Romana IV
Long after she had last seen the Doctor, the fourth incarnation of Romana travelled alone, occasionally picking up companions of her own. Eventually settling down on a planet orbiting the last sun in the universe, she was joined by Ponch before regenerating into a younger body. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"])
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Post-regeneration[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to one account, Romana had survived into what she described as a “godless age”. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"]) Due to her exceptional performance at the Time Lord Academy, Romana had great control over her regeneration (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks (novelisation)"]) and was able to settle on a form identical to that of Miranda Pelham, having felt that that she was a “lovely-looking woman”. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"])
Life in orbit of the final sun in the universe[[edit] | [edit source]]
Long after she had last seen the Eighth Doctor, now travelling alone and occasionally picking up her own companions, Romana visited Ponch on a planet orbiting the last sun before the universe's heat death, where he lived among the last humans. Arriving on the planet, Romana disguised her TARDIS as the Janua Foris Inn so she could tell Ponch about his past life as Huvan during her earlier incarnation's encounter with Valdemar. She used a psychic attack to convince Ofrin to let her keep telling the story, but she found herself too weak to finish it. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"])
Death and regeneration[[edit] | [edit source]]
While her story was still incomplete, Romana's body was wearing thin from age, and she fell into the snow. At her request, Ponch carried her to the inn, wherein she regenerated into a new incarnation. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"])
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
This incarnation of Romana was kind and vibrant, in spite of her apparent age. She had a penchant to laugh, even when she was enraged. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"])
Appearance[[edit] | [edit source]]
At the start of her life, this incarnation of Romana had a young and pale face, with dark hair and fierce, but entrancing, eyes. Romana told Ponch that she had copied her appearance from Miranda Pelham, noting that she'd done it before and would probably do it again and that Miranda was "such a lovely-looking woman". Ponch regarded her as “beautiful”.
Ultimately, after spending “a very long time” in the intense heat of the sun, her hair lightened to a chestnut color and her skin tanned with dark brown creases, making her resemble a much older woman. Ponch once described her as looking “ancient. Perhaps even as much as thirty cycles.” Her voice had grown “husky” with age.
While her movements were hindered by arthritic pain, she could still move with great speed and precision. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- While both were released on the same day and depict a future incarnation of Romana who has grown estranged from the Doctor and reminds characters of their mothers, the incarnations of Romana introduced in Paul Cornell's The Shadows of Avalon [+]Loading...["The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"] and Simon Messingham's Tomb of Valdemar [+]Loading...["Tomb of Valdemar (novel)"] have never been officially connected.
