Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoléon Bonaparte, also spelled Napoleon, was a military and political leader of France.
Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton met the young Napoleon during a visit to Paris on 28 July 1794, when they became involved in the plot by Napoleon and Paul Barras to overthrow Maximilien Robespierre. (TV: The Reign of Terror)
The First Doctor did not meet Napoleon during these events but he later did so on the Russian front in 1812. (AUDIO: Mother Russia) On that occasion or possibly during another encounter prior to his third incarnation, the Doctor advised "Boney" that "an army marches on its stomach". (TV: Day of the Daleks) Like the First Doctor, Iris Wildthyme met Napoleon on the Russian front in 1812 and claimed that, in spite of what the history books said, he was "anything but small." (AUDIO: The Panda Invasion, Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa)
Before the Second Doctor's regeneration and exile to Earth, the Time Lords sent him to investigate the activities of the Players in the Napoleonic era, during which time he briefly met with Napoleon, posing as a mystic who had foreseen Napoleon's final victory. Despite the Players' efforts, the Doctor sabotaged an attempt to build an early submarine that would have given Napoleon a crucial advantage in the Battle of Trafalgar. During the Battle of Waterloo, the Doctor played a vital role in delivering messages to Nelson's allies by dressing up as Napoleon; although the two men were only superficially similar to each other, the similarity would be enough for the Doctor to fool the average Frenchman who only saw the Emperor at a distance rather than regularly interacting with him. (PROSE: World Game)
Davros met with Napoleon when he was intending to test his new mind-swap technology, regarding Napoleon as the best military tactician of Earth's history as all other military leaders were tainted by racial prejudice or superstition. However, despite Davros providing Napoleon with Dalek weapons and knowledge of the future, he accepted his defeat when the Sixth Doctor revealed Davros' plans to replace Napoleon's mind with that of a Dalek, Napoleon, preferring to lose now and leave humanity to fulfil its own destiny rather than allow humanity to fall under Dalek rule. (AUDIO: The Curse of Davros)
At some point in his timeline, possibly during his farewell tour, the Doctor enraged Napoleon so much the dictator threw a bottle of wine at him. The Eleventh Doctor kept this bottle and shared the wine with Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song at Lake Silencio, Utah, just prior to his apparent death on 22 April 2011. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
His nephew Napoleon III was the Emperor of France during the 1860s. (PROSE: World Game)
Other references
While visiting Paris during what was supposed to be Napoleon's reign as Emperor, the First Doctor and Dodo found themselves in an alternate timeline in which France was ruled by the Marquis de Sade. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask)
During a visit to Egypt in 1400 BC with the Fifth Doctor, Peri Brown convinced sculptors to place the face of Elvis Presley on the Great Sphinx. This anachronism was corrected centuries later when Napoleon's troops shot off the Sphinx's nose. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)
During a visit to Rio de Janeiro in 2080, the Fifth Doctor and Turlough encountered a woman, Ileana de Santos, who was turned into a werewolf in 1812 as Napoleon's troops marched on her town. (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux)
While fleeing from Robot Ants, Bernice Summerfield found herself in Egypt in 1798, where she met Vivant Denon, leader of an archaeological team sent to that country by Napoleon. (PROSE: Set Piece)
The Eighth Doctor met a girl, Dusha, living in Moscow during Napoleon's advance on the city, who he later found was the emotional half of a Magellan who had been divided and exiled from the future to two different time zones. (PROSE: Emotional Chemistry)
The Doctor kept a bust of Napoleon in the TARDIS console room. (PROSE: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Crusaders, State of Change, Shadowmind)
The Celestial Toymaker once claimed to have beaten Napoleon at Risk. (COMIC: Endgame)
During one of his megalomaniacal rantings, the newly awakened Davros misquoted Napoleon and was corrected by the Fourth Doctor. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)
The Tenth Doctor told Martha Jones that she could forget her Bonapartes, her Boadiceas, and her Blackbeards when introducing her to Baltazar. (TV: The Infinite Quest)
The Eleventh Doctor cited Napoleon as one of the many people who loved Venice. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)
In a history project for school, Clyde Langer and Luke Smith were required to show the battle strategies of Wellington and Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, while playing a game of Waterloo on Mr Smith. Luke impersonated Napoleon's French accent. (TV: The Last Sontaran)
Behind the scenes
- In the TARDIS wardrobe, the Seventh Doctor tried the most known Napoleon outfit soon after his regeneration, even if it was not explicitly referring to the character.
- According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information, in an alternate universe where all of history occurred at once, Napoleon was available on social-networking sites, where he was friends with Cleopatra and sent her an asp.
- Simon Russell Beale played Napoleon in Blackadder: Back & Forth.
