 Name: Rassilon Format:
Television Show, Book and Audio Time of Origin: Gallifrey, the early
days to The Doctor's present (technically) Appearances: "The Five Doctors", "The
Eight Doctors", "Neverland", "Zagreus",
and "The
Next Life", evidence suggests "The End of Time". Doctors: Eighth
Doctor, technically First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors
(Helped the first three Doctors and the Fifth deal with a crisis;
encountered
holograms based on the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors when he tried
to take control of the Eighth), available evidence suggests the Tenth
Doctor. Companions: Charley
Pollard, C'Rizz, Leela, K9, 2nd
Romana technically Susan, Sarah
Jane Smith, Turlough, Tegan
Jovanka, and The
Brigadier (Encountered the last five during "The Five Doctors";
he met The Brigadier again, but on that occasion The Brigadier was
a hologram created by the evil side of the TARDIS),
available evidence suggests an indirect encounter with Wilfred Mott
and Donna Noble. History: According to Time Lord legend, Rassilon
was one of the three Founders of Time Lord society in the distant
past, along with Omega and the mysterious individual known only as
'the Other'. With the aid of Omega and the Other, Rassilon aided
in the reformation of Time Lord society following the departure of
the Pythia and the sterilisation of all Gallifrey, and also oversaw
the creation of the Eye of Harmony in which Omega was lost (Later
accounts speculate that Rassilon engineered Omega's death so he wouldn't
have to share the glory). After the Other sacrificed himself to restore
children to Gallifrey via the creation of the genetic looms, Rassilon
led Gallifrey as its first President; officially, he was a wise,
benevolent ruler, but some accounts paint him as a greedy despot
who seized power after the deaths of Omega and the Other. Despite
these contradictions, Rassilon's contributions to Gallifreyian society
are immense; the Rassilon Imprimatur, the symbiotic nuclei that allows
Time Lords to safely travel through Time in their TARDISes, is named
after him, as are various Time Lord relics such as Sash of Rassilon,
the Rod or Great Key of Rassilon, the Crown of Rassilon, the Coronet
of Rassilon and the Harp of Rassilon, each relic having purposes
beyond the purely ceremonial.
Rassilon
is also credited with the creation of the timescoop (A device that
can remove individuals from their allocated locations in space and
time and placing them in a location of the operator's choice), the
living metal Validium, and the transduction barriers that defend
Gallifrey, although many of these may be propaganda rather than fact.
What is known is that Rassilon's Tomb, known as the Dark Tower, stands
at the centre of the Death Zone on Gallifrey, an area where Time
Lords used to deposit various beings that had been captured by timescoop
and pitted against each other for the amusement of Gallifrey as a
whole. Some sources state that Rassilon shut the games down, but
others say that Rassilon caused the games in the first place and
was deposed by the Time Lords who objected to his rule. It was also
rumoured among some that Rassilon had learned the secret of immortality,
and was still alive in the Tower, sleeping and waiting to offer immortality
to worthy Time Lords who braved his tests... Eventually, this belief posed trouble for
The Doctor when his old teacher, Borusa, was driven insane by the pressures
of ruling Gallifrey, and became convinced that only he was intelligent
enough to rule the Time Lords. Seeking the path to true immortality,
Borusa used the timescoop to bring together the only people who he believed
capable of passing Rassilon's tests; theFifth
Doctor and his past four
incarnations (Along with their companions Susan, Sarah
Jane Smith, Tegan
Jovanka, Turlough and The
Brigadier), although the Fourth
Doctor and Romana were
stuck in a Time Eddy due to a flaw in the timescoop. While the first
three Doctors, accompanied by Tegan, The Brigadier and Sarah respectively,
tackled the various perils of the Death Zone, Turlough and Susan were
forced to stay behind in the TARDIS while the Fifth Doctor investigated
events in the Gallifreyian High Council. Although the three Doctors made
it to Rassilon's Tomb in the Dark Tower, where they were able to deactivate
the Tower’s defences and bring the TARDIS to them, Borusa then
arrived to claim his prize, having taken control of the Fifth Doctor's
mind using the Coronet of Rassilon to emphasise his will. Although Borusa
immobilised the companions, the First, Second and Third Doctors linked
their minds and managed to free the Fifth from Borusa's control. Rassilon
was awakened at this point and, on the advice of the First Doctor, concluded
that Borusa was ‘worthy’ of immortality; thanks to a riddle
on the tomb, the First had deduced that the whole immortality story had
been a trap by Rassilon to get rid of potentially dangerous Time Lords.
All Borusa got for his trouble was an eternity trapped as a living statue,
Rassilon then freeing the Fourth Doctor from the Time Eddy before restoring
the First, Second and Third to their proper places in Time.
Rassilon's return to The Doctor was by no means smooth; at
the time, The Doctor, along with former companion Romana, was dealing
with the consequences of his attempts to save the life of his new
companion Charley
Pollard, even though history as a whole recorded that she should
have died on the airship R101 had The Doctor not intervened. In "Neverland",
when The Doctor and Charley were caught by the Time Lords and The
Doctor put on trial for the crime, it was revealed that, according
to legend, Rassilon's creation of the Eye of Harmony created one
continuous history, but, as every action has its equal and opposite
reaction, the creation of positive Time created a mirror universe
of anti-Time, a force as destructive to causality as anti-matter
is to positive matter, the anti-time realm being a chaotic universe
with no past, present or future; just an endless, meaningless,
ever-changing Now. This universe of anti-time was as damaging to
normal Time as anti-matter was to matter (See "Omega"),
and the damage to Time caused by The Doctor saving Charley was
causing anti-Time to seep through. Travelling into the anti-Time universe, The Doctor,
Romana and Charley encountered an old man who seemed to be Rassilon,
who had entered anti-Time to battle the legendary monster known as
Zagreus, but had been trapped after Zagreus's defeat and forced to
wait in his Zero Cabinet for aid. However, it was revealed to be
nothing more than a shame; Rassilon's mind did still live in the
Matrix, but the Zero Cabinet was actually an anti-time bomb, which,
when detonated, would shatter the centre of the web of time and contaminate
the entire Universe. The only way to stop it seemed to be to kill
Charley - but The Doctor, unwilling to let his friend die, materialised
the TARDIS around the Zero Cabinet to contain the energies. The attempt
proved successful, ending the distortions in the Web of Time, but
at a terrible cost; The Doctor, and the TARDIS itself, were both
contaminated with the forces of anti-time, splitting their minds
between themselves and a more destructive nature, which The Doctor-aspect
named 'Zagreus'
after an old Gallifreyian nursery rhyme, as recorded below; |
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Zagreus sits inside your head Zagreus lives among the dead Zagreus sees you in your bed, and eats you when you're sleeping Zagreus at the end of days Zagreus taking time apart. Zagreus sings when all is lost Zagreus seeks the hero's ship Zagreus waits at the end of the world
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However,
although the Zagreus aspect of The Doctor's personality manifested itself
as a destructive maniac, the TARDIS's Zagreus side based itself around
a far more human drive; the TARDIS's rage at The Doctor for being prepared
to let it die to save Charley, even after all they'd been through together.
Believing that The Doctor couldn't value it that highly if he was prepared
to let the TARDIS die simply to save a foolish Earth girl who should
never have survived in the first place, Rassilon formed an alliance with
the Zagreus-TARDIS, offering to cleanse it of the Zagreus energies if
it would give him The Doctor to stop a race called 'the Divergence'.
Developing a holographic avatar in the form of the Brigadier, the TARDIS
explored three holographic simulations with Charley that showed occurrences
of the Divergence in history: once at the dawn of Gallifreyian society,
when two vampires learned of Rassilon's plans to prevent the evolution
of a species more powerful than the Time Lords by trapping them in another
timeline that would be sealed in a time loop; once on 1950s Earth, when
a secret project (Called 'The Dionysus Project'; an interesting coincidence,
since Dionysus was also known as Zagreus in Greek myth) created a tear
in reality that briefly exposed the Divergence; and a final time at the
very end of Creation, by a fairground owner who was frozen in suspended
animation after a heart attack and was never woken up until the end. After seeing this, the TARDIS decided to aid Rassilon, expelling
Charley into the Matrix along with three of the holograms
in the simulation; the vampire Lord Tepesh, the Reverend
Matthew Townsend, and Walton Winkle (AKA Uncle Winkie), the
fairground owner... who, incidentally, were the physical
doubles of the Sixth,
Fifth and Seventh Doctors respectively;
the TARDIS databanks had lacked knowledge of what the people
involved actually looked like, so key players had been replaced
with past incarnations of The Doctor and the others involved
had been represented by that incarnation's companions. At
the same time, Romana and K9 had been taken into the Matrix
by Leela, who had been contacted by Rassilon for reasons
that were presently a mystery. Once in the Matrix, however,
everything was explained; Rassilon needed Romana's Presidential
ring to access his workshop - known as the Foundry - where
he had contained the door into Anti-Time, and he had possessed
Leela as she was the only mind on Gallifrey who he could
link with without setting off alarm systems. The
possessed Leela tried to kill Romana as Rassilon left, but
Charley and the holograms were able to find them, free Leela
from Rassilon's control, and track their foes to the Foundry.
Once there, Romana, Leela and Charley realised that Townsend,
Tepesh and Winkle weren't just The Doctor's physical doubles;
somehow, in the process, parts of The Doctor's psyche had
been transferred into them, giving them aspects of his knowledge.
While the companions kept The Brigadier/TARDIS occupied,
the 'Doctors' tracked down The Doctor, now with his sanity
shattered after Rassilon melted down the TARDIS's shell to
acquire the TARDIS metals - contaminated with anti-time -
so that Zagreus could forge a dagger. It appeared that Zagreus
had won, but the 'Doctors' put together what they'd learned,
and realised who the Divergents were; the race that should
have evolved to surpass the Time Lords. Until now Rassilon
had only been able to keep them trapped, but when The Doctor
chose of his own free will to give himself up to anti-Time,
he became the very weapon which Rassilon needed. Once all
trace of The Doctor’s former self was gone, Rassilon
intended to send Zagreus into the Divergent timeline to destroy
every last one of the Divergents with his anti-Time blade.
The Doctor tried to resist, refusing to kill for Rassilon
as he re-affirmed his identity as The Doctor, but Rassilon
took the blade from him and cut down Townsend, Tepesh and
Winkle, crippling The Doctor’s resolve once again and
leaving only Charley to save the day... by stabbing The Doctor. Confronted by his past selves in his mind, The Doctor realised
- too late - that, in his despair, he'd actually wanted to
die for a moment, and thus, regeneration had been averted.
However, determined to stop Rassilon using the power of anti-time,
The Doctors surrendered to the Zagreus infection, taking
a desperate gamble that paid off; like all god-powerful beings,
Zagreus would not be Rassilon's puppet. He cast Rassilon
into the Divergent's universe before collapsing himself,
leaving the TARDIS - now reconstituted and not a jealous
nutcase anymore - to cancel out the Zagreus side of The Doctor
with a sample of Zero Matter. However, the Zagreus energies
still dwelt within The Doctor, so, unknowingly accompanied
by Charley, he was forced to exile himself from our universe,
as even stepping outside the Foundry or the TARDIS would
annihilate history itself.
After some time in the Divergent's Universe, The Doctor, Charley,
and new companion C'rizz were manipulated from behind the
scenes by the Divergents as they searched for the TARDIS;
a being called the Kro'ka claimed that this was because the
Divergents wanted the TARDIS, but in reality, the Divergents
wanted to see what effect The Doctor, a random element in
this universe (Where Time is stuck in an endless cycle, thus
eliminating temporal coordinates because every moment had
already happened) would have on the processes of change and
evolution. However, despite his original allegiance to the
Divergence, the Kro’ka had gone on to ally itself with
Rassilon instead, Rassilon seeking to manipulate The Doctor
to get his hands on the key back to his Universe, isolating
Charley and C'rizz from him and trying to convince them both
to betray The Doctor; Charley by telling her The Doctor had
abandoned the three of them, and C'rizz by threatening to
reveal C'rizz's past as an assassin for the Foundation, a
religion that believed that death was the route to the next
life. Due
to C'rizz possessing a chameleonic personality, he was easily
swayed into giving Rassilon access to the TARDIS, leaving
The Doctor with only one option; follow Rassilon through
the Foundry, even though, as far as he knew, he was still
infected with anti-time... but, when the alternative was
the annihilation of this universe as the cycle began again,
The Doctor had no choice. However, he realised that Rassilon
had actually filtered the anti-time energies out of him as
soon as he'd entered this universe; Zagreus was now dwelling
in the body of a woman called Perfection, who had killed
herself to escape her brutal husband, Keep. As Perfection
and Keep fought, The Doctor convinced Charley and C'rizz
to settle their differences as they left the Divergent universe,
Rassilon and the Kro'ka were sent back to the beginning of
the cycle - this time with their memories intact - and trapped
in an accelerated evolution chamber. Rassilon cried out for
aid as his senses began to atrophy, but this time, there
was nobody around to hear him, and he would be trapped there
for all eternity, as The Doctor returned home.
During
the Tenth
Doctor’s last adventure ("The End of Time"),
it was revealed that, in the last days of the Time War between
the Time Lords and the Daleks, the Time Lord President had
conceived a last desperate plan to escape the time lock that
had been placed on the war by planting a subconscious signal
in the Master’s mind as a child, the Master’s subsequent
escape from the war ("Utopia") and resurrection on
Earth ("The End of Time") giving the Time Lords a
signal from outside the lock that they could lock on to in
order to draw Gallifrey back into the universe, unleashing
the full fury of the Time War on creation and destroying the
universe while allowing the Time Lords to ascend to a level
of pure consciousness as reality died. Although the President
who masterminded this plan was only briefly named as Rassilon
after The Doctor broke the link and sent Gallifrey back into
the Time War, his attitude matched Rassilon’s own from
his confrontations with the Eighth Doctor, refusing to accept
the possibility that the Time Lords should ever die out while
the universe survived and determined that Gallifrey should
survive the way he wanted them to rather than taking a larger-scale
view and acknowledging that it might be best for them to die
for the sake of others. While his personality fits that of
Rassilon, how Rassilon is meant to have escaped the anti-time
universe to lead his people in the Time War is unknown; most
likely the Time Lords were able to free him from anti-time
in order to provide themselves with the strong leader they
perceived they needed to win the war. |
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