Bowship

Bowship
Main aliases:	Bow Ship
Type:	Warcraft
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
Made by:	Time Lords
First appearance:	State of Decay
Appearances:	see list

Bowships, or Bow Ships, (PROSE: Gallifrey: A Rough Guide ^[+]Loading...["Gallifrey: A Rough Guide (short story)",""]) were warcraft used by the Time Lords in their war against the Great Vampires, designed by a young Rassilon.

Armaments

The primary weapon of a bowship was a launcher firing a "mighty bolt of steel" capable of killing a Great Vampire if it pierced it through the heart. (Great Vampires absorbed attacks from directed energy weapons and rapidly regenerated damage from minor projectiles.) (TV: State of Decay ^[+]Loading...["State of Decay (TV story)"], PROSE: Starships and Spacestations ^[+]Loading...["Starships and Spacestations (reference book)"])

They were also equipped with stasers and thoracite arrows. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty ^[+]Loading...["Monstrous Beauty (comic story)"])

History

Against the Vampires

Rassilon returning to Gallifrey with the remaining bowships from the Eternal War (PROSE: The Scrolls of Rassilon ^[+]Loading...["The Scrolls of Rassilon (short story)"])

Bowships were first used during Gallifrey's war with the Great Vampires. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) According to the Record of Rassilon, it was Rassilon who ordered the construction of bowships. (TV: State of Decay ^[+]Loading...["State of Decay (TV story)"]) Rival histories suggested he may have taken the idea from someone else. (PROSE: Interference - Book One ^[+]Loading...["Interference - Book One (novel)"]) One account claimed the bowships were actually first constructed by the Mithras Hives whilst Rassilon was still a Commander. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty ^[+]Loading...["Monstrous Beauty (comic story)"]) Another account suggested the idea for them derived from the discoveries of General Skellis. (PROSE: The Multi-Faceted War ^[+]Loading...["The Multi-Faceted War (short story)"])

Rassilon himself piloted a Bowship against the Great Vampires and drove them from the galaxy. (PROSE: The Multi-Faceted War ^[+]Loading...["The Multi-Faceted War (short story)"])

Bowships were given artificial intelligence, which ultimately played against the Time Lords. Some wanted compensation before attacking a Great Vampire. (AUDIO: The Scent of Blood ^[+]Loading...["The Scent of Blood (audio story)"])

Of the almost 700 bowships that went into this war, only 34 returned. (PROSE: The Scrolls of Rassilon ^[+]Loading...["The Scrolls of Rassilon (short story)"])

Later use

Bowships were mentioned in the Record of Rassilon. (TV: State of Decay ^[+]Loading...["State of Decay (TV story)"])

The Eighth Doctor encountered a Bowship near Edinburgh during the 1890s. (AUDIO: The Scent of Blood ^[+]Loading...["The Scent of Blood (audio story)"])

Bowships were time-scooped for use in the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) They could not prevent the Fall of Arcadia. (PROSE: A Prologue ^[+]Loading...["A Prologue (short story)"])

Rassilon being escorted to his bowship. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"])

Rassilon was exiled from Gallifrey in a Bowship, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"]) classed by the Twelfth Doctor as a shuttle. (TV: Hell Bent ^[+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"])

Arriving in the Capitol after escaping the Cyberman invasion of Karn, the Doctor, asked for the bow-ships to be scrambled, only to find Rassilon, allied with the Cybermen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"])

A damaged Bowship crashed into Terebek, and dragged the entire asteroid along with it as it performed time jumps. Jenny managed to repair it and used it to find the Twelfth Doctor. When white holes began consuming the universe, the Ninth, Tenth and Twelfth Doctors used the bowship to travel to the Void and stop the attack at its source, totalling the bowship. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension ^[+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"])

Behind the Scenes

• While bowships were first mentioned in State of Decay ^[+]Loading...["State of Decay (TV story)"], the first visual appearance of a bowship was designed by Trevor Baxendale for the illustrations that accompanied The Scrolls of Rassilon ^[+]Loading...["The Scrolls of Rassilon (short story)"]. This design was later referenced by Anthony Lamb for the models used on the poster for Time Lord Victorious ^[+]Loading...["Time Lord Victorious (series)"].