Eternal life is surprisingly easy to come by in the world of Doctor Who.
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00:00Whether through lack of ageing, 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 Son'tarans, 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 WhoCulture, here with 10 Doctor Who Characters
00:33Who Can Never Die.
00:35Number 10.
00:36The Family of Blood.
00:39Immortality sounds like a blast on paper, but in reality, potentially not so much.
00:46The Family of Blood learned that the very hard way in Series 3, with the Tenth Doctor
00:50trapping each of the four members in some increasingly dark, everlasting situations.
00:56The father was wrapped in unbreakable chains and imprisoned, the mother was tricked into
01:00the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, the daughter was trapped in every mirror in
01:05existence and the son was suspended in time while dressed as a scarecrow, left to watch
01:11over the fields of 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.
01:23It's not his fault if they didn't specify exactly how they wanted their eternal fates
01:27to look.
01:28While the daughter was freed by the Thirteenth Doctor in a locked-down webcast written by
01:32Paul Cornell, the 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
01:43their grisly scenario, so it's possible that the Doctor could revisit them one day.
01:49And who wouldn't want to see that rematch?
01:51Number 9.
01:53The Sisterhood of Karn.
01:54The Sisterhood of Karn 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 their
02:03ultimate purpose has never been made crystal clear.
02:07But what is crystal clear is that they are extremely powerful, as evidenced by their
02:12use of a very strong brew known as the Elixir of Life, which can not only heal injuries
02:18but also make the drinker immortal.
02:21Both the Sisterhood and the Elixir were introduced in the fourth Doctor serial, The Brain of
02:25Morbius, where 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
02:34a fatal spaceship crash, before using a special version of the Elixir to trigger his regeneration
02:40into the War Doctor.
02:42The Sisterhood also regularly uses the Elixir for itself, it grants them extended life whenever
02:47they drink it.
02:48So basically, they have immortality juice on tap, which can be pretty handy when you
02:53live in a universe where deadly aliens are lurking around pretty much every corner.
02:57Number 8.
02:58Ishildr.
02:59Maisie Williams Ishildr has one of the craziest character arcs we've ever seen in Doctor
03:05Who, going from an ordinary Viking girl to one of the universe's last remaining life
03:10forms over the course of her Series 9 journey.
03:13She started out on the pathway to eternal life by dying, falling while defending her
03:18village against the technologically superior Maia.
03:21Fortunately for her, the Doctor's everybody-lives mantra is one he's determined to abide by,
03:26so he resurrects her by reprogramming a Maia repair kit to give it human compatibility.
03:32Crucially though, this repair kit doesn't just resurrect Ishildr, it continually heals
03:38her, ensuring that her body never succumbs to injury or death.
03:42The Doctor admits this may have been a mistake, and his fears prove warranted when Ishildr,
03:47now going by the name Mii, almost allows Earth to be invaded by a race of fire-breathing
03:52lion people.
03:53It's Doctor Who, just go with it.
03:56Mii then plays a role in Clara's death, as well as the Doctor's 4 billion year stretch
04:01inside his confession dial, so yeah, mistake seems pretty accurate.
04:05The character was last seen alongside a recently revived Clara Oswald, putting her immortality
04:11to good 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.
04:20Number 7.
04:21Sam Swift.
04:22Possibly.
04:23Sam Swift and Ishildr are something of a package deal.
04:26When the 12th Doctor used that Maia repair kit to bring Ishildr back to life, he knew
04:31that he had made her immortal, but more importantly, he'd realised that he'd doomed her to a life
04:36of loneliness.
04:37Immortality is everybody else dying, he tells Clara, before adding that Ishildr might one
04:43day meet someone she can't bear to lose.
04:46Fortunately then, the Doctor left her an extra repair kit, and this is where the wisecracking
04:51Mr Swift comes in.
04:53Though he certainly wouldn't have been Ishildr's first choice, she used the repair kit on him
04:57to reverse his death, which was necessary to prevent the invasion of those aforementioned
05:02lion people.
05:03And with that repair kit being identical to the one the Doctor used on Ishildr, it stands
05:08to reason that Swift would also gain the gift of eternal life.
05:12Well, the thing is, we don't actually know.
05:15At the end of the episode, the Doctor admits that he doesn't know what's going to happen
05:19to Swift, leaving Ishildr with the rather confusing comment, he might be around for
05:24a while.
05:25Or not.
05:26Who can say?
05:27Thanks Doctor, that really clears things up.
05:30Number 6, Borusa.
05:32Like the Family of Blood, Gallifreyan President Borusa thought that immortality was exactly
05:38what he wanted.
05:39Everlasting living?
05:40Well, that's a no-brainer, right?
05:42But, again like the Family of Blood, Borusa didn't think about the fine print.
05:48In 1983's The Five Doctors, this treacherous Time Lord is hell-bent on gaining access to
05:54the Tomb of Rassilon, which he believes will grant him the secrets of immortality.
05:59Exploiting the intellect of the Fifth Doctor's previous incarnations, he does indeed manage
06:04to reach the tomb and sets about claiming his prize, only to discover that this forbidden
06:09eternal fruit was sealed away for a damn good reason.
06:13In one of the most perfect examples of be careful what you wish for in the show's history,
06:19Borusa instead gets Ursula Blaked with Rassilon's twisted version of immortality, involving
06:24the recipient's head being turned into a concrete slab.
06:27Turns out that Rassilon's game plan was to use the lure of immortality to capture power-hungry
06:33deviants, and Borusa definitely fell for the bait.
06:395. Captain Jack Harkness
06:42Arguably the most famous immortal in Doctor Who, Captain Jack Harkness certainly put his
06:48powers to the test in the years after the bad wolf gave them to him.
06:53He's been shot in the head, deleted by a cyberwoman, exterminated by a Dalek and pushed off a building.
06:59But perhaps his most memorable death occurred in Doctor Who's third series finale, when
07:04he rode the TARDIS into the Time Vortex and managed to cling on all the way to the end
07:09of the universe.
07:10Oh Jack, always the show off.
07:12Though it's impossible to kill him with bullets, bombs and other traditional weapons,
07:17we 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
07:24a 2020 tweet-along of New Earth and Gridlock that Jack is indeed the face of Bo.
07:30So when Bo slips away at the end of Gridlock, we're also saying farewell to everyone's
07:34favourite flirty time agent.
07:36Still, for all intents and purposes, the Captain Jack Harkness that we all know and love can
07:41never truly die.
07:43If it takes 5 billion years and a transformation into a giant pickled head to kill you off,
07:48then you know you're pretty badass.
07:504. The Trickster
07:52Russell T. Davies' family-friendly spin-off, the Sarah Jane Adventures, introduced a handful
07:57of immortal entities to Doctor Who lore.
08:00From the Dark Empire's tyrannical leader, Horath, to Erasmus Darkening, quite possibly
08:05the best villain name ever, an alien scientist who took the lives of others in order to prolong
08:10his own.
08:11But with Horath very light on screen time and Darkening actually being defeated, the
08:15Sarah Jane Adventures' biggest and best immortal is easily the Trickster.
08:20A pale-faced, devilish-looking creature whose idea of a perfect day out involves wreaking
08:26havoc on a universal scale.
08:29In The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, Rani describes the meddlesome monster as an all-powerful
08:34immortal.
08:35And it's mentioned that the Trickster is part of a wider group, one whose goal is to alter
08:40reality 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
08:48that this dashing Time Lord is pretty darn old, it's clear that the Trickster and his
08:52pals have been around for a good long while.
08:56In the Lockdown webcast, Farewell Sarah Jane, it's mentioned that the Trickster has been
09:01shrunk down to the size of a doll and is locked away in a treasure chest for the next thousand
09:06years.
09:07And really, that's all you can do with a guy like this.
09:10You can contain him, sure, but you're never going to be able to properly deliver that
09:15fatal blow.
09:173.
09:18Rex Matheson
09:19The final moments of Tortured Miracle Day were clearly meant to set up another series
09:24of the smash hit Doctor Who spinoff, with the final episode ending on a monumental cliffhanger
09:31involving CIA agent Rex Matheson.
09:35Miracle 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.
09:46This meddling is undone at the end of the story, and humanity reunites with the sweet
09:50embrace of death.
09:52But Rex gets one hell of a surprise when he discovers that he isn't quite as mortal as
09:57he thought he was.
09:58After taking a bullet to the chest, courtesy of CIA mole Charlotte Wills, Rex succumbs
10:03to his injury and dies.
10:05Momentarily.
10:06Bursting back to life, the poor bloke looks equal parts shocked and confused, with Jack
10:11and Gwen lost for words as his bullet wound heals before their very eyes.
10:16We 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
10:25the same level of immortality as Captain Jack.
10:28And if that's the case, is there another giant head in a jar somewhere in the universe?
10:34Number 2.
10:35The Doctor.
10:36Originally, this entry was intended to be a bit of a cheat.
10:39As 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
10:48armour.
10:49A meta-form of immortality, if you like, that ensures they will never be killed off.
10:54And while that is still the case, the Doctor is actually immortal in-universe too.
10:59Sort of.
11:00With that pesky regeneration limit being removed post-Timeless Child, the Doctor now has infinite
11:07lives, so even if they do suffer an injury that would normally be fatal, something that
11:12presumably will happen in Jodie Whittaker's upcoming finale, they can just respawn.
11:17Before the Chibnall era, those respawns were limited, but not anymore.
11:21That switch has been toggled to infinite.
11:23There are, of course, a handful of ways to prevent the regeneration process from occurring,
11:28but these are so rare that the Doctor can strut their stuff without ever having to worry
11:32about paying a visit to the Great TARDIS in the sky.
11:35Well that is until another showrunner comes along and rewrites all the rules.
11:39Again.
11:40Number 1.
11:41The Eternals.
11:42Surprise, surprise, a group of beings known as the Eternals are immortal.
11:47They just had to rub it in our faces, didn't they?
11:49This electic group of cosmic gods have been around since the dawn of time, give or take
11:54a few million years, and because they've lived and will continue to live for such a ridiculously
11:59long time, their entire MO is to amuse themselves by using mortal beings as playthings.
12:06And that's bad news for us frail little humans.
12:09From Captain's Rack and Striker in the fifth Doctor Serial, Enlightenment, to Light in
12:14the seventh Doctor Serial, Ghost Light, we've seen a number of fascinating Eternals in the
12:18show over the years, each of them essentially looking for a way to cure their everlasting
12:23boredom.
12:24I mean, they could learn a new language, or practice playing the guitar, but no.
12:29Annoying little humans, it's far more fun!
12:31Most recently, the thirteenth Doctor faced off against the Eternals, Zelin and R'kaia,
12:36in the Series 12 episode, Can You Hear Me?
12:39She defeated them by sentencing them to a lifetime of imprisonment.
12:43Eternals like the trickster, that's the best way to deal with this lot.
12:46Lock em up, and throw away the key.
12:49The Time Lords act like they wear the pants in the universe, but compared to the might
12:53and influence of the Eternals, they're basically tiny little insects.
12:59And that concludes our video, if you think we missed any, then do let us know in the
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13:18I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweetie.