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Encyclopedia > Rassilon
Doctor Who character

Lord Rassilon
Rassilon
Affiliated with Time Lords
Race Time Lord
Home planet Gallifrey
Home era Gallifrey era
First appearance The Deadly Assassin (named only)
Last appearance The Five Doctors
Portrayed by Richard Mathews
Don Warrington in audio spin-offs

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. After the original television series ended in 1989, Rassilon's character and history were further developed in books and other media. Image File history File links Rassilon. ... The Time Lords are a fictional race of humanoids, originating on the planet Gallifrey, seen in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... // Headline text A Vardan spaceship approaches Gallifrey from space (from The Invasion of Time). ... The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 30 to November 20, 1976. ... The Five Doctors was a special movie-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programmes twentieth anniversary. ... Don Warrington is an actor, originally from Trinidad, who has been a familiar face on British television and stage for thirty years. ... A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. ... A broadcast of the long-running and popular British science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as The Doctor. It is also the title of a 1996 television movie featuring the same character. ... The Time Lords are a fictional race of humanoids, originating on the planet Gallifrey, seen in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... // Headline text A Vardan spaceship approaches Gallifrey from space (from The Invasion of Time). ... -1...


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 solar 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 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. Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... Omega is a fictional character from the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. ... Remnant of Keplers Supernova, SN 1604. ... The TARDISs Eye of Harmony, from the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, Enemy Within. ... A black hole is a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything from escaping it except through quantum tunnelling behaviour (known as Hawking Radiation). ...


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 nuclei of a Time Lord that allows them to withstand the molecular stresses of time travel and grants them a link to their TARDIS time machines (compare with the Ancient Technology Activation gene of Stargate SG-1). b nhm b. ... The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS (from the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space). ... In the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG-1, the Ancient Technology Activation gene (usually spoken as the ATA Gene), is a specific gene expression present in Ancients that is used as a sort of genetic key, so only their kind can operate their technology. ... Stargate SG-1 (alternately spelled Stargåte, and popularly abbreviated as SG-1) is a television series based upon the 1994 science fiction film Stargate. ...


Other Time Lord artifacts named for him include the Sash of Rassilon, the Rod or Great Key of Rassilon, the Crown of Rassilon, the Coronet of Rassilon and the Harp of Rassilon. These artifacts are not mere relics, but are also technological devices that have uses beyond the ceremonial.


The Sash, for example, allows the wearer to control the Eye of Harmony and the Crown of Rassilon gives full access to the Matrix, the computer network that is the respository of all Time Lord knowledge. The Key of Rassilon (not to be confused with the Great Key) also allows access to the Matrix. Confusingly, another Great Key is part of the demat gun, a weapon of mass destruction. The Coronet gives the user the ability to dominate another's will, and the Harp is a musical key that unlocks a secret room within the High Council chambers. The Matrix, in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a massive computer system on the planet Gallifrey that acts as the repository of the combined knowledge of the Time Lords. ... This is a list of items from the BBC television series Doctor Who. ... Weapons of Mass Destruction is also the name of rapper Xzibits 2004 album. ...


Rassilon is also given credit, variously, for creating the Time Scoop, which can pluck individuals out of their timestreams; TARDIS technology; the living metal and superweapon valadium; and the transduction barriers that protect Gallifrey. How much of this is true and how much of it is propaganda and good public relations is not certain. The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS (from the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space). ... Silver Nemesis is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in the UK in three weekly parts from November 23 (the series 25th anniversary) to December 7, 1988. ...

The seal of Rassilon, a common motif in Time Lord design
The seal of Rassilon, a common motif in Time Lord design

(In Doctor Who fandom, the remarkable number of artifacts attributed to Rassilon is often parodied, especially in unofficial merchandising. Convention goers have seen memorabilia ranging anywhere from the Coffee Mug of Rassilon to the Shopping Bag of Rassilon.) The Seal of Rassilon, from the television series Doctor Who This work is copyrighted. ... The Seal of Rassilon, from the television series Doctor Who This work is copyrighted. ... Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc. ...


The Tomb, or Tower of Rassilon, also known as the Dark Tower, stands in the middle of the Death Zone on Gallifrey. The Death Zone – a blasted, barren plain – was used, in a period of Gallifrey's history known as the Dark Time, as an arena that pitted time-displaced warriors of various alien species against each other in gladiatorial games. It was rumored 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. In popular fiction and conspiracy theories, life forms, especially intelligent life forms, that are of extraterrestrial origin, i. ... Pollice Verso, an 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, is a well known history painters researched conception of a gladiatorial combat. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...

In the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors, Time Lord President Borusa wanted Rassilon's secret for himself. Borusa used the Time Scoop to transport the Doctor in all his regenerations (along with various companions) to the Death Zone, using them to clear the way to the Tower. However, Rassilon's promise to share immortality with whoever overcame the obstacles in the Tower and solved the Game of Rassilon was actually a trap designed for would-be dictators. Borusa was granted immortality by being transformed into a living statue. In that story, Rassilon (played by Richard Mathews) appeared as a disembodied image floating above his own sepulchre, but whether this was a telepathic projection or an interactive recording of some sort is unclear. The Five Doctors was a special movie-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programmes twentieth anniversary. ... Angus MacKay as Borusa (from The Deadly Assassin Borusa is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as The Doctor. It is also the title of a 1996 television movie featuring the same character. ...


Rassilon's fate after the Time War is uncertain.


Other appearances

Rassilon's rise to power was explored in 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. Rassilon 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. In later New Adventures we are introduced to the concept of the genetic Looms, from which new Time Lords were created. The Virgin New Adventures (often referred to simply as NAs within fandom) were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, continuing the story of the series from where the television programme had left off. ... The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. ...


In the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions, Rassilon appears (off-stage) in Seasons of Fear, and is voiced by Don Warrington in Neverland and Zagreus. In those plays, he is shown to continue to exist in the Matrix. He is also portrayed, not as a benevolent figure, but a master manipulator willing to preserve Time Lord history and society as he knew it at all costs. In the spin-off novels, the partnership of Rassilon and Omega in Time Lord history is rounded off by the shadowy figure of the Other. The canonicity of the spin-off media is uncertain. Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces audio plays released straight to compact disc, based on British cult science fiction properties. ... Seasons of Fear is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Don Warrington is an actor, originally from Trinidad, who has been a familiar face on British television and stage for thirty years. ... NeverLand is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Zagreus is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... The Other is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... In the context of fiction, the canon of a fictional universe comprises those novels, stories, films, etc. ...


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Rassilon - definition of Rassilon in Encyclopedia (657 words)
Rassilon is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
The Rassilon Imprimatur is the name given to the symbiotic nuclei of a Time Lord that allows them to withstand the molecular stresses of time travel and grants them a link to their TARDIS time machines.
In that story, Rassilon (played by Richard Mathews) appeared as a disembodied image floating above his own sepulchre, but whether this was a telepathic projection or an interactive recording of some sort is unclear.
Zagreus (Doctor Who audio) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2374 words)
Rassilon himself appears and reveals that after the explosion, the Doctor and Charley had been unconscious for six months, in which time Rassilon had persuaded the TARDIS to aid him in exchange for freeing it from the Doctor/Zagreus's influence.
Rassilon demands that Romana resign from the presidency in favour of Zagreus.
Rassilon summons the Doctor and the Brigadier into the Foundry, which he proudly declares was where he created the Nemesis and the De-mat gun.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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