Romana

"Romana" refers to two incarnations of the Time Lady Romanadvoratrelundar during her travels with the Doctor. To distinguish the two, they are often referred to as "Romana I" and "Romana II," although the Doctor himself never used those appellations.

Romana I was recruited by what she thought was President Borusa but was in fact the White Guardian, - or, more likely, the Black Guardian posing as his counterpart, - to assist the Fourth Doctor in his quest for the Key to Time. Romana II based her appearance on the Princess Astra and continued travelling with the Doctor before choosing to remain in E-space and help the Tharils in their quest for freedom. In later prose stories in which she returned from E-space and was elected President of the High Council on Gallifrey, Romanadvoratrelundar was generally referred to by her full Gallifreyan name.

Other appearances

Outside of the television programme, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II also appeared in Australian-filmed television advertisements for PR1ME Computers in 1980, which played in a tongue-in-cheek way with the idea that the two characters shared a romantic relationship. [1]

Both Romanas have made appearances in the spin-off novels published by Virgin Publishing and BBC Books, and in Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish. The canonicity of these spin-offs is unclear.

Novels

In the licensed Virgin Missing Adventures novel Goth Opera by Paul Cornell, Romana II returned from E-space and was given a seat on the High Council of Time Lords. In the Virgin New Adventures novel Happy Endings, also by Cornell, it was revealed that Romana had become Lady President of Gallifrey. Romana's presidency was reflected in the later novels and in her appearances (voiced by Ward) in audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.

In the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, Romana underwent a second regeneration, and her new incarnation (Romana III, whose appearance was modelled on silent movie actress Louise Brooks) was far less sympathetic and far more ruthless than the other two. This third incarnation pursued the Eighth Doctor in a story arc which resulted in the obliteration of Gallifrey and the apparent retroactive wiping out of the Time Lords from history. However, it was hinted in Tomb of Valdemar by Simon Messingham that Romana may have been one of a few Time Lords that survived this cataclysm, possibly in a fourth incarnation.

If the continuity of the novels is to be reconciled with the new television series, Gallifrey and the Time Lords were restored at some point between the last Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin, and the start of the 2005 series.

Audio plays

Romana II appeared pseudonymously in a series of audio plays produced in the early 2000s by BBV. In this series, Lalla Ward played a character who appeared with K-9 in an unnamed parallel universe. This character was called the Mistress (which was what K-9 called Romana in the television series). Because of an unusual copyright situation in which BBV was able to license K-9 but not Romana or other Doctor Who elements, the Mistress was not explicitly called Romana. For similar reasons, the parallel universe (obviously intended to reflect Romana's exile in E-Space) was called a "pocket universe" in the series' packaging.

In Big Finish's regular line of Doctor Who audio stories, Ward joined Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor in The Apocalypse Element, where she was Lady President of Gallifrey. She also appeared with Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in the 2003 remake of Shada, an audio play produced by Big Finish for the BBC's Doctor Who website and accompanied by Macromedia Flash animations, and also in Neverland and Zagreus.

In Zagreus, Romana II was forced to banish the Eighth Doctor from the universe as he had become a danger to it following his infection by the forces of "anti-time". Following on from this, she was featured in a number of audio plays with former Doctor companion Leela (played by Louise Jameson) under the umbrella title of Gallifrey. In the second series of the Gallifrey audios, released in 2005, Mary Tamm returned to play Romana I alongside Ward. Both Romanas will play major roles in the third series of Gallifrey.

Romana's regeneration

Romana's tongue-in-cheek regeneration scene has been controversial with some fans since its airing. The controversy arises from the fact that the Doctor's own regenerations have usually been traumatic events, and it had been previously established that Time Lords were limited to twelve regenerations. Since Romana was the first female Time Lord shown regenerating, it was speculated that perhaps the mechanics of female regeneration differ from that of males. This hypothesis is bolstered by a remark made in The Mark of the Rani when the Rani stated that she could change her appearance but the Sixth Doctor was stuck in his.

Aside from the how of it, at least two attempts have been made in the spin-off ranges to explain the necessity for Romana's regeneration, one in the short story The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe by Mark Michalowski, published in the Big Finish Productions anthology, Short Trips: Companions. In this story, unknown to the Doctor, Romana suffered damage due to exposure to the Key to Time. Just as she was about to regenerate, a humanoid manifestation of the TARDIS, jealous of Romana, trapped her in a force field and proceeded to pretend to be Romana and changing into different forms, finally becoming a double of Princess Astra. Therefore, the Romana who appeared in Destiny of the Daleks was actually the TARDIS manifestation. Realising the error of its ways after that adventure, it released Romana, but not before making the female Time Lord assume the image of Astra.

The second explanation, which may or may not be consistent with the first, is given in the Gallifrey audio series. Gallifrey: Lies by Gary Russell reveals that Romana forced her own regeneration to prevent an ancient Gallifreyan evil called Pandora from gaining power over her (see also Time Lord - Recent history).