Chris Cwej
Christopher Rodonanté Cwej (usually called Chris Cwej) was a companion of the Seventh Doctor.
Biography
Chris' surname should technically be pronounced "Shvey", but he pronounced it "Kwedge" rather than keep correcting people.
Chris was born in 2954 to a family who lived in the lower levels of the Overcity. They had a long association with the Adjudicators. Adjudicators were the police force of 30th century Earth, at that time divided into the Overcity and the Undercity. Chris was tall, blonde and muscular. When his adjudicator partner, Roz Forrester, and he first met the Seventh Doctor and Bernice, he had had a "body bepple" (bodily alteration) which made him look like a giant animated teddy bear.
He and Roz were investigating a murder case in Undercity in the year 2975 when they met the Doctor and Bernice. They helped the Doctor defeat his old enemy Tobias Vaughn. (NA: Original Sin)
Chris and Roz travelled with the Doctor for many adventures. In this eventful period, Chris fathered two daughters: Jasmine Surprise Cwej-Hutchings with Ishtar Hutchings, and iKrissi with Dep of the People. After Roz's death in battle, Chris continued to travel with the Doctor for a short time. The Doctor and Chris travelled to the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey, where the Doctor faced members of his House and many dark secrets were revealed. After this, Chris decided to travel alone using a time ring given to him by Romana. (NA: Lungbarrow)
After the Doctor
At some point after leaving the Doctor, Chris was frozen in cryogenic suspension by the Knights of Jeneve, and placed on a planet in the Ardethe System. His memories were affected by the cryogenic process. However in time he recalled most of his original memories. (BNA: Deadfall)
Work for the Time Lords
Chris, at some point following his awakening, went on to become an agent for the Time Lords some time around 2595. His biochemistry was altered by the Time Lords, giving him the ability to travel in time. The Time Lords also altered Chris' memories of his time with the Seventh Doctor. Those memories were changed to make him think he had been abducted from Earth by the "evil renegade", and to think that it was the Doctor who had killed Roz Forrester. Chris worked for the Time Lords in securing the universe in a bottle and opening a gateway for the Time Lords to invade and destroy a bottle universe version of 1970 Earth. (BNA: Dead Romance)
Whilst in the universe in the bottle, Chris was exposed to lethal amounts of radiation, and regenerated. His new body was shorter than his original, quite stocky, with dark hair and a mellow voice. (BNA: Dead Romance, Tears of the Oracle) However, after an encounter with the Ferutu, he was reverted down his personal time line to age thirteen and regained his original body. (BNA: Twilight of the Gods)
Later, not only had the Great Houses (a.ka. Time Lords) deliberately altered Cwej's timeline and biodata, they were using alternate copies of him from different timelines as soldiers in their war with the mysterious Enemy. These "Cwejen" existed in three types: the original (blond and handsome) "Cwej-Prime", the fat and balding Cwej-Plus, and the monstrous and heavily armoured Cwej-Magnus. Each type existed in multiple iterations, which the Great Houses planned to use as an "Army of One." One of the Cwejen was present at a mysterious incident in the Hollywood Bowl, which may have been a point of contact with the Enemy. (FP: The Book of the War)
Cwej-Prime was involved in hunting rogue members of the Great Houses who escaped into the multiverse at the behest of House Mirraflex. To do so, he allied himself with a parallel Nazi Germany that was never defeated. With Great Houses technology, that Germany began to conquer its neighbouring parallel Earths. (FP: Warlords of Utopia)
Behind the scenes
- Following the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novels, Chris next appeared in FP: The Book of the War, an encyclopaedia detailing the "War in Heaven" (also known as The War) in the Faction Paradox spin-off stories. The Faction Paradox line was based on ideas created for line of BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, and contained many ideas and characters which had their roots in Doctor Who novels or television. However, many of these concepts were changed for legal and creative reasons. The Time Lords, for example, became the "Great Houses". The continuities of the Faction stories and the BBC novels diverged. Whether they can be reconciled is no longer clear. Chris does not appear by name in the subsequent Faction Paradox novels, but a character who strongly matches his description appears as an agent of the Great Houses in Lance Parkin's Warlords of Utopia. This individual calls himself "Herr Abschrift", German for "Mr. Copy", suggesting that he is a copy of the original Cwej.
- The book which depicts Chris's bisexual encounter with a gay man, Damaged Goods, was written by future executive producer of the series, Russell T Davies, whose works often include gay themes. Much like Jack Harkness, an LGBT companion introduced to the TV series proper in Steven Moffat's The Empty Child, Cwej opines that sexuality is not an issue where he comes from. Although comic strip companion Izzy Sinclair is often cited as the first LGBT companion, in truth it was Cwej.
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