Lady Cassandra
Encyclopedia
Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17 is a fictional character
from the long-running British
science fiction television
series Doctor Who
. The character was voiced by Zoë Wanamaker
, and was largely computer-generated
, although a physical prop was also used on set.
first encountered Cassandra (Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17) in the episode "The End of the World
". They, along with the rich and powerful of the universe, were on Platform One, a space station orbiting Earth
five billion years in the future, which was set up to witness the final destruction of the planet by the expansion of the Sun
.
According to Cassandra, her parents were the last to be buried "in its soil". She had been born a female on Earth and lived on the edge of the "Los Angeles Crevasse
". Cassandra referred to herself as being "a boy" during this time, implying she was a transsexual; it may also be possible that the term "boy" in the contemporary vernacular
may have lost its gender significance and come to mean simply "child". Married several times, her life had been extended through a series of 708 plastic surgery
operations, until she was nothing but a piece of skin stretched onto a frame, with eyes and a mouth, connected to a brain in a designer jar filled with a preserving solution below. The skin had to be constantly moisturised to keep it from drying out. As the rest of the human race had long since either interbred with other intelligent species or altered themselves
to the point even they don't call themselves human anymore (references are made to 'New Humans', 'Proto-humans' and 'Digi-humans'), Cassandra considered herself the last "pure" human, and all others as 'mongrels'. Rose Tyler
characterised her as a "bitchy trampoline
" and referred to her as "Michael Jackson
".
Cassandra used spider-like robots to sabotage Platform Ones computer systems and the android Adherents of the Repeated Meme to direct attention away from herself. Her original intent was to create the appearance of a hostage situation and collect the ransom and insurance money to fund further surgical procedures. When that was exposed by the Doctor, she teleported
off the station, leaving the others to die — eliminating both the evidence and allowing a hostile takeover of the guests' financial holdings.
However the Doctor reset Platform Ones systems, saving the station, and also reversed the teleportation feed, bringing Cassandra back. In the heat, and without her assistants to moisturise her, Cassandra's skin stretched and exploded, apparently killing her (although her brain was not seen to be destroyed).
Cassandra returned in "New Earth
", which took place 23 years after "The End of the World". Her brain had indeed survived. Her eyes had been retrieved and she was "repaired" with extra skin taken from the back of her previous body. She was in hiding in the basement of the hospital run by the Sisters of Plenitude, and tended to by a devoted forced-growth clone named Chip.
When she discovered that Rose and the Tenth Doctor
were on New Earth, she used a psychograft to transfer her consciousness over Rose's own, leaving her original brain to die. Her reasons for this were threefold—to gain revenge on Rose, to continue her life in a body of pure human stock, and to discover what the Sisters were hiding. Cassandra used Rose's body to give the Tenth Doctor a passionate kiss. Her impersonation of Rose was marred by her Sloane
accent, poor imitation of rhyming slang, and anachronistic
technical knowledge. In the end, however, it was her lack of compassion that gave her away. Her first instinct upon learning of the Sisters' "plague farm" was to attempt to blackmail them. She knocked out the Doctor using a noxious "perfume" she had hidden down her top.
After letting "the flesh" free, "Rose", the Doctor and Chip escape to the basement where the Doctor forces Cassandra out of Rose's body but instead of floating as atoms in the air like the Doctor ordered her to, she invaded the Doctor's body and becomes a little too flirty with Rose. The diseased zombie-like humans break into the basement and Rose and "the Doctor" climb up a ladder. They get cornered at the top of it and Rose orders Cassandra to go back into her body so the Doctor can open the door. The Doctor orders Cassandra out of Rose's body and Cassandra goes back into his. She then goes into one of the diseased humans, an act which stuns her, as she is shocked at how lonely and isolated they feel. She then goes back into Rose, where she helps the Doctor cure the diseased.
In the end, Cassandra transferred her consciousness into Chip, who allowed her in willingly. However, Chip's clone body began to fail, and Cassandra accepted that it was time for her to die. Before she did so, the Doctor took her back in time to see herself when she was beautiful and still had a body. In Chip's body, she told her past self that she was beautiful and collapsed, apparently dying at last in the younger Cassandra's arms.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the long-running British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The character was voiced by Zoë Wanamaker
Zoe Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker, CBE is an American-British actress. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; in films, including the Harry Potter series; and in a number of television productions, including a long-time role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family.-Early life and family:Wanamaker was...
, and was largely computer-generated
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
, although a physical prop was also used on set.
Character history
The Ninth DoctorNinth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
first encountered Cassandra (Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17) in the episode "The End of the World
The End of the World (Doctor Who)
"The End of the World" is the second episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn, the episode was first broadcast on 2 April 2005....
". They, along with the rich and powerful of the universe, were on Platform One, a space station orbiting Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
five billion years in the future, which was set up to witness the final destruction of the planet by the expansion of the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
.
According to Cassandra, her parents were the last to be buried "in its soil". She had been born a female on Earth and lived on the edge of the "Los Angeles Crevasse
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
". Cassandra referred to herself as being "a boy" during this time, implying she was a transsexual; it may also be possible that the term "boy" in the contemporary vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
may have lost its gender significance and come to mean simply "child". Married several times, her life had been extended through a series of 708 plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
operations, until she was nothing but a piece of skin stretched onto a frame, with eyes and a mouth, connected to a brain in a designer jar filled with a preserving solution below. The skin had to be constantly moisturised to keep it from drying out. As the rest of the human race had long since either interbred with other intelligent species or altered themselves
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
to the point even they don't call themselves human anymore (references are made to 'New Humans', 'Proto-humans' and 'Digi-humans'), Cassandra considered herself the last "pure" human, and all others as 'mongrels'. Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
characterised her as a "bitchy trampoline
Trampoline
A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes....
" and referred to her as "Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
".
Cassandra used spider-like robots to sabotage Platform Ones computer systems and the android Adherents of the Repeated Meme to direct attention away from herself. Her original intent was to create the appearance of a hostage situation and collect the ransom and insurance money to fund further surgical procedures. When that was exposed by the Doctor, she teleported
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
off the station, leaving the others to die — eliminating both the evidence and allowing a hostile takeover of the guests' financial holdings.
However the Doctor reset Platform Ones systems, saving the station, and also reversed the teleportation feed, bringing Cassandra back. In the heat, and without her assistants to moisturise her, Cassandra's skin stretched and exploded, apparently killing her (although her brain was not seen to be destroyed).
Cassandra returned in "New Earth
New Earth
"New Earth" is the first episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on 15 April 2006. It is a sequel to the first series episode "The End of the World", and brings back its villain who was thought to be destroyed, Lady Cassandra, as...
", which took place 23 years after "The End of the World". Her brain had indeed survived. Her eyes had been retrieved and she was "repaired" with extra skin taken from the back of her previous body. She was in hiding in the basement of the hospital run by the Sisters of Plenitude, and tended to by a devoted forced-growth clone named Chip.
When she discovered that Rose and the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
were on New Earth, she used a psychograft to transfer her consciousness over Rose's own, leaving her original brain to die. Her reasons for this were threefold—to gain revenge on Rose, to continue her life in a body of pure human stock, and to discover what the Sisters were hiding. Cassandra used Rose's body to give the Tenth Doctor a passionate kiss. Her impersonation of Rose was marred by her Sloane
Sloane Ranger
The term Sloane Ranger refers to a stereotype in the UK of young, upper class or upper-middle-class women, or men who share distinctive and common lifestyle traits...
accent, poor imitation of rhyming slang, and anachronistic
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
technical knowledge. In the end, however, it was her lack of compassion that gave her away. Her first instinct upon learning of the Sisters' "plague farm" was to attempt to blackmail them. She knocked out the Doctor using a noxious "perfume" she had hidden down her top.
After letting "the flesh" free, "Rose", the Doctor and Chip escape to the basement where the Doctor forces Cassandra out of Rose's body but instead of floating as atoms in the air like the Doctor ordered her to, she invaded the Doctor's body and becomes a little too flirty with Rose. The diseased zombie-like humans break into the basement and Rose and "the Doctor" climb up a ladder. They get cornered at the top of it and Rose orders Cassandra to go back into her body so the Doctor can open the door. The Doctor orders Cassandra out of Rose's body and Cassandra goes back into his. She then goes into one of the diseased humans, an act which stuns her, as she is shocked at how lonely and isolated they feel. She then goes back into Rose, where she helps the Doctor cure the diseased.
In the end, Cassandra transferred her consciousness into Chip, who allowed her in willingly. However, Chip's clone body began to fail, and Cassandra accepted that it was time for her to die. Before she did so, the Doctor took her back in time to see herself when she was beautiful and still had a body. In Chip's body, she told her past self that she was beautiful and collapsed, apparently dying at last in the younger Cassandra's arms.