Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton, also called Jeova Unus Sanctus, was an English physicist, mathematician, and spymaster. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"])
He was an Arian. (AUDIO: Summer [+]Loading...["Summer (audio story)"])
Sir Isaac Newton's successors in the category of scientific geniuses included Dr Albert Einstein and then Dr Who. (PROSE: Who is Dr Who? [+]Loading...["Who is Dr Who? (short story)"])
Biography[[edit] | edit source]
As a child sitting under a tree, Newton saw an angel, broken and bleeding, in the branches above him. Curious, he touched the angel's body and its fluid black skin engulfed him. Recognising that Newton was far too important to be erased from history, the angel told Newton that its mission was to destroy the Adversary, and Newton gave it permission to use him. He then awoke at the base of the tree with no memory of what had happened. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"]) Newton's family home was Woolsthorpe Manor, located in the Lincolnshire hamlet of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. (PROSE: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (novelisation)"])
One of his most famous accomplishments was formulating the theory of gravity. The Fourth Doctor once claimed that he sat in Newton's tree dropping apples onto his head, then explained gravity to him over dinner. (TV: The Pirate Planet [+]Loading...["The Pirate Planet (TV story)"], PROSE: The Pirate Planet [+]Loading...["The Pirate Planet (novelisation)"], Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet (novelisation)"]) It later came to light that Newton remained upset about that event, as his nose bled for three days afterward. When the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa were arrested for forgery, Isaac Newton drew a series of interesting conclusions from a series of anachronistic coins that the Doctor accidentally passed. (AUDIO: Summer [+]Loading...["Summer (audio story)"])
According to another account, the day after working deep into the night on De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas at Woolsthorpe Manor in 1666, (PROSE: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (novelisation)"]) Newton came upon his idea independently after an apple fell on his head, but after the TARDIS crashed into the tree above him, he misheard the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble's usage of "gravity" and named the concept "mavity". The change retroactively influenced Donna's knowledge, while the Doctor remained aware of the original version of history. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"]) Olivia Kagg Waldermein wrote that a time traveller later restored the word "gravity" to "put things right", although she believed gravity had been discovered by "Sir Isaac Mewton". (PROSE: Love & War [+]Loading...["Love & War (short story)"])
While working at Trinity College, (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"]) Cambridge, (AUDIO: Entanglement [+]Loading...["Entanglement (audio story)"]) "Jeova Unus Sanctus" attended the Magus's presentation at Salomon's House, having long been a correspondent of Nate Silver's. The pair bonded over Jeova's appreciation for Silver's book, which Jeova considered to be flawed, but indicated the capacity for improvement. At the presentation, Silver revealed to him the secret of the egg, that it spoke to him in the voice of Angels, but Jeova rebuked him and insisting that miracles had fled from the earth, and the Egg represented only Silver's inner voice. Later, as Jeova and Nick Plainsong made love, Jeova convinced the Magus' assistant to steal the Egg, jealous that someone else had been chosen to receive it. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"])
At some point the Doctor took Newton on a trip to planet Practas Seven, but according to the Tenth Doctor, Newton didn't take the experience very well and "sat in a corner and whimpered". (COMIC: Final Sacrifice [+]Loading...["Final Sacrifice (comic story)"])
Jeova later became a Master of the Service; with the help of Nick Plainsong, he intended to enable Nate Silver to become the Master of Masters, to use the Service to steer humankind toward becoming a Republic of Heaven, with Silver as general and emperor, ready to join the fight against the Adversary.
When Larissa and Aphra Behn encountered Jeova, Larissa recognised what was inside Jeova and attacked with the continuity needle. As Larissa struggled with the babel, time began to unravel, until Nate Silver tore the needle out of Jeova's chest. The damage to history caused by Jeova's near-erasure was undone by Faction Paradox's rituals. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"])
Isaac Newton was one of the many historical figures kidnapped by the lonely computer Momus, but the Tenth Doctor convinced him to return him to his place in history. (PROSE: The Lonely Computer [+]Loading...["The Lonely Computer (short story)"])
Isaac Newton died in 1727. (AUDIO: Entanglement [+]Loading...["Entanglement (audio story)"])
Contributions to science[[edit] | edit source]
Newton contributed several laws to science. These included Newton's Third Law (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Legacy of the Daleks (novel)"]) and Newton's first law of motion, which stipulated that "A body will remain at rest or travelling in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by an external force." (PROSE: Byzantium! [+]Loading...["Byzantium! (novel)"]) He wrote many works, such as Opticks and Principia, though failed to finish his magnum opus, Praxis. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"])
Legacy[[edit] | edit source]
K9 Mark II quoted explicitly his third law of motion "Action and reaction are equal and opposite" while in E-Space. (TV: Warriors' Gate [+]Loading...["Warriors' Gate (TV story)"]) When the Fourth Doctor quoted his "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" to Romana II, she concluded that Newton invented punting. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"], Shada [+]Loading...["Shada (TV story)"])
The Fourth Doctor described it as Newton's revenge when two guards were sent flying into a wall after he sabotaged their transport. (TV: The Pirate Planet [+]Loading...["The Pirate Planet (TV story)"])
The Eighth Doctor claimed that the 20th century heralded the end of the gentleman scientist, stating that there would be no more Newtons, Galileos or Faradays. (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy [+]Loading...["The Banquo Legacy (novel)"])
According to Professor Celeste Rivers, Newton had a strong interest in the paranormal. (TV: The Lost Boy [+]Loading...["The Lost Boy (TV story)"])
Appearance[[edit] | edit source]
Whilst one account showed a younger Newton as having slightly brown skin, (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"]) another depicted him as a white older man. (PROSE: The Lonely Computer [+]Loading...["The Lonely Computer (short story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | edit source]
- The name "Newton" does not appear in Newtons Sleep [+]Loading...["Newtons Sleep (novel)"] besides in the titular quote from William Blake. Throughout the book he is instead referred to as "Jeova Unus Sanctus", which is similar to an alias the real-world Newton used for his alchemical writings, "Jeova Sanctus Unus". The latter is a Latin term which translates to "One True God", and it is an anagram of Newton's Latin name, "Isaacus Neuutonus".
