Impersonation
Just massive violations of T:NO RW here.
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Impersonation was a word with two related meanings.
Deceptive
In one sense, to impersonate someone meant to pretend to be them when you're not. This could apply to specific people (TV: The Enemy of the World [+]Loading...["The Enemy of the World (TV story)"], Meglos [+]Loading...["Meglos (TV story)"], It Takes You Away [+]Loading...["It Takes You Away (TV story)"], et al.) or to ranks and official statuses: when Clara Oswald pretended to be from Health and Safety, Fenton claimed that she was "impersonating a government official". (TV: Flatline [+]Loading...["Flatline (TV story)"])
Impersonating official personnel was a crime. (PROSE: Kursaal [+]Loading...["Kursaal (novel)"], TV: The Power of the Daleks [+]Loading...["The Power of the Daleks (TV story)"], Flatline [+]Loading...["Flatline (TV story)"])
History
In Rome in the year 64, the First Doctor impersonated the lyre player Maximus Pettulian at Emperor Nero's court. (TV: The Romans [+]Loading...["The Romans (TV story)"])
The Second Doctor once impersonated an Earth Examiner on Vulcan using the official badge he took from the Examiner's dead body. When he confronted Bragen about the latter being the leader of the rebels, Bragen threatened to reveal that the real Examiner was dead, and that the Doctor was an imposter. (TV: The Power of the Daleks [+]Loading...["The Power of the Daleks (TV story)"])
The Second Doctor was convinced by Giles Kent to impersonate Salamander in order to infiltrate the research station at Kanowa. (TV: The Enemy of the World [+]Loading...["The Enemy of the World (TV story)"]) Salamander also impersonated the Second Doctor on at least two occasions — once when trying to convince Jamie McCrimmon to let him into the TARDIS, (TV: The Enemy of the World (episode 6) [+]Loading...{"ep":"6","1":"The Enemy of the World (TV story)"}) and once in the UNIT headquarters when trying to steal time travel technology from the Third Doctor. (COMIC: The Heralds of Destruction [+]Loading...["The Heralds of Destruction (comic story)"])
The Second Doctor also posed as Napoléon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo so he could pass safely through French territory, deliver messages to the Prussian allies of Admiral Horatio Nelson, and thwart the Players' attempt to change history and let Napoléon win the battle. (PROSE: World Game [+]Loading...["World Game (novel)"])
On 2472 Uxarieus, the Third Doctor accused the Master of impersonating an Adjudicator. The latter retorted that his credentials were "immaculate", which meant that it was impossible to prove they were forged. (TV: Colony in Space (episode four) [+]Loading...{"ep":"four","1":"Colony in Space (TV story)"})
The Megara tried Cessair of Diplos and found her guilty of, among other things, "impersonating a religious personage", the Celtic goddess known as Cailleach. (TV: The Stones of Blood (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"four","1":"The Stones of Blood (TV story)"})
Brock was impersonated by a Foamasi member of the West Lodge. The imposter tried to get Mena to sell the Leisure Hive to the Foamasi. (TV: The Leisure Hive [+]Loading...["The Leisure Hive (TV story)"])
Meglos impersonated the Fourth Doctor on Tigella in order to steal the Dodecahedron from the Tigellans and use its power to control the universe. (TV: Meglos [+]Loading...["Meglos (TV story)"]) The Doctor impersonated Meglos in return, which allowed him to reverse the Dodecahedron's controls without the Gaztaks' knowledge, destroying Zolfa-Thura instead of Tigella. (TV: Meglos (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"four","1":"Meglos (TV story)"})
While under the Tremas Master's control, Adric used a Block Transfer Computation version of himself to convince Nyssa that the Fifth Doctor had to remain in Castrovalva. The Master then remarked that what Adric had done was "a perfect impersonation of [him]self". (TV: Castrovalva (part three) [+]Loading...{"part":"three","1":"Castrovalva (TV story)"})
The First Rani impersonated Mel Bush in order to convince the recently regenerated Seventh Doctor to help her with the Time Manipulator. (TV: Time and the Rani [+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (TV story)"])
The Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones pretended to be pathologists called in regarding the deaths of an archaeologist team on Kursaal. When the real pathologist arrived, Security Chief Paul Kadijk confronted the two and threatened to arrest them for impersonating official personnel. (PROSE: Kursaal [+]Loading...["Kursaal (novel)"])
According to Allopta, "Reps" were known to impersonate "peasant heroes and bandits" in order to "stir up trouble among the more gullible species". (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5 [+]Loading...{"chaptnum":"9","1":"The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)"})
"The Unicorn", a master thief in 1920s England, impersonated Robina Redmond, a London socialite, at a party at the Eddison Manor. This allowed her to steal the Firestone from Lady Clemency Eddison, but she returned the necklace when publicly confronted by the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble about her true identity. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp [+]Loading...["The Unicorn and the Wasp (TV story)"])
Clara Oswald once pretended to be from Health and Safety in order to secure her position as leader of a group of workers hiding from the Boneless. Fenton claimed that she was "impersonating a government official". (TV: Flatline [+]Loading...["Flatline (TV story)"])
The Solitract created an image of Trine and Grace O'Brien in order to convince Erik and Graham O'Brien respectively to stay on the Solitract plane. However, Graham rejected the false Grace because he believed his real wife would care for the safety of her grandson, Ryan, above all else, and Erik was thrown out of the "mirror universe" when the Thirteenth Doctor convinced the Solitract that it would be much more interesting to let her stay instead. (TV: It Takes You Away [+]Loading...["It Takes You Away (TV story)"])
Recreational
In another sense, impersonation, also known as doing impressions, was a pastime where people tried to mimic the mannerisms and speech patterns of others.
Lancelot Takis and August Lilt met serving in the Peninsular Wars on planet JJ33. They entertained the troops by impersonating Laurel and Hardy. (PROSE: Revelation of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Revelation of the Daleks (novelisation)"])
Bob once remarked that Miranda Dawkins' impressions of friends and other people were "brilliant", and that she "should be on Spitting Image". He himself could only do an impression of Rik Mayall. According to Miranda, impersonation was a "trick" that her father taught her. (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)"])
Language
In this sense, the word was sometimes used figuratively to describe someone's behaviour as inadvertently similar to something else.
Bob liked Miranda because she could call him "Bob" "without doing a Rowan Atkinson impersonation". (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Voices from the Past","chaptnum":"12","1":"Father Time (novel)"})
The Eleventh Doctor described Francesca and Digby Latimer's late governess, revived by the Great Intelligence's telepathic snow, as "a living ice sculpture impersonating Mr Punch". (TV: The Snowmen [+]Loading...["The Snowmen (TV story)"])
Aoife Fitzgerald once called Pieter a George Michael impersonator. (PROSE: Magic Bird of Fire [+]Loading...["Magic Bird of Fire (short story)"])
