Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet who wrote "Time, Real and Imaginary". (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy) The Fifth Doctor once quoted Taylor Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux)

It was believed that Coleridge was the real writer of William Ashbless' poetry. (PROSE: The Pit)

The Eighth Doctor told Gharib that Coleridge was the last man to have read every book in circulation. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress)

After hearing the first verse of Captain Kybo's haiku, the Sixth Doctor decided to visit Coleridge in Porlock. (AUDIO: Judoon in Chains)

In 1797, Coleridge shared a dream with Bill Potts and Rudy Zoom in the future where they were chased by the Haluu Sythorr in the Dreamspace. He was able to escape the dream and project his astral form into a domed garden on Titan in the future. He witnessed the destruction of the dome and an icy cavern before he began waking up. The Twelfth Doctor advised Coleridge to take mental notes. The Doctor explained to Bill that he got interrupted while writing the dream down, but what he did remember was turned into "a hell of a good poem". The poem began with the words, "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a state pleasure dome decree..." (COMIC: The Soul Garden)

Behind the scenes

 * Lord Byron quoted an excerpt of the poem "Christabel" by Taylor Coleridge in Mary's Story, but the author was not named in the story.
 * He was played by Jim Sweeney in an episode of Blackadder the Third.
 * In Judoon in Chains, the Doctor plans to visit Coleridge in Porlock. The was an unwelcome visitor to Coleridge's home in 1797 who interrupted him while he was composing his poem, which came to him in a dream. The interruption caused him to forget the remaining lines and the poem was never completed.