Romana (Doctor Who)

Template:Doctorwhocharacter Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, she was a companion of the Fourth Doctor.

As a Time Lord, Romana was able to regenerate, and therefore the character had two incarnations with somewhat different personalities. These different incarnations have been dubbed Romana I and Romana II by fans. Romana I was played by Mary Tamm from 1978 to 1979. When Tamm chose not to sign on for a second season, despite optimistic prodding on the part of the show’s producers, the part was recast. Romana II was played by Lalla Ward from 1979 to 1981.

Romana I

File:Tamm01.jpg

Mary Tamm as Romana I

The White Guardian originally assigned Romana to assist the Doctor during the quest for the Key to Time, which was a series of linked serials which constituted the whole of Season 16 (1978-79). Romana first appeared in The Ribos Operation, and was intended to be a contrast to the savage Leela, her predecessor. Romana was initially played as haughty and somewhat arrogant, looking down upon the Doctor (whom she considered to be her academic inferior; she obtained a triple first at the Academy, while the Doctor only passed with 51 percent on his second attempt) and responding to his initial resentment at her presence with icy put-downs. However, she soon gained an appreciation for the Doctor's experience and sense of adventure, and began to respect him as a teacher.

Over the course of Season 16, Romana appeared to take some of the characteristics of the screaming "damsel in distress", which reinforced Tamm's decision not to remain in the role as she felt the character had been taken as far as she could go. As a result, Romana regenerated into Romana II at the start of Season 17, emerging with a different physical appearance and a lighter personality.

The suddenness of the regeneration scene was also dictated by real life events. Although Tamm had left the show on relatively good terms, by the start of Season 17, she was very visibly pregnant, making her return even for a regeneration scene impractical.

Romana II

The introduction of Romana's second incarnation in Destiny of the Daleks, a script credited to Terry Nation, but with several additions and alterations by script editor Douglas Adams, treats the concept of regeneration humorously. At the beginning of the serial, Romana changes bodily forms several times, rather like someone casually trying on different outfits, before deciding to take the form of Princess Astra, who had been played by Lalla Ward in the final serial of Season 16, The Armageddon Factor. This regeneration scene has been controversial with some fans; see below.

Romana II enjoyed a more intimate relationship with the Doctor than her predecessor, to the point that fans have assumed a romantic relationship with the Doctor. Although a relationship was never explicitly shown or intended by the writers, many fans have found the signs of a romantic relationship particularly evident in the story City of Death, perhaps reflecting the real-life romance between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward which reportedly blossomed during the production of that story, leading to their brief marriage.

Her final television appearance was in Warriors' Gate, where she left the Doctor with the robot dog K-9 to forge her own path in the parallel universe of E-space. She also appeared briefly in the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors through the reuse of footage from the uncompleted story Shada and in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time.

In The End of the World the Doctor stated that his homeworld had been destroyed in a Time War and that he was the last of the Time Lords. An article by Russell T. Davies in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 claims that Romana was President of the Time Lords during the Time War against the Daleks (see below). However, Gallifrey was destroyed in the conflict and, if the Ninth Doctor is correct in his belief that there are no other Time Lords, Romana was destroyed with it.

Other appearances

Outside of the television programme, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II also appeared in Australian-filmed television advertisements for PR1ME Computers in 1980, which played in a tongue-in-cheek way with the idea that the two characters shared a romantic relationship. [1]

Both Romanas have made appearances in the spin-off novels published by Virgin Publishing and BBC Books, and in Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish. The canonicity of these spin-offs is unclear.

Novels

In the licensed Virgin Missing Adventures novel Goth Opera by Paul Cornell, Romana II returned from E-space and was given a seat on the High Council of Time Lords. In the Virgin New Adventures novel Happy Endings, also by Cornell, it was revealed that Romana had become Lady President of Gallifrey. Romana's presidency was reflected in the later novels and in her appearances (voiced by Ward) in audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.

In the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, Romana underwent a second regeneration, and her new incarnation (Romana III, whose appearance was modelled on silent movie actress Louise Brooks) was far less sympathetic and far more ruthless than the other two. This third incarnation pursued the Eighth Doctor in a story arc which resulted in the obliteration of Gallifrey and the apparent retroactive wiping out of the Time Lords from history. However, it was hinted in Tomb of Valdemar by Simon Messingham that Romana may have been one of a few Time Lords that survived this cataclysm, possibly in a fourth incarnation.

If the continuity of the novels is to be reconciled with the new television series, Gallifrey and the Time Lords were restored at some point between the last Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin, and the start of the 2005 series.

Audio plays

File:Romana (Shada).png

Romana II as depicted in the webcast of Shada

Romana II appeared pseudonymously in a series of audio plays produced in the early 2000s by BBV. In this series, Lalla Ward played a character who appeared with K-9 in an unnamed parallel universe. This character was called the Mistress (which was what K-9 called Romana in the television series). Because of an unusual copyright situation in which BBV was able to license K-9 but not Romana or other Doctor Who elements, the Mistress was not explicitly called Romana. For similar reasons, the parallel universe (obviously intended to reflect Romana's exile in E-Space) was called a "pocket universe" in the series' packaging.

In Big Finish's regular line of Doctor Who audio stories, Ward joined Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor in The Apocalypse Element, where she was Lady President of Gallifrey. In the story, it is revealed that Romana II was abducted by the Daleks soon after assuming the presidential office, and remained in captivity for twenty years before making her escape, briefly reuniting with the Doctor before reassuming her post. Romana II also appeared with Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in the 2003 remake of Shada, an audio play produced by Big Finish for the BBC's Doctor Who website and accompanied by Macromedia Flash animations, and also in Neverland and Zagreus.

In Zagreus, Romana II was forced to banish the Eighth Doctor from the universe as he had become a danger to it following his infection by the forces of "anti-time". Following on from this, she was featured in a number of audio plays with former Doctor companion Leela (played by Louise Jameson) under the umbrella title of Gallifrey. In the second series of the Gallifrey audios, released in 2005, Mary Tamm returned to play Romana I alongside Ward. Both Romanas play major roles in the third series of Gallifrey, released in 2006. In the Gallifrey series, an ancient evil called Pandora escapes from the Matrix in the paradoxical form of Romana's first incarnation. Both Romana and the Pandora entity proclaim themselves Imperiatrix of Gallifrey, provoking a civil war. At the war's end, Romana destroys Pandora by trapping her in the Matrix and destroying it. She is also removed from the Presidency.

Romana's regeneration

Romana's tongue-in-cheek regeneration scene in Destiny of the Daleks has been controversial with some fans since its airing. The controversy arises from the fact that the Doctor's own regenerations have usually been traumatic events, and it had been established previously that Time Lords were limited to twelve regenerations. Various fan theories have been advanced to resolve the apparent contradiction. The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping suggests that the various "try-ons" were projections of potential future incarnations (like the Watcher or Cho-Je from previous stories). About Time by Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood also mentions this along with suggesting that perhaps the Time Lords had improved the technology of regeneration since the Doctor's time; Romana, being of a later generation than the Doctor, would therefore have finer control over the regenerative process in its early stages. The Christmas Invasion (2005) had the Doctor using energy present during the first fifteen hours of the regenerative cycle to regrow a severed hand; this energy may provide another explanation for Romana's ability to choose her regenerated form.

Aside from the how of it, at least two attempts have been made in the spin-off media to explain the necessity for Romana's regeneration, one in the short story The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe by Mark Michalowski, published in the Big Finish Productions anthology, Short Trips: Companions. In this story, unknown to the Doctor, Romana suffered damage due to exposure to the Key to Time. Just as she was about to regenerate, a humanoid manifestation of the TARDIS, jealous of Romana, trapped her in a force field and proceeded to pretend to be Romana and changing into different forms, finally becoming a double of Princess Astra. Therefore, the Romana who appeared in Destiny of the Daleks was actually the TARDIS manifestation. Realising the error of its ways after that adventure, it released Romana, but not before making the female Time Lord assume the image of Astra.

The second explanation, which may or may not be consistent with the first, is given in the Gallifrey audio series. Gallifrey: Lies by Gary Russell reveals that Romana forced her own regeneration to prevent a future Gallifreyan evil called Pandora from gaining power over her (see also Time Lord - Recent history).

Serials

Romana I:

• The Ribos Operation (season 16)
• The Pirate Planet
• The Stones of Blood
• The Androids of Tara
• The Power of Kroll
• The Armageddon Factor

Romana II:

• Destiny of the Daleks (season 17)
• City of Death
• The Creature from the Pit
• Nightmare of Eden
• The Horns of Nimon
• Shada (not completed or transmitted)
• The Leisure Hive (season 18)
• Meglos
• Full Circle
• State of Decay
• Warriors' Gate
• The Five Doctors (season 20, footage from Shada)