Cartmel Masterplan

The Cartmel Masterplan was a metaplot devised by Doctor Who Script Editor Andrew Cartmel and others set into motion in Seasons 25 and 26 of the series. Cartmel decided to deepen the mystery around the Doctor and drop small clues as to his true history.

Overview

Purpose and origins

The "masterplan" was an attempt to restore some of the mystery of the Doctor and the Time Lords after years of overexposure and overfamiliarity.

The Cartmel Masterplan is generally considered a fan-conceived term and came about around the same time that the discussion of canon first came to the attention of Doctor Who fandom.

The plan

The overall plan for Cartmel was to reveal that the Doctor was some form of a reincarnation of The Other, a mysterious figure from Gallifrey's past who helped form the Time Lord society and perfect the time travel technology of the Time Lords. An early draft of Ghost Light, set, at this stage, not in Gabriel Chase on Earth but the Doctor's ancestral home on Gallifrey, was planned to be the lead-in to this reveal but the script was shot down by series producer John Nathan-Turner. Cartmel's plans were later incorporated into the Virgin New Adventures series, to which Cartmel and other writers from the late McCoy era contributed entries, paying off in the final New Adventure novel to feature the Doctor, namely Lungbarrow. Lungbarrow had as its origins a proposed early draft of "Ghost Light". The earlier version of "Ghost Light", in turn evolved into a new story and the new story into the novel.

A direct reference to the Other appears in Ben Aaronovitch's the novelisation to Remembrance of the Daleks in a flashback sequence with him, Rassilon and Omega.

At some point prior to 1992 Cartmel, Aaronovitch and Platt sat down and gathered together their ideas about Gallifrey, these concepts and ideas were passed onto then-New Adventures editor Peter Darvill-Evans who incorporated them into a Doctor Who writer's guide.

References

Season 25-26

The Doctor made a slip of the tongue when discussing the Hand of Omega with Ace in 1963, stating that 'we' had trouble with the prototype, rather than 'they' being early Time Lords. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

• The Doctor states to Davros that he is 'far more than just another Time Lord' in a deleted scene from Remembrance of the Daleks. Some versions of this story, such as those broadcast in Canada, actually contain this exchange. The scene was cut, according to some, because John Nathan-Turner did not wishing the Doctor to be portrayed as a god in case it offended people with religious beliefs.

In Silver Nemesis, Lady Peinforte claimed knowledge of the Doctor's actions during the Dark Times of early Gallifrey, well before his assumed birth date, gathered from the Nemesis statue. In addition, when Peinforte was told that the Doctor is a Time Lord, she is seen to shake her head, no, before replying. (DW: Silver Nemesis)

During Ghost Light, Control makes a passing reference to the Doctor that he does not fit any description of any alien species that Control and her master Light had ever encountered in their quest to create a master list of all beings in existence. In Battlefield, Morgaine identifies the Doctor as Merlin, the wise sage and mentor to King Arthur. It is suggested that the Doctor would become Merlin in a future story.

An unfilmed scene from Survival featured The Master, challenging the Doctor's identity and true nature. The Doctor argues that we must all "evolve" in some way. This scene got cut out as it appeared that the series had come to an end. Rather than finishing up the series on such an inconclusive note, the production team decided to go with a different ending scene.

Planned Season 27

Had a twenty-seventh season been developed, Marc Platt's Ice Time would have revealed that Ace had been trained by the Doctor to become a Time Lord, her rebellious attitude helping to reshape Gallifrey's policies and role in the safeguarding of time and space. This is mentioned by the Doctor to Ace in NA: Set Piece and Lungbarrow. Something roughly similar happens in the online original story Death Comes to Time.

Following Ace's departure, other story lines allocated for the season would have had the Doctor gain a new companion as a favour from a former cat burglar-turned-aristocrat he would help out in a serial prior to this one. The intended finale of this twenty-seventh season was to have been Alixon, a story which may or may not have seen the Doctor regenerate into his Eighth incarnation and saw the departure of McCoy.

Other media

Andrew Cartmel added further aspects of his ideas when he started writing comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine, beginning with his debut story, "Fellow Travellers" where we find out that he has maintained contacts with humans on Earth for years and even has purchased a house there. The more sophisticated and mature Virgin New Adventures line took the Doctor in a more morally ambiguous, unreadable character who had extensive powers and an unknown history. Fans nicknamed the Doctor in his period as "the dark Doctor" or the "arch-manipulator". The novel Lungbarrow, the final Seventh Doctor novel, written by Marc Platt revealed the Masterplan in detail, however.

New series

The Cartmel Masterplan, in particular events played out in the later novels, has not been definitively established; nor has it necessarily been contradicted by the series revival from Series 1 onwards. Rather the series revival continues the idea of the Doctor being more than just another Time Lord, but in a slightly more subtle way.

The current theme of the The Doctor as "the Lonely God" seems definitely influenced by the Cartmel interpretation. He appears to have great, unknown powers, as when the god-like Doctor manifests using the Master's Archangel Network via the power of people's faith in DW: Last of the Time Lords, among other instances of his having deity-like powers.