Edgar Allan Poe

	Writer, Poet
	Earth
	The Evil of the Daleks
	The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull
	AUDIO: Nevermore, The Ultimate Poe
	Eric Loren

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and poet.

Biography

Edgar Allan Poe was born on 19 January 1809. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary ^[+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"]) He pursued a life as writer and poet and became the first American writer to support himself financially solely through this line of work, although he was not financially stable. He lost a number of loved ones to consumption. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Poe ^[+]Loading...["The Ultimate Poe (audio story)"])

On 2 October 1849, the First Doctor met Poe at a séance during which an evil entity was accidentally summoned through a ram's skull. Poe helped defeat the entity by knocking a candle on the skull after the Doctor had spilled cognac on it. Poe wrote of the events of the ram's skull the evening after they happened, stating that, in writing this document, he had reopened the "doorway to Hell", possibly infecting himself. (PROSE: The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull ^[+]Loading...["The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull (short story)"])

On 3 October, Poe was kidnapped by the Master, who called himself "Reynolds", and plugged into the Matrix to trap and kill the Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush with the help of his imagination. Poe instead helped the Doctor and Mel, however, and they freed him, although he had been severely drained by the experience. They returned him to Baltimore where, according to this account, he was found sat outside Gunner's Hall by Joseph Walker, whom he asked about Reynolds. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Poe ^[+]Loading...["The Ultimate Poe (audio story)"])

According to another account, Poe was found wandering deliriously in the streets. He was taken to hospital. (PROSE: The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull ^[+]Loading...["The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull (short story)"])

The Eighth Doctor encountered Poe on 4 October; they discussed ghosts, and the Doctor was given a manuscript describing the "haunters of the dark" Poe saw everywhere (possibly the aforementioned document recounting the events of 2 October). Unfortunately, the text was unreadable. (AUDIO: Nevermore ^[+]Loading...["Nevermore (audio story)"]) The Eighth Doctor and Guy met Edgar Allan Poe on a second occasion, during which Poe remarked that it was unusual that the Doctor and a gorilla in a cravat and a waistcoat were travelling together. (AUDIO: The Mummy Speaks! ^[+]Loading...["The Mummy Speaks! (audio story)"])

Poe died on 7 October. A mysterious stranger left cognac and roses at his grave. (PROSE: The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull ^[+]Loading...["The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull (short story)"])

Alternative timeline

The Seventh Doctor and Ace were present on 3 October, 1849 in Baltimore at a version of Poe's death. They saw the timeline rewrite itself so events occurred in several different ways. (PROSE: The Algebra of Ice ^[+]Loading...["The Algebra of Ice (novel)"])

Legacy

In 1866, Arthur Terrall labelled the Second Doctor as a devotee of the writer. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)"])

In 2050, Starkey read aloud Poe's "The Raven" to Jorjie Turner, Darius Pike and K9, though Darius did not find it scary. (TV: The Fall of the House of Gryffen ^[+]Loading...["The Fall of the House of Gryffen (TV story)"])

Following his unleashing of the Red Death on Corinth Major, Senior Prosecutor Uglosi became obsessed with the works of Poe. Corinth Major became the prison planet Nevermore, modelled on Poe's works. (AUDIO: Nevermore ^[+]Loading...["Nevermore (audio story)"])

Melanie Bush, upon seeing the ruined landscape of Puxatornee, commented that it looked like the sort of place that would have Edgar Allan Poe reaching for his notebook. (AUDIO: Flip-Flop ^[+]Loading...["Flip-Flop (audio story)"])

When the Eighth Doctor was split into three personalities, Charley Pollard hoped that it wouldn't turn out to be like one of those Edgar Allan Poe stories with a good twin and an evil twin. (AUDIO: Caerdroia ^[+]Loading...["Caerdroia (audio story)"])

Behind the Scenes

• Poe was played by Laurence Payne in the 1960 film The Tell-Tale Heart, Kenneth Cranham in the 1992 film Tale of a Vampire and Harry Melling in the 2022 film The Pale Blue Eye.