Rassilon
| Rassilon | |
|---|---|
| Doctor Who character | |
Timothy Dalton as Rassilon in The End of Time
|
|
| First appearance | The Five Doctors |
| Last appearance | "Hell Bent" |
| Portrayed by |
|
| Information | |
| Affiliated | Time Lords |
| Species | Gallifreyan |
| Home planet | Gallifrey |
| Home era | Time War |
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 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 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 an opportunistic, ambitious and cruel dictator who seized power in the wake of his friend's death (for which some suggest he may have been deliberately responsible), and ready to go take drastic measures to protect his people, nearly destroying all of time once.
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 a Time Lord's cell structure which allows them to withstand the molecular stresses of time travel and grant them a link to their TARDIS time machines.
Several other Time Lord artifacts named after him have 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 the Eye of Harmony.
...
Wikipedia