Lemuel Gulliver
Lemuel Gulliver was a fictional adventurer who was the protagonist of the novel Gulliver's Travels, (TV: The Mind Robber) by Jonathan Swift. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
Land of Fiction
When the Second Doctor was in the Land of Fiction, he encountered a man dressed in 18th century clothing and who spoke only in lines attributed to Gulliver in the novel. As Gulliver recalled, he came from Nottingham, where his father had a small estate; Gulliver was the third of five sons. At 14 years old, Gulliver was sent by his father to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, where he applied himself close to his studies, learning navigation and other parts of the mathematics.
Gulliver spoke as many languages as he could, including High and Low Dutch and Latin, and he accused the Doctor of being a false traitor, highwayman, pickpocket and murderer. Eventually, Gulliver turned less hostile towards the Doctor and showed a friendly side. Gulliver explained that the Master of the Land had articles of impeachment against him for treason and other capital crimes. Then, Gulliver disappeared. He returned later when the Doctor had found Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot, and the Doctor and Zoe asked him about the tests and who runs them, and Gulliver knew nothing about, as he called the clockwork soldiers, "their military affairs." The Doctor heard them approach, and he, Jamie and Zoe hid in among the letters. Gulliver thought it best to keep guard, and inadvertently gave the Doctor and his companions away, which led to their capture. The Doctor inferred to Jamie and Zoe that Gulliver couldn't see or hear the soldiers, as they didn't exist in his world; and Gulliver left again.
The Doctor and Zoe later reunited with Gulliver when they were lost in the labyrinthine and were searching for Jamie. The Doctor asked where he might find the Master, and Gulliver explained where he would be found. Then, the Doctor began to understand and asked Gulliver whether he came from Nottingham, which he did, and they both began to talk about Gulliver and both quoted and the Doctor deduced that this person was Lemuel Gulliver.
Later, the White Robots came searching for Jamie after he passed an electrical gadget which sounded an alarm. (Gulliver had passed the same gadget earlier, but no alarm sounded because he wasn't real.) Jamie hid from them and Gulliver swore to defend Jamie; however, he couldn't see the White Robots, just like the clockwork soldiers. After they left, Gulliver observed that Jamie desired his liberty. When the Doctor and Zoe arrived, Gulliver advised them to not go and see the Master and instead ought to swear a peace with him and find somewhere else in the Land to stay in the hope that things will get better.
Before escaping from the land, the Doctor told Zoe, after she mentioned Gulliver and their other friends: "You can't blow up a fictional character." (TV: The Mind Robber)
On his next visit to the Land of Fiction, the Doctor was reunited with Gulliver, only to learn that he was in fact the Time Lord Goth, who had been sent to the Land by the Celestial Intervention Agency to monitor the Doctor's activities there. (PROSE: Future Imperfect)
Iris Wildthyme also met Gulliver in the Land of Fiction. (PROSE: Flasket Brinner and the Clockwork Heart)
Behind the scenes
- Andrew Burt played Gulliver in the 1982 television serial Gulliver in Lilliput, which was written and directed by Barry Letts.
- Bernard Horsfall, who portrayed Gulliver in The Mind Robber, later played Chancellor Goth in The War Games and The Deadly Assassin. This led to a fan theory that "Gulliver" had really been Goth, something affirmed in Marc Platt's short story Future Imperfect. Conversely, the Iris Wildthyme short story Flasket Brinner and the Clockwork Heart reveals that Iris had also met Gulliver.
