First Minister of Chance
In his first documented incarnation, described in multiple accounts as a "man with a bent nose", the Doctor's old friend the Minister of Chance tried to go good in a universe where he was one of the last few Time Lords. (WC: Death Comes to Time [+]Loading...["Death Comes to Time (webcast)"], PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"]) Due to a private joke, he was nicknamed "Snake" by his companion Sala. (WC: "The Prisoner" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"The Prisoner","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}, "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
A day to come[[edit] | [edit source]]
After the Third Doctor and Jo Grant freed the newly-regenerated tenth incarnation of a renegade Time Lord known as the Minister from the manipulations of the Master, the Doctor removed the alteration to her biology that had kept her regenerating into the same face nine times over. Thus, she knew her next regeneration would bring completely new possibilities. However, she reaffirmed her wish to do good, and stated that she would retain the name of "the Minister" even if she was no longer officially a minister of Samael. One of her assistants joked that she might starting calling herself a "Minister of Luck". (AUDIO: The Same Face [+]Loading...["The Same Face (audio story)"])
The oaths of Micen Island[[edit] | [edit source]]
In one version of history, the Time Lords were all but wiped out, though Gallifrey remained intact. The Seventh Doctor was one of a few survivors, who, regretful of how they had misused their powers, made a pact on Micen Island at the Temple of the Fourth to keep watch on one another, and to adhere by certain oaths regulating when to use their power. One of their provisions was that they must never travel alone, always keeping a mortal companion. The Doctor and Minister crossed paths on at least one occasion while the Minister was travelling with one such "assistant", whom he would later recall upon meeting a newly-solitary Minister. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Misusing his powers[[edit] | [edit source]]
Unbeknownst to the Doctor, however, the Minister had fallen into the habit of calling more and more upon his powers, even if he tried to do so "sparingly". His imperfect control induced (WC: "The Prisoner" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"The Prisoner","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) massive temporal distortions to plague the universe, causing the degeneration of a number of stars into black holes. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) One such occasion was on a "small, obstinate plant-infested world in Alnilam", where the locals, numbering a "few hundred millions", tried to resist the invading Canisians' attempt to mine out the planet's core. In response, General Tannis ordered a deadly plague dropped on the population, planned to kill them in three days. They were miraculously cured after the second day. Intrigued that Canisian scientists could find no explanation, Tannis travelled to the planet himself and "discovered a small cult on the outskirts of the capital city" who worshipped "Manasté", the "blessed god of the Trees" who had descended among them and cured the plague. (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) While the Minister was on the "planet in Alnilam", his assistant decided to "wander off on her own devices"; the Minister let her go and began travelling alone, in further defiance of the laws. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Tannis was himself secretly a Time Lord, but had been refraining from using his powers or otherwise breaking the Laws of Time, so as to evade discovery. Realising he could use the wavering Minister as a distraction for the other survivors, Tannis resolved to manipulate him further and push him to his breaking point until the Doctor was forced to intervene, hoping the two would then destroy each other when the Doctor attempted to destroy the Minister. (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) The Minister attended negotiations at the UP, during which Tannis surprised the Canisians by signing the treaty of Carselai, through which he officially relinquished control of a number of planets (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) and promised non-aggression to other space powers such as the Santine Republic. Despite Tannis's concessions, the Minister was forced to "swallow insult after insult" and was "made to make sacrifices that [he] couldn't stand to do", tortured by the knowledge that he could upend the negotiations by directly manipulating time and the laws of physics, if not for the promises he had made. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Rebellion on Santiny[[edit] | [edit source]]
To further mislead the other Time Lords about the nature of the threat they were facing, (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) Tannis then sent the vampire assassin Nessican to kill the Time Lords Valentine and Antenor, who were working undercover at a London university as astronomers and had noticed the effects of the distortions. The Minister learned of their deaths, and had an ominous, prophetic dream which made him glimpse the fact that these murders were parts of a "larger pattern". He also learned that Tannis's forces had breached the treaty of Carselai by attacking the Santine Republic of the planet Santiny. He sent a telepathic message to the Seventh Doctor, asking him to meet at the Temple of the Fourth; there, he used the murders as a pretext to officially take over the Doctor's ongoing struggle against the Canisian invasion of Santiny, while the Doctor went to Earth to investigate the murders. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
On Santiny, the Minister met up with the Santine rebels the Doctor had helped to escape into the forests. Quickly befriending Senator Sala, now a leading figure within the resistance, he took her on as a new companion (WC: "Planet of Blood" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Planet of Blood","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) as they got themselves deliberately captured by the Canisians so as to infiltrate their battlements, with the Minister promising he had a plan. However, after capture, they were unexpectedly separated, and Sala was tortured by an interrogator, on the orders of Tannis, while the Minister was left to stew in his cell. Manipulating the neurotic Captain Carne into letting him access the schematics of the Luria prison camp, the Minister achieved his dual aim of getting information about how to enter the camp covertly, and of accessing the Canisian computer system itself so he could use his powers to introduce a powerful virus into the network. Bringing down the entire Canisian communications network on Santiny for a day or two, he caused a blackout during which he and Sala were able to escape. Nevertheless, the Minister was appalled that Sala had come to harm as a result of his plan, and blamed himself for what had happened to her. (WC: "The Prisoner" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"The Prisoner","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Animals. Unbelievable barbarians! Would it — would it be possible for you people to go for five minutes without committing an atrocity!?
As they made their escape, they became closer yet, developing an unspoken but obvious romantic interest in one another. However, as they spoke, Sala needled him about the abilities he had displayed, with him failing to justify the code of non-interference to her in any way that he himself found convincing. Consequently, as they journeyed back to the main resistance forces, having devised a scheme to take advantage of the blackout to free the prisoners of the Luria prison camp, the Minister strayed further into abusing his powers, using them to heal the lacerations on her back. (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Going too far[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Minister and Sala were remotely observed by Tannis via satellite imagery as they approached Luria. Tannis realised from his body language that the Minister had even developed romantic feelings for Sala, which was forbidden. Ecstatic, Tannis ordered his soldiers to begin indiscriminately slaughtering the prisoners. As the Minister refused to use his powers to stop the killing despite Sala's pleading, she eventually left cover in a futile effort to run to help — at which point she was herself fatally shot. Finally tipped over the edge just as Tannis had planned, the enraged Minister unleashed his full power; Tannis's intention of further "twisting the knife" by ordering steady, random bombardment of Santiny's surface proved both unnecessary and impractical as the Minsiter began by dematerialising an entire gunship as it tried to fire. Surprised at the Minister's power and rage, Tannis ordered his orbital fleet to retreat and head to the other planet he'd been thinking of conquering, Earth — abandoning his ground troops to their fate. (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Meanwhile, having realised Tannis's true identity after he murdered his companion Antimony, the Seventh Doctor met with the Kingmaker on Gallifrey and learned from her that the cause of the temporal distortions was not Tannis but the Minister. The Kingmaker ordered the Doctor to destroy the Minister, declaring him "lost", but the Doctor was determined to find "another way". Arriving in the plain of Luria, he found the camp a burning ruin, and the field littered with the bodies of the Canisians, with a baffled Senator Hawk reporting on how the Minister had suddenly "changed" and wiped out the invaders in a blind rage before retreating the top of a nearby mountain. The Doctor scaled it and found the raging Minister at the centre of a thunderstorm. Though initially attempting to simply placated him, the Doctor was unable to make the maddened God of the Fourth "see reason". (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Tannis [is running amok]? Tannis? Blood and guns and idiots marching in lines! I'm — I'm sick of it! (…) I'm sick of watching them die and talking that two-faced rubbish. We can stop the killing! Why do we have to sit by and watch? We can stop the pain! Why?! (…) I want it to stop. Get away or I'll kill you too. I'll — I'll kill you all! Plagues and bombs and blood — she was just trying to stop them!
Declaring that he "[didn't] have time for this" with Tannis on the cusp of victory, but still unwilling to kill the Minister, the Doctor settled for revoking the Minister's TARDIS. Leaving him marooned on Santiny amidst the devastation he had caused, the Doctor left the Minister with an order to "face [him]self". As the Doctor left, the Minister finally seemed to come out of his raging haze. (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Late fate[[edit] | [edit source]]
Inheriting the Doctor's burden[[edit] | [edit source]]
When the amnesiac Eighth Doctor looked into a Tomorrow Window and saw his many potential futures, the Doctor saw not only multiple possible future regenerations of himself, but also a future where the Minister seemingly inherited his role: his vision was of a "man with a bent nose", wearing a cream suit and strolling through Regent's Park. His long hair was swept back and his chin was held "imperiously high". (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows [+]Loading...["The Tomorrow Windows (novel)"])
As one of the four surviving elementals[[edit] | [edit source]]
The amnesiac Eighth Doctor had another vision of the "man with a bent nose" as part of a vision of the four Time Lords who had survived the War in Heaven. The other three were the man with the rosette, a blonde woman, and his own future self the Emperor. In the vision, the man appeared tall, wore a cravat, and held a pair of dice. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"])
Another account's depiction of the four original rulers of the Needle concurred, depicting one of the beings at the Emperor's side as a tall man with a broken nose; though he now had shorter hair, his features matched (COMIC: Miranda [+]Loading...["Miranda (comic story)"]) the Minister's. (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) According to Prefect Ferran's potentially-biased account of the Needle's history, after a great war left most of space and time broken and dead, the Imperial Family subjugated the survivors for two thousand years. They grew corrupt with power, and millions of their subjects, who they viewed as lesser species, died from their neglect, cruelty, or sport.
The Senate was powerless, and the Senators fought among themselves for scraps of power and wealth, but through secret meetings, they began to form alliances with each other, and a revolution began when the Emperor's forces murdered the insurrection leader in the street. After a short and brutal civil war, the Imperial Family was wiped out, with the exception of the Emperor's daughter, who escaped back in time and was adopted by the Eighth Doctor (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)"]) before eventually being scooped back to the Needle to take the throne. (COMIC: Miranda [+]Loading...["Miranda (comic story)"])
A new body[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Second Minister of Chance
In an account of events following directly from the loss of his ship in the Seventh Doctor-starring account of events, with the Minister disgraced among his kind and lacking his ship, (WC: Death Comes to Time [+]Loading...["Death Comes to Time (webcast)"], AUDIO: In a Barque on the River Hex [+]Loading...["In a Barque on the River Hex (audio story)"], etc.) the Minister resurfaced in a new incarnation who retained the title of "Minister of Chance". In this body, he meddled with the destiny of Earthling orphan Kitty, finding her a new home in Tantillion on the planet Thea when she was a baby, then later meeting with her up again when she was grown, reluctantly taking her as a companion as he investigated evidence of another rogue god who was causing further temporal distortions. (PROSE: The Minister of Chance [+]Loading...["The Minister of Chance (novelisation)"], etc.)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
As spelled out by Lance Parkin in his reference book AHistory, the "man with a bent nose" mentioned in two of the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures was indeed meant to be the Minister of Chance. In the same passage of AHistory, Parkin additionally linked the four surviving elementals to the Four Names whose assassination Rassilon ordered in PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"], possibly asserting that the Minister was one of them, although the presence of Omega among the Four Names makes it impossible for the two line-ups to precisely coexist.
The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"] (p. 213) first mentioned “four names" as the four people that Rassilon had ordered killed as a threat to Gallifrey, with Omega and the Doctor specified as two of the four. The quote "There are four of us now" comes from The Adventuress of Henrietta Street [+]Loading...["The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)"] (p. 231). In The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"], the four survivors are described as “a man with a sallow face and small, pointed black beard, who wore a blue rosette; a young woman with long blonde hair in an extraordinary piece of haute couture; a tall man with a bent nose wearing a cravat and holding a pair of dice; the Doctor himself with close-cropped hair, sitting on an ornate throne, a new-born baby girl in his arms” — intended, but not named, respectively as the Master; Iris Wildthyme (or possibly Romana); the Minister of Chance from Death Comes to Time [+]Loading...["Death Comes to Time (webcast)"]; [and] the Doctor (possibly the Doctor from The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"], or in his role as the Emperor of the Universe, father of Miranda, mentioned in Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)"]).
Also in AHistory, the Gallifreyan history section mentions how following the events of PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"], a "new generation of Time Lords was far more open to the idea of intervention" and that "among them was the Minister of Chance, [who] met with the Seventh Doctor to discuss intergalactic crises". This framing implies that the Minister is significantly younger than the Doctor, the product of a more modern generation of Time Lords. No such suggestion is made in WC: Death Comes to Time [+]Loading...["Death Comes to Time (webcast)"] itself, where the Doctor refers to the Minister as an "old friend", treating them as rough contemporaries.
