Face of Boe
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| Doctor Who character | |
|---|---|
 |
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| The Face of Boe | |
| Home era | 2001st Century onward |
| First appearance | "The End of the World" |
| Last appearance | "Gridlock" |
| Portrayed by | Struan Rodger (voice) |
The Face of Boe is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that appears to consist of a gigantic, human-like head, with, in place of hair, numerous tendrils, which terminate in round, pod-like structures. He is encased in a clear, sealed container and mounted on a movable pedestal base. The Face of Boe is a wholly mechanical effect, not portrayed on-screen by an actor, and is voiced by Struan Rodger. The Face merely grunted during his appearance in "The End of the World", communicated telepathically in "New Earth" and "Gridlock", and spoke for the first and last time in the latter. He is said to be billions of years old.
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[edit] Appearances within the series
As of the 2008 season, the Doctor has encountered the Face of Boe (as originally presented) three times. In "The End of the World", set five billion years in the future, the Face of Boe sponsored the safe viewing of Earth's destruction by the expansion of the Sun. The event was sabotaged, but the Face of Boe survived along with most of the guests, thanks to the Ninth Doctor's intervention.
In New Earth (2006), the Face of Boe is apparently dying of old age in a New New York hospital in the year five billion twenty-three. His nurse, one of the Sisters of Plenitude, Novice Hame, tells the Tenth Doctor that the sleeping Face sometimes sings "ancient songs", which she hears telepathically, and relates the legend that just before dying the Face will reveal his greatest secret to "one like himself", "A wanderer without a home" (i.e., the Doctor). When the Doctor later asks the Face of Boe about the legend, the Face of Boe claims that the "great secret" can wait for their third and final meeting, and enigmatically teleports away to an unspecified destination
The Face of Boe's ostensible last appearance is in "Gridlock" (2007), in the year five billion fifty-three, some time after a viral plague has wiped out almost all life on New Earth. He had been using his life force to power the undercity of New New York, which was sealed off from the rest of the planet to save the only survivors from the now-extinct virus. The Face of Boe needs the Doctor's help to free the people from the undercity, and he uses the last of his life energy to provide a power boost to unseal the exits. As was foretold in legend, according to spin-off media, the sky (of the undercity) splits asunder just before the Face of Boe dies. In his final moments, the Face of Boe reveals his great secret to the Doctor: "You are not alone." The Doctor tells his companion, Martha Jones, that the Face of Boe must be mistaken, but it is later revealed that there is indeed another Time Lord — the Master has survived the Time War.
In the episode "The End of the World", the Face of Boe is described as a being of considerable influence in galactic circles and is identified as coming from the "Silver Devastation". In "Bad Wolf", set in the 2002nd Century, he is said to be "the oldest being in the Isop galaxy" (the location of the planet Vortis in The Web Planet, incidentally). In "The Long Game", set 100 years earlier (the Face's youngest appearance), a TV network reports that he is pregnant with the "Baby Boemina". In "New Earth", it is stated that the Face of Boe is the last of his species, the "Boekind" having died off long before.
[edit] Possible origin
A possible clue to the Face of Boe's origin was revealed in the episode "Last of the Time Lords". The immortal time traveller Captain Jack Harkness expresses concern about how he might look if he lives "for a million years", because although he can't die, he is still aging, albeit slowly. He tells the Doctor and Martha Jones that it's a matter of vanity, because he "used to be a poster boy when [he] was a kid in the Boeshane Peninsula", as "the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency ... the Face of Boe, they called me." This astonishes Martha and the sceptical Doctor. Writer Russell Terrance Davies, in the episode's commentary, called the implication of this scene "a theory" as to the Face of Boe's origins, prompting Executive Producer Julie Gardner to urge him to "stop back-pedalling" about the two characters being the same. Davies also said that after writing the scene, he inserted a line in the ADR recording for "Gridlock" in which the Face of Boe calls the Doctor "old friend".[1]
[edit] Appearances in other media
In the New Series Adventures novel The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons, Jack Harkness (who is from the 51st century) says that he once saw someone "dressed up as the Face of Boe".
The tie-in book Monsters and Villains states that the Face has an abnormally long lifespan for an unknown reason; he had six children during the 2001st Century who only lived for 40 years each, the average lifespan of the species. It also states that when he dies, the sky will "crack asunder", and that he has one final secret that he will share only with a "homeless, wandering traveller".
As with all Doctor Who spin-off media, the canonicity of these accounts in relation to the television series remains open to interpretation. However, it is believed by many fans that the references in the book "Monsters and Villains" to the sky "cracking asunder" refers to the roof of the Motorway being opened in the Series 3 episode Gridlock and the one final secret was that spoken to the Doctor at the end of Gridlock.
[edit] References
- "Doctor Who: Regeneration" Narr. Mark Gatiss. BBC Radio 2, 20 December 2005.
- Richards, Justin (2005). Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains. BBC Books, 63. ISBN 0-563-48632-5.
