117-461: Rassilon is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . In the backstory of the programme, he was the founder of Time Lord society on the planet Gallifrey and its first leader, as Lord High President. After the original television series ended in 1989, Rassilon's character and history were developed in books and other media. Within the universe of
234-760: A 1990 series of short stories about the Vietnam War . Fictional works that explicitly involve supernatural, magical, or scientifically impossible elements are often classified under the genre of fantasy , including Lewis Carroll 's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings , and J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series. Creators of fantasy sometimes introduce imaginary creatures and beings such as dragons and fairies. Types of written fiction in prose are distinguished by relative length and include: Fiction writing
351-625: A 26-part animated children's series, K-9 , to be written by Bob Baker. The article in The Times also featured a picture of the redesigned K-9 for the animated series. Each episode will be 30 minutes long, made by Jetix Europe and London-based distribution unit Park Entertainment. According to a report in Broadcast magazine, the BBC opted out of involvement in order to focus on Torchwood , meaning that BBC-owned characters are unlikely to appear in
468-404: A certain point of view. The distinction between the two may be best defined from the viewpoint of the audience, according to whom a work is non-fiction if its people, settings, and plot are perceived entirely as historically or factually real, while a work is regarded as fiction if it deviates from reality in any of those areas. The distinction is further obscured by a philosophical understanding, on
585-593: A cliffhanger as he uses his regeneration as a propaganda opportunity. In Doctor Who: The Adventure Games , Rassilon's Final Sanction is mentioned when Amy Pond looked at a Time Lord Staff that the Eleventh Doctor kept in his study. Rassilon features in the War Doctor novel Engines of War by George Mann , which looks at the events that led to the War Doctor's decision to use the Moment, including
702-447: A completely imaginary way or been followed by major new events that are completely imaginary (the genre of alternative history ). Or, it depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understandings or capabilities (the genre of science fiction ). Contrarily, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting (time and location in the world) is, in fact, real and whose events could believably happen in
819-477: A fate for Ace that differed from later original novels, and Philip Martin 's adaptation of the Mindwarp segment of The Trial of a Time Lord included an ending that completely contradicted the scripted ending of the televised serial. After Virgin began its New Adventures and Missing Adventures line of original novels in 1991, it also published several additional novelisations both on their own and under
936-475: A figure from history, Bonnie Prince Charlie , and takes part in the Battle of Prestonpans . Some works of fiction are slightly or greatly re-imagined based on some originally true story, or a reconstructed biography. Often, even when the fictional story is based on fact, there may be additions and subtractions from the true story to make it more interesting. An example is Tim O'Brien 's The Things They Carried ,
1053-404: A former television actor to reprise their character for an audio play. The BBC holds no position on Doctor Who canon . Although the spin-offs generally do not intentionally contradict the television series, the various spin-off series do occasionally contradict each other. The first spin-off attempt that actually reached the production stage appeared in 1981, when a 50-minute pilot episode for
1170-525: A guest star during the 2006 season, returned in a different role. A second major spin-off of Doctor Who was The Sarah Jane Adventures , created for a younger audience on CBBC , starring Elisabeth Sladen as the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith . It began with a 60-minute pilot episode co-written by Davies and Gareth Roberts , premiering on BBC One and the CBBC channel on New Year's Day 2007;
1287-414: A half billion years, as well as indirectly responsible for the death of his companion, Clara . On arriving on Gallifrey, he leads a military revolt against Rassilon, deposes him, and sends him into exile. Timothy Dalton was asked to reprise the role for the episode, but was replaced by Donald Sumpter as a regenerated Rassilon when he became unavailable for filming. Rassilon's rise to power was explored in
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#17327831222881404-700: A major impact on the creation and distribution of fiction, calling into question the feasibility of copyright as a means to ensure royalties are paid to copyright holders. Also, digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg make public domain texts more readily available. The combination of inexpensive home computers, the Internet, and the creativity of its users has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be found online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. The Internet
1521-489: A record BBC Three (and all British cable television record for a locally produced non-sporting event) high rating of 2.4 million viewers. The first series (Oct '06 – Jan '07) comprised 13 episodes broadcast on BBC Three, and was followed by a second 13-part series (Jan '08 – Apr '08) broadcast on BBC Two. A third series was written as a five-part mini-series titled Torchwood: Children of Earth , airing on five consecutive nights from to 10 July 2009 on BBC One. A fourth series
1638-587: A regular basis, initially based upon the then-current Third Doctor 's episodes, but soon expanding to include all past Doctors as well. The initial three novelisations had been published in various editions both inside and outside the United Kingdom (editions appeared in the Netherlands , Canada and the United States). Further foreign editions of the novelisations appeared from the 1970s, with
1755-518: A series of deadly obstacles, is referred to as "The Game of Rassilon". In "The Five Doctors", Lord President Borusa wants Rassilon's secret for himself, describing Rassilon's immortality as "perpetual bodily regeneration". Borusa uses the Time Scoop to transport the Doctor in the majority of his incarnations (along with various companions ) to the Death Zone, using them to clear the way to
1872-532: A series to be called K-9 and Company was aired. It focused on the adventures of former Doctor Who companions Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 , a robot dog. The pilot, subtitled "A Girl's Best Friend", despite receiving high ratings of 8.4 million, was not commissioned for a development into a series, though Sarah Jane and K-9 would later reappear together on the main Doctor Who series and her adventures would be continued in audio form by Big Finish Productions in
1989-570: A subset (written fiction that aligns to a particular genre ), or its opposite: an evaluative label for written fiction that comprises popular culture , as artistically or intellectually inferior to high culture . Regardless, fiction is commonly broken down into a variety of genres: categories of fiction, each differentiated by a particular unifying tone or style ; set of narrative techniques , archetypes , or other tropes; media content ; or other popularly defined criterion. Science fiction predicts or supposes technologies that are not realities at
2106-419: A technological function, in addition to their ceremonial roles: Rassilon is also given credit, variously, for TARDIS technology; the living metal and super-weapon validium ; and the defensive Quantum Force Field and Transduction Barriers that protected Gallifrey. How much of this is true and how much of it is propaganda is not certain. However, it is established that a TARDIS derives its power primarily from
2223-404: A time restricted to a maximum page length as they were considered children's literature. Not all Target novelisations faithfully followed the scripts. John Lucarotti 's The Massacre (1987) completely changed the plot of the source serial, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve . Some guide books (notably 1999's A Critical Guide to Doctor Who on Television by Kenneth Muir) describe the plot of
2340-430: A traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose – often referring specifically to novels , novellas , and short stories . More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium , including not just writings but also live theatrical performances , films , television programs , radio dramas , comics , role-playing games , and video games . Typically,
2457-501: A university or a similar institution, and with the continuation of such positions determined not by book sales but by critical acclaim by other established literary authors and critics. On the other hand, he suggests, genre fiction writers tend to support themselves by book sales. However, in an interview, John Updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction' has sprung up recently to torment people like me who just set out to write books, and if anybody wanted to read them, terrific,
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#17327831222882574-484: A webcast in 2003) was finally released by BBC Books in 2012, adapted by Gareth Roberts . Adams' scripts for City of Death and The Pirate Planet were novelised by James Goss and published in 2015 and 2017, respectively. In 2018, BBC Books began a line adaptations of episodes from the 21st-century revival of Doctor Who as part of "The Target Collection". The earliest original Doctor Who spin-off fiction appeared in children's annuals from 1964, and over
2691-434: A written work of fiction that: Literary fiction is often used as a synonym for literature , in the narrow sense of writings specifically considered to be an art form. While literary fiction is sometimes regarded as superior to genre fiction, the two are not mutually exclusive, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime fiction , romance , etc., to create works of literature. Furthermore,
2808-508: Is a part of media studies. Examples of prominent fictionalization in the creative arts include those in the general context of World War II in popular culture and specifically Nazi German leaders such as Adolf Hitler in popular culture and Reinhard Heydrich in popular culture . For instance, American actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin portrayed the eccentric despot Adenoid Hynkel in the 1940 satirical film The Great Dictator . The unhinged, unintelligent figure fictionalized real events from
2925-446: Is also used for the development of blog fiction , where a story is delivered through a blog either as flash fiction or serial blog, and collaborative fiction , where a story is written sequentially by different authors, or the entire text can be revised by anyone using a wiki . The definition of literary fiction is controversial. It may refer to any work of fiction in a written form. However, various other definitions exist, including
3042-404: Is and where he came from,". He instead suggested The Sarah Jane Adventures (see above). A further spin-off of Doctor Who — Rose Tyler: Earth Defence , a 90-minute special that could possibly become an annual event—was cancelled by Davies at a late stage of its development. He considered it to be "a spin-off too far", despite the production having been commissioned and budgeted by
3159-439: Is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to realistic or plausible individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genre of realistic fiction is characterized by a greater degree. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often, the sub-genre of fantasy ). Or, it depicts true historical moments, except that they have concluded in
3276-698: Is dead and the face that appears is "a clever AI". Head writer and executive producer Russell T Davies believed that Rassilon is "clearly alive", with his big face in the story being "A projection from the Matrix . A mental life extending beyond the body's death." Spin-off writer George Mann believed that Rassilon was dead, but the Time Lords had figured out a way of "resurrecting dead people in extreme circumstances", doing "something horrible and timey wimey". Spin-off writer and DWM columnist Jacqueline Rayner described his condition as "a permanent sleep which
3393-552: Is in the Fourth Doctor serial The Deadly Assassin . Rassilon's contributions to Time Lord culture and society were immense, and his name both reverberates and is honoured throughout Time Lord history. The Rassilon Imprimatur is the name given to the symbiotic nucleus of Time Lords' cell structures that allows them to withstand the molecular stresses of time travel and grants them a link to their TARDIS time machines. Several other Time Lord artifacts named after him have
3510-496: Is known as fictionalization . The opposite circumstance, in which the physical world or a real turn of events seem influenced by past fiction, is commonly described by the phrase " life imitating art ". The latter phrase is popularity associated with the Anglo-Irish fiction writer Oscar Wilde . The alteration of actual happenings into a fictional format, with this involving a dramatic representation of real events or people,
3627-446: Is known as both fictionalization , or, more narrowly for visual performance works like in theatre and film, dramatization . According to the academic publication Oxford Reference , a work set up this way will have a "narrative based partly or wholly on fact but written as if it were fiction" such that "[f]ilms and broadcast dramas of this kind often bear the label 'based on a true story'." In intellectual research, evaluating this process
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3744-492: Is most long-established in the realm of literature (written narrative fiction), the broad study of the nature, function, and meaning of fiction is called literary theory , and the narrower interpretation of specific fictional texts is called literary criticism (with subsets like film criticism and theatre criticism also now long-established). Aside from real-world connections, some fictional works may depict characters and events within their own context, entirely separate from
3861-427: Is often described as "elegantly written, lyrical, and ... layered". The tone of literary fiction can be darker than genre fiction, while the pacing of literary fiction may be slower than popular fiction. As Terrence Rafferty notes, "literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way". Based on how literary fiction is defined, genre fiction may be
3978-455: Is pretty much indistinguishable from death", and that "He's immortal, but he has no awareness," and when the trap inside the Tomb of Rassilon is triggered, "he becomes semi-aware so he can oversee or judge what's going on, before going back into his eternal sleep again". DWM deputy editor Peter Ware believed that Rassilon is dead by the time of "The Five Doctors", and his dead mind is speaking from
4095-511: Is the earliest known original long-form prose Doctor Who adventure. Short stories also appeared in other venues such as two anniversary specials produced by the editors of the Radio Times . The first of these (1973) was Terry Nation 's "We Are the Daleks!" while the second (1983) had Eric Saward's "Birth of a Renegade". The former explains the origins of the Daleks and the latter reveals
4212-674: Is the only one shown to remember these events, he is shown speculating that Rassilon may also remember the horrors of what he did. In the subsequent Titan Comics special The Lost Dimension , the Eleventh Doctor briefly accidentally travels back to ancient Gallifrey where he assists Rassilon in a testflight of the very first Tardis. Fiction Fiction is any creative work , chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals , events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history , fact , or plausibility. In
4329-407: Is the process by which an author or creator produces a fictional work. Some elements of the writing process may be planned in advance, while others may come about spontaneously. Fiction writers use different writing styles and have distinct writers' voices when writing fictional stories. The use of real events or real individuals as direct inspiration for imaginary events or imaginary individuals
4446-549: Is to say, material sanctioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation , which produces the series, as well as material sanctioned by the copyright holders of characters from the series. One aspect of Doctor Who spin-offs which makes them different from many spin-offs from other science fiction franchises is that many of the television writers and stars have been directly involved in the production of spin-offs. For example, it has become common for
4563-654: The Fourth Doctor from the time eddy in which he had been trapped. In that story, Rassilon (played by Richard Mathews) appears as a disembodied image floating above his own sepulchre, but the nature of this apparition is not explained. People with major involvement in the Doctor Who television series, Doctor Who spin off media and in Doctor Who Magazine , when asked in The Essential Doctor Who magazine, were divided over whether
4680-472: The Lost Stories series, with actress Jean Marsh reprising the role of Sara. There was some discussion about spinning off the characters of Henry Gordon Jago and Professor George Litefoot from the 1977 serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang into their own series, but this was not taken forward on television (although it has been produced on audio). The concept art for an animated Doctor Who series
4797-572: The Ninth Doctor , Tenth Doctor , Eleventh Doctor and Twelfth Doctor , and a hardback script book containing the shooting scripts for the 2005 series. Scripts for later seasons have not yet been published as of 2018, though 2005–2009 lead writer Russell T Davies has made his scripts available online. In 2007, Penguin Books revived the novelisations concept for the spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures . As of early 2010, all stories from
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4914-575: The Second Doctor tells the Brigadier that Rassilon put a stop to the games (" The Five Doctors ", 1983). It was rumoured that Rassilon, who lived during this time, had been deposed by Time Lords rebelling against his rule. It was also claimed Rassilon had discovered the secret of immortality and was still alive in the Tower, sleeping. The quest to reach Rassilon's tomb and the secret, blocked by
5031-587: The TARDIS , and ends when the Titanic crashes into the TARDIS. For the 2011 Comic Relief Red Nose Day appeal a two-part story was shown. It starred Matt Smith , Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill and did not have any guest stars. The first attempt to produce a spin-off television series for Doctor Who occurred in the mid-1960s when Terry Nation attempted to launch a US-produced serialised series focusing on
5148-510: The Time War , "And got killed. And resurrected. Because that happened a lot in the Time War." According to scriptwriter Terrance Dicks , who wrote "The Five Doctors", Rassilon has "gone to a higher plane where he's a benevolent being who can, if he feels it's a big enough crisis, intervene". Rassilon (portrayed by Timothy Dalton ) appears as the villainous mastermind of " The End of Time ",
5265-631: The Virgin New Adventures novel Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible . It is revealed in the novel that Ancient Gallifrey was ruled by the Pythia, who controlled the population through prophecies and superstition. Rassilon, whose followers believed in science and rationality, led a revolution against the Pythia, eventually causing her to kill herself, and send her followers to the planet Karn. However, before she died she cursed Rassilon and all future Time Lords to sterility. Rassilon's unborn daughter
5382-422: The human condition . In general, it focuses on "introspective, in-depth character studies" of "interesting, complex and developed" characters. This contrasts with genre fiction where plot is the central concern. Usually in literary fiction the focus is on the "inner story" of the characters who drive the plot, with detailed motivations to elicit "emotional involvement" in the reader. The style of literary fiction
5499-493: The "missing season" but never produced due to the 18-month hiatus in 1985–1986 ( The Nightmare Fair , The Ultimate Evil and Mission to Magnus ), the spin-off K-9 and Company , and even a 1976 children's story record ( The Pescatons ), which has the distinction of being the final Doctor Who book published under the Target imprint. (The Target logo was retained for later reprints and intermittent new titles up to 1994 and
5616-521: The 18th and 19th centuries. They were often associated with Enlightenment ideas such as empiricism and agnosticism . Realism developed as a literary style at this time. New forms of mass media developed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, including popular-fiction magazines and early film. Interactive fiction was developed in the late-20th century through video games. Certain basic elements define all works of narrative , including all works of narrative fiction. Namely, all narratives include
5733-408: The 1990s, Marvel Comics commissioned the writers of the various original novels under Virgin's New and Missing Adventures lines (see below) to write short pieces entitled "Preludes" which were run in Doctor Who Magazine . These short stories (never more than one magazine page in length) usually focused on an event just prior to a particular novel, or on a character prior to his or her encounter with
5850-544: The 1990s, Virgin Publishing launched a series of Doctor Who -based short story anthologies titled Decalog . A total of five volumes were published, and the last two, Decalog 4 and Decalog 5 were published after Virgin had lost the Doctor Who franchise and did not feature the Doctor. Decalog 4 concentrated on the family of Roz Forrester—a companion introduced in the NAs—over a thousand-year time span. Also during
5967-531: The 2000s. Since the return of Doctor Who in 2005, the show was accompanied by a documentary series, Doctor Who Confidential , broadcast on BBC Three . Episodes were also edited to a 15-minute run time and rebroadcast with the title Doctor Who Confidential: Cut Down ; these edited versions were included on the Doctor Who DVD releases. In 2011, Confidential was among several shows cancelled by BBC Three to free up space for new programming. Following
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#17327831222886084-565: The Curse of Fatal Death , a parody starring Rowan Atkinson as a future incarnation of the Doctor in his final battle with the Master ( Jonathan Pryce ), was created for the charity Comic Relief . During the parody's climax, when the Doctor regenerates several times, actors Richard E. Grant , Hugh Grant , Jim Broadbent and Joanna Lumley all had a chance to play the character. Richard E. Grant would go on to play another unofficial incarnation of
6201-538: The Daleks. A pilot-episode script entitled The Destroyers was written but no pilot film was ever produced. Years later, an outline of the story (which would have featured at least one character, Sara Kingdom , later featured in the parent series) appeared in The Official Doctor Who & the Daleks Book . The US Dalek pilot was released on audio by Big Finish Productions in 2010 as part of
6318-574: The Doctor for the webcast of Scream of the Shalka . BBC Video released the special in the same format as regular Doctor Who releases. A second Children in Need special, but one that was part of the series' continuity, was produced for the charity's 2005 appeal. This 7-minute "mini-episode" starred David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler , and filled in a gap between
6435-486: The Doctor proclaims that he does not kill and Zagreus refuses to be Rassilon's puppet. At the end of Zagreus , the Doctor is exiled to the Divergents' universe, having previously cast Rassilon into that reality to end his actions but unable to return to his universe as he was still contaminated by anti-time. He eventually tracks down Rassilon in that universe, and discovers that he has been manipulating an entity called
6552-463: The Doctor. Some non-novel related short stories titled "Brief Encounters" were also written, including one in which the Seventh Doctor met a future incarnation of himself. (The illustration accompanying this story based the future Doctor on actor Nicholas Briggs , who had played the Doctor in unauthorised audio dramas produced by the fan group Audio Visuals . The Briggs Doctor also appeared in
6669-660: The Doomsday Weapon (based upon Colony in Space ) which as written depicts Jo Grant 's first adventure with the Doctor, even though the television series introduced her several serials earlier in Terror of the Autons (which was novelised at a later date and ignored the discrepancy). Authors sometimes added epilogues to their novelisations which were at odds with other material: The Curse of Fenric by Ian Briggs suggested
6786-701: The Eye of Harmony. The Tomb or Tower of Rassilon, also known as the Dark Tower, stands in the middle of the Death Zone—a blasted, barren plain—on Gallifrey. The Death Zone was used, in a period of Gallifrey's history known as the Dark Time, as an arena that pitted warriors of various alien species and times (captured by the use of a device called the Time Scoop) against each other in gladiatorial games, although
6903-638: The Kro'Ka to observe and control the Doctor and Charley 's actions. At the end of the events of " The Next Life ", the Doctor and his companions escape the timeless Divergent universe—Rassilon having previously filtered the Zagreus energies out of the Doctor upon his arrival in this universe without the Doctor's knowledge—but Rassilon and the Kro'Ka remain trapped in a permanent loop. Rassilon's next audio appearance comes in Desperate Measures , concluding
7020-544: The Matrix to the Doctors and Borusa. He mentions the line from the episode " Hell Bent " (2015)—"Rassilon the resurrected", as further proof that he had died. Doctor Who scriptwriter Mark Gatiss quipped that Rassilon is "biding his time until he regenerates into [actor] Daniel Craig ". Head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat , who also wrote "Hell Bent", understood that Rassilon was "alive, but in 'eternal sleep'", having got up from his eternal sleep to participate in
7137-484: The Matrix. According to audio plays, Rassilon developed the power of regeneration from the Vampires, who were apparently peaceful until the Time Lords attacked them. He transforms the Doctor into his assassin—a being of pure anti-time that identifies itself as Zagreus—to defeat the Divergents, a race who would have evolved to surpass the Time Lords if reality had progressed as it should have, only for his plans to fail when
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#17327831222887254-568: The Missing Adventures label. These were two Dalek stories from the Troughton era, The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks , which—along with another radio novelisation The Paradise of Death —are considered to be the last of the Target run. Later novelisations tended to be included as part of the original novel series from Virgin. The Ghosts of N-Space , a second radio serial featuring Jon Pertwee produced in
7371-732: The Other breaking with him and throwing himself into the genetic looms, leading to his later apparent reincarnation as the Doctor. In the last three stories of Alan Moore 's run on Doctor Who Monthly we see the first Time War in Time Lord history, where the Order of the Black Sun make a pre-emptive strike on the Gallifreyans' experiments with time travel. In the first story, "Star Death" ( Doctor Who Magazine #47), we see Rassilon gaining
7488-481: The Shalka . Adams' stories were never novelised, reportedly because he wanted to do the job himself. However, soon after his tenure with Doctor Who ended, the author had gained considerable popularity because of his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise and became (depending upon the source of information) either too busy or too expensive (or both). Adams would later recycle elements of City of Death and
7605-581: The Time Lords into beings of pure consciousness. The Doctor in his War Doctor incarnation learned of this and decided to end the war using the Gallifreyan superweapon called "the Moment". With the prophecy deciphered that the Doctor would destroy Gallifrey to end the Time War, and told he would die on that day, Rassilon refuses to accept his fate and killed his advisor for speaking out against his plans. Anticipating Gallifrey's complete annihilation in " The End of Time " (2009–10), Rassilon attempted to break
7722-450: The Tower. The First Doctor deduced from the riddle "This is the Game of Rassilon; to lose is to win and he who wins shall lose" that the Game was a trap to get rid of Time Lords who might be a danger to their race. Borusa is granted immortality by being transformed into a living statue. Rassilon subsequently returned the first three Doctors to their proper places in time and space and freed
7839-604: The audience's willing suspension of disbelief . The effects of experiencing fiction, and the way the audience is changed by the new information they discover, has been studied for centuries. Also, infinite fictional possibilities themselves signal the impossibility of fully knowing reality, provocatively demonstrating philosophical notions, such as there potentially being no criterion to measure constructs of reality. In contrast to fiction, creators of non-fiction assume responsibility for presenting information (and sometimes opinion) based only in historical and factual reality. Despite
7956-415: The audience, including elements such as romance , piracy , and religious ceremonies . Heroic romance was developed in medieval Europe , incorporating elements associated with fantasy , including supernatural elements and chivalry . The structure of the modern novel was developed by Miguel de Cervantes with Don Quixote in the early-17th century. The novel became a primary medium of fiction in
8073-495: The background of Susan , but both contradict the series and many other stories on the subject. There were also stories in newspapers and comics, storybooks and even serials published on confectionery wrappers and trading cards. In 1979, Nation wrote "Daleks: The Secret Invasion", a novella included in Terry Nation's Dalek Special ; this was the first original Doctor Who -related fiction to be published by Target Books. During
8190-400: The black hole to provide the energy that powers time travel. Rassilon then took control of Gallifrey and became the first and, to date, only Lord High President, his successors taking the title Lord President. The official history is that he was a benevolent ruler who ruled his people wisely. However, there are other accounts which paint Rassilon as a cruel dictator. The first mention of Rassilon
8307-514: The books being translated for readers in the Netherlands, Brazil , Turkey , the US (where the texts were slightly tweaked to eliminate unfamiliar Anglicisms), Japan , West Germany , Portugal , France and Finland . By 1994, when the final Target book was published, all but six of the broadcast Doctor Who serials had been novelised, as well as a radio serial ( Slipback ), stories slated for
8424-482: The character since 1981), and more than a dozen former companions. Not meant to be taken seriously, the story had the Rani opening a hole in time, cycling the Doctor and his companions through his previous incarnations and menacing them with monsters from the show's past. It also featured a crossover with the soap opera EastEnders , the action taking place in the latter's Albert Square location. In 1999, Doctor Who and
8541-581: The context of the real world. One realistic fiction sub-genre is historical fiction , centered around true major events and time periods in the past. The attempt to make stories feel faithful to reality or to more objectively describe details, and the 19th-century artistic movement that began to vigorously promote this approach, is called literary realism , which incorporates some works of both fiction and non-fiction. Storytelling has existed in all human cultures, and each culture incorporates different elements of truth and fiction into storytelling. Early fiction
8658-529: The controller of BBC One. Novelisations based upon individual Doctor Who serials were first published in the mid-1960s, the first being Dr. Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks by David Whitaker , a loose adaptation of the show's second serial, The Daleks . Doctor Who novelisations became something of a tradition beginning in the early 1970s when Target Books (initially published by Universal-Tandem, later to become part of W.H. Allen & Co and then Virgin Publishing ) began publishing them on
8775-539: The discovery that Rassilon has resurrected Borusa as a possibility engine to help him decide what actions he should take during the war. Rassilon returns to Gallifrey in the Titan Comics 2016 multi-Doctor event story Supremacy of the Cybermen , which depicts the last Cybermen at the end of the universe forming an alliance with Rassilon with the goal of conquering Gallifrey and using Time Lord energy to regenerate
8892-442: The elements of character , conflict , narrative mode , plot , setting , and theme . Characters are individuals inside a work of story, conflicts are the tension or problem that drives characters' thoughts and actions, narrative modes are the ways in which a story is communicated, plots are the sequence of events in a story, settings are the story's locations in time and space, and themes are deeper messages or interpretations about
9009-612: The episodes " The Parting of the Ways " and " The Christmas Invasion ". A third Children in Need special, but one that was part of the series' continuity, was produced for the charity's 2007 appeal. " Time Crash " starred David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor , and filled in a gap between the episodes " Last of the Time Lords " and " Voyage of the Damned ". This takes part directly after Martha leaves
9126-469: The equipment to control time travel thanks to the failed initial attack. In the DWM comic strips, Rassilon is shown existing in the Matrix as part of a council of "Higher Evolutionaries" acting as the guardians of Time ( The Tides of Time Part 2, DWM #62, among others). In the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions , Rassilon is voiced by Don Warrington . He is shown to continue to exist in
9243-474: The fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects the work to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the themes and context of a work, such as if and how it relates to real-world issues or events, are open to interpretation . Since fiction
9360-583: The fourth series in 2010. A second animated serial, Dreamland , aired on CBBC in Autumn 2009. David Tennant voiced the Tenth Doctor, and the serial also starred Georgia Tennant (who appeared in Doctor Who 's 2008 series as the Doctor's daughter, Jenny ). On 24 April 2006 The Independent , the Daily Star and The Times confirmed, following past rumours, that K-9 would be featured in
9477-455: The full series started on 24 September 2007, consisting of two-part serials with half-hour individual episodes. Five series were produced altogether, the first four series consisting of twelve episodes each; the fifth series was truncated with only six episodes having been produced before Sladen's death in 2011, as a result of which the programme was cancelled. Sarah Jane's Alien Files , a spin-off of The Sarah Jane Adventures , aired along with
9594-407: The image of Rassilon seen in "The Five Doctors" is actually alive or an artificial intelligence or if he had ever died prior to "The Five Doctors". According to DWM editor Tom Spilsbury , it hadn't occurred to him before that he was anything other than being alive, and that "it might come down to semantics over what being alive means". Doctor Who scriptwriter Gareth Roberts believed that Rassilon
9711-574: The imperial period. Plasmatic narrative, following entirely invented characters and events, was developed through ancient drama and New Comedy . One common structure among early fiction is a series of strange and fantastic adventures as early writers test the limits of fiction writing. Milesian tales were an early example of fiction writing in Ancient Greece and Italy. As fiction writing developed in Ancient Greece, relatable characters and plausible scenarios were emphasized to better connect with
9828-441: The known physical universe: an independent fictional universe . The creative art of constructing such an imaginary world is known as worldbuilding . Literary critic James Wood argues that "fiction is both artifice and verisimilitude ", meaning that it requires both creative inventions as well as some acceptable degree of believability among its audience, a notion often encapsulated in the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's idea of
9945-477: The main run of the series from 1963 to 1989 and after its cancellation, numerous novels, comic strips, comic books and other material were generated based on the characters and situations introduced in the show. These spin-offs continued to be produced even without a television series to support them and helped keep the show alive in the minds of its fans and the public until the programme was revived in 2005. This entry mainly concentrates on "official" spin-offs, that
10062-481: The mid-1990s was novelised, as were several non BBC spin-off video productions such as Shakedown (as one section of a larger original novel) and Downtime , adding an air of official sanction to them. In 1996, BBC Books published a novelisation of the Doctor Who television movie . A one-time return to serial novelisations occurred in 2004 when BBC Books novelised the made-for-Internet adventure, Scream of
10179-508: The more the merrier. ... I'm a genre writer of a sort. I write literary fiction, which is like spy fiction or chick lit". Likewise, on The Charlie Rose Show , he argued that this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, so he does not really like it. He suggested that all his works are literary, simply because "they are written in words". Literary fiction often involves social commentary , political criticism , or reflection on
10296-542: The ninth series of Big Finish Productions spin-off Gallifrey . During the Time War the Time Lord Valerian ( David Sibley ) becomes a host through whom Rassilon is resurrected to lead Gallifrey. These events will lead into the tenth series of the spin-off where the part will be played by Terrence Hardiman . This season ends with Romana attempting to arrange an assassination to stop his dictatorship, ending with Rassilon beginning to regenerate. The series ends on
10413-416: The novel rather than the original serial due to the fact the original serial is one of the many that were lost. Also, when Target launched the novelisation line, there was no inkling that ultimately more than 150 of the show's storylines would be adapted; as a result, there are numerous continuity gaps between early Target books and the scripts and/or later published novelisations; one example is Doctor Who and
10530-598: The now-amplified drum beat acts as a signal that, with a White Point Star diamond (a diamond unique to the planet, Gallifrey), allows Rassilon and Gallifrey to escape the Time Lock. Destroying the White Point Star, the Doctor severs the link between Gallifrey and Earth. Rassilon's attempts to kill the Doctor in revenge are blocked by the Master, vengeful owing to his manipulation by Rassilon, who then follows him and
10647-493: The one hand, that the truth can be presented through imaginary channels and constructions, while, on the other hand, works of the imagination can just as well bring about significant new perspectives on, or conclusions about, truth and reality. All types of fiction invite their audience to explore real ideas, issues, or possibilities using an otherwise imaginary setting or using something similar to reality, though still distinct from it. The umbrella genre of speculative fiction
10764-472: The only way for these "lost" adventures to be experienced prior to the release of soundtracks for those episodes and/or recovery of lost episodes (the Pertwee era, in particular, has been rendered intact since the early 1990s, and several Hartnell and Troughton stories are once again complete). Although novelisations became more elaborate in later years, the early books usually followed a set formula and were for
10881-515: The other Time Lords into the last day of the Time War. In " The Day of the Doctor " (2013), the Time Lords are revealed not to have been destroyed at the Time War's conclusion; all incarnations of the Doctor united and used their TARDISes to send Gallifrey into a pocket dimension. In " Hell Bent " (2015), the Twelfth Doctor arrives on Gallifrey and learns that a regenerated Rassilon was responsible for his imprisonment and torture for four and
10998-429: The planet out of the Time Lock implemented in the latter phases of the Time War to block creative attacks involving time travel, placing a drumbeat (actually the heartbeat of Gallifreyian twin-hearts) in the mind of the Master when he was a child. As a result, Rassilon is the cause of the Master's insanity and indirectly responsible for the Time Lord's actions. When the Master turned all of humanity into copies of himself,
11115-403: The second serial of the programme if it had not been rejected. The story features the Doctor and his companions encountering an ancient civilisation of deactivated robots. Doctor Who was successfully brought back to television in 2005, but for many years there were no plans to novelise episodes from the 21st century version of the programme. Instead, the BBC published original novels featuring
11232-525: The series had been cancelled. A new animated series called Daleks! , which consists of five 10-minute long episodes, was released on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel in 2020. On 30 October 2023, it was announced that "The Whoniverse ", a new section on BBC iPlayer dedicated to Doctor Who content, would release spin-offs, with the first being Tales of the TARDIS which first premiered on 1 November 2023. On 27 January 2023, Russell T Davies confirmed that future Doctor Who spin-offs were in
11349-446: The series' first season, two from the second, and one from the third, have been adapted. The third-season novelisation, adapting " The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith ", marked the first appearance of the Doctor in a TV-based novelisation since the 1996 TV movie was adapted. Shada by Douglas Adams (not originally completed for broadcast after television production was postponed in 1979, but completed with narration for video, then remade as
11466-543: The series. K-9 was first premiered on 31 October 2009. The 26th and final episode was aired on 25 September 2010. On 1 October 2015 the BBC announced a new spin-off titled, Class , which is set in Coal Hill School . It premièred on BBC Three on 22 October 2016. The eight-episode series is written by Patrick Ness . In March 2016, it was announced that Greg Austin would be cast as Charlie. On 7 September 2017, BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh confirmed that
11583-541: The story that its audience is left to discuss and reflect upon. Traditionally, fiction includes novels, short stories, fables , legends , myths , fairy tales , epic and narrative poetry , plays (including operas , musicals , dramas, puppet plays , and various kinds of theatrical dances ). However, fiction may also encompass comic books , and many animated cartoons , stop motions , anime , manga , films , video games , radio programs , television programs ( comedies and dramas ), etc. The Internet has had
11700-448: The study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades. The term is sometimes used such as to equate literary fiction to literature. The accuracy of this is debated. Neal Stephenson has suggested that, while any definition will be simplistic, there is today a general cultural difference between literary and genre fiction. On the one hand literary authors nowadays are frequently supported by patronage, with employment at
11817-687: The success of the first series of the revived Doctor Who , a new spin-off titled Torchwood became the first to be commissioned as a full television series. In contrast to its parent show, Torchwood was initially conceived by creator Russell T Davies as an "adult" programme to be broadcast post- watershed . It is set in modern-day Cardiff and revolves around a team investigating alien activities and crime. The series features John Barrowman , playing former Ninth Doctor companion Jack Harkness , police officer Gwen Cooper , computer expert Toshiko Sato , medic Owen Harper and "support man", Ianto Jones . The first episode aired 22 October 2006 and received
11934-449: The television series, there are many contradictory legends about Rassilon. It is known that he developed the technology for time travel that made his people lords of time in the distant past together with his colleague Omega . Omega, a stellar engineer, was presumed killed by the supernova that created the black hole later known as the Eye of Harmony , and Rassilon harnessed the nucleus of
12051-460: The then ongoing Second World War in a way that presented fascist individuals as humorously irrational and pathetic. Many other villains take direct inspiration from real people while having fictional accents, appearances, backgrounds, names, and so on. Doctor Who spin-offs Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who . Both during
12168-509: The time of the work's creation: Jules Verne 's novel From the Earth to the Moon was published in 1865, but only in 1969 did astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to land on the Moon. Historical fiction places imaginary characters into real historical events. In the 1814 historical novel Waverley , Sir Walter Scott 's fictional character Edward Waverley meets
12285-535: The traditional view that fiction and non-fiction are opposites, some works (particularly in the modern era) blur this boundary, particularly works that fall under certain experimental storytelling genres—including some postmodern fiction , autofiction , or creative nonfiction like non-fiction novels and docudramas —as well as the deliberate literary fraud of falsely marketing fiction as nonfiction. Furthermore, even most works of fiction usually have elements of, or grounding in, truth of some kind, or truth from
12402-444: The two-part finale of the series' 2009 Specials . Though referred to by name by the Tenth Doctor, Dalton is credited as the 'Narrator / Lord President' with Russell T Davies confirming his name in a Doctor Who Confidential episode. During the Time War , Rassilon became ruthless and determined to avoid death at any cost, motivating his formulating of the "Final Sanction" which would destroy all creation while elevating himself and
12519-457: The unbroadcast Shada into his Dirk Gently novels. As for Saward's two Dalek serials, Target Books was unable to come to an agreement which would satisfy both Eric Saward and Terry Nation's estate for the novelisations. Virgin tried again at a later date and authors were assigned for both books, but again an agreement was not reached. Since the release of the last published book by Target in 1994, six titles remained as yet unpublished: Shada
12636-534: The universe into one under Cyber-control. Although Rassilon's insight allows the Cybermen to conquer history and defeat all of the past Doctors, the Twelfth Doctor is able to convince Rassilon to help him after the Cybermen betray Rassilon, the two turning the Cybermens' equipment against them so that the universe is 'regenerated' to a point before the Cybermen conquered Gallifrey. Although the Twelfth Doctor
12753-545: The works. One spin-off is centered around UNIT and starring Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart . Doctor Who also appeared on television in the form of special one-off productions to benefit charity. In 1993, Dimensions in Time was produced for the benefit of Children in Need , coinciding with the series' 30th anniversary. It was a special in two parts, running about 12 minutes in total, which featured all surviving Doctors (including Tom Baker in his first appearance as
12870-484: The years many short stories, novellas and full-length novels have been published. The earliest original Doctor Who fiction were short stories that appeared in the official BBC Doctor Who annuals, which were published from 1964 to 1985 (and later revived by Marvel Comics as Doctor Who Year Books and as annuals by the BBC in 2005). A 45-page novella titled Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space , published in 1966,
12987-473: Was by this time used exclusively for Doctor Who .) Most of these novelisations contained minimal amounts of original material and were (usually) adapted closely from the shooting scripts, with the intent of the books being souvenirs of previously aired shows in the pre-VCR era; the decision by the BBC to delete many episodes from the Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee eras resulted in many of these books becoming
13104-472: Was closely associated with history and myth . Greek poets such as Homer , Hesiod , and Aesop developed fictional stories that were told first through oral storytelling and then in writing. Prose fiction was developed in Ancient Greece , influenced by the storytelling traditions of Asia and Egypt. Distinctly fictional work was not recognized as separate from historical or mythological stories until
13221-606: Was one of the deaths. In later New Adventures we are introduced to the concept of the genetic Looms, from which new Time Lords were created. This leads to Rassilon becoming part of a ruling triumvirate with Omega and a mysterious figure called the Other . Together they rebuilt Gallifrey and re-ordered the universe along rational and scientific lines, outlawing superstition and banishing magic. The later novel Lungbarrow shows Rassilon becoming increasingly tyrannical and violently crushing resistance to his reforms, which ultimately leads to
13338-401: Was presented by CBBC and Smile presenter Barney Harwood and Blue Peter presenter Liz Barker . For the show's second series Barker was replaced by SMart presenter Kirsten O'Brien . During the second series, an animated serial, The Infinite Quest , was featured. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman reprised their roles from the live-action television series while Anthony Head ,
13455-470: Was produced by the Canadian animation company Nelvana in the 1980s, but the series was not produced. CBBC originally expressed an interest in a Young Doctor Who series, chronicling the childhood of the Doctor. Russell T Davies vetoed this concept, saying "somehow, the idea of a fourteen-year-old Doctor , on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers , takes away from the mystery and intrigue of who he
13572-710: Was published on 15 March 2012 by BBC Books , and is still the only remaining book of the original show's run to not be published by Target Books . Target did publish City of Death on 5 April 2018. The Pirate Planet , Resurrection of the Daleks , Revelation of the Daleks , and The Doctor Who TV Movie , were all published on 11 March 2021 by Target Books. Three novels of the original run were rewritten as audiobook exclusives, but were later published in print, once again by Target: From 1988, Titan Books released script books of Doctor Who serials. This included an unproduced serial, The Masters of Luxor (written 1963–1964, published 1992) by Anthony Coburn , which would have been
13689-454: Was similarly structured as a single story told as a ten-part mini-series, titled Torchwood: Miracle Day ; unlike previous series, Miracle Day was a co-production between the BBC and the US cable television network Starz . The fourth series premiered on 8 July 2011 on Starz in the US and on July 14, 2011 on BBC One in the United Kingdom. The 2006 and 2007 series were companioned with a CBBC show entitled Totally Doctor Who . Series 1
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