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Irving Braxiatel or simply Braxiatel was a Time Lord the older brother to the Doctor. He was also the maintainer of the Braxiatel Collection. At one stage of his life he held the office of Lord Cardinal in the High Council on Gallifrey. He is also an associate of Bernice Summerfield.
Biography
- The exact chronology of Irving Braxiatel's personal history is unclear, due in part to repeated temporal manipulations; this article simplifies matters by presenting events by series.
Gallifrey Politics
Braxiatel became involved with galactic politics, generally on Gallifrey. He was appointed as a Gallifreyan ambassador early in his career, and returned home to try to avert the disaster he believed would result from the Timonic Fusion Device - Project Alpha - being built by Gower and his technician, Narvin. (BFG: The Inquiry) He organised the Armageddon Convention, which he tried to get the Doctor to chair, but by mistake his agents brought a physically similar man. The Convention was not particularly successful, although we know that it did outlaw the use of Cyberbombs. (MA: The Empire of Glass) He was a tutor in the Time Lord Academy while Romana attended. When she was contacted by Pandora, she informed him. As a consequence, Braxiatel hypnotised Romana to forget not only Pandora, but also Braxiatel. Thus, she recalled only having heard of him through his art collection before her eventual return to Gallifrey from E-Space. He guided her subsequent rise to the Presidency in order to watch her closely for any evidence of Pandora's influence. (BFG: Spirit) He became a Cardinal, a member of the High Council of Time Lords and a confidante of President Romana. (BFA: Zagreus)
Secretly throughout his rise to power he was in communication with his past and future self, sending items to his Collection (BFG: Lies). President Romana, knowing this, held the information over him, as if it were known that he had broken the laws of time he would be disgraced.
Eventually Braxiatel became High Chancellor - a post not filled for many years, not since Romana's predecessor had overthrown his predecessor - but mere hours later Braxiatel had to use his mind to contain the past and present forms of an ancient Gallifreyan evil known as Pandora. As Pandora would be able to escape if he ever connected to the Matrix or telepathically communicated with another Time Lord mind, Braxiatel exiled himself from Gallifrey. (BFG: Pandora)
When Romana destroyed the future form of Pandora (as well as its intelligence), it was at the cost of also destroying the Matrix. (BFG: Warfare) After Romana was removed from office, Braxiatel returned briefly and unexpectedly to Gallifrey and assumed the post of Lord President, since there was no longer anywhere for the Pandora entity to escape to. Having conspired with Matthias, he claimed that due to Inquisitor Darkel having cancelled much of Romana's Presidential edicts, he was thus restored to the position of Chancellor and Vice-President. His first act was to free Romana. (BFG: Mindbomb)
However, the ambitious Darkel goaded Braxiatel into losing control of Pandora, believing that it would destroy Braxiatel's mind in the process. Braxiatel then revealed that only a remnant of the entity had ever been in his mind; the bulk of it had sought refuge in Darkel's mind and Braxiatel had merely been the key that kept it restrained. Thus freed, Pandora consumed both Darkel and itself. Immediately resigning, he named Matthias his successor, much to Romana's surprise. Braxiatel then returned to his exile, retaining the last fragments of Pandora within him. (BFG: Mindbomb)
However, Braxiatel was not done: hearing rumours of an impending threat against Gallifrey and deciding that in its weakened state the planet was doomed, he hatched a scheme to preserve the Time Lord biodata archive, containing the genetic patterns of all Time Lords, past and present, in the hopes of reconstructing Gallifrey after its inevitable fall. As the Free Time Dogma Virus ravaged Gallifrey, Matthias nominated Romana to find the cure, then go into exile. Romana followed the trail, only to find Braxiatel. He had nominated Matthias knowing that whoever was President would be doomed to fall to the Dogma virus. The only cure for the virus was to end the regeneration capabilities of the Time Lords. With the help of K9, Braxiatel used a Time Scoop to collect the biodata archive. He then asked Romana to decide whether to administer the cure, or to let Gallifrey die and rebuild it using the biodata. (BFG: Panacea)
- The final decision and the aftermath of this situation is yet to be revealed.
Dellah
At some point Braxiatel became the head of the Department of Theatrology at St. Oscar's University on the planet Dellah. Braxiatel met Bernice Summerfield for the first time (from his perspective). (BNA: Dragons' Wrath) They became friends and he supported her in several adventures (BNA: The Medusa Effect, Deadfall). After Bernice ("Benny") Summerfield obtained a post at the archaeology department in 2593, the pair of them became entangled in many adventures. Braxiatel was on Dellah during the rise of the All-High-Gods and helped to evacuate a group of survivors. (BNA: Where Angels Fear)
He won KS-159, the future home of his Collection, during this time period. At this point, he had yet to attend Bernice's wedding. Braxiatel supported Benny when she was dying and through her memory-loss that came with the recovery, conspiring with Jason, Chris, and Clarence to stop Benny from abandoning them all for the dangerous Eastern Rim. Braxiatel acted as the support of the Time Lords when the problems between the People and the Time Lords had to be resolved. He supported the team in sending Dellah back to the Gods' universe, destroying that threat and ending the prospect of a war between the People and the Time Lords. In the aftermath, after leaving Vremnya, Braxiatel invited Benny to join him on the newly established Collection. (BNA: Tears of the Oracle, Return to the Fractured Planet, The Joy Device, Twilight of the Gods, BFBS: The Doomsday Manuscript)
The Braxiatel Collection
The Braxiatel Collection (renowned for being one of the greatest art galleries in the galaxy) was founded by Irving Braxiatel and located on KS-159. It had extensive archaeological libraries which could be used by Braxiatel's permission. Braxiatel's collection of books contained every book banned by the Catholic Church. (BNA: Tears of the Oracle, NA: Theatre of War)
- He may have acquired these from the Library of St John the Beheaded, of which he is custodian and the original founder.
The reason for the creation of the Braxiatel Collection was the disastrous test of the Timeonic Fusion Device, which destroyed the planet Minyos, prompting Braxiatel to begin collecting and preserving historical artefacts in case such widespread destruction ever happened again. He also admitted that he had transgressed the Laws of Time by being in contact with his future regenerations. (BFG: The Inquiry)
While Benny was working at the Braxiatel Collection, a conspiracy started to develop around Braxiatel. While all the characters were shown dark, twisted mirror images of themselves, Braxiatel was unaffected and when Jason Kane wondered if the real Braxiatel was the mirror version, Jason was brainwashed into being unable to be suspicious of Braxiatel. (BFBS: The Mirror Effect) Further incidents showed the Time Lord to be secretly more dangerous and manipulative than he was letting on — he was shown using a brainwashed Jason for his own ends. as well as having murder done in his name and causing a civil war in the Domus system. (BFBS: A Life in Pieces)
Braxiatel was finally caught out when, following the Collection's occupation by the Fifth Axis and their Dalek masters (BFBS: Life During Wartime, Death and the Daleks), he decided to ensure the Collection would survive by finding an army to defend it. He turned to the colony of Cantus, which had been taken over long ago by the Cybermen, and had a member of the Collection, Ronan McGinley, turned into a Cyber-Controller subordinate to Braxiatel's will. Using a mysterious Gallifreyan crystal, Ronan was able to make all the Cybermen follow Braxiatel's orders. It was later revealed that the crystal was slowly killing Ronan, so Braxiatel arranged for Jason to arrive on Cantus to become the new Controller. Thanks to Benny, this plan backfired and Jason remembered everything that Braxiatel had done to him. Braxiatel was then forced to leave the Collection (BFBS: The Crystal of Cantus).
- The last words Ronan McGinley spoke after succumbing to the Gallifreyan Crystal were, "The thing in your head... it's still there...", hinting that Pandora was still active.
Braxiatel's absence (and activites after leaving) led to the Draconian Empire claiming a territorial right to the Collection, as well as getting into a war with the Mim. Bernice Summerfield eventually tracked down Braxiatel to return him to the Collection, so as to handle the situation. (BFBS: The Empire State) He proved successful, though he stopped the war in secret by convincing Collection gardener Hass to kill the entire Mimsphere, framing the Draconians for it (BFBS: Freedom of Information).
Jason Kane began growing suspicious that he and Bernice were meant to still be married and have children, but that Braxiatel had deliberately altered the timeline for his own purposes; Jason also began to believe Irving had altered the lives and timelines of everyone at the Collection for his own ends and only Jason was able to notice. He eventually found evidence of this, and it was revealed Braxiatel had deliberately orchestrated the breakdown and death of Clarissa Jones (after she noticed his manipulations), had manipulated time to create a Draconian/Mim war, and was deliberately 'grooming' Bernice as part of his agenda to preserve the past via his Collection. The Collection was revealed to be his TARDIS, making his temporal manipulations easier. To prevent Jason revealing any of this, Braxiatel manipulated Peter Summerfield into killing him. (BFBS: The End of the World)
While pretending to be just a resident now, Braxiatel regained dominance of the Collection via a puppet provisional government and, using his ally Doggles, manipulating a mourning Bernice in order to bring her closer to him. This failed and Bernice escaped the Collection with her son, with Braxiatel having agents sent out to track her down. (BFBS: The Wake)
Braxiatel's reasons for setting up the Collection where he did were later revealed to be due to the location of a great temporal leak, one depositing enough power to fuel a hundred colonies or perhaps even bring back his own people (who either had been, or were going to be, in danger and in need of a new home planet.
- Whether this is the destruction of Gallifrey at the end of the audio Gallifrey series (BFG: Panacea) or due to his knowledge of the Last Great Time War that would destroy Gallifrey, is unsure. However his motives are out of sync with his motives during his life on Dellah where he was at least passingly in contact with his own people, whereas on the Collection he is only known to be in contact with his past and future self.
He began to siphon the leak, moving it to the planet Maximediras which he had just puchased following the failure of its economy, thinking it could potentially become a new homeworld for Gallifrey (BFBS: Resurrecting the Past). Whilst plotting restore his people he became aware of the Deindum, a species in the future who would learn the secret of time travel and could rival his own people. He attempted to prevent their creation using Frost but was ironically stopped by the involvement of Bernice Summerfield and Robyn, an android created by this race and sent back in time to ensure their creation (BFBS: Secret Origins).
His reasons for keeping such a close eye on Bernice Summerfield, and tampering with her personal history, was revealed when it appeared she was destined to fall through a portal in time and become instrumental in the creation of the Deindum. Unable to prevent their creation Braxiatel, with the help of Doggles, planned to turn them into less aggresive creatures by altering the genetic material they would be based on. Unfortunately due to the actions of Robyn and Hass Bernice was prevented from falling through the portal at all, leaving the Deindum a far more aggresive and paranoid species than before. (BFBS: Resurrecting the Past). The Deindum travelled back and began a full scale invasion of the galaxy in order to protect their own history and ensure their creation. Keen at first to fight off these enemies of his own people Braxiatel led a galaxy wide resistance against the Deindum, although he eventually lost faith in his abilities and surrendered to his defeat (BFBS: Present Danger).
Braxiatel was captured and tortured by Deindum, before being rescued from the Deindum mothership by Bernice Summerfield. She finally confronted him with the death of Jason, and he explained that Jason was about to be used against him by the Deindum. Whether this was true is unknown. He expressed no guilt for his actions, except that he had failed in his mission and brought about the Deindum's creation. When Bernice offered him an alternative solution he expressed interest, and finally (begrudgingly) apolagised for Jason's death. He and Bernice began to engage a personal time war against the Deindum, engineering a plan to prevent them from ever having existed. The plan worked, although just before its conclusion Braxiatel was shot and apparently killed by a Deindum soldier (BFBS: Escaping the Future).
As the Deindum never existed, the truth of his apparent death is currently unknown. However it is possible he has simply returned to the Collection, as at least in a previous timeline, he was still known to be running the Collection thousands of years in the future, where he is due to meet Bernice for the first time (from her perspective) (NA: Theatre of War).
Trivia
- The Doctor referred to him as "an occasional collaborator in adventures of the mind, the soul and the body". (EDA: The Banquo Legacy) This is because the Doctor is the brother of Braxiatel. (BNA: Tears of the Oracle)