MORBIUS: “How far back, Doctor? How long have you lived? Your puny mind is powerless against the strength of Morbius. Back, back to your beginning…” (Brain of Morbius)

The Three Doctors was the first story to suggest that the William Hartnell might have been the very first incarnation of the Doctor, describing him as the earliest incarnation, but it wasn’t until The Five Doctors, when Richard Hurndall uttered the words “As it happens, I am the Doctor. The original, you might say!” that the die was truly cast.

So at the time Brain of Morbius went into production, all that mattered was that the Doctor had previous bodies, so the intentions of the production crew were simply to suggest that the Doctor had had many bodies, even before the one he wore in An Unearthly Child.

The “Mind-Bending Contest” between the Doctor and Morbius displayed a number of the previous bodies. While it is equally probable that the bodies we saw were those of both the Doctor and Morbius, fanon has established that these were indeed meant to be the previous bodies of the Doctor, creating at least unaccounted for past bodies, all of which appeared to have a liking for eccentric Earth fashions.

In all, the images of at least eight new faces (portrayed by George Gallicio, Robert Holmes, Graeme Harper, Douglas Camfield, Philip Hinchcliffe, Christopher Baker, Robert Banks Stewart, and Chris Barry) appeared during the contest. This would suggest that Hartnell could have been as late as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Philippe Hinchcliffe had planned to cast well-known actors as the Doctor's earlier selves, so his intentions were clear. However, the series itself had firmly established that Hartnell’s Doctor was indeed the first, cementing that idea with reference upon reference as the series progressed. So whatever Brain of Morbius suggested, it wasn’t feasible.

Later on, much of fandom would dismiss these images as Morbius’s previous bodies. Despite the inconsistencies in dialogue and costume (the Camfield Doctor s clearly dressed in Georgian clothing, for example).

Years later, author Lance Parkin set about re-establishing the idea that the Doctor had had other lives. He did this by introducing memes in his novels, hinting at a completely different past to that which both the original TV series, and later the various spin-off media, had otherwise established.


Parkin’s approach was neither subtle nor overt. He maintained that the phrases he used were “open to interpretation”, yet it is clear that he was building a mythical back-story meant to establish why, in the TV Movie starring Paul McGann, the eighth Doctor was half-human.


Parkin’s memes triggered much debate, dividing fan opinion between those who thought it was clever and those who saw it as divisive. With the return of the series to TV and a production style that firmly defines the Doctor as an alien, many of these mysteries have been set aside, used only to justify pointless debates about canonicity.

Have no fear, all can be reconciled. Simply, and seamlessly.

The answer lies in the Pertwee era, home to another inconsistency. On two occasions, the third Doctor revealed that he had live a lot longer than we usually give him credit for:

The Doctor: “I'm beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life - and that covers several thousand years.” (The Silurians)

The Doctor: “If I were a scientist?! May I tell you, sir, that I am a scientist! And I have been for several thousand...” (Mind of Evil)

The third Doctor seems pretty certain of his pedigree, yet again people have asserted he was talking about the years his travels had spanned rather than the number of years he might have lived. So lets looks at the other possible answers:

Perhaps a Gallifreyan year and a human year are so different that the Doctor can be hundreds of one and thousands of another?

No. Later fiction has established that an Earth year and a Gallifreyan year are, incredibly, of almost identical length.

Perhaps the Doctor really is thousand of years old?

This backs up assertions made in The Brain of Morbius, and the production team may have had it in mind, but again the TV series has itself contradicted this claim, firmly placing the Doctor’s various ages between 450 and 953, while the books never managed to age him beyond 1200.

Perhaps the Doctor has two ages?

The concept of the Other, as hinted at in Remembrance of the Daleks and written about in both Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible and Lungbarrow, certainly lends credence to this idea. However, the Other is stated as not having regenerated, so would have lived only one life of maybe three hundred years or so. Which brings us back to the Morbius Doctors, which begs the question…

Perhaps the Doctor had two different histories, and two sets of lives?

Indeed.


While this may seem incredible, it makes sense, and there is lots of evidence – usually dismissed as contradictory – to support it.

Finally, we have the Doctor’s tattoo. In Spearhead from Space the third Doctor got a shower scene where Pertwee’s own tattoo is clearly visible. This begged the question, how can a newly regenerated Time lord have a tattoo? The books established that it is a criminal brand, probably stamped on the Doctor to mark him as an exile. But other stories have revealed that the criminal brand is usually the mark of a convict assigned to the prison on Shada.

So the body forced upon the third Doctor had a checkered history.

Bringing this back to the Morbius Doctors, this reveals that whoever’s body the third Doctor inherited, he had probably had nine lives before his life was taken away from him and given to someone else.

Here’s the scenario:

A criminal Time Lord, possibly half-human, obviously fond of Earth, is captured and imprisoned in Shada, where he is branded with a tattoo and is locked away for the rest of his natural life.


Unlike the Doctor, he is from another time, perhaps the early days of Gallifrey, and is well-known enough to have followers. One of those followers joins the Celestial Intervention Agency, and when the Doctor summons aid a chance presents itself – a means to free his hero.


When the second Doctor’s regeneration is forced, a new body is spliced onto his biodata. In the grand scheme of things it’s no big deal, but inheriting a body also means inheriting neural pathways. Old memories don’t go away, even if the mind itself isn’t transferred. If the criminal was human or half-human, it would explain why the body might be forced on the Doctor – to help him to fit in during his exile on Earth.


And for the criminal? What, exactly, might he have to gain? Was he given one of the Doctor’s lives in return? Whoever he was, we can dismiss a few of the candidates.


It cannot be the Other (no multiple bodies, clear connection to the Hartnell Doctor), it cannot be Omega (he died in a black hole, remember), and it cannot be Morbius (battling his own mind, he might have noticed). However, it could be…

Azmeal – an old renegade, clearly a criminal, clearly beloved of the Doctor despite his flaws.

Daniel Joyce – possibly the Doctor’s father, possibly Salyavin Salyavin – again, an old renegade, loves Earth, clearly a criminal, and known to have escaped from Shada.

Or, it could be… Grandfather Paradox.

This last is perhaps the deepest irony of all. A criminal with a cult following who escapes from Shada and whose disappearance leads to war. Perhaps the Time Lords were hoping for a more compliant agent – someone more likely to do their bidding than the Doctor. Someone who in later years would be sent on a mission to destroy the Daleks, inadvertently starting the Time War. Irony indeed that by infecting the Doctor with the Paradox Virus on Dust in Interference might actually have been what led to the Grandfather’s downfall.