The Eleventh Doctor
Portrayed by: Matt Smith
Years active: 2010 – Present
Series: Five, Six
Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song
Ok, so if we thought the regeneration between the Ninth Doctor to the Tenth was a bit, well, shall we say rough, it was nothing compared to the regeneration between Tenth and Eleventh. Never has there been a regeneration so traumatic and devastating for both Doctor and TARDIS in the history of Doctor Who. But this one topped it, destroying the TARDIS in the process, leaving it plummeting for Earth. Yet despite this initially bad regeneration, we don’t see the required recovery process the Tenth Doctor had to endure on screen. Instead, the Eleventh Doctor leaps straight into action, dealing with the crack on the bedroom wall of a young Amelia Pond. Could this be a sign of the strength yet to come from our favourite Time-Lord?
When we first meet the Eleventh Doctor, he is wearing the tattered clothes worn by the Tenth Doctor (evidently another casualty of the regeneration), but changes into the attire we will recognise him in by the end of the first episode. It should be noted, the Eleventh Doctor takes (steals) his clothes from a locker in a hospital, in the same way the Third and Eighth Doctor did. The Eleventh Doctor has a love for bow ties, wearing one as part of his costume. He wears a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, braces and rolled up trousers, with black boots to run around in. Along with new clothes come new gadgets, namely a new TARDIS after the previous was destroyed, and a new Sonic Screwdriver, after the familiar blue one was destroyed in the first episode of series 5.
What we do know is that this Doctor is as brave as his predecessors, twice as funny and just as knowledgeable. But he is put in his place by Rory Williams (his companions fiancé) in Series 5 : Episode 6 (Vampires in Venice), when he is told that he makes ordinary people do extraordinary things to impress him, usually resulting in putting themselves in danger for him. Despite this, his life was saved by Rory when a Silurian took a shot at the Doctor. This, along with a crack in time absorbing him, resulted in Rory being erased from time, leaving only the Doctor to remember him. He took a lot of guilt away from that incident, specially as Amy couldn’t remember Rory.
The Doctor does however fall for a trap, set up by every species he’s ever fought and defeated at the end of series 5. He does not believe the existence of the Pandorica, until he sees it with his own eyes. He is also slightly arrogant in his speech to the enemies when he’s trying to dissuade them from trying to get the Pandorica, in doing so revealing his lack of intelligence on the subject. Although imprisoned within the Pandorica (which was its purpose), he still managed to save the universe again, sacrificing himself to the cracks in time to close them and risking being wiped from reality all together. It seems this Doctor is just as willing to put himself last in the people he will save, just as the Tenth Doctor did at the end of his life.
Returning as everyone’s favourite Time Lord in A Christmas Carol (2010 Christmas Special), the Doctor once again demonstrated his ability to twist people round his fingers when he successfully manipulated the memories of Kazran Sardick to save Amy and Rory who were onboard a crashing spaceship. At the beginning of Series 6, the Doctor summoned five people he trusted to assist him in the Utah desert, 2011. Aged 1103, the Doctor went to meet his death when an astronaut shot him at a lake in Utah, then shot him again while he was regenerating, seemingly killing him. His body was burnt as per his requests by Amy, Rory, River and Canton (four of the five invitees). The fifth invitee was a younger Doctor, who was invited to help but not allowed to know that the others had seen him die. The younger Doctor, aged 906, helped rid the Earth of the Silence before attending to a distress signal picked up by the TARDIS, landing on a pirate ship (The Curse of the Black Spot (Series 6 : Episode 3)). Throughout the beginning of the sixth series, the Eleventh Doctor demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the universe, and his immense knowledge, including knowing that Amy had been replaced by a flesh avatar very early on in Series 6 (long before it was revealed in The Almost People (Series 6 : Episode 6)). At the end of Day of the Moon (Series 6 : Episode 2), the Doctor shared his first kiss with River Song, an event he somewhat enjoyed, as well as revealing his soft spot for River’s willingness to use firepower to solve a situation. In The Doctor’s Wife (Series 6 : Episode 5), the Doctor gets the chance to talk with the TARDIS after it’s matrix is put in human form, an experience he enjoys greatly as he bonds even more with his TARDIS. In the mid-season finale A Good Man goes to War (Series 6 : Episode 7), we see a much darker side of the Doctor. The Doctor raised an army from those who owe him a debt, including the Silurians, the Sontarans and the Judoon to strike at those who had kidnapped his companion, Amy. In finding her location, he also blew up an entire Cyber fleet just to get the answer, without really needing to. When the Doctor takes over Demon’s Run, he orders Colonel Manton to give the order for his men to “Run Away” and taunts him with the fact that he will become Colonel Run Away and children will laugh when they find the house of Colonel Run Away. The depth to which the Doctor will go to save and protect his friends brings out a very calculating and dark Doctor, but one that is also prone to making mistakes, as the Doctor found when he realised he was tricked. Instead of saving Amy and Melody, he was only able to save Amy as Melody had become a flesh avatar while he was busy being angry. He also couldn’t see why anyone would want to use a Time Lord as a weapon, and was devastated when he was told what he had become since he set out from Gallifrey all those years ago. River tells the Doctor that the name for healer and wise man comes from him, but now so does the word for great warrior with the Gamma Forest people, and is devastated to be told that the reason Madame Kovarian wanted Melody was to raise her as a weapon against him, in fear of him. However, this new revelation, along with the secret revealed about River being Melody in the first place, does not deter the Doctor. Upon discovering who River Song is, the Doctor knows that he can now go and save Amy and Rory’s daughter. Setting off from Demon’s Run at the end of A Good Man goes to War, the Doctor has a spring in his step once more as he goes off to rescue Melody Pond, and show Madame Kovarian no doubt why she shouldn’t mess with the Doctor.