H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells, or H.G. Wells, was an author native to 19th and 20th century Earth. After a life-changing encounter with the Sixth Doctor, he coined the phrase "science fiction" and began to write novels in that genre. Two of his novels in particular — The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds — later had both subtle and significant impact upon the Doctor's life.
Biography
Adventures with the Doctor
While holidaying in Scotland during the summer of 1885, a young H.G. Wells experimented with magic and believed he had summoned both Vena, who had appeared via the Timelash, and the Sixth Doctor, whose TARDIS seemed to follow her. The Doctor found Wells somewhat irritating. Wells accompanied the Doctor to the planet Karfel and helped him defeat the despotic Borad. Along the way, Wells found inspiration for the fiction he would write and publish. After the adventure was completed, the Doctor promised to take Herbert back to his own time. (TV: Timelash)
Soon after, Wells met a temporally-displaced Edward Travers. (PROSE: Time and Again) They discovered that Travers had a ring containing a shard of a Kontron crystal, much like the crystal Vena had given him before he departed Karfel. They went on a series of adventures across alternative worlds, with Wells being haunted by a vision of Vena. (PROSE: Travers & Wells)
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However, Wells did not begin writing these adventures until after another meeting with the Doctor, this time in his tenth incarnation, in 1889. Wells assisted the Doctor against both the time traveller Jonathan Smith and members of the Torchwood Institute. After the Doctor's departure, Wells witnessed the arrival of a past incarnation of the Doctor and Leela but did not make himself known to them. (COMIC: The Time Machination)
At some point in the 1890s, Wells encountered the Second Doctor, who introduced himself as "John Smith". Wells was unaware that this was the same Doctor whose future incarnations he encountered before. (AUDIO: The Piltdown Men)
The Third Doctor had earlier claimed to have lent Bertie Wells his ion-focusing coil for an invisibility experiment. (AUDIO: The Ghosts of N-Space)
While in Ostend, Belgium in 1913, the Sixth Doctor's companion Peri Brown intended to send a postcard to Wells but never actually got around to doing so. (AUDIO: Year of the Pig)
Other information
Theophilus Tolliver, a friend of Wells, told him about his adventures travelling in time. (COMIC: The Eternal Present)
Other references
While in the process of attempting to start an inter-stellar war between Earth and Draconia, the Master read a copy of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. (TV: Frontier in Space)
Disbelieving in time machines, Laurence Scarman compared the Fourth Doctor's assertions to the "scientific romances of Mr Wells." (TV: Pyramids of Mars) Other scoffers made similar statements. (TV: Black Orchid)
In answer to the Fourth Doctor's claim that an alien was at work on Fang Rock, James Skinsale said that he could "appreciate the scientific romanticism of Mister Wells". (TV: Horror of Fang Rock)
In the late 19th century, Fabian Solak commented that power from the sun sounded "far-fetched; like something out of the works of H. G. Wells". (AUDIO: The Cars That Ate London!)
Shortly before his regeneration, the Seventh Doctor relaxed in his TARDIS reading a copy of Wells' The Time Machine. Later, his next incarnation did the same. (TV: Doctor Who)
As a child, Ian Chesterton loved the works of both Wells and Jules Verne. Their stories inspired him to pursue a career in science. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)
Sarah Jane Smith had a copy of a volume of Wells' short stories in her library. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)
The Eighth Doctor once noted that Wells was an enthusiast, "especially for the ladies." (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
On 30 October 1938, actor Orson Welles mounted a radio production of Wells' The War of the Worlds, which was presented as a news broadcast; the resulting production sparked a nationwide panic. Unknown to the public at large, however, an actual invasion attempt occurred during this time which was thwarted by the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
The Eighth Doctor once noted that Wells had "possesse[d] a most passionate concern for Man and Society." (PROSE: Casualties of War)
Marnal was a friend of Wells. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
The Master once met the titular character of The Invisible Man in the Land of Fiction. (COMIC: Character Assassin)
When Balmoral Castle was taken by the Judoon in 1902, Captain Carruthers compared the Doctor's explanation to the works of Wells. (PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon)
Tommy Morgan had read The First Men in the Moon, and was therefore unfazed when the Eighth Doctor claimed to be an alien in 1928. (PROSE: Far from Home)
In 1942, Isabella Zemanova was familiar with Wells' works, even though she suspected they might be illegal under Joseph Stalin. (PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad)
River Song tried to explain to Bertie the existence of other civilisations by referring to works of H. G. Wells, but he thought of another book about a hole to the centre of the Earth. (AUDIO: The Boundless Sea)
Behind the scenes
- Doctor Who owes an obvious debt to Wells. The idea of a time machine originated in Wells' The Time Machine, and the plot of The Daleks has a lot of similarity to George Pal's movie adaptation of The Time Machine. The Daleks themselves resemble the Martians of The War of the Worlds. So unsurprisingly, a number of affectionate references to H. G. Wells have found their way into the series.
- Though Timelash suggests otherwise, in reality, it was not H. G. Wells who coined the term "science fiction", but Hugo Gernsback.
