The Leader
On the Inferno Earth, the Leader was the dictatorial President of the Republic of Great Britain. (TV: Inferno [+]Loading...["Inferno (TV story)"]) His origins are in dispute.
One account suggested that he was the version of the Doctor native to this reality; specifically, instead of rejecting all the faces suggested to him at the Doctor's trial following (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)"], TV: The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"]) the War Chief incident, (PROSE: CIA File Extracts [+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"]) this reality's Second Doctor had accepted the "thin" face, thus becoming the Leader instead of another reality's more heroic Third Doctor. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)"], TV: The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"])
Another account was far more vague about his background; never making it clear whether he was an extra-terrestrial or a human. He refers to "hearts" in the plural and there are "rumours" about him having once had the ability to miraculously extend his lifespan which had been taken from him. (PROSE: I, Alastair Whatever his origins, his official portrait depicted him as a healthy middle-aged man. (TV: Inferno) By 1968, after over 25 years in office, age was beginning to catch up with him as he became infirm beyond that which any amount of plastic surgery could mask. (PROSE: I, Alastair [+]Loading...["I, Alastair (novel)"])
Biography
Origins
According to one account, the Leader came into being because Inferno universe's version of the Second Doctor selected one of the bodies offered to him by the Time Lords after his trial, before being exiled to Earth. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation) Indeed, one of the faces rejected by the Second Doctor in the conventional version of event was a thin man (TV: The War Games) with a certain resemblance to the Leader. (TV: Inferno)
Rise to power
As recounted in the account giving the most information about him; the Leader first gained prominence in 1930s England when he became an associate of Oswald Mosley. The two were regulars at the Revolutionary Arms pub in Westminster, and a photo from the era showed the future Leader drawing a beer for one of his colleagues — in public, he projected a kind avuncular personality, covering a cold and ruthless core.
He soon became the new leader of the revolutionary movement, following Mosley's assassination while giving a speech at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1936. The Leader crafted Mosley's legacy as a martyr of the British people and successfully broadened the Party's appeal, turning it into a mass movement capable of threatening the establishment. (PROSE: I, Alastair)
In 1943, the revolution finally arrived, the old democratic regime collapsed and numerous executions were carried out on the Leader's orders, ostensibly those who had conspired to assassinate Mosley, including, among others, the British Royal Family. (PROSE: I, Alastair, TV: Inferno)
Years in power
By 1968, the Leader had become irritable and paranoid, sacking members of his Cabinet for perceived slights and failings, demoting Arthur Fless, Director of Information, to a remote colonial posting in West Africa for failing to locate an illegal radio transmitter interrupting BBC broadcasts with anti-Party propaganda in the London area. His health had severely declined and he was visibly elderly as his age caught up with him; he spent two months at his seaside retreat in Bognor Regis to convalesce from a condition afflicting his hearts but suffered a stroke soon after, confining him to a wheelchair. The Cabinet had started jockeying for power on assumption the Leader would not survive much longer, but he still retained his intelligence and cunning. (PROSE: I, Alastair)
Death
The Leader was seemingly killed in 1968 when Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart opportunistically used his wheelchair as a battering ram during an alien attack on Downing Street. After his death, the Leader's popularity with the public remained high and years later portraits and posters of him remained omnipresent to cement the legitimacy of President Lethbridge-Stewart's regime. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence, I, Alastair)
Legacy
During a conversation with the Seventh Doctor, the Third Doctor recalled the face on the poster in the hut at the Inferno Project, and described its similarity to the one offered to him by the Time Lords, concluding the Leader was an alternative incarnation of his. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation, TV: The War Games)
Behind the scenes
- A black-and-white photograph of the BBC special effects designer Jack Kine were used to depict the Leader on the UNITY IS STRENGTH poster in the Technical Store, the Doctor's hut on the regular Earth timeline; and the framed picture on the wall of Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart's office in Inferno. However, the Leader never appears on-screen in person and there is no on-screen evidence to suggest that the Doctor and the Leader had any connection; this connection was made only in the novels.
- Robert Mammone, interviewed in 2021, noted that the Leader's paranoia and tendency to play cabinet members off against each other are based on Joseph Stalin. He also admitted that when writing it, he had forgotten about Paul Cornell's implication that the Inferno Earth ruler was a version of the Doctor; "in my head, the Leader was just another in a long line of very human tyrants".[1]
Footnotes
- ↑ Interview in Doctor Who - The Mind-Blowing Secret Of This 1970 Photo.
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