P.R.O.B.E.
- You may wish to consult
Probe (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
The Preternatural Research Bureau — also known as P.R.o.B.e., P.R.O.B.E. or PROBE — was a department within the Ministry of Defence that was tasked with investigating phenomena that was out of the ordinary. It was based in a single small office at Ashley House in London, but was later expanded and relocated to Parliament Square.
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
1990s[[edit] | [edit source]]
P.R.O.B.E. was founded by Liz Shaw in the 1990s, (HOMEVID: First Entry [+]Loading...["First Entry (home video)"]) having been invited to set up a special division within the Ministry of Defence to investigate unusual phenomena. Though she suspected that the nature of her work at the University of Cambridge also factored in the decision, (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"]) it was principally felt that her previous work in a "special unit" of the United Nations, (HOMEVID: First Entry [+]Loading...["First Entry (home video)"]) UNIT, (TV: Spearhead from Space [+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)"]) made her the perfect candidate. (HOMEVID: First Entry [+]Loading...["First Entry (home video)"]) Whilst setting up the department, she read about cases such as Isaac Greatorex and his cult. (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"], The Devil of Winterborne [+]Loading...["The Devil of Winterborne (home video)"]')
P.R.O.B.E., was not what she had been promised, its base being a cramped office and the only other member being Louise Bayliss. It was also under-funded and, by 1994, at risk of losing funding entirely if it handed over a case to Scotland Yard. Although the stream of work was usually "comatose or dead", Liz remarked that she and Louise were doing the work of twenty. Liaison to the Ministry Patsy Haggard was sympathetic to P.R.o.B.e. and had a close relationship with Liz. (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"])
The minister to whom P.R.o.B.e. was answerable was Sir Richard Stevenson. Although he was old-fashioned, after quite some time Patsy managed to make him see the merits of P.R.o.B.e.'s existence, after which he became "most helpful". (HOMEVID: The Devil of Winterborne [+]Loading...["The Devil of Winterborne (home video)"])
By August 1994, Liz had connected eight murders to the Hawthorne clinic and had to beg Patsy not to allow Scotland Yard to take on the case as it would risk P.R.o.B.e.'s funding. Liz and Louise's investigations uncovered Dr Colin Dove's plan to unleash the reservoir of evil through sensitives Daniel O'Kane and Peter Russell. (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"])
Due to the rarity of P.R.o.B.e. being called out, Brian Rutherford did not see the merits of the organisation and, as his first act as minister, transferred Louise to another department whilst Liz was mourning her father. He threatened to shut down P.R.o.B.e. altogether but required Patsy's approval in order to do so, which she refused to give. After working on a case with Liz, D.I. Burke applied for a transfer to P.R.o.B.e. He was apparently unsuccessful. (HOMEVID: The Devil of Winterborne [+]Loading...["The Devil of Winterborne (home video)"])
The organisation received as little support from the police force as it did from the department, as shown by Burke's initial scepticism, and also by the "practical joke" instigated by a policeman which sent Dr Shaw to investigate a poltergeist for two weeks. After Rutherford's kidnap by Alfred Emerson, and the revelation of his past dealings with Emerson's creator Julius Quilter, he quit his position. (HOMEVID: Unnatural Selection [+]Loading...["Unnatural Selection (home video)"])
Louise had read about a similar species to the Cyberons who had attempted invaded Earth several times in the P.R.O.B.E. Archive. (PROSE: The Last Dose [+]Loading...["The Last Dose (short story)"])
Haggard acquired the Vault for P.R.O.B.E.'s use after the contents were moved to another facility nearby. (PROSE: A Worthy Successor [+]Loading...["A Worthy Successor (short story)"])
2000s[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 2000, P.R.O.B.E. eradicated a computer virus that had removed all the vowels from every electronic device on the planet, (PROSE: The Last Dose [+]Loading...["The Last Dose (short story)"]) which had been released by the Cybermen. (PROSE: Vrs [+]Loading...["Vrs (short story)"]) Louise Bayliss knew that the groups from Geneva or Canary Wharf were "nowhere to be seen". (PROSE: The Last Dose [+]Loading...["The Last Dose (short story)"])
One damaged Cyberon arrived in the year 2000 and began converting certain doctors, for them to begin conducting "tests" in order to get the public to accept Cyberon as a miracule cure for afflictions such as dementia, as a means to ensure the survival of the Cyberons by mass conversion. It failed at the hands of Lauren Anderson who fought back against Tom Mordley, one of the lead doctors behind the drug. After Lauren had believed she had killed Tom and turned herself in at a police station, (PROSE: Cyberon [+]Loading...["Cyberon (novelisation)"]) her claims that Cyberon was alien caught the attention of P.R.O.B.E.; shortly after, Patricia Haggard requested the help of Louise Bayliss, who had transferred from P.R.O.B.E. to the Home Office five years prior at the request of Sir Andrew Williams. Patricia sent Louise to a PKD facility to oversee the containment of the drug so the teams from Geneva and Canary Wharf didn't butcher anything.
At the facility in the outskirts of London, Louise encountered Tom, who had been restored to life after Lauren killed him. Tom had broken into the facility to retrieve more batches of the Cyberon drug in order to keep the spread going, and Louise followed Tom into an unsecured part of the facility, where she witnessed Tom kill Albert, the first to have taken the Cyberon drug, as he had stopped taking said drug. Tom began speaking to the original Cyberon, who then commanded Tom to kill Louise, but as Tom went to kill her, he was repelled by Louise's gold necklace. She used this to drive the Cyberon from out of Tom, as it interfered with the Cyberon's connection to his nervous system. In his freedom, he destroyed the original Cyberon, although Tom then succumbed to the trauma he had endured and died.
The remaining batches of the drug where then secured and transported to the Vault in Northumberland by UN soldiers, under Louise's guidance. Louise returned to Ashley House, where Patricia informed her of Tom's upcoming funeral and the cover story that he was a con man. Louise asked if there was a chance she could return to P.R.O.B.E., but Patricia told her that Sir Andrew would object, not to mention P.R.O.B.E. barely even had the budget to keep their other member. Louise then travelled to Lauren Anderson's flat, where she told Lauren of the heroism performed by Tom in his last minutes, and to assure Lauren she is a good person and should return to her job as a doctor. (PROSE: The Last Dose [+]Loading...["The Last Dose (short story)"])
P.R.O.B.E. was present for the funeral of Tom, where he was entombed in a golden coffin which was sealed in the ground with concrete, and they introduced themselves to Sarah and Brittany Mordley. (PROSE: Silver-Tongued Liars [+]Loading...["Silver-Tongued Liars (short story)"])
In 2008, P.R.O.B.E. detected that Cyberon was activated in Philadelphia. Patricia immediately flew over, to find that Brittany Mordley had taken the drug and was preparing to jump off a building, as she felt that perhaps all the lies told about her uncle were true, and that she had so much damage after being affected by the drug she couldn't go home — so neither could the Cyberon. Patricia began convincing her not to jump, but Brittany got angry at her, for all the lies told about her uncle. Patricia reasoned that, while she had been right to believe in her uncle, now she had taken the drug, it wasn't everything that had been dreamed of. While the Cyberon tried to tell Brittany to not to listen to Patricia, Brittany let it fade away. (PROSE: Silver-Tongued Liars [+]Loading...["Silver-Tongued Liars (short story)"])
In 2009, Patricia, Patricia's partner, and Giles flew out to Philadelphia to reunite with Brittany. They talked as they went into a local branch of Wawa, about how Brittany was doing in school, how her mother was, and if she still has the abilities the Cyberon gave her. Indeed, she did. (PROSE: Silver-Tongued Liars [+]Loading...["Silver-Tongued Liars (short story)"])
Liz again became associated with UNIT and was at the Moonbase during the Eleventh Doctor's supposed funeral in 2010. (TV: Death of the Doctor [+]Loading...["Death of the Doctor (TV story)"]) She would later return to P.R.O.B.E. (HOMEVID: When to Die [+]Loading...["When to Die (home video)"])
2010s[[edit] | [edit source]]
In March 2011, Giles and Archie were sent to investigate two deaths in the Vault by Patsy. The security guard summoned Director Vanessa Hardcastle, who tried to stall, but Giles and Archie insisted on conducting the inspection immediately. She took them to one of the warehouses, where she explained that the deaths were accidental. She then took them to the cold storage, telling them about a little girl, Abigail, who was a werewolf, showing them the body, and then she took them to head scientist Miles Werbiansky, who gives Giles the inventory of the site. After spotting Cyberon on the list, Vanessa and Miles took the duo to the low-risk storage, only to find that the containers of the Cyberon are compromised, and that the Cyberon has leaked out. The Cyberon goes to the cold storage, inhabiting Abigail, not knowing of her lupine nature. It becomes a cyberwolf hybrid, and goes rampant in the site. Giles eventually manages to convince the Cyberon inside to shut itself down as the mutations from the werewolf DNA pose a risk to the survival of Cyberon. (PROSE: A Worthy Successor [+]Loading...["A Worthy Successor (short story)"])
By 2014, Liz was still working at P.R.o.B.e., which was ordered to carry out the execution of Corporal Paul Reynish per Patsy's recommendation to Defence Secretary Brian Williams. (HOMEVID: When to Die [+]Loading...["When to Die (home video)"])
In June 2014, (PROSE: A Worthy Successor [+]Loading...["A Worthy Successor (short story)"]) Liz and Patricia (HOMEVID: When to Die [+]Loading...["When to Die (home video)"]) went to retire to Spain, so a new P.R.O.B.E. director needed to be chosen, preferably not by the Defence Secretary who would have chosen someone who would shut P.R.O.B.E. down. The incumbent wanted to appoint Giles, so she asked him to recount a story of his leadership, the Cyberon incident at the Vault a few year prior. After he finished, she told Giles he had got the job, and that Sir Andrew would be the new P.R.O.B.E. liaison, leaving Giles to wonder if she could get him to agree recruit more members. (PROSE: A Worthy Successor [+]Loading...["A Worthy Successor (short story)"]) Giles and his team continued to face funding issues. (WC: Shadows of Doubt [+]Loading...["Shadows of Doubt (webcast)"])
Giles went on holiday, though it was interrupted by a shooting star, which he investigated. At the impact site, he soon discovered the object was actually a spaceship, with a refugee Gendar pilot, Maxiassa. She and Giles fled the site in his car when an aggressor, Mar'tuth, came to attempt to kill Maxiassa. As Mar'tuth could destroy things with its "glitches", and was repulsed by Maxiassa's compact mirror, he drove to Homestyle with the aggressor in pursuit, to the aisle filled with mirrors. Giles and Maxiassa trapped Mar'tuth with mirrors, and when it tried to escape, the mirrors deflected its glitches back onto itelf, destroying it. (PROSE: She Came From Another World! [+]Loading...["She Came From Another World! (short story)"])
Two months later, Giles took Maxiassa (now going by Maxine) to Sir Andrew Williams, so she could gain asylum. He granted it, so long as she agreed to Giles's terms, that she has to work for P.R.O.B.E., after Maxine told him why she left her home planet. Later, at her apartment, Giles arrived, and got her to repair a trio-disregulator, which while impossible for humans, was easy for a Gendar. Convinced of Maxine's abilities, he gave her his old job, P.R.O.B.E.'s technician. (PROSE: She Came From Another World! [+]Loading...["She Came From Another World! (short story)"])
On 23 April 2018, P.R.O.B.E. was alerted to a Facebook group focusing on supernatural events around London which had captured footage of P.R.O.B.E. operative Tasha Williams performing an exorcism. While investigating, they also found a credible report of a poltergeist haunting in Peckham, and Giles and Archie ended up driving there to banish the entity back to the Dark Dimensions. After they returned, Giles had Maxie Masters delete the P.R.O.B.E. videos from the Facebook group, but decided to keep an eye on it in future as a way to learn of new supernatural events they should be dealing with. (WC: Peckham Poltergeist [+]Loading...["Peckham Poltergeist (webcast)"])
On 7 November 2018, P.R.O.B.E. lost their agent Archie MacTavish during a mission in Manchester. (WC: Manchester [+]Loading...["Manchester (webcast)"]) When the British government shut down organisations like UNIT and the Torchwood Institute (TV: Spyfall [+]Loading...["Spyfall (TV story)"]) over funding concerns and the mistaken belief they were not needed, (PROSE: Preternatural Days [+]Loading...["Preternatural Days (short story)"], TV: Resolution [+]Loading...["Resolution (TV story)"]) having been manipulated into this decision by the Grand Serpent, (TV: Survivors of the Flux [+]Loading...["Survivors of the Flux (TV story)"]) P.R.O.B.E. found itself tasked with those agencies' former responsibilities. Giles later admitted he had no idea why P.R.O.B.E. was not shut down with their contemporaries. (PROSE: Preternatural Days [+]Loading...["Preternatural Days (short story)"])
In June 2019, after a routine weak of hoaxes and minor alien incursions, P.R.O.B.E. dealt with a more serious matter in the form of Michael, one of Giles's contacts at the Jovian Diplomacy Service, sending them a mysterious package for safekeeping. Looking through the old LONGBOW files, Giles was able to identify the artefact as the mythical, shapeshifting weapon Varunastra, and it was eventually placed in a secure container within the P.R.O.B.E. Archive. (WC: Varunastra [+]Loading...["Varunastra (webcast)"])
On 12 September 2019, Giles recorded a "video diary", wherein he spoke about the coming perihelion, a lead Tasha found about occultists at Hanson Solicitors, and the budget meeting later that day. Giles remained optimistic. (WC: Out of the Shadows [+]Loading...["Out of the Shadows (webcast)"])
Giles recorded a case file wherein he spoke about his five years leading P.R.O.B.E.—and five years recording case files—, about the coming threat of the perihelion, as dark forces were gathering, and he knew it was all linked. He expressed his concerns over the team, how Tasha continued to get along with the other members, how Maxie was still getting used to life on Earth, how Agamya refuses to speak to Giles about her worries, how Az is still new and untrained, and he resolves to not fail them, nor lose them, like he did with Archie. He told himself to have faith in himself, like Haggard did when she put him in charge, that P.R.O.B.E. can handle anything, so long as they're funded, and that he needs to get P.R.O.B.E. ready. (WC: Shadows of Doubt [+]Loading...["Shadows of Doubt (webcast)"])
2020s[[edit] | [edit source]]
Please help by adding some more information.
On 25 November 2020 there was a break in at P.R.O.B.E. HQ and a Nolvox control node was stolen from the Dr Smith shelf. (WC: Doctor X [+]Loading...["Doctor X (webcast)"])
Later history[[edit] | [edit source]]
The P.R.O.B.E. Archive still existed until the Cyberon War's start in 3892, though, by then, its only contents were the huge data-banks making up Box's final form. (COMIC: Before the Storm [+]Loading...["Before the Storm (comic story)"])
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
P.R.o.B.e. was set up by Liz Shaw who, despite the promises of the Ministry, had only one fellow team-member - an assistant, Louise Bayliss. (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"]) Louise was transferred to another department by Brian Rutherford in his plan to have P.R.o.B.e. shut down. D.I. Burke applied to join but apparently was unsuccessful. (HOMEVID: The Devil of Winterborne [+]Loading...["The Devil of Winterborne (home video)"]) Giles was working as a technician and second-in-command of the organisation by 2014 and repaired Box, who helped Liz with the Paul Reynish case. (HOMEVID: When to Die [+]Loading...["When to Die (home video)"]) He was later appointed director following Liz's departure. (WC: Shadows of Doubt [+]Loading...["Shadows of Doubt (webcast)"])
Under Giles, P.R.o.B.e. was made up of himself, Agamya, Sir Bedevere, Maxie Masters, Tasha Williams, (PROSE: The Door We Forgot [+]Loading...["The Door We Forgot (short story)"]) Sam Myers, and Lucifer.[source needed]
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
Roz Forrester knew that the organisations PROBE and LONGBOW were familiar with the Doctor. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet [+]Loading...["Christmas on a Rational Planet (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- P.R.o.B.e. was introduced in a series of independent films produced by BBV Productions, which featured Liz Shaw from the Doctor Who series. Although not aimed for broadcast on television, this series of films nonetheless constituted the first ongoing spin-off set in the Doctor Who universe, predating the similarly themed Torchwood by more than a decade.
- Although the film series is called P.R.O.B.E., the organisation's name was never spelt this way in-universe until Shadows of Doubt [+]Loading...["Shadows of Doubt (webcast)"]. It appears as "P.R.o.B.e." on the office door and Liz's ID card in The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"] and as "PROBE" on Rutherford's file in The Devil of Winterborne [+]Loading...["The Devil of Winterborne (home video)"]. The spelling alternates between "PRoBe" and "PROBE" on the backs of the DVDs.
