Hand of Omega
The Hand of Omega was a remote stellar manipulator, perhaps one of two, used by Omega and Rassilon in the antiquity of Gallifrey.
Characteristics
Appearance
The Hand lay in a dull, bronze coloured, metal box the size and shape of a casket. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Powers and abilities
The Hand could accelerate or manipulate the life cycle of stars. It also had some basic sentience, was capable of levitation and could follow voice commands. It was even able, by order of the Seventh Doctor, to make Ace's baseball bat into a weapon capable of damaging Daleks. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
History
Origins
Omega himself stated that the Hand was literally a hand placed in the stellar manipulator which had once belonged to Vandekirian, Omega's treacherous associate. The name "Hand of Omega" was chosen by Rassilon for political reasons. (AUDIO: Omega)
- However, the story is told largely from the point of view of an insane Omega with confused memories. This ultimately makes the accuracy of the information uncertain.
Rassilon and Omega worked on the project together. The Seventh Doctor, curiously, seemed to remember the project, suggesting his presence at its creation. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) This would imply that the Other, who sought rebirth as the Doctor, had a presence there. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
One Hand was a remote stellar manipulator designed to turn Qqaba into a supernova to serve as a power source great enough to allow the Gallifreyans time travel. In a sense, this Hand made it possible for the Gallifreyans to call themselves Time Lords.
Acquisition by the Doctor
The Hand was hidden by Rassilon, but escaped. The ancient alarms left by Rassilon were not known and could not be shut off, leaving the Hand to lurk around the rooms of the First Doctor, whom the Hand remembered as the Other. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
During a period of violent unrest on Gallifrey, the Doctor made off with the Hand, rather than have it fall into the clutches of any of the factions. He subsequently began his self-imposed exile with Susan. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)
According to another, contradictory, account, the First Doctor acquired the Hand of Omega when it was given to his by his seventh incarnation. (PROSE: Echoes of Future Past)
When the Doctor returned to London in November 1963 to collect it during his seventh incarnation, it laid in a funeral parlour.
The Doctor was setting a trap for the Renegade and Imperial Dalek factions and the Imperial Dalek leader, Davros. Davros had hoped to use the Hand to transform the sun of the Dalek homeworld Skaro into a power source for time travel. However, the Doctor had altered the Hand's programming. Instead of enhancing Skaro's sun, it went supernova, vaporising what the Doctor and Davros believed to be Skaro and presumably the Daleks themselves. The Hand of Omega returned to Gallifrey afterwards. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
After defeating WOTAN on 20 July 1966, the First Doctor checked to see if the Hand of Omega had been buried in Shoreditch Cemetery as per his instructions, only to discover that it had been removed. He determined that his future self would arrive at an earlier point in order to deal with it. (PROSE: The Rage and Bone Man's Story)
The sun which the Hand had turned supernova was not Skaro's, but Antalin's. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
Other universes
In an alternate universe, there were two Hands of Omega. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
Behind the scenes
- A scene which shows the Other present during the creation of the Hand appears in the Remembrance of the Daleks novelisation, the first-ever work to mention of the Other in any media, although the production team had already conceived of the character when working out the Doctor's backstory. This reference contradicts known information about the Minyans, who, by implication, destroyed their civilisation after an encounter with the Time Lords, rather than the Gallifreyans.
