Ship's doctor featured in final issue (7)
I believe the answer is:
frigate
'ship's' is the definition.
(frigate is a kind of ship)
'doctor featured in final issue' is the wordplay.
'doctor' becomes 'rig' (both can mean to manipulate or tamper with).
'featured in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'final issue' becomes 'fate' (I've seen this before).
'rig' placed within 'fate' is 'FRIGATE'.
(Other definitions for frigate that I've seen before include "Naval escort vessel" , "Warship; -- bird" , "Ship" , "Type of warship" , "US warship" .)