Face of Boe
| The Face of Boe | |
|---|---|
| Doctor Who character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | "The End of the World" |
| Last appearance | "Gridlock" |
| Portrayed by | Struan Rodger (voice) |
| Information | |
| Species | Boekind |
The Face of Boe is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Not portrayed on-screen by an actor, the Face of Boe is a wholly mechanical effect, resembling a gigantic human-like head with a weathered face and in place of hair, numerous tendrils which terminate in round pod-like structures. Typically this is encased in a clear sealed container and mounted on a movable pedestal base. The Face merely grunted during his appearance in "The End of the World", communicated telepathically in "New Earth" and "Gridlock", and spoke for the first and last time in the latter, and was voiced by Struan Rodger. It is stated in "New Earth" that he is thought to be millions of years old (billions, at least according to "Gridlock"); however, when this was suggested to him, he responded with a leading question concerning the impossibility of such an age. It was suggested in "Last of the Time Lords" that the Face of Boe is a future Jack Harkness.
The Doctor has encountered the Face of Boe (as originally presented) three times. In "The End of the World" (2005), set five billion years in the future, the Face of Boe sponsored the safe viewing of Earth's destruction by the expansion of the Sun. The event was sabotaged, but the Face of Boe survived along with most of the guests, thanks to the Ninth Doctor's intervention.
In "New Earth" (2006), the Face of Boe is apparently dying of old age in a New New York hospital in the year five billion and twenty-three. His nurse, one of the Sisters of Plenitude, Novice Hame, tells the Tenth Doctor that the sleeping Face sometimes sings "ancient songs", which she hears telepathically, and relates the legend that, just before dying, the Face will reveal his greatest secret to "one like himself", "a wanderer without a home", "a lonely god" (such as the Doctor). When the Doctor later asks the Face of Boe about the legend, the Face of Boe claims that the "great secret" can wait for their third and final meeting, and enigmatically teleports away to an unspecified destination.
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