Sabbath (Doctor Who)

Doctorwhocharacter


name=Sabbath
affiliation=The Council of Eight
race=Human
planet=Earth
era=18th century
start= "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street"
finish= "Sometime Never..." (book)
"A Labyrinth of Histories" (audio)
portrayed=Saul Jaffe and Keith Drinkel (voice)

Sabbath is the name of a recurring villain from the Eighth Doctor Adventures — spin-off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series "Doctor Who". The character was created by Lawrence Miles and first appeared in "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street". Originally, Miles had intended Sabbath to be a one-off character, but BBC Books editor Justin Richards asked to use the character in a continuing story arc.

Sabbath was born in 1740. He was educated at Cambridge before being initiated into the Secret Service in 1762. He then defected from the service in 1780. The Doctor first encountered Sabbath in 1782.

In appearance, Sabbath was a large muscular man with a shaven head. He commanded intelligent ape creatures called Babewyns which also crewed his ship, the "Jonah". Visually, the "Doctor Who" version is said to be based on Orson Welles.

Despite suggestions to the contrary, Sabbath is not based on the equally corpulent character Sunday from the novel "The Man Who Was Thursday" (1904) by G. K. Chesterton,Fact|date=October 2007 though this is jokingly alluded to in the "Doctor Who" novel "History 101" (2002).

Character history

In his first appearance, we learn that Sabbath was originally a renegade member of the British Secret Service during the late 18th century. It was explained that it is customary for agents to take Biblical names, and Sabbath's name derived itself from a Jewish Kabalistic trend in the Service during the time period of his initiation. His initiation into the Service involved him being thrown into the River Thames bound in thirteen chains and thirteen locks, covered in sackcloth. Sabbath survived by encountering Leviathan, who rescued him.

When the Doctor encountered him, Sabbath was attempting to build a temporal battleship, the "Jonah", in order to travel beyond the realm of human understanding, though he was callous about other people's lives in his quest. Indeed, Sabbath was not the main villain of the book, and was in fact instrumental in saving the Doctor's life. Sabbath's literal role was made clear when the Doctor spoke with a character that fans assume by the description to be the Master (though he is never mentioned explicitly). The Master claimed that Sabbath-like characters were the new masters of time, a position once held by the Doctor's people until the destruction of their home world. Sabbath was intended as a new breed of villain, time-active and less apt to pure megalomania.

Sabbath believed himself to be the protector of humanity. He was first drawn to the Doctor believing him to be responsible for the arrival of the Babewyn creatures on Earth. When the Doctor fell ill, Sabbath removed the Doctor's second heart from his body which had become shrunken and blackened. Sabbath then implanted that heart into himself in an attempt to gain the time-travelling capability of a Time Lord. The Doctor is manipulated by Sabbath in several of his subsequent adventures.

When the Doctor was crushed by a 30 pound theatre sandbag in the England of 1893 ("Camera Obscura" by Lloyd Rose) , he discovered that he could not die whilst his second heart was lodged within Sabbath. Sabbath later removed the heart, severing the biodata link between the two of them.

After an event in the Siberia of 1893 ("Time Zero" by Justin Richards) caused the creation of multiple parallel universes, Sabbath set about trying to save the true reality. In "Timeless" by Stephen Cole he was instrumental in doing so, although he and the Doctor were trying to reach similar goals at cross purposes. It was revealed that he worked for beings which claimed to be the future of humanity, and told him he was working to make humans the new Time Lords. When he learnt this was untrue, he turned against them.

In "Sometime Never...", also by Richards, Sabbath's former employers were revealed as the Council of Eight, eight crystalline entities (who coincidentally resembled the eight Doctors) based in the time vortex. The Council gained power from making accurate predictions, hence their interest in maintaining a stable timeline. Sabbath destabilised their plans by committing suicide after it had been predicted he would not do so.

Other appearances

There are in fact three different characters called Sabbath, who may or may not be iterations of the same person in different timelines. The Sabbath who appears in the "Doctor Who" books exists in a timeline in which the Time Lords have ceased to exist and humanity has become the potential heir to their powers and knowledge.

However, the Time Lords (or Great Houses) still exist in the "Faction Paradox" series, in which Sabbath appears twice: as a young man (voiced by Saul Jaffe in the audio plays and also appearing in the comics) with the Service, ignorant of the wider cosmology. Another, a much older incarnation is voiced by Keith Drinkel; this Sabbath is the Faction's military Godfather. A further variation is Baron Nichiyobi, a character in the (fictional) film "Mujun: The Ghost Kingdom" referred to in "The Book of the War".

Appearances

Doctor Who
*"The Slow Empire" by Dave Stone (unnamed cameo) [cite web
url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/drwho/2004/01/01/13715.shtml
title=Interview with Justin Richards on the BBC "Doctor Who" website]
*"Father Time" by Lance Parkin (unnamed cameo)
*"The Adventuress of Henrietta Street" by Lawrence Miles
*"Anachrophobia" by Jonathan Morris
*"Trading Futures" by Lance Parkin
*"History 101" by Mags L Halliday
*"Camera Obscura" by Lloyd Rose
*"Time Zero" by Justin Richards
*"The Infinity Race" by Simon Messingham
*"The Domino Effect" by David Bishop
*"The Last Resort" by Paul Leonard
*"Timeless" by Stephen Cole
*"Emotional Chemistry" by Simon A. Forward
*"Sometime Never..." by Justin Richards

Faction Paradox
*"The Book of the War"
*"Sabbath Dei" and "In the Year of the Cat" (2-part audio drama)
*"Movers" and "A Labyrinth of Histories" (2-part audio drama)

References

:"I, Who 3", Lars Pearson, Mad Norwegian Press, 2003