Lauren Anderson

Lauren Anderson
Main aliases:	William, Joanna, Officer Mcutcheon, Lor, Lorre
Species:	Human, Cyberon, Zygon
Place of origin:	Earth
Partners:	Stuart McIntee, Duncan, Tom Mordley, "Mike Kirkwood", Stephanie
First appearance:	Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough
Appearances:	PROSE: Cyberon PROSE: The Last Dose PROSE: Silver-Tounged Liars PROSE: Barnyard of the Cyberons HOMEVID: Lauren Anderson HOMEVID: The Only Cure COMIC: Before the Storm
Main actor:	Jo Castleton
Other actors:	Matt Montgomery, Becky Pennick, Nigel Peever

Doctor Lauren Anderson was a human physician.

After a traumatic adventure with the alien Cyberon substance, Lauren was turned into a Zygon against her will by the Zygon Torlakh after unknowingly carrying out a romantic relationship with Kritakh, another Zygon. She adopted a nomadic lifestyle going by the name Lor or Lorre and lived well into the 31st century.

Biography

Early life

In Year 11, Lauren was asked to a prom by a young man called Stuart McIntee. Lauren was extremely flustered, a feeling she would later recall vividly. (PROSE: Cyberon)

As a Doctor

Eventually, Lauren became a doctor of psychiatry and started working at St John's Hospital, where she had good relationship with many of the caring staff and patients, such as George Cooper, an old man with dementia whom she considered a friend. She moved into an apartment with Ray Lambert, a gay down-on-his-luck cranial surgeon.

Some years before the Cyberon incident, Lauren pined after a man named Duncan for months. She eventually had a one-night stand with him, after which he refused to answer her calls. She eventually wrote the whole thing off as "a mistake" and hadn't thought of Duncan in months in 2000 when she met Tom Mordley. (PROSE: Cyberon)

The Cyberon incident

While working in St John's Hospital, she oversaw the Cyberon drug tests, alongside American PKD researcher Doctor Tom Mordley. Despite her concerns about the tests, she became romantically involved with Mordley. However, she was later convinced Ray that Cyberon was not just a dangerous drug but something malicious and intelligent. She went to confront Mordley at Mordley's house, where Mordley, completely under the drug's influence, forcibly injected her with a dose of Cyberon. This warped her perspective for the next day or so, but after an encounter with the ghost of George Cooper, who'd died of a heart attack after his first dose of Cyberon, she returned to working against Tom's projects.

She cleaned out St John's of all Cyberon syringes, and, after Mordley overpowered her and abducted her to his house, managed to get free and stab him, causing the Cyberon's power to fail. She thought she had murdered him and turned herself in to the police, but to her surprise, Tom showed up unharmed and got her released, vouching that she had done nothing to harm him. He confirmed her guess that the Cyberon in his system had healed him from the wound, but refused to explain himself further before vanishing. (PROSE: Cyberon)

After Cyberon

After a period of leave to recover from her traumatic experiences, during which Ray was very supportive, Lauren returned to work at St John's, though she felt to blame for raising her patient's hopes only to deny them the drug which they knew could have healed them, without being able to tell them the price they'd have had to pay. (PROSE: Cyberon)

Around a week after the events at Tom's house, Louise Bayliss visited Lauren in her flat, to inform her that Tom had died. She also assured Lauren that she was a good person, and that she should return to her job. (PROSE: The Last Dose)

Lauren and her friend attended Tom's funeral. There, she introduced herself to Sarah Mordley, Tom's sister-in-law. However, Brittany (Tom's niece) ignored Lauren, as she felt sullen about Lauren, as she didn't believe Lauren knew Tom well. Eight years later, after Tom's possessions were sorted through by Brittany after the storage company that had kept them raised their rates making it too expensive for Sarah to afford, Brittany found a box of items that contained things relating to Lauren. She refused to look through it as she didn't want to know about that part of her uncle's life. After finding a vial of Cyberon in Tom's possessions, that night, she had a dream wherein Tom and Lauren kissed, and then told her that Cyberon was the future. (PROSE: Silver-Tongued Liars)

Tangling with Zygons

While working in St Kitts Hospital, she started treating Mike Kirkwood and later engaged in a romantic relationship with him. Lauren was later turned into a Zygon by Torlakh. He attempted to frame her for the mass murder of patients and doctors at St Kitts, adopting her appearance, but Lauren turned his plan against him by shooting him while he was still wearing her appearance, thus efficiently faking her death. (HOMEVID: Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough)

On the run

Adopting the name "Lor", the newly-minted shapeshifter went on the run, leaving London. However, many years later, she was reunited with an individual claiming to be Michael. Falling under his spell again, she let herself be persuaded by "Michael" to move back to London. However, she noticed that she was feeling more and more irrationally depressed the more time she spent with Michael. On 3 March 2021, she sought the help of the Preternatural Research Bureau, the only organisation dealing with the supernatural which she felt she could trust not to kill her or imprison her.

She mailed documents proving her identity and innocence of the St Kitts murder to Giles and made an appointment with him. There, after she began explaining her problem to Giles, they were confronted with "Michael", whom Giles recognised as a love wraith called Stacey Facade, who had once tried to hypnotise Giles himself. Stacey demanded to be given back Lor, who, due to her alien DNA, was the only viable food source she had left on Earth. After Giles and Maxie refused to let Stacey get at Lor, Giles was forced to shoot Stacey, seemingly killing her.

Lauren in 2021. (HOMEVID: The Only Cure)

Giles and Lor subsequently became good friends. (HOMEVID: Lauren Anderson) Giles later contacted her on 4 April 2021, as the closest thing among his acquaintances to a medical doctor with knowledge of aliens, when Maxie Masters fell victim to a mysterious illness. However, there was little she could do at first. With Maxie's condition worsening, the panicking Giles decided to covertly inject her with a small dose of Cyberon, hoping it would be enough to heal her yet not enough to trigger a conversion.

Although this gamble initially failed, Maxie ultimately came out unscathed from the adventure, and now that her condition was more stable, Lauren was able to more thoroughly examine her, realising that she'd had an allergic reaction to pollen recovered from the "alien plants" at the Ogden Farm, which P.R.O.B.E. had recently cleaned out. When she learned what he had done with the Cyberon fluid, Lauren was quite upset with Giles, and after recording his video diary on the events, Giles intended to have a long discussion with her over the phone to try and work things out. (HOMEVID: The Only Cure)

Later life

Lauren in 2892. (COMIC: Before the Storm)

Lauren slowly realised that her nature as a shapeshifter made her immortal, something she eventually came to terms with. Over the years, she had many friends, as well as lovers who included Stephanie. All were dead by 2892, by which point she was back to living in London. She was caught by surprise when the Cyberons attacked, later berating herself for not having properly understood that the far-flung future of the Cyberons she'd fought in centuries past would one day become her present. Acting quickly, she made her way to the P.R.O.B.E. Archive, whose passcode she still possessed.

She discovered that Box had, since she'd last seen her, upgraded herself into a huge, static computer powerful enough to predict the future. Box told Lauren about the century-long war ahead, promising that it would end in the Cyberons' defeat in 3009. While Box herself accepted that she was doomed, indeed being destroyed five hours later when the Cyberons bombed London, she entreated Lauren to survive — "for me… for Giles… for everyone we lost". Box even suggested that Lauren could have a part to play in an event Box had foreseen, the destruction of the Cyberons' home planet in 2989, although she wasn't certain. (COMIC: Before the Storm)

In the 31st century, Lor (under the name Lorre) was still alive and part of a group of shapeshifting missionaries. With the Cyberon war over, Lorre's colleagues wanted to use the Cyberon drug for agriculture and Lorre, not trusting it ever since 2000, called in Chris Cwej to prove it was unsafe and then destroy the site. Lorre assumed the Cyberons had finally been all destroyed. (PROSE: Barnyard of the Cyberons)

Behind the scenes

• Anderson originated in BBV's direct-to-video film Cyberon, but that series is not covered by this wiki since it holds no legal licence and has nothing to do with pre-existing DWU characters. However, the novelisation of the film is covered, due to the presence of DWU characters.
• Lorre the "shapeshifter" appeared in the Cyberon anthology before Lauren Anderson. While implied to be Lauren, it doesn't specify how and relies on the reader being aware of Zygon.