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Daniel "Dan" Lewis was a companion of the Thirteenth Doctor. He joined Yasmin Khan in the Doctor's TARDIS as they faced the Flux, an unforeseen threat to the very structure of the cosmos.
Dan lived a simple life in Liverpool before being thrust into the Doctor's world. He remained open and inquisitive, and challenged Karvanista when he was taken away from home, to outer space. He was interested, most of all, in other people. On the other hand, he could be a little bit careless. For example, Diane obviously expected him to be late for a date, calling him the "late Dan".
Biography
Life in Liverpool
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Dan was born to Neville and Eileen Lewis (TV: War of the Sontarans). He was born an Aries. (TV: Welcome to the TARDIS...) He lived in the Anfield district of Liverpool at 37 Granger Street and supported Liverpool F.C.. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Around 2006, Dan was engaged and due to be married. However, two days before the wedding, his fiancée changed her mind. She informed him that she "couldn't bear spending the rest of her life with [him]" and "thought she could do better". Dan had truly loved her. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
Following the 2021 Dalek civil war, Dan's friend read out Dan's horoscope, which foretold that he would find surprises later that year, that the colour blue and the letter D would be important and that thirteen would be his lucky number. He was told to be prepared for action and to remember that, no matter what, it would not be the end of the world. After his friend finished, Dan closed the rear doors of his Ford Transit, turned, and smiled. (TV: Welcome to the TARDIS...)
Dan volunteered at Jenning Street Food Bank, but refused to take home soup for himself when offered, even though he had no food at home. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Dan surprised his friend Diane with a skinny latte as she was leaving work. The pair went on a walk around Liverpool. When she asked him why he wasn't married, he told her about what had happened with his fiancee. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
Dan regularly took groups round the Museum of Liverpool in an unofficial capacity, against the wishes of Museum management. Though Diane had a close personal relationship with Dan, Alan threatened to ban him from the site permanently. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Meeting the Doctor
On Halloween night, 2021, Dan was in his home on Granger Street in Anfield, when three children came to his house, trick-or-treating. He gave them the last of his sweets, and they left. A few seconds later, a man came to Dan's home, asking for sweets; Dan turned him away, both because he was an adult, and because he was not even dressed up.
Later that night, Karvanista hacks his way through the front door and tells Dan to kneel, and submit or die. The alien tries to hypnotize Dan to obey him, but Dan casually shrugs off the influence and tells Karvanista to leave. Karvanista wonders what's wrong with Dan, who says that Karvanista's dog-like face is "cute". The alien fires its weapons, putting Dan in a stun cube. Dan was kidnapped by him, who he species-bonded, have him as his designated human and intended to rescue him from the Flux.
He found himself on Karvanista's ship in an electrified cage, says he not animal and Karvanista tells the "animal" khows to be silent. Karvanista says that "you mine's" and he taking Dan off-world, and shows Dan the view of space outside. Dan asks why, and Karvanista says that Dan is ultimately meaningless, and Dan figures that Karvanista won't kill him because he already could have. Irritated that Dan has sussed out his intentions, Karvanista storms out.
Meanwhile, the Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan followed Karvanista's trail to Dan's house, which was miniaturised when they triggered technology he had planted there.
The Doctor and Yaz came to rescue him, confronted Karvanista, and took Dan aboard the Doctor's TARDIS and give Dan his shrunken house, which was the result of a trap set by Karvanista after taking Dan. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Travels in the TARDIS
As the Flux increasingly came closer to Earth, the Doctor had Karvanista and the other Lupari form a shield around Earth. However the Tardis was unable to get behind the shield and appeared to be consumed by the Flux. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Dan and Yaz with the Doctor ended up in the Crimean War where they met Mary Seacole and discovered that the British army were fighting Sontarans instead of Russians.
However soon after, when Yaz wonders if history has been rewritten, Dan's right hand is surrounded in a glow that spreads around his entire body. The Doctor sonics him but in seconds, Dan fades away.
Dan materializes on his street and figures that he's back in Liverpool on 2 November 2021. Dan sees his neighbor, Jim, looking out of the window his flat and calls to Jim. Jim closes his drapes, and Dan calls Diane on his phone but gets no answer. Another neighbor inside her flat taps on her window and points. Dan turns and sees a massive spaceship hovering over the street. Sontarans arrive, yell that breaches of curfew will result in instant annihilation, and open fire. Dan runs with the Sontarans in pursuit, and runs into an alleyways and saved by his parents, who knock the Sontarans out by hitting their probic vents with a frying pan and wok and his mum asks where he's been.
In the car, when they hide from a Sontaran patrol, Eileen explains that the Sontarans appeared right after Dan disappeared, two days ago. There was Three Minute Eclipse, when the entire world went into blackout, and Dan figures the blackout was caused by the Kavanista ships. Eileen says that there are millions of soldiers all over the planet, but the probic vents on the back of their necks makes them vulnerable. They figure out they have to get rid of the Sontarans, and Eileen says that they started in Liverpool.
Dan's parents drive to Liverpool Docks and the waterfront where the Sontarans first appeared. Dan tells his parents to go back home while he goes in, and his father Neville gives Dan his wok in case he needs it. Dan sneaks into the warehouse and see Sontarans capturing and execute humans. Commander Riskaw of Sontaran Temporal Command says they do that because of spying, and that their Temporal Offensive is close.
Dan films the "space shipyard" on his camera for the Doctor, then climbs up on one scaffold. After getting into one of the ships, he enters the bridge and starts pressing things, accidentally accessing a communication channel to the Doctor. He tells the Doctor, who is still in Crimea, that the Sontarans have occupied England in the present, and that their obsessed with "Temporal Command". When Dan plays his recording back, and The Doctor accesses the Sontaran data banks, realized that the Sontarans are building timeships so they can invade Earth's history, and the Crimea is their pilot program. They will make Earth an outpost and erase history, and she tells Dan to stop the timeships from launching however he can.
Before the Doctor can advise Dan further, Riksaw, who notices the rogue transmission, orders his soldiers to shut down the transmission. Dan is confronted by a Sontaran, but manages to knock it out by hitting it's probic vent with the wok. He is soon confronted by more Sontarans and surrenders, but saved by Karvanista, who arrives and opens fire on the Sontarans, taking them out.
When Dan and Kavanista move through the ship, knocking out any Sontarans they find, Kavanista admits that the Sontarans snuck through in the second before the Lupari met their shield, so the invasion is partially the Lupari's and his fault. Kavanista tells Dan that they're going to ram the other ships, and create a massive temporal reaction that will wipe out the entire fleet. Then he launches the ship and they both trying escaping timeship. As they head for the escaping pod, more Sontarans arrive. Kavanista shoves Dan down a nearby tube and then follows. The ship rams the other ships, setting off the chain reaction. When they arrive outside, Kavanista tells Dan that the tube was a waste tube.
The ships are all gone from the temporal implosion, and the TARDIS materializes nearby. When the Doctor comes out, she asks Kavanista to protect the planet while she and Dan not here. Kavanista warns them that the rest of the universe is in a bad way outside of the shield.
When Dan accepted the Doctor's offer to join her as she departed for the planet Time to find Yaz, Dan says he hoping he never see Karvanista again and latest says that feeling mutual.
On Time, Swarm was waiting for them in the Temple of Atropos. He had put Yaz and Vinder in the places of two Mouri, and prepared to expose them to the full force of time. (TV: War of the Sontarans)
The Doctor shoved Dan onto a Mouri pedestal, while she leapt onto another and used her sonic screwdriver, trapping Dan, Yaz, Vinder and herself in a time storm. Protected in his time stream by the Doctor, Dan relived a day he went on a walk with Diane, and discussed his past relationships. However, Dan noticed some inconsistencies, such as time passing in the blink of an eye. Fidgeting out of his time stream, Dan found himself somewhere else. He ran into Joseph Williamson while running away, though he wasn't quite sure from what he was running.
While Dan was safe, trapped in a memories, the Doctor replaced the missing Mouri and safely returned Dan to the temple. Swarm showed Dan a glimpse of Diane, who he had kidnapped and imprisoned in a Passenger. Vinder and later the Doctor promised to help Dan save her. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
Both Dan and Yaz were studiously operating the TARDIS when the Thirteenth Doctor sent a distress call about the arrival of the Flux. Dan then called out to the Doctor, saying that he and Yaz needed her help. (WC: The Flux is Coming...) Dan later watched in horror as a Weeping Angel came out of Yaz's phone and took control of the Tardis. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
After the Doctor rebooted the Tardis to get rid of the Weeping Angel, she, Dan and Yaz arrived at the village of Medderton on 21 November 1967. Whilst helping to look for a missing girl named Peggy, Dan and Yaz were touched by another Weeping Angel and were sent back in time to Medderton in 1901. They were later joined by Professor Eustacius Jericho, who had also been touched by a Weeping Angel. Dan and Yaz, via an energy barrier showing what was happening in 1967, witnessed the Doctor being surrounded by Weeping Angels and turned into one after being recalled to the Division. Dan had to stop Yaz from going through the energy barrier to get to the Doctor as doing so would have resulted in her death. (TV: Village of the Angels)
Dan, Yaz and Jericho spent three years in the 1900s following instructions from the Doctor, who had left a holographic message in Yaz's pocket in case they were separated, to find clues to a potential coming battle for Earth. In 1904 they learnt the date of the future event was 5 December and consulted a seer for further details, who advised them to "fetch their dog". Taking that as a clue to contact Karvanista they travelled to the Great Wall of China where they painted a message large enough for the Lupar to see from space in 2021, asking him to come rescue Dan.
Aboard a ship leaving China, they were attacked by a man, who committed suicide rather than be interrogated by them, and encountered Joseph Williamson briefly, who Dan had previously met during the time storm. He realiased Williamson's tunnels might be a way of moving through time, they travelled to Liverpool and entered them, finding Williamson again who explained his tunnels went throughout history. To their shock, a group of Sontarans suddenly invaded the Tunnels. (TV: Survivors of the Flux).
When Yaz is able to defeat the Sontarans by opening one of the other doorways, which unleash death rays that kill the Sontarans. Dan, Yaz, Jericho and Williamson then met Kate Stewart, who is leading a resistance against the Sontaran invasion, scans Dan and Yaz and discovers that they have been in the Tardis. Just then the Doctor, who splits up in three different places, appears and learns from the others about the Sontarans and Dan, Yaz and Jericho been stuck in 1900s for few years. When the Doctor feeling guilty about abandoned her companions for three years, Dan said "they travelled around world" and Yaz being "was and is amazing".
Dan aids the Doctor with Yaz and Jericho in travelling back to 1967 to pick up Claire Brown, they offering her time travel to 2021 and asking her help them defeat the Sontarans. Having discovered one Sontaran's weakness for love of Earth chocolate, the Doctor with Dan and Yaz makes a deal with them, of chocolate in exchange for two human psychic operatives, Claire and Jericho, who will help them find the coordinates for the final Flux event to reach Earth.
Dan and Yaz go with the Doctor to a Sontaran ship in Chile where they find another version of the Doctor being interrogated by The Grand Serpent and save her. Dan also rescues Karvanista, who been captured, and learns that the Sontarans had killed the other Lupari, leaving Karvanista as the last of his kind.
Dan later reunites with Diane after the Doctor saves her and Vinder after that had been placed inside a Passenger. After the Sontarans and Jericho with Daleks and Cybermen are consumed by the Flux, which is then placed inside the Passenger, Dan, Yaz and the Doctor bid Karvanista with Vinder and his life partner Bel on his ship. They also drop off Kate and Claire on present day Earth.
Sometime later, Dan is seen again pretending to be a tour guide at The Museum of Liverpool. Dan then meets with Diane and says that they can make up for the drink they missed because of what happened. However, Diane, because of the experiences, turns down the offer. Dan then leaves the museum where he meets the Doctor and Yaz, who offer him to join them officially, which he happily accepts. Then at console room the Doctor tell him instructions, how he find bedrooms corridor and his room, and he walk away smiling. When the Doctor and Yaz having talk, he showed up again because he was lost and Yaz came join showing him way (TV: The Vanquishers).
After the Flux
Now travelling for pleasure as a trio, Dan, the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz went to see a pantomime of Cinderella, which took a turn for the adventurous after the Doctor tried something during the interval to make the show more exciting, only to accidentally summon real versions of various pantomime characters to the theater. Though Dan had to duel Captain Hook (while Yaz fought off the Crocodile), the Doctor was able to put things to right using one of the three wishes from a magic lamp, and things returned to normal, allowing the time travellers to witness the second half of the real show. Dan suggested that the Doctor use the second one of her three wishes to give ice cream to all the children in the audience. (COMIC: It's Behind You!)
Psychological profile
Personality
Dan considered others' needs often before his own, volunteering at his local food bank and giving out treats for Halloween while he did not have food for himself at home. According to Wilma, whom he volunteered with, his continued refusal to take food home was a matter of pride. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Liverpool was central to Dan's identity. He knew much about the city, and felt strongly about its rivalry with Leeds. He even distrusted Yasmin Khan, at least in jest, for her association with Sheffield, which was "too close to Leeds". (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
When faced with the unknown, Dan tended towards quick, rational conclusions, and had no trouble asserting his reality. He reasoned that an adult trick-or-treater should not be given candy, that Karvanista must have been play-acting in costume, and should leave his home, and later, when faced with the reality of Karvanista's spaceship, that he must have captured Dan in particular for a reason. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Nonetheless, he remained open to new possibilities, and adapted quickly, even joking that he had a friend with a TARDIS which was even "bigger", moments into first encountering dimensional transcendentalism. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
Skills
As part of the crew, Dan knew how to operate the controls of the TARDIS control console, at least to some extent. (WC: The Flux is Coming...)
Behind the scenes
- John Bishop considered his casting to "be a dream come true", as he would have never believed it when he was younger.[1]
- As Dan Lewis is said to be an Aries, this would place the character's date of birth from 20 March to 21 April, if the Zodiac of the real world holds true in the Doctor Who universe.
- Dan appeared in the invalid webcast A Message.
- An art card of Dan Lewis was included in DWM 570.
- Dan Lewis' apparent dislike for Leeds, and nearby Sheffield, in The Halloween Apocalypse is most likely banter, stemming from the historic rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Dan is a born Liverpudlian, and Scouse and the city of Liverpool was historically part of Lancashire before the reform of county boundaries in 1974; both Leeds and Sheffield are typical Yorkshire cities.
- After The Halloween Apocalypse first aired, "Evil Dan", an internet meme humorously depicting Dan as a nihilistic, gluttonous villain in fan-edited videos, rapidly became popular on YouTube and Twitter.[2] In the week following the broadcast of War of the Sontarans, Bishop retweeted one of the videos and said that he loved it.[3]
- It's Behind You!, published on 9 December 2021, was the first appearance of Dan in both a non-televisual story and in the comic medium.