The Other
The Other, with Rassilon and Omega, was one of three founders of Time Lord society on the planet Gallifrey during the Dark Times after the cult of Pythia had ended. The birth and origin of The Other would remain a mystery for later Time Lords.
- Apart from this triumverate, three other persons would have a major influence on Gallifreyan history. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
Profile
As Rassilon's rule moved closer to despotism and Gallifrey's borders were sealed, the Other attempted to escape the planet by hurling himself into the Looms to await eventual reconsitution. (NA: Lungbarrow)
Accounts differ as to results of this. Some imply that he was re-Loomed some ten million years later to the House of Lungbarrow as the Time Lord who would become known as the Doctor (NA: Lungbarrow).
Others imply that the presence of his biodata in the Looms gave rise not to one simple reincarnation but to the wider tendency for rebellion and discontent which would characterise the Deca's generation of Time Lords. (This generation included the Doctor's.) (FP: The Book of The War).
Other information
- Scholars would later call documents concerning these three, the ROO texts. (MA: Goth Opera, PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
- A minor Gallifreyan festival known as Otherstide was celebrated yearly in his honour. It coincided with the Doctor's naming day (probably analogous to birthday). (NA: Lungbarrow)
Behind the Scenes
The first direct mention (and appearance) of the Other happens in Ben Aaronovitch's Target Books Rememembrance of the Daleks novelisation, in the form of a brief flashback to the time of Rassilon. Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch had already worked out a backstory to the Doctor in a secret document known as the "Cartmel Masterplan" into which the Other figured.
A popular theory is that the unknown faces seen while the Doctor mindwrestled with the evil Time Lord Morbius are incarnations of the Other (DW: The Brain of Morbius). However, this theory can be disproven by the fact that the Other couldn't regenerate (NA: Lungbarrow).
