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. (DW: 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. (NA: 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. (DW: 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 his 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. [source needed] Cristophe Zarodnix purchased Karn from the Sisterhood. (BFA: Sisters of the Flame)
Apocryphal Information
The Crystal of All Power, sought by the Doctor and the Daleks, resided on Karn. (SP: Doctor Who and the Daleks in The Seven Keys to Doomsday)
Behind the scenes
Origins
Karn originated in a theatrical play, Doctor Who and the Daleks in The 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 alternative Doctor played by Trevor Martin. The presence of this other Fourth Doctor would make the play difficult to integrate into known continuity. The Doctor does not make reference to these earlier events on Karn in any other story.
