Borusa

Borusa

Appearances

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Information from the final arc of Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, where "Boris" is seen in a virtual world in a storyline which was never resolved, needs to be added.

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Borusa
Main aliases:	Boris
Species:	Time Lord
Job:	Lord Cardinal, High Chancellor, Lord President
Affiliated with:	High Council
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
First appearance:	The Deadly Assassin [+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"]
Appearances:	see list
Main actor:	John Arnatt
Other actors:	Angus MacKay, Leonard Sachs, Philip Latham
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Incarnations of Borusa
Alternate timelines

Borusa, (TV: The Deadly Assassin ^[+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"]) whose full name, by one account, was Fuldanquin Borusa (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen (novelisation)"]) was a notable and ultimately tragic figure in the history of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, and a very important figure in the life of the Doctor. At various points in his life, he assumed the ranks of Lord President, Cardinal and Chancellor of Gallifrey.

Biography

Early life and career

Like all Time Lords, Borusa was taken from his 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, Borusa was driven mad by what he saw in the Schism. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)

Like the Doctor, Borusa was a member of the Prydonian Chapter. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) As a Junior Cardinal, he chaired the Committee of Enquiry into the activities of Morbius. Viewed as an "ambitious young swine" by his seniors, he had hopes of succeeding the deposed Morbius as Lord President, although he lost the election. (PROSE: Warmonger)

Borusa held the degree of a jurist and was a tutor to the young Doctor, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) and the Master, (AUDIO: Masterplan) the Rani and Drax, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) as well as to the rest of the Deca, and later to Romana I, at the Time Lord Academy (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) and Prydon Academy, where he taught alongside Azmael. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) One account, however, showed that Borusa was not familiar with the Master. (TV: The Deadly Assassin ^[+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"])

From time to time, the Doctor and the Master skipped classes and took to the streets of the Capitol, using the alleys to hide from Borusa. (TV: The Timeless Children)

Borusa lectures a young Time Lord. (COMIC: Vortex Butterflies)

When the Doctor was a young boy, Borusa told him off for his attitude, and that he would be lucky to receive a Class Three Doctorate. Borusa taught him to be seen to respect tradition, even though he did not. (COMIC: Vortex Butterflies) He also taught the Doctor to fear the regenerative process and to never take his eyes off a shapeshifter. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) Borusa taught the Doctor and the Master about the High Vectors. (AUDIO: The Last Line)

According to the First and Twelfth Doctors, Borusa was a poet, although he was described as being "truly awful" at it. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time)

Among other subjects, he taught mind-shielding. He wrote a paper on reason, which the Doctor had read. (TV: The Invasion of Time) Borusa presided over the Doctor's expulsion from the Academy, at a hearing which was also attended by President Drall, who pushed Borusa for the expulsion. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)

His previous student, Magnus, began to rise rapidly in the Time Lord hierarchy and Cardinal Borusa saw him as a threat to his own position of power and persuaded the Celestial Intervention Agency to manufacture evidence of treason against him. Believed to be a criminal, Magnus fled from Gallifrey and became a renegade. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

Borusa was twice offered the office of President. However, he declined both times, believing that the office had too many purely ceremonial functions and preferred to exercise real authority from behind the scenes. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin)

Involvement with the Master

Cardinal Borusa on Presidential Resignation Day. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

When the Doctor returned to Gallifrey in his fourth incarnation, he was framed by the Decayed Master and Chancellor Goth for the assassination of the outgoing President. By this time, Borusa was Lord Cardinal on the High Council. Once the Doctor was shown to be innocent, Borusa set about "adjusting the truth" in the wake of the events, portraying the late Goth not as the Master's ally, but as a hero who had given his life to stop the Master. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

During the Sontaran invasion

After the incident with the Master, Borusa became Lord Chancellor — illegally, according to the Doctor — and at some point regenerated. (TV: The Invasion of Time) Though before this point in his life, Borusa had managed to live out his regenerations to their fullest extent, since the Doctor had come back into his life, however, Borusa suddenly went through — and would continue to go through — his regenerations rather quickly due to reasons such as a falling stack of books, a missing decimal point, and an infected toenail. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen)

The Doctor later returned to Gallifrey briefly to claim the post of Lord President, but was secretly working to defeat the telepathic Vardans in their quest to invade Gallifrey, a ploy which he eventually confided to Borusa. The Doctor asked his old mentor to remain in a lead-lined room to prevent the Vardans from reading his mind. Borusa acknowledged that he was too one-track-minded to employ the Doctor's "trick'" of keeping his thoughts too chaotic for the Vardans to read. Once the Vardans and their puppet masters, the Sontarans, had been defeated, the Doctor departed, again leaving Gallifrey in Borusa's hands. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

Career as Lord President

After the Doctor's abrupt departure, Borusa became Acting President of Gallifrey, during which he still made time to tutor the more interesting Time Lords and researching ways to stay alive, knowing the Doctor might turn up again sooner or later. One of his students during this time was Romanadvoratrelundar. He saw much potential in her but did not expect her to go too far, and was consequently surprised when she left Gallifrey for a short mission and even more surprise when she hadn't come right back. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen)

Sometime before the second crisis involving Omega, Borusa was inducted officially as Lord President and regenerated again. Councillor Hedin left evidence of his own crimes that made it seem that Borusa was the criminal. Borusa corrected the Time Lords, revealing Hedin's wrongdoing, and hoped that Omega would find peace after the Fifth Doctor sent him back to the antimatter universe. (TV: Arc of Infinity)

During "Borusa's time", the Portrait of Rassilon disappeared, and the Time Lord High Council censured the Corsair in response. Later, the Censure was lifted by President Flavia, although she refused to clarfiy why; although she once admitted that the Corsair had a "very attractive" smile. (PROSE: Eleven Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Corsair)

Descending into madness

Regenerating yet again — with his stubborn streak apparently enhanced in the process — Borusa used his presidential powers to investigate the legacy of Rassilon from the Dark Time of Gallifrey. He pursued access to the Tomb of Rassilon, where he believed he would find the secret of immortality, ruling Gallifrey forever as "President Eternal". To this end, he reactivated the ancient Time Scoop and revived the long-forbidden war games between captured representatives of various species in the Death Zone surrounding the Tomb.

Borusa summoned all of the Doctor's previous incarnations to the Zone (though the Fourth Doctor ended up becoming trapped in the Time Vortex), convinced that at least one would gain entry to the Tomb. He also arranged for the Master to be sent into the Death Zone- officially to help the Doctor but unofficially to 'inspire' the Doctor by giving him a clearer villain to face- and time-scooped at least one Dalek, one Robot Yeti, and a squad of Cybermen to go into the Zone as well. Although the Fifth Doctor was sent to the Capitol and managed to learn what Borusa was doing despite his attempts to frame other parties, Borusa used the Coronet of Rassilon to take control of the Fifth Doctor, once the first three Doctors had reached Rassilon's tomb and been tricked into deactivating the forcefield blocking transmat access to the Tomb. After reaching the Tomb, Borusa used the Coronet to paralyse the Doctors' assembled companions, but the first three Doctors were able to link minds to free their fifth self, the four Doctors joining together to stand against Borusa. As an avatar of the Matrix Rassilon appeared in the tomb, he offered Borusa immortality, but as the First Doctor had realised, the promised immortality was a trap set by Rassilon to capture power-mongers such as himself. Borusa was condemned, like others before him, to live his "immortal" life, trapped as a carving within the stone sarcophagus. (TV: The Five Doctors)

Political legacy

Although Borusa was officially declared missing after the events of the Death Zone in order to preserve the High Council's reputation, they were soon forced to acknowledge that Borusa had caused far more problems than the obvious. Certain of his impending immortality and responsibility to be Gallifrey's true ruler, Borusa had not only discredited and dismissed many of the more competent Time Lords from the High Council but had also created a council composed of weak-willed Time Lords who lacked the personal strength to take action without him. Faced with a political system on the brink of collapse, the Time Lords were forced to recall the Doctor to act as President, as he was a relative outsider with no ties to anyone else who would be controversial enough to establish himself as a credible candidate. After spending a short time in the role, the Doctor was able to create a new political system on Gallifrey, dealing with some of his personal perceived flaws in the political process, before handing power over to his appointed successor and departing on his travels once again. (AUDIO: Time in Office)

Revival and retirement

The Eighth Doctor persuaded Rassilon to free Borusa from his immortality to reform the corrupt High Council that had been responsible for the Sixth Doctor's latest trial. He was released from his punishment to carry out this duty — simultaneously being regressed back to an earlier, more stable incarnation — but apparently returned to Rassilon afterwards. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) One author believed Borusa being released to guide Gallifrey once again was an unlikely myth. (PROSE: A Brief History of the Time Lords)

He was released once again when the Committee of Three — a group of renegade Time Lords whose careers had been ruined by the Doctor's actions — attempted to use the powerful Agonal against Rassilon to make him release Borusa, but, having seen the error of his ways, Borusa instead aided Rassilon, Romana II and the Seventh Doctor in defeating Agonal before seemingly passing on for good. Upon being asked by Romana whether Borusa had died after he said the man had "went sane", the Doctor replied "Is Rassilon dead? What is death anyway?" and joked that Romana needed to answer the questions with a single sheet of paper. (PROSE: Blood Harvest)

Wartime

During the War in Heaven, the Lord President reintegrated several barely-reformed renegades into Gallifreyan society. Allopta trained with Raston Warrior Robots in the Death Zone under the oversight of an aged figure in crimson robes, with piercing eyes and a silk skullcap. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

Rassilon retro-evolved Borusa into a possibility engine during the Last Great Time War. He resided in the Dark Tower in the Death Zone. He had been wired up to the Time Vortex and constantly regenerated through different incarnations, which included a pale elderly man, an olive-skinned youth, and a middle-aged woman. Rassilon used Borusa to predict the most suitable timeline for Time Lord victory throughout the War. Rassilon came to Borusa to ask him about the most successful way to detonate the Tear of Isha into the Tantalus Eye.

The War Doctor later stole Borusa from Rassilon. Being further altered by proximity to the Tantalus Eye, Borusa helped the Doctor to erase all presence of the Daleks around the Tantalus Eye. He was killed in the process, but that was the fate that he wanted after a miserable existence as Rassilon's experiment. (PROSE: Engines of War)

General legacy

The Spy Master mentioned his and the Doctor's shared education under Borusa to the Thirteenth Doctor when he brought her to the ruins of the Capitol. (TV: The Timeless Children)

Personality

Borusa had a tendency to be stubborn, something that Jerricho noted did not change much throughout his regenerations. (TV: The Five Doctors) He was a much-loved and distinguished Time Lord who, upon becoming President, silently broke under the weight of his responsibilities. His fierce pride tipped him over the edge of ambition into madness and he came to believe that it would be best for Gallifrey if he was able to rule it forever, leading him to seek immortality. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

Borusa seemed to have been a strict teacher towards the Doctor and didn't give his former pupil much credit for saving Gallifrey from the Master, giving him a mark of nine out of ten. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

However, the pair seemed to have a love/hate relationship, only for their relationship to completely shatter when Borusa placed all of the Doctor's incarnations in mortal danger. (TV: The Five Doctors) After being set free from the possibility engine by the War Doctor, Borusa was willing to help the Doctor, if in return he would end his suffering from what Rassilon had done to him. (PROSE: Engines of War)

Appearance

One of his earliest incarnations was an older dark skinned man with a white beard and hair. (COMIC: Vortex Butterflies)

In his "Cardinal" incarnation, Borusa was a tall, hawk-eyed old man with snowy-white hair and a seamed and wrinkled face. His eyes sparkled with intelligence and, despite his age, his bearing was upright. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin)

Borusa looked similar in his "Chancellor" incarnation, again a tall man with hawk-like eyes and white hair. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time)

In his first "President" incarnation, Borusa was white-haired and aristocratic, (PROSE: Arc of Infinity) looking older than his previous incarnations. (TV: Arc of Infinity)

In his second "President" incarnation, Borusa was again an older man. (TV: The Five Doctors) He had a long, intellectual face. (PROSE: The Five Doctors)

Behind the scenes

Borusa is one of the few Time Lords to be depicted in televised episodes through multiple regenerations on-screen. As of June 2020, all four actors who have portrayed him are deceased.

Information from invalid sources

TARDIS Stolen!, a 1987 short story considered invalid on the Wiki due to its parodical nature, mentions Borusa's Boutique, which sold "silly headwear for all occasions", an allusion to the impractical Time Lord collars seen in The Deadly Assassin and many subsequent appearances of the Lords Temporal.

A distinct incarnation of Borusa features in the board game Battle for the Universe.

In the TV sketch The Pitch of Fear, which dramatised (in a satirical format) elements of Doctor Who's production rather than taking place in any variation of the Doctor Who universe per se, Mark Gatiss played a character called Mr Borusa, obviously in reference to the Time Lord of the same name.

The character was at one stage going to appear in Doctor Who TV movie. Among those considered for the role were Richard Attenborough, Peter Cushing, Kirk Douglas, Albert Finney, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Anthony Hopkins, Burt Lancaster, Christopher Lee, Jack Lemmon, Paul Newman and Gregory Peck. The clear favourite, however, was Peter O'Toole, who had provisionally declared his interest in the project.