Morgaine
Morgaine (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"]) or Morgan,[source needed] formally Morgaine of the Faye, Battle Queen of the S'rax, (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"], PROSE: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (novelisation)"]) was the powerful sorceress who did battle with King Arthur and Merlin in Camelot, and the mother of Mordred. (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"], One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"]) She was "immortal, ageless and deathless". (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"])
The true nature of the Arthurian forces encountered by the Seventh Doctor and Ace were the subjects of many conflicting accounts and conjectures. One account suggested that Morgaine was one of many emanations of the interdimensional Guardian of Magic. Morgwen. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) One text claimed she was a Magic Lord and an alternative equivalent of the Master. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) Yet another claimed that the "S'rax" of whom she was the monarch were a normal extraterrestrial species who had visited the Earth in the Dark Ages, but were in no true sense supernatural or interdimensional. (PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"])
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]
By one account, after the Guardian of Magic, Morgwen, was trapped inside the Druse in the void between worlds her dreams leaked out into other dimensions. One of the sorceresses thus created was the Morgaine faced by the Seventh Doctor. (PROSE: Legends of Camelot [+]Loading...["Legends of Camelot (novel)"])
When she encountered her and her enemies, the Doctor speculated that the Arthurian people he'd encountered were from another universe where King Arthur was "closer to the myth". This account saw Morgaine introduce herself as "Morgaine of the Faye". (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"]) Another account suggested that the Camelot of Arthurian myth existed in "a time of myth and legend". (PROSE: A Honeycomb of Souls [+]Loading...["A Honeycomb of Souls (short story)"])
One account documented the beliefs of human historians drawing on the TARDIS information system, which aligned with the parallel-universe concept and went so far as to suggest that the Doctor had been wrong to suggest that the "Merlin" Doctor was his future self, instead depicting him as the native Doctor of that universe — who was a Magic Lord rather than a Time Lord. By this account, Morgaine was his equivalent of the Master, and thus a Magic Lord as well. However, the Thirteenth Doctor refused to comment on whether the idea these events were an alternate universe were correct; she merely noted that some of the ideas had by the historians were "a bit daft" while others were "very clever". (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"])
By one account, the Seventh Doctor's guess had been incorrect altogether, and the presence of anachronistic technology at King Arthur's court was the work of a Renegade Time Lord. This account posited that Morgaine's forces, the S'rax, were an alien species, with Morgaine herself being a S'rax. She came to Earth having detected strange energies around King Arthur, actually the result of his having been delivered by the Eighth Doctor, and was fascinated to see that Arthur's knights had far more advanced weaponry than any of his contemporaries. (PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"])
War with Arthur[[edit] | [edit source]]
Prior to King Arthur's courtship and marriage with Guinevere, Arthur had a passionate affair with Morgaine, (PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"]) who would wistfully recall how she and Arthur had been "together, in the woods of Celadon" where "the air was like honey". (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"])
By the account which depicted her as a S'rax by species, despite their romance, she refused to marry him, not intending to settle down with "any one male". Despite this refusal, she subsequently felt betrayed when Arthur married Guinevere, and stayed on Earth to declare war on Camelot alongside their son Mordred, with the two and their Knight Commander leading knights with advanced weaponry and the capability to travel between dimensions against them. (PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"])
By another account, Morgaine and Arthur broke apart at Arthur's decision, when Morgaine offered him immortality. Morgaine believed that Arthur had taken her gift and then turned against her, a stinging betrayal. In actuality, however, she would later learn that Arthur had rejected the gift altogether and chosen to remain mortal. This account did not clarify Arthur's actual reason for declaring war against Morgaine. (PROSE: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (novelisation)"])
At any rate, as conflicts grew, "Merlin", by then a persona of some version of the Doctor (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"], PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"]) other than the Seventh Doctor, (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"]) who may have been the Eighth Doctor, (PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"]) a later incarnation, (PROSE: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (novelisation)"]) or a parallel version altogether, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) opposed her. The two faced each other many times, and also had more civil dealings on occasion, playing several games of chess which Morgaine always won. Merlin was ultimately unable to stop Mordred killing Arthur at the Battle of Camlann. However, via "propaganda", Merlin spread the lie that Arthur was only in stasis and could be revived if Excalibur was returned to him. (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"])
Morgaine believed that she had eventually trapped "Merlin" in "the ice caves" and assumed that he had finally escaped when she met the Seventh Doctor, not realising he didn't recall their prior battles. (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"]) According to one book, the Merlin Doctor was thus trapped within the ice caves "for eternity". (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) By another account, the Merlin she had trapped was not the Doctor, but the other Time Lord who had impersonated Merlin before the Doctor's arrival; seeking to frame the Doctor as a traitor, he had exploited his TARDIS's chameleon circuit to make himself look like the Doctor. She placed him in suspended animation, conscious but immobile and unaging, and trapped him in the Arctic Desert forever. (PROSE: One Fateful Knight [+]Loading...["One Fateful Knight (short story)"])
Morgaine then hunted for Excalibur for twelve centuries; (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) although the primary account of these events suggested she was — at least officially — trying to stop Arthur from waking, (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"]) another suggested that Morgaine's private belief was that Arthur, made immortal by the power he had supposedly stolen from her, had been alive and well for all these centuries, biding his time and hatching some scheme against her. When she eventually detected Excalibur's signature, she assumed that it was a deliberate trap devised by Arthur, setting the scene for their final battle. (PROSE: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (novelisation)"])
Last battle with the Seventh Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
Eventually, Morgaine's forces traced Excalibur to 1997 Carbury in the Doctor's universe, where the site of the Battle of Camlann was being excavated near Lake Vortigern. (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"]) By one account, Morgaine was first attracted to 1997 Earth by the Mandragora Helix. (COMIC: Distractions [+]Loading...["Distractions (comic story)"])
After crossing to Carbury, England, Morgaine's son Mordred used a sword that was "brother to Excalibur" to create a meeting point, allowing Morgaine to follow him across the realities. There, she immediately felt the mental presence of the Doctor, which she recognised as Merlin's. She made telepathic contact with him at once, not realising this was a version of her nemesis who had never met her before; keeping up the bluff, the Doctor simply refused to heed her ultimatum, and Morgaine declared that they would make this land "[their] last battlefield". Taking in the lay of the land with Mordred, she spotted a helicopter which happened to be the one ferrying Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart to the digging site, and felled it with a blast of power from her fingertip.
As their reconnaissance continued, Mordred, Morgaine and their escort came upon a war memorial. Morgaine was disturbed to realise that the people her son had described as contemptible "savages" actually had a concept of honour and respect for fallen warriors, which meant that Morgaine herself had failed her code by attacking without due form. To make amends, she called her troops to an immediate ceasefire and had them pay homage to the dead human soldiers commemorated in the monument. The Brigadier, who had survived the helicopter crash, happened upon this scene and introduced himself to Morgaine; she was amused and pleased to meet a true warrior of "this world", but warned him this would buy him no quarter when they met on the field in earnest. (TV: Battlefield (part 2) [+]Loading...{"part":"2","1":"Battlefield (TV story)"})
Having sent her Knight Commander after Excalibur, Morgaine reunited with her son, who was drinking at Pat Rowlinson's establishment, the Gore Crow Hotel. There, she also found UNIT Lieutenant Lavel, from whose mind she extracted all the military intelligence she needed, killing her in the process. Before departing, however, she cured the lifelong blindness of Pat's wife Elizabeth with a wave of her hand, as "payment" for entertaining her son. Returning to her temporary lair, she scried the Doctor's forces with a crystal ball as the Doctor entrusted the unearthed Excalibur to Ace and Li Shou Yuing, whom he had told to take refuge inside a chalk circle. After ritually summoning a powerful demon known as the Destroyer as an asset against "Merlin", she also used her magic to mess with Ace and Shou's minds, turning them against each other in an attempt to get them to break the circle. They resisted her tricks, and stood up to her in person when she appeared in front of the circle, but this prompted her to reveal the Destroyer, threatening to give them over to him so that they'd become "his handmaidens in Hell". (TV: Battlefield (part 3) [+]Loading...{"part":"3","1":"Battlefield (TV story)"})
Morgaine's threat was telepathically interrupted by the Seventh Doctor, who had Mordred at swordpoint. Morgaine called his bluff, with mother and son agreeing that the Merlin they knew would never kill in cold blood. Matters changed with the appearance of the Brigadier, whom they very much believed to be capable of the deed — but Morgaine still refused to give up, seemingly sacrificing Mordred, much to his distress. After cutting telepathic contact, she ordered her Knight Commander to resume his assault against UNIT's forces and "take no prisoners". Fearing the Destroyer's power if he was let loose completely, she refused to free him yet, but even with him bound in silver she was able to collapse the house around Ace and Shou; although the chalk circle protected them from harm, they were forced to hand over the sword.
Morgaine then returned to her home across space and time through an interstitial vortex. The Doctor followed with Ace and the Brigadier, taking her by surprise. As Ace attacked her from behind to take Excalibur back from her, Morgaine panicked and freed the Destroyer, to the horror of the Doctor and Ace, who had thought the threat of the Destroyer to be a bluff, not realising that Morgaine genuinely feared Merlin more than an unchained Destroyer. The Brigadier managed to slay the Destroyer with a silver bullet before he could destroy the Earth, though not before he thanklessly wiped out the S'rax army.
Refusing to be beaten, Morgaine took control of the nuclear armament brought to the site by UNIT, plucking the release code from Brigadier Bambera's mind. The Doctor got to her within the final minutes of the countdown, and pleaded with her to cancel the launch, convincing her that there was no "honour" in a worldwide nuclear exchange that would devastate the entire planet, children and all. In response, Morgaine demanded to face Arthur "in single combat, with honour", only for the Doctor to confess to her that Arthur really was dead forevermore. The revelation shattered Morgaine, who stood down and did not resist as UNIT took her and Mordred into custody. (TV: Battlefield (part 4) [+]Loading...{"part":"4","1":"Battlefield (TV story)"})
"He's gone to dust."
"Then I shall not even have that comfort. I… shall never… see him again. Arthur!… We were together… in the woods of Celadon. The air… was like honey…"
"I'm sorry, Morgaine. It's over.""
Association with UNIT[[edit] | [edit source]]
By one account, Morgaine eventually began working for UNIT as their unofficial Psychical Advisor to aid in their weakness towards magic. She did this in return for Mordred being allowed to return to their home universe. Into the 2010s, she was permanently stationed at the Black Archive, Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
Morgaine was ruthless, willing to sacrifice almost anything, including her son Mordred, to achieve her ends. Despite this, she had a strong sense of honour. She became enraged when, by reading a tombstone, she discovered that Mordred, had misled them and they had fought on the enemy's soil without proper respect for the dead. She had incredible powers, being able to control people and cure blindness. (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- In the real world, she is sometimes known as "Morgan le Fay", "Morgain", or "Morgana". She was a sorceress of Arthurian legend often described as the half-sister of King Arthur. In the legends, it was Morgan's sister Morgause who was the mother of Mordred by an incestuous affair with Arthur, but Morgan and Morgause are often conflated in later retellings.
- Jean Marsh also played Morgan le Fay in the 1989 adaptation of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. She also previously appeared in Doctor Who as Joanna in The Crusade and Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan.
- She was played by Jenny Agutter in The Twilight Zone.
