Romana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doctor Who universe character

Lalla Ward as Romana II
Romana
Affiliated with Fourth Doctor
Race Time Lord
Home planet Gallifrey
Home era Gallifrey era
First appearance The Ribos Operation (Romana I)
Destiny of the Daleks (Romana II)
Last appearance The Armageddon Factor (Romana I)
Warriors' Gate (Romana II)
Portrayed by Mary Tamm (Romana I)
Lalla Ward (Romana II)

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.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

Mary Tamm as Romana I
Mary Tamm as Romana I

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

Over the course of Season 16, Romana begins 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 regenerates 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.

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 "Romana's Regeneration".

Romana II enjoys a more intimate relationship with the Doctor than her predecessor, to the point that some 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 leaves the Doctor with the robot dog K-9 to forge her own path in the parallel universe of E-space. She also appears 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 states that his homeworld was destroyed in a Time War and that he is 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. The canonicity of this article, like other spin-off media, is unclear.

Outside of the television programme, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II also appear 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, climaxing with the Doctor proposing marriage (which occurred in real life between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward after her departure from the series that same year).[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.

In the licensed Virgin Missing Adventures novel Goth Opera by Paul Cornell, Romana II returns from E-space and is given a seat on the High Council of Time Lords. In the Virgin New Adventures novel Happy Endings, also by Cornell, it is revealed that Romana has become Lady President of Gallifrey. Romana's presidency is 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 undergoes a second regeneration, and her new incarnation (Romana III, whose appearance was modelled on silent movie actress Louise Brooks) is far less sympathetic and far more ruthless than the other two. This third incarnation pursues the Eighth Doctor in a story arc which results in the obliteration of Gallifrey and the apparent retroactive wiping out of the Time Lords from history. However, it is hinted in Tomb of Valdemar by Simon Messingham that Romana may be 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.

Romana II as depicted in the webcast of Shada
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 is 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 is not explicitly called Romana. For similar reasons, the parallel universe (obviously intended to reflect Romana's exile in E-Space) is 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, in which Romana is 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 appears 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 is forced to banish the Eighth Doctor from the universe as he has become a danger to it following his infection by the forces of "anti-time". Following on from this, she is 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.

The third series ends on a cliffhanger, with Gallifrey on the brink of economic and social collapse as well as in danger of being overrun by a Free Time virus, while most of the characters are trapped with no apparent means of escape.

Season 16
Season 17
Season 18
20th anniversary special
30th anniversary special

BBV
  • K-9: The Choice (pseudonymous appearance)
  • K-9: The Search (pseudonymous appearance)
Big Finish Productions

Virgin Missing Adventures
Virgin New Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
Past Doctor Adventures

 v • d • e Companions of the Fourth Doctor
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←Sarah Leela Romana I Romana II Tegan→
Harry K-9 Mark I K-9 Mark II Nyssa→
Adric→

  1. ^ Bernard, Marcus. Doctor Who — Commercials. TV Ark. Archived from the original on 2006-04-28. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
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