Forge (Doctor Who)

The Forge is a fictional black operations organisation from the Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". The canonicity of the audio plays, like the other spin-off media, is unclear.

The Forge, also known as Department C4, was founded at the turn of the 20th century to study and experiment with extraterrestrial material and technology and apply it to the security interests of the United Kingdom. It first appeared in "", written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright. Its agents can sometimes be identified with the use of the code phrase or motto, "For King and Country."

It is similar to the Torchwood Institute in the television series, though the Forge's introduction in the audio plays predates it.

History

In the Sixth Doctor audio play "Cryptobiosis", taking place in 1901, the Chief Mate of the cargo ship "Lankester" was transporting a captured mermaid to an unknown buyer. However, his use of the "King and Country" code phrase during a radio communication implies that the Forge was involved.

The Forge's first known operations were during World War I. "Project: Twilight" involved the infection of human subjects with the so-called Twilight Virus, which incorporated DNA from vampires to create human-vampire hybrids as super-soldiers. However, the test subjects escaped into the community in October 1915 and slaughtered the base personnel. The Forge's chief scientist, Dr William Abberton, was mortally wounded and forced to inject himself with the virus. He then assumed the code name of Nimrod and dedicated himself to tracking down the escaped vampires. In 1917, the Forge were running a secret project at Charnage Hospital to brainwash British soldiers into becoming more aggressive, with a possible side-effect of making several subjects time-sensitive

"Project: Dionysus" was the next known operation, which took place during the early 1950s, when Dr Stone attempted to create a rift in spacetime, which was almost used by a race known as the Divergence to break through into our reality ("Zagreus"). Although there was no explicit mention of the Forge in "Zagreus", it was heavily implied that Stone was working for them, as she also uses the "King and Country" code phrase.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, the Forge secretly operated on behalf of British interests, while the international UNIT (which the Forge viewed with contempt) dealt with more public alien threats.

Eventually, in the late 1990s, Nimrod tracked down the Twilight vampire ringleaders, Reggie Mead and Amelia Dooney, to the South-East London casino "Dusk", they had established to hide their vampire activities. In the process, he ran into the Sixth Doctor and forced casino worker Cassie Schofield into assisting him, indirectly causing her to be infected with the Twilight virus. (Cassie's infant son Hector was raised by her mother, and as an adult became the Seventh Doctor's companion Hex.) The mission ended with the destruction of the casino and the deaths of most of the Twilight vampires, though it was left uncertain whether Amelia had been killed.

Following the conclusion of "Project: Twilight", Nimrod captured Cassie and returned to the Forge. Over a period of time, she was heavily brainwashed, trained to become a field agent (altering most of her memories in the process) and groomed into becoming Nimrod's replacement as primary northern-European field agent, code-named Artemis. Nimrod was put in charge of a new operation, "Project: Valhalla", to scavage alien technology from a crashed alien spaceship in Lapland. The mission turned into a disaster and the area had to be sterilised when the ship turned out to be a prison for a world-killing Lovecraftian monster known as Nyathoggoth.

Following this operation, Nimrod replaced former UNIT-head Colonel Crichton as Deputy Director of the Forge and began "", an attempt to clone the Doctor.

It was around this time that Nimrod himself recovered the fabled Spear of Destiny from a private collection in Edinburgh as part of "Project: Longinus". At present there is no information of what became of the artefact. Artemis and Nimrod were also responsible for locating and abducting the last member of "the Gryphus clan", with Artemis using honeypot methods to accomplish this.

The "Lazarus" affair saw the Forge nearly provoke an alien invasion, and by the end of it several senior staff members had turned on Nimrod & been killed and the Forge alpha facility beneath Dartmoor was destroyed. However, records show that the organisation moved to a secondary facility with their remaining staff and a new version of their supercomputer, Oracle.

The Forge is also mentioned in Gary Russell's Past Doctor Adventures novel "Instruments of Darkness", and main character James Clarke in audio drama "The Gathering" is hinted to be a Forge operative.

Personnel

Forge personnel have included:

* Nimrod — the Forge's main field agent and eventually Deputy-Director. (Currently believed active)
* The Director — the shadowy head of the Forge. At the time of "Project: Twilight" the Director is a man but by "Project: Lazarus" a woman has been promoted to the position. (Currently believed active)
* Deputy-Director Crichton — The former head of the British contingent of UNIT somehow became the deputy director of the Forge around the time of "Twilight" and "Valhalla". He was replaced by Nimrod at the end of "Project: Valhalla", and found himself under a death warrant. (Deceased)
* Sergeant Frith — the Forge's Security Chief. (Deceased)
* Doctor Edith Crumpton — the Forge's Chief Science Officer. (Deceased)
* Corporal Aristedes — Sergeant Frith's right-hand woman. (Active)
* 'Lazarus' (The Sixth Doctor) — the Forge's scientific advisor. (Deceased)
* 'Artemis' (Cassie Schofield) — Nimrod's intended replacement as main Forge field agent. (Deceased)
* Sergeant French — soldier who is seconded to I.C.I.S. in "". (Active)
* Lieutenant-Colonel Brook — an agent during World War One, heading the experiments at Charnage. (Deceased)
* James Clarke - agent working in Australia in 2006, investigating the possible use of Cyber-technology. (Active)

External links

* [http://www.cavanscott.co.uk/ Cavan Scott's website]
* [http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/newworlds/nw_book_003_projectvalhalla.shtml Project Valhalla page at Big Finish]
* [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/cavscott/forge/series.php Project: Longinus web comic]