Omega
- For other uses of Omega, see Omega (disambiguation).
Omega was a great cosmic engineer and co-founder of Time Lord society, but circumstances bent his mind so that he threatened the entire universe. He was the only person ever to live within the anti-matter universe which he subsequently ruled over.
Biography
Early life
Omega was one of the most significant figures in Gallifreyan history. He appeared in the ROO texts, as later scholars on Gallifrey would call them, along with Rassilon and the Other. (MA: Goth Opera, PDA: The Infinity Doctors) He later said he was named Peylix. He had taken the name Omega in response to his teacher, Luvis, who had awarded him a grade of omega for an essay he had written. In it he had explored the possibilities of increasing the Gallifreyan power by exploding a star. The resulting energy could be harnessed for time travel. This was seen by his teacher as madness and pure idiocy. The Omega was the lowest mark possible, and Peylix was left with a humiliating nickname that endured even when he and a friend of his, "Razz", effected this plan, forcibly creating the Time Lords. (BFA: Omega) By the time of his "death", Omega had married a Gallifreyan known as Patience. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
Achievements
During the Dark Times, Omega and Rassilon, (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) enabled the people of Gallifrey to achieve time travel. (DW: The Three Doctors) The Other would assist them in this. (NA: Lungbarrow) Omega may have also have played a part in the creation of the living metal, Validium. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
A stellar manipulator, the Hand of Omega could make stars go supernova. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- One account says that not one, but two, Hands of Omega existed. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
With the power unleashed by a supernova they hoped to generate enough power to travel through time. (DW: The Three Doctors).
Gallifrey's galaxy had only one Population III star at that time. They decided to destroy that one (PDA: The Infinity Doctors). The star, in the Constellation of Ao (NA: Lungbarrow) bore the name Qqaba. (DWM: Star Death, PDA: The Infinity Doctors).
- This may relate to the Eye of Harmony, a black hole captured and fixed beneath the Panopticon and said to power all of Time Lord civilisation, including TARDISes.
The "death" of Omega
Officially, Omega died when the star exploded. (DW: The Three Doctors) Two inconsistent accounts exist describing this event. One says that Fenris, a mercenary working for the Order of the Black Sun (a time-active enemy of the Time Lords from the future) sabotaged the stasis halo of Omega's Starbreaker exposing it, and the Starbreaker's crew, to the fury of the black hole. Rassilon prevented disaster from overtaking the other three Starbreakers, though Omega seemed to have died. (DWM: Star Death)
Omega himself, however, described events as having happened differently. (BFA: Omega)
Rassilon wept over Omega's death. (NA: Lungbarrow)
The survival of Omega
The Doctor, like most Gallifreyans, grew up to revere and admire Omega as a great hero. (DW: The Three Doctors) The Hand of Omega had, meanwhile, survived and returned to Gallifrey. The First Doctor would later obtain it for himself. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Omega had transported through the black hole into another universe made of anti-matter. Omega shaped the universe by force of will and access to the black hole's singularity. He could even create simple life. Radiation destroyed his body. The gauntlets, armour and helmet he had designed to protect him from the corrosive effect of the anti-matter now constituted his physical form. At first he shaped his new world into a paradise. As the centuries rolled by he grew weary and depressed, feeling abandoned by his fellow Time Lords. The landscape slowly transformed into a drab, grey desert. The universe that had become his home was unstable, unable to exist without a powerful will to give it form; he was trapped. (DW: The Three Doctors)
Against the Time Lords
After thousands of years, Omega hit upon a plan of revenge. A captured Time Lord, could be forced to take his place. Omega could leave and wreak vengeance on Gallifrey. Using the black hole, he drained power from the Time Lords to stop them for interfering. He sent an amorphous life form and other, more humanoid servitors to find the Third Doctor, currently exiled on Earth, and take him into the black hole. The High Council, unable to send anyone to assist the Doctor, decided to have the Second prior incarnation of the Doctor help rectify matters, subsequently contacting and sending his first self to advise them. Omega removed both incarnations to his domain, entry into which converted all matter into anti-matter.
When Omega removed his helmet to prepare his departure, he discovered that the anti-matter universe had completely dissolved his physical body. He could not leave his universe; he existed only because his will insisted that he exist, but his will was all that was left of him. Consumed by rage and despair, Omega swore to destroy all things. The Doctors offered freedom to Omega: in actuality the Doctor's recorder which the Doctor's TARDIS had accidentally shielded from conversion into anti-matter. When Omega touched this object, it caused an explosion. (DW: The Three Doctors)
Though he was once more thought destroyed, Hedin of the High Council contacted Omega to help him. Omega had gained control of the dimensional gateway known as the Arc of Infinity. Through the Arc, he had gateway between his own universe and the universe of matter, though he still had no physical form. Omega also had a TARDIS and a servant he had created, the Ergon. Omega needed to bond with another Time Lord using his biodata extract.
Hedin transmitted to Omega the biodata extract for the Doctor, by this time in his fifth incarnation. Omega established a base in the Earth city of Amsterdam, navigated the Doctor's TARDIS into the Arc and began to link the Doctor's biodata with his own. The Doctor faced execution on Gallifrey to stop Omega's return. This was part of Omega and Hedin's plan: they rigged the execution to hide the Doctor and Omega in the Matrix, safe from Time Lord detection.
Omega shifted the Arc to Gallifrey in order to gain control of the Matrix and used its power to create a physical body for himself.
The Doctor tracked him down and sabotaged his equipment in Amsterdam, forcing Omega to step into the physical universe before the transfer was made stable. His new body, a replica of the Doctor's, began to decay and revert to anti-matter. Thwarted and maddened by defeat, Omega willed the acceleration of his conversion to anti-matter to destroy the Earth rather than return to the universe of anti-matter, but was destroyed by the Doctor using the Ergon's Matter conversion gun. (DW: Arc of Infinity)
Personality
Omega was very bitter about his fellow Time Lords, who he believed sacrificed him to attain greatness. He held eternal enmity towards his race, and sought to avenge himself against them. Countless aeons alone left him with little care about anything, deeming the destruction of reality as a "spectacle to behold". He also became paranoid and developed mood swings.[source needed]
He lacked any restraint and had a vicious temper.[source needed]
One of his greatest traits was his will, which allowed him to reshape the antimatter universe in the singularity to create an environment as well as servants that suited him. This made him linked to the antimatter realm, as his will alone kept it alive and prevented his escape. He was completely unaware of the fact that his body had corroded away due to the antimatter realm, and that both his physical form and the world he created were made by his will alone. (DW: The Three Doctors)
In Time Lord culture
- Rassilon, the Other and Omega are the three most important figures in Gallifrey's history.
- The Feast of Omega was a holiday that was celebrated on Gallifrey. (NA: Happy Endings)
Behind the scenes
- Omega appears in the Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who book, Search for the Doctor.
- Omega may also be the villain of the children's book K9 and the Time Trap, where he's referred to by the name "Omegon".
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