The Pantheon

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The Pantheon, (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) also known as the Pantheon of Discord, (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"]) were a group of "vast powers", "creatures from beyond the universe", (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"], The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) reluctantly acknowledged as gods by the Doctor, who sometimes referred to this group simply as "the gods". (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"], The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

Sutekh, originally a member of the Osirian Court, (TV: Pyramids of Mars [+]Loading...["Pyramids of Mars (TV story)"], AUDIO: The Judgment of Sutekh [+]Loading...["The Judgment of Sutekh (audio story)"]) came to hold himself to be the King of the other gods making up this group. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

Nature[[edit] | edit source]

Membership[[edit] | edit source]

Listing the gods of the group to whom Sutekh acted as "King", as well as the symbolic "father and mother and other", of, Harriet Arbinger, Sutekh's own Harbinger, cited:

Last of Harriet's list was Sutekh himself, the "god of death". (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

Another account listed Krampus as a member of the "Pantheon of Discord". (COMIC: Imaginary Enemies [+]Loading...["Imaginary Enemies (comic story)"])

One account showed the Toymaker to have a sister, Hecuba, known as the Queen of Time. (AUDIO: The Queen of Time [+]Loading...["The Queen of Time (audio story)"])

Harbingers[[edit] | edit source]

"The gods" were known to create personal Harbingers, human-like creatures who heralded their presence. On Earth, Maestro's Harbinger went by Henry Arbinger, (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) and Sutekh's by Harriet Arbinger. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

History[[edit] | edit source]

Formation[[edit] | edit source]

Although Harriet Arbinger claimed Sutekh to be the "mother and father and other" of the members of the Pantheon she listed, this seemed to be symbolic as (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) many of them had disparate, documented origins prior to congregating into a single organisation.

Maestro, the “god of music”, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) was a child of fellow Pantheon member the Toymaker. Describing their youth, Maestro said, "Daddy was so bad to me. Daddy was so mean. Daddy was so tough". (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) The origins of the Toymaker himself were shrouded in mystery as he liked to play "games" with his origins and blur his tracks. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Loading...["Divided Loyalties (novel)"], AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair [+]Loading...["The Nightmare Fair (audio story)"], etc.)

The Mara, the “god of beasts”, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) was a gestalt entity created from the evil of the people of Manussa and given independence by the Great Crystal. It founded and ruled the Sumaran Empire until being overthrown by the first Federator who banished it to the Dark Places of the Inside. (TV: Snakedance [+]Loading...["Snakedance (TV story)"]) The Mara often took the form of a snake. (TV: Kinda [+]Loading...["Kinda (TV story)"], Snakedance [+]Loading...["Snakedance (TV story)"])

Before coming to be acknowledged as leader of this extra-universal pantheon, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) Sutekh was born as a member of the Osirian Court, (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years [+]Loading...["The Ship of a Billion Years (audio story)"]) and acknowledged as such by the Fourth Doctor. (TV: Pyramids of Mars [+]Loading...["Pyramids of Mars (TV story)"]) According to one account, Sutekh, believing that he deserved to take over the throne of the Osirian Court, since it owed its survival to him, made himself far more powerful than his fellow Osirians by taming the forces of the Outer Desert, of which even Ra was afraid. (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years [+]Loading...["The Ship of a Billion Years (audio story)","The Ship of a Billion Years"]) According to River Song, in the Dark Times he made a bargain with the Kotturuh, who allowed him to carry their "Gift of Death" himself. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times [+]Loading...["The Guide to the Dark Times (short story)","The Guide to the Dark Times"]) When he returned on Earth in 2020s, Sutekh was hailed by his Harbinger as the God of Death and the “mother and father and other of them all”. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

Legends and accounts[[edit] | edit source]

The Doctor had heard legends of the Pantheon of Discord when he was a child. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"])

Maestro claimed that they were cited in the Chorus of Ancient Songs. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])

The Doctor meets the Toymaker[[edit] | edit source]

The Toymaker was the “god of games”. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) Claiming good and evil meant nothing to him, the Toymaker believed all that existed was to win or lose. After the Doctor's TARDIS fell into his domain, a "hollow beneath the Under-Universe", (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) the Toymaker had a brief encounter with a young Doctor, who managed to escape him, refusing to engage in any games. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker [+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"], PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Loading...["Divided Loyalties (novel)"]) However, he later trapped the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet in his Celestial Toyroom and forced them to play games to win their freedom. The travellers eventually defeated the Toymaker, with the effect of destroying the Toyroom, though he’d already admitted he would build another. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker [+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"])

By some accounts the Doctor would have several more encounters with the Toymaker in various incarnations, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Loading...["Divided Loyalties (novel)"], The Nightmare Fair [+]Loading...["The Nightmare Fair (novelisation)"], AUDIO: Matryoshka [+]Loading...["Matryoshka"], The Magic Mousetrap [+]Loading...["The Magic Mousetrap (audio story)"], Solitaire [+]Loading...["Solitaire (audio story)"]) another suggested they did not meet again until the life of the Fourteenth Doctor. (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"])

The Fifth Doctor meets the Mara[[edit] | edit source]

On Deva Loka, the Mara attempted to emerge in reality by possessing the Fifth Doctor’s companion Tegan Jovanka. Despite being banished once more, (TV: Kinda [+]Loading...["Kinda (TV story)"]) the Mara would continue to attempt to possess Tegan on multiple occasions to try to escape the Dark Places of the Inside. (TV: Snakedance [+]Loading...["Snakedance (TV story)"], AUDIO: The Cradle of the Snake [+]Loading...["The Cradle of the Snake (audio story)"], WC: The Passenger [+]Loading...["The Passenger (webcast)"])

The Trickster's schemes[[edit] | edit source]

The Trickster, the “god of traps”, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) had a lust for chaos, believing it good. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? [+]Loading...["Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)"]) An “eternal exile” according to the Tenth Doctor, (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"]) the Trickster was able to alter time by making deals with individuals however his influence would be reversed if they rejected the bargain. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? [+]Loading...["Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)"]) He was also vulnerable to artron energy produced by TARDISes. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"])

The Trickster personally targeted Sarah Jane Smith to remove her from time at a moment she would prevent a meteor wiping out Earth, creating pure chaos as billions died for no reason at all. He rewrote history by making a deal with Andrea Yates for Sarah to die in her place in a childhood accident. One of Sarah’s friends, Maria Jackson was able to recall the original timeline due to exposure to a Verron puzzle box which Sarah had given her. As the meteor approached she and her father, Alan Jackson, convinced Andrea to reject the deal, restoring the original timeline and enabling Sarah to avert catastrophe. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? [+]Loading...["Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)"])

The Trickster subsequently sought revenge on Sarah. First he attempted to trick her into allowing him access into reality by changing her own parents’ deaths via a time fissure, which she prevented by restoring the correct series of events. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"]) He made a deal to save Peter Dalton as part of a plan to entrap Sarah by marrying him, in doing so falling under his power. On learning the truth Sarah convinced Peter to break the deal. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"]) The Trickster later disrupted Sarah’s memorial but his plan was thwarted in ten minutes by the attendees of the service – many former companions of the Doctor and of Sarah – who managed to shrink the Trickster down to the size of a doll, lock him in a treasure chest and send him to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for the next thousand years. (WC: Farewell, Sarah Jane [+]Loading...["Farewell, Sarah Jane (webcast)"])

The Doctor claimed to have fought the Trickster’s “shadows and changelings”. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"]) A Time Beetle of the Trickster's Brigade targeted Donna Noble on Shan Shen, creating a world where she never met the Tenth Doctor resulting in his death and Earth suffering under numerous alien incursions without his aid. Via time travel Donna was able to correct the event which had altered the timeline, killing the beetle. (TV: Turn Left [+]Loading...["Turn Left (TV story)"]) Other members of the Brigade organised a plot in 1927 involving a Brainspawn driving future American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt insane, causing him to drop America out of World War II resulting in Nazi Germany winning the war. This plan was foiled by Jack Harkness and Angelo Colasanto. (TV: Immortal Sins [+]Loading...["Immortal Sins (TV story)"])

In the Eleventh Doctor's day[[edit] | edit source]

During the Eleventh Doctor's lifetime, Krampus, a member of the Pantheon, found its way into reality by a Time Field in Leadworth. He managed to fully enter reality by getting Veronica, the spoiled daughter of the Mayor, to take his "gift for her". There he proceeded to send his servants to capture Amy, Rory and Mels-when they failed, he personally captured them and took them to the school library. In order for him to fully have power he needed Veronica's wish, when at first she didn't want to he persuaded her to do so by showing her an image of Amy's Petrichor brand. However his plan was foiled when Amy told Veronica that her hands were dirty, and what she thought was her doll was in reality a lump of coal used to coax Veronica to bring him to Leadworth. She threw it back into the mirror as Krampus and his goons were forcibly dragged back into where they had originally came from, presumably for good. (COMIC: Imaginary Enemies [+]Loading...["Imaginary Enemies (comic story)"]

The Mara, in an account which did not mention its membership of any particular Pantheon, was also shown to have infiltrated the town of Christmas on Trenzalore, attempting to force the Eleventh Doctor to speak his name and escalate the Siege of Trenzalore into another time war by speaking his name. (PROSE: The Dreaming [+]Loading...["The Dreaming (short story)"])

Returns of the Toymaker and Sutekh[[edit] | edit source]

After the Fourteenth Doctor cast salt at the edge of the universe, symbolically damaging the walls of reality, (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"]) the Toymaker, now in a new body, "found his way into reality". He rampaged through the Doctor's universe, playing games with many other powerful beings, from the Guardians of Time and Space to the Master. He plagued the human race with the Giggle and forced the Doctor into a game with him, later forcing his regeneration into the Fifteenth Doctor, only for this to trigger a bi-generation which gave the Doctor(s) the edge (t)he(y) needed to defeat him. As he was sealed away, the Toymaker warned them that his legions would be coming in his wake. (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"])

When parked near the edge of reality, the Doctor's TARDIS also emitted a strange groan for the first time. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"]) The Toymaker also told the Fourteenth Doctor there was "only one player [he] didn't dare face: the One Who Waits". The Toymaker recalled that he "saw it hiding" and "ran". (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) This turned out to refer to none other than the Pantheon's self-proclaimed King, Sutekh, who, escaping from the Void, had clung to the Doctor's TARDIS, keeping himself invisible until the time came to reveal himself to the Doctor. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

Facing the Fifteenth Doctor[[edit] | edit source]

The Fifteenth Doctor, early in his lifetime, reflected on the "whole pantheon of enemies" he'd face. (PROSE: "Heroes of Time" [+]Part of Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse, Loading...{"namedpart":"Heroes of Time","1":"Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse (reference book)"})

Indeed, early in his travels with Ruby Sunday, the two wound up facing the Toymaker's child Maestro. The Doctor recognised them as a "member of the Pantheon" and one of "the gods", but eventually managed to banish them back out of reality with the help of the Beatles. They had, however, warned the Doctor that "the One Who Waits" was "almost here". (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])

This came to pass in UNIT HQ when the Doctor discovered that, for some time now, his TARDIS had been "seduced" and overtaken by Sutekh, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) the Osiran god whose body the Fourth Doctor had previously destroyed, aging him to death in his own time corridor. (TV: Pyramids of Mars [+]Loading...["Pyramids of Mars (TV story)"]) Heralded by his own Harbinger, Harriet, who had infiltrated UNIT, Sutekh revealed himself, with Harriet identifying him as the King of the group of gods also including the Toymaker, Maestro, and the Trickster, as well as several others and the Mara, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) whom the Doctor had faced in the past without identifying them as members of a shared group. (TV: Kinda [+]Loading...["Kinda (TV story)"], Snakedance [+]Loading...["Snakedance (TV story)"])

Behind the scenes[[edit] | edit source]

Footnotes[[edit] | edit source]

  1. ↑ Jamie H. Cowan (15 June 2024). Tweet. Twitter. Archived from the original on 21 June 2024. “(…) like the Gods of Ragnarok (who are alluded in the list of gods, I do believe, with that threefold deity line), and the Trickster, and the Mara; all in decades gone by (…)”
  2. ↑ Josiah Rowe (15 June 2024). Tweet. Twitter. Archived from the original on 21 June 2024. “I think the 'threefold deity of malice and mischief and misery' is the Gods of Ragnarok.”
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