Doctor Who: 9 Things You Never Knew The Ninth Doctor Did

5. He Fought In Cyberspace

WHAT: Every Doctor seems to be especially good at one particular thing. The Seventh Doctor played his spoons with great dexterity and regularity, to Ace's annoyance, so well that he won an intergalactic talent competition on behalf of Earth. The Third was a master of Venusian Aikido, able to defend himself and subdue opponents with ease, and having the dubious achievement of taking down several human drones who were mind-controlled by giant spiders. The Fifth was fantastic at cricket, being able to lead a small town cricket team to victory and nearly hitting an explosive cricket ball for a six. The Ninth Doctor, on the other hand, had not had an opportunity to demonstrate particular skills with anything - at least, not until the book Winner Takes All by Jacqueline Rayner. A pretty little story, set on Earth, where the Doctor could demonstrate his expert skill... at video games. HOW: The Doctor and Rose return to Earth to find out that video games are being given away in a competition, a FPS against insect aliens called Mantodeans and involving complex mathematical puzzles. After the Doctor finishes most of the game with effortless ease, he finds out the awful truth - a porcupine-like raced called Quevvils had been kidnapping humans, fitting them with neural control discs, and transporting them to the Mantodean fortress to act as carriers for the games€™ signals. Whenever a game ends, that means an innocent human being has just been killed. Things get hairy when the Doctor is too kidnapped and forced to continue playing the game. Things get even hairier when Rose is captured and made into the Doctor's avatar. Thanks to some quick thinking, fancy footwork, and help from Mickey back on Earth, the Doctor and Rose complete the game and Team TARDIS disrupts the teleport beams so that the Quevvils are disintegrated midstream. The day is saved. SO: Jacqueline Rayner's story is an interesting one. It expands on the depth of the Doctor's skill with technology and his intelligence dwarfing our own, especially in a high-pressure situation. It harkens back to Romana II's observation in Luna Romana and the Eight Doctor's comments to the Master in Dark Eyes 3. While the Doctor may not be as book smart as Romana, Nyssa, Adric, the Master or even the Rani, his true skill lies in imagination and inspiration under pressure, and it is a good thing to see the Ninth Doctor being the same. This story also emphasises the Doctor's feelings around protection of Rose as well as his own helplessness to prevent harm from befalling her, especially when he was forced to play the game with Rose as his avatar and her life was literally in his hands. But most of all, despite all his skill, the Doctor needs his allies, and this story really shows Mickey's own independence away from the Doctor and his own technological prowess. The Ninth Doctor may have had Rose, but at times, he needed his Mickey, too.