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Doctor Who: Rassilon – Gallifrey’s greatest hero or its biggest tyrant?

By James Aggas

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Following the announcement of the character’s return in Gallifrey: Time War next year, we take a look at the history of Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord society. Was he Gallifrey’s greatest hero, or its worst despot?

Rassilon has been a major figure in Doctor Who history for a long time. In the Classic Series, he was something of a legend to the Time Lords.

First mentioned back in Fourth Doctor story The Deadly Assassin, he was the man who discovered time travel, and thus created the Time Lords themselves. (Interestingly, this story had kind of already been told with another major character, Omega, but we’ll get to him in a bit.)

However, while he had plenty of mentions throughout the Classic Series, he only had one major appearance: in the twentieth anniversary story The Five Doctors. Here, he was presented as a powerful and wise old man. Surprisingly, it was also revealed that he still lived on, but only in a form of eternal sleep.

The Time Lords had also learned of Rassilon’s immortality, and some were eager to gain it for themselves. Including the Doctor’s old friend and former tutor Borusa, who wanted to be Gallifrey’s president forever.

Of course, as revealed in the above clip, the promise of immortality was merely a trap for eager Time Lords. Borusa was given immortality, but as nothing more than a living statue.

Considering that this was his only appearance, there’s relatively little to judge on Rassilon in the Classic Series. Even The Five Doctors made it clear that even the Time Lords weren’t sure whether he truly was a great hero, or a terrible and vicious tyrant.

Even his punishment of Borusa is difficult to judge. On the one hand, Borusa had done quite a few bad things to gain immortality, including framing another Time Lord for his crimes. But then again, the question should be asked: Was Rassilon really dispensing a harsh brand of justice? Or was he simply removing the competition?

Rassilon finally returned almost twenty years later in the Eighth Doctor’s second season. But was he really a force for good…?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Doctor’s ally

Throughout the Eighth Doctor’s second season from Big Finish, a mysterious, unnamed character kept appearing throughout in various stories. Played by Don Warrington, this mysterious figure was first heard in Seasons of Fear.

Throughout the serial, the Eighth Doctor can be heard narrating the events of the story. Initially, it appears that he’s simply telling the story directly to the listeners. But it’s only at the very end that it’s revealed he’s been speaking to Warrington’s character the whole time.

It’s only in the season finale Neverland that it’s revealed exactly who this character is: Rassilon himself. Initially, the Doctor, Romana and a few other Time Lords are drawn into a universe of anti-time with the promise that he’s alive – truly alive, not just lying in eternal sleep. This was later revealed to be nothing more than a trap.

But when the Doctor takes desperate measures to stop the anti-time being unleashed on Gallifrey – and therefore, wiping out the whole of history – that’s when Rassilon truly appears.

He allows just enough time for the Doctor to tell his story – which Seasons of Fear was only a small part of – before Rassilon makes it clear just how important the Doctor has been to his legacy, and to Gallifrey. It’s all summed up beautifully with this response after the Doctor says that Rassilon honors him:

"No, Doctor. You have honored me."

This is quite a powerful moment, and one that would mean a lot to the Doctor. At this point, the Doctor had saved his home world many, many times. But he hardly received a word of thanks for it.

So, after so many times of the Doctor being imprisoned, tried and once even executed by his own people, it’s a satisfying moment when the founder of Time Lord society himself praises the Doctor. It feels like a moment that was well-earned.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the Doctor found out exactly what Rassilon was really like…

The mutual enmity between the Doctor and Rassilon kicked off with the fortieth anniversary story, Zagreus.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Doctor’s enemy

Directly after the major events of Neverland (well, chronologically – listeners had to wait eighteen months to find out what happened next), the Doctor finds himself a changed man. Literally, in some ways, but not in the usual sense, at least not for the Doctor. Infected by anti-time, he finds himself taken over by another being altogether. One far angrier and more destructive than the Doctor – Zagreus.

And Rassilon couldn’t be happier about it.

Throughout the fortieth anniversary story Zagreus, it became clearer and clearer just how power hungry and dangerous Rassilon really was.

In the ancient days of Gallifrey’s history, he slaughtered vampires not simply because it was the right thing to do, but purely because he was afraid of them. Ironically, his actions turned them into a far more vicious race than even he could have imagined.

Rassilon couldn’t even be given the full credit for the creation of time travel, as fellow Time Lord pioneer Omega more than helped. (This wasn’t exactly surprising, as Omega had also cropped up quite a few times in the Classic Series.) But that didn’t stop Rassilon from claiming as much credit as he could, especially when Omega went straight into a black hole.

It turned out that Rassilon was so desperate for power and control that he not only created the Web of Time to prevent another race from taking over from the Time Lords. He even shut them off in a Divergent Universe.

And he was so deeply afraid of this race, so paranoid that they would eventually break into our universe and take over, that he decided to create the ultimate weapon to destroy every single one of them. And all he needed was the Doctor’s sacrifice to make it.

Unfortunately for Rassilon, Zagreus didn’t exactly like the idea of being used by anyone, and threw him directly into the Divergent Universe. Once he ovecame the worst of his posession, the Doctor decided to head there himself, knowing that he wouldn’t be as affected by the anti-time while living in that universe.

It was there that the Doctor met Rassilon one more time. After both spent a great deal of time trapped inside the Divergent Universe, the Doctor and Rassilon were able to find the way out in The Next Life.

However, while the Doctor escaped (and of course meeting Davros and the Daleks the moment he got home, but that’s another story), Rassilon was stuck in the Divergent Universe. Worse, he was fully aware that he was stuck in a time loop, seemingly trapped for all eternity.

It would be a long time before Rassilon returned…

Rassilon will return in 2019 in Gallifrey: Time War: Volume Two!

(Image credit: Gallifrey/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Time War

We still don’t know much about Rassilon during the Time War. We’ve only learned this year how he came back, and why.

In the Gallifrey: Time War story Desperate Measures, a new president of Gallifrey is elected: Valerian, who not only proved to be popular with the voters, but even boasted how he could trace his family back to Rassilon. Unsurprisingly, he was more than happy about the election result.

However, that happiness didn’t last for long. Because it wasn’t Valerian that the High Council wanted as President during Gallifrey’s darkest days. No, it was someone far older, and far more respected. So Valerian’s mind and soul were completely destroyed, allowing his body to be used by a new host: Rassilon, the ancestor he had been so proud of.

Considering that was the cliffhanger for series one, and series two was only announced yesterday, we don’t know much more about what Rassilon got up to in the Time War. But we do know that it couldn’t have been good. Especially by the end of it.

Timothy dalton played a brand new incarnation of the legendary Time Lord in The End of Time.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The End of Time and The Day of the Doctor

The End of Time was where we learned that Rassilon had become so desperate for glory by the end of the Time War, that he was willing to bring about the end of time itself. It’s no wonder that the War Doctor tried to destroy Gallifrey in The Day of the Doctor.

Implanting a signal into the Master’s head, as well as sending a diamond to Earth to lock onto, Rassilon and the Time Lords came close to escaping the Time War, and thus bringing about the end of history. But, as we know, the Doctor destroyed the diamond and sent the Time Lords back.

However, we also learned that Gallifrey survived, frozen in a pocket universe. And so did Rassilon. Regenerated due to injuries caused by the Master, but still alive. And waiting for the Doctor…

“Get off my planet.”

As flawed as Hell Bent was, this particular scene was fantastic. This felt like the culmination of everything that had happened since Zagreus. Rassilon had done a lot to the Doctor over the years. He’d manipulated him and his friends; he tried to turn him into his puppet; he even tried to destroy history! Understandably, the Doctor already had plenty of reason to hate him.

But then both Face the Raven and Heaven Sent came along, and things became much worse. Even indirectly causing the Doctor’s friend’s death was enough to doom Rassilon. Leaving the Doctor to face torture for literally billions of years didn’t help.

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So the Doctor telling him to “get off [his] planet” was perfect. The Doctor had stopped seeing Rassilon as a god a long time ago. Now, he was making other Gallifreyans see it, too. It’s a shame about the rest of the episode, but it is a fantastic scene.

We haven’t heard much from Rassilon after Hell Bent, at least, not chronologically. He did make one more appearance in the comic story Supremacy of the Cybermen, in which he helped the Cybermen achieve mastery of time. But the nature of that story left a huge reset at the end, so we’re still not sure where he is in the universe, or what’s happened to him.

But maybe we don’t need to know that. Whether Rassilon was a hero, a god or (and this is the most likely option) a ruthless tyrant, by the end, it didn’t matter. In the end, he was personally exiled by someone he once described as “a favorite son”. And as far as his story goes, that’s a pretty fitting ending to have.

Next. Rassilon returns in the spin-off series Gallifrey: Time War in 2019!. dark

What do you think of Rassilon? Is he one of your favorite Time Lords? (Outside of the obvious, anyway?) Are you interested in his story? What’s your favorite story featuring the Time Lord ruler? Let us know in the comments below.

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