Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill
Species:	Human
Place of origin:	Earth
First appearance:	Time Wake
Appearances:	see list
Main actor:	Ian McNeice
Other actors:	Nicholas Briggs
Memorable moment
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Winston Spencer-Churchill, (TV: Victory of the Daleks) also known as Winston Churchill, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II and later during the 1950s.

Biography

Early life

Churchill was born in 1874. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters, Childhood Living)

In November 1899, Churchill was a newspaper correspondent in the second Boer War. The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown saved him from an assassin. The Doctor spent some time with Churchill in a Boer prison before both escaped. Churchill escaped thanks to a Player contact while the Doctor regained access to the TARDIS after it had been taken for study. (PROSE: Players)

Political career

In World War I, he was appointed Minister of Defence. His plan to attack Germany via Turkey failed, prompting him to resign and return to the army as a Major. During an ambush, he was rescued by Lieutenant Jeremy Carstairs, Lady Jennifer Buckingham and the Second Doctor; having recently ended the War Games, the Doctor had asked to confirm the participants' return to their own times. After being captured by the Players, the Doctor sacrificed himself to help Churchill and his friends escape the Players' attempt to send Churchill to Berlin.

In 1936, Churchill's career was in decline because he opposed the government's appeasement of Adolf Hitler. He was reunited with the Sixth Doctor and Peri — the two posing as the children of their Boer War selves to account for their lack of aging, the Doctor passing off Peri's enthusiastic greeting by saying that their "parents" had told them many stories about their time with Churchill — and worked with them to thwart King Edward VIII's plans to dismiss the government and appoint one sympathetic to Hitler. (PROSE: Players)

Later that year, the Doctor met Churchill in an encounter that resulted in Churchill learning the truth about the Doctor's true identity. He also met the Eleventh Doctor at the fire of the Crystal Palace on 30 November 1936. (COMIC: The Eagle of the Reich)

As the British prime minister

Churchill became elected as British prime minister. Shortly after his election, he visited the Sontaran, Brak, and learned about the existence of aliens. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) He suceeded Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of the pre-war years who had tried to maintain the peace. (PROSE: Illegal Alien, One Wednesday Afternoon)

The Sixth Doctor once told a tale of how the Allied defeat at Dunkirk in 1940 left Churchill dispirited. The Doctor was able to convince Churchill to fight on, which he added might lead to Britain's "finest hour". The Doctor finished the story by saying: "Churchill brightened up, lit one of his big cigars, gave me a victory sign, and went out and won the war." (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)

At some point in 1941, two Daleks were presented to Winston by Edwin Bracewell as man-made superweapons. Churchill named them "ironsides". Unsure what to make of them, he telephoned the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks) By the time the Doctor arrived a month later, Winston was sure the "ironsides" would win the war. The Doctor tried to make Churchill understand the Daleks' true nature, but Winston would not listen, insisting they would be a vital weapon against Nazi Germany. The Daleks showed their true intentions once the Doctor had given his "testimony". They created a new race of pure Daleks which tried to destroy London by making it vulnerable to German bombers. The solution to defeating them lay with Bracewell, so Winston and Amy Pond talked him out of committing suicide and into helping them. Churchill told Bracewell, "It's time to think big", giving him the idea to use modified Spitfires. Following the Daleks' escape, the Doctor removed all of the alien technology. While Winston protested that it and the Doctor could win him the war in a day, the Doctor told him the Empire would come through without it and himself. Churchill hugged the Doctor farewell and picked the TARDIS key from the Doctor's pocket. Amy noticed and made him give it back. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Churchill and Bracewell discuss van Gogh's painting. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

Some time after those events, Bracewell got his hands on one of the final paintings by Vincent van Gogh, found in an attic in France. He showed it to Churchill. Without understanding what it meant, they recognised it as a message for the Doctor. Churchill tried to telephone the Doctor, but was diverted to River Song in the 52nd century, alerting her to its existence. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

In December 1941, the Twelfth Doctor called Churchill's number on his superphone to get the Allies to order a strike the Sontaran world engine weapon the Warsong after it was claimed by the Rutan Heinz Bruckner in the Sahara Desert. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

The Sixth Doctor contacted Churchill in 1944 to ask for Churchill's help in helping him infiltrate the Nazi army so that he could take part in an upcoming raid on the village of Turelhampton, as part of an investigation he was carrying out in the future. Although the Doctor was only able to offer Churchill limited information about why he was doing this, the Doctor's past record left Churchill confident that the Doctor's motives were good, and he was able to convince other members of his cabinet to agree to the plan. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 8 May 1945, Churchill made a speech at Trafalgar Square because of VE Day. (PROSE: Magic of the Angels)

After WWII

Sylvia O'Donnell, a British Nazi sympathiser whose German husband Heinrich was a Waffen-SS officer during the Second World War, blamed Churchill for the outbreak of the Mau Mau Uprising in British Kenya in 1953. She described him as "a senile old man." (AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings)

He was still Prime Minister in 1954, (PROSE: The Witch Hunters) by which point he was 80 years old. (PROSE: Childhood Living)

Legacy

The makers of EarthWorld believed that Churchill had famous seaside boxing matches. This was result of his speech, "We will fight them on the beaches", and its distortion over time. (PROSE: EarthWorld)

Prime Minister Harold Saxon was described as "a modern Churchill" by Vivien Rook in 2008. (TV: The Sound of Drums) In 2009, then-current Prime Minister Brian Green had a small caricature figure of Churchill in his office. (TV: Children of Earth)

Undated events

• To help Evie Hubbard, a Year Seven student at Coal Hill School, with her homework, the Twelfth Doctor arranged an interview between her and Churchill. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)

References

The Doctor claimed to have thought up the "blood, sweat and tears" speech for him. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)

The Eighth Doctor had Churchill's autograph. He had obtained this during the hundred years which he spent on Earth. (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows)

When Clyde Langer was sent through a time window to 1941, he said what he remembered of Churchill's speech to George Woods while spying on a group of Nazis landing on the coast. "We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them in the... other places." (TV: Lost in Time)

Liz Shaw's mother Dame Emily Shaw was a friend of Churchill, whom she affectionately referred to as "Old Winnie" following his death. The Third Doctor reminded her of Churchill. (AUDIO: The Last Post)

Other timelines

In an alternate timeline in which Germany won World War II, Churchill was executed as a war criminal. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

In a timeline where River Song caused time to collapse when she refused to kill the Doctor, Winston Churchill was the Holy Roman Emperor in Britain and had had many negotiations with Cleopatra. He was one of a minority who noticed that time never moved and it was always two past five in the afternoon of 22 April, 2011. He was also involved in the Conquest of Gaul.

Winston in the River Song timeline

The Doctor, whom Winston knew as a soothsayer, was locked up in the Tower of London. His presence was demanded to explain the problem with time. The Doctor told him the story of how he had gotten there. As he did, they had several run-ins with Silents, although neither of them could remember. Just as the Doctor got to the end, the two discovered hundreds of Silents hanging from the ceiling above them. At that moment they were saved by Amy and her soldiers. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

Personality

Brak regarded Churchill as a ruthless war leader, and compared his nature with that of a Sontaran. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers)

Winston Churchill was a close friend of the Doctor, meeting him in several of his incarnations. When the Eleventh Doctor arrived, he greeted him by having his men point guns at him, though he clearly had no intention of shooting him. The two of them acted as though it was a sort of game. They also displayed their close friendship by hugging each other before the Doctor left.

Winston had an obsession with being able to pilot the Doctor's TARDIS, even stealing the TARDIS key at one point. He gave it back as soon as Amy noticed he had taken it. Churchill cared a great deal about his country and the lives of his citizens and was eager to use the TARDIS to save lives. However, because he had no knowledge of the laws of time, the Doctor repeatedly refused to give him access to the TARDIS. Churchill was also a good and strong leader and the Doctor told him that many people saw him as a beacon of hope. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

Brilliant books

2011

According to The Brilliant Book 2011, which this wiki does not qualify as a valid source, Winston first met the Doctor when he was a boy. On his fifth birthday, 30 November 1879, at Blenheim Palace, Winston encountered the Doctor, then in his fourth incarnation. The Doctor was hunting Cybermats while posing as a Punch and Judy man.

Winston next met the Doctor in his second incarnation at St George's Prepatory School in Ascot in March 1882. The Doctor gave him lessons in Latin. Winston was curious at the time as to why the Doctor taught him how to address a table in Latin.

Winston next met the Doctor in his tenth incarnation on 26 October 1895, while the Doctor was looking for Sontaran grenades.

Winston encountered the Third Doctor at Omdurman in the Sudan on 3 September 1898. The Doctor was battling mummies at the time. (REF: The Brilliant Book 2011)

On 11 January 1911, the TARDIS appeared again. However it was the First Doctor who stepped out of the doors and told Churchill it was an honour to meet him. When Churchill informed him they had met before, the Doctor chuckled and said, "That's the trouble with time travel".

At Chartwell in May 1931, Winston and his wife joined the Fifth Doctor for a game of cricket.

Winston was at Chartwell again on 16 November 1936, when he met the Seventh Doctor. The Doctor told Winston that that the King's lover, Mrs Wallis Simpson, was an alien.

At Buckingham Palace on 8 May 1945, Winston ran into the Ninth Doctor. The Doctor took Winston on a trip in the TARDIS to Ancient Rome, where they encountered a creature disguised as one of Emperor Tiberius's reclining benches. Winston now realised why, back in 1882, he had been taught how to address a table in Latin.

2012

According to The Brilliant Book 2012, which this wiki does not qualify as a valid source, the alternate Churchill in the timeline River Song created was available on social-networking sites, where he was friends with Cleopatra.

Doctor Who Annual

According to Doctor Who The Official Annual 2011, which this wiki does not qualify as a valid source, in a timeline in which the Doctor did not find the Ironsides, they turned the tide of the war and took the fight to Germany. After the war was won, Churchill was pressured by Stalin and Truman into having the Ironsides destroyed by a nuclear bomb.

Other matters

• Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss decided to portray the Doctor and Churchill as old friends in Victory of the Daleks, rather than attempt to portray their first meeting. (CON: War Games)
• Actor Ian McNeice had previously played Churchill in the Royal National Theatre's 2008 production of Never So Good.
• Churchill has appeared in a total of four episodes of the revived series — three episodes in series five and one in series six — giving him the distinction of being the first recurring celebrity historical character. The only other focal characters of a celebrity historical episode to appear in more than one episode are Charles Dickens and Vincent van Gogh, the former having a cameo in The Wedding of River Song, and the latter in The Pandorica Opens, coincidentally Churchill's fourth and third appearances in the show.
• Timothy West played Churchill in the films Churchill and the Generals and Hiroshima.
• According to The Doctor: His Lives and Times, on 26 March 1963, Churchill sent a letter to a Mr Newman saying he would like to share the story of his friend the Doctor with him.