Edwin Bracewell
Professor Edwin Bracewell was an android modelled after a Scottish human. He was created by surviving Daleks of the New Dalek Empire after they landed in 1941. Bracewell was placed in the Cabinet War Rooms below London as an advisor to Winston Churchill. He was unaware of his origins and was implanted with memories of a human life, and made to believe he had created the Daleks as a weapon called an "Ironside" for Britain in the Second World War.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Human memories[[edit] | [edit source]]
Edwin Bracewell was a human from Scotland who lived during the early 20th century. Bracewell grew up in Paisley, Scotland. His family ran a post office in the area. His mother and father both died of scarlet fever. He fought in the First World War.
After the war, he made acquaintance with a girl called Dorabella. Bracewell thought she was beautiful, but ultimately, nothing came of their relationship.
At some point, Bracewell was taken by surviving Daleks of the New Dalek Empire. His memories were used by them and implanted in a positronic brain. With these memories, the Daleks created an android duplicate of Bracewell, and made him believe he had created the Daleks. The Daleks then had the android unknowingly infiltrate the Cabinet War Rooms with the Ironside Project. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"]) Once he was no longer of use, the human Bracewell was killed. (PROSE: Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...["Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia (reference book)"])
Life as an android[[edit] | [edit source]]
When Churchill summoned the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond to the war rooms, he introduced Bracewell to them, who proudly showed off his "creations". The Doctor caused the Daleks to reveal their true nature. When Bracewell tried to stop the Daleks, they revealed him as their own creation, blasting his left hand off.
After the Doctor foiled the Daleks' original plan, they revealed that Bracewell's android body contained an Oblivion Continuum as a power source, and threatened to use it as a bomb and destroy the planet. The Daleks activated the bomb and fled.
The Doctor and Amy tried to stop the Oblivion Continuum from detonating by using Bracewell's memories; they had been stolen from an actual human and contained every detail and emotion of his life — to force him to embrace his humanity. Memories of the post office his "parents" worked in, nearby ash trees, the trenches of the First World War and the death of his mother and father were not enough. It was only when Amy reminded him of fancying someone he knew he should not — Dorabella — that his android programming was broken, deactivating the bomb.
Afterward, Bracewell assumed the Doctor would deactivate him as he was Dalek technology, and had "no business" on Earth. He accepted this fate, but was overjoyed when he eventually caught on to the Doctor's hints that he would do otherwise. The Doctor encouraged him to seek out a normal human life, to look for the post office and Dorabella. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"])
Some time after those events, Bracewell received one of the final paintings by Vincent van Gogh. He showed it to Winston Churchill. They recognised it as a message for the Doctor. Churchill tried to ring the Doctor to alert him, but was diverted to River Song in the 52nd century, alerting her to its existence. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) The Doctor eventually changed the timeline such that these later events, and therefore the painting no longer existed. (TV: The Big Bang [+]Loading...["The Big Bang (TV story)"])
Later life[[edit] | [edit source]]
Following the Ironside Incident, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) Bracewell continued to work for the British military. At the end of the Second World War, Bracewell was drafted by the Torchwood Institute. He initially worked well with Torchwood, with their own belief that alien races were hostile to Earth resting comfortably with his own experience with the Daleks. Bracwell, however, soon found himself on the receiving end of this attitude, with many within Torchwood marking him as an alien threat due to his origin.
Over the years, Bracewell found it difficult to rediscover his humanity without Torchwood interference. At one point, he began courting a woman, later discovering that she was a Torchwood scientist using him as an experiment to discover whether androids could truly love. In anger, Bracewell resigned from Torchwood, but was imprisoned instead.
Bracewell would remain a prisoner of Torchwood for many decades. During the Battle of Canary Wharf, he was freed by the Daleks. Recognising their technology, the Daleks gave Bracewell an offer to work for them. Refusing, Bracewell was poised for extermination just as the Daleks were sucked into the Void by an earlier incarnation of the Doctor.
As UNIT forces began scouring the remnants of Torchwood One, Bracewell was taken into custody. However, he managed to convince them that he was more useful as an ally than prisoner. UNIT allowed him to operate as a scientist within the Black Archive.
After the discovery of a damaged Cyber-coverted Yvonne Hartman, Bracewell was put in charge of her rehabilitation. Using his own Dalek knowledge, Bracewell realised that Dalek and Cyberman technology were surprisingly compatible, and constructed an android body for Yvonne that resembled her previous human form for her brain to be placed inside. However, she was to remain at the Black Archive as UNIT were monitoring her in the event that her Cyber-programming returned. Bracewell considered Yvonne a "kindred spirit", despite her previous hostility towards him, noting that she rebelled against the Cybermen just as he did with the Daleks.
At some point, Bracewell discovered the existence of Dalek puppets hidden throughout Earth. Revealing this to Torchwood, they had a "fix with prejudice" and had eliminated those he identified. UNIT would allow Bracewell the opportunity to de-programme any Dalek puppets discovered, recognising a shared experience with them as creations of the Daleks with a human mind. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Amy called Edwin "Paisley" and "Paisley Boy". Head writer Steven Moffat is also a "Paisley Boy".
- Bracewell's portrayal in Victory is in many ways similar to and the opposite of Davros in Genesis of the Daleks. As in that story, the "Ironsides" are intended as a weapon to win a war, and rebel against their "creator". Davros created the Daleks, the Daleks created Bracewell and made him believe he created them. Davros lost his eyesight and movement of his left arm in undisclosed circumstances, and Bracewell uses spectacles and loses the use of his left hand over the course of Victory. Davros is an organic life-form who turns himself into a cyborg, Bracewell an artificial life form made to resemble a cyborg. Davros's greed for power and disdain for life and emotions is what leads to his madness, the slaughter of his army, and his own death; Bracewell's embracing of his own human emotions save his army and himself. Davros tortures the Doctor's companions, knowing that they will feel pain where he will not; the Doctor believes that he can make Bracewell act human by forcing him to feel pain.
- He is mentioned by the Ironside Dalek at the 2010 Doctor Who at the Proms.
- He is referred to as "Professor Bracewell" on the packaging of his Character Options action figure.
- The fate of the human Bracewell remained unconfirmed in Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"]. In Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...["Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia (reference book)"], it is implied that the Daleks killed him after extracting his memories, confirming that the human Bracewell had lived "at some point".
