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Morbius Doctors

From TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.

Morbius Doctors is a title based on conjecture, using information from canon.
Discussion of this title may be placed on Morbius Doctors: talk page.
The Morbius Doctors from left to right on both rows, assuming that the last to appear during the contest was the actual first chronologically.

The Morbius Doctors were mysterious individuals (for want of a better term; they may have been the same person) whose images appeared during a mindbending contest between the Doctor and Morbius on Karn.

[edit] Profile

During the contest, an image of Morbius' state at the time appeared on the apparatus, followed by a face which was Morbius's thirteenth and final incarnation. After this, an image of the current incarnation of the Doctor appeared, followed by one of the Doctor's previous incarnation. The image then returned to that of the current Doctor. The image of the Doctor's last incarnation then appeared again, followed by images of the Second and First Doctors. Eight more faces then appeared. (DW: The Brain of Morbius) These were either Morbius's past incarnations, counting down from his twelfth to his sixth or future incarnations of the Doctor (from his fifth to his twelfth), as at the time the Fourth Doctor was the current incarnation of the Time Lord and the future incarnations were yet to be revealed.

it could also be possible that the faces could have been previous incarnations that were before the first doctor so making the fifth doctor the final incarnation.  

It is possible that these were the faces of the Other. However, the Other implied that he could not regenerate. (NA: Lungbarrow)

The Other, however, did manage to find a way to reincarnate himself by jumping into a Loom. (NA: Lungbarrow)

An individual resembling one of these individuals may have been the incarnation of the Doctor active at the time of Susan's birth. (MA: Cold Fusion)

[edit] Behind the scenes

However dialogue on-screen has never addressed the Morbius Doctors issue, there has been nothing stated directly to suggest that an incarnation of the Doctor existed prior to the one portrayed by William Hartnell, and there have been numerous dialogue references (examples include DW: The Five Doctors, DW: Mawdryn Undead and the 1996 TV movie) directly stating that a particular Doctor is the fifth, or the seventh, etc. Also, DW: The Deadly Assassin established that Time Lords are only allotted 13 lives (a fact reiterated as major plot points in Mawdryn Undead and the TV movie, among others); although The Five Doctors and DW: Utopia reference the fact that Time Lords may have more incarnations bestowed upon them, to date there has been no on-screen indication that such a renewal was ever given to the Doctor.

[edit] See also