The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)

The Ninth Doctor is the ninth official incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor, in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston.

"Unofficial" Ninth Doctors include the Ninth Doctor played by Rowan Atkinson in the charity parody Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and the Ninth Doctor voiced by Richard E. Grant in the animated webcast Scream of the Shalka (to avoid confusion with Eccleston's incarnation Grant's Doctor is referred to as the Shalka Doctor by fans). This article is about the official Ninth Doctor, whose tenure as the Doctor made up series 1 of the revived programme in 2005.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body but in doing so gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. Eccleston portrays the ninth such incarnation, a brooding and melancholic war survivor after a Time War in which he wiped out both his race and the enemy Daleks. His first companion is Rose (Billie Piper), whom he plucks from obscurity on the planet Earth and to whom he grows increasingly attached. Eccleston's Doctor also travels briefly with unruly boy-genius Adam (Bruno Langley) and with 51st century con man and former 'Time Agent' Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman).

The original Doctor Who television series ceased production in 1989 with the Seventh Doctor. The Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann appeared in the role just once on screen in the Doctor Who television movie in 1996. The appearance of the Ninth Doctor marked the regular return of the character to television screens after nearly sixteen years, and as a result for many young fans and new viewers he was the first Doctor they had ever seen. He was introduced without any information on his recent past; though it is implied in "Rose" that he may have recently regenerated, the exact circumstances of that change, or what caused it, are unknown.