Irving Braxiatel
Irving Braxiatel or simply Braxiatel was a Time Lord and maintainer of the Braxiatel Collection. At one stage of his life he held the office of Lord Cardinal in the High Council on Gallifrey. Though not proved, there is evidence of him being the Doctor's brother.
Profile
Biography
- The exact chronology of Irving Braxiatel's personal history is unclear, due in part to temporal manipulation; this article simplifies matters by presenting events in chronological order.
Gallifrey Politics
Braxiatel became involved with galactic politics, generally on Gallifrey. He was appointed as a Gallifreyan ambassador early in his career, and returned home to try to avert the disaster he believed would result from the Timonic Fusion Device - Project Alpha - being built by Gower and his technician, Narvin. (BFG: The Inquiry) He organised the Armageddon Convention, which he tried to get the Doctor to chair, but by mistake his agents brought a physically similar man. The Convention was not particularly successful, although we know that it did outlaw the use of Cyberbombs. Braxiatel decided to go back to collecting. (MA: The Empire of Glass) He was a tutor in the Time Lord Academy while Romana attended. When she was contacted by Pandora, she informed him. As a consequence, Braxiatel hypnotised Romana to forget not only Pandora, but also Braxiatel. Thus, she recalled only having heard of him through his art collection before her eventual return to Gallifrey from E-Space. He guided her subsequent rise to the Presidency in order to watch her closely for any evidence of Pandora's influence. (BFG: Spirit) He became a Cardinal, a member of the High Council of Time Lords and a confidante of President Romana. (BFA: Zagreus)
Braxiatel became High Chancellor - a post not filled for many years, not since Romana's predecessor had overthrown his predecessor - but mere hours later Braxiatel had to use his mind to contain the past and present forms of an ancient Gallifreyan evil known as Pandora. As Pandora would be able to escape if he ever connected to the Matrix or telepathically communicated with another Time Lord mind, Braxiatel exiled himself from Gallifrey. (BFG: Pandora)
When Romana destroyed the future form of Pandora (as well as its intelligence), it was at the cost of also destroying the Matrix. (BFG: Warfare) After Romana was removed from office, Braxiatel returned briefly and unexpectedly to Gallifrey and assumed the post of Lord President, since there was no longer anywhere for the Pandora entity to escape to. Having conspired with Matthias and Narvin, he claimed that due to Inquisitor Darkel having cancelled much of Romana's Presidential edicts, he was thus restored to the position of Chancellor and Vice-President. His first act was to free Romana. (BFG: Mindbomb)
However, the ambitious Darkel goaded Braxiatel into losing control of Pandora, believing that it would destroy Braxiatel's mind in the process. Braxiatel then revealed that only a remnant of the entity had ever been in his mind; the bulk of it had sought refuge in Darkel's mind and Braxiatel had merely been the key that kept it restrained. Thus freed, Pandora consumed both Darkel and itself. Immediately resigning, he named Matthias his successor, much to Romana's surprise. Braxiatel then returned to his exile, retaining the last fragments of Pandora within him. (BFG: Mindbomb)
- The last words Ronan McGinley spoke after succumbing to the Gallifreyan Crystal were, "The thing in your head... it's still there...", hinting that Pandora was still active.
However, Braxiatel was not done: hearing rumours of an impending threat against Gallifrey and deciding that in its weakened state the planet was doomed, he hatched a scheme to preserve the Time Lord biodata archive, containing the genetic patterns of all Time Lords, past and present, in the hopes of reconstructing Gallifrey after its inevitable fall. As the Free Time Dogma Virus ravaged Gallifrey, Matthias nominated Romana to find the cure, then go into exile. Romana followed the trail, only to find Braxiatel. He had nominated Matthias knowing that whoever was President would be doomed to fall to the Dogma virus. The only cure for the virus was to end the regeneration capabilities of the Time Lords. With the help of K-9, Braxiatel used a Time Scoop to collect the biodata archive. He then asked Romana to decide whether to administer the cure, or to let Gallifrey die and rebuild it using the biodata. (BFG: Panacea)
- This fall might be related to the Last Great Time War.
Braxiatel Collection
The Braxiatel Collection (renowned for being one of the greatest art galleries in the galaxy) was founded by Irving Braxiatel and located on an asteroid which Braxiatel was rumoured to have won by playing cards. It had extensive archaeological libraries which could be used by Braxiatel's permission. Braxiatel's collection of books contained every book banned by the Catholic Church. (BNA: Tears of the Oracle, NA: Theatre of War)
- He may have acquired these from the Library of St John the Beheaded or he may have founded the Library himself.
The reason for the creation of the Braxiatel Collection was the disastrous test of the Timeonic Fusion Device, which destroyed the planet Minyos, prompting Braxiatel to begin collecting and preserving historical artefacts in case such widespread destruction ever happened again. He also admitted that he had transgressed the Laws of Time by being in contact with his future regenerations. (BFG: The Inquiry)
At some point, Braxiatel became the head of the Department of Theatrology at St. Oscar's University on the planet Dellah. After Bernice ("Benny") Summerfield obtained a post at the archaeology department in 2593, the pair of them became entangled in many adventures. After the destruction of the planet Dellah, Braxiatel invited Benny to accept a post with him at the Collection. (BNA: Dragons' Wrath, Where Angels Fear, BFBS:
Working with the Fifth Axis
While Benny was working at the Braxiatel Collection, a conspiracy started to develop around Braxiatel. While all the characters were shown dark, twisted mirror images of themselves, Braxiatel was unaffected and when Jason Kane wondered if the real Braxiatel was the mirror version, Jason was brainwashed into being unable to be suspicious of Braxiatel. (BFBS: The Mirror Effect) Further incidents showed the Time Lord to be secretly more dangerous and manipulative than he was letting on — he was shown using a brainwashed Jason for his own ends. as well as having murder done in his name and causing a civil war in the Domus system. (BFBS: A Life in Pieces)
Braxiatel was finally caught out when, following the Collection's occupation by the Fifth Axis and their Dalek masters, he decided to ensure the Collection would survive by finding an army to defend it. He turned to the colony of Cantus, which had been taken over long ago by the Cybermen, and had a member of the Collection, Ronan McGinley, turned into a Cyber-Controller subordinate to Braxiatel's will. Using a mysterious Gallifreyan crystal, Ronan was able to make all the Cybermen follow Braxiatel's orders. It was later revealed that the crystal was slowly killing Ronan, so Braxiatel arranged for Jason to arrive on Cantus to become the new Controller. Thanks to Benny, this plan backfired and Jason remembered everything that Braxiatel had done to him. Braxiatel was then forced to leave the Collection. (BFBS: The Crystal of Cantus)
Braxiatel's absence led to the Draconian Empire claiming a territorial right to the Collection, as well as getting into a war with the Mim - Bernice Summerfield eventually tracked down Braxiatel to return him to the Collection, so as to handle the situation. (BFBS: The Empire State) He proved successful, though he stopped the war in secret by convincing Collection gardener Hass to kill the entire Mimsphere, framing the Draconians for it.
Jason Kane began growing suspicious that he and Bernice were meant to still be married and have children, but that Braxiatel had deliberately altered the timeline for his own purposes; Jason also began to believe Irving had altered the lives and timelines of everyone at the Collection for his own ends and only Jason was able to notice. He eventually found evidence of this, and it was revealed Braxiatel had deliberately orchestrated the breakdown and death of Clarissa Jones (after she noticed his manipulations), had manipulated time to create a Draconian/Mim war, and was deliberately 'grooming' Bernice as part of his agenda to preserve the past via his Collection. The Collection was revealed to be his TARDIS, making his temporal manipulations easier. To prevent Jason revealing any of this, Braxiatel manipulated Peter Summerfield into killing him. (BFBS: The End of the World)
While pretending to be just a resident now, Braxiatel regained dominance of the Collection via a puppet provisional government and, using his ally Doggles, manipulating a mourning Bernice in order to bring her closer to him. This failed and Bernice escaped the Collection with her son, with Braxiatel having agents sent out to track her down. (BFBS: The Wake)
Other Information
- One account suggests that Braxiatel is the Doctor's brother. (BNA: Tears of the Oracle) The Doctor left Braxiatel a Christmas present of a pair of socks, signed 'Thete', indicating that at least their relationship goes back to the days on Gallifrey when the Doctor was called Theta Sigma. (BFBS: Be Forgot)
- When Martha Jones asked the Doctor; "Do you have a brother?", he replied, "No, not anymore". (DW: Smith and Jones)
- Whether this proves a link to Braxiatel is debatable, though it does confirm the existence of both "a" brother and this brother's death, perhaps during the Last Great Time War.
