Doctor Who: Every Time The Doctor Has Gotten Married

Classic Doctor Who fans often protest the Doctor should be largely asexual, but he’s actually gotten married a surprising number of times. In 1996, the Doctor Who TV movie made history when – for the first time – it showed the Doctor share a passionate kiss with doctor Grace Holloway, who had served as a sort of companion figure. Until then, the Doctor had been assumed to be largely asexual, and certainly producers and showrunners avoided giving the impression there was any hanky-panky going on in the TARDIS. McGann’s Doctor was unusually attractive, and writers of the Doctor Who books couldn’t resist implying he had a new degree of sexuality as part of that incarnation. In Lance Parkin’s “Dying Days,” companion Bernice Summerfield kissed him on the mouth and pushed him on to a bed, before the scene promptly ended – leaving the rest to the imagination.

Of course, in reality the Doctor has never been explicitly asexual. When William Hartnell was introduced as the First Doctor, he was traveling with his granddaughter Susan, which explicitly suggested the Doctor had a family at one time, with at least one child. This was confirmed in the post-2005 Doctor Who relaunch, with the Tenth Doctor telling Rose he “was a dad once.” In “The Doctor’s Daughter,” advanced technology was used to give the Doctor a new daughter, Jenny, and looking at her reminded him of the loss of his family.

The Doctor has been confirmed to marry twice, both in the new series. The most notable wife is, of course, River Song, the temporally confused daughter of the Doctor’s companions Amy and Rory, who experiences time in a different way to the Doctor. This was a strange romance, given the two were experiencing their timelines in completely different ways. Still, it’s the only relationship the Doctor has had that seemed to be between equals.

Another prominent marriage was between the Ninth Doctor and Queen Elizabeth the First. As shown in “The Day of the Doctor,” the wandering Time Lord met Elizabeth when he arrived on Earth looking for Zygon invaders. The two married in a sweet (but rushed) ceremony, witnessed by two other incarnations of the Doctor. He didn’t stick around, though, and instead abandoned the so-called Virgin Queen.

By “The Shakespeare Code” in 1599, Elizabeth had grown deeply angered at the Doctor’s actions. She ordered him executed as soon as she clapped eyes on him. Amusingly, this marriage actually means the Doctor has another familial relationship to Amy and Rory; according to “The Power of Three,” Amy accidentally married Queen Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII. Amy is therefore technically the Doctor’s mother-in-law twice over.

The Doctor has a habit of getting accidentally engaged. In fact, in “The Aztecs” the First Doctor famously accepted a cup of cocoa from an elderly Aztec woman named Cameca, unaware it constituted a proposal. The Tenth Doctor admitted he accidentally got married to Marilyn Monroe when they crossed paths at a party in 1952, although he questioned the chapel’s legitimacy in “A Christmas Carol.” And River Song accused him of also marrying Queen Cleopatra in “The Husbands of River Song,” with the Doctor apparently quite unhappy she brought that up.

About The Author

Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

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A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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