Hand of Omega
| Hand of Omega | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Plot element from the Doctor Who television series | |
| Publisher | BBC |
| First appearance | Remembrance of the Daleks (5–26 October 1988) |
| Created by |
(Series)
|
| Genre | Science fiction |
| In-story information | |
| Type | Device |
| Function | Stellar manipulator |
| Affiliation |
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The Hand of Omega is a fictional device from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
In Remembrance of the Daleks the Seventh Doctor explains that the "Hand of Omega" is the mythical name for the remote stellar manipulator invented by Omega, the first of the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey. Omega was a stellar engineer who used the Hand to create the supernova which would be the power source for the Gallifreyans' experiments and subsequent mastery over time travel. The supernova appeared to consume Omega, but instead shunted him into an antimatter universe. It subsequently collapsed into a black hole, the nucleus of which was harnessed by Omega's colleague Rassilon as the Eye of Harmony, giving the Time Lords the capability of time travel. In homage to Omega, and in keeping with their alleged "infinite capacity for pretentiousness", the Time Lords dubbed the manipulator the "Hand of Omega" (despite the device looking nothing like a hand).
History
The Hand of Omega was removed from Gallifrey by the First Doctor prior to his self-imposed exile before the events of the first Doctor Who episode. He then hid it in a funeral parlour in London in 1963, as seen in the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks.
The Hand resided in a casket that made it resemble a coffin. The casket had a dull, bronze appearance to it, but what material it was actually made from is unknown. Seemingly possessed of some basic intelligence, the Hand had the ability to levitate and follow simple orders. It was also able, on the Doctor's orders, to suffuse a baseball bat with energy, which the Doctor's companion Ace then used briefly as a weapon.
In Remembrance, the Seventh Doctor returned to 1963, apparently to move the Hand to another hiding place. In truth, he was laying a trap for the Daleks and their creator, Davros. Davros had hoped to use the Hand to transform the sun of the Dalek homeworld Skaro into a power source for time travel. However, the Doctor had altered the Hand's programming so that instead of enhancing Skaro's sun, the Hand turned it supernova, obliterating Skaro and, presumably, the Daleks themselves. The Hand of Omega returned to Gallifrey afterward.
Other appearances
In the spin-off novel War of the Daleks by John Peel, it was revealed that the planet Antalin had been destroyed in Skaro's place. The canonicity of the novels, as with all spin-off media, is open to interpretation.
The Virgin New Adventures novel Lungbarrow by Marc Platt provides some additional history on the Hand during the early years of its creation on Gallifrey. The Hand was hidden by Rassilon, but escaped just before the Doctor left Gallifrey. The ancient alarms left by Rassilon were not known and could not be shut off, leaving the Hand to lurk around the Doctor's rooms.
In the BBC Books novel The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks it is revealed that there were two Hands, both used by Omega. The Hand also appears in The Infinity Doctors by Lance Parkin.
The origins of the Hand are further explored in Omega, a Big Finish Productions audio drama. There it is stated that the Hand was literally a hand placed in the Stellar Manipulator: that of Vandekirian, Omega's treacherous associate. The name "Hand of Omega" was chosen by Rassilon for political reasons. However, aside from the canonicity issues, the story is told largely from the point of view of an insane Omega with confused memories, as well as trying to make a point about the malleability of written history. This ultimately makes the accuracy of the information uncertain.