Rassilon: Difference between revisions

'''Rassilon''' was, alongside [[Omega]], [[Second Tecteun|Tecteun]] and [[the Other]], one of the [[Founders of Gallifrey|founder]]s of [[Time Lord]] [[civilisation]]. In their own [[time]], Rassilon was chiefly an [[engineer]], a [[politician]], and an [[architect]], but later Time Lord [[society]] would hail them as the first Time Lord and the single greatest figure of [[Gallifreyan history]]. However, some Time Lords contended that Rassilon was a corrupt megalomaniac who tried to [[murder]] their [[Friendship|friend]] Omega and stole their invention.

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===

=== Creating the Eye of Harmony ===

=== Spinning the Web of Time ===

=== Rassilon's first presidency ===

==== End of the Vampire War ====

==== Foundation of Time Lord society ====

==== At war with the universe ====

==== Temporal progress ====

==== Abdication ====

=== Supposed death and survival ===

=== Within the Matrix ===

==== First reborn incarnation ====

==== Second reborn incarnation ====

==== Last Time War incarnation ====

=== After the Time War ===

== Other realities ==

== Skills and abilities ==

== Artefacts ==

== Personality ==

== Other references ==

== Appearance and clothing ==

== Behind the scenes ==

=== Death ===

* According to ''DWM'' editor [[Tom Spilsbury]], it hadn't occurred to him before that he was anything other than being alive, and that "it might come down to semantics over what being alive means."

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' scriptwriter [[Gareth Roberts]] believed that Rassilon is dead and the face that appears is "a clever AI."

* [[Head writer]] and [[executive producer]] [[Russell T Davies]] believed that Rassilon is "clearly alive", with his big face in the story being "A projection from [[the Matrix]]. A mental life extending beyond the body's death."

* Novelist, audio writer and comic writer [[George Mann]] believed that Rassilon was dead, but the Time Lords had figured out a way of "resurrecting dead people in extreme circumstances," doing "something horrible and timey wimey".

* Novelist, audio writer, comic writer and ''DWM'' columnist [[Jacqueline Rayner]] described his condition as "a permanent sleep which is pretty much indistinguishable from death", and that "He's immortal, but he has no awareness," and when the trap inside the [[Tomb of Rassilon]] is triggered, "he becomes semi-aware so he can oversee or judge what's going on, before going back into his eternal sleep again".

* ''DWM'' deputy editor [[Peter Ware (editor)|Peter Ware]] believed that Rassilon is dead by the time of ''The Five Doctors'', and his dead mind is speaking from the Matrix to the Doctors and Borusa. He mentions the line from the television story ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'' — "Rassilon the resurrected," as further proof that he had died.

* ''Doctor Who'' scriptwriter [[Mark Gatiss]] quipped that Rassilon is "biding his time until he regenerates into [actor] {{iw|jamesbond|Daniel Craig}}."

* Head writer and executive producer [[Steven Moffat]], who also wrote ''Hell Bent'', understood that Rassilon was "alive, but in 'eternal sleep'," having got up from his eternal sleep to participate in the [[Last Great Time War|Time War]], "And got killed. And resurrected. Because that happened a lot in the Time War."

* According to scriptwriter [[Terrance Dicks]], who wrote ''The Five Doctors'', Rassilon has "gone to a higher plane where he's a benevolent being who can, if he feels it's a big enough crisis, intervene".

=== Other matters ===

* Rassilon was first mentioned in ''[[The Deadly Assassin (TV story)|The Deadly Assassin]]''. Prior to this, evidence pointed to [[Omega]] (who had appeared in ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'') as the founder of [[Time Lord]] society. A ''[[Doctor Who Weekly]]'' comic story, ''[[Star Death (comic story)|Star Death]]'', attempted to reconcile this by having Rassilon and Omega working together. A few subsequent televised ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories, such as ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'' and ''[[Silver Nemesis (TV story)|Silver Nemesis]]'', also took this approach. [[Remembrance of the Daleks (novelisation)|''Remembrance''{{'}}s novelisation]] by [[Ben Aaronovitch]], dipping into the "[[Cartmel Masterplan]]", explained that Omega, Rassilon, and [[the Other|another historical figure]] worked together in enabling the [[Gallifreyan]]s to have [[time travel]]. In the novel ''[[The Infinity Doctors (novel)|The Infinity Doctors]]''{{'}} [[Infinity Doctor's reality|reality]], Omega states that the Time Lords had not three but six important central figures. These include Rassilon, Omega, the Other, [[Apeiron]], and two others whose names went unmentioned in that source. The novel ''[[The Ancestor Cell (novel)|The Ancestor Cell]]'' also describes Apeiron as a founder of Time Lord society, confirming [[Pandak]] as another founder and mentioning, in addition, the name [[Eutenoyar]].

* In ''[[Interference - Book One (novel)|Interference - Book One]]'', [[Sam Jones]] experiences a "transmission" from [[the Remote]] which depicts key moments in the [[Eternal War]]. Some details of the transmission are historically inaccurate, in part due to propaganda from [[Faction Paradox]]. Other details are filtered through Sam's cultural perceptions; for example, she sees Rassilon as being played by [[Brian Blessed (Interference)|Brian Blessed]].

* Rassilon led a campaign to eliminate the Great Vampires, fighting on the front lines of the conflict for several hundred years. ([[REF]]: ''[[The Book of Lists]]'')

[[File:The First Time Lords.jpg|thumb|Omega (left), Tecteun (middle) and Rassilon (right): "the FIRST Time Lords", a promotional image released by the BBC in 2020.]]

* In the scene corresponding to the point in ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'' where [[Second Tecteun|Tecteun's male incarnation]] stands alongside two other Time Lords in full high-collared regalia, the ''Timeless Children'' script release mentions that "we can assume [the other two] are Rassilon and [[Omega]]".<ref>[http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/doctor-who-s12-ep10-the-timeless-children.pdf ''The Timeless Children'' script]</ref> A promotional photograph of the three actors in costume, released in late [[2020 (releases)|2020]] by the official ''Doctor Who'' facebook page, shows the Time Lord standing to the left of Tecteun in that shot to be depicted in the exact same costume used for Rassilon in [[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'', although this is hard to make out in the televised visuals.<ref>[https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1330956294199635971 "The FIRST Time Lords!" on the official ''Doctor Who'' Twitter account]</ref> The performer playing this incarnation of Rassilon has not been credited or identified, but the [[2nd assistant director]] [[Mark Corden]] (who played Omega in the scene) has said that he cast the extra as Rassilon based on his resemblance to Don Warrington.<ref>https://twitter.com/boristhedalek/status/1330960792716521480</ref>

== External links ==

== Footnotes ==