Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII, to line up with Cleopatra VII (State of Change) and so that the dabless page can redirect to Cleopatra (disambiguation)
Talk about it here.
Cleopatra VII was the last Pharaoh of Egypt and the wife of Mark Antony. (PROSE: State of Change, The Last Pharaoh) She was Greek, although it was a common mistake to think she was Egyptian. (PROSE: The Lonely Computer)
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Cleopatra had a brother and a sister, Arsinoe. She married her brother, but later convinced Julius Caesar to have him murdered. She then took Caesar as a lover and had a son with him. After Caesar's death, Cleopatra took Mark Antony as a lover and convinced him to have Arsinoe murdered. Eventually she married Mark Antony and together they had three children, including at least one daughter. (PROSE: The Last Pharaoh)
The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown watched Cleopatra's barge on the River Nile in preparation for the Battle of Actium. (PROSE: State of Change)
Within a year of the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine. (PROSE: The Last Pharaoh)
According to one account, she was saved by River Song who posed as Cleopatra's corpse and was buried (albeit alive) in her place. Cleopatra then fled Egypt with her children to start a new life as a free woman. (PROSE: The Ruby's Curse)
Cleopatra was resurrected in the City of the Saved. Krisztina-Judit Németh guessed that she may have been at a masked ball held by Allisheer St Marx. (PROSE: Unification Theory)
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 102, River Song pretended to be Cleopatra and used her hallucinogenic lipstick on the Roman soldier Claudio to fool him. Upon the return of the commander who had been away for one week River was taken prisoner on the basis that Cleopatra was in Egypt and also dead. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
Portrayals in fiction[[edit] | [edit source]]
Cleopatra was one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. Towards the end of the play, she was defeated in battle by Caesar and, in mourning for Mark Antony, she retreated to her monument where she plotted to kill herself.
In an early draft extract of Act V Scene II, the "pretty worm of Nilus" was delivered to her in a basket by a clown who, after not leaving the room when told to, uncovered the basket which revealed the serpent to be the Mara. The clown then offered Cleopatra great power if she accepted its hand, claiming they would "rise together for my snake has wings that turn the wheel". Cleopatra rejected this by stating she was in thrall to no one, responding that she feared not the asp's bite but its promise when asked by the clown why she refused to ride with the snake having saddled to countless Emperors. The clown tried again and said all was not lost and that she would again be Egypt's queen but Cleopatra replied to this by saying she had "won enough fortunes to not count the losing of them" and that it was impossible to restore what she most wished, the life of her Antony. The clown conceded that she was indeed too late for this, causing her to reflect "Cleopatra with no Antony is no Cleopatra" and resolving that "no snake can charm his place". She asked the clown to leave once more and he finally did. Cleopatra then told her handmaidens to give her her robe and put on her crown, stating "I have Immortal longings in me". (PROSE: Antony and Cleopatra [+]Loading...["Antony and Cleopatra (short story)"])
Undated events[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Fourth Doctor claimed to have played bridge with Cleopatra. (PROSE: The English Way of Death, AUDIO: The English Way of Death)
The Fifth Doctor reported to have met Cleopatra at some point. He described her as having "the succour and grace of a carpet flea." (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux)
Cleopatra was abducted by Momus while she had Mark Antony waiting in her studio. Donna Noble and the Tenth Doctor encountered her among several other historical figures from Earth who were also abducted by Momus. (PROSE: The Lonely Computer)
Cleopatra married an unspecified incarnation of the Doctor. (TV: The Husbands of River Song)
Panda had seemingly met Cleopatra as he once shot down a suggestion by Iris Wildthyme to visit her palace, saying that she was an "incorrigible woman". (PROSE: Enter Wildthyme)
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Fourth Doctor claimed to have learned swordsmanship from a captain in Cleopatra's bodyguard. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora, PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)
Mickey Smith used the fact that the Tenth Doctor referred to her as "Cleo" to taunt Rose Tyler. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
The Tenth Doctor told Donna Noble that accounts of her beauty were greatly exaggerated. Indeed, he said that she could only be "the most beautiful woman in the world" if her bedchamber were expanded to the size of the Earth, and "all her handmaidens had had the day off". Nonetheless, the Doctor intimated that he had actually seen her bedchamber. (PROSE: Ghosts of India)
During the Last Great Time War, the War Doctor listed Cleopatra's court among the things that he would have shown to his companion Cinder. (PROSE: Engines of War)
Alternate timelines[[edit] | [edit source]]
On the duplicate Earth known as Terra Nova, Cleopatra and Mark Antony won the Battle of Actium and had three children. (PROSE: State of Change)
In an alternate timeline in which all of history happened at the same moment because River Song refused to kill the Eleventh Doctor, Cleopatra met with Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill in Gaul. River Song also got her to give Amy Pond the Great Pyramid of Giza by using hallucinogenic lipstick and a gun. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
Aliases and nicknames[[edit] | [edit source]]
| Name | When used/given | Source | Etymology |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleo | Given by the Tenth Doctor and picked up on by Mickey Smith. | The Girl in the Fireplace | A short form of Cleopatra. |
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information, the alternate Cleopatra was on Facebook. She was friends with River, Churchill and Napoleon Bonaparte. She was a fan of Vincent van Gogh and Silurian medicine and played live chess with Joseph Stalin; she also read the book Murder on the Sky Orient Express and joined the online groups Can I get 6,000,000,000 people to join this group before 5.03pm??? and I'm not being funny but I think this is all the Doctor's fault!
- She was portrayed by Claire Bloom in the 1956 version of Caesar and Cleopatra.
- The depiction of Cleopatra in The Lonely Computer is based on Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal of the character in Cleopatra.
- With the depiction of Cleopatra in The Last Pharaoh, Iain McLaughlin said this: "We (Iain and Claire Bartlett) did a bucketload of research into Cleopatra before writing The Last Pharaoh, reading up on the descriptions of her and checking out the coins with her face on from when she had moved into middle age. She had a big nose and a turkey neck. Nothing wrong with that, either. She was noted as being ordinary to look at but extraordinary to talk with. Intelligent, witty and charming. When I sent out the brief for that cover to Paul, I asked for the real take on Cleopatra rather than Liz Taylor (or even Amanda Barrie, who was, of course the definitive Cleo).
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