Romana III (The Shadows of Avalon)
Continuing the Presidential duties of her previous incarnation, the third incarnation of Romana was much “more ruthless and desperate” than her predecessor. (PROSE: Crimes Against History [+]Loading...["Crimes Against History (short story)"]) Taking on titles like the War Queen and Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys, this incarnation found herself willing to do whatever it took to serve history and ensure the longevity of Gallifrey, putting her at odds with the Eighth Doctor. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"])
Biography
Post-regeneration
Within the first decades of her inauguration, Romana II regenerated into her third incarnation. (PROSE: "Modern Times: The Paradox Era" [+]Part of Crimes Against History (second edition), Loading...{"namedpart":"Modern Times: The Paradox Era","var":"second edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}) This incarnation would become “more ruthless and desperate” than her predecessor and was considerably less friendly toward the Eighth Doctor in particular. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"]; Crimes Against History [+]Loading...["Crimes Against History (short story)"])
In anticipation of the oncoming War, Romana sets about to ensure that her people are prepared for the conflict. She instructed “her people” to put most of their resources into identifying this future menace, and begins research on type 103 TARDIS capsules as a means of developing better weapons in the ships’ systems. (PROSE: "Modern Times: The Paradox Era" [+]Part of Crimes Against History (second edition), Loading...{"namedpart":"Modern Times: The Paradox Era","var":"second edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}; The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"]) Additionally, at her instruction, eight colony worlds were crypto-formed into “cloneworlds” of Gallifrey. Her implementation of former President Greyjan’s plans resulted in her being dubbed the “Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys”. (The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"]; The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell"])
The War Queen of the Nine Gallifreys
According to some accounts, Romana continues to lead Gallifrey as the War in Heaven becomes imminent. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell"]; The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles"]) During her 55th year in office, however, other accounts suggest that she had instead retired from the Presidency and another President took her place. These accounts suggest that her Homeworld was merely a sheath echo that believed itself to be the original, and that she had left the original Gallifrey of her own accord to keep up the pretense that it was the real one. (PROSE: "Modern Times: The Paradox Era" [+]Part of Crimes Against History (second edition), Loading...{"namedpart":"Modern Times: The Paradox Era","var":"second edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}; The Story So Far... [+]Loading...["The Story So Far... (short story)"])
Inspired by brief glimpses into the future, the Lady President sanctioned research into the feasibility of sentient TARDISes. Ultimately, this research was unsuccessful and the Type-101 was quickly concealed while Romana instead focused on the production of Type-90 military vessels and gathering information from the outside universe. (PROSE: Crimes Against History (first edition) [+]Loading...{"var":"first edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"})
Two years before the Cataclysm, she was ceremonially given the title of War Queen. (PROSE: Crimes Against History (first edition) [+]Loading...{"var":"first edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}) Identifying that Compassion would be a valuable resource in the War, she dispatched Cavis and Gandar to Avalon to capture her. Eventually, however, Romana came to Avalon herself so that she could take possession of the first successful humanoid-sentient TARDIS. These attempts uniformly failed, as the Eighth Doctor and Fitz fled inside Compassion. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"])
As the War approached, The Edifice appeared in the skies of Romana III's Gallifrey. The structure created temporal pulses that began washing over the planet, causing civil disorder and mass superstition. In her 150th year as President, she was challenged by former President Greyjan in a Faction Paradox scheme to take over Gallifrey and re-write its history. The Eighth Doctor destroyed the planet to prevent this. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell (novel)"]) Marnal later showed the amnesiac Eighth Doctor these events, where Romana and one of her soldiers, Mali, tried to restore Gallifrey from one of the Nine Gallifreys. They discovered that Faction Paradox had wiped their Nine Gallifreys from history. Romana wept, knowing that her planet was doomed, and she sent K-9 into the Doctor's TARDIS to kill the Doctor and prevent his future self from destroying Gallifrey. Soon after, Faction Paradox skulltroopers closed in on Romana and Mali and fired two shots. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"])
Death and regeneration
According to one account, Romana III survived and lived to be an old woman. She visited Ponch on a planet orbiting the last sun before the universe's heat death, where he lived among the last humans. She described it as a "godless age". She hadn't seen the Doctor in centuries, and she didn't know where he was.
Romana disguised her TARDIS as the inn Janua Foris so she could tell Ponch about his past life as Huvan during her earlier incarnation's encounter with Valdemar. She used a psychic attack to convince Ofrin to let her keep telling the story, though she died in the snow before she could finish. Later, Ponch found her in her TARDIS in a younger body. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar)
Personality
While initially more idealistic and compassionate, Romana III grew be manipulative and ruthless as her tenure as Head of the Presidency wore on. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"], Crimes Against History [+]Loading...["Crimes Against History (short story)"]) A part of her felt guilty about her more desperate actions, musing whether corruption was simply the curse of the Presidency, but she would justify her actions as doing what was best for her people and in the service of history itself. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"])
Appearance
As War Queen, Romana was petite, with black hair and a snub nose. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) She had a fringe, fierce green eyes, and a tattoo of the Prydonian Seal on her left ankle. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
She typically dressed in a set of scarlet chinoise pyjamas with a high square collar, pearls, and oriental clogs. Around her left wrist she wore a set of bangles. Her toenails were often painted in the swirling colours of the time vortex. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) On one occasion, Romana wore a long green grown, pearls, and an opal-jewelled headband. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
On the day of her Reaffirmation Ceremony, Romana wore a long and beaded beaded black dress with cuffed sleeves, and pointed stiletto heels. On each ear, she wore a tjakelian earring with a chip of pure drublix in the dangling teardrop of precious metal. Around her neck, she wore two ropes of pearls. Her fingernails were long and painted with a glittering finish. During the Ceremony itself, she wore the Coronet of Rassilon. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
Romana told Ponch that she had copied her appearance from Miranda Pelham, noting that she'd done it before and would probably do it again and that Miranda was "such a lovely-looking woman". Ponch (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar) and Cuthbert Simpson both regarded Romana as "beautiful"; (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy) the Eighth Doctor noted that she looked like his mother. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
Having survived the War in Heaven into old age, this incarnation's hair had grown a thick chestnut colour, and her skin had developed dark creases from the intense heat. Her movements were hindered by arthritic pain. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar)
Behind the scenes
- Writers involved in the future War arc of Eighth Doctor Adventures novels based Romana III's described appearance on that of the American silent film actress Louise Brooks, although upon meeting this incarnation for the first time the Eighth Doctor noted that she now looked worryingly like his mother.
- While neither have been officially connected, Paul Cornell's The Shadows of Avalon and Simon Messingham's Tomb of Valdemar were both released on the same day and depict a future incarnation of Romana who is described as pale, has grown estranged from the Doctor and reminds characters of their mothers.
- James Goss created Juliet Landau's Trey incarnation of Romana for the Big Finish audio stories. It was unclear which incarnation of Romana she was, and Goss initially contrasted her with "other future Romanadvoratrelundars" such as the "brilliantly glacial flapper", Romana III, who first appeared in Paul Cornell's The Shadows of Avalon. (VOR 56) However, Lady Trey was later definitively shown to be the third Romana in Enemy Lines.
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