Ulysses
Ulysses was, according to some accounts, the father of the Doctor. He had abandoned his life as a Time Lord and became a professor on Earth known as Daniel Joyce.
Biography
In his time at the Academy, Ulysses, like his father, was tutored by Patience, an old friend of the House of Lungbarrow. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
Ulysses was one of the first Time Lords to give himself a new name, which he picked from an Earth adventurer. It was on Earth that he married Penelope Gate, a human from 1883. Ulysses and Penelope were friends of Mr Saldaamir and the three of them often went exploring together. Ulysses, Saldaamir and Penelope also associated themselves with Lady Larna, who was from their future. Unbeknownst to the High Council, Penelope gave birth to a son, the Doctor.
When fellow Time Lord Marnal threatened to expose them, they used the telepathic circuits of his TARDIS to wipe his memory and dumped him on Earth in England, 1883 with Penelope's mother. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) Ulysses was also friends with Savar before he went on his mission to find Omega. Ulysses chose to stay behind on Gallifrey rather than attempt to rescue Omega from the black hole he was trapped in. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
When the Doctor was "barely a loomling", he let a cobblemouse loose in the great hall of the House of Lungbarrow and it scattered Ulysses' plans and notes in the air, to which made him very angry. (PROSE: Unnatural History) Ulysses once watched a meteor storm with his son on Gallifrey, which the latter would remember shortly after his seventh regeneration. (TV: Doctor Who) The Seventh Doctor had a flashback to a time when his father had his arm across the Doctor's shoulders as together they watched a Gallifreyan dawn. (PROSE: Matrix)
When the Doctor was young, Ulysses and Penelope went on a trek in the mountains with him. Ulysses and Penelope owned a summer house on the other side of Kasterborous. Ulysses was still on Gallifrey when the Doctor had children, and stood at his side while he lost a chess match to Savar. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
The Time Lords banned all mention of Ulysses' name because he consorted with aliens. After he left Gallifrey, Ulysses got every record of himself deleted from the Time Lord's files. (PROSE: Unnatural History)
A mysterious, possibly alternative version of the Doctor was once told that his father's name was no longer Ulysses and he was a professor at Berkeley University on Earth in the 21st century. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) On Earth, Ulysses adopted the name Daniel Joyce and lived in Berkeley near San Francisco, where he married his second wife, Anne. He became a professor and taught at Berkeley University. Sometime in the 1980s, Joyce assisted the Doctor with a danger related to the Advanced Research Project that Joyce was working for. Joyce later hired Larna as his assistant on the Project.
After the millennium he gave Professor Wagg a new beryllium chip to make up for the one that was stolen from him. In 2002, Joyce assisted the Eighth Doctor (whom he called "son") in defeating Griffin and in closing a dimensional scar. Joyce told the Doctor that he had begun experimenting with his biodata at this time, but refused to tell him why. (PROSE: Unnatural History)
The Eighth Doctor once said that he could remember being Loomed, but also having a father. The Doctor knew one of these was a dream but was unsure as to which. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
The Eighth Doctor said that he was immortal on his father's side. The sentient quantum field of the planet Albert later told the Doctor that there was a reality where he knew his father's face. (PROSE: Grimm Reality)
Irving Braxiatel said that his father had a cellar full of Draconian brandy. (AUDIO: Everybody Loves Irving)
Appearance
On Gallifrey, Ulysses was powerfully built with white hair and a clipped beard. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) On Earth, he had a tattoo indicating that he had once been imprisoned on Shada. He also had a short white beard and a Scottish accent. (PROSE: Unnatural History)
Behind the scenes
Ulysses was to have been the name of the Doctor's father in an early script of TV: Doctor Who. The search for Ulysses by the Eighth Doctor would have appeared in a story arc in the planned late 1990s revival of Doctor Who for which the one-off television movie would have served as the pilot. The line was cut from the final script. A passing reference by the Eighth Doctor that he remembered spending time with his father on Gallifrey remained in the finished film. Lance Parkin utilised these ideas when he wrote PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles.
The Nth Doctor describes an earlier version of the TV Movie pilot in which Ulysses had, as described in the books, gone to live on Earth as a radical Berkley professor nicknamed "Doctor Doomsday".
It was commonly speculated by fans that Joyce was a later incarnation of Professor Chronotis from HOMEVID: Shada, the existence of which almost certainly inspired the character. But this was later denied by writer Jonathan Blum. [1]
Joyce was to feature in a Doctor Who novel by Kate Orman. The novel was never published. [2]
Ulysses adopting the last name Joyce might be a nod to James Joyce, an Irish author who wrote a novel called Ulysses. [3]
Trivia
- Being the Doctor's father, this would make him the last pure Time Lord of the Doctor's family.
- Since the Doctor considers himself the last Time Lord, one can infer that Daniel Joyce is dead probably due to the last great time war.
