Nobody No-One
Nobody No-One was a Word Lord (a parallel universe equivalent of the Time Lords who lived forty-five billion dimensions to the left of theirs). He proved to be an exceedingly dangerous enemy for the Doctor. No-One's destructive potential was fed by both an ability to regenerate like Time Lords, but more so, the potential to personify actions and concepts spoken through words. In the presence of a loose tongue, he could make unspeakable things come to fruition.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Leaving his home universe, either being exiled or leaving of his own free will, Nobody No-One used his knowledge and power to become a bounty hunter, travelling throughout the multiverse.
Nobody No-One used his CORDIS to hunt the Seventh Doctor through the continuum, seizing on rewards for his capture, bounties advertised by his enemies such as the Daleks and the Cybermen. He never caught him and grieving over his losses, Nobody wound up in 1945, where he regenerated under mysterious circumstances. Nobody hid at an extraterrestrial research facility called the Forge, where his ship disguised itself as their catchphrase, "For King and Country". (AUDIO: A Death in the Family) A century later, he finally confronted the Doctor in Antarctica, although it is unclear if this was their first meeting. His ship had infiltrated a military bunker, where it hid as a joke. Luckily, the bunker had a security black-out; no phones, no books nor writing material. The Doctor was able to switch the TARDIS' translation circuits to translate everyone's words and thoughts into an obscure alien language none present could understand, forcing Nobody and his CORDIS into the only source of literature available: a protocol guide for the bunker. Despite being stuck, Nobody escaped when one of the soldiers carelessly shouted "Nobody move". (AUDIO: The Word Lord)
Nobody claimed to have faced the Doctor multiple times across space, time, and universes in his personal future. Some time later, someone used a lost letter from the English alphabet to snag the CORDIS, making the ship crash, forcing Nobody to regenerate. Clad in a knitted scarf of ridiculous length, Nobody returned with a vengeance. He fought the Doctor yet again, this time from deep in the future, near the end of his seventh incarnation and meeting his demise at Walker General Hospital. He trapped Nobody in the Hand of All and sealed it in his mind, going into hibernation in a Gallifreyan sarcophagus buried beneath the Forge. After the destruction of the facility in 2026, a much younger Seventh Doctor awoke his older self and released Nobody. London had mostly been evacuated but there was still people and technology around to sustain Nobody's literal needs. He quickly amassed power over the Earth and to a greater extent, the Doctor's existence. Realising the imminent danger, the earlier Seventh Doctor sacrificed himself fighting Nobody, with his later self concocting an elaborate scheme to resurrect him. With the Hand of All, Ace and Hex could revive the earlier Seventh Doctor and defeat Nobody. Once restored to life, the younger Seventh Doctor trapped Nobody in the Hand of All just as his elder self had, visiting his old friend, Evelyn Smythe on the day she died, getting her permission to place The Hand in her mind as she drew her last breath. The Hand perished with Evelyn dragging Nobody along for the ride. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
Nobody No-One was an inhuman monster who gained great pleasure from causing people pain and discomfort. He was malicious and cruel, the polar opposite of the Doctor. He enjoyed taunting people. He had mannerisms and speech patterns which were rather similar to the Tenth Doctor's. He laughed hysterically, be it whenever he was blowing up something as mundane as a duck pond or being the first being to commit ultracide, though this was thankfully proven to be an illusion. He was noted to be wearing a ridiculously long scarf as a homage to the Fourth Doctor in one of his newer incarnations. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Powers and abilities[[edit] | [edit source]]
Oh, the powers this place is granting me, Doctor. Just while we’ve been having our little chat, seventy-three people used the phrase “Nobody tells me what to do,” an anxious general said “No one has access to the silo room,” and a lorry driver, who’s a bad poet in his spare time, came up with the line, “Nobody stops the Earth spinning, or tells the sun when it can shine.” I’m going to have so much fun with this planet. Do you want a preview? [...] Hey, Doctor, have you heard? Nobody tells the sun when it can shine. And I say: Stop.
Like all Word Lords, Nobody is an alien linguistic entity who can draw power from words, rhymes and literature. He can regenerate in a manner similar to Time Lords. He originated from another universe with alien physical laws, therefore the laws of physics of the Doctor's universe do not affect him, further making him unbound by normal time and space. However, he could be trapped within a particular novel or comic if no other source of literature were available, drawing him into it like a magnet.
His CORDIS' chameleon circuit was programmed to hide his ship not as an object but as a word, such as a common phrase or verb like "For King and Country".
Nobody had the unique ability to gain powers and manipulate reality to his advantage whenever anyone used the words "nobody" or "no one" in their speech. For example, if someone proclaimed "Nobody can get in the TARDIS" or "No-one can turn off the Sun", then he would instantly gain the ability to get in the TARDIS or turn off the Sun. There appeared to be no limits to this ability, as Nobody was confident he was able to easily end all life in the whole universe if someone phrased it so. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Nobody No-One grew out of the conceptual combination of two characters from Steven Hall's earlier original novel, The Raw Shark Texts. There, Mr Nobody and Mr No One are two agents of Mycroft Ward, a malicious hive mind descended from a 19th century scientist by that name who discovered how to copy his memories and personality into other humans. Within the surface plot of the novel, Mr Nobody, who is far more prominent than No One, seems only to derive his moniker from being — like the narrator — an amnesiac whose original identity was erased by the eponymouse Conceptual Shark (whose nature and ability to travel through the written word also have parallels to Hall's subsequent Word Lord worldbuilding).
However, a closer reading of the text implies that they possess a much greater power, akin to that which Hall would use for the Word Lord Nobody No-One — although no diegetic connection seems to exist between the three characters. Having dropped hints about the parallel quite early on, Hall would go on to elaborate in 2024.[1]
Mr Nobody and Mr No One have a language-based power. If someone says ‘nobody will know’ or ‘no one saw’ then Nobody will know, No One will see. That’s what makes them great spies for Ward, as old-me said in your quote. They’re doing it throughout The Raw Shark Texts, and it’s always gone pretty much unnoticed (until you just figured it out!)
As I said in the quote, I was thinking it’d be good to use that interesting power again somewhere, where it could take centre stage. I did that a little later in my Doctor Who work where I turned the concept up to 11 to create the villain Nobody No One, who can do much more with it than that pair [of] TRST characters can. While Mr. Nobody and Mr. No One are pretty much stealth agents, this character is almost godlike. If someone says ‘Nobody can stop the sun from shining’ then Nobody No One can actually do that. He's also pretty unhinged and was loads of fun to write.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Steven Hall. Steven Hall AMA. /r/TheRawSharkTexts on Reddit. Archived from the original on 4 October 2024.
