A Biography of the Doctor
The First Doctor
Travels with Susan
"Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection."
- The Doctor in An Unearthly Child
The Doctor and Susan travelled together for a substantial period of time and shared many adventures together. Because most of what we know about this period is from short references and flashbacks the order of these events is very subjective.
The Exiles
(Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors)
As the TARDIS leaves Gallifrey Susan decides to explore it. She encounters a being trapped in a mirror, which the Doctor explains away as a glimpse of the past.
Notes: This unambiguously takes place as the Doctor and Susan are leaving Gallifrey in the TARDIS.
The Beginning
The Doctor and Susan discover that a Time Lord called Quadrigger Stoyn is also aboard the TARDIS - he was supposed to be taking its engine apart. The Doctor destroys the TARDIS homing device so that the Time Lords can't find them. They arrive on Earth's moon and witness a species called the Archaeons seeding life onto Earth. They are held in stasis for 450 million years and find that the Archaeons have decided to destroy the experiment of life on Earth. Eventually the Doctor and Susan lock Stoyn out of the TARDIS whilst the humans destroy the Archaeons. The Doctor is intrigued by Earth, but forgets about the planet when they get to their next destination which is another alien planet.
Notes: Takes place straight after leaving Gallifrey. This does contradict several other stories (Doctor Who and the Silurians establishes that life on Earth pre-dates the moon, which is followed up in several other stories, Frayed establishes that the Doctor and Susan are ignorant of Earth and humanity). Therefore I suggest that despite the dialogue, this story is not actually set on Earth and its moon.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The TARDIS lands on Esto, where the Doctor and Susan encounted a screaming jungle with telepathic plants.
Notes: This is a combination of references from The Keys of Marinus and The Sensorites.
Frayed
The TARDIS arrives on the planet Iwa, where a human medical facility called the Refuge is under attack by alien "foxes". The Doctor and Susan are separated, and the Doctor ends up in the facility dressed as a doctor. Susan also ends up there, and is given the name Susan by a young girl within the refuge. It turns out that the foxes communicate telepathically, had been unable to communicate with the humans and actually want their help, and a peace is negotiated.
Notes: The Doctor's journeys have "only just begun" on page 15. This is the Doctor and Susan's first encounter with humanity, and they appear to adopt the names "Doctor" and "Susan" here.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor and Susan visit Alderbaran IV, where they took a pile of valuable gems that was next to the TARDIS. The local jewellers thought they were worthless junk and couldn't understand why Susan wanted them made into a necklace
Notes: Susan recalls this on page 109 of The Price of Conviction (Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership).
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor and Susan visit Paris, 1791 during the French Revolution. He felt that there was so much promise there, a sense that anything was possible. He realised that the old order could be swept away and that people could be happy. The TARDIS disguises itself as a wooden barricade, and the Doctor and Susan end up escaping from a military post using explosives. He frees himself from a number of dungeons and encounters Iris WIldthyme, telling her that his biggest thrill is magicking himself out of captivity.
It may have been on this occasion that the Doctor was given a lockpick by Marie Antoinette.
Notes: Susan notices a mistake in a history book about the French Revolution in An Unearthly Child. This is confirmed as the Doctor's first visit to Earth in Just War (pages 248-249). The 1791 date and incident at the military post are from Christmas on a Rational Planet. Iris recalls her encounter with the Doctor in The Scarlet Empress (page 141). It is possible that the Doctor and Susan visited this period several times, but to keep things simple we are assuming it was a single trip. The lockpick was mentioned in Pyramids of Mars
The Price of Conviction
(Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership)
The TARDIS arrives in Worms just before Martin Luther's trial. The Doctor and Susan prevent an assassination attempt on Luther and then stay to watch the trial.
Notes: The last time the Doctor said he "knows very well where we are" some creatures tried to eat them. The Doctor is familiar enough with human history to roughly identify the era on page 108, but they haven't stayed anywhere long enough for Susan to make friends on page 107.
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The Doctor and Susan make at least one trip to Venus, where they see its metal seas. They learnt several Venusian customs including a hopscotch-like game and Venusian lullabies. The Doctor makes several friends there, including the philosopher Mrak-ecado of the clan Poroghini, Dharkhig and his daughter Trikhobu. This was presumably when the Doctor first learnt Venusian Akkido.
Notes: The fact that they make friends puts this after The Price of Conviction. The metal seas of Venus are from Marco Polo, Venusian lullabies are first mentioned in The Curse of Peladon. Venusian aikido (sometimes karate) is seen throughout the third Doctor's era. Other details are from Venusian Lullaby. The Doctor claims to have known Mrak-ecado for 200 years on and off, though it's not stated whether this is from the Doctor's perspective (in which case it dates back to his role as an ambassador for Gallifrey) or Mrak-ecado's.
Bide-a-Wee
(Short Trips: Past Tense)
The Doctor takes a holiday. Susan makes friends with a group of four children and their dog [Enid Blyton's Famous Five?], and goes camping with them on an island one of them owns.
Meanwhile, it turns our that one of the guests at the guest house the Doctor has been staying in has kept the district in 1933 for 60 years The Doctor tricks him into setting things right.
Notes: Susan makes some friends here, so it has to be after The Price of Leadership. On page 125, the Doctor thinks it's the first time he and Susan have been apart since their travels began. Presumably he means for an extended period of time, as both Frayed and The Price of Leadership see the two temporarily separated. Susan thinks that Earth is "fab" since they stopped chopping off the heads of anyone post [so she hasn't been further forward than the French Revolution in human history]. The Doctor suggests staying on Earth in a later era, but it seems likely that it takes a long time before they decide to actually settle in 1963.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor visits Earth and meets a marketing manager who sold poisonous products despite having to say that they killed people. Presumably this is referring to the 20trh/21st century tobacco industry.
Notes: In Venusian Lullaby he claims that this was his first visit to Earth. Since other stories establish that the Doctor's first trip to Earth was during the French Revolution, we assume this was not his first trip.
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The Doctor and Susan made several visits to ancient Greece. The Doctor saw ships from the time of Pericles, spent a few weeks in the company of Plato, and met Pyrrho, the founder of scepticism. The Doctor met Archimedes and the Doctor commented on his theory about moving the Earth with a big lever. He also acquired his business card. During at least one of these trips the TARDIS disguised itself as an Ionic column.
Notes: These must have been separate trips as the lifetimes of the famous figures don't overlap. We've placed them together for convenience. The references are as follow: Pericles is from Enlightenment, Plato from The Nine Day Queen (Decalog 2), Pyhrro from The Keys of Marinus, Archimedes from City at World's End and The Two Doctors, the Ionic Column from An Unearthly Child.
All-Consuming Fire
(prologue & epilogue)
The Doctor and Susan visit India during the dry season. Susan does some painting. He almost recognises his seventh incarnation, who is also there discussing a recent adventure with his companions.
Notes: We see the Doctor and Susan, but the only evidence of placement is the Doctor's comment that he has been to places that are hotter than this.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
Susan attends an applied science moon camp.
Notes: This is mentioned in City at World's End. though It is unclear if this happened on Gallifrey or during her travels with the Doctor. If the latter, this allows for the Doctor to take some solo trips between leaving Gallifrey and arriving at Totter's Lane.
Five O'Clock Shadow
(Short Trips:A Day in the Life)
The Doctor and his companion cannot sleep at 5am. The Doctor reads his companion a story. This may be a means to trap a being called the Five O'Clock Shadow.
Notes: It is unclear if this really happens to the Doctor. It establishes that Suzy from the Dalek films and John and Gillian from the TV Comic strips are entirely fictional constructs within the Doctor's mind (c.f. Conundrum and The Land of Happy Endings)
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor inspires Hans Christian Anderson to write The Emperor's New Clothes. He also works with Jules Verne and Mark Twain
Notes: Hans Christian Anderson was from The Romans, Verne and Twain are from 64 Carlysie Street (More Short Trips). These are presumably multiple trips, but we've grouped them together for convenience.
Categorical Imperative
(Short Trips: Monsters; p.105-106)
The Doctor attempts to kill a baby who will grow up to cause a terrible war, but cannot go through with it. He is unaware that several of his future incarnations are doing the exact same thing.
Notes: The Doctor attempting to deliberately intervene in history suggests he's already met Ian and Barbara, but there is no sign of them at all. Arbitrarily placed before Totter's Lane.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor visits various parts of the Roman Empire. These include Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, and possibly other bits of Palestine. It is unclear which of the various Antiochs he visited. It is unclear how many different trips these visits entailed.
Notes: Rome is from The Romans and Byzantium!. Antioch and Jerusalem are from Byzantium!. Palestine is from The Last Days (Short Trips).
Childhood Living
(Short Trips: The Centenarian)
The TARDIS arrives in Earth orbit and is about to collide with a spaceship but is instead teleported aboard. The ship is inhabited by the snail-like Slavians , who provide power to recharge the TARDIS - making good the damage the collision had caused. They are planning to invade Earth – something the Doctor knows didn't happen. The Doctor stops them by dematerialising the TARDIS whilst it is still connected to the Slavian ship.
Notes: Susan believes she can see the Great Wall of China from Space. The Doctor knows that's ridiculous (page 205). He has heard of the Slavians but Susan hasn't (pages 210 and 212)
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
Gilbert and Sullivan give the Doctor a coat.
Notes: Mentioned in The Edge of Destruction.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor meets [Arthur C] Clarke and tells him that what the human mind perceives as magic is always the result of a science it cannot understand.
Notes: The Doctor mentions this to Susan in The Rag & Bone Man's Story (Short Trips: Repercussions) in the section where they first arrive on Earth. So it has to be before then, and is not just a name drop.
The Gift
(Short Trips: The History of Christmas)
Susan is pulled out of a lake by General Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, using a speedboat that his wife got him for Christmas. He takes her back to his home to recover. The Doctor turns up at his house to collect Susan. The Doctor recognises Lethbridge-Stewart, and knows that he will become his best friend. He tells Doris Lethbriodge-Stewart that he has already been to Alistair's funeral along with all of his future incarnations. He hints that the boat is what killed Alistair.
Notes: The Doctor has already been to the Brigadier's funeral together with "all" of his future incarnations, despite the fact that he has never met the man. Since he clearly recognises the Brigadier here it's unclear why he clearly has no idea who he is in The Web of Fear. And his foreknowledge of how the Brigadier died is at odds with his similar foreknowledge in Battlefield.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The TARDIS materialises in the Tower of London during Tudor times. The Doctor throws a parson's nose at Henry VIII in order to get back to it.
Notes: Mentioned in The Sensorites.
Indian Summer
(Short Trips: Snapshots)
The TARDIS lands on a beach near Bombay as the Doctor attempts to fine tune the TARDIS. He ends up adrift in time – sporadically appearing as a ghost in an Indian hotel, appearing most obviously when near people who are due to die soon. Susan makes repeated visits to try and find him, eventually catching up in 1924.
Notes: In Susan's first appearance she says she's been to the Taj Mahal that morning. This may have been before the TARDIS arrived, or she may have taken a side-trip there before going to find the Doctor.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
Beau Brummell tells the Doctor that he looks better in a cloak.
Notes: Mentioned in The Sensorites.
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The Doctor and Susan are present during a Zepplin air raid.
Notes: Mentioned ini Planet of Giants.
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The Doctor teaches the Mountain Mauler of Montana
Notes: He mentions this in The Romans. The Mountain Mauler is not a real historical figure.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor is with James Watt when he discovers steam power.
Notes: The Doctor mentions this in The Space Museum. Since Watt didn't invent the steam engine but merely improved it to the point it was practical, we can presume the Doctor is simplifying what actually happened.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor encounters the company that will later go by the name the Azmec Corporation.
Notes: He mentions this in Tarnished Image (Decalog 3), though it's unclear how he knows it is the same company. Must be before he meets Dodo.
The Longest Story in the World
(Short Trips and Side Steps)
Susan tells a Caliph a fictionalised version of her travels with the Doctor to a Caliph, in order to avoid a death sentence
Notes: The girl is implied to be making it up (p.4), so there is no guarantee that this is in continuity. If it is, the fact that the story begins with an old man and his granddaughter and their decision to leave home suggests that the girl is either Susan or somebody who has met her. Arbitrarily placed late in the Doctor and Susan's solo travels.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The TARDIS lands in the middle of the Indian Mutiny. David Warblington, the Duke of Chilgrove, saves the Doctor and Susan's lives several times over. Warblington gives the Doctor guardianship over his son ("little David") in the event that anything happens to him.
Notes: As mentioned in Sloth: The Duke's Folly (Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins). The Doctor says this was "a year or two" before An Unearthly Child on page 20.
Losing the Audience
(Short Trips: Defining Patterns)
The Doctor is working on the TARDIS, which has landed in a junkyard in Totter's Lane, 1963. They then travel to the BBC's Paris Studios, Lower Regent Street, London, 1955. The TARDIS is unable to dematerialise because of intereference. It turns out that the interference is from a group of extradimensional aliens called Shakers. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to create a frequency that prevents them from appearing in this dimension.
Notes: The Doctor is mostly teaching Susan quantum theory, with a bit of relativity and the pre-history of cricket.(page 17). The last time the Doctor was absolutely sure he knew what he was doing was 150 years ago and the most frustrating afternoon of his entire life (page 39). Susan suggests that they might end up back in 1963, but there's no indication how long it takes them to get back there.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
The Doctor and Susan arrive on the planet Ollerll, visiting a small village by the sea made entirely out of mud. The Doctor discovers that the crops are failing due to radiation from a crashed spaceship and applies chemicals to the soil which stop the effect. He declines the offer of a pipe as a reward, but does take a piece of red glass that the natives believe to be cursed. He spends several weeks trying and failing to scratch the glass. He then misplaces it.
Notes: These events are recounted from the point of view of both the natives and Susan on pages 4-6 of Tragedy Day. Susan says it was "a while" before she and the Doctor met Ian and Barbara. The planet is named later in the book.
Life from Lifenessness
(Short Trips: Destination Prague; flashback)
A piece of clay from a Liciax hyperdrive ends up in the TARDIS, and they jettison it whilst in Earth orbit. The Liciax arrive and send the Doctor and Susan to Earth to collect it. The clay has formed into the shape of a humanoid creature – the famous Golem of Prague. The Doctor and Susan seal the golem up with a security system only they can get past and tell the Liciax that the clay all burned up during re-entry.
Notes: Events described on pages 35-38. The Doctor enrolls Susan in an Earth school "shortly after this". Susan is familiar with the legend of the Golem of Prague.
Quinnis
The TARDIS arrives in Bridgetown, Quinnis which is experiencing an extreme drought. The Doctor is conscripted as a rainmaker and uses science to make it rain.
Notes: In The Edge of Destruction, Susan says that the TARDIS visited Quinnis "four or five" journeys ago. Presumably this is the trip she is referring to. Susan notes that the primary universe is the third universe. The fourth universe is not parallel to the primary one, but their time tracks cross over each other.
UNRECORDED ADVENTURE
During their visit to Quinnis a being called Roztoq manages to use the TARDIS to escape into our universe. It will be several years before he is able to drop off
Notes: Roztoq appears in 64 Carlyle Street (More Short Trips).
The Little Things
(Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury; cameo)
On the last trip before the Chameleon circuit broke the TARDIS disguised itself as a red pillar box.The Doctor and Susan had decided to spend a few months in England in the 1960s, so they went to England in the 1990s to make sure England had a future. They went to a pub called The Fighting Cocks where two chaps were talkng about a comet they had seen that spring. During this trip the Doctor tells Susan that England has a decimal currency system but still uses feet and yards.
Notes: The Doctor and Susan are seen on page 115, and the fourth Doctor describes events on pages 110-112. The Doctor discovers that chameleon circuit broke in An Unearthly Child. However, there is a problem that The Rag & Bone Man's Story (Short Trips: Repercussions) shows the Doctor and Susan arriving on Earth following a different previous trip. We speculate that the TARDIS takes one unplanned side trip en route, and that the damage caused by the Blessing Crystal removes the TARDIS's record of the tree it disguised itself as in that story. However, this doesn't explain why the fourth Doctor remembers this as the last trip before the chameleon circuit breaks.
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