President (The Deadly Assassin)

President
Main aliases:	Pandad IV, Pardar V, Pandar V, "God"
Species:	Time Lord
Job:	Lord President, Supreme Being
Affiliated with:	Pandad IV's final High Council
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
First appearance:	The Deadly Assassin
Appearances:	PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"] PROSE: Crimes Against History [+]Loading...["Crimes Against History (short story)"] PROSE: The Cactus and the Corpse [+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]
Main actor:	Llewellyn Rees

Identities of the First Time Lord
As First Time Lord
As President
Goth

At a point in the Fourth Doctor's life, Gallifrey was ruled by the final incarnation of the last "normal" Lord President the planet would have until Flavia, by singule accounts Pandad IV, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey ^[+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) Pandar V, (GAME: The Legions of Death ^[+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"]) or Pardar V. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts ^[+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"])

Biography

Origins

Across his bodies, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin, The Legacy of Gallifrey) this President had served in the position for only about a "couple of centuries", far less than older Presidents such as Pandak III. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) His was either the 405th (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell, Crimes Against History) or 406th Presidency. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) He had been President at the time of the Doctor's trial, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) with some accounts indicating the leader of the courtroom was a previous incarnation (PROSE: The Three Doctors, World Game, The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]) who had been recently elected at the time. (PROSE: World Game) His future Chancellor Goth resembled this court-leader (TV: The Deadly Assassin ^[+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"], The War Games ^[+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"]) because he had adopted his boss's face as a subconscious manifestation of his longing for the position. (PROSE: The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]) One account indicated he had served for 400 years, having been hastily elected following the Imperator's Presidency. (PROSE: Crimes Against History)

This incarnation's previous body had been the President during the Omega Crisis. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin, The Legacy of Gallifrey) After meeting the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, (COMIC: Return of the Daleks) this incarnation regenerated from an attack by the Rani's giant mice. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

Presidency

Following the mouse attack, the newly-regenerated President had to form a new High Council. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) His High Chancellor was Goth, who it was assumed would succeed the President. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) However, he decided that he would elect a different Time Lord as his successor, which he told Chancellor Goth. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

After thirty years of rule, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) in or some time after Gallifreyan Year 6241.1, (AUDIO: Neverland) the Presidential Resignation Day was held, at which the President was to name his successor and read his resignation honours list, which contained some names that he believed would be found surprising. However, before being able to do so, he was assassinated by Chancellor Goth and the Decayed Master. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

Legacy

The President's sudden death caused a constitutional crisis. Goth ordered that immediate elections were to take place and initially used the Fourth Doctor as a scapegoat for the crime, putting him on trial with the intention of administering his death sentence before a new President was invested. However, the Doctor used Article 17 as a guarantee of liberty to escape this fate. Goth was eventually uncovered as the true assassin, working with the Decayed Master, who left Goth for dead. The crisis revolving around Pandad's successor persisted, however, as the Doctor's invocation of Article 17 meant that he was President-elect, which left Gallifrey without a leader after his departure from the planet. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

The tumultuous events were regarded as the climax of the unrest which had been building up on the planet for some time; although House Paradox was found to be uninvolved, the sheer existence of a "deranged renegade" capable of killing the President was viewed as a sign of the same corruption they represented. (PROSE: Crimes Against History ^[+]Loading...["Crimes Against History (short story)"]) In hindsight, some, including the Bookwyrm, regarded the murder as the act which had started the Cosmic War; (PROSE: The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]) indeed, by some accounts, this President's successor was Greyjan the Sane, notable as the first President to begin concerning himself with the looming War in Heaven. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell, Crimes Against History) However, A Brief History of Time Lords, a Gallifreyan history book postdating the Time War, identified the Fourth Doctor as the murdered President's direct successor. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)

Personality

Chancellor Goth described the President as wise and beloved, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) although privately thought of him as an "arrogant" and "senile old fool". (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) He was considered the last normal, "figurehead" leader of his kind, after whom successors began to exhibit more individuality rather than acting as hollow vessels for the posthumopus will of the Lord Founder. (PROSE: The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"])

Behind the scenes

• The casting of Llewellyn Rees in the role of Lord President was an in-joke, as he had been General Secretary of the actors' union, Equity, for many years.