Anagram

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Anagram

An anagram was a word or phrase created by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.

The Fourth Doctor noted that "Kaled" was an anagram for "Dalek". (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Indeed, Castavillian had suggested to Davros that an anagram be used to name the Kaleds' "future selves" housed within the Mark III Travel Machine, offering "Lekad", "Adlek", "Klade", and "Edlak", all of which were rejected by Davros. When the Fourteenth Doctor inadvertently arrived on Skaro, he recognised Davros' creation on sight as a Dalek, which Castavillian noted was a "good word". (TV: Destination: Skaro [+]Loading...["Destination: Skaro (TV story)"])

When adopting a false identity, the Master sometimes used an anagram. In 13th century England he went by Sir Gilles Estram, and on the starship Gallery he used Mr Seta. Each was an anagram of "Master". (TV: The King's Demons, AUDIO: Dust Breeding)

The Mimic's inability at original thought caused it to use anagrams. When it merged with Francis Pearson, it used the names Persona and Sperano, both anagrams of Pearson's last name. Even the name it became known by, Managra, was an anagram of "anagram". (PROSE: Managra)

SenéNet was a computer company on Earth. The name was an anagram of "Nestene", which was secretly in charge of the company. (PROSE: Business Unusual)

When the Mandragora Helix warped Callum Fitzhaugh into becoming its servant, it renamed him "Dara Morgan", an anagram of "Mandragora". The Tenth Doctor recognized this immediately when he was first told of Morgan and commented on it while confronting the Helix. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos)

When looking into Torchwood, Nick suggested that the name could have been an anagram for "Doctor How", before concluding that it was nonsense. (WC: Web of Lies [+]Loading...["Web of Lies (webcast)"])

The Twelfth Doctor once told Bill that "eleven plus two" was an anagram of "twelve plus one", to which Bill responded that both of these were equal to 13. (COMIC: Harvest of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

Radio Times listings would often credit Anthony Ainley under a pseudonym to conceal his appearances as the Tremas Master before those episodes had aired. Usually, the names took the form of anagram of "Tony Ainley", such as "Neil Toynay" in Castrovalva or "Leon Ty Naiy" in Time-Flight, though the listing for The King's Demons listed him as "James Stoker", an anagram for "Master's joke".

Roy Tromelly was a pseudonym used to conceal the identity of actor Terry Molloy in Remembrance of the Daleks, so as not to spoil early that the Emperor Dalek was in fact Davros. It is an anagram of Molloy's name.

In the tradition of Ainley's pseudonyms, Mark Gatiss was credited as "Sam Kisgart", an anagram of his name, for his role as an alternate version of the Master, in both Sympathy for the Devil and The Emporium at the End.

Torchwood, an anagram of Doctor Who, was used at the beginning of the 2005 reboot to prevent interception of the first few episodes. The name was used as an in-joke in some series 1 scripts, and the Torchwood Institute was later a major plotpoint in the arc of the second series. Russell T Davies liked the name and eventually used it as the title of the first spinoff from the new series, Torchwood.[1] This was later referenced in the Torchwood webcast Web of Lies [+]Loading...["Web of Lies (webcast)"], in which the character of Nick suggests that Torchwood could be an anagram of "Doctor How".

The Saxon Master when played by John Simm used the alias "Mister Saxon", an anagram for "Master No. Six" since Simm was the sixth actor to play the Master on the show. According to Russell T Davies this was unintentional.

Footnotes