Morbius, also known near the end of his first life as the General, was a notorious and malevolent renegade Time Lord. His career was the first in millennia to dramatically alter Gallifrey's relations with the wider universe. He attempted to overturn Gallifrey's non-interference policy in favour of military conquest, a controversial move which sparked the Time Lords' first and greatest Civil War. He failed, was exiled and eventually executed, only to survive, saved by his followers.
The dating of Morbius's reign of terror varied between accounts; indeed, by one source, the history of the Civil War was constantly shifting, (AUDIO: Morbius (part 2) [+]Loading...{"part":"2","1":"Morbius (audio story)"}) By one account, the civil war occurred after the Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius (novelisation)"]) while others had Morbius predate the Doctor's generation; (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"], Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"], AUDIO: Morbius [+]Loading...["Morbius (audio story)"]) the Scrolls of Gallifrey written by Postar the Perfidious, which uniquely depicted Rassilon as a rather recent figure relative to the Doctor, indicated that the war had occurred in the generation immediately after Rassilon and the generation immediately before the Doctor. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) Moreover, The Book of the War described a figure known as the Imperator, whose history largely matched his, as a member of the same "broken generation" of renegade as the likes of the War King, Grandfather Paradox, (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"]) and the Doctor. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"])
Biography
Incarnations of Morbius
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- Morbius's original incarnation (TV: The Brain of Morbius) was a charismatic man slightly below medium height, with "classically handsome" features and a domed forehead. He served as President of the High Council before being deposed, taking on the name of "the General". He was ultimately executed. (PROSE: Warmonger)
- After his brain was salvaged, Morbius was transplanted into a new body by Mehendri Solon. An unstable patchwork of parts from various species, topped by a purely artificial brain-case, the "monster" was hounded off the edge of a cliff by the Sisterhood of Karn and destroyed shortly after Morbius had been transplanted in this body. (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
- Using a fragment of Morbius's original brain and biodata from Straxus, the Cult of Morbius managed to effect a full regeneration from the brain fragment, with Morbius resurrected in a new Time Lord body. However, he needed frequent transfusions of biodata from Straxus to keep himself stable. This resurrection was later temporally undone, with only Straxus and Lucie Miller remembering the aborted timeline. Although this account implied that Morbius's new body was a new appearance distinct from his original body, with the Doctor remaking that his old robes now fit him badly, (AUDIO: The Vengeance of Morbius [+]Loading...["The Vengeance of Morbius (audio story)"]) a later account depicted an alternative resurrected form of Morbius with the same appearance only for Argento to recognise him on sight, suggesting this appearance matched his original incarnation. (AUDIO: Morbius (part 2) [+]Loading...{"part":"2","1":"Morbius (audio story)"})
- Separately from the fate of Morbius's physical brain, a copy of Morbius's mind was salvaged by Veritas, a telepathic follower of Morbius in the War. Veritas carried this echo of Morbius within him away from Karn on a Gallifreyan prison ship, from which he subsequently hatched a plot of escape and resurrection, ultimately possessing the body of Middlewitch and regenerating it into a copy of this original form. (AUDIO: Morbius [+]Loading...["Morbius (audio story)"])
Alternative timelines
In an alternative timeline, Morbius was a Gallifreyan who became a Vampire and served Lord Prydon. (AUDIO: Annihilation)
Behind the scenes
- Morbius was named after Dr Edward Morbius from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. (INFO: The Brain of Morbius)
- Morbius was referenced in Craig Hinton and Chris McKeon's unproduced novel Time's Champion, a sequel to Hinton's Millennial Rites and The Quantum Archangel. It was revealed Morbius fathered twin children, the Children of Contempt, with an unknown renegade Time Lady.
- The Imperator as featured or mentioned the Faction Paradox series fills the same place in Time Lord history as Morbius, and the authorial intent is clearly that "the Imperator" be read as a title or alias of Morbius. However, as none of the stories featuring the Imperator held the licence to the character or name of Morbius, this Wiki does not acknowledge them to be the same individual.
- The colour of the robes worn by the resurrected Morbius in The Vengeance of Morbius would suggest that he was a member of the Dromeian Chapter, in contrast to The Legacy of Gallifrey asserting that he belonged to the Patrex Chapter. The Imperator, meanwhile, is depicted as a member of House Dvora, a House belonging to the Prydonian Chapter.