10 Disturbing Backstories Behind Your Favourite TV Characters
8. The Doctor - Doctor Who
The Doctor first appeared on British television sets all the way back in 1963, and over the course of more than 50 years of television, he's gone through a few changes. To date, 14+ different actors have played the Doctor, one of whom is a woman.
The series swaps actors out whenever it needs to, but in order to make a Regeneration happen, the Doctor has to die. It's a great plot device, which has helped keep the show innovative and interesting through several generations of TV viewers, but it also establishes an incredibly long backstory.
It's difficult to say exactly how old the Doctor is due to the wibbly wobbly timey wimey nature of the series, but he/she is anywhere from1,100 years to 4.5 billion years old, depending on who's counting — and how they're counting.
Through the course of the Doctor's long life, there have been at least two genocides, the destruction of several worlds, the befriending and loss of countless companions and family members, and at the end of the day, the Doctor wanders all of time and space alone. A long life doesn't always equate to a peaceful life, and the Doctor knows that all too well.