Victoria
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- You may be looking for Victoria Waterfield, the Second Doctor's companion or any one of several other things named "Victoria".
Her Majesty Queen Victoria (1819-1901 (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)) was queen of the United Kingdom (TV: Tooth and Claw) from 1837 to 1900 or 1901, a reign which lasted sixty-three years. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) She later became Empress of India in 1876. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) She oversaw great change over the course of her reign, including the expansion of the British Empire, and a period of industrialisation and scientific expansion. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) She also established the Torchwood Institute; (TV: Tooth and Claw) it was an organisation which would investigate and fight alien threats across the British Empire. (TV: Everything Changes, AUDIO: Golden Age)
Queen Victoria was the first carrier of haemophilia in Britain's royal family, passing the disease on through the royal houses of Europe, including those of Germany, Russia and Spain. Neither her parents, nor her ancestors were carriers, and not all of her children inherited the mutation, but it as passed on to her daughters Alice and Beatrice, and her son Leopold eventually died from it. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler speculated that she developed the disease, potentially a form of lycanthropy, after being bitten by the Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
Biography
Childhood
Victoria was born in 1819. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)
Early reign
Victoria came to the throne following the death of her uncle, William IV, on 20 June 1837. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
She was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith on 28 June 1838, (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) at the age of just eighteen (PROSE: A History of Humankind) in a ceremony that the Third Doctor claimed to have attended. (TV: The Curse of Peladon) Bill Potts also claimed to have witnessed it. (COMIC: Where's the Doctor?) Her official title was "Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India and Defender of the Faith". (TV: Tooth and Claw)
On 10 February 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary) The prince was her cousin, (PROSE: A History of Humankind) to whom she was devoted, and they had five daughters (TV: Tooth and Claw) and a son named Bertie. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive, etc.) They had a total of nine children, who later married into royal and noble families across Europe, before Albert died in 1861. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)
There was an attempted assassination of Victoria in 1840. This was the first of several attempts, with further attempted assassinations in May and July of 1842, 1849, 1850 and 1872. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
In 1842, the Queen was accompanied by Prince Albert on the first train journey by a reigning monarch, due to Albert's interest in science and technology. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
Her husband, Prince Albert, died from Typhoid fever in 1861. This affected the Queen profoundly and she withdrew from public life for much of the 1860s, rarely visiting London, although she continued to perform her constitutional duties in private. For the rest of her life, she wore black as a sign of mourning and divided her time between Windsor, the Isle of Wight and Balmoral Castle in Scotland. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
The Queen pressured the deposed maharaja Duleep Singh, whose mother she locked up for thirteen years, into gifting her with the Koh-i-Noor. She had him raised no differently to her children and had him beaten by his tutor when he misbehaved. She also made Colonel Oliver Crackenthorpe sentinel of the sea fortress after he had his wife committed to an asylum in 1861. (AUDIO: Fortitude)
In 1863, the Fifth Doctor was temporarily appointed Queen Victoria's scientific advisor whilst investigating a recently-discovered rift that appeared to lead to the afterlife. In fact, it led to another dimension which shaped itself according to the wishes of the inhabitants. (PROSE: Empire of Death)
Queen Victoria became Empress of India on 1 May 1876. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
In 1878, Queen Victoria oversaw the Cygnus, the Draco and the Lynx, which were launched to the Moon. This resulted in the alien life-forms known as the Vrall being unleashed on Earth. The Fifth Doctor had his companion Kamelion posed as a vision of Prince Albert to convince Victoria to abandon space travel. (PROSE: Imperial Moon)
By 1879, the Queen had survived six assassination attempts and took to carrying a gun in her handbag. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
Founding Torchwood
In 1879, Queen Victoria met the Tenth Doctor, whose psychic paper told her that he was her protector, and Rose Tyler whilst en route to Balmoral Castle. They stayed at Torchwood House where Father Angelo and the Brethren unleashed a werewolf on her with the aim of creating an Empire of the Wolf. She shot Father Angelo, claiming that Captain Reynolds had done it, and watched as the Doctor and Rose used the Koh-i-Nor and a light chamber created by Prince Albert and George MacLeish to kill the beast.
Afterwards, the Queen knighted the Doctor and Rose, who speculated that she might have been bitten by the wolf, to reward them for saving her. However, she then banished them from the British Empire for their cavalier attitude to the chaos and destruction she had witnessed, and established Torchwood to investigate and fight alien threats, as well as to keep an eye out for the Doctor. (TV: Tooth and Claw) In the Torchwood Charter issued on 31 December that year, (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) she listed the Doctor as an enemy of the Crown. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
The Queen and Tsar Alexander, who set up the KVI, gathered together a number of aliens and formed the Committee, promising to give them recovered alien technology in return for them testing Torchwood and the KVI. The Tsar later gave the Queen Object 1, which she gave to Jack Harkness to throw into the Rift upon learning what it had done to the mortality rate in Russia. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
1880s
In 1883, Redvers Fenn-Cooper received an invitation to Buckingham Palace and was used by Josiah Samuel Smith in a plan to assassinate Queen Victoria, whom Fenn-Cooper believed was a wild animal called a Crowned Saxe-Coburg. (TV: Ghost Light)
In 1887, Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
In 1889, Li H'sen Chang was scheduled to perform for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace but he was killed one month earlier. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
1890s
Queen Victoria went to Flat Holm and heard the messages from a voice that claimed to predict the future. She deduced that Florence Driscoll, a Torchwood operative, had been the one to kill Owain Pryce and Captain Henry Morgan and shot her after she tried to do the same to her. The Queen also destroyed the wireless, saying that her fate was in her own hands. (AUDIO: Save Our Souls)
In the summer of 1897, Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. Count Otto Von Harnstein presented her with the Giant's Heart which was housed in the Tower of London until it could be set into her crown. The Giant's Heart was taken by the Doctor and replaced with a similar looking diamond from the Mines of Horno Ciego. The Doctor believed Queen Victoria would not notice the difference. (PROSE: The Giant's Heart)
Displeased with what little Mr Singh had done with his life, the Queen took him to the sea fortress where, as she expected, he released the creature and tried to kill her. She used this as justification to keep him there, giving his life purpose, whilst Colonel Crackenthorpe was given his freedom. (AUDIO: Fortitude)
Victoria travelled to Cambridge to investigate inter-dimensional disturbances killing academics ahead of a vote on whether to award women degrees, taking a quick disliking to the Vice Chancellor Sir James. She deduced his niece, Honora Tapley, was responsible and tried to resolve the situation first by trying to influence the vote into passing, which failed, and then sending Sir James away and telling Honora he had been killed. Honora discovered the truth and left for another dimension, rejecting Victoria's offer to come work with her. (AUDIO: Infidel Places)
On 17 May 1899, the Queen visited Torchwood's base at the Natural History Museum in London for an annual inspection when the Life-stealer escaped and started attacking people. Although tempted to use the creature to prolong her own life, lacking faith in her descendants to properly oversee Torchwood, the Queen rallied elderly Londoners to surround the creature, which was reduced to dust. She decided to allow Torchwood to continue operating and retired from the public view. (AUDIO: The Victorian Age)
In the 1890s, Queen Victoria was possessed by a 49th century refugee with the aim of turning "the tides of history" and creating a new future, plans which were thwarted by Henry Gordon Jago, George Litefoot, Ellie Higson and Toby. (AUDIO: The Spirit Trap) The Queen once attended a play at the New Regency Theatre (AUDIO: The Theatre of Dreams) and was saved by Jago and Litefoot from Jack the Ripper, whom she gave a royal pardon. (AUDIO: The Wax Princess)
The Queen knighted Jago and Litefoot for their roles in saving her life, but decreed that their knighthoods should be kept secret so as not to endanger the anonymity that she believed was vital to their work investigating infernal incidents. The Sixth Doctor was in attendance, but went by "Professor Dark" as he had heard a rumour that the Queen was not a fan of his. (AUDIO: Jago & Litefoot Forever)
Towards the end of her life, Queen Victoria met Agnes Havisham before she was cryogenically preserved to act as Torchwood's Assessor. (PROSE: Risk Assessment)
Death
On 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria died. She was the longest-reigning British monarch and the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline Victoria married John Hart who helped her to expand her empire before she died. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
In 2022, when people began vanishing on Earth, Victoria's history was changed: she became Queen after currently unexplained events that led to the "English Succession Crisis" and was hidden away from the world, eventually being forgotten and vanishing herself; indeed, Cleo Proctor found that no-one remembered the Queen, merely referring to her as "The Lost Queen", and the statue of her in London was "just an empty throne". (AUDIO: Lost)
Legacy
Victoria was succeeded as the British monarch by her son Edward VII. (TV: Inferno)
Knowledge of the Doctor passed down from one generation to another in the Royal Family following the incident with the werewolf and exile by Queen Victoria, being remembered as far as the 33rd century by Elizabeth X of Starship UK. (TV: The Beast Below)
"We are not amused...", Queen Victoria's most famous saying, was not actually attributed to her until 1919, when Caroline Holland mentioned it in her Notebooks of a Spinster Lady. According to Holland, an equerry had tried to entertain dinner guests a Windsor Castle with a mildly scandalous tale. When he had finished telling his story, Her Majesty spoke on behalf of the room: "We are not amused." (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac) Even 100 years after her death, the phrase was still often linked to Queen Victoria; this led to Rose Tyler, who met her in 1879, making a wager with the Doctor that she could make her say it. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
Following her encounter with the werewolf, Queen Victoria founded Torchwood; Torchwood still existed even in the 42nd century. (TV: The Satan Pit) As a member of Torchwood, Queen Victoria's likeness was among those assumed by the intuitive hard-light simulations of the Torchwood Archive. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Unfortunately, due to a foolish mishap by then-director Yvonne Hartman, the Battle of Canary Wharf led to the destruction of the Torchwood Institute hundreds of years later. (TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday) Torchwood Three survived under the leadership of Jack Harkness, but developed a sense of loyalty to the Doctor, rendering all of Queen Victoria's hopes and dreams of using Torchwood to permanently banish him from Great Britain a complete waste of time. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
The Ninth Doctor appeared in a book of photographs of Victoria, which WillH noted that there weren't many people in the 19th century who wore leather jackets. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)
References
Upon visiting Venus in the far future, Henry Gordon Jago suggested claiming the planet for Queen Victoria and the British Empire. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus)
When the Fourth Doctor mentioned the dress Sarah Jane Smith was wearing was also worn by the Doctor's former travelling companion Victoria Waterfield, Sarah, referencing Queen Victoria's husband, quipped "Well, as long as Albert didn't wear it." (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
There was a statue of Queen Victoria in the garden of Harrison Chase's mansion. (TV: The Seeds of Doom)
When they travelled to Mars, British soldiers took a painting of Queen Victoria to the red planet, putting it on display while they mined the area. They later marked it as her territory by writing "God save the Queen" on the surface with rocks with the Twelfth Doctor and Bill's help. (TV: Empress of Mars)
At Gavin Walker's fancy dress party in Monte Carlo in 1966, Ace dressed as Queen Victoria. (AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard)
Appearance
Duleep Singh described Queen Victoria as a "withered old hag" with her neck being the only slim thing about her. (AUDIO: Fortitude)
Personality
Please help by adding some more information.
Queen Victoria did not support women's suffrage. She once said, "Let women be what God intended: a helpmate for man." (AUDIO: The Suffering)
Behind the scenes
- According to the reference book Doctor Who: Creatures and Demons, which is not a valid source for in-universe articles, in Pete's World, Queen Victoria still went to Torchwood House. The werewolf attacked the house and Queen Victoria was killed in this event. It was theorised that this was the point of divergence which created Pete's World.
- Queen Victoria is one of three historical figures who are available as playable characters in the online game TARDIS Tennis.
- The Time Traveller's Almanac acknowledges Victoria as the longest-reigning British monarch at the time of publication, a feat which was eventually claimed by Elizabeth II prior to her death in 2022.
- Miriam Margolyes played Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, opposite Jim Broadbent as Prince Albert.
- Beginning in 2016, Jenna Coleman played Queen Victoria in the ITV drama series, Victoria, which chronicled the early years of the eponymous Queen's reign and also starred Eve Myles, Tommy Knight, Adrian Schiller, Tom Price, Nichola McAuliffe, Peter Bowles, Simon Paisley Day, Robin Soans, Ferdinand Kingsley and David Bamber. During his time on Victoria, Kingsley guest-starred in TV: Empress of Mars which made direct reference to Collins' version of Victoria.
- She was played by Annette Crosbie in Edward the Seventh.
- Stephanie Cole voiced Queen Victoria opposite Kerry Godliman in the John Finnemore's Double Acts instalment "The Queen's Speech".
External links
- December 1899 address of Queen Victoria to the Torchwood Institute (Torchwood website)
- August 1883 address to the Torchwood Institute on the Cardiff rift (Torchwood website)
- December 1884 address on the importance of secrecy (Torchwood website)
- July 1882 speech to the Torchwood Institute (Torchwood website)
- account of Queen Victoria's visits to Torchwood House (Torchwood House website)
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