Angel
- You may wish to consult
Angel (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
Angels, known in the mythology of many species, were spiritual beings that served gods and other higher powers as their messengers.
Appearance[[edit] | [edit source]]
Popular Earth depictions of angels often presented them as beautiful humans with halos and/or wings, not unlike the appearance of the Weeping Angels, (TV: Blink [+]Loading...["Blink (TV story)"], et al.) Light, (TV: Ghost Light [+]Loading...["Ghost Light (TV story)"]) and Solonians in their "evolved form". (TV: The Mutants [+]Loading...["The Mutants (TV story)"]) Members of the Heavenly Host, robots designed by Max Capricorn, resembled angels by deliberate design. (TV: Voyage of the Damned [+]Loading...["Voyage of the Damned (TV story)"]) James Court, who worked in Earth theatre in the late 20th century, had often observed a special effect wherein a "hastily-assembled combination of feathers, muslin and stage lighting" created the appearance of an angel from the audience's point of view. (PROSE: Vampire Science [+]Loading...["Vampire Science (novel)"])
Life's angels indeed had "silvered wings". Made out of living crystalline substances, they had a number of blinking eyes each. Their singing was "sweet and honeyed". (PROSE: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing [+]Loading...["Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (short story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Angels were among the agents of the eternal being known as Life. Living beings carved out of crystals, they beat their silvered wings and blinked their many eyes, and were tasked with carrying news of cosmic importance throughout Creation to mortals and immortals alike. (PROSE: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing [+]Loading...["Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (short story)"]) Light, an Eternal himself (PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Loading...["Divided Loyalties (novel)"]) who travelled the universe compiling the Catalogue of Life, took on the form of an angel when awakened on Earth in the 19th century. (TV: Ghost Light [+]Loading...["Ghost Light (TV story)"])
According to a popular narrative known to the Sixth Doctor, the Tremas Master, and William Shakespeare, there was once a War in Heaven fought amongst the angels. It concluded with Lucifer being cast down from Heaven and into Hell, barred from returning to the Eternal City; he was followed down from Heaven by his nemesis Gabriel, who continued fighting him ever after. (PROSE: Master Faustus [+]Loading...["Master Faustus (short story)"], Academic Notes [+]Loading...["Academic Notes (short story)"]) Matthew Stobbold once told the Eighth Doctor, however, that the Devil's traditional archenemy was instead a different archangel, Michael. (PROSE: The Burning [+]Loading...["The Burning (novel)"])
Peri Brown once met an angel named Yy, who was "more than just woman or man", androgynous, and "unbearably beautiful". They had fallen from Heaven, and after selling their wings for a cheeseburger, Yy was imprisoned on Sheol. Peri convinced Yy to return and helped them close the Gates of Heaven. (PROSE: The Ruins of Heaven [+]Loading...["The Ruins of Heaven (short story)"])
Iris Wildthyme, for her part, was well-acquainted enough with an archangel called Gabriel to play gin rummy with him for the Ark of the Covenant; (PROSE: The Unhappy Medium [+]Loading...["The Unhappy Medium (short story)"]) it is worth noting that in his eighth incarnation, Iris's friend the Doctor once claimed that he and "the archangel Gabriel" were one of the same. (PROSE: Vampire Science [+]Loading...["Vampire Science (novel)"])
When another War in Heaven, fought between the Great Houses and the Enemy, seemed to be drawing to a close, thousands of angels descended from the heavens above the Shadow Spire. With their singing, they announced the end of the War and the coming of the Peace. (PROSE: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing [+]Loading...["Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (short story)"]) Three were captured by the Crime Lady Cortalian and sold into slavery at the First Auction in Heaven. They were bought by a corrupt, lecherous Bishop, who intended to show them off to "his Holiness" to finally show up "the f*cking Protestants". The Angels rolled their many eyes at these statements. (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice [+]Loading...["Going Once, Going Twice (short story)"])
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
When Christian missionaries failed to exorcise Saul from Cheldon Bonniface, they built a church on the site and declared him an angel. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)"])
In 325, Arius and Clement came to suspect that Erimem was an angel when they witnessed the TARDIS dematerialise. (AUDIO: The Council of Nicaea [+]Loading...["The Council of Nicaea (audio story)"])
By 1055, Sebastian Grayle believed that the Nimon were angels. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear [+]Loading...["Seasons of Fear (audio story)"])
In 1240, the people of Kiev believed that an alien soldier buried in the catacombs was a dark angel. (PROSE: Bunker Soldiers [+]Loading...["Bunker Soldiers (novel)"])
In 1553, when Mistress Ellen and Queen Jane Grey witnessed Rani Chandra return to her own time via a time window, Ellen believed it to be witchcraft, but Jane believed Rani to have been an angel. (TV: Lost in Time [+]Loading...["Lost in Time (TV story)"])
In 1609, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine mediated the Armageddon Convention while believing that he was intervening in a war between angels. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass [+]Loading...["The Empire of Glass (novel)"])
Isaac Newton believed that the babel was an angel. Nate Silver believed that the Pilots' Coterie were angels. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"])
In 1669, Father Chadwick Vita thought that the Healer was an angel. (COMIC: Black Death White Life [+]Loading...["Black Death White Life (comic story)"])
In 1702, Major Billy Lovemore claimed he was an angel of retribution before shooting Ned Cotton. (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria [+]Loading...["Phantasmagoria (audio story)"])
In 1759, Madame de Pompadour called the Tenth Doctor "my lonely angel". (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace [+]Loading...["The Girl in the Fireplace (TV story)"])
In 1869, Gwyneth believed that the Gelth were angels. (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"])
In 1914, soldiers fighting in World War I in Belgium came to believe that a Warfreek surveillance device was the Angel of Death come to take the dead to Heaven. Later, Rose Tyler posed as an angel to put a stop to a battle. (COMIC: Warfreekz! [+]Loading...["Warfreekz! (comic story)"])
In 1930, a New York City showgirl named Tallulah performed "My Angel Put the Devil in Me" dressed as an angel, while the supporting dancers were dressed like devils. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan [+]Loading...["Daleks in Manhattan (TV story)"])
In 1953, Father Hemmings believed that the aliens he had found washed up on a beach were angels. (PROSE: The Canvey Angels [+]Loading...["The Canvey Angels (short story)"])
Chad Boyle believed that the Timewyrm was an angel. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)"])
In 1997, Gabriel and Jude of the Rapture claimed to be angels. (AUDIO: The Rapture [+]Loading...["The Rapture (audio story)"])
In 2000, Denise, one of the patients on whom the Cyberon drug was being tested, was able to communicate within her mind with the actual Cyberon intelligence embodied by the liquid. She nicknamed her as "Cy" and believed her to be Denise's own "guardian angel". (PROSE: Cyberon [+]Loading...["Cyberon (novelisation)"])
In the 2000s,[nb 1] the front cover of an edition of Peach featured Sadie wearing only a bra. The magazine featured an article about her "confessing" that "I'm no angel." (TV: Out of Time [+]Loading...["Out of Time (TV story)"])
In 2007, a viewer of Ghostwatch believed that the Cybermen, who appeared all over the world, were angels. (WC: Ghostwatch [+]Loading...["Ghostwatch (video game)"])
In 2009, Peter Dalton believed that the Trickster was an angel. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"])
In 2009, Oliver Harrington believed that the glow that the people the neutron eater consumed emitted meant they were turning into angels. (AUDIO: Lost Souls [+]Loading...["Lost Souls (audio story)"])
When the Enochai attacked Greenwich in 2009 they had the appearance of clockwork angels. (COMIC: Don't Step on the Grass [+]Loading...["Don't Step on the Grass (comic story)"])
In his Miracle Day speech in 2011, Oswald Danes claimed that humanity had evolved into angels. (TV: The Categories of Life [+]Loading...["The Categories of Life (TV story)"])
When !C-Mel became Clarence, he took on the appearance of an angel. (PROSE: Ghost Devices [+]Loading...["Ghost Devices (novel)"])
The Morphieans had the ability to animate stone statues of angels. (PROSE: Ten Little Aliens [+]Loading...["Ten Little Aliens (novel)"])
When on Sanctuary, Quadrigger Stoyn compared Gallifrey to heaven and himself to an angel. (AUDIO: The Dying Light [+]Loading...["The Dying Light (audio story)"])
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Episodes 1-10 of the first series of Torchwood are set anywhere from 2006-2009 as a result of conflicting evidence shown in the episodes Ghost Machine, Greeks Bearing Gifts, Random Shoes, To the Last Man, Reset, Adrift, Fragments, Exit Wounds, and The New World. As episode 10, Out of Time, is set at the end of December, this means that episodes 11-13 are almost certainly set the year after episodes 1-10.
