History Characters / DoctorWhoTenthDoctor

* ActualPacifist: He always attempted to solve a situation without violence, which strained his working relationship with UNIT, with him being against their military methods. He also disapproved of his companions and friends using violence, calling Jenny "nothing but a soldier" when she took up arms to slow down Cobb's men, telling off Rosita when she punched Mercy Hartigan in the face (though he sounded more admiring of her right hook than anything else) and was especially horrified by the extreme measures Martha, Sarah Jane and Jack were willing to go to thwart the New Dalek Empire. It's implied that this is projection, mixed with an awareness of how good he is at being a warrior - he gets incredibly uncomfortable when Jenny points out how he's acting like a commander.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: He and Donna had to erupt Mount Vesuvius and destroy Pompeii in order to stop the pyroviles.

* BreakTheHaughty: Beneath the cheery, manic exterior, the Tenth Doctor's big flaw was his arrogance and hubris. Every so often -- such as the ending of "The Waters of Mars" where he declares himself the Time Lord Victorious and decides that he and only he gets to decide the laws of time -- he lets his arrogance and hubris get away from him. If he does, expect something to happen not long after to brutally put him back in his place -- such as the ending of "The Waters of Mars" where Adelaide, sickened by the Doctor's AGodAmI mindset, commits suicide just to prove him wrong.

* TheCasanova: He engaged in romantic situations far more frequently than his other incarnations, falling in love with Rose Tyler. However, he found himself unable to explicitly describe these feelings, struggling with saying such things aloud. In the end, it was the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor that revealed the Doctor's feelings for her. He also developed a romantic relationship with Madame de Pompadour. Others who tried to engage him romantically included Martha Jones, Jack Harkness, Astrid Peth, Clare Pope, River Song, Christina de Souza, Minnie Hooper and Elizabeth I - though in almost all of those cases, he was completely oblivious. Joan Redfern became romantically involved with his human identity, but viewed the Doctor himself as merely a look-a-like of him.

** In contrast to the Ninth Doctor, whose cynical, moody, and weary attitude would often work to hide his strong inner optimism and idealism, Ten's rather pleasant, enthusiastic surface and love of life concealed his inner wrath and capacity for ruthlessness. Moreover, when they ''really'' snapped, Nine tended to go into a frothing rage, but Ten would go absolutely stone cold. Also unlike his predecessor, Ten wore his emotions on his sleeve, had a particular love of humanity, and involved himself in conflicts much more readily. And in the end, where Nine calmly accepted his regeneration with [[GoOutWithASmile a confident grin on his face]] and was welcoming of the change that would result from it, Ten feared it and was even willing to "cheat" in a bid to keep it at bay, even comparing it to death at several points, and when his time came, he kept off the change for as long as he possibly could and his last words were ones of despair.

*** Additionally, in regards to Two, Ten's adventures had him travel with more contemporary companions from the 2000s with a preference to explore their contemporary Earth with the occasional story set on a deep space shuttle, base or future human colony. Compare it to Two's long-term companion Jamie (an 18th century Scotsman) and his other two more well-known companions Victoria (a lady from Victorian England) and Zoe (a young female from a Zeerust 21st century spacewheel) who spent more adventures on deep space shuttles, bases, or human colonies with the occasional story set in contemporary (1960s) Earth.
*** Another interesting comparison to note is that both Two and Ten's final stories involved the Time Lords, with Two's "The War Games" establishing the Time Lords for the first time in the original run of the series and Ten's "The End of Time" re-establishing the Time Lords for the first time in the revival run of the series. But where the Time Lords of Two's final story were more mystic, cryptid, and overall frightening due to their two unnamed Time Lords maintaining a lot of power throughout Two's confrontation with them, the Time Lords of Ten's final story were more bombastic, openly aggressive, yet visibly submissive to Rassilon with the power concentrated on Rassilon alone.

* DitzyGenius: While this Doctor loved to show off his intellect, he at times displayed a lack of common sense, obliviousness to social norms, and everyday life in general. [[VitriolicBestBuds Most notable with Donna who did not hesitate to rub it in at any given opportunity.]]

* DontMakeMeDestroyYou: He always told villains exactly what was in for them if they didn't make a HeelFaceTurn.

** He was also able to scare the Vashta Nerada (who were previously indifferent/disdainful to him) after telling them to look him up in the Library, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]". They did. They promptly backed down ''very quickly.''

* FriendToAllChildren: He showed parental compassion towards children he encountered, engaging in friendly conversations with a young Reinette and protecting her from a Clockwork Droid, giving Tim Latimer his fob watch as a memento of their adventure together and complimenting the Bannerman Road gang when they did tasks well and came up with good ideas while they were under his care during his encounter with the Trickster. When he became a school teacher, the Doctor kept his class entertained while teaching them physics. While the Doctor showed little remorse in having to kill the Racnoss Empress' children to save the human race, he showed compassion towards the young Adipose, deeming them innocent of the crimes of their parents.

** Beneath the over-caffeinated exterior, Ten was one of the more hubristic Doctors, all too aware of his superiority over other races. At his worst, the Doctor deemed himself -- and ''only'' himself -- fit to decide which lives were more important than others.

* HowDareYouDieOnMe: He insisted, then outright begged the Master not die on him - an unusual case in that the Master really could have fixed himself in a second and "died" purely out of spite.

* ImmortalityImmorality: He realized how detached he was becoming as early as "School Reunion", and often commented that he'd lived too long to relate to mortal people. On the other hand, he wasn't about to regenerate again if he could help it: cloning himself, running away from his responsibilities to the Ood, and even toying with leaving Wilf to die instead of him, before realising that it was his time.

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Often incredibly arrogant and smug, which reached a fevered pitch on "The Water of Mars", where he nearly destroys time in order to save three people and prove he had ultimate control, but it's clear his reasoning for this moment and others is that since he destroyed his race (or at least believed such), he had to prove that he was great enough in order to protect the entire universe, and several moments make it incredibly clear he suffers from severe self-loathing issues.

* KnightTemplar: He has annihilated entire fleets of enemy spacecrafts and, presumably, his own people, as well as the various monsters of the week. He seems to swing back and forth on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism quite frequently. In one case, the Doctor was attacked by creatures who wanted to steal his immortality. [[AndIMustScream They got their immortality all right]]. Getting the Doctor personally angry is, in his own words, "not a safe place to stand." The beings he was threatening then took his advice to "look him up", and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm backed down very, very quickly.]] As Donna says in "The Runaway Bride", "I think sometimes you need somebody to stop you".

* LonersAreFreaks: This Doctor travelled by himself for long stretches, having grown weary of heartbreak over his loved ones leaving him. Whenever left alone with his enemies, he tends to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and threatens to just waste them all.
* LossOfIdentity: The Tenth Doctor carried a lot of baggage -- unsure of "[[ArcWords what kind of man"]] he was on any given day -- and he perhaps never sorted it out. The artificial intelligence embedded inside the Moment summed him up best as, "the man who regrets." This is also why he dreaded regenerating; while some previous Doctors treated it as no big deal, Ten considered it to be dying.

* LovedINotHonorMore: For all his reliance on and love for Rose, he tried to send her to the parallel universe so she wouldn't be separated from her family and for her safety since she was covered in "void stuff" from travelling between dimensions. In "Journey's End", the Meta-Crisis Doctor was deemed too dangerous to be left to his own devices, so the Doctor decided to leave him with Rose in the parallel universe, believing she could help him.

* ManlyTears: Ten wasn't afraid to cry -- losing Rose hit him especially hard, he straight up sobbed when the Master died, and the impending end of his life (even with the chance he'd just regenerate into a new man) had him on the verge of tears with sheer terror.

* MindRape: Both given and received. What he was forced to do to Donna continues to haunt him well into subsequent incarnations.

** Was usually thrilled to meet new and bizarre monsters, often calling them "beautiful". [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Queen Vicky]] had a problem with this, and banished him and Rose from the kingdom for treating deadly alien threats as fun and games. It also got him named Torchwood's number 1 enemy, leading to their creation in the first place.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Occasionally he'd mess up a vowel (Tennant's native accent is Scottish, as demonstrated for fun in "Tooth and Claw").

* OralFixation: He had a tendency to lick things in his first series, although it was mostly dropped after that.

** Despite them getting on well enough in the end, he was slightly irritated by Eleven's constant teasing about Ten's choice of footwear and "Grunge phase" in "Day of the Doctor".
* PapaWolf: There are only ''two'' things that ever made him mad enough to pick up a gun and even ''consider'' killing someone in cold blood. One of them was the return of the Time Lords led by OmnicidalManiac Rassilon, who were intent on destroying reality to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence and get out of the Time War. The other was the death of his daughter, Jenny. And if anything, he was far closer to the edge in the latter than the former.
* PercussiveMaintenance: More than any other Doctor, Ten liked to compound his tech wizardry with beating, kicking, or hammering a piece of technology to get the desired effect out of it.

* PurelyAestheticGlasses: He sometimes wore a pair of dark tortoise-shell rectangular frame glasses, which he called his "brainy specs". He required them due to becoming long-sighted after his regeneration. While on San Helios, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to darken the lenses to effectively turn them into sunglasses.
* RasputinianDeath: Ten could take a good deal of punishment. His last adventure ended with him falling several stories into a glass canopy (peeling himself off the floor a la Wile E. Coyote), then getting bombarded with lethal radiation. He staggered on for a few more hours, finally collapsing in a icy street. He very nearly froze solid until the Ood sang a song to guide him to the safety of his TARDIS...where he promptly regenerated.

** The Trope Namer. The Doctor considered his test tube daughter, Jenny, a mockery of the Time Lord race with no grasp of his culture or what they've lost. Worse yet, she's a soldier, making her doubly devilish in Ten's eyes. The fact that she was forcibly created was almost a courtesy detail at that point. However, he quickly felt remorse for the harsh things he'd said, and the two ended up bonding... which made her death at the end of the episode all the more heartbreaking.
** This was also his motive for sparing the Master's life, against the protests of his companions and his own better judgment ([[EvilFormerFriend especially so since they were close friends as children]]). Lucy Saxon vetoed him by shooting his captive in the gut, whereupon the Master decided to forego regeneration out of pure spite.

* ShirtlessScene: In "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End". (Actually a naked scene, but we only get to see his upper half.)
* SmallNameBigEgo: He's a very big name, but Ten's ego was arguably even bigger, and it was his greatest flaw, with him always trying to take control of situations he found himself in and feeling it his place to punish those who committed horrific acts, such as when he deposed Prime Minister Harriet Jones, thus negating the "Golden Age" she was destined to achieve, for committing what he saw as an act of murder. Occasionally, he stated himself to be at a higher authority than he actually was and believed himself to often be the smartest being in the room. He regularly used his name as a threat.

* StepfordSmiler: Even without the already present baggage of the Time War and being Last of the Time Lords, from ''Doomsday'' onward the Doctor desperately tries to plaster over his grief over losing Rose to... no real luck whatsoever. As time goes on and more and more horrific things keep happening, the smiling becomes more pronounced.

** Taken to extremes by ''Day of The Doctor'', when he's still in the midst of romping around all of time and space doing ridiculous things... to avoid going to Ood-Sphere and confronting his foretold demise. His ExpressiveHair remains nigh-consistently flattened through, though.

* VerbalTic: He said 'brilliant' every few sentences. He also said 'weeeell' a lot, similar to the Fourth Doctor.

** Jack called Mickey "WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse" in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]. Mickey, along with WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck on a postcard can be seen in [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E7E8TheMarkOfTheBerserker "The Mark of the Berserker"]] for the spinoff ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. David Tennant voiced Igor the Door in ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseClubhouse'' and Scrooge [=McDuck=] in the 2017 reboot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ducktales|2017}}''.

* CheckAndMate: On several occasions the Doctor looks utterly defeated and the villain is reminiscing on their victory, only for the Doctor to reveal at the last minute he had anticipated everything and against all odds they had lost. His quote from the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]] is currently the overhead example on the trope page.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]], he has a five-minute period where he decides that, as the last Time Lord, he now decides all the laws of time. It is ''terrifying'' and awesome in equal measure.

** "IAmSpartacus" joke in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]] among others.

-->'''Doctor:''' You've got your son. You've got a reason to live!
--> '''Jackson Lake:''' And you haven't?
--> '''Doctor:''' ''(looks at him solemnly and seriously)''

* SherlockScan: Does this from time to time, usually accompanied by him taking out his glasses. He most commonly does this when analyzing alien technology. The best example is in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp "The Unicorn and the Wasp"]] where he takes on the role of a detective and analyses the crime scene.

* WhatTheHellHero: Breaks his own rules in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]] by saving the people whose death would have inspired the human race to spread out into space. He is called out on it in the most horrific way possible: The key person who was supposed to die fully understands what happened, and quietly walks off to kill herself. Which leads to the Doctor having a nervous breakdown.

->''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "I don't want to go."]]''

* NiceGuy: While somewhat cocky, impatient and having a ''vicious'' [[BewareTheNiceOnes dark side when provoked]], the Tenth Doctor is nonetheless way more outwardly friendly [[ContrastingReplacementCharacter than his predecessor]], being a very cheerful, energetic, sociable and compassionate individual who's quick with a hug and always willing to lend a helping hand.

* ArchEnemy: The Cult of Skaro and the Master[[note]](specifically the incarnation portrayed by Creator/JohnSimm)[[/note]]. The former are the Tenth Doctor's most recurrent foes and serve as linchpins in his relationship and history with his companions, as well as playing on his guilt from the Last Great Time War. The latter serves to anchor and conclude the MythArc of the Creator/RussellTDavies era, acting as the bridge between the Doctor's present-day self and his childhood as the [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor First Doctor]], along with the events of the Classic era and his role as the sole survivor of the Time War.

* ArchEnemy: The Cult of Skaro and the Master[[note]]specifically the incarnation portrayed by John Simm[[/note]]. The former are the Tenth Doctor's most recurrent foes and serve as linchpins in his relationship and history with his companions, as well as playing on his guilt from the Last Great Time War. The latter serves to anchor and conclude the MythArc of the Creator/RussellTDavies era, acting as the bridge between the Doctor's present-day self and his childhood as the [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor First Doctor]], along with the events of the Classic era and his role as the sole survivor of the Time War.

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoRevivalSeriesCompanions Revival Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong River Song]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

** He was also able to scare the Vashta Nerada (who were previously indifferent/disdainful to him after telling them to look him up in the Library, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]". They did. They promptly backed down ''very quickly.''

He ''despised'' his past selves for their role in the [[GreatOffScreenWar Last Great Time War]], and was always at his coldest when confronted with it. He held deep respect for pacifism, and remembered how nice Gallifrey used to be, and how much he hated the corruption of Time Lord society into warmongers. He had zero tolerance towards anyone who wanted to engage in violence to resolve conflicts and [[DoesntLikeGuns disapproved of guns]] unless they were [[BatmanGrabsAGun unquestionably a last resort]]. A long-standing fault of this Doctor was his vanity and his attachment to his current self, with him even finding a way to regenerate while keeping the same face following a lucky shot from a [[Characters/DoctorWhoDaleks Dalek]]. When warned about his upcoming demise from a psychic, he tried to avoid it as much as possible, and considered even the prospect of regeneration to be akin to [[DeathOfPersonality death]].

Alas, at the end of his life, the Doctor would be forced to deal with his trauma from the Time War when his ArchEnemy, [[Characters/DoctorWhoMasters the Master]], opened a gateway to the final day of the conflict. Even though he managed to survive this encounter and save the day, he would reluctantly sacrifice himself to save his friend Wilfred Mott, pushing aside his ego and fear of change to do so. After visiting all of his companions once more, the Tenth Doctor would undergo a true regeneration, letting go of this life to become [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor a madman with a box]]. However, many centuries later, the [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor Thirteenth Doctor]] would end up regenerating into [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourteenthDoctor a form almost identical to this old face…]]

* ObliviousToLove: {{Averted}} for the most part. Whereas the Doctor either ignores or supresses romance for others (or that others feel for him), John is unashamed of admitting his love for Joan. Ironically, he's just as oblivious to Martha's love for him as the Doctor and needs her to outright spell it out to him.

[[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor 1]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | '''10''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourteenthDoctor 14]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifteenthDoctor 15]]\\

The [[MessyHair scruffy]], [[DeadpanSnarker witty]], and somewhat [[Series/TheXFiles Mulder]]-ish heartthrob, with great [[TranquilFury inner fury]] and wistful melancholy concealed under his easygoing attitude. An accidental and often reluctant ChickMagnet, the Tenth Doctor started out rather manic: prone to speaking very quickly, peppering his speech with pop culture references and foreign words, and going off on long rambling tangents.

** In regards to being the second Doctor of NuWho, the Tenth Doctor is comparable to the Second Doctor. Like Two, Ten is a more approachable incarnation that comes after a more standoffish and often cold predecessor, and like Two, those surface level traits hide the darker and more alien aspects of his personality; for Two, his silly, hobo demeanor hid his truly cunning and manipulative side, while for Ten, his attractive, bombastic surface hides his more prideful and weary nature. Both of them also stand out from other incarnations by reacting with pure fear at their respective regenerations despite the context for each being different; Two got forced into regeneration by his people after being forced to call them for help to save the galaxy from someone who used to be his friend while Ten's came from performing a HeroicSacrifice to save his newest friend after being forced to banish the Time Lords to save the world and time itself ''from'' them.

** In regards to being the second Doctor of an era, like Two, Ten is a more approachable incarnation that comes after a more standoffish and often cold predecessor, and like Two, those surface level traits hide the darker and more alien aspects of his personality; for Two, his silly, hobo demeanor hid his truly cunning and manipulative side, while for Ten, his more attractive, bombastic surface hid his more prideful and weary nature. Both of them also stand out from other incarnations by reacting with pure fear at their respective regenerations despite the context for each being different; Two got forced into regeneration by his people after being forced to call them for help to save the galaxy from someone who used to be his friend while Ten's came from performing a HeroicSacrifice to save his newest friend after being forced to banish the Time Lords to save the world and time itself ''from'' them.

* HeroesWantRedheads: "Loves a redhead, our naughty Doctor... [[NoodleIncident Has he told you about Elizabeth I]]? Well, she ''thought'' she was the first."
** He also wanted to be a redhead, a ginger to be exact, and was disappointed when he was told he wasn't.