Lauren Anderson
Doctor Lauren Anderson was a human physician. She shared a flat with Ray Lambert until his death. After a traumatic adventure with the alien Cyberon substance, Lauren was turned into a Zygon against her will by the Zygon Torlakh after unknowingly carrying out a romantic relationship with Kritakh, another Zygon. Adopting the name of Lor or Lorre, the shapeshifter adopted a nomadic lifestyle. She lived well into the 31st century.
Biography
Early life
In Year 11, Lauren was asked to a prom by a young man called Stuart McIntee. Lauren was extremely flustered, a feeling she would later recall vividly. (PROSE: Cyberon)
As a Doctor
Eventually, Lauren became a doctor of psychiatry and started working at St John's Hospital, where she had good relationship with many of the caring staff and patients, such as George Cooper, an old man with dementia whom she considered a friend. She moved into an apartment with Ray Lambert, a gay down-on-his-luck cranial surgeon.
Some years before]the Cyberon incident, Lauren pined after a man named Duncan for months. She eventually had a one-night stand with him, after which he refused to answer her calls. She eventually wrote the whole thing off as "a mistake" and hadn't thought of Duncan in months in 2000 when she met Tom Mordley. (PROSE: Cyberon)
The Cyberon incident
While working in St John's Hospital, she oversaw the Cyberon drug tests, alongside American PKD researcher Doctor Tom Mordley. Despite her concerns about the tests, she became romantically involved with Mordley. However, she was later convinced Ray that Cyberon was not just a dangerous drug but something malicious and intelligent. She went to confront Mordley at Mordley's house, where Mordley, completely under the drug's influence, forcibly injected her with a dose of Cyberon. This warped her perspective for the next day or so, but after an encounter with the ghost of George Cooper, who'd died of a heart attack after his first dose of Cyberon, she returned to working against Tom's projects.
She cleaned out St John's of all Cyberon syringes, and, after Mordley overpowered her and abducted her to his house, managed to get free and stab him, causing the Cyberon's power to fail. She thought she had murdered him and turned herself in to the police, but to her surprise, Tom showed up unharmed and got her released, vouching that she had done nothing to harm him. He confirmed her guess that the Cyberon in his system had healed him from the wound, but refused to explain himself further without vanishing. (PROSE: Cyberon)
After Cyberon
Information from Silver-Tongued Liars needs to be added.
After a period of leave to recover from her traumatic experiences, during which Ray was very supportive, Lauren returned to work at St John's, though she felt to blame for raising her patient's hopes only to deny them the drug which they knew could have healed them, without being able to tell them the price they'd have had to pay. (PROSE: Cyberon)
Around a week after the events at Tom's house, Louise Bayliss visited Lauren in her flat, to inform her that Tom had died. (PROSE: The Last Dose)
Tangling with Zygons
While working in St Kitts Hospital, she started treating Mike Kirkwood and later engaged in a romantic relationship with him. Lauren was later turned into a Zygon by Torlakh. He attempted to frame her for the mass murder of patients and doctors at St Kitts, adopting her appearance, but Lauren turned his plan against him by shooting him while he was still wearing her appearance, thus efficiently faking her death. (HOMEVID: Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough)
On the run
Adopting the name "Lor", the newly-minted shapeshifter went on the run, leaving London. However, many years later, she was reunited with an individual claiming to be Michael. Falling under his spell again, she let herself be persuaded by "Michael" to move back to London. However, she noticed that she was feeling more and more irrationally depressed the more time she spent with Michael. On 3 March 2021, she sought the help of the Preternatural Research Bureau, the only organisation dealing with the supernatural which she felt she could trust not to kill her or imprison her.
She mailed documents proving her identity and innocence of the St Kitts murder to Giles and made an appointment with him. There, after she began explaining her problem to Giles, they were confronted with "Michael", whom Giles recognised as a love wraith called Stacey Facade, who had once tried to hypnotise Giles himself. Stacey demanded to be given back Lor, who, due to her alien DNA, was the only viable food source she had left on Earth. After Giles and Maxie refused to let Stacey get at Lor, Giles was forced to shoot Stacey, seemingly killing her.
Giles and Lor subsequently became good friends. (HOMEVID: Lauren Anderson)
Later life
In the 31st century, Lor (under the name Lorre) was still alive and part of a group of shapeshifting missionaries. With the Cyberon war over, Lorre's colleagues wanted to use the Cyberon drug for agriculture and Lorre, not trusting it ever since 2000, called in Chris Cwej to prove it was unsafe and then destroy the site. Lorre assumed the Cyberons had finally been all destroyed. (PROSE: Barnyard of the Cyberons)
Behind the scenes
- Anderson originated in BBV's direct-to-video film Cyberon , but that series is not covered by this wiki since it holds no legal licence and has nothing to do with pre-existing DWU characters. However, the novelisation of the film is covered, due to the presence of DWU characters.
- Lorre the 'shapeshifter' appeared in the Cyberon anthology before Lauren Anderson. While implied to be Lauren, it doesn't specify how and relies on the reader being aware of Zygon.
