why his companions are almost always human. Though there are many things he will conflict about when it comes to humanity, he still enjoys being around humans. On an emotional level, he shares some characteristics with humans, but it's very obvious that he is not at all human. His moral compass guides him, but it's a very ancient guide, one that's been around and seen so much, too much. He can seem optimistic and cheerful, but at other times, he is very much the 900+ alien he really is: ancient, weary, cynical, yet hopeful. He loves, but also not the way humans do. Love is fleeting and impermanent for him, he finds meaning and depth in the moments he's given because they last such a short time. He's a selfish being, in many ways; he cannot stand to be alone (especially true for the Seventh Doctor, who not only wants companionship, but desperately needs companionship in order to anchor him in his darkest moments), and so he continues to acquire companions, showing them the universe and then pushing them away if they have remained too long. There are a few exceptions and quirks, depending on which Doctor we're talking about; Seven and Ace have been traveling together because the emotional element has always been just enough without becoming too much, and there was always the expectation that Ace would go to the Time Academy, which would be a factor in producing a different reaction in the Doctor. The Time Lord is a friend of the universe, concerned with righting wrongs, reversing intolerance and injustice and perpetually traveling through time and space, meeting new people and experiencing new things. This incarnation of the Doctor is prone to be a little more reflective, even quiet at times. He can be lighthearted, kind, even warm, and is well-known for pontificating, being verbose and charming in the way he describes the universe and even himself. A few little quirks/tics would be that he can nearly always be seen with his umbrella, which has a question-mark handle, he rolls his R's at times when he's being silly or giving a lengthy speech, and has been known to tap people's noses, especially Ace's. Additionally, he loathes bus stations and burnt toast and, like all the regenerations before him, appreciates a good cup of tea.
Other Skills/Abilities: The Doctor is a Time Lord; this is important to note, because although he has humanoid features, he is not at all human. In the psychology section, I detailed how the Doctor differs mentally from humans, but he also differs physically. A Time Lord does not age in the same way a human does. In fact, a Time Lord does not really "age" in our understanding of the word. When the Doctor is in his Seventh incarnation, for example, he is perhaps 953 years old (if he's to be believed), and as decades pass, he will technically "acquire" more years (though again, it's hard to pinpoint the years precisely, since the Doctor is a time traveler and does not remain at one static point in time), but not appear to physically age. He will not get wrinkles and grey hair, like humans, he will not have back problems, his muscles will not atrophy due to age, and neither will his health deteriorate simply due to aging. This is why the Doctor could be 1,000+ years old and still appear youthful, or vice versa. His physical appearance is not representative of his actual age. The Doctor can regenerate, which makes him nearly immortal. I say nearly because he can be killed, but he can only regenerate a total of twelve times, amounting to a total of thirteen incarnations. The Doctor also has an internal body temperature of 15-16 degrees Celsius and seems to possess a great deal of stamina (he does not seem to need nearly as much sleep as humans, and has occasionally chided humans for the amount of time they waste in sleeping). He has other abilities, like the fact that he can safely absorb amounts of radiation which would be lethal to humans, he can absorb volts of electricity, survive in a vacuum in space (although would eventually suffocate if he did not have a supply of air), etc. The Doctor remarks that the "Rassilon Imprimatur" allows Time Lords to safely travel through time. The Doctor also has a respiratory bypass system and two hearts (which normally beat at 170 beats per minute), so he can survive strangulation and go without air for a considerably longer amount of time than humans. Despite those abilities, he is still vulnerable to injury; in his third incarnation, he absorbed far too much radiation to process, and regenerated. In his Sixth incarnation, he suffered a head injury and regenerated. In his Seventh incarnation, he will eventually be shot and die when the physicians mistake his double heartbeat for fibrillation. I believe the Seventh Doctor possesses pre-cognitive abilities, which manifest with greater frequency & in more devastating ways as the Time War draws ever closer. The Doctor is also a skilled fighter (knowledge of Venusian Aikido), marksman and swordsman, though extremely reluctant to put any of the skills to use, preferring diplomacy. The Doctor nearly always has his sonic screwdriver with him; this device is primarily used for operating any mechanical or electronic lock, but can also repair equipment and be used as a weapon (though the Doctor avoids this). The Doctor also has psionic/telepathic abilities, displayed more frequently in his Fourth incarnation. He has the ability to hypnotize, and even to manipulate memory. Of particular note as well is the Doctor's supreme, far-above-average intelligence; the Doctor is completely aware of how very clever he is and does not hesitate to reinforce that around friends. When around enemies, though, the Doctor will often attempt to disguise just how much he knows and is cognizant of, in order to deceive them.
Other Weaknesses: The Doctor may spend a lot of time with humans, but he can be extremely oblivious and clueless when it comes to human behavior, something which has raised the ire of many whom he's met. If you compare the Doctor to an average human, for instance, he is far, far more intelligent mentally, but not so much emotionally. If you compare him to fellow Gallifreyans, he is somewhat on par or even slightly below the mental intelligence of other Gallifreyans, but his emotional intelligence would exceed that of most other Gallifreyans. On a more physical note, the Doctor is allergic to aspirin and certain types of gases. He loathes pears, bus stations and burnt toast.
History: The Doctor was born on Gallifrey; if we're following canon, according to the information given in the TV Movie, the Doctor is half-human on his mother's side. Different fans have varying explanations, and opinions. For the sake of this application, I would say that I do not necessarily agree, nor do I refute this idea, and I feel that my ambivalent stance is acceptable given that whether it is true or not has little importance as it pertains to this incarnation of the Doctor. The irrefutable facts about the Doctor, however, are that he is a Time Lord, and a rebellious and recalcitrant one at that. Many, many years ago (it's hard to determine exactly how many years with the Doctor), before his first regeneration, the Doctor stole a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) which had been decommissioned, and ran away from Gallifrey with his granddaughter, Susan. He landed on Earth in a junkyard, soon to be met by Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, both of whom taught at Coal Hill School and tutored the Doctor's granddaughter. Susan, Barbara and Ian all traveled together in the Doctor's TARDIS, until the Doctor sent Susan away when she fell in love with a human male, David Campbell. Thereafter, the Doctor continued traveling (though in his Third incarnation, he was exiled on Earth) with many different human companions, eventually parting with all of them as time passed. In his Sixth incarnation, the Doctor's TARDIS was attacked by the Rani, which injured the Doctor and forced him to regenerate into his Seventh incarnation. Once he overcame some post-regenerative amnesia and thwarted the Rani, the Doctor reunited with his current companion, Mel, and the two continued traveling together. In the episode "Dragonfire," the Doctor and Mel landed on Iceworld and met then-teenager, Dorothy "Ace" McShane, who had been displaced from Earth by a Time Storm (later discovered to have been engineered by Fenric as part of a master plan to create "wolves" in order to conquer the Doctor and ultimately destroy the human race). In that same episode, Mel decided to leave the Doctor to travel with Sabalom Glitz, and the Doctor then acquired Ace as his new companion.
Under the Doctor's tutelage, Ace began to slowly transform from an exceedingly independent and at times hot-headed and brash teenager, to a still temperamental & volatile woman, but with an abundance of maturity and knowledge about the universe. The Doctor and Ace would conflict, especially when it was apparent that the Doctor was withholding information from Ace, and being purposely deceptive (which was, and still is, a frequent occurrence), though in their long partnership, those conflicts have mellowed greatly as more understanding continues to develop between them. Concurrently, as Ace continues to grow and learn, the Doctor has very little he can actually hide from her, nor would he want to, as he finds her to be more and more of an ally in situations he might previously have wanted to protect her from by sending her away. The gap between them, so to speak, is narrowing, and the Doctor is gradually finding that pushing aside his fiercely protective instincts regarding Ace benefits both of them on many levels. Having been together so long, and been through so much (their greatest baptism by fire being, arguably, the betrayal by the Doctor in "Curse of Fenric"), Ace and the Doctor have grown so close as to seemingly be of the same mind at times. Their connection mirrors, but does not share or exceed, the connection between the Doctor and the TARDIS.
At the current point in time, the Doctor and Ace will have been parted for six months since he dropped Ace off on Gallifrey. Drawing on some hints about where Ace's storyline might have gone had the show not been canceled after Season 26, this current Ace goes to Gallifrey to train at the Time Academy and become a Time Lord. The Doctor, due to the complexities of his own nature and personality, and a desire to ease Ace's transition to Academy life, abruptly left once he dropped her off. The Doctor is, at this precise moment in time, returning to Gallifrey to see Ace roughly a week or so after the events in the Big Finish Audios "Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake" have occurred. So the Doctor will have experienced things alone that Ace does not yet know about, while he has been traveling solo. Notably, the Doctor experienced a particularly devastating revelation in the Big Finish Audio "Master," which is likely to come up periodically in subtle, emotional ways.
Reality Description: Much of the Doctor's time is spent on his TARDIS. The blue police box is home, his companion, and his primary means of traveling through time and space. As he so frequently remarks to those who see the TARDIS for the first time, it's bigger on the inside, far bigger than most can comprehend. There are winding pathways, and it's a veritable labyrinth filled with books and music and garments and exotic food and everending knowledge. The TARDIS is the Doctor's only true constant, and as such, they share a close, symbiotic bond, linked telepathically and irrevocably. Having spent so much time alone with just his TARDIS, the Doctor is now traveling back to Gallifrey to see Ace, after a six-month separation. However, he wants to bring her a treat from Earth, so he makes a stop to do just that. Since the TARDIS is his reality, and can take him anywhere, the TARDIS has just made a stop to on Earth in the 1960s, to a somewhat familiar location.
Just before walking on the plane, the Doctor will have been at Harry's Cafe, a place he frequented in Remembrance of the Daleks. In that episode, the Doctor had a cup of tea and a particularly thoughtful conversation with the employee there, an African man named John, while he contemplated genocide of the Daleks (comparing it to the sugar in his tea, as is his typical inimitable way...). Since then, the Doctor has made it a point to return to that cafe every so often to enjoy a cup of tea and another chat with John. The food there is standard fare, and this is another reason the Doctor has stopped by; he did fully intend on getting Ace a treat, not just having a chat with an old friend (although it would be typical Doctor style to mean to do something, get caught up in a conversation, and leave without doing what he came there to do in the first place). Since she's been on Gallifrey for so long, he knows she hasn't been able to enjoy some of her favorite Earth food, so he's going to bring her back some bacon sandwiches, chips and a chocolate malt.
Juggling a bag of food and two chocolate malts, the Doctor steps out of Harry's Cafe and onto the plane. He can see his TARDIS, but is obviously instantly aware that he's stepped onto the plane. When he's done being preoccupied with exploring the plane itself (because it will obviously be something different and interesting and shiny to explore), he will return to his reality, his TARDIS, and actually go to Gallifrey with his food, which may be cold by now.
☆ Threadhopping with this character - yes/no/maybe so?: Yes! More opportunity for fun!
☆ Backtagging with this character - yes/no/maybe so?: Most definitely!
☆ Hugging this character?: Sure! He might raise an eyebrow, but he'll be fairly receptive about hugging.
☆ Giving this character a kiss?: It's acceptable in the sense that he's not going to physically assault you or shove you away, but there will be definite confusion on his end.
☆ Punching this character: He obviously wouldn't like it, but he's not going to punch back, either. That's not his style.
☆ Is there anything ought not be mentioned near this character?: There are some subjects which may definitely be touchier than others, but everything is still fair game.
☆ Is there anything you need us to know about interacting with this character? Special physical features, fighting abilities, STUFF: The Doctor is a very odd, very old alien, so he's going to go off on strange tangents about all the things he's seen and done. Get used to that. He has telepathic abilities, can hypnotize people if necessary, and manipulate memory, and in this incarnation, has a VERY SCARY temper, but you don't need to worry about that much if you're just casually interacting with him.
☆ Anything else, please mention here: I can hear the sound of empires toppling.