John Polidori

Dr John William Polidori (PROSE: Wringing Off) was a 19th century author, British physician, (AUDIO: Mary's Story, TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati) and vampire hunter. (PROSE: Wringing Off, The Book of the War)

While serving as a physician for his friend Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva in Switzerland in June 1816, Byron challenged Polidori, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley to a competition to see which of them could write the best ghost story. (AUDIO: Mary's Story, TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)

Polidori was one of the best physicians in Edinburgh.

Following the arrival of a seriously wounded Eighth Doctor at the Villa Diodati and his apparent death shortly thereafter, Byron suggested conducting an experiment to determine whether the "corpse" could be reanimated by lightning. While both Mary and Polidori strongly objected, Byron performed the experiment with Percy's assistance. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)

Polidori's entry in the competition resulted in the short story The Vampyre, (AUDIO: Mary's Story) which was inspired by the Star Chamber's knowledge of the Yssgaroth War. (PROSE: The Book of the War) It made Polidori one of the first human authors to write about vampires, (AUDIO: Mary's Story) and The Vampyre sparked massive public interest in the pre-human. (PROSE: The Book of the War) A younger version of the Eighth Doctor, who arrived after his future self had been revived by the lightning, told Polidori that he loved The Vampyre, which he had yet to write. (AUDIO: Mary's Story) Polidori's The Fall of the Angels even more blatantly revealed the Star Chamber's knowledge and secrets.

Polidori was ultimately murdered by the Mal'akh in 1821. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

By another account, Dr John William Polidori was a time traveller and visited Southwark in 1599, (PROSE: Wringing Off) where the Tenth Doctor had met William Shakespeare. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)

Behind the scenes

 * In her 2014 "Glamourist Histories" novel Valour and Vanity, author Mary Robinette Kowal enlisted Paul Cornell's help to write John Polidori as the Doctor, since Byron often referred to him as simply "the doctor", and there was a gap in their adventures which she took to indicate time travel. This version of Polidori was licensed from Kowal in Wringing Off, which places him in the setting of The Shakespeare Code.