The General: Difference between revisions

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(Tenth regeneration, eleventh incarnation. Like Five was the fourth regeneration, but the fifth incarnation.)
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{{Update|Information from [[Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)]]}}
{{ImageLink}}
{{Infobox Individual
{{Infobox Individual
|name=The General
|image        = <gallery>The General TDotD.jpg|11
|image= The_General_TDotD.jpg
Twelfth General.jpg|12</gallery>
|image2= Female General.jpg
|aliases      = Kenossium
|alias=
|job         = General
|affiliation=War Council
|species     = Time Lord
|job=General{{!}}Military commander
|affiliation  = War Council
|species=Time Lord
|affiliation2 = Obsidian Fleet
|origin=[[Gallifrey]]
|origin       = [[Gallifrey]]
|first=The Day of the Doctor (TV story)
|niece        = Cresta
|appearances=[[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]''
|first       = The Day of the Doctor (TV story)
|actor=Ken Bones
|appearances = [[The General - list of appearances|'''''see list''''']]
|other actor=T'Nia Miller
|actor       = Ken Bones
}}
|other actor = T'Nia Miller
'''The General''' was the [[Time Lord]] military commander during the Time War and then after.
|clip        = The General's Regeneration - Hell Bent - Doctor Who - BBC
}}{{you may|The General (Times Squared)|n1=the mysterious leader of the Vault|First Morbius|n2=Morbius's first incarnation}}
{{Kenossiums}}
'''Kenossium''', commonly referred to as simply '''the General''', was a [[General]] in the [[Time Lord]] military.


== Biography ==
== Biography ==
=== Eleventh General ===
=== Early days ===
The General's eleventh incarnation appeared as a middle-aged light skinned male with no hair. He described himself as the Time Lords' military commander. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'')
The General was, for their first ten [[incarnation]]s, a [[woman]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Hell Bent (TV story)}}) Like all [[Time Lord]]s, she was taken from her family at the [[age]] of eight for the selection process in the [[Drylands]]. Staring into the [[Untempered Schism]] as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, she was inspired by what she saw in the Schism. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'')


The General led the [[War Council]] and its efforts to defend [[Gallifrey]] from the [[Dalek]] onslaught in the final days of the [[Last Great Time War]]. In the aftermath of the [[Fall of Arcadia]], he was informed of the [[War Doctor]]'s appearance there. He was then alerted to a security breach in the [[Time Vaults]], discovering the Doctor had taken [[the Moment]], and intended to use it.
At the [[Time Lord Academy]], Kenossium was mentored by [[Bellator]], whose lessons taught her how to survive "sixteen [[transwarp campaign]]s and a [[Time war|Time War]]." ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Clockwise War (comic story)|The Clockwise War]]'') She was a [[Prydonian Chapter|Prydonian]] and was top of her class for temporal stratagem despite being "an unruly young woman" at the time. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Remnants (audio story)|Remnants]]'')


He was later contacted by three incarnations of the Doctor, much to his displeasure, the War Doctor with the [[Tenth Doctor|Tenth]] and [[Eleventh Doctor]], who revealed to him their plan to save Gallifrey by freezing it before its destruction and shifting it to a [[pocket universe]]. The General was sceptical, shocked by the thought of being lost and forgotten in another universe and that the calculations would take centuries. The Doctors informed him that they have recruited all their incarnations to help and that while the Time Lords would be lost, they'd at least have hope which they didn't have at that point. The Doctors also told the General that the alternative was burning and no one wanted that. As the General continued to hesitate, the [[Dalek Fleet|Dalek fleet]] realised something was wrong and increased their firepower. Realising he was out of options, the General ordered the Doctor to "just do it." The thirteen Doctors then succeeded in freezing Gallifrey and shifting it a pocket universe, causing the Dalek fleet to destroy themselves while the Time Lords were saved. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'')
They became the Time Lords' military commander, ([[TV]]: {{cs|Hell Bent (TV story)}}) adopting "the General" not only as their rank, but [[Elective Semantectomy|as their primary name]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Day of the Doctor (TV story)}}) The General was present on Gallifrey when the [[First Doctor]] stole [[The Doctor's TARDIS|a TARDIS]] and witnessed the commotion caused by the event. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)}})


When the [[Twelfth Doctor]] returned to Gallifrey, the General discussed the event with [[Rassilon]] and the High Council. He told Rassilon that the Doctor had the respect of his men as he was the one who won the Time War and had served with many of them. When Rassilon ordered the firing squad to kill the Doctor, the General protested, but made no move to stop them. The squad purposefully missed and sided with the Doctor. When military ships arrived, Rassilon assumed the General had summoned them. However, the Doctor told Rassilon he'd called the ships not the General and the ships chose to provide the Doctor with backup. As Rassilon prepared to kill the Doctor was his gauntlet, the General stopped him, telling Rassilon "Lord President, with respect, get off his planet." The General then dropped his gun and stood at the Doctor's side against Rassilon. Rassilon was exiled from Gallifrey and the General informed the Doctor that Gallifrey was at "the [[end of the universe]], give or take a star system" and as such, Rassilon may have nowhere to go. When the General continued to call Rassilon the President, the Doctor corrected him that he was the President now. The Doctor agreed to assist the [[High Council]] in learning the true identity of the Hybrid. To do this, he claimed that Clara Oswald had vital information and insisted she be extracted from the point of her death and brought to him on Gallifrey. The General facilitated this, but quickly discovered that the Doctor had merely lied in an extraordinary attempt to save Clara.
=== The General's incarnations ===
The General's tenth [[regeneration]] resulted in a male [[Eleventh General|eleventh incarnation]]. He appeared as a [[grey]]-[[eye]]d middle-aged light-[[skin]]ned bald man. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Day of the Doctor (TV story)}}, [[PROSE]]: ''[[Lords and Masters (short story)|Lords and Masters]]'')


The General insisted that any attempt to prevent Clara’s death as an established historical event would have grave consequences for the timeline. Unperturbed, the Doctor shot the General after asking the incarnation he was in, causing his eleventh [[regeneration]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'')
After the [[Twelfth Doctor]] shot him, the General regenerated into their [[Twelfth General|twelfth body]], this time having the form of a dark-skinned woman with a shaven head. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Hell Bent (TV story)}})


=== A new incarnation ===
=== Later life ===
The General quickly recovered after regenerating, this time having the form of a woman, in this case a dark skinned woman with a shaven head. She observed that she was "back to normal" and rhetorically asked how men continually dealt with "all that ego". With assistance from Ohila, the General continued to pursue the Doctor into the Cloisters. She exchanged words with Clara and seemed to respect the human's opinion. Unfortunately for the General, Clara had been buying enough time for the Doctor to escape and steal another TARDIS, and the pair fled from Gallifrey. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'')
Many years after the conclusion of the Time War, the General would deny that additional Doctors other than the war, tenth and eleventh incarnations were present in the saving of Gallifrey. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'')


== Personality ==
== Behind the scenes ==
=== Tenth incarnation ===
* The General's [[regeneration]] in {{cs|Hell Bent (TV story)}} marked the first time since ''[[The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story)|The Curse of Fatal Death]]'' a [[gender]]-swapped regeneration was shown on television.
** Incidentally, it was also the first regeneration witnessed in the revived series where the Time Lord in question was lying down, rather than standing up, and the regeneration was far calmer than is generally seen with Time Lords such as the Doctor and {{Jacobi}}.
* According to ''[[TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual]]'', the General wrote an unofficial memoir titled "[[Thirteen of Them: I Didn't Know When I Was Well Off]]", which detailed the events at the climax of the Last Great Time War.
* Following the revelation in {{cs|Hell Bent (TV story)}} that all of the General's regenerations prior to the Ken Bones incarnation had been female, a fan theory emerged that "the General" was a [[Elective Semantectomy|new identity]] adopted by [[Romana]] at the end of the [[Last Great Time War]]. Although contradicted by a handful of sources (most notably ''[[The Clockwise War (comic story)|The Clockwise War]]'' giving the General a different birth name from "Romanadvoratrelundar", and [[Doctor Who Experience Interactive Story (Twelfth Doctor)|the Twelfth Doctor ''Doctor Who Experience Interactive Story'']] depicting Romana still in her [[Romana II|Lalla Ward incarnation]] in "the very last days of [[Gallifrey]]"), this idea was endorsed by veteran ''Doctor Who'' writer [[Jonathan Morris]],<ref>[https://twitter.com/jonnymorris1973/status/1339320578864504845 Jonathan Morris on Twitter]</ref> who indicated in [[2020 (releases)|2020]] that he intended to confirm it in a licensed short story at the first opportunity.<ref>[https://twitter.com/jonnymorris1973/status/1339325985553084417 Further comment by Jonathan Morris on Twitter]</ref>
* The General was the first case of a distinct Time Lord being introduced as using the same [[Elective Semantectomy|"the" title]] as another, earlier Time Lord despite the two having no known relationship; prior to the Ken Bones General's introduction, the novel ''[[Warmonger (novel)|Warmonger]]'' by [[Terrance Dicks]] had seen [[Morbius]] adopt the name of "the General" following his exile from Gallifrey (although as shown in ''[[The Brain of Morbius (TV story)|The Brain of Morbius]]'', he would late revert to his birth name after the failure of his galactic war).


During the [[Last Great Time War]], the General was devoted to defeating the [[Dalek]]s and saving his species. He was shown to be a greatly respected military leader who didn't seem impressed with [[Rassilon]] and the [[High Council]]'s [[Ultimate Sanction|plans]] to save their species. He was also shown to not think highly of [[War Doctor|the Doctor]], calling him "the mad fool" and saying that three Doctors arriving was "all my worst nightmares at once" and that twelve of them turning up was even worse. He was also stunned by the idea that Gallifrey and the Time Lords' only option was to be frozen in a [[pocket universe]] and was knowledgeable about the fact that it would take a very long time to make such calculations. However, he is shown to be able to make quick decisions when the need arises as seen when the [[Dalek Fleet|Dalek fleet]] increased their firepower on Gallifrey and he ordered the Doctor to "just do it" rather than continuing to hesitate over his decision. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'')
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}


Following the end of the Last Great Time War, the General gained a great respect for the [[Twelfth Doctor]]. When Rassilon questioned who the Doctor thought he was ignoring the military, the General called his [[War Doctor|war incarnation]] "the man who won the Time War" with a respectful tone. When Rassilon ordered the Doctor's execution, the General protested, but chose not to disobey orders like his men. However, he also did nothing to stop his men as they sided with the Doctor. When the General defected to the Doctor's side, he ordered Rassilon off Gallifrey in a way that showed he was disgusted with the former Lord President. He did however question the Doctor's decision to banish Rassilon, as there may be nowhere for him to go and Rassilon was once a good man. He accepted the decision regardless though. When he realised the Doctor had manipulated the situation to save [[Clara Oswald]], the General showed no fear as he stood his ground against an armed Doctor, merely trying to talk some sense into him and get him to stand down. When the Doctor asked which [[regeneration]] the General was in, the General seemed to understand what he meant but again showed no fear. When the Doctor wished him good luck before shooting him, the General did the same, remaining magnanimous towards him to the end despite the fact that the Doctor was about to shoot him, possibly being understanding what the Doctor was trying to do despite the extreme measures he was using. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'')
{{War Council}}


=== Eleventh incarnation ===
{{TitleSort}}
As a woman, the General showed distaste for the egos of men and was at least partly relieved to be a woman again. While trying to stop the Doctor, she allowed Clara to say some final words to him before she was sent back to die, showing some compassion and listened stoically as Clara called the Time Lords monsters. However, she was shocked by the Doctor's escape with Clara's help and somewhat panicked by it. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'')


== Behind the scenes ==
[[cs:Generál]]
In his first-seen incarnation, the General was played by [[Ken Bones]], who also provided the Time Lord voice asking [[the Question]], "Doctor who?", in ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]''. Although not explicitly confirmed, it can be inferred that the voice asking the Question was that of the General. Indeed, the subtitles on the Blu-Ray and DVD identify the voice as that of the General.
[[de:Kenossium]]
 
The General's eleventh regeneration in ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'' marked the first time a gender-swapped regeneration was shown on television. [[Michelle Gomez]]'s {{Gomez}} was the first gender-swapped Time Lord depicted on television, but her actual regeneration occurred off-screen. The very first gender-swapped regeneration was depicted in [[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Black Hole (audio story)|The Black Hole]]'', which was released two weeks before ''Hell Bent''.
 
{{Time Lords}}
{{NameSort}}
[[es:El General]]
[[es:El General]]
[[fr:Le Général]]
[[fr:Le Général]]
[[Category:Individual Time Lords]]
 
[[Category:Military officers]]
[[Category:Military officers]]
[[Category:Combatants in the Last Great Time War]]
[[Category:Time Lord combatants in the Last Great Time War]]
[[Category:Residents of Gallifrey]]
[[Category:Residents of Gallifrey]]
[[Category:Time Lords with unknown names]]
[[Category:Survivors of the Last Great Time War]]
[[Category:Survivors of the Last Great Time War‎]]
[[Category:Students at the Time Lord Academy]]
[[Category:Members of the War Council]]
[[Category:Gallifreyans with incarnations of varied genders]]
[[Category:Prydonians]]
[[Category:The Ones That Were Inspired]]

Latest revision as of 16:03, 26 November 2024

This article needs to be updated.

Information from Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)

These omissions are so great that the article's factual accuracy has been compromised. Check out the discussion page and revision history for further clues about what needs to be updated in this article.

You may be looking for the mysterious leader of the Vault or Morbius's first incarnation.

Kenossium, commonly referred to as simply the General, was a General in the Time Lord military.

Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]

Early days[[edit] | [edit source]]

The General was, for their first ten incarnations, a woman. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"]) Like all Time Lords, she was taken from her family at the age of eight for the selection process in the Drylands. Staring into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, she was inspired by what she saw in the Schism. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)

At the Time Lord Academy, Kenossium was mentored by Bellator, whose lessons taught her how to survive "sixteen transwarp campaigns and a Time War." (COMIC: The Clockwise War) She was a Prydonian and was top of her class for temporal stratagem despite being "an unruly young woman" at the time. (AUDIO: Remnants)

They became the Time Lords' military commander, (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"]) adopting "the General" not only as their rank, but as their primary name. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) The General was present on Gallifrey when the First Doctor stole a TARDIS and witnessed the commotion caused by the event. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])

The General's incarnations[[edit] | [edit source]]

The General's tenth regeneration resulted in a male eleventh incarnation. He appeared as a grey-eyed middle-aged light-skinned bald man. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], PROSE: Lords and Masters)

After the Twelfth Doctor shot him, the General regenerated into their twelfth body, this time having the form of a dark-skinned woman with a shaven head. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"])

Later life[[edit] | [edit source]]

Many years after the conclusion of the Time War, the General would deny that additional Doctors other than the war, tenth and eleventh incarnations were present in the saving of Gallifrey. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)

Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ Jonathan Morris on Twitter
  2. ↑ Further comment by Jonathan Morris on Twitter
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