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Eternal life is surprisingly easy to come by in the world of Doctor Who.
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00:00Whether through lack of aging, an ability to withstand fatal wounds, or simply just
00:05being an eternal creature from the dawn of the universe, cheating death is a common occurrence
00:10in this show, which certainly comes in handy when you've got trigger-happy, warmongering
00:14aliens like the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Sontarans blasting the universe to shreds
00:19every five minutes.
00:21And that's not to mention all the destroyed planets and apocalyptic events, but in Doctor
00:25Who, that's basically just an average Tuesday.
00:28So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture, here with 10 Doctor Who characters
00:33who can never die.
00:35Number 10 – The Family of Blood
00:39Immortality sounds like a blast on paper, but in reality, potentially not so much.
00:45The Family of Blood learned that the very hard way in Series 3, with the 10th Doctor trapping
00:51each of the four members in some increasingly dark, everlasting situations.
00:55The father was wrapped in unbreakable chains and imprisoned.
00:59The mother was tricked into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy.
01:03The daughter was trapped in every mirror in existence.
01:06And the son was suspended in time while dressed as a scarecrow, left to watch over the fields
01:11of England.
01:12Now it's pretty chilling stuff, but on the plus side, the family's ultimate goal was
01:17to achieve immortality.
01:19So, technically, the Doctor did grant them their wish.
01:22It's not his fault if they didn't specify exactly how they wanted their eternal fates
01:27to look.
01:27While the daughter was freed by the 13th Doctor in a lockdown webcast written by Paul Cornell,
01:33the writer of the original episode, the canonicity of that story is up for debate.
01:38In terms of the actual show, each member of the family is presumably still trapped in their
01:43grisly scenario.
01:45So, it's possible that the Doctor could revisit them one day.
01:48And who wouldn't want to see that rematch?
01:51Number 9.
01:52The Sisterhood of Khan.
01:54The Sisterhood of Khan is one of the Hooniverse's most mysterious collectives.
01:59We haven't really spent that much time with the all-female group of Gallifreyans, and
02:03their ultimate purpose has never been made crystal clear.
02:06But what is crystal clear is that they are extremely powerful, as evidenced by their use
02:12of a very strong brew known as the Elixir of Life, which can not only heal injuries but
02:18also make the drinker immortal.
02:21Both the Sisterhood and the Elixir were introduced in the fourth Doctor serial, The Brain of Morbius,
02:26where that potent potion was used to prevent the Doctor from dying.
02:30The Knight of the Doctor then saw the Sisterhood bring the eighth Doctor back to life after a
02:34fatal spaceship crash, before using a special version of the Elixir to trigger his regeneration
02:40into the War Doctor.
02:41The Sisterhood also regularly uses the Elixir for itself.
02:45It grants them extended life whenever they drink it.
02:48So basically, they have immortality juice on tap, which could be pretty handy when you live
02:53in a universe where deadly aliens are lurking around pretty much every corner.
02:57Number 8.
02:58Ashildur
02:59Maisie Williams' Ashildur has one of the craziest character arcs we've ever seen in Doctor Who,
03:05going from an ordinary Viking girl to one of the universe's last remaining lifeforms over the
03:11course of her Series 9 journey. She started out on the pathway to eternal life by dying,
03:16falling while defending her village against the technologically superior Maya. Fortunately for her,
03:22the Doctor's Everybody Lives mantra is one he's determined to abide by, so he resurrects her by
03:28reprogramming a Maya repair kit to give it human compatibility. Crucially though, this repair kit
03:34doesn't just resurrect Ashildur. It continually heals her, ensuring that her body never succumbs to
03:40injury or death. The Doctor admits this may have been a mistake and his fears prove warranted when Ashildur,
03:47now going by the name Mii, almost allows Earth to be invaded by a race of fire-breathing lion people.
03:53It's Doctor Who, just go with it. Mii then plays a role in Clara's death, as well as the Doctor's
04:004
04:00billion year stretch inside his confession dial. So, yeah, mistake seems pretty accurate.
04:05The character was last seen alongside a recently revived Clara Oswald, putting her immortality to
04:11good use by exploring the universe in a funky American diner-themed TARDIS.
04:16I mean, I could think of worse ways to spend an eternity.
04:19Number 7. Sam Swift. Possibly.
04:23Sam Swift and Ashildur are something of a package deal. When the 12th Doctor used that Maya repair
04:28kit to bring Ashildur back to life, he knew that he had made her immortal. But more importantly,
04:34he'd realised that he'd doomed her to a life of loneliness.
04:38Immortality is everybody else dying, he tells Clara, before adding that Ashildur might one day
04:43meet someone she can't bear to lose. Fortunately then, the Doctor left her an extra repair kit,
04:49and this is where the wisecracking Mr. Swift comes in.
04:52Though he certainly wouldn't have been Ashildur's first choice, she used the repair kit on him to
04:58reverse his death, which was necessary to prevent the invasion of those aforementioned lion people.
05:03And with that repair kit being identical to the one the Doctor used on Ashildur,
05:07it stands to reason that Swift would also gain the gift of eternal life.
05:12Well, the thing is, we don't actually know. At the end of the episode, the Doctor admits that he
05:17doesn't know what's going to happen to Swift, leaving Ashildur with the rather confusing comment,
05:23he might be around for a while. Or not. Who can say? Thanks Doctor, that really clears things up.
05:30Number 6. Borusa
05:32Like the Family of Blood, Gallifrey and President Borusa thought that immortality was exactly what
05:38he wanted. Everlasting living? Well, that's a no-brainer, right? But, again, like the Family of Blood,
05:44Borusa didn't think about the fine print. In 1983's The Five Doctors, this treacherous Time Lord is
05:52hellbent on gaining access to the Tomb of Rassilon, which he believes will grant him the secrets of
05:58immortality. Exploiting the intellect of the Fifth Doctor's previous incarnations,
06:03he does indeed manage to reach the tomb and sets about claiming his prize, only to discover that
06:08this forbidden eternal fruit was sealed away for a damn good reason. In one of the most perfect
06:14examples of be careful what you wish for in the show's history, Borusa instead gets Ursula blaked
06:20with Rassilon's twisted version of immortality involving the recipient's head being turned into a
06:26concrete slab. Turns out that Rassilon's game plan was to use the lure of immortality to capture
06:32power-hungry deviants, and Borusa definitely fell for the bait. Sucker.
06:39Number 5. Captain Jack Harkness
06:42Arguably the most famous immortal in Doctor Who, Captain Jack Harkness certainly put his powers to
06:49the test in the years after the Bad Wolf gave them to him. He's been shot in the head, deleted
06:55by a
06:55Cyberwoman, exterminated by a Dalek, and pushed off a building. But perhaps his most memorable death
07:01occurred in Doctor Who's third series finale, when he rode the TARDIS into the time vortex and managed
07:07to cling on all the way to the end of the universe. Oh Jack, always the show off. Though it's
07:13impossible to
07:14kill him with bullets, bombs and other traditional weapons, we have technically seen Jack die for good.
07:19As much as some fans still believe this isn't the case, Russell T Davies reaffirmed in a 2020 tweet
07:25along of New Earth and Gridlock that Jack is indeed the face of Bo. So when Bo slips away at
07:31the end of
07:32Gridlock, we're also saying farewell to everyone's favourite flirty time agent. Still, for all intents and
07:38purposes, the Captain Jack Harkness that we all know and love can never truly die. If it takes five,
07:43billion years and a transformation into a giant pickled head to kill you off, then you know you're
07:49pretty badass. Number four, The Trickster. Russell T Davies' family-friendly spin-off,
07:55The Sarah Jane Adventures, introduced a handful of immortal entities to Doctor Who lore. From the
08:00Dark Empire's tyrannical leader Horath to Erasmus Darkening, quite possibly the best villain name ever,
08:07an alien scientist who took the lives of others in order to prolong his own. But with Horath very light
08:13on-screen time and Darkening actually being defeated, The Sarah Jane Adventures' biggest and
08:17best immortal is easily the Trickster, a pale-faced, devilish-looking creature whose idea of a perfect
08:25day out involves wreaking havoc on a universal scale. In The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, Rani
08:31describes the meddlesome monster as an all-powerful immortal. And it's mentioned that the Trickster is
08:37part of a wider group, one whose goal is to alter reality and cause chaos, the Pantheon of Discord.
08:44The Tenth Doctor states that he's known of the Pantheon since he was a kid, and considering that
08:48this dashing Time Lord is pretty darn old, it's clear that the Trickster and his pals have been
08:53around for a good long while. Now, in the lockdown webcast Farewell Sarah Jane, it's mentioned that the
09:00Trickster has been shrunk down to the size of a doll and is locked away in a treasure chest for
09:05the next
09:05thousand years. And really, that's all you can do with a guy like this. You can contain him, sure,
09:12but you're never going to be able to properly deliver that fatal blow.
09:16Number 3. Rex Matheson
09:19The final moments of Tortured Miracle Day were clearly meant to set up another series of the smash hit
09:25Doctor Who spin-off, with the final episode ending on a monumental cliffhanger involving CIA agent Rex
09:33Matheson. Miracle Day is one great big immortality story, with every human on Earth becoming incapable
09:40of dying after the Sinister Three Families organization messes around with Captain Jack's
09:45super blood. This meddling is undone at the end of the story, and humanity reunites with the sweet
09:50embrace of death. But Rex gets one hell of a surprise when he discovers that he isn't
09:55quite as mortal as he thought he was. After taking a bullet to the chest, courtesy of CIA
10:01mole Charlotte Wills, Rex succumbs to his injury and dies, momentarily. Bursting back to life,
10:07the poor bloke looks equal parts shocked and confused, with Jack and Gwen lost for words as
10:13his bullet wound heals before their very eyes. We then cut to black, and that's where Torchwood ends.
10:19Given that he survived a fatal gunshot, we can only assume that Rex has somehow achieved the same
10:25level of immortality as Captain Jack, and if that's the case, is there another giant head in a jar
10:32somewhere in the universe? Number 2, The Doctor. Originally, this entry was intended to be a bit
10:38of a cheat, as in, the show must go on and you can't really have Doctor Who without The Doctor,
10:43and so by virtue of being the starring role, The Doctor has some pretty impenetrable plot armour. A
10:55place, The Doctor is actually immortal in universe too. Sort of. With that pesky regeneration limit
11:02being removed post-Timeless Child, The Doctor now has infinite lives, so even if they do suffer an
11:09injury that would normally be fatal, something that presumably will happen in Jodie Whittaker's
11:14upcoming finale, they can just respawn. Before the Chibnall era, those respawns were limited, but not
11:20anymore. That switch has been toggled to infinite. There are, of course, a handful of ways to prevent
11:25the regeneration process from occurring, but these are so rare that The Doctor construct their stuff
11:30without ever having to worry about paying a visit to the great TARDIS in the sky.
11:35Well, that is until another showrunner comes along and rewrites all the rules. Again.
11:40Number 1, The Eternals. Surprise, surprise, a group of beings known as The Eternals are immortal.
11:46They just had to rub it in our faces, didn't they? This electric group of cosmic gods have been around
11:52since the dawn of time, give or take a few million years. And because they've lived and will continue
11:58to live for such a ridiculously long time, their entire MO is to amuse themselves by using mortal
12:04beings as playthings. And that's bad news for us frail little humans. From Captains Rack and Striker in
12:10the 5th Doctor serial, Enlightenment, to Light in the 7th Doctor serial, Ghost Light, we've seen a
12:16number of fascinating Eternals in the show over the years, each of them essentially looking for a
12:21way to cure their everlasting boredom. I mean, they could learn a new language or practice playing
12:27the guitar, but no. Annoying little humans is far more fun. Most recently, the 13th Doctor faced off
12:33against the Eternals, Zelin and Rakaia in the Series 12 episode, Can You Hear Me? She defeated them by
12:40sentencing them to a lifetime of imprisonment. Because like the Trickster, that's the best way
12:45to deal with this lot. Lock em up and throw away the key. The Time Lords act like they wear
12:50the
12:51pants in the universe, but compared to the might and influence of the Eternals, they're basically
12:56tiny little insects. And that concludes our video. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in
13:03the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
13:07bell so you never miss one of our videos. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there,
13:12at WhoCulture. And I can be found across various social medias just by searching
13:17Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhoCulture and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweetie.
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