Karn
Once a colony of Gallifrey, Karn later was the home of the powerful Sisterhood of Karn and bolt-hole of the Time Lord criminal Morbius.
Characteristics
By the time of Morbius's attempted re-birth, Karn had become a burned-out and exhausted planet, a barren and rocky wasteland with many ruins and abandoned industrial plantations. It was littered with the wreckage of crashed spaceships brought down by the Sisterhood out of fear of theft of the Elixir of Life. (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
- By implication, Karn was near Gallifrey, as well as being a place of importance in the history of Gallifrey and of the Time Lords.
History
Early History
Karn was originally a colony of the old Gallifreyan Empire in the days before Rassilon. The Sisterhood of Karn were a remnant of the Pythias who once ruled Gallifrey before being expelled by the triumvirate of Rassilon, Omega, and the Other. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
Modern History
In the Rassilon Era, the Sisterhood guarded the Sacred Flame. The Sacred Flame was used to distill the Elixir of Life, which could aid a Time Lord who experienced difficulty with regeneration. (TV: The Brain of Morbius) In the far future, Morbius, a renegade Time Lord, in his bid for galactic conquest, came to Karn with a mercenary army promised the Elixir of Life. The Time Lords cornered him there, defeating, trying and executing him.
Before his death, Mehendri Solon, a member of the Cult of Morbius, removed Morbius' brain and preserved it, vowing to resurrect him. Solon settled on the planet in a disused hydrogen plant and sought a way to make Morbius live again, using body parts from dead crew members of crashed ships to create a new body for him. (TV: The Brain of Morbius) Cristophe Zarodnix purchased Karn from the Sisterhood. (AUDIO: Sisters of the Flame)
It was also the location of the Eighth Doctor's regeneration into the War Doctor. (WC: The Night of The Doctor)
Behind the scenes
Origins
Karn originated in a theatrical play, Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday, written by Terrance Dicks. He re-used the name in the script for The Brain of Morbius. The play featured a Fourth Doctor. This wiki considers neither the play, nor its audio adaptation by Big Finish a valid source and therefore sees The Brain of Morbius as the first appearance of Karn in the DWU.
