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Ashildr, who later began calling herself Me due to her immortality-related memory loss, was a Viking girl encountered by the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald. After a battle with the Mire, Ashildr died, but she was resurrected by the Doctor via a Mire repair kit. As a result of this, Ashildr became immortal. She went on to live a long life, becoming very experienced and familiar with the universe and its various species in the process. Ultimately, she lived through the remainder of human history and to the end of time itself, and in the process, managed to outlive every other immortal in existence.
Ashildr lived to the end of the universe, maintaining a reality bubble to keep her alive. She then boarded a TARDIS stolen by the Doctor, and watched silently as Clara wiped the Doctor's memories of ever travelling with her. She and Clara then took the Doctor to Nevada, disguising the TARDIS as an American diner where Clara pretended to be a waitress. After Clara realized that the Doctor's memories of her were fully gone, she and Ashildr left Earth to travel the universe.
Biography
As Ashildr
Ashildr was the daughter of Einarr, a farmer in a 9th century[1] Viking village.
Ashildr greeted a group of Viking warriors when they returned from their journey with the Doctor and Clara in chains. Soon after their arrival, a figure claiming to be Odin appeared in the sky and invited the warriors to join him in "Valhalla".
Having been given half of the Doctor's sonic sunglasses by one of the warriors, and encouraged by Clara to use them, she was also taken to the Mire spaceship when undoing Clara's chains.
Unable to save the warriors, who were killed for their testosterone and adrenalin, Ashildr confronted "Odin" to the point of declaring war on the Mire. She and Clara were returned to the village, where they were given one day to prepare for the Mire's return.
When the Mire attacked, Ashildr was an integral part of the Doctor's plan to save the village, donning a Mire helmet and using her imagination to send false signals to the rest of the Mire, who viewed their surroundings via holograms. When "attacked" by a wooden dragon, the Mire believed the dragon to be real, and retreated when the Doctor threatened to share the footage which would ruin their reputation.
Ashildr was killed in the process, but was resurrected by the Doctor altering a Mire repair kit to fix human physiology. He left another for her to give to whomever she chose, knowing that she would continually be fixed, thus losing the "ability" to die. The Doctor later realised that she was a human-Mire hybrid. (TV: The Girl Who Died)
Immortality's burdens
Under the alias Lady Sherade, Ashildr caught the eye of the King of Samarkland and married him, telling him the story of how she met Sinbad and Ali Baba under the alias Ash El Dir. (PROSE: The Arabian Knightmare)
Using the alias Alys, Ashildr married Tomas and stayed with him for twenty years. Their relationship produced three children: Essie, Johann, and Rue. Essie was unexpected and Ashildr believed she did not want children until Essie was born, then she realised how much she loved her daughter. She decided to have two more children so that they could comfort one another one day when she would inevitably leave them to protect the secret of her immortality. On 9 August 1348, Ashildr took her children and left their lives in France on a boat for Britain. She chose to leave Tomas because she feared his growing comments about how having three children in twenty years didn't appear to have changed her body and he would ask if her hair grew. During the voyage her children caught the Plague. She tried to decide which one of them to save with the second Mire medical repair kit, but ultimately decided to save none of them. (PROSE: The Triple Knife) She kept the pages in to remind her to never have any more offspring as they would all die eventually.
During eight hundred years of immortality, Ashildr soon forgot her own name and even her life as a Viking. She began to pick up new names as her life went on, but each name died along those who knew her by it. She at some point decided to go by the name Me. As "Me", she had no attachment to anything or anyone that she would eventually outlast.
She took part in the Battle of Agincourt, declaring to be able to "fire six arrows in under a minute". She began to write a journal of her life, though she ripped out pages when reading them as they were too hurtful to force herself to remember in the future. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
Soon becoming bored of life, she turned to living a double life as a criminal, stealing the riches from wealthy people while also living as "Lady Me" with a servant, Clayton, whom she gradually became bored with. By this time she had become cold, detached and saw little meaning in life since by her point of view their lives were like smoke. She also became bitter at the Doctor for not taking her with him in his travels and leaving her to move through life.
One day, Me found a Leonian named Leandro resting in her courtyard. He claimed to have crashed on Earth and they formed a partnership in order to retrieve the Eyes of Hades. The amulet would allow Leandro to leave Earth and he agreed to take Me with him. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
While committing a failed robbery on Mr Fanshawe and Lucie Fanshawe (during which time she affected a convincing male voice as part of her disguise), Me encountered the Doctor again while he was searching for the Eyes of Hades. The Doctor didn't recognise her until she removed her mask and reverted to her original voice. The Doctor subsequently helped Me steal the Eyes of Hades from the Fanshawe household, initially not knowing about Me's partnership with Leandro. After the Doctor was introduced to Leandro, he learned of their plan to leave Earth by killing someone for a power source. Me was originally going to use her butler. She eventually settled on highwayman Sam Swift the Quick as the victim since he was sentenced to die anyway. After the portal was opened, Me realised that Leandro was lying and was using her so his brethren could invade Earth. Horrified by what she had done, Me used the second Mire kit to revive Sam Swift and close the portal, leading to Leandro being executed by the Leonians. She later had a drink with Sam and the Doctor. When she asked the Doctor if Sam was immortal now he replied that he wasn't sure. She promised to watch the Doctor for as long as he was alive in order to protect Earth from him. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
Life in the 21st century
"Me" lived into the 21st century. She appeared in the background of a selfie taken by Clara Oswald and Evie Hubbard, which Clara planned to show the Doctor. When she did, he noticed Ashildr in the background but did not say anything to Clara. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
Me became the mayor of an alien refugee camp hidden in the heart of London, for those who were desperate and destitute, without hope or a home. This camp was called the trap street. Later, to ensure the safety of the trap street, (TV: Face the Raven) she was convinced by the Time Lords to trick the Doctor into being transported inside his confession dial. (TV: Hell Bent) She set up a plot where Rigsy "murdered" Anah, a Janus resident of the trap street, when actually she was placed inside a stasis chamber by Ashildr. She placed a chronolock on Rigsy, and was successful in luring the Doctor to the street, where Clara "stupidly" took the chronolock from Rigsy. Horrified by this turn of events, Me revealed she couldn't remove the chronolock – she had made a specific agreement with the Quantum Shade for Rigsy, and Clara had destroyed the deal, taking it out of Me's hands. Clara was killed by the Quantum Shade, and the Doctor was tricked into having a teleport bracelet attached to his wrist to teleport him away. As he left, the Doctor warned Me that Clara's pleas were meant to protect her and her people from the Doctor, and it would be a good idea for Me to stay out of his way. Me acknowledged this numbly. (TV: Face the Raven)
At the end of the universe
Me was present at the very end of time, the last living being in the universe. To survive she created a bubble of reality among the ruins of the Cloisters on Gallifrey, passing the time watching the stars die while awaiting the Doctor and Clara's arrival. Five minutes before the final end of time, their stolen TARDIS appeared and Me knocked on the door.
Me had set up a chess game, though she and the Doctor didn't play. She remarked that the dying stars were a beautiful sight; when the Doctor said that it was sad, Me retorted that it was both, and the same was true of Clara's death, now a fixed point in time. She inquired about the Hybrid, which the Doctor accused her of being. Me countered that she was a human with a little bit of Mire, not a true hybrid. She then suggested that the Doctor might be half-human and thus he was the Hybrid. As the Doctor refuted that suggestion, Me offered her true theory: the Hybrid wasn't a single individual, but a Time Lord and his human companion, so alike that they constantly push each other into more and more catastrophic actions.
The Doctor revealed he had come to the same conclusion and was thus planning to erase all Clara's memories of him and leave her someplace safe. Me then entered the Doctor's stolen TARDIS and witnessed his final confrontation with Clara in silence. (TV: Hell Bent)
Travelling with Clara
Me assisted Clara in her attempt to make sure the Doctor's memory of her was truly gone - and perhaps even restore it, if possible - but remained in the new TARDIS so as not to arouse suspicion. When Clara concluded that the Doctor's key memories of her were gone and could not be restored, she and Me left aboard the new TARDIS. Me reported that she was unable to get the chameleon circuit to work, so the TARDIS was stuck looking like a 20th-century American diner. Clara approved, stating the situation was awesome. Clara then declared her intention to return to Gallifrey to face her death, but noted that since time didn't appear to be in any immediate danger and she was now ageless, there wouldn't be any harm in taking the long way back. Clara then activated the TARDIS, taking Me with her to explore time and space. (TV: Hell Bent)
Abilities
Due to the Mire technology within her, Ashildr was functionally immortal, which meant she did not age, injuries and illness that would have killed a normal human would heal, and she had a potentially infinite lifespan. There were limitations: according to the Doctor she was not totally indestructible and it was possible for her to be injured sufficiently enough to die. She also suffered from memory loss over time, as her human brain was incapable of storing millennia's worth of experiences. For a time, she relied on volumes of written diaries to remind her of events from the past. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
During her time as mayor of the trap street in London, Me had a mental link with an agent of the Quantum Shade that manifested itself as an animated tattoo on her chest, although her agreement with the entity had strict rules and she was unable to prevent it from killing Clara. (TV: Face the Raven)
Other information
- The Doctor maintained surveillance of Ashildr/Me, keeping the information in a room of his TARDIS that, for reasons unknown, he kept hidden from Clara, though she found out about it. Ashildr/Me learned of its existence when Clara told her shortly before her death. (TV: Face the Raven)
Aliases and nicknames
| Name | When used/given | Story | Etymology |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashildr | Birthname. 9th century |
The Girl Who Died | |
| Lady Sherade | The Arabian Knightmare | Phonetically similar to "charade", meaning pretence. | |
| Ash El Dir | An alias used by Lady Sherade when recounting how she met Sinbad and Ali Baba. | The Arabian Knightmare | Phonetically similar to Ashildr. |
| Alys | 1348 | The Triple Knife | |
| Ash | Was going by the name of Ash when she boarded the El Galgo. 1485 |
The Fortunate Isles | Short for Ashildr. |
| Lady Electra | The Ghosts of Branscombe Wood | ||
| Me | A name she gave herself after losing everybody who ever knew her. At least 17th century onwards |
The Ghosts of Branscombe Wood, The Woman Who Lived, Face the Raven, Hell Bent | Singular. Unattached. Alone. |
| The Knightmare | As a highwayman. 1651 |
The Woman Who Lived | |
| Lady Me | 1651 | The Woman Who Lived | |
| Mayor Me | As mayor of Trap Street. 21st century |
Face the Raven |
Behind the scenes
- The dual nature of the relationship between the Twelfth Doctor and Me is reflected in her being both a playable character and an enemy in the Doctor Who: Legacy mobile game. The ally character wears a costume from the television story The Woman Who Lived, while the enemy is depicted in an outfit from the television story Face the Raven.
Footnotes
- ↑ In the television story The Woman Who Lived, which is set in the year 1651, Ashildr mentions having had 800 years of adventure.