McGillop was a scientist working for UNIT who was present at the National Gallery when the Zygons gained access to the Black Archive. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) One account indicated his full name was Aidan McGillop, (PROSE: The Morning of the Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Morning of the Day of the Doctor (short story)"]) while another indicated that "McGillop" was his only name. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
He worked at the Under Gallery and the Black Archive, Tower of London. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]
McGillop was of Northern Irish origin. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
By one account, McGillop was an enigmatic figure, down to his first name being a mystery. UNIT staff often joked that he lost his first name due to extensive exposure to memory filters, but the fact that Zygon McGillop was unusually unable to read beyond McGillop's surface thoughts led to some suspecting something deeper.
Within UNIT, McGillop was the Curator's chief assistant and the only person who knew the Curator's true identity, leading some to speculate that he himself was the Curator, or an aspect of the Curator such as a clone, Auton, or projected future self. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
Working for UNIT[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to Petronella Osgood, he was popular within UNIT's ranks and had many friends. He had a crush on Osgood. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
McGillop attended the National Gallery along with Kate Stewart and Osgood after the Under Gallery was breached, and was in the party that welcomed the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald. As the rest of the party moved on, he received a telephone call from a future version of the Eleventh Doctor who instructed him to move the painting Gallifrey Falls No More to the Black Archive.
He was later called to the Under Gallery by Osgood to help analyse the stone dust that covered the floor of the statue room. He came face to face with an alien race, the Zygons, and was duplicated by them. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) He was later freed from captivity by Osgood. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
McGillop confronted the Zygon duplicates of himself, Kate and Osgood in the Black Archive, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], PROSE: Twenty-First-Century London [+]Loading...{"page":"28","1":"Twenty-First-Century London (feature)"}) and sealed the doors on Kate's orders. He stood by Kate's decision to arm a nuclear warhead with the power to obliterate London, and cut the Tenth Doctor, War Doctor and Eleventh Doctor from communicating with the Black Archive by disabling the space-time telegraph.
He became a victim of his own actions, as the Doctors then emerged from the stasis cube in Gallifrey Falls No More, and then proceeded to wipe the memories of the Zygon duplicates, and the human originals in the Black Archive. Not knowing which side he was in favour of, McGillop helped negotiate the human-Zygon peace treaty with Kate and their Zygon counterparts. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])