"Cinder" was the primary alias of a human who grew up on Moldox during the Last Great Time War and lost her entire family to Dalek invaders. Although "Cinder" was not her given name, she felt that it was the only name she had now that her family had been taken from her. A self-made Dalek hunter, she would later be one of the final casualties in the Time War, and the one that finally convinced the Doctor to end the war.
Biography
Early life
Cinder was only seven years old when the Time War reached Moldox in the form of the Dalek occupation. When her homestead was attacked by the Daleks, she survived by hiding whilst her mother, father and her brother Sammy were exterminated. Cinder hid under a bin and stayed there until she was found by Coyne and spent the next several years training as a Dalek-hunter with him and other survivors of the occupation on Moldox. Among these survivors was a girl named Stephanie, with whom Cinder fell in love and shared her first kiss. (PROSE: Engines of War)
Meeting the Doctor
When she was a young woman, after taking part in an ambush with fellow resistance fighter Finch, Cinder encountered the War Doctor, who had crashed on Moldox in his TARDIS. She helped him infiltrate a Dalek base and uncover their plans to create a Temporal Cannon, a De-mat weapon that could wipe Gallifrey from history. The Doctor took Cinder in his TARDIS to Gallifrey to warn the Time Lords of the Dalek's plan.
On Gallifrey, Cinder met Rassilon and the High Council of Time Lords, but was told to keep quiet as they spoke. After the meeting was over, Cinder was kidnapped by Karlax and the Castellan and was mind probed to back up the Doctor's claims. After finding out about the mind probe, the Doctor took Cinder from the Capitol and took her to the Death Zone, where the two of them kidnapped Borusa from his imprisonment in the Dark Tower.
Cinder was shot by Karlax on board the Doctor's TARDIS, sacrificing herself to save the Doctor, shortly before the Doctor defeated the Time Lords and the Daleks. In honour of her death, the Doctor buried her and with the remains of her family at her old homestead, giving them a proper grave with a marker that revealed Cinder's true name, and promised he would put an end to the war. (PROSE: Engines of War)
Legacy
The Twelfth Doctor saw Cinder, among other companions, when Bernice Summerfield was hit by temporal energy in the Pyramid Eternia. (PROSE: Big Bang Generation)
A manifestation of Cinder appeared in the Celestial Toyroom talking to other companions of the Doctor. (COMIC: Relative Dimensions)
Appearance
Cinder had long orange hair, from which her name was derived. Her eyes were olive in colour. She was fairly muscular due to all the training and fighting in which she took part but was still thin despite that. (PROSE: Engines of War)
Behind the scenes
- George Mann stated that by revealing Cinder had kissed a woman, his intention was for her to be a lesbian.[1]
- At the end of Engines of War, the Doctor discovers Cinder's real name but it is not revealed to the reader.
- George Mann has said he based Cinder's appearance on Hayley Williams from the American rock group Paramore.[2]
- In Doctor Who: Legacy Cinder's appearance is modeled after lifelong Doctor Who fan Athena Stamos, drawn by artist Paul Hanley[3]; she is a bonus in the 2014 advent levels, with an opening sequence featuring a conversation between the War Doctor, Jack Harkness and Vastra revealing that the War Doctor intends to use the instabilities caused by Sontarans breaking the web of time to rescue Cinder from the moment of her death.