9th Doctor

Christopher Eccleston (2005)

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Series 1 (2005)

Rose
The End of the World
The Unquiet Dead
Aliens of London & World War Three
Dalek
The Long Game
Father's Day
The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances
Boom Town
Bad Wolf & The Parting of the Ways

The Ninth Doctor was a direct survivor of the Last Great Time War, but left the conflict with the excruciating knowledge of his hand in its grisly conclusion. Emotionally haunted by its apparently catastrophic outcome, he entered a darker period of his life where he tended to brood and act crossly to those who rubbed him the wrong way. Despite this, he remained jovial and quite friendly towards anyone he took a liking to. Rose Tyler was his most constant companion, although he did share several adventures with Jack Harkness as well. During the Slitheen's attempt to destroy the Earth for profit, he gained temporary allies in Rose's mother Jackie, Rose's ex-boyfriend Mickey, and Harriet Jones. He also had a single adventure with Adam Mitchell, an employee of Henry van Statten, at Rose's request.
He regenerated after he directly absorbed time vortex energy that had converted Rose briefly into the Bad Wolf entity. Though this saved her, it caused massive damage to his body at the cellular level.

This incarnation was born when his predecessor's physical age had advanced well into that of an old man, who was "wearing a bit thin", and when his regenerative processes sensed this body was due to fail, it initiated automatically at the end of the Time War. Due to the timelines not being synchronised by the presence of his future selves, the new Doctor lost all memory of saving Gallifrey, thus he considered himself to have been "born in battle" and was left to think he had brought forth the death of billions of innocent Time Lords. He thus commenced the new life devastated from the apparent genocide, full of anger. 

Shortly after regenerating, and still "not quite calibrated" to his latest body, the TARDIS sensed a temporal problem in 2005 London and alerted the Doctor to the presence of the Nestene Consciousness. While tracking down the Nestene, the Doctor found a chief electrical officer murdered in the London shop, Henrik's. Continuing his investigation, he found a horde of Autons surrounding a young woman. The Doctor pulled employee Rose Tyler away from them, and they ran...

For her first voyage, the Doctor took Rose to Platform One in the year 5,000,000,000 to observe the Earth's destruction via the sun expanding. Comforting Rose about the Earth's "death", he faced his own demons by telling her about the Last Great Time War, and how he was the last of the Time Lords, which had left him a very damaged man. 

This incarnation of the Doctor was deeply affected by his actions in the Last Great Time War. He hid his sorrow with a facade of manic energy and a sharp, offbeat wit. Nevertheless the weight of destroying the Time Lords and the Daleks preyed upon him, creating an emotional incarnation of great sorrow and anger. This incarnation was sometimes emotionally exhausted and would break down when faced with pain, suffering, or death. This once resulted in a moment of joy and relief when he realised that he could, for once, reverse the pain and suffering he had encountered, whooping, "Just this once - everybody lives!!" 

He possessed a new appreciation for the wonders of the universe and more keenly than ever burned with a desire to keep the universe safe from harm. Despite this, this incarnation of the Doctor was more adept at noticing the flaws of humanity than any of his predecessors.

When asked by the Emperor of the Daleks whether he was a coward or a killer the Doctor struggled with the decision to destroy the Daleks and the Earth or simply allow the Daleks to kill him and take over the universe. In the end he couldn't bring himself to destroy the Earth even to rid the universe of the Daleks, and proclaimed himself a coward. In doing so however, the Doctor had proven that he had become a better man than he was when he last encountered a Dalek, whom he had tortured sadistically. That Dalek had even stated he would have made a good Dalek himself. 

While his previous incarnations were rarely heard uttering curse words, the ninth incarnation tended to use minor curses more freely. He was also more violent, physically coming into contact with guards when arrested although it should be noted he thought Rose had been murdered which probably influenced his actions.

The Doctor cared very deeply about Rose and was willing to let a lethal Dalek loose on Earth to keep her safe. 
He was also reluctant to use a missile to destroy the Slitheen because he feared he would kill Rose too.  When the Daleks invaded Satellite Five, the Doctor lied to Rose about being able to use the TARDIS to stop them and sent her back home to protect her. He deliberately absorbed the time vortex energy in her to save her life knowing full well that he would have to regenerate. However, in the closing moments of his life, he proudly faced regeneration and made peace with his past actions, smiling from ear to ear. 

The ninth incarnation spoke with a distinctive Northern English accent. When Rose questioned this, he replied that "lots of planets have a North." He was critical of his own large ears.  He had a fondness for saying "fantastic", with emphasis on the second syllable, whenever he saw something of interest or especially dangerous. 

Like the first and seventh incarnations, he was often critical of human nature, seeing himself as superior. For example, he called Mickey Smith "Mickey the idiot", or "Ricky". He called humans "stupid apes", especially when angered by their actions. He rarely spoke of his past to others. He did not "do domestic", as he put it, which led to tension in his interactions with Jackie Tyler. 

In stark contrast to the extravagant dress of most of his predecessors, the ninth incarnation wore a plain leather jacket, identified in World War II as that worn by a German U-boat captain by Jack Harkness. It was strikingly similar to the overcoat worn by his past life, but this one was from a newer era and showed less chipping away of the leather exterior, with slightly larger collar lapels. His jacket also had sew-through buttons place of his earlier jacket's shanked buttons. He wore a plain red, zippered green, navy blue, or black jumper, which Charles Dickens thought made him look like a navvy, dark trousers, a pair of laced, black leather boots, and a black, strapped wristwatch, in contrast to his previous incarnations, who preferred fob watches.

Next: The 10th Doctor!